Friday, April 19, 2019

The Four Industrial Revolutions

1.      Define the term industrial revolution

Industrial revolution is defined as the changes in manufacturing and transportation that began with fewer things being made by hand but instead made using machines in larger-scale factories. As in England in the late 18th century, industrial revolution is a rapid major change in an economy marked by the general introduction of power-driven machinery or by an important change in the prevailing types and methods of use of such machines.

2.      Describe each of the first three industrial revolutions

a)      The First Industrial Revolution: The Age of Mechanical Production

As it turns out, when you heat up water, you get steam. And beginning around 1760, through the advent of the steam engine, steam was powering everything from agriculture to textile manufacturing.

Society used to be largely agrarian, which is a fancy way of saying that life used to be centered around farming. But with steam power, those agrarian societies gave way to urbanization. The world began to rely on steam power and machine tools, while steamships and railroads revolutionized how people got from A to B. And what emerged as the new center of community life? The factory.



But factory life was difficult. Unskilled factory laborers were cheap and plentiful. They were made to work long hours, often in unsafe conditions. Even children worked in factories, putting in 14-hour shifts alongside adults. Such conditions endured into the 20th century.
Ultimately, advancing industrialization created a middle class of skilled workers. Cities and industries grew m0ore quickly than ever before, and economies grew along with them.

b)      The Second Industrial Revolution: The Age of Science and Mass Production

Things started to speed up with a number of key inventions. Think gasoline engines, airplanes, chemical fertilizer. All inventions that helped us go faster and do more.
That’s science, folks. It works.
But advancements in science weren’t limited to the laboratory. Scientific principles were brought right into the factories. Most notably, the assembly line, which effectively powered mass production. By the early part of the 20th century, Henry Ford’s company was mass producing the groundbreaking Ford Model T, a car with a gasoline engine built on an assembly line in his factories.


People follow the jobs, and the early 1900s saw workers leaving their rural homes behind to move to urban areas and factory jobs. By 1900, 40% of the US population lived in cities, compared to just 6% in 1800. Along with increasing urbanization, inventions such as electric lighting, radio, and telephones transformed the way people lived and communicated.

When you stop and think about it, it was this industrial revolution, the second one, that ushered in the modern world.

c)      The Third Industrial Revolution: The Digital Revolution

So, if you’re reading this, you’re experiencing some of the wonders of the digital revolution right now. You’re enjoying the cloud, the Internet, and some kind of handy device that lets you access both. You can even be reading this on your phone.


Beginning in the 1950s, the third industrial revolution brought semiconductors, mainframe computing, personal computing, and the Internet—the digital revolution. Things that used to be analog moved to digital technologies, like an old television you used to tune in with an antenna (analog) being replaced by an Internet-connected tablet that lets you stream movies (digital).

The move from analog electronic and mechanical devices to pervasive digital technology dramatically disrupted industries, especially global communications and energy. Electronics and information technology began to automate production and take supply chains global.

3.      Describe the impact each industrial revolution

a.       A major impact of the Industrial Revolution

A major impact of the Industrial Revolution was how it affected workers. Before the Industrial Revolution occurred, people worked in small businesses that were very friendly towards the workers. Usually, the workers and the owner knew each other and their families quite well. If a special need or situation arose, there was understanding and compassion toward the worker.
With the Industrial Revolution, this relationship changed. People went to work in factories where hundreds or thousands of people worked. There was little to no personal relationship between the worker and the owner. They often didn’t even know each other. Workers were treated very differently in this situation. If a special need or situation arose, the request was often denied. Workers were more easily replaced. Working conditions were poor with long hours, low pay, and unsafe working conditions. Workers had to form unions to try to improve their workers conditions. In the beginning, the unions usually were not successful in improving the conditions for the workers. The Industrial Revolution really changed the relationship between workers and owners.

b.      The impact of the industrial revolution on society

The Industrial Revolution did have a major impact on society. Prior to it, wealth was based primarily on land ownership. As a result, the aristocracy was the wealthiest class in society, as they owned the land. (Merchants, moneylenders and other people involved in business or finance could also make fortunes, but that was not guaranteed.) The aristocrats received their land, usually initially from a king or prince, in return for being willing to raise armies at the ruler's request. They rented most of this land and grew wealthy on the rents. Most people in society worked the land, as agriculture was the basis of wealth.
With the Industrial Revolution, new technology enabled enterprising people to build factories where goods could be manufactured by machines in a fraction of the time that it took to make these same items by hand. The factory owners became extremely wealthy—wealthier than the aristocrats. This caused friction and social instability. Even more social instability was caused by common people moving from the land to congregate in cities or around factories. People whose families might have farmed the same plot of land for a thousand years could find themselves living in a strange place, working under strange conditions, and lacking the social support that had once made life possible.
The lower classes often felt exploited by industrialism because the old, paternalistic relationships in which aristocrats owed some allegiance to their workers was disrupted by the new way of doing business. As a result of this, most industrial societies evolved a compromise situation in which the state rather than the employer guaranteed certain basic rights, such as minimum wage and a limited work day.
Industrialism, on the whole, however, was good for the working classes because the standard of living improved dramatically with the increase of affordable goods on the market.

4.      Explain how the scape of the fourth industrial revolution differs from those of the first time

According to Schwab, there are three key factors which differentiate between them :

a)   Velocity
b)   Breadth and depth
c)   Systems impact

a.   Velocity

The world is more connected than ever before, and this revolution is transforming the world far more quickly than the first three did.

b.   Breadth and Depth

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff observes, “The convergence of digital technologies with breakthroughs in materials science and biology means that we are seeing the emergence of entirely new ways in which to live. In both subtle and explicit ways, technology is also changing what it means to be human.”

c.   Systems Impact

Fourth Industrial Revolution advances are so sophisticated and interconnected that they’re transforming major systems (politics and the economy, for example) as well as entire countries and societies.

Referensi :
·         https://trailhead.salesforce.com/en/content/learn/modules/learn-about-the-fourth-industrial-revolution/learn-about-drivers-of-the-fourth-industrial-revolution





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