The Industrial Revolution: What was really revolutionary?

Hello,

In class a few days ago we started to learn about the Industrial Revolution. We used articles to take notes on specific parts of the Industrial Revolution, the revolutionary aspects. These aspects are technology, people, resources, and transportation. Each group took notes on each aspect and then we shared what we learned with each other group.

People. They are the start of everything. We humans start everything. In the Industrial Revolution they improved farming, started to improve the use of land, and the death rate started to decline. To improve farming they built dikes to shelter the land from the sea and water sources. They also made the soil better by fertilizing it with livestock manure, mixed the soil with other soil, and rotated their crop to let the soil rejuvenate. They also used the land more efficiently by planting the seeds in rows instead of randomly. They started to create pastures for livestock by gaining more land from peasant farmers and putting it use for their farms. The peasant farmers are then forced to work in the city so the people in the city can get laborers. By increasing farming rates and producing better and more food the death rate then decreases. Without any of these improvements we wouldn't be able to produce any of the food we produce now.

Extension Master Gardener http://blogs.extension.org/mastergardener/2013/04/23/exploring-our-roots-a-short-history-of-extension-and-the-master-gardener-program/ 

Transportation isn't something we think about everyday now. We just hop in our cars and go where we need to go. But before the Industrial Revolution they had almost no means of transportation. During the revolution the steam engine was invented. The steam engine allowed people to not depend on only water transportation. The steam engine was faster than any other transportation machine at the time so they were able to move more items faster. By laying down tracks they didn't have to rely on water anymore and the steam powered boats made it so they wouldn't have to worry about the weather conditions as much as they did before. The steam engine is the basis of every single vehicle we have today, especially today's train.

The Open Door Web Site http://www.saburchill.com/history/chapters/IR/028.html 

Thank you for reading!
Julianna