Between 1800 and 1900 life in western countries changed more,and more

quickly.The biggest change was from a world of villages and farms to one of cities and

factories , where machines produced goods much faster than the old methods. This was

a revolution as important as the French Revolution.

Children in slums

During the early part of the twentieth century, there were dramatic falls in the mortality rates in many cities in the West. The reasons for this improvement are of considerable relevance today because the conditions

which prevailed at that time in cities such as New York are comparable to those prevailing in many slums of the Third World today. Some early studies linked the

improvements in health, as measured by mortality rates, to a better level of nutrition.

Factories and Brick Works

Children often worked long and gruelling hours in factories and had to carry out some

jobs. In match factories children were employed to dip matches into a chemical

called phosphorous. This phosphorous could cause their teeth to rot and some died from

the effect of breathing it into their lungs.

The status of Women in the Victorian Era is often seen as an illustration of the striking discrepancy between England's national power and wealth and what many, then and now, consider its appalling social conditions.

During the Era symbolized by the reign of British monarch Queen Victoria, difficulties escalated for women because of the vision of the "ideal women"

shared by most in the society. The legal rights of married women were similar to those of children. They could not

vote, sue, or own property

• The industrial Revolution depended on better and quicker ways of transporting raw materials and finished goods.

• Among the many ways that transport improved , the most important was the building of railways.

• The first industry to be `revolutionised´ was the cotton industry in Britain.

• Transport by sea was already much more efficient than transport by land, and many years passed before iron steamship took over from sail

• The suez canal between the mediterranean and the red sea opened in 1689

To a traveller in Europe about 1850, country districts showed little sign of change.But in the industrial cities, everything was new and strange.

People worked in factories that were noisy,dirty and dangerous.

Work was boring,hours were long-12 hours a day or more.

• New inventions,made possible by scientific discoveries, also speeded up communications between people.The first good telegraph system.

• Was started by an american, Samuel F.B. Morse. It used the dot-dash code tha the invented about 1875 was better than the telegraph.