England Social Patterns

The biggest change in the social patterns in Europe, especially in England was the Industrial Revolution. This Industrial Revolution led to a whole new set of social classes as well as an increase in the urbanized areas which also saw a spurt in their populations as well. At the beginning of the revolution, the population growth was set at about 1% per annum but would double its growth over the next seven years following the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Prior to this Industrial Revolution which could be seen in many nations around the world, the general countryside of any country was rural and composed mostly of farming lands. From the 1800’s well into the mid-1900’s, most of the larger European cities would see a tremendous growth in population. As new industrialized business began to pop up in the major cities, there was a mass exodus of the working class into these cities for the jobs that were offered. As the increase of manpower continued, so did the incomes of many families which just led to more growth during the revolution and in turn also led to more spending on items that were once left only for the extremely wealthy.

This spawned a separation that once was limited to peasants and royalty to various social classes depending on education and incomes. It was not uncommon for one to start at the beginning of the revolution as a mere farmer and then within time, would become business owners. This also led to the development of row housing in not only the mining areas, but also in the major cities to make way for the growth in population, most of which was paid for by the companies and were quite often less then satisfactory living conditions of nothing more than a roof over the head.

These new plants that continued to spawn everywhere as a result of supplying the demands for various products helped to form the working class of society which was non-existent prior to the revolution. As a result, some families were able to save as much as they could by having everyone in their household working including that of the women and children which previously would have been unheard of.

Thanks to the advancements in transportation which helped to spur the Industrial Revolution, many people found themselves migrating to the New World in an almost mass exodus. Each and everyone was looking for something new and better for themselves that could not be obtained by working every day in an industrial factory.