The British Industrial Revolution 1760-1840
About
The British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) brought innovative mechanisation and deep social change. The process saw the invention of steam-powered machines, which were used in factories in ever-growing urban centres. Agriculture remained important, but cotton textiles became Britain's top export, capital replaced land as an indicator of wealth, and the labour force diversified to include many more women and children.
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Cartwright, M. (2024) British Industrial Revolution, World History Encyclopedia. Available at: https://www.worldhistory.org/British_Industrial_Revolution/ (Accessed: 27 March 2024).
Photograph of workers in a factory 1903 (COPY 1/501)
The National Archives (2023) 1833 factory act - source 3, The National Archives. Available at: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/1833-factory-act/source-3/
(Accessed: 27 March 2024).
Education in Context
Agricultural Revolution
The Industrial Revolution
Extension
15th century - 18th century
The Slave Trade
The slave trade was the process in which imperialising countries such as Portugal, Spain, Netherlands (Dutch), France and Britain forced trade with African leaders to take African people to work and labour in colonised countries such as North, Central and South America; and Western Europe.
1755-1840
The Industrial Revolution
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1945
Abolition of Slavery
As World War II was about to end in 1945, nations were in ruins, and the world wanted peace. Representatives of 50 countries gathered and proceeded to draft and then sign the UN Charter, which created a new international organisation, the United Nations, which, it was hoped, would prevent another world war like the one they had just lived through. In 1948 this group of nations created and signed off on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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Article 4 states, "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms."
1700s -1800s
The Agricultural
Revolution
The unprecedented increase in agricultural production in Britain due to increases in labor and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Agricultural output grew faster than the population over the century to 1770 and thereafter productivity remained among the highest in the world.
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