Many people around the world today enjoy the benefits of industrialisation – power and change. The increase in production brought about by the use of machines during the late 1800s and early 1900s was known as the industrial revolution. This revolution was a prompt for the beginning of a great change in the world’s trade, textile and manufacturing industries which first began in Britain’s agrarian society. Although every privilege we have today is a result of the industrial revolution, it had many disadvantages which were highly detrimental to society during its time. A class hierarchy continued to play a role in society and the lower class were born into poverty, a cycle hard to break, and were considered as the proletariat. The proletariat …show more content…
The diseases that came from the towns and factories were due to lack of; hygiene, knowledge regarding sanitary care and the cure to diseases. A mass migration of citizens from rural areas to cities, that were slum-like, to find a job meant towns were overcrowded, reducing the already lacking sanitation. In 1849, over 15,000 British died as a result of Cholera as Chadwick believed the sewage system was in contact with Britain’s drinking water source, exposing the population to contaminated water. Infant mortality rates were low, generally not passing their fifth day as five to nine people lived in a single room. Chadwick’s report and workers campaign for improvements in housing and sanitation resulted in public and government awareness of the severity of the issue, overriding the laissez faire principle. The British parliament passed a number of public health acts which ordered the sewers to be covered and implemented basic hygiene procedures (1875 Public Health Act) which improved the standard of living of the nation, including the poor. These reforms were formally covered in the acts displayed in source 2 such as the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act, appointing Medical Officers to provide care for the poor and the 1866 Sanitary Act making local authorities responsible for sewers, water and street cleaning. The British government had to intervene with this issue to prevent the spread of deadly diseases which was increasing the death rates more and more each year. Furthermore, these diseases were seen as a serious threat to society, which had a possibility of wiping out majority of the British population if action wasn’t taken against it with large scale public health