世界史关键时刻·英语30篇（2）

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工业革命始于纺织工厂

In late 18th-century Britain, inventors like James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright transformed cloth-making with machines powered by water and steam.
The spinning jenny allowed one worker to spin eight threads at once, while Arkwright’s water frame produced stronger, more uniform yarn.
Factories clustered near rivers for water power, then shifted to coal-powered steam engines after Watt’s improvements in the 1780s.
Rural families moved to growing towns like Manchester, where population soared from 17,000 in 1760 to over 300,000 by 1851.
Factory work demanded strict schedules, discipline, and child labor—often twelve-hour days for children as young as seven.
New transport networks, especially canals and railways, carried raw cotton from India and America to mills and finished cloth worldwide.
British exports of cotton goods rose tenfold between 1780 and 1830, making textiles the nation’s largest industry.
Critics like William Blake called factories ‘dark Satanic mills’, warning of environmental damage and loss of artisan dignity.
Yet workers gradually organized unions, won legal limits on child labor, and pushed for education and voting rights over decades.
This textile-driven shift didn’t replace agriculture overnight—but redefined productivity, time, and social roles across industrializing societies.