The First industrial revolution begins in Britain between the late 18th century to the mid- Victorian years. Before the industrial revolution, most of the people resides in rural area where most of their daily lives were just farming. Back then, life for an average people was hard as their income was low. Most manufacturing are done by hands or simple machines. They are normally done at home or small shops as factories does not exist back then. One of the few factors that became the catalyst in the first industrial revolution is poverty.
The seasonal rise in he death rate in winter, the constant food riots and disease of an overcrowded township gives very strong proof a lot of people in Britain were vulnerable to temporary hardship. One of the next reason is stagnation. The economic change and economic growth were not totally stagnant. The growth were just too slow that it will take a century and a half to double the standard of living. Next, Britain strongly depending on agriculture leads to the industrial revolution. Most of the people were making woollen or cotton in their own homes. Woman and children ricked cleaned and spun the raw cotton while the men wove it.
Lack of specialized occupation leads to the industrial revolution. Some of the laborers works in mining, building or iron working, but when the harvest season arrives, most of them will switch back to agriculture. Finally, low level of geographical integration also sparked the first industrial revolution. This is because there is poor system of communications between the regions. With Britain as the world leading colonial power during the industrial revolution, colonies could produce raw material for Britain or he colonies could become the place to manufactured goods.
During the Industrial revolution, agriculture revolution started by having a new farming system which was introduced to produce large quantity of crops to feed the increasing population in Britain. With also the introduction of new tools, new harvesting techniques and fertilizer, the efficiency to increase large amount of corps was better and also increase in agriculture prosperity. Although urbanization and industrialization was growing, agriculture still opens up a lot of job opportunity for the people living outside the cities.
With the rowing population and increasing of foreign trade, the demand for manufacturing goods increases. To achieve efficient mass production, steam power replaces water power and animal power. With the improvement of steam engine by James Watt and creation of the rotative engine by Matthew Boulton, machinery could now function faster without human power. With improvement on mining, more coal was able to produce to power the factories and railways which becomes one of the main catalyst for the industrial revolution.
With the introduction of the water frame for the cotton spinning wheel by Richard Arkwright, it became a more efficient way of weaving cotton in Manchester and made Manchester become the most important cotton industry in Britain. Some of the minerals like iron, copper and steel plays an important role in the infrastructure and railway network. While in Birmingham, the metalworking industry flourishes. Some of the important goods like guns, brass fittings, and nails were exported and the hence increases the British economy.
Britain rely a lot on its maritime trade since it is an island. With the industrial revolution, shipping is important in the distribution of goods and also the ransportation of people. There was an increase in wealth in the coastal town due to the increasing demands on slave trades. At the same time the ship building and repair industry grew which brings out high employment opportunity to the locals that stays near the coastal area. Moreover, with the steam power being introduced, ships were being made from iron and steel. This made sea travel faster and more reliable.
With the domination on trade markets and rapid expansion on trade routes, shipping become very important to the British economy during the industrial revolution. Cities like Liverpool and Newcastle become more urbanized because of its shipping, fishing and shipbuilding industry which leads to the increase size of docks, new canals and bigger warehouse for the storage of goods. During the industrial revolution, new towns were established and industrial center become more crowded with factories and warehouse. With steam engine in locomotive, transport of goods become safer, faster and more efficient.
With the railway network expanded to the coastal towns and rural areas, this will boast the economy of the towns and allows goods to be ransported to the factories in the city made it easier and faster. Improved roads and new bridges allow easier transportation to places where it was difficult to reach. The industrial revolution brought a massive change to the social life in Britain. The upper class and the middle class people becomes richer while the working class people still live in minimum comfort area. Moreover, children were sent to factories to work where they were ill-treated and exploited.
One of the spark of the Third Industrial revolution are the depleting of oil and fossil fuel. This two resources are very important in daily life of people in terms of transportation, electricity and manufacturing daily goods. Climate change from fossil fuel based industry causes concern by countries all over the world and also threatening the viability of life on Earth. Moreover, unemployment increasing dangerously across the world. Government, business and consumers are pilling in debts. The living standards are declining and human facing hunger.
According to Jeremy Rifkin, there are five pillar in the Third industrial revolution. The five pillars can nly work function in support with each other. The five pillars of the industrial revolution are shifting to renewable energy, transforming building stock into micro power plants to create renewable energy, deploying hydrogen in every building to store intermittent energy, using internet technology to the power grid into an energy internet and transitioning the transport fleet to electric plug in and fuel cell vehicle that can buy and sell small green energy.
Now, products can be design on a computer and is printed out by using a 3-D printer. By using a software called omputer aided design, the software directs the 3-D printer to build successive layers of the product using powder, molten plastic, or metals to create the material scaffolding. It can produce multiple products in a matter of time. New materials are replacing the old ones because they are lighter, stronger and more durable.
Carbon fiber is one of the material replacing steel and aluminium. Nanotechnology is giving products enhanced features, such as bandages that help heal cuts, engines that run more efficiently and crockery that cleans more easily. Genetically engineered viruses are being developed to ake items such as batteries. The similarities between both the First Industrial revolutions and the Third Industrial revolution are that before both revolutions, they have problems with the economy.
Moreover, both requires new kind of resources to produce energy. Furthermore, the similarities in these two industrial revolution are new methods were introduced in mass producing products. In addition, in this two industrial revolution, more job opportunities were created. However, the difference in this two industrial revolution are in the First Industrial evolution, communication was not as good as the Third Industrial revolution where there were existence of phones and internets.
Moreover, the First industrial revolution uses raw materials like coal to produce energies while the Third Industrial revolution uses renewable energy. In terms or urbanization, in the Third Industrial revolution, most of the places were developed while in the First Industrial revolution, most of the rural places were still poorly connected. In addition, the Thrid Industrial revolution have a better transportation that the First Industrial Revolution.
