industrial revolution dbq

The industrial revolution began in the 1700's in England and rapidly grew throughout the rest of Europe. It was supposed to change society for the better and improve life. There was a variety of new inventions and products that gave people a new way of getting things done. While some of these effects were positive, however, some turned out to be negative instead. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, many hardships had to be overcome, causing great grief to most of the population. According to document 4, the population density of Great Britain increased greatly and more and slums were being developed all throughout the country. This is due to the increase in factories and jobs everywhere. This is a negative impact because too many people were occupying the land making it more crowed and harder to support them. Unsanitary and poor conditions in factories and homes came about due to the over populated towns and cities. Although it is not shown in the document, injuries of the workman rarely happened before the industrial revolution, however eventually injuries began to occur often due to the unsafe conditions. The excerpt from document 3 explains how child labor was being used at the time and children were very sickly due to working at England’s factories. Children were forced to work in these factory conditions and many would come out unhealthy. The areas were also being polluted heavily, causing it to be difficult to breathe in. However, people needed the money and they were willing to go through anything just to earn it for their families.
Anyone can easily recognize the negative aspects of such a dramatic event. However, if the revolution is viewed as a whole, the positive aspects will completely out-weigh the negative aspects. Although there were a lot of negatives, the industrial revolution was still mainly a positive thing for Europe. In document 1, it shows the entire process of clothing being produced in the domestic system.