Industrial Transformation: From Early Crafts to Modern Factories

Posted on Aug 20, 2025 in Geography

Pre-Industrial Society & Economy

Early Farming Life (90% Population)

• Men: plowing, tilling, sowing, harvesting
• Women: childcare, cooking, planting, making clothing
• Children: scared birds away, worked with wood, did household tasks
• Tiny villages: fewer than 100 people, self-sufficient communities

Technology & Organization in Early Farming

• Shared tools and draft teams
• Fields divided into strips (some fallow)
• Grew food for subsistence, not surplus
• Raised cattle, pigs, goats
• Salted meat to preserve it
• Wolves threatened livestock

Early Crafts & New Agricultural Tech

Craftsmen (10% Population)

• Included blacksmiths, carpenters, bakers, tailors, tanners, etc.
• Women rarely ran businesses unless with husbands.

New Technology in Farming

• Wheel plow dug deeper into the soil
• Required 8 oxen
• Needed community cooperation

From Guilds to Factories

Craft Guilds and Work Organization

• Guilds organized work and commerce
• Roles: apprentice → journeyman → master
• Other roles: skilled worker, foreman, employer, seller
• Water and wind used to power machines (e.g., for grinding, tanning, sawing)
• Work became more specialized and divided.

Professionalization of Industry (16th-18th Century)

• Growth in wealth (from trade, metals, banking)
• Expansion of markets and products
• New technologies emerged
• Labor became more organized and specialized.

Genesis of the Factory System

• Labor became more specialized and organized
• Rise of banking, insurance, and export systems
• Start of mass production and large-scale manufacturing

The Industrial Revolution Era

Economic Transformations

• Shift from farming/handmade goods to machine-based factory production
• New industries like automobiles emerged
• Use of steam power and other energy sources.

Social Changes

• Middle class grew
• Harsh working conditions for many, including women and children
• Rise of trade unions.

Key Inventions

• Steam engine, light bulb, telephone, telegraph
• Electric generators and motors
• Internal combustion engine
• Ford’s assembly line revolutionized car production

Workplace Evolution: Mechanization & Division

Mechanization of Labor

• Work became more organized and repetitive
• Machines replaced individual skills
• Tasks done by teams instead of one person
• Families worked in factories (fathers supervised, mothers and children operated machines)
• Apprenticeship could last until age 21.

Division of Labor at the Workplace

• High machinery costs → continuous production necessary
• Workers followed the machine’s pace
• Specialization: each worker did a single task
• Mixed effects: some lost skills, others became more specialized
• Discipline replaced independence; freedom reduced (no vacations, strict schedules)

Industrial Production & Conditions

Working Conditions

• 12–16 hour workdays
• Repetitive tasks in noisy, dirty, unsafe environments.

Mass Production Principles

• Large quantities, low cost per unit
• Organized material flow and quality control
• Repetitive, precise labor
• Required mass consumption to be sustainable.

The Assembly Line

• Workers stayed in one spot as products moved past
• Machine pace dictated worker speed
• Increased productivity but caused fatigue
• Ford reduced car assembly from 1,212 man-hours to 93 minutes
• Car prices dropped → more people could afford them
• Skilled workers replaced by unskilled due to task simplification

Industrial Expansion & Organization

Emergence of New Industries

• Steam-powered machines transformed industries
• Coal replaced wood as main fuel (due to deforestation)
• Growth in coal mining, metalworking, brewing, glassmaking, etc.

Effects on Work Organization

• Skills transferred to machines
• Hierarchies of supervisors and managers developed
• New roles emerged: engineers, HR, marketing, IT, sales
• Raw materials often imported for lower costs
• Some parts produced elsewhere (outsourcing)
• Search for new markets abroad due to local saturation

Agriculture’s Industrial Transformation

Industrialized Agriculture (19th-20th Centuries)

• Farming became industrialized in 19th and 20th centuries
• Machines, breeding, fertilizers, and management boosted productivity
• Fewer farmers could feed more people.

Factory Farms

• Automated feeding, cleaning, processing (e.g., poultry in U.S.)
• Lowered food costs.

Migrant Labor

• Seasonal migrants replaced family labor
• Often worked in poor conditions for low wages
• Still essential for hand-harvested crops

Automation & Labor Impact

Automation in Mass Production

• Machines replaced manual labor for precision and consistency
• Conveyor belts, transfer machines, and control systems used
• Reduced costs and improved efficiency.

Effect on Skilled Labor

• Robots took over dangerous/repetitive tasks
• Workers shifted from operators to supervisors
• Improved working conditions in some areas

Industrial Revolution: Causes & Effects Summary

Primary Causes

• Began in Britain (1760s) due to textile innovations
• Interchangeable parts enabled mass production
• Steam power replaced human/animal labor
• Factory system centralized production.

Major Effects

• Economic and social change
• Urbanization and growth in trade
• Rise of new industries and better transport/communication
• Goods became cheaper and more accessible

Industrialization: Benefits & Drawbacks

Advantages of Industrialization

• Cheaper goods and better living standards
• New jobs and a growing middle class
• Advances in technology and medicine
• Factory wages often better than farming.

Disadvantages of Industrialization

• Overcrowded, unsanitary cities
• Pollution and environmental damage
• Harsh, unsafe working conditions
• Sedentary lifestyle and health issues

Labor Rights & 20th Century Work

Role of Trade Unions in the UK

• Trade unions defend and improve workers’ rights and conditions
• Negotiate better wages and work conditions
• Influence national laws through campaigning
• Independent from employers in the UK
• Represent workers in workplace discussions
• Provide legal and financial advice.

Work in the 20th Century (UK)

• Early 1900s: UK economy was stable. Later decades: economic depression and rising unemployment, especially in the North, Scotland, and South Wales
• Midlands and South: newer industries grew
• WWII revived economy → prosperity in 1950s–60s
• Mid-1970s: inflation and unemployment rose
• 1980s: recession, then recovery in 1990s
• Traditional industries (coal, textiles) declined
• Service industries (tourism, education, finance) became main job source
• More married women worked part-time, helped by new home technologies.

Key Labor Movements & Strikes

Haymarket Affair and May Day

• May 1, 1886: 35,000 Chicago workers struck for 8-hour day
• Tens of thousands more joined in the following days
• May 3: clashes, police killed strikers
• May 4: protest at Haymarket Square → bomb killed officer
• Police opened fire → more deaths
• 8 anarchists arrested; 7 sentenced to death without proof
• May 1 became International Workers’ Day.

The Miners’ Strike (1984-1985)

• NUM protested mine closures
• Thatcher’s government built coal stocks, used police
• Strike ruled illegal (no national ballot)
• 3 deaths; union power declined
• Most mines closed
• By 2009: only 6 pits remained (from 174 in 1983)
• Privatization led to poverty in former mining areas