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The Negative Effects Of The Industrial Revolution On Europe

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In the late 18th and 19th centuries the Industrial Revolution first began. It started in Britain and then began to spread across Europe and to the United States. Resulting from the Agricultural Revolution where there was a surplus of food and goods to trade, and the fact that there was finally political stability in Europe there was finally a time for man to take some leisure time and find ways to improve life. However, not all things that came out of the revolution were good. The Industrial Revolution had an overall negative impact on Europe when taking into account the harsh working conditions in factories and mines, the detrimental consequences on the environment, and the negative effects it had on the day to day family life. The factories and mines built during the Industrial Revolution, in no way took into account their workers and their safety. For example, each day workers would come in, sit down at their station, and begin the long twelve to fifteen hour shift of doing the exact same motion over and over again. On some days there would be no one to relieve them of their shift, so they were forced by their bosses to stay for another twelve to fiffteen hour shift totalling a staggering twenty four hour to thirty hour shift. Furthermore, out of fear that their employees would lose efficiency factory owners would ban talking to one another, would lock the doors to all rooms so that no one could leave unless granted permission, and created walls around the building so no one could easily leave. Because of this suffocating environment workers were forced to stay in, the dangerous equipment they handled, and the high temperatures of the room, sometimes up to 130 degrees, fires would easily break out and spread across the whole building allowing nobody to escape. Coal mines were, however, no safe haven from the confinements of a factory. As the demand for coal increased mine owners were given no choice but to deepen their mines, increasing the risk of flooding and fires. Workers were also sometimes trapped in the mines with no way of escape because the floods or fires would cut off their exits. The causes of deaths from coal mines were endless:Fires, explosions, roof collapses, workers falling down shafts,

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