La Rivoluzione Industriale: Trasformazione Economica e Sociale in Gran Bretagna, Appunti di Inglese

Scarica La Rivoluzione Industriale: Trasformazione Economica e Sociale in Gran Bretagna e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION. The expression “Industrial Revolution” usually refers to that period in which England had an economic development from 1760 to the middle of the 19th century,and it sealed the Britain’s transformation from an agricultural to an industrial country. During this revolution , new sources of power (for example coal and steam) and technological inventions ( like the steam engine) were discovered. But the drastic change was the movement of rural population to the cities to find work, because agriculture in the countryside was gradually replaced by industrial practices ,considered more productive and efficient. Even if people found work as industrial labourers, masses’ living conditions were really bad: in fact, they lived in poverty, and often in overcrowded places. Even working conditions were not better, because people worked up to 16 hours a day, and women and children took poor wages. The age of revolutions. With the expression “the age of revolutions” we indicate that period in which Britain was influenced by 2 historical events: on one side, the Industrial Revolution changed Britain’s social structure; on the other side, the French Revolution spread new ideas and beliefs.Through this kind of revolution ,British society aimed to get rid of old forms of government to search new ways to govern. We don’t have to forget that during the Augustan age Britain was more stable politically speaking, but all changed after the American Declaration of Independence (1776), who sealed the birth of the US , and so, the loss of the American colonies by Britain. In 1776, in fact, Thomas Jefferson wrote up the Declaration of Independence, in which he declared the egalitarian principles of the new America, where the rights to be guaranteed were those of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. In the second half of the 18th century the nation came to be divided into tow main classes: the owners, or wage- payers, and the workers, or wage-earners. The difference between rich and poor people. English landlords became extraordinarily rich thanks to the freedom they had to take advantage from their lands, making money from the minerals extracted from the soil. Doing so, they also provided opportunities for enrichment to those who leased their farms, and the mines and industrial sites around them. Wealth turned England into a consumer society, so people started demanding ‘luxuries’. In these years there was a shifting of population from the agricultural and commercial areas of the south to the north and the midlands, where the new factories were built near the coalfields that provided them the fuel. Small towns, the so-call ‘mushrooms towns’, were constructed to house the workers. Women and children could be paid less and were easier to control, and children were so small that the could easily move in mines or between the machines to repair them. The labourers had long working hours, low wages and appalling living conditions. Industrial cities lacked elementary public services – water-supply, sanitation, street-cleaning, open spaces; the air and the water were polluted, and the houses were overcrowded. The machinery and inventions of that era were considered a national treasure. This tradition and commemoration led to the creation of statues of inventors and engineers that we find in their hometowns. In 1827 he invented the rotating mule which manages to keep the weaving process under control. In 1763 James Watt improved the engine Thoitas Newcomen had previously designed to pump water from mines, making it more economical. In 1834 Glasgow boasted of three Watt statues: two were the product of public subscriptions and one was the gift of James Watt Junior. Engineering firms organize a James Watt anniversary dinner every year. In AN AGE OF REVOLUTIONS INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY HEREOS OF INVENTION