Michael P. answered • 10/21/15
Tutor
New to Wyzant
A Social Studies teacher who wants to help students succeed
This is a very interesting question, that I am assuming must be an essay or short answer question (maybe?) It depends on what emphasis you place on certain aspects, ideas, etc of society. I am going to list some of the things I think were positive and/or negative, and let you decide where you stand.
Positives: Urbanization and modernization. The settling of more and more people into urban locations. As well as modernization, moving from only human hands making every product (which takes longer and is more expensive) to faster paced, more efficient, cheaper creation of goods. It also led to the modernization of cities with things like eventual public transportation, to get people to work. It helped to create the modern educational system, where children went to school for certain periods and were focused on certain subjects. The I.R. helped lead to globalization, as industrial countries produced a surplus of goods that they could not sell to their own populations, and began to look for exterior markets to sell to. It led to improvements in technology, as more and more machines were created to either help create, transport, etc products (steam engine, et.) It helped lead to certain countries dominating the world economy (Britain and the U.S. were 1-2). It led to an increase in the economies or industrial nations, as well as creating more jobs and more employment opportunities for people living in these nations. It helped lead to a consumer based market, as people could now have options on what products to by, based on aspects like price, style, color, etc.
Negatives: Urbanization, and the overcrowding of cities. Cities became very dirty, with poor sanitation, etc. Cholera outbreak in Britain based on tainted water. Pollution became an issue really for the first time, as industrial cities pumped huge amounts of Coal smoke into the atmosphere. Deforestation of Britain, as well as dramatic changes to the natural world with the building of factories, clearing of timber, mining of industrial fuels such as coal, etc. It led to a disproportionate number of poor working class people. It led to terrible working conditions for these workers, such as 12-14 hr days, no sick leave, no health care or benefits, etc. It led to large amounts of child labor, both in factories and in the coal mines, which also led to a large amount of child deaths and injuries. It also changed the idea of education from being something that was based on the arts to a rigid curriculum based on what the state and large industries wanted. It led to a large spike in alcohol consumption, depression rates, divorce rates, suicide rates, etc.
