The Day the World Took Off facts for kids
The Day the World Took Off is a six-part TV show from Channel 4 in 2000. It explores how the Industrial Revolution began in England.
Five experts on science and industry met at the University of Cambridge. They talked about why this big change happened in England and at that specific time.
Contents
Why the Industrial Revolution Started in England
Between 1650 and 1740, England's population stayed about the same. Many babies died young, and diseases spread easily through water. But after 1740, something amazing happened: the number of babies dying dropped by half in just 20 years! No one is quite sure why this happened so quickly.
This big drop in deaths, especially among children, helped the Industrial Revolution begin. More people meant more workers and more ideas. Other countries like Japan, France, and the Netherlands also had smart people and new ideas. However, they didn't have an industrial revolution like England did. For example, the Netherlands didn't have much coal, which was a key fuel.
To build more factories and industries, many people needed to work closely together. This usually makes diseases spread faster. But in Great Britain, people could gather in factories without huge outbreaks of sickness. This was important because science hadn't yet figured out how to control diseases well. Japan had some of the world's biggest cities and dealt with disease outbreaks. But Japan's industries were not as advanced, and they hadn't developed wheeled vehicles like trains.
Early Industrial Growth in England
In the 1720s, the death rate in England had actually started to go up. This was partly because poor people were drinking less beer, which was often safer than water. By this time, North West England had more industrial machines than the rest of the world combined! The very first industrial steam engine was built in Tipton, Staffordshire.
Between 1760 and 1830, the city of Manchester grew hugely. Its population went from 22,000 to 235,000 people. Professor Joel Mokyr explains that nature and industrial progress often didn't mix well.
On September 15, 1830, a writer named Fanny Kemble rode on a new train. The journey started at 11 AM and the train reached Manchester by 2:45 PM. Even the Prime Minister was on board! Two months before, the French Revolution had happened. Some small French revolutionary flags were seen at the station, showing a little bit of unrest. But England didn't have a political revolution; instead, it had a huge industrial one.
New Products and French Challenges
From the 1750s, Britain started making many new products to sell. France also made clever machines, but they were often things like automatons (self-operating machines). For example, Jacques de Vaucanson created a famous "Digesting Duck" in the 1820s.
Vaucanson was very smart and could have led an industrial revolution in France. The King of France even put him in charge of the French silk industry. Vaucanson planned big changes to make the industry more modern. However, workers strongly opposed these plans and rioted. An industrial revolution in France would have faced a lot of resistance. Britain, on the other hand, was much more determined about new inventions.
The iron industry in Britain began in Shropshire. This was because coal and iron ore, both needed for iron, were found close together there. A Quaker industrialist helped start this industry.
Johann Friedrich Böttger had a factory in Meissen that made things but didn't export them. Britain had better networks of business people and inventors than France did. These networks helped new ideas spread. For example, the power loom, a machine for weaving cloth, was invented in England in 1784 after discussions in one of these groups.
Five years later, the French Revolution began. This was followed by a war between Britain and France. The war made Britain's national debt grow 100 times larger, so the government had to introduce income tax. This tax was later removed but brought back permanently in 1856. France tried to hurt Britain's economy by blocking its trade routes by sea. But Britain largely overcame this at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805.
Britain's Sea Power and Financial Ideas
Britain's new manufactured products needed to be shipped all over the world. The Netherlands was also a strong and creative sea nation, with even more ships than Britain at one point.
In 1609, the Dutch ship Halve Maen explored new areas. Five years later, the Dutch landed in the same place. The Dutch had the largest merchant fleet in the world and had set up important global trade routes as part of the Dutch Empire.
In the 1630s, the Dutch invested a lot in a new type of flower called the tulip. Tulips became incredibly expensive, leading to something called Tulip mania. But everything quickly crashed in February 1637. The Dutch were the first to create a working system for financial investment. The English completely copied this system, which led directly to the creation of the Bank of England in 1694.
While the Dutch were very innovative in finance, they didn't make the same big advances in getting coal or inventing new machines, like what was happening in England, especially in Staffordshire. Also, the Netherlands could be invaded by other countries, which England did not suffer from during those centuries.
Chris Cullen studied how ships with square sails had an advantage for navigation. The Royal Society, a group of scientists, helped coordinate research in navigation. This allowed British sailors to reach places other countries couldn't. For example, Admiral Arthur Phillip set up a settlement in Australia in 1788, arriving on HMS Supply.
Europe's Development and New Inventions
This series also looked at how Europe developed over 500 years, starting from 1350. It explored the creation of glass and the mechanical clock, sometimes called the "Heavenly Machine."
One place mentioned was Pluscarden Abbey in Moray, Scotland.
Images for kids
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Halve Maen (replica) in the Hudson River.jpg
The Half Moon replica, a ship like the one that explored in 1609.
See also
