Global Industrialization

How did the Industrial Revolution impact the lives of non-aristocratic individuals who moved to cities in industrialized countries like Britain?

• Improved working conditions and increased life expectancy for everyone.

• No significant changes in working conditions or life expectancy for people.

• Decreased working conditions but increased life expectancy for everyone

• Mixed outcomes which both improved and worsened working conditions and life expectancy

Answer explanation

The Industrial Revolution had mixed outcomes, improving and worsening working conditions and life expectancy for non-aristocratic individuals. If you were a commoner who became a merchant, banker. investor or middle class worker you saw your lifestyle and living conditions improve, but if you were an unskilled worker who moved to cities in industrialized countries like Britain, you saw your lifespan and living conditions worsen quite a bit.

Which were industrial realities for people living in the beginning of Industrial transformations? (Pick all that reflect what Professor Bennet Sherry was revealing in his work entitled "Global Industrialization")

• For people in Europe’s colonies, industrialization brought new and painful exploitation.

• For working class Europeans, even though they struggled in factories, their life expectancy increased right away.

• Some wealthy and middle-class people in northwestern Europe really benefited, enjoying new wealth and opportunity.

• In general, common people gained a greater choice of where they wished to live and work and their customs were protected too.

Answer explanation

While some wealthy and middle class people in northwestern Europe benefitted due to industrial change, in general, industrialization brought exploitation to people in Europe's colonies and wealth to some in northwestern Europe. There was also a decrease in the choices people had on where they could live as land that was open to commoners was enclosed and denied to peasants who had to move to cities to survive.

William Blake is a famous artist and writer who lived during the first phase of Industrialization. He wrote much about the conditions of Industrial Life - especially the conditions workers experienced. Which of the following did he say about the reality of factory life?

• Heavenly Mills

• Innovative Wonders

• Satanic Mills

• Flourishing Factories

What was Friedrich Engels' conclusion about the treatment of English workers during the Industrial Revolution?

• They were considered valuable contributors to society

• They were treated as equal human beings

• They were given prominent roles in guiding historical events

• They were seen as toiling machines in service of a few "aristocratic" factory owners.

Which of the following statements best represents how industrialization impacted rural communities and culture in Europe, (Please choose all that reflect what professor Sherry shared with us)?

• Without the stability of extended family networks, urban families lacked support in times of crisis, meaning poverty and homelessness for many.

• Younger people were able to escape the oppressive control of the elders in villages for the freedom and protection of cities.

• The disintegration of family networks and the rise of factories endangered children and unmarried women.

• Children who had been trapped in orphanages found freedom and protection within factories.

If you were able to talk to Professor Sherry about the positive effects of Industrialization, more than likely he would point out this movement?

• The Luddites who created change through violent destruction of oppressive factories.

• The reform movement that worked hard to establish a minimum wage, safe working conditions, and an eight-hour work day.

• The Communist movement that sought to unite all workers around the world in a massive world wide revolution for Enlightened values and human decency.

• The human rights movement that emerged to fight the evil effects of racism in America in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Which of the following are images of the Global Commodities that Professor Sherry used to demonstrate the global impact of Industrialization? (please choose all that he used)

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Which of the following best represents what Professor Sherry wanted to help us understand about the development of global sugar production in East Asia in the nineteenth century?

• Forcing people in the Indian Ocean to grow sugar didn’t just hurt those people; it also devastated Caribbean societies that relied on sugar.

• The spread of industrial sugar plantations into East Asia meant the Asian workers would become enslaved by Europeans.

• The spread of industrial sugar production meant that new markets emerged which improved the wealth of new non-European sugar producing regions.

• The rise of industrial sugar production in the Indian Ocean drove prices down and devastated Caribbean economies.

Answer explanation

This question helps us review Professor Bennet's arguments surrounding the spread of industrial sugar plantations from the Caribbean into east Asia. It's important to note that although slavery did not spread, the impacts of industrialized sugar production in east Asia fostered a great deal of poor economic conditions for non-Europeans in the nineteenth and early to mid twentieth centuries. Conditions that still persist today.

Professor Sherry helps us understand that Industrialization not only impacted the pursuit of coal, but also the pursuit of more and more places to produce wheat. Which of the following did he illuminate for us as he explained this economic by-product of Industrialization?

• British capitalists funded railroads in southern Russia near the Black Sea. This made it easier to get Russian wheat to British ships in the port of Odessa.

• California gold miners gave up their prospecting to plow and harvest large swaths of wheat to sell to Britain which is why California is still referred to as the "Golden" state today.

• In Argentina, British financiers funded new railroads and ports, transforming subsistence farms into industrial wheat farms.

• China shifted it's production of textiles towards wheat production to get in on the money that could be made from trading with Great Britain.

Answer explanation

Professor Bennet does an excellent job helping is see an hidden impact of Industrialization. This lesson will help us understand that countries can become connected to industrialization in varying ways. It's fascinating to to think about how Industrialization impacted the economics of Russia, Argentina and even California because of their need for less and less expensive wheat. China however did not need to make this transformation in the 19th century because of it's dominance in textile production.

How did Professor Bennet help us better understand the global nature of Industrialization through it's description of Swansea, a region of Wales; the often overlooked country that is a part of Great Britain in the south western portion of the island? (Please choose all the fit)

• This tiny corner of Wales became the center of a global copper network that touched every continent.

• This tiny corner of Wales became the center of a global iron production that touched every continent.

• The Iron that Swansea produced literally built every railroad that would run across the British landscaped in the Industrial Revolution.

• Swansea would become the most polluted city in Great Britain because of it's production and refinement of one of the most important natural resources involved in Industrial Transformations.