Paragraph on “Industrial Revolution” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

Industrial Revolution

Around 300 years ago began an age in Britain and Europe which was to change the way people lived and worked. This age was called the Industrial Revolution. In the years before the beginning of the 18th century most of the goods were produced with the help of manual labour. In the beginning of the 18th century inventions revolutionised the manufacturing processes and gave the factory owners the capability to produce large quantities of goods in lesser time. Some of the inventions which made this possible included the discovery of coke for smelting iron, the steam hammer for hammering iron. Discovery of the ‘flying shuttle’ and the ‘Spinning Jenny’ mechanised the textile industry. Alongwith these developments came the building of locomotives, establishing of railways, building of bridges etc. Refinement and further development on these inventions continues till today. As these machines became popular, rich industrialists set up large factories to produce finished goods at a large scale. Since many people were required to run these machines, jobs were in abundance. People from the countryside found employment in these factories and moved to the cities

thus giving rise to the industrial towns. In those days the textile factories employed mostly women and children because they could be paid less. compared to the villages the workers earned more money in the cities, but their standard of living was very poor. They lived in small towns which were cheaply built and lacked most of the basic amenities. Large families often lived in small houses which did not have a clean water supply and disease and death was a common thing among the young. In 1833 the British Government banned child labour but failed to regulate the hours of work because most of the industrialists were paying less but demanding long working hours. This led to the formation of Workers’ Unions which fought for workers’ rights.