Dbq Industrialization And Japan Labor

The technological and economic boom known as the Industrial Revolution ushered in a new era of efficiency and modernization. Due to the explosion of new technology and integration of factories into cities, numerous people migrated from rural areas to urban ones from the years. In English mills, clothes and textiles were sewed from raw materials using machines in place of workers, beginning in the 18th century. On the other hand, Japanese production in mills did not begin until about 1868, in which Japan adopted many ideas and technologies from western ideas. Revolutionary machinery such as the spinning jenny, water frame, and power loom were used in these mills to better the efficiency of manual labor in England, and Japan would adopt this …show more content…
During the time of the Industrial Revolution, it was common for children and teenagers to begin work. Albeit they earned pay, it was very little and the children risked severe injuries. Due to their small stature and frame, children were used to fit in small crevices to fix machines. As shown by the chart titled Gender and Age of Silk Factory Workers in Five English Towns, silk factories among five different towns had mostly female workers, as 96 percent , to 80 percent, to 63 percent of their workforce were women. The amount of those female workers that were 16 years of age or younger was as high as 53 percent (Doc 3). It is apparent that their was a great amount of female workers in these textile factories, both young and old. The high percentage of female workers is surprising, but the high percentage of younger teenage female workers is shocking and illustrates the large necessity to work during the Industrial Revolution. Although these percentages from Europe seem outrageous, Japanese factories put even more young females to work. According to the table titled Gender and Age in Silk Factories, Nagano, Japan (1901), 92 percent of workers in 205 mills were female, and males made up the remaining 8 percent. About 18 percent of those females were the age of 14 years or younger, and 48 percent of them were 15 to 20 years old. The great number of females in the Japanese workforce is evident, as very young women make up a combined two-thirds of the surveyed mills. The women making up a majority of the laborers and the miniscule percentage of men was a commonality in both countries, displaying the obvious similarity. England and Japan alike had countless female workers laboring at mills and factories across their respective countries, yet the working conditions presented to them completely contrasted each