New ‘manufactories’ (an early word for 'factory') were the result of all these new technologies. The growth of industrialization in England at the end of the 18th century brought massive societal upheaval in the following decades. By the middle of the 19th century (1851), England and Wales already had the majority of their population residing in urban centers. Central to the Industrial Revolution was the growth of the factory, a large industrial building within which goods are manufactured. Water had to be gathered from local rivers or from water pumps located nearby, but the quality of urban water was far from perfect, as water used for drinking also contained various waste materials. The Industrial Revolution (1750–1900). By about 1900, there were approximately 150 large cities (of 100,000 of more people) in Europe whereas in 1800 there had been about 20 places of this size. These include the abundance of natural resources that could be used as raw materials in the industrial process (e.g. The marked shift in urban living has been the source of much investigation, and a number of reasons have been given as to how the Industrial Revolution influenced such change. Birmingham's real potential is realized only with the arrival of the railway. The Industrial Revolution is characterized by the rise of industrialization, a process of industrial, social, and economic changes that revolutionized societies from agrarian to industrial. The Industrial Revolution began in the late-18th century in England, UNITED KINGDOM, in a region of the country known as the West Midlands—the largest city today in this region is Birmingham. A French visitor in 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville, describes the place as 'an immense workshop, a huge forge', where one sees only 'busy people and faces brown with smoke' and hears 'nothing but the sound of hammers and the whistle of steam escaping from boilers'. 38 This point has some importance in that Dennis, English Industrial Cities of the Nineteenth Century, op. London in particular suffered badly when wagons and carts were bogged down in poor conditions and were left unable to deliver food to markets. This stage of development, a “putting-out” industrial phase commonly referred to as proto-industrialization, is widely accepted to be the phase of modern economic development that preceded the Industrial Revolution proper. Enjoy the Famous Daily. The History of Birmingham, England, and how it became the largest industrial center in the world. His most recently published work has looked at changing modes of public justice in the 18th and 19th centuries with particular reference to the part played by crowds at executions and other judicial punishments. The Industrial Revolution began in the late 18th century in England. By 1851 industrial places such as Sheffield, Newcastle, Bradford, Hull, and Leeds were positioned at the upper echelons of the urban hierarchy. In 1791, Arthur Young, the writer and commentator on British economic life described Birmingham as “the first manufacturing town in the world.” By the mid-19th century the town had other urban industrial rivals such as Manchester, but Birmingham possessed an extraordinarily varied industrial base. coal and iron ore); the availability of capital to invest in modern industry; a growing marketplace in part based on domestic population growth, foreign trade agreements, and the expansion of the British Empire; the availability of people to work in factories, many of whom were to migrate from the countryside into existing towns and cities; and people of sufficient intellectual capacity—that is, as managers of industrial units—but also people of ideas who could create new machines, workplaces, systems of industry, etc. The area was rich in coal and iron but a poor transport system undermined the growth of this settlement in the very centre of England. Despite being one of the most rural parts of England, it was in Shropshire that a number of industrial firsts happened, probably as a result of the abundance of raw materials (iron, coal, lead) in the area. Changes in steam technology, however, began to change the situation dramatically. In 1795 Thomas Telford applies cast-iron technology in a bold new context. Though many mines stood close to rivers or the sea, the shipping of coal was slowed down by unpredictable tides and weather. It limits the amount of time which a child may work in a factory to twelve hours a day. Matthew’s major research interests include the history of crime, punishment and policing, and the social impact of urbanisation. London increased its population size from 1.1 million to 6.6 million people between 1801 and 1901. The term Industrial Revolution, like similar historical concepts, is more convenient than precise. Steam engines were also developed by the British in boats, which allowed for quicker travel between Britain and the American continent and the quicker import/export of goods and raw materials.