Notes
The Industrial Revolution
- Began in Britain in the mid-1700s thanks to coal, iron, capital, workers and the Agricultural Revolution.
- Textile machines, Watt's steam engine, railroads and steel transformed production. Industry spread to Europe, the U.S. and Japan.
- Effects: urbanization, harsh factory conditions, child labor, a growing middle class, labor unions and reforms like the Factory Act (1833).
- New ideas: laissez-faire capitalism, socialism and Marx's communism.
Imperialism
- Motives: economic (resources, markets), political (nationalism), social (Social Darwinism, missionaries) and technology (Maxim gun, steamships, quinine).
- Africa was divided at the Berlin Conference; only Ethiopia (victory at Adwa) and Liberia stayed independent.
- India came under the British Raj after the Sepoy Rebellion (1857). China lost the Opium Wars and faced unequal treaties.
- Japan modernized after the Meiji Restoration (1868) and became an imperial power.
Topics in this unit
Each topic has its own short notes and practice.
Practice
1842, 1868, 1884 to 1885, 1896.
Industrial economies looked overseas for rubber, cotton, minerals and buyers.
Rapid-fire weapons and medicine against malaria gave Europeans a decisive edge.
Their different responses to Western pressure produced very different outcomes.
Factory Acts set limits on hours and ages for workers.
Colonized peoples resisted through rebellion, reform and nationalist movements.
Free response
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Free-response question
Between 1750 and 1914, industrialization changed societies and drove imperial expansion.
(a) Describe TWO effects of industrialization on workers in Britain.
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Many workers moved to crowded, unhealthy cities, and factory hands, including children, worked long hours for low pay in dangerous conditions. Over time workers formed unions and won reforms.
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(b) Explain how industrialization contributed to European imperialism in Africa or Asia.
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Factories needed raw materials like rubber, cotton and minerals and new markets for goods. Industrial technology such as steamships and the Maxim gun also made conquest easier.
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(c) Explain ONE way a colonized or threatened society responded to imperialism.
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Ethiopia under Menelik II bought modern weapons and defeated Italy at Adwa in 1896, keeping its independence. Japan responded by modernizing after the Meiji Restoration.
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