How Were Changes in Population Growth and Urbanization related to the Industrial Revolution? By: Ben Henry Obama, Greg Wolfson Bush, Jeffrey Fabian Kennedy

How Were Changes in Population Growth and Urbanization related to the Industrial Revolution?

By: Ben Henry Obama, Greg Wolfson Bush, Jeffrey Fabian Kennedy

_____________________________________________

Primary Source 1: Modern History Sourcebook: Accounts of the Potato Revolution, 1795-1845

The Times, July 11, 1795

The solution to the lack of grain for our rising population is simple. The poor should adopt the diet of Lancashire, with its abundant potatoes and oatmeal porridge. Also, the poor can eat a soup of water and potatoes. If a bread is required, one of corn and potatoes is both pleasant and nutritious.

Sir Frederick M. Eden, The State of the Poor, 1797

The Naturalists of Queen Anne’s time would probably have been astonished to hear, what the Board of Agriculture mentions as a fact of the greatest importance, that potatoes and water alone, with common salt, can nourish men completely.

Ralph Leycester, Annals of Agriculture, Vol. 29, 1798

It is with great satisfaction that I can report that wages are now 8s. per week, having only increased 1s. in twenty-five years, and that, considering the use of potatoes and turnips, the laborer is better off than before. Potatoes are in great use here, which necessarily lessens the consumption of bread.

J. C. Curwen, The Rural Economy of Ireland, 1818

The first and most important object in the rural economics of Ireland is the crop of potatoes, for on these exclusively depends the existence of all the lower orders not resident in towns. The potato, which in some points of view, may justly be regarded as one of the greatest blessings to our species, is capable of operating the greatest calamities, when it exclusively furnishes the food on which a community is content to exist, for as the cultivation of a single statute acre may successfully and easily be attended by one individual and as its produce on an average would give food for at least ten persons the year round, at 7 lb. each day, which may be considered as an abundant allowance, what chance is there for manual exertion in such a society among whom a patrimonial aversion to labor and an habitual attachment to idleness are paramount to every other consideration.

Sir George Nicholls, The Farmer’s Guide, 1841

The diet of the poor consists chiefly of milk, oatmeal, potatoes and vegetables. The potato is the all-important food, oatmeal a quite secondary one, and bacon a rare luxury.

Rev. James Mulligan, Description of Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan, 18453

The small farmers live on potatoes and milk. It is considered that he is a very fortunate man if he has milk for his family. He sells his butter and never uses oatmeal in his house. It is thus obvious that oatmeal plays a quite secondary role in the household economy of the poorer classes, and that the primary meal consists of potatoes.

Report of the Devon Commission for Ireland, 1845

The potato enabled a large family to live on food produced in great quantities at a trifling cost, and, as the result, the increase of the people has been gigantic.

Arkenberg, Jerome. “Modern History Source Book: Accounts of the Potato Revolution.”                                             Fordham University. Accessed May 10, 2015, http:// legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1695potato.asp

Summary of Primary Source 1:

These accounts talk about how potatoes during the Industrial Revolution were very important and were needed in order to survive. This is because just a potato with salt and water can fill a man’s hunger completely. This was very good mostly because potatoes were so easy to grow that a single acre could be maintained by only one person and that acre produces 7ib of potato each day. This made them so cheap that the poor could afford them and survive mainly on eating potatoes. So, a large family could live on potatoes for only a little cost. This lead to more people moving to those areas that potatoes are grown. This also made more people survive hunger. This major need for potatoes increased wages from 7s to 8s, the first 1c increase in 25 years.         

This set of accounts was compiled to illustrate the thoughts and opinions of the potato crop during the Industrial Revolution. It was likely made to show how the potato was cheaper and much more widely available than bread, which was the staple crop prior to the Industrial Revolution. This source is valuable because it shows how potatoes affected the population and the inhabitants of the areas it was grown in. It is also important because it shows how even though the potato was inexpensive, people still grew very old of its taste.

 

Primary Source 2: Something New Starts Every Day:

        Oh, dear me this world quite strange is,

        Every Day brings forth new changes;

        Ups and downs and alterations

        One thing must surely be handy

        Potatoes made into real French brandy;

        Patent brincks and I’ve not got all

        There’s a new exchange and the deuce knows what all.

                Chorus— Oh dear, oh dear, tis the truth I say’

                Something new starts every day.

There’s safety pumps and parachute sockets,

        And portable gas to carry in your pockets ;

        And if in spirits the folks are not half in

        There’s gas to set you all laughing ;

        The people being tired of stage roads

        Have pass’d a law to ride on rail roads,

        Always changing, new things trying

        They’ll give us wings and then for flying

Chorus— Oh dear, oh dear, tis the truth I say’

                Something new starts every day.

All round the town they’e got new churches

        And people flock into their porches

        And every Sunday ‘pon my conscience,

The black coats fill your heads with nonsense ;

They say Old Nick lives down below there

If you don’t repent, you’re sure to go there ;

You’ll be tossed about in a fiery gulf sir,

They’ll fill your stomach with brimstone and sulphur

Chorus— Oh dear, oh dear, tis the truth I say’

                Something new starts every day.

        Oh dear, oh dear, this world quite strange is,

        Every day brings forth new changes

        For the ladies now are afraid to walk out,

        For fear of the men who nightly stalk out ;

        For soon you see at nothing they falter,

        For round the neck they catch them with a halter.

        Take them to the doctors who call the dissectors,

        And they cut up the bodies to give the students lectures.

Chorus— Oh dear, oh dear, tis the truth I say’

                Something new starts every day.

        When the old folks died and left the worlds riot

        They were laid in their graves to rest in quiet,

        Until the day of ressurrection,

        Nor even dream’d of being dug up for dissection,

        But now there’s men whose tricks quite odd is.

        Who go out at night to steal dead bodies ;

        If you are buried in the city and are not defected

        Why, tis twenty to one that you’ll get dissected

Chorus— Oh dear, oh dear, tis the truth I say’

                Something new starts every day.

When our grandmother’s hens would lay, sir,

        They’d hatch their eggs the natural way sir,

        Fondly sitting on, and sticking.

        Till every egg brought out a chicken,

        But now there’s a man who swears and vows, and

        Says that he can hatch eggs by thousands ;

        All by steam, which so fast produces,

        He’ll supply the city with ducks and gooses

                Chorus— Oh dear, oh dear, tis the truth I say’

                Something new starts every day.

It seems the power of steam let loose is

        For steam is applied to all manner of uses

        Steam to travel o’er land and ocean,

        Steam is now the perpetual motion

        Steam for boiling, steam for baking

        Steam for drying, and sausage making

        Steam to fire large balls and bullets

        Steam to hatch little chick-a-biddy pullets.

                Chorus— Oh dear, oh dear, tis the truth I say’

                Something new starts every day.

Unknown. “Something New Starts Every Day.” Library of Congress. Accessed May  

11,2015.http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/industria

l-revolution/pdf/songsheet.pdf.

Summary of Primary Source 2

In this Primary Source, it talks about how the world is changing from all these new things being invented. It explains how the new steam engine can produce thousands of eggs in a factory instead of before when they had to wait for a chicken to lay only a few eggs at a time. it also explains how the new steam engine can help people travel over land and ocean, baking and boiling food and using it to make weapons. This is important because all the people that used to live on a small farm are hearing of these new inventions and moving to that area to make their lives easier.

This song comes from the Industrial Revolution and all of its changes. It was probably written to express the changing times and how the different things being invented affected people and the cities. A song during this time is a valuable source because it shows how the time period affected people and the emotion they put into songs. The songwriter of this song (who is unknown) most likely wanted to express how they felt about the Industrial Revolution, and how all these new inventions and creations affected his or her life. This primary source is important to historians because it gives them a reason to why urbanization happened in those areas where the improvements and inventions were made.

Audio/VisualSource:

http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-working-class-during-the-industrial-revolution-growth-ideologies.html “The Working-Class During the Industrial Revolution: Growth & Ideologies.” In this video,  Amy Troolin illustrates what an average family is like and why many people believed that moving to the city was smart during the Industrial Revolution.

Troolin, Amy. “The Working-Class During the Industrial Revolution: Growth & Ideologies.” Accessed May 14, 2015.

        

Synthesis:

These two primary sources show that population growth and urbanization were caused by the new inventions and agricultural advancements. “ For centuries, most Europeans lived in rural areas. After 1800 the balance shifted toward cities. This shift was caused by the growth of the factory system, where the manufacturing of goods was concentrated in a central location.”^[1] Urbanization was sparked by the growth of factories in cities, and therefore is was started by the Industrial Revolution. This shift led to more jobs in the city, higher wages, and more housing. This lead to “the number of cities boasting more than 100,000 inhabitants rising from 22 to 47”^[2] Beck is  showing that the growth of population in cities was likely initiated by urbanization and the Industrial Revolution.

The Report of the Deven Commision in Ireland stated in 1845 that “The potato enabled a large family to live on food produced in great quantities at a trifling cost, and, as the result, the increase of the people has been gigantic.”^[3] This primary document shows us how the potato rising during the industrial revolution affected population growth. Because there was so many excess potatoes and they were easy to farm and buy, they allowed more families to thrive and increase the population. The potato and the increase in population show how the Industrial Revolution allowed population to grow and people began to move into the cities and begin the process of urbanization in many major cities.

The Industrial Revolution brought about dramatic changes in nearly every aspect of British society. With the growth of factories, for example, people were drawn to metropolitan centers. The number of cities with populations of more than 20,000 in England and Wales rose from 12 in 1800 to nearly 200 at the close of the century.

“Industrial Revolution – Effects Of The Industrial Revolution” Accessed May 14, 2015. http://science.jrank.org/pages/3574/Industrial-Revolution-Effects-Industrial-Revolution.html 

                                                           

Architects struggle to make more buildings as more people come in to live in the cities. This shows urbanization because all these people are coming into the area and they are running out of space to hold all of them.

                              https://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/lecture-7/deck/2733379

 

This table shows the population growth during the Industrial Revolution in Britain. It shows how the population in many popular cities increased dramatically from 1800 to 1870, during the Industrial Revolution.

Beck, Roger B. “Industrial Revolution.” World History: Patterns of Interaction, 727. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 2012.

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[1] Roger B. Beck, et al., World History: Patterns of Interaction (Orlando: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), 723.

[2] Ibid, 723.

[3] Jerome Arkenberg, “Modern History Sourcebook: Accounts of the Potato Revolution” Fordham University, Accessed May 10, 2015, http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1695potato.asp

How were Changes in Population Growth and Urbanization Related to the Industrial Revolution? By Charles Humphrey, Stephanie King, and Sir Kensington III

How were Changes in Population Growth and Urbanization Related to the Industrial Revolution?

By Charles Humphrey, Stephanie King, and Sir Kensington III

Primary Source #1: Professor Faraday, Observations on the Filth of the Thames, 1855

SIR,

I traversed this day by steam-boat the space between London and Hangerford Bridges between half-past one and two o’clock; it was low water, and I think the tide must have been near the turn.  The appearance and the smell of the water forced themselves at once on my attention.  The whole of the river was an opaque pale brown fluid. . . . The smell was very bad, and common to the whole of the water; it was the same as that which now comes up from the gully-holes in the streets; the whole river was for the time a real sewer.  Having just returned from out of the country air, I was, perhaps, more affected by it than others; but I do not think I could have gone on to Lambeth or Chelsea, and I was glad to enter the streets for an atmosphere which, except near the sink-holes, I found much sweeter than that on the river.

Image: This image shows the Northumberland coal mine; 1778. “Painting of a Colliery” Images of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Accessed May 12, 2015. http://www.netnicholls.com/neh2001/pages/aspects3/31frame.htm

I have thought it a duty to record these facts, that they may be brought to the attention of those who exercise power or have responsibility in relation to the condition of our river; there is nothing figurative in the words I have employed, or any approach to exaggeration; they are the simple truth. . . . surely the river which flows for so many miles through London ought not to be allowed to become a fermenting sewer

Sincerely,

Professor Faraday

Summary of Primary Source #1:

Professor Faraday writes about his experience on the Thames River in London. He was surprised and disgusted by the condition of the river. He described the river as a murky brown fluid and the smell as “very bad”. He then compared the river to a sewer. He calls for action to fix the river, and addresses the people responsible for the condition of the river.

This source is a letter written by MIchael Faraday. He wrote it with the intention of illustrating how terrible the condition of the river was and to call for action to repair the river. This is valuable to historians because it gives us an idea of how the environment was affected by urbanization, through the eyes of someone who lived through the time. It shows that population growth in cities increased industrial waste which polluted the environment around the cities.

Primary Source #2: John Aikin, Manchester Becomes a Thriving City, 1795

“No exertions of the masters or workmen could have answered the demands of trade without the introduction of spinning machines.”

…..

“The improvements kept increasing, till the capital engines for twist were perfected, by which thousands of spindles are put in motion by a water wheel, and managed mostly by children, without confusion and with less waste of cotton than by the former methods. But the carding and slubbing preparatory to twisting required a greater range of invention. The first attempts were in carding engines, which are very curious, and now brought to a great degree of perfection; and an engine has been contrived for converting the carded wool to slubbing, by drawing it to about the thickness of candlewick preparatory to throwing it into twist.”

………

“The prodigious extension of the several branches of the Manchester manufactures has likewise greatly increased the business of several trades and manufactures connected with or dependent upon them. The making of paper at mills in the vicinity has been brought to great perfection, and now includes all kinds, from the strongest parcelling paper to the finest writing sorts, and that on which banker’s bills are printed. To the ironmongers shops, which are greatly increased of late, are generally annexed smithies, where many articles are made, even to nails. A considerable iron foundry is established in Salford, in which are cast most of the articles wanted in Manchester and its neighborhood, consisting chiefly of large cast wheels for the cotton machines; cylinders, boilers, and pipes for steam engines; cast ovens, and grates of all sizes. This work belongs to Batemen and Sharrard, gen[tle]men every way qualified for so great an undertaking. Mr. Sharrard is a very ingenious and able engineer, who has improved upon and brought the steam engine to great perfection.

The tin-plate workers have found additional employment in furnishing many articles for spinning machines; as have also the braziers in casting wheels for the motion-work of the rollers used in them; and the clock-makers in cutting them. Harness-makers have been much employed in making bands for carding engines, and large wheels for the first operation of drawing out the cardings, whereby the consumption of strong curried leather has been much increased.

Within the last twenty or thirty years the vast increase of foreign trade has caused many of the Manchester manufacturers to travel abroad, and agents or partners to be fixed for a considerable time on the continent, as well as foreigners to reside at Manchester. And the town has now in every respect assumed the style and manners of one of the commercial capitals of Europe.”

Summary of Primary Source #2:

John Aikin talks about how Manchester became a thriving city. The invention of the spinning machine promoted trade much better than human labor could have. He talks about how the spinning machine was constantly improved and the effects it had on the economy. The increase of trade increased the demand for workers and the population skyrocketed. He now recognizes the city as ‘one of the commercial capitals of Europe’.

This source was most likely an article written by John Aikin. He wrote it with the intention of putting an emphasis on the immense effects of the spinning machine, and how it influenced the city and its economy. This is important to us because it gives an accurate account of the effects of the Industrial Age through the eyes of someone who lived through it. It shows just one of the many ways Industrialization spurred urbanization and trade.

        

Video/Audio source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyc5Ym5fFR0 “Population Shifts in the Industrial Revolution” This video talks about population growth and the move from rural to urban place in Europe during the Industrial Revolution. “Population Shifts in the Industrial Revolution.” Youtube. Published Dec 19, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qyc5Ym5fFR0

Graph/Chart: These graphs show the population growth between 1800 and 1870 of four different cities in Europe. As shown in the chart, the popularity of urbanization grew rapidly in the 1800’s, and thousands of people moved to cities. Roger Beck et al. World History: Patterns of Interaction (Orlando, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), 727

Synthesis:

        

These documents show that urbanization was very much affected during the industrial revolution in many aspects of life such as the pollution of suburban areas that were slowly increasing in size but deteriorating in conditions. This is shown in the letter from Professor Faraday, which he goes on to write about the repugnance of the Thames, stating the horrific amount of oil in the river and the changing pigment of the water.^[1] This was probably caused by the amount of people in the city at the time, as many people were starting to move to urban cities, and places were getting over crowded. Trade and population growth was a huge effect of urbanization during the Industrial Revolution.^[2] This is evident in both the article written by John Aikin about how Manchester became a thriving city through trade, as well as the video source which lists many examples of cities that were affected by population growth. Population growth of cities in Europe is also shown in the graph, comparing populations between 1800 and 1870. For instance the population in London went from 1,117,000 in 1800, to 3,,890,000 in 1870.^[3] This shows how popular urbanization had become. This can be connected to Professor Faraday’s letter on the filthy Thames, suggesting that the now overpopulated city was the cause of this.

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[1] Professor Faraday, Observations on the Filth of the Thames (London, 1855)

[2] John Aikin, Manchester Becomes a Thriving Industrial City (Manchester, 1795)

[3] Roger Beck et al. World History: Patterns of Interaction (Orlando, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), 727

Population Growth and Urbanization During the Industrial Revolution By M. Beckham, A. O’Brien, and M. Mendes

Population Growth and Urbanization During the Industrial Revolution

          by M. Beckham, A. O’Brien, and M. Mendes

How were changes in population growth and urbanization related to the Industrial Revolution?

The changes in population and urbanization are related to the industrial revolution because more people came into factory areas seeking jobs, causing the areas to urbanize.

Primary Source 1:

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/census.html 

Summary of Primary Document 1:

        This census shows the number of employees for each job in 1851, 1861, and 1871. The occupation with the most employed during the 30 years was agricultural laborer/ farm servant/ shepherd. The numbers of employed in this occupation went down in the thirty years, which happened with many occupations. But other occupations had increased employment. Occupations like domestic servant, laborers, dressmaker, and tailor gained approximately 100,000 more employees in 1871 then 1851. Also, more occupations were created in 1861 and 1871 than in 1851. These increased jobs show how the population increased during the Industrial Revolution. With more employees in jobs like dressmaking and tailoring, it can be inferred that more clothes were needed because there were more people.

        This source comes from compiled Parliamentary papers from 1852-1853, 1863, and 1873. This source is valuable because it shows which jobs increased and which jobs decreased during the industrial revolution. This information can help historians infer whether jobs were focused in factories, around cities, or out in the country.  

“Occupations: Census returns for 1851, 1861, and 1871” The Victorian Web, July 2, 2002. Accessed May 13, 2015. http://www.victorianweb.org/history/census.html 

Graph:

This graph shows the population growth between 500 C.E and 2000 C.E and how the number have increased drastically from the industrial revolution to today.

Hill, Anne. “Urbanization Population Graphs.” Whsannehillhomework.12/6/14. Accessed 5/15/14.http://whsannehillhomework.blogspot.com/2012/12/urbanization-population-graphs.html.

 Primary Sources #1:

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/census.html 

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO9rPmuMiaw 

Video Summary:

        This video gives a brief overview of urbanization during the industrial revolution. The video explains some causes and effects the migration of people into rural areas had, as well as the impacts on society.

         Batterson, Robert. “Urbanization in the Industrial Revolution.” Youtube. April 25, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO9rPmuMiaw 

Primary Source 2: Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working-class in London in 1844, 1892

Manchester proper lies on the left bank of the Irwell, between that stream and the two smaller ones, the Irk and the Medlock, which here empty into the Irwell. . . . The whole assemblage of buildings is commonly called Manchester, and contains about four hundred thousand inhabitants, rather more than less. The town itself is peculiarly built, so that a person may live in it for years, and go in and out daily without coming into contact with a working-people’s quarter or even with workers, that is, so long as he confines himself to his business or to pleasure walks. This arises chiefly from the fact, that by unconscious tacit agreement, as well as with outspoken conscious determination, the working people’s quarters are sharply separated from the sections of the city reserved for the middle-class; . . .
I may mention just here that the mills [factories] almost all adjoin the rivers or the different canals that ramify throughout the city, before I proceed at once to describe the labouring quarters. First of all, there is the old town of Manchester, which lies between the northern boundary of the commercial district and the Irk. Here the streets, even the better ones, are narrow and winding, as Todd Street, Long Millgate, Withy Grove, and Shude Hill, the houses dirty, old, and tumble-down, and the construction of the side streets utterly horrible. Going from the Old Church to Long Millgate, the stroller has at once a row of old-fashioned houses at the right, of which not one has kept its original level; these are remnants of the old pre-manufacturing Manchester, whose former inhabitants have removed with their descendants into better built districts, and have left the houses, which were not good enough for them, to a population strongly mixed with Irish blood. Here one is in an almost undisguised working-men’s quarter, for even the shops and beer houses hardly take the trouble to exhibit a trifling degree of cleanliness. But all this is nothing in comparison with the courts and lanes which lie behind, to which access can be gained only through covered passages, in which no two human beings can pass at the same time. Of the irregular cramming together of dwellings in ways which defy all rational plan, of the tangle in which they are crowded literally one upon the other, it is impossible to convey an idea. And it is not the buildings surviving from the old times of Manchester which are to blame for this; the confusion has only recently reached its height when every scrap of space left by the old way of building has been filled up and patched over until not a foot of land is left to be further occupied.
Right and left a multitude of covered passages lead from the main street into numerous courts, and he who turns in thither gets into a filth and disgusting grime, the equal of which is not to be found – especially in the courts which lead down to the Irk, and which contain unqualifiedly the most horrible dwellings which I have yet beheld. In one of these courts there stands directly at the entrance, at the end of the covered passage, a privy without a door, so dirty that the inhabitants can pass into and out of the court only by passing through foul pools of stagnant urine and excrement. Below it on the river there are several tanneries which fill the whole neighbourhood with the stench of animal putrefaction. Below Ducie Bridge the only entrance to most of the houses is by means of narrow, dirty stairs and over heaps of refuse and filth. The first court below Ducie Bridge, known as Allen’s Court, was in such a state at the time of the cholera that the sanitary police ordered it evacuated, swept, and disinfected with chloride of lime. . . . At the bottom flows, or rather stagnates, the Irk, a narrow, coal-black, foul-smelling stream, full of debris and refuse, which it deposits on the shallower right bank.
In dry weather, a long string of the most disgusting, blackish-green, slime pools are left standing on this bank, from the depths of which bubbles of miasmatic gas constantly arise and give forth a stench unendurable even on the bridge forty or fifty feet above the surface of the stream. But besides this, the stream itself is checked every few paces by high weirs, behind which slime and refuse accumulate and rot in thick masses. Above the bridge are tanneries, bone mills, and gasworks, from which all drains and refuse find their way into the Irk, which receives further the contents of all the neighbouring sewers and privies. It may be easily imagined, therefore, what sort of residue the stream deposits. Below the bridge you look upon the piles of debris, the refuse, filth, and offal from the courts on the steep left bank; here each house is packed close behind its neighbour and a piece of each is visible, all black, smoky, crumbling, ancient, with broken panes and window frames. The background is furnished by old barrack-like factory buildings. On the lower right bank stands a long row of houses and mills; the second house being a ruin without a roof, piled with debris; the third stands so low that the lowest floor is uninhabitable, and therefore without windows or doors. Here the background embraces the pauper burial-ground, the station of the Liverpool and Leeds railway, and, in the rear of this, the Workhouse, the “Poor-Law Bastille” of Manchester, which, like a citadel, looks threateningly down from behind its high walls and parapets on the hilltop, upon the working-people’s quarter below.
Everywhere heaps of debris, refuse, and offal; standing pools for gutters, and a stench which alone would make it impossible for a human being in any degree civilised to live in such a district. . . . Passing along a rough bank, among stakes and washing-lines, one penetrates into this chaos of small one-storied, one-roomed huts, in most of which there is no artificial floor; kitchen, living and sleeping-room all in one. In such a hole, scarcely five feet long by six broad, I found two beds – and such bedsteads and beds! – which, with a staircase and chimney-place, exactly filled the room. In several others I found absolutely nothing, while the door stood open, and the inhabitants leaned against it. Everywhere before the doors refuse and offal; that any sort of pavement lay underneath could not be seen but only felt, here and there, with the feet. This whole collection of cattle-sheds for human beings was surrounded on two sides by houses and a factory, and on the third by the river, and besides the narrow stair up the bank, a narrow doorway alone led out into another almost equally ill-built, ill-kept labyrinth of dwellings….
Such is the Old Town of Manchester, and on re-reading my description, I am forced to admit that instead of being exaggerated, it is far from black enough to convey a true impression of the filth, ruin, and uninhabitableness, the defiance of all considerations of cleanliness, ventilation, and health which characterise the construction of this single district, containing at least twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants. And such a district exists in the heart of the second city of England, the first manufacturing city of the world. If any one wishes to see in how little space a human being can move, how little air – and such air! – he can breathe, how little of civilisation he may share and yet live, it is only necessary to travel hither. True, this is the Old Town, and the people of Manchester emphasise the fact whenever any one mentions to them the frightful condition of this Hell upon Earth; but what does that prove? Everything which here arouses horror and indignation is of recent origin, belongs to the industrial epoch.

Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1892), pp. 45, 48-53.

http://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/ModernWorldHistoryTextbook/IndustrialRevolution/PSEnglesManchester.html 

Summary of Primary Document #2:

        This document includes an excerpt of the writings of a German journalist, Friedrick Engels, in Manchester. Engels’ goal was to educate the public on the poor working conditions, and consequences of industrialization. In the document, he describes the city as having about 400,000 residents. Engels wrote that some areas were “crowded literally one upon the other,” which shows how the population was high and densely packed. Also, he mentions that factories line all of the rivers and canals in Manchester, which implies that the city was in the process of industrialization at the time. He ends his entry by describing the filth and poor conditions of Manchester; an effect of population growth, and how it is due to the “industrial epoch”, which directly shows how the population growth and urbanization in Manchester was a result of the Industrial Revolution.

 

http://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/ModernWorldHistoryTextbook/IndustrialRevolution/PSLondon.html 

Source

http://www2.uncp.edu/home/rwb/manchester_19c.html

 

Photo:

Image: Smoke pollution in an English town in the 19th century with crowded buildings and dirty air. Another effect of population growth: pollution.

“The Industrial Age” Industrial revolution- Environmental history timeline. Accessed May        15, 2015.

http://www.eh-resources.org/timeline/timeline_industrial.html

 

Synthesis:

        With these two primary sources, we can see that during the Industrial Revolution, more jobs from factories increased populations and expanded cities, causing urbanization. We see this also supported by the secondary source, “After 1800, the balance shifted toward cities. This shift was caused by the growth of the factory system, where the manufacturing of goods was concentrated in a central location.” The growth in factories brought more people to the cities looking for jobs, as we see in the job census. In the other primary source, population growth is shown in the effects on environment. As more people came seeking jobs in factories, the more air and water pollution there was. More housing was built to support the growing population, causing there to be more air pollution from heating systems that had no regulation codes. As Engels says in the primary source, “… the houses dirty, old, and tumble-down, and the construction of the side streets utterly horrible.” The housing conditions reflected off of the large numbers of people migrating to one place in a short amount of time.

        Population growth helped cause the Industrial Revolution, and urbanization was an after effect. With more factories being built, more people came seeking employment. This caused urban areas to expand around factories, creating larger cities and crowded areas.

Blue book:

Beck, Roger B. World History: Patterns of Interaction. Orlando: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012

Roger B. Beck, World History: Patterns of Interaction (Orlando: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012), 723.