EFFECTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

• WORKING CONDITIONS

• SOCIAL CLASSES

• SIZE OF CITIES

• LIVING CONDITIONS

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Industry created many new jobs

• Factories were dirties, unsafe and dangerous

• Factory bosses exercised harsh discipline

• Long-term – Workers won higher wages, shorter hours,

better conditions

Social Classes• Factory workers were overworked and

underpaid• Overseers and skilled workers rose to lower

middle class• Factory owners and merchants formed upper

middle class• Upper class resented those middle class who

became wealthier than they were• Long term effect

– Standard of living generally rose

Upper Class• Enjoyed lifestyle few

could attain• Status based mostly on

birth & land ownership• Social position

threatened by new changes – money could buy

influence, power, and respect

Middle Class• Before:

merchants, lawyers, etc. Now; Owners of factories, mines, and railroads &

• Professional workers (mangers, clerks, teachers, etc.)

• believed education would bring success.

Middle Class Lifestyle

• Men worked outside the home, women stayed in and supervised the household

• Servants - cheap and hired often

• Sons – sent to school • Daughters –

prepared for domestic life

Working Class• Once farm laborers, now

worked in factories• Depended only on wages

– no longer produced needed goods

• Whole families needed to work to survive: men, women, children

• Factories – unpleasant, unsafe, carefully controlled

• Children did not attend school

Working Class Lifestyle• At first, conditions

were not bad• As competition

between factories increased, life became harder

• Long hours, low wages, monotonous work, noisy, unsafe

• Diseases spread rapidly

• Lived in bad housing in rapidly expanding, ill-planned cities

SIZE OF CITIES

• Factories brought job seekers to cities

• Urban areas doubled, tripled or quadrupled in size

• Many cities specialized in certain industries

• Long term effects– Suburbs grew as people fled crowded cities

LIVING CONDITIONS

• Cities lacked sanitary codes or building controls

• Housing, water and social services were scarce

• Epidemics swept through the city

• Long term effect– Housing, diet, and clothing improved