Life in the Age of Machine

1. Life in the age of machines
Life in the age of machines
Background of the Industrial Revolution
* Meaning of “Revolution”
* Political Sense: means the overthrow a government by force * E.g. the French Revolution , people in Paris overthrew the absolute king, Louis XVI and started a republic * Socio-economic Sense: means great improvements in people’s living conditions or ways of doing things * What was Industrial Revolution?

* Begin in Europe in mid-18th century
* Improvements were made in areas including industry, energy, transport, communications, medicine, science * Change people’s life
* Also called the Age of Machine
2. Cause of the Industrial Revolution
a. Scientific developments
* Western science greatly developed in Renaissance and the Age of Reason * Important inventions and developments were made * This laid the foundation for the Industrial Revolution b. Abolition of trade limits

* Privileges of the nobility ended with the decline of feudalism * Markets were no longer monopolized
* This encourage changes in production methods to meet the rising demand for goods c. Rise of population
* Population continued to increase in the 18th century * Labour was plentiful, so this helped develop industry and trade * Rise of population also brought a rising demand for goods * This encourage changes in production methods d. Development of world trade

* New trade routes to the East were discovered in 15th century Europeans nations started set up colonies in 18th century * Acquired raw materials from their colonies and overseas markets
* Trade grows and demand rose

e. Accumulation of capital
* Developments in trade allowed merchants accumulate large amounts of capital * They have more money to invested raw materials , machines and factories