Quality Of Life During The Industrial Revolution

In the mid-1700s, a series of innovations in work and transportation technology caused a dramatic change in the way people lived their lives forever. This period of time came to be known as the Industrial Revolution, which was a critical moment in history. With this revolution came both great benefits and heavy drawbacks - job opportunities appeared and profits were made, but lives were lost and communities were damaged. Based on the effects of the Industrial Revolution, the process of industrialization overall improved nations - though it somewhat ruined the quality of life that the citizens of those nations once possessed, it boosted worldly economic growth tremendously. Without the events that occurred during the Industrial Revolution,

Even before the Industrial Revolution started, people worked extra hard to keep themselves going. Farmers who tended the land lived simple but difficult lives, working day and night with their own handmade tools, nourished by their own food, and protected by clothes made on their own (Ellis 196). This hard work allowed rural villagers to sustain themselves while living an average life, but the villages they lived in soon grew to become large towns and cities, and the conditions that the working class then had to face got a little out of hand. An average factory day consisted of fourteen hours of tedious and sometimes painful work, with just one hour at midday for a short rest. Those who wished to rest outside of break time would be beaten, causing everyone else in the factory to work in fear (“Sadler”). Living conditions in cities were quite miserable as well. Urbanization, or the act of moving to cities, was brought on/sped up by the Industrial Revolution. City life was fine for middle and upper class citizens, but the working-class population was forced to struggle with a lack of sanitation, crowded tenements, and easily-spreading diseases for years (Ellis 204). Even today, factories in developing nations face the same problems of difficult work and harsh conditions. Foxconn, a Chinese company which manufactures Apple devices, has come under fire “after a series of fatal accidents” (“Apple”). The company has installed nets in its factories to prevent further suicides caused by the stress of the work (“Apple”). In addition to all of this, there is a potential environmental impact of industrialization. A recent study has shown that flooding rates have increased along the Northeast coast of the United States as a sort of side effect of industrialization. Benjamin Horton of Rutgers University states that “A storm that occurred once in seven generations is