Advantages and Disadvantages of the First and Second Industrial Revolutions
| Module 1 Case AssignmentHIS101: Modern World HistoryWilliam C. ChavisTrident University International | | | | | | |
The First and Second Industrial Revolutions helped pave the way for significant scientific and technological advances. This was not without drawbacks, such as poor working conditions, the exploitation of labor, and the use of child labor. As a result, the British Parliament initiated several investigations that changed the way industries operated. This ultimately shaped the way other developing nations would accomplish their own industrial revolutions, and help create the conditions for major science and technology breakthroughs to happen in modern times. According to Thatcher (2009), “The demand for manufactured goods during the English Industrial Revolution had grown to such a level that there was a shortage of workers who were willing to learn the new technologies of the textile mills.” The demand for workers drove the industrialists to seek new populations to fill the gaps caused by this shortage. This began the hiring of orphaned and impoverished children. Children seemed to be ideal workers for industries because they were young and could easily be taught the skills needed to perform their jobs. The industrial owners would provide the child labor workforce with the bare essentials to survive in return for their work. This eliminated the need to compensate the workers financially, which increased the profits to the manufacturers.
It was not uncommon for children to start working as early as five or six years old, and work as much as sixteen hours per day. Tuttle (2001) described their working conditions by stating that:
Children worked under deplorable conditions and were being exploited by the industrialists. A picture was painted of the “dark satanic mill” where children as young as five and six years old worked for twelve to sixteen hours a day, six days a week without recess for meals in hot, stuffy,
The First and Second Industrial Revolutions helped pave the way for significant scientific and technological advances. This was not without drawbacks, such as poor working conditions, the exploitation of labor, and the use of child labor. As a result, the British Parliament initiated several investigations that changed the way industries operated. This ultimately shaped the way other developing nations would accomplish their own industrial revolutions, and help create the conditions for major science and technology breakthroughs to happen in modern times. According to Thatcher (2009), “The demand for manufactured goods during the English Industrial Revolution had grown to such a level that there was a shortage of workers who were willing to learn the new technologies of the textile mills.” The demand for workers drove the industrialists to seek new populations to fill the gaps caused by this shortage. This began the hiring of orphaned and impoverished children. Children seemed to be ideal workers for industries because they were young and could easily be taught the skills needed to perform their jobs. The industrial owners would provide the child labor workforce with the bare essentials to survive in return for their work. This eliminated the need to compensate the workers financially, which increased the profits to the manufacturers.
It was not uncommon for children to start working as early as five or six years old, and work as much as sixteen hours per day. Tuttle (2001) described their working conditions by stating that:
Children worked under deplorable conditions and were being exploited by the industrialists. A picture was painted of the “dark satanic mill” where children as young as five and six years old worked for twelve to sixteen hours a day, six days a week without recess for meals in hot, stuffy,
Cited: Thatcher, W. (2009). Child Labor During the English Industrial Revolution. Retrieved February 14, 2013, from http://wathatcher.iweb.bsu.edu/: http://wathatcher.iweb.bsu.edu/childlabor/ Tuttle, C. (2001, August 14). Child Labor during the British Industrial Revolution. Retrieved February 14, 2013, from EH.net Encyclopedia: http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/tuttle.labor.child.britain