Essay About The Changes Britain Saw Between 1750 and The 1900’s

Britain saw considerable changes during this time turning from a poor country with few factories to one with many. Population increased, machines were invented and sped up industry, railways created, canals built, water related diseases (like Cholera and Typhoid fought), a British Empire founded, life expectancy rose as a result of the deaths at birth decreasing , working conditions improved, also aqueducts were invented and constructed, the Turnpike Trust was born to repair rough and treacherous roads. Numerous social changes took place, for instance education became available for all, fresh food could be transported to the cities due to the economic change in transportation, and the less privileged and poorer classes were able to go on holiday for the first time. Although terrible for the ones who had to bear the hardship it cannot be denied that the slave trade did boost England’s industry boom and help finance many great inventions such as the steam train. Furthermore people would flock to the towns for employment as with new machines it was plentiful, to add to this town’s cleanliness improved dramatically and the towns themselves became bigger to home all of these people. In general the economy evened itself out with the poor becoming richer until nearly everyone was as wealthy as each other. Greenwich Mean Time was created to ensure that the timetables for your train would always be precise both for the top of the country and for the bottom. Efficiency was introduced in mines by way of machines allowing coal to be brought up to the surface quickly and safely. New farming methods were discovered to aid agriculture, an example of this is the Norfolk Crop Rotation and particular breeding. Parliament became fairer and the labour party was introduced by Keir Hardie allowing the deprived to have a say in political affairs. Throughout this essay I shall discuss these changes in depth explaining how and why they occurred and shaped the Britain that we know so well today.

      To start with population grew significantly from six million in the 1700’s to forty one million in the 1900’s. This is due to the discovery of cures and remedies for all kinds of infectious diseases such as cholera, typhoid and Ricketts which wiped out a phenomenal amount of people, ( cholera and typhoid both being water-related diseases). In the 1700’s cholera was a major risk in the streets and cities because there was no true clean water supply, this helped promote the disease. Sewers would often seep into rivers and streams where people would drink being there no other choice and in some instances where the towns and cities were no where near rivers the sewage ditch would be the only drinking source. Therefore it is no wonder that the average life expectancy for men in the 1700’s was thirty one years and for women thirty six years, seen as their chores were mostly in the household and weren’t so arduous. Litter would also end up in the sewage ditch and what’s more young children would bathe in it. Flush toilets were rare in the higher class areas so of course they would have been non-existent in the less wealthy places. As a result of unclean water and lack of sewers a cholera epidemic broke out in 1831 for the first time, (cholera caused diarrhoea which would make the victim terribly weak and they would then die of infection. I must add that cholera came onboard a ship from India and arrived in Sunderland quickly killing thousands of people all over the country. Not only was it a result of remedies which saved many peoples lives to the cholera but it was also due to the ‘Public Health Act’ which arose in 1875 forcing councils to be responsible for sewage treatment, clean water, drainage and street cleaning. In order for the population to rise though not only would the elderly have to live longer but of course deaths at birth would have to decrease, and decrease they  did from sixty five percent in the 1700’s to 15 percent in the 1900’s. This is clearly a dramatic change and couldn’t have occurred without new medicine being sought and used to conquer the aforementioned diseases and also aid babies immune systems which are at that age fragile. As well as this there was an improvement in agriculture which brought deaths due to famine down, (I shall discuss later in more depth the improvement in agriculture).