[½»Á÷] The Industrial Revolution

                         The Industrial Revolution
      The industrial revolution was a process in which the capitalists large-scale industries operated by machines replaced handicraft workshops, which was the early experience of capitalist industrialization.
      The industrial revolution took place in the middle part of England in the 18th century, and it began with the textile industry. For centuries, wool and woolen cloth have been the major export commodities of Britain. However, with the overseas market continuing to expand, the demand of cloth increased constantly. But the ancient craft allowed a person to make one thread at one time, leading to a serious shortage of yarn and low production. So most of people studied how to improve spinning skill. Hargreaves invented the spinning Jenny and raised the work efficiency if workers in 1764. The British Arkwright invented hydraulic spinning machines after the alteration on the basis of their predecessors for the several times and opened a large factory in 1779. At the end of the 18th century, Hydraulic spinning machine had been widely used in areas of production, and work efficiency was greatly improved. Production of yarn led to the urgent needs of loom with high efficiency, and then a loom which could throw shuttle and shift the weft automatically came into being, and work efficiency of weaving machines improved as well. Watt invented the steam engine made the development of steel, iron and coal industry develop rapidly, the transportation became faster and more convenient. Since then, the United Kingdom entered the age of the great industrial machinery.
      The impact of the industrial revolution was great. First, the machine-based factories replaced the manual workshops. Second, it brought the population shift from towns to the cities. Third, two major classes appeared in society: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Society also changed because of revolution and the bad effects appeared, including the gap between rich and poor, too much population of cities, housing overcrowding, environmental pollution and so on. But in all, the productive forces developed rapidly because of the Industrial Revolution, which was the second leap in human society just as the agricultural revolution.