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Jethro Tull Invents the Seed Drill
Throughout the 1700's, wealthy landowners begin to buy up much of the land in England from small time farmers. Then, the landowners make enclosures, or sectioned off fields, throughout the large properties. Scientific farmers, like Jethro Tull, use these enclosures to test out new, more efficient ways to farm. Tull is frustrated with the inefficiency of the seed-scattering method, and so invents the seed drill, which allows farmers to sow seeds more neatly and efficiently. -
John Kay Invents Flying Shuttle
In Britain during the 1700's, an agricultural revolution throws a gigantic bomb into the people, and the British population EXPLODES. This cultures a need for more clothing. The need for more clothing, more quickly, spurs new mechanical inventions. One of these inventions that speeds up textile production is an attachment to the weaving loom called the flying suttle. Invented by John Kay, the shuttle greatly improves efficiency in weaving. -
James Watt Builds first Steam Engine
Kindled by the progress in the textile industry during the 1700's, people start to look for more efficient sources of power. So, voila! The steam engine. In 1705, coal miners begin to use steam engines (which use water as power) to pump out coal mines. It's not until about 1765 when a mathematical instrument maker named James Watt invents a more efficient steam engine, at the University of Glasgow. Later, Watt teams up with an entrepeneur named Matthew Boulton, and there is a business. -
Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto
During the Industrial Revolution, people begin to worry about the unhealthy effects of mass production (child labor, low wages, etc.). Scared by such a capitalist (privately owned production factors) society, French reformers think of a new economic system, socialism. In a socialist economy, all factors of production (business, mines, etc.) are publicly owned, and operate for the welfare of everybody. Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels, in The Communist Manifesto, argue for an extreme socialism. -
U.S. Civil War Ends; U.S. Experiences Technlogical Boom
Throughout the U.S., despite industrial advances in New England, people live in a predominately agricultural society. However, after the Civil War, which ends in 1865, the U.S. experiences a big industrial/technological boom. This is due to new inventions, like the telephone and the light bulb, the vast swarm of people moving to cities (which caused a greater need for things like the telephone), and the smarter way Americans start to use their vast collection of natural resources, like coal. -
Germany Becomes Dominant Industrial Power in Europe
In the early 1800's, Britain's ideas of industrialization begin to spread to other countries, specifically the U.S., Belgium, and areas of Western Europe. Germany, a country rich in coal and iron ore (most of these resources come from the Ruhr Valley, in central Germany), sort of takes the reins as the global leader of industrialization in the 1870's. Despite a messed-up political situation, Germany's economic stability and tactical use of railroads spur it towards industrial power. -
British Unions Win Right to Strike
Factories throughout the Industrial Revoution see profits as the main goal. So, what goes? The working conditions. In an effort to combat the low health/pay, workers form labor unions. Unions are organized groups of workers, and they fight together for better conditions. Industrialized countries are slow to accept unions, but by 1875, the British unions even win the right to strike. Strikes mean that union workers can "boycott", to get what they want.
