The Industrial Revolution and its costs

Ages 13 to 17 Read alone · about 55 minutes

Read together

From about 1760, Britain began to change how goods were made. Machines, steam power and factories replaced much hand work. Production grew, goods became cheaper, and people moved to cities. Over the next century, industry spread to Europe, North America and later other places.

The change came with heavy costs. Many workers, including children, laboured long hours in dangerous factories and mines for low pay. Cities were crowded and unhealthy. Cotton for the mills was grown by enslaved people in the Americas and by workers in colonies. Industrial growth also began a large rise in the burning of fossil fuels.

People responded. Reformers pushed for laws on factory hours and child labour. Christians were among the leaders, including William Wilberforce in the campaign against slavery and Lord Shaftesbury for factory reform. Unions grew. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII wrote “Rerum Novarum”, about the rights and dignity of workers.

Do it

1. Make a timeline from 1760 to 1900 with five key changes: steam engines, factories, railways, factory laws and the end of the slave trade in the British Empire (1833).
2. Read a short primary source, such as an extract from a factory inquiry or from Friedrich Engels's 1845 book on the condition of workers in England. Who wrote it, and why?
3. List the benefits and the harms of industrialisation. Who gained, and who paid?
4. Pick one object you own and trace what it is made of and how it was made. Who may have worked on it?

Talk about it

• Who benefited most from industrialisation?
• Why did reforms take so long?

For the grown-up

The Industrial Revolution created the modern economy and also deep injustices. Many Christians worked for reform because of their faith. Today's global supply chains raise similar questions, so this history connects to choices about what we buy.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• Robert C. Allen, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
• Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (Alfred A. Knopf, 2014)
• Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum (1891)
• Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (United Kingdom)

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.