Industrialization Case

The Industrial Revolution was a mixed blessing. It had both advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

(i) Centre of economic life shifted from the villages to cities and towns where the factories were situated.

(ii) Urban (cities) and rural (villages) life became dependant upon one another. Isolated life of self-sufficient villages came to an end.

(iii) Men became free to develop their capabilities in areas other than farming.

(iv) It brought countries and people together. There was an international awareness among people because developments in one country influenced the others.

(v) The aristocracy and nobility with their feudal ideas were replaced by the newly rich middle class capitalists (bourgeoisie) who also became politically powerful.

(vi) Better transport, communications and mechanized goods made life comfortable for man.

Disadvantages

(i) Cities became crowded, smoky, with problems of slums, housing, sanitation, accidents and epidemics.

(ii) Women and child labour was badly exploited.

(iii) Workers suffered from long working hours, low wages, and unemployment, unsafe conditions of work, with no rights to vote strike or form trade unions.

(iv) Society, became divided into rich and poor, the 'Haves' and the 'Have- Nots'.

(v) It led to wars of imperialism and colonization.

Definition of 'Industrialization'

The process in which a society or country (or world) transforms itself from a primarily agricultural society into one based on the manufacturing of goods and services. Individual manual labor is often replaced by mechanized mass production and craftsmen are replaced by assembly lines. Characteristics of industrialization include the use of technological innovation to solve problems as opposed to superstition or dependency upon conditions outside human control such as the weather, as well as more efficient division of labor and economic growth.

Investopedia explains 'Industrialization'

Industrialization is most commonly associated with the European Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The onset of the second World War also led to a great deal of industrialiazation which resulted in the growth and development of large urban centers and as well as suburbs. Industrialization is an outgrowth of capitalism and its effects on society are still undetermined to some extent, however it has resulted in a lower birthrate and a higher average income.