industrial revolution negative effects essay

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7 Negative Effects of the Industrial Revolution

By: Patrick J. Kiger

Updated: August 9, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2021

The Industrial Revolution , which began roughly in the second half of the 1700s and stretched into the early 1800s, was a period of enormous change in Europe and America. The invention of new technologies, from mechanized looms for weaving cloth and the steam-powered locomotive to improvements in iron smelting, transformed what had been largely rural societies of farmers and craftsmen who made goods by hand. Many people moved from the countryside into fast-growing cities, where they worked in factories filled with machinery.

While the Industrial Revolution created economic growth and offered new opportunities, that progress came with significant downsides, from damage to the environment and health and safety hazards to squalid living conditions for workers and their families. Historians say that many of these problems persisted and grew in the Second Industrial Revolution , another period of rapid change that began in the late 1800s.

Here are a few of the most significant negative effects of the Industrial Revolution.

1. Horrible Living Conditions for Workers

As cities grew during the Industrial Revolution, there wasn’t enough housing for all the new inhabitants, who were jammed into squalid inner-city neighborhoods as more affluent residents fled to the suburbs. In the 1830s, Dr. William Henry Duncan, a government health official in Liverpool, England, surveyed living conditions and found that a third of the city’s population lived in cellars of houses, which had earthen floors and no ventilation or sanitation. As many as 16 people were living in a single room and sharing a single privy. The lack of clean water and gutters overflowing with sewage from basement cesspits made workers and their families vulnerable to infectious diseases such as cholera.

2. Poor Nutrition

In his 1832 study entitled “Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes Employed in the Cotton Manufacture in Manchester , ” physician and social reformer James Phillips Kay described the meager diet of the British industrial city’s lowly-paid laborers, who subsisted on a breakfast of tea or coffee with a little bread, and a midday meal that typically consisted of boiled potatoes, melted lard and butter, sometimes with a few pieces of fried fatty bacon mixed in. After finishing work, laborers might have some more tea, “often mingled with spirits” and a little bread, or else oatmeal and potatoes again. As a result of malnutrition, Kay wrote, workers frequently suffered from problems with their stomachs and bowels, lost weight, and had skin that was “pale, leaden-colored, or of the yellow hue.”

3. A Stressful, Unsatisfying Lifestyle

Workers who came from the countryside to the cities had to adjust to a very different rhythm of existence, with little personal autonomy. They had to arrive when the factory whistle blew, or else face being locked out and losing their pay, and even being forced to pay fines.

Once on the job, they couldn’t freely move around or catch a breather if they needed one, since that might necessitate shutting down a machine. Unlike craftsmen in rural towns, their days often consisted of having to perform repetitive tasks, and continual pressure to keep up—“faster pace, more supervision, less pride,” as Peter N. Stearns , a historian at George Mason University, explains. As Stearns describes in his 2013 book The Industrial Revolution in World History , when the workday finally was done, they didn’t have much time or energy left for any sort of recreation. To make matters worse, city officials often banned festivals and other activities that they’d once enjoyed in rural villages. Instead, workers often spent their leisure time at the neighborhood tavern, where alcohol provided an escape from the tedium of their lives.

4. Dangerous Workplaces

Without much in the way of safety regulation, factories of the Industrial Revolution could be horrifyingly hazardous. As Peter Capuano details in his 2015 book Changing Hands: Industry, Evolution and the Reconfiguration of the Victorian Body , workers faced the constant risk of losing a hand in the machinery. A contemporary newspaper account described the grisly injuries suffered in 1830 by millworker Daniel Buckley, whose left hand was “caught and lacerated, and his fingers crushed” before his coworkers could stop the equipment. He eventually died as a result of the trauma.

Mines of the era, which supplied the coal needed to keep steam-powered machines running, had terrible accidents as well. David M. Turner’s and Daniel Blackie’s 2018 book Disability in the Industrial Revolution describes a gas explosion at a coal mine that left 36-year-old James Jackson with severe burns on his face, neck, chest, hands and arms, as well as internal injuries. He was in such awful shape that he required opium to cope with the excruciating pain. After six weeks of recuperation, remarkably, a doctor decided that he was fit to return to work, but probably with permanent scars from the ordeal.

5. Child Labor

While children worked prior to the Industrial Revolution, the rapid growth of factors created such a demand that poor youth and orphans were plucked from London’s poorhouses and housed in mill dormitories, while they worked long hours and were deprived of education. Compelled to do dangerous adult jobs, children often suffered horrifying fates.

John Brown’s expose A Memoir of Robert Blincoe, an Orphan Boy, published in 1832, describes a 10-year-old girl named Mary Richards whose apron became caught in the machinery in a textile mill. “In an instant, the poor girl was drawn by an irresistible force and dashed on the floor,” Brown wrote. “She uttered the most heart-rending shrieks.”

University of Alberta history professor Beverly Lemire sees “the exploitation of child labor in a systematic and sustained way, the use of which catalyzed industrial production,” as the worst negative effect of the Industrial Revolution.

6. Discrimination Against Women

The Industrial Revolution helped establish patterns of gender inequality in the workplace that lasted in the eras that followed. Laura L. Frader , a retired professor of history at Northeastern University and author of  The Industrial Revolution: A History in Documents , notes that factory owners often paid women only half of what men got for the same work, based on the false assumption that women didn’t need to support families, and were only working for “pin money” that a husband might give them to pay for non-essential personal items. 

Discrimination against and stereotyping of women workers continued into the second Industrial Revolution . “The myth that women had ‘nimble fingers’ and that they could withstand repetitive, mindless work better than men led to the displacement of men in white collar jobs such as office work, and the assignment of such jobs to women after the 1870s when the typewriter was introduced,” Frader says. 

While office work was less dangerous and better paid, “it locked women into yet another category of ‘women’s work,’ from which it was hard to escape,” Frader explains.

7. Environmental Harm

The Industrial Revolution was powered by burning coal, and big industrial cities began pumping vast quantities of pollution into the atmosphere. London’s concentration of suspended particulate matter rose dramatically between 1760 and 1830, as this chart from Our World In Data illustrates. Pollution in Manchester was so awful that writer Hugh Miller noted “the lurid gloom of the atmosphere that overhangs it,” and described “the innumerable chimneys [that] come in view, tall and dim in the dun haze, each bearing atop its own pennon of darkness.”

Air pollution continued to rise in the 1800s, causing respiratory illness and higher death rates in areas that burned more coal. Worse yet, the burning of fossil fuel pumped carbon into the atmosphere. A study published in 2016 in Nature suggests that climate change driven by human activity began as early as the 1830s.

Despite all these ills, the Industrial Revolution had positive effects, such as creating economic growth and making goods more available. It also helped lead to the rise of a prosperous middle class that grabbed some of the economic power once held by aristocrats, and led to the rise of specialized jobs in industry.

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Descriptive Essay: The Industrial Revolution and its Effects

The Industrial Revolution was a time of great age throughout the world. It represented major change from 1760 to the period 1820-1840. The movement originated in Great Britain and affected everything from industrial manufacturing processes to the daily life of the average citizen. I will discuss the Industrial Revolution and the effects it had on the world as a whole.

The primary industry of the time was the textiles industry. It had the most employees, output value, and invested capital. It was the first to take on new modern production methods. The transition to machine power drastically increased productivity and efficiency. This extended to iron production and chemical production.

It started in Great Britain and soon expanded into Western Europe and to the United States. The actual effects of the revolution on different sections of society differed. They manifested themselves at different times. The ‘trickle down’ effect whereby the benefits of the revolution helped the lower classes didn’t happen until towards the 1830s and 1840s. Initially, machines like the Watt Steam Engine and the Spinning Jenny only benefited the rich industrialists.

The effects on the general population, when they did come, were major. Prior to the revolution, most cotton spinning was done with a wheel in the home. These advances allowed families to increase their productivity and output. It gave them more disposable income and enabled them to facilitate the growth of a larger consumer goods market. The lower classes were able to spend. For the first time in history, the masses had a sustained growth in living standards.

Social historians noted the change in where people lived. Industrialists wanted more workers and the new technology largely confined itself to large factories in the cities. Thousands of people who lived in the countryside migrated to the cities permanently. It led to the growth of cities across the world, including London, Manchester, and Boston. The permanent shift from rural living to city living has endured to the present day.

Trade between nations increased as they often had massive surpluses of consumer goods they couldn’t sell in the domestic market. The rate of trade increased and made nations like Great Britain and the United States richer than ever before. Naturally, this translated to military power and the ability to sustain worldwide trade networks and colonies.

On the other hand, the Industrial Revolution and migration led to the mass exploitation of workers and slums. To counter this, workers formed trade unions. They fought back against employers to win rights for themselves and their families. The formation of trade unions and the collective unity of workers across industries are still existent today. It was the first time workers could make demands of their employers. It enfranchised them and gave them rights to upset the status quo and force employers to view their workers as human beings like them.

Overall, the Industrial Revolution was one of the single biggest events in human history. It launched the modern age and drove industrial technology forward at a faster rate than ever before. Even contemporary economics experts failed to predict the extent of the revolution and its effects on world history. It shows why the Industrial Revolution played such a vital role in the building of the United States of today.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Industrial Revolution — Positive and Negative Effects of the Industrial Revolution

Positive and Negative Effects of The Industrial Revolution

• Categories: Industrial Revolution

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Published: Sep 5, 2023

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Table of contents

Positive effects: technological advancements and economic growth, negative effects: harsh working conditions and exploitation, positive effects: urbanization and social mobility, negative effects: environmental degradation, positive effects: advances in education and medicine, negative effects: social inequalities and class struggles.

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Positive and Negative Effects of the Industrial Revolution on Society

This essay provides an analysis of the Industrial Revolution’s impact on society, discussing both its positive and negative effects. It will cover how the revolution transformed economies, living conditions, and social structures, focusing on aspects like urbanization, labor practices, and technological advancements. The piece aims to present a balanced view, acknowledging the progress and innovation brought by the Industrial Revolution while also addressing the challenges and inequalities it exacerbated. Additionally, PapersOwl presents more free essays samples linked to Child Labour.

How it works

Starting around the eighteenth century in England (United Kingdom), the First Industrial Revolution marked a transformation from a rural and agrarian society to one that was more urban and industry-dependent. By the 1830s to ‘40s, this period soon spread to other nations in the world, including the United States. Not only did it transform England’s economy from rural to urban, but it also altered the way people lived and how goods were produced. For example, with the creation of simple machines like the spinning jenny, the power loom, etc.

, clothes were weaved easier and much faster. As a result, goods became cheaper, and most people–even lower classes people–could access them. In addition, the invention of steam-powered locomotives (steam-powered boats and ships) allowed people to cross the Atlantic, something that was impossible for people to achieve before (History.com Editors and John). Besides the positive aspects and results that the Industrial Revolution brought to people’s lives, it also resulted in harmful downsides like devastating working conditions, the formation of child labor, and dreadful living conditions.

• 1 Working Conditions During the Industrial Revolution
• 2 Wages and Work Hours During the Industrial Revolution
• 3 The Rise of Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution
• 4 Living Conditions During the Industrial Revolution
• 5.1 References

Working Conditions During the Industrial Revolution

To begin with, people from the middle class and high class did not notice the trenchant working conditions that many low-class people needed to experience to produce their everyday products (clothing, shoes, etc.). Back during that time, people and the government worked according to laissez-faire capitalism: an ideology stating that the government should try to stay away from the country’s economic decisions and leave most of them to its citizens. This way, the nation’s economy would progress and grow stronger. As a result, mines, as well as factory owners, took control of everything, wages, working hours, etc., and they acted the way they desired. What they chose was to let workers face notorious working conditions without any worker rights. There were no guards or any security available for the workers back then.

Consequently, injuries were common among those people, especially the ones who worked near the spinning belts and shafts machines. In addition, most workers had to wear loose clothes to work with machines that ran at high speed; because of that, many of them were pulled into the machines and died. Furthermore, windows and ventilations were not equipped in factories or mines; this was the reason why workers usually suffered from heart diseases and lung problems back in the Industrial Revolution. Even though the government knew the hazardous working environment the low class faced, they did not establish any laws or protections for those people, as they hoped that everything could run according to laissez-faire capitalism (History “Working Conditions”).

Wages and Work Hours During the Industrial Revolution

Despite the harsh circumstances that the low-class people worked in, they did not receive a high wage. In fact, their wages were very little, and they could barely cover their living costs. Normally, men would work sixteen shifts in one day, and they earned 10 shillings (around .098 cents) per week. On the other hand, women worked shorter shifts, around twelve hours in one day, and received half the amount the men did (around .049 cents) per week. Although both the men and the women worked shifts that were long and exhausting, they refused to take breaks throughout the day because the factory owners would deduct their wages if they took breaks. Besides that, all workers were required to be at the factory from early in the morning to start their work, or else their wages were also going to be lowered (History “Working Conditions”).

The Rise of Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution

Another negative aspect that sprung up during the Industrial Revolution was child labor, and as the Industrial Revolution progressed, child labor became prevalent. This occurred because low-class families did not have enough money to supply their daily needs, so they sent their children to work as an extra income source. Families tried to have as many kids as possible since the more children they had, the more income they would receive. Most of the children who went to work were about fourteen to sixteen, and factory owners favored them more than adult workers for several reasons. Firstly, they were assigned the same amount of work that adults did, but the owners only had to pay them ten to twenty percent of the amount they paid adults. Secondly, children were more obedient than adults: they would not form strikes to request higher wages, ask for shorter work days, etc.; therefore, it was easier for the owners to control the children. Finally, their body sizes were smaller, which means that they could fit into tighter places that adults were not able to.

For example, machines like the textile mill ran at high speed, and they were often clogged. Children’s small fingers simply could unclog those machines. Nevertheless, when the children did that, the owners never ordered them to stop the machines. This led to the machine working against the children’s fingers, and they would be severely injured (History “Child Labor”).

Similar to adults, children always had injuries all over their bodies when they worked in factories since they were required to work close to spinning belts and powered machines without any guards provided. Working without guards was more dangerous for children than for adults, as they were not old enough to recognize the safety rules and guidelines outlined while working. On top of that, the machines that children worked with were most of the time bigger and taller than them. As a result, it was not safe for the children to operate those machines. Furthermore, clothing was another obstacle for children while they worked. They were provided clothes that were several sizes larger than theirs, and on their feet, they did not have any shoes or protection. Because of the big clothes, getting caught in the machines was a banal problem for children, and each time like that, they would die (History “Child Labor”).

Living Conditions During the Industrial Revolution

The last downside of the Industrial Revolution was the awful living conditions for low-class people. Those who decided to move to industrial cities had to stay at “back-to-back terraces” that were constructed by factory owners and entrepreneurs. Those houses were called back-to-back terraces because they were built side-by-side and connected to each other. Since the intention of those houses was for workers to live, their quality was poor. The cheapest materials were utilized to construct them, and basic amenities like windows and ventilators were not available. Besides that, there was no running water or sanitation equipped in those houses. After a long work day in hot factories and mines, people could not take a shower, which resulted in a lack of hygiene and diseases. Without water, sanitation also became a challenging process: people had to dump their wastes out onto the streets or dig holes to bury them. This made streets in the United Kingdom a dirty place.

Numerous diseases also came with filthy conditions, and they communicated to individuals at a rapid pace. Bodies of water like lakes and rivers were also highly polluted as people threw their waste and garbage into them. Not only humans harmed the environment, but factories and mines were other factors that annihilated the environment. Every day, factories and mines burn coal to operate. Consequently, a gigantic amount of smoke and burned particles were released into the air. In addition, locomotive engines were also powered by coal which also caused environmental problems (History “Living Conditions”).

It is undeniable that considerable changes came with the Industrial Revolution. Everything (food, clothes, transportation, etc.) was produced at a rapid rate, so people of all classes could access them. Railroads and steam-powered engines made it possible for people to travel across the ocean (John). On the other hand, problems like harmful working conditions, abuse of child labor, and horrendous living conditions did rise with the transformation from agrarian to machines. Regardless of the positive or negative effects that the Industrial Revolution brought with it.

• History.com Editors. “Industrial Revolution.” History, A&E Television Networks, 2009
• History. “Working Conditions During The Industrial Revolution.” National World War II Museum.

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153 Industrial Revolution Essay Topics & Examples

If you’re looking for the Industrial Revolution essay examples and topics, this page is for you. Below, find ideas on how different inventions changed the world and people.

Our IvyPanda team has provided these Industrial Revolution essay questions and topics so that you don’t have to worry about missing an engaging idea. Interested in describing the phenomenon in America or Britain? Willing to explore public health and how society changed due to new machines? We have perfect titles for you! Plus, check our tips on formulating the Industrial Revolution thesis statement and writing the essay.

Industrial Revolution and Technology

Whether it was mechanical inventions or new ways of doing old things, innovations powered the Industrial Revolution.

Social Studies, World History

Steam Engine Queens Mill

The use of steam-powered machines in cotton production pushed Britain’s economic development from 1750 to 1850. Built more than 100 years ago, this steam engine still powers the Queens Mill textile factory in Burnley, England, United Kingdom.

Photograph by Ashley Cooper

It has been said that the Industrial Revolution was the most profound revolution in human history, because of its sweeping impact on people’s daily lives. The term “industrial revolution” is a succinct catchphrase to describe a historical period, starting in 18th-century Great Britain, where the pace of change appeared to speed up. This acceleration in the processes of technical innovation brought about an array of new tools and machines. It also involved more subtle practical improvements in various fields affecting labor, production, and resource use. The word “technology” (which derives from the Greek word techne , meaning art or craft) encompasses both of these dimensions of innovation. The technological revolution, and that sense of ever-quickening change, began much earlier than the 18th century and has continued all the way to the present day. Perhaps what was most unique about the Industrial Revolution was its merger of technology with industry. Key inventions and innovations served to shape virtually every existing sector of human activity along industrial lines, while also creating many new industries. The following are some key examples of the forces driving change. Agriculture Western European farming methods had been improving gradually over the centuries. Several factors came together in 18th-century Britain to bring about a substantial increase in agricultural productivity. These included new types of equipment, such as the seed drill developed by Jethro Tull around 1701. Progress was also made in crop rotation and land use, soil health, development of new crop varieties, and animal husbandry . The result was a sustained increase in yields, capable of feeding a rapidly growing population with improved nutrition. The combination of factors also brought about a shift toward large-scale commercial farming, a trend that continued into the 19th century and later. Poorer peasants had a harder time making ends meet through traditional subsistence farming. The enclosure movement, which converted common-use pasture land into private property, contributed to this trend toward market-oriented agriculture. A great many rural workers and families were forced by circumstance to migrate to the cities to become industrial laborers. Energy Deforestation in England had led to a shortage of wood for lumber and fuel starting in the 16th century. The country’s transition to coal as a principal energy source was more or less complete by the end of the 17th century. The mining and distribution of coal set in motion some of the dynamics that led to Britain’s industrialization. The coal-fired steam engine was in many respects the decisive technology of the Industrial Revolution. Steam power was first applied to pump water out of coal mines. For centuries, windmills had been employed in the Netherlands for the roughly similar operation of draining low-lying flood plains. Wind was, and is, a readily available and renewable energy source, but its irregularity was considered a drawback. Water power was a more popular energy source for grinding grain and other types of mill work in most of preindustrial Europe. By the last quarter of the 18th century, however, thanks to the work of the Scottish engineer James Watt and his business partner Matthew Boulton, steam engines achieved a high level of efficiency and versatility in their design. They swiftly became the standard power supply for British, and, later, European industry. The steam engine turned the wheels of mechanized factory production. Its emergence freed manufacturers from the need to locate their factories on or near sources of water power. Large enterprises began to concentrate in rapidly growing industrial cities. Metallurgy In this time-honored craft, Britain’s wood shortage necessitated a switch from wood charcoal to coke, a coal product, in the smelting process. The substitute fuel eventually proved highly beneficial for iron production. Experimentation led to some other advances in metallurgical methods during the 18th century. For example, a certain type of furnace that separated the coal and kept it from contaminating the metal, and a process of “puddling” or stirring the molten iron, both made it possible to produce larger amounts of wrought iron. Wrought iron is more malleable than cast iron and therefore more suitable for fabricating machinery and other heavy industrial applications. Textiles The production of fabrics, especially cotton, was fundamental to Britain’s economic development between 1750 and 1850. Those are the years historians commonly use to bracket the Industrial Revolution. In this period, the organization of cotton production shifted from a small-scale cottage industry, in which rural families performed spinning and weaving tasks in their homes, to a large, mechanized, factory-based industry. The boom in productivity began with a few technical devices, including the spinning jenny, spinning mule, and power loom. First human, then water, and finally steam power were applied to operate power looms, carding machines, and other specialized equipment. Another well-known innovation was the cotton gin, invented in the United States in 1793. This device spurred an increase in cotton cultivation and export from U.S. slave states, a key British supplier. Chemicals This industry arose partly in response to the demand for improved bleaching solutions for cotton and other manufactured textiles. Other chemical research was motivated by the quest for artificial dyes, explosives, solvents , fertilizers, and medicines, including pharmaceuticals. In the second half of the 19th century, Germany became the world’s leader in industrial chemistry. Transportation Concurrent with the increased output of agricultural produce and manufactured goods arose the need for more efficient means of delivering these products to market. The first efforts toward this end in Europe involved constructing improved overland roads. Canals were dug in both Europe and North America to create maritime corridors between existing waterways. Steam engines were recognized as useful in locomotion, resulting in the emergence of the steamboat in the early 19th century. High-pressure steam engines also powered railroad locomotives, which operated in Britain after 1825. Railways spread rapidly across Europe and North America, extending to Asia in the latter half of the 19th century. Railroads became one of the world’s leading industries as they expanded the frontiers of industrial society.

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• Unit 11.6: Rise of American Power
• Unit 11.7: Prosperity and Depression
• Unit 11.8: World War II
• Unit 11.9: Cold War
• Unit 11.10: Domestic Change
• Resources: Regents Prep: Global 2 Exam
• Regents Prep: Framework USH Exam: Regents Prep: US Exam
• Find Resources

Complete DBQ Essay from the June 2006 exam with 8 documents that describe the positive and negative effects of the Industrial Revolution.

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