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These changes in part gave rise to the English Romantic spirit, especially n the United Kingdom. During the late 18th century, the United Kingdom’s economic system of manual and animal based labor shifted toward a system Of machine manufacturing while more readily navigable roads, canals, and railroads for trade began to develop. Steam power underpinned the dramatic increase in production capacity, as did the rather sudden development of metal tools and complex machines for manufacturing purposes.
The Industrial Revolution had a profound effect upon society in the United Kingdom. It gave rise to the working and middle classes and allowed them to overcome the long-standing economic oppression that they had endured for centuries beneath the gentry and nobility. However, while employment opportunities increased for common working people throughout the country and members of the middle class were able to become business owners more easily, the conditions workers often labored under were brutal.
Further, many of them were barely able to live off of the wages they earned. During this time, the industrial factory was created (which, in turn, gave rise to the odder city). Conditions within these factories were often dirty and, by today’s standards, unethical: children were frequently used and abused for labor purposes and long hours were required for work. A group of people in the United Kingdom known as the Ululated felt that industrialization was ultimately inhumane and took to protesting and sometimes sabotaging industrial machines and factories.
While industrialization led to incredible technological developments throughout the Western world, many historians owe argue that industrialization also caused severe reductions in living standards for workers both within the United Kingdom and throughout the rest of the industrialized Western world. However, the new middle and working classes that industrialism had established led to arbitration throughout industrial cultures, drastic population increases, and the introduction of a relatively new economic system known as capitalism.