Factories & Workers
Why did factory owners hire children?
- paid less
- dangerous jobs
- fit in small spaces
Which country was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution?
England/Great Britain
What term describes people moving from farms to cities?
Urbanization
What is the economy?
How a country makes, buys, and sells goods and services
According to Marx, what mainly drives history forward?
Conflict between social classes.
Name one difficulty factory workers faced.
Disease / crime / poverty / unsafe housing
Important new energy source in the 1700s.
Coal
What movement forced many small farmers off their land?
Enclosure Movement
Which economic system supports private ownership and competition?
Capitalism
What were the two main social classes Marx described?
Bourgeoisie and proletariat.
What action do workers take when they refuse to work to demand better conditions?
a strike
Who improved the steam engine, making factories more efficient?
James Watt
What system replaced home-based production with machines in one location?
the factory system
What does “laissez-faire” mean?
The government is "hands off"
The government doesn't interfere with the economy
What did Marx believe would happen under communism?
Social classes would disappear and resources would be shared.
What organization did workers form to improve pay and safety?
a labor union
Name one invention that made cloth production faster.
- Spinning Jenny
- Water Frame
- Cotton Gin
How did most people earn a living before factories became common?
Farming and making goods by hand at home (cottage industries).
What book made Adam Smith famous?
Wealth of Nations
How were Marx’s ideas connected to factory life?
He reacted to poor factory conditions and worker treatment.
These two thinkers became important because their ideas were shaped by the changes and problems caused by industrialization.
Adam Smith and Karl Marx.
Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney
Why did cities grow rapidly during the Industrial Revolution?
Jobs in factories / people were forced off farmland / industrial growth
What economic system did Adam Smith believe worked best?
Capitalism
Which ideas from socialism are used in the U.S. today?
Welfare and Social Security