The Negative Effects Of The Industrial Revolution In Great Britain

Register to read the introduction… Life in this period has been described as “years of suffering and deprivation, as that “bleak age” in which the “evils of the Industrial Revolution” made themselves manifest”. However, this cold and unjust period gradually came to an end with the intervention of the government and implementation of new legislations that gave workers rights and privileges in their workplaces. The Coal Mines Act of 1842, for example, was passed to ensure that in coal mines “no female was to be employed underground [and] no boy under 10 years old was to be employed underground” . In 1833, The Factory Act was passed, requiring that “no child under nine should be allowed to work in textile factories; that children between nine and thirteen work no more than eight hours a day and receive a minimum of three hours of schooling per day; and that adolescents between thirteen and eighteen work no more than twelve hours a day.” This was a very vital enforcement by the government because it not only protected the rights of child workers but also provided them with education. Since the bulk of the child population of Britain worked in factories and mines, over time Britain became more educated and an environment which encouraged innovation and involvement in the country’s industrialization was created. The fruits of this enlightenment …show more content…
Before the revolution, life of the average Briton had more or less stayed the same as it had for centuries. The power of Britain was also on par with the rest of Europe, never really becoming stronger or weaker. However, the series of events in the mere hundred years or so of the British Industrial Revolution, Great Britain was transformed into the most powerful manufacturing and economic nation in all of Europe. The inventions of new machineries and the switch to factory work increased the rate of production of goods. This, along with the improvement of transportation, lead to increase in exports, which increased the economy. Britain became a large workshop in which all the different industries functioned in unison to produce and export. With the large buff in the economy, both production owners and workers reaped the rewards; production owners earned colossal revenue while workers were paid larger wages, improving their daily lives. Great Britain flourished in every aspect. The positive impacts of the revolution dwarfed the negative effects. But the industrial revolution was not just an event that started and ended in Britain. Rather it was a phenomenon in human history which acted as a gateway to finding solutions to such problems as providing for the growing human population. Greater inventions and search for renewable resources quickly followed by and the revolution quickly spread to other countries. So, while the