The Industrial Revolution was a mixed blessing. It had both advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
(i) Centre of economic life shifted from the villages to cities and towns where the factories were situated.
(ii) Urban (cities) and rural (villages) life became dependant upon one another. Isolated life of self-sufficient villages came to an end.
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(iii) Men became free to develop their capabilities in areas other than farming.
(iv) It brought countries and people together. There was an international awareness among people because developments in one country influenced the others.
(v) The aristocracy and nobility with their feudal ideas were replaced by the newly rich middle class capitalists (bourgeoisie) who also became politically powerful.
(vi) Better transport, communications and mechanized goods made life comfortable for man.
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Disadvantages
(i) Cities became crowded, smoky, with problems of slums, housing, sanitation, accidents and epidemics.
(ii) Women and child labour was badly exploited.
(iii) Workers suffered from long working hours, low wages, and unemployment, unsafe conditions of work, with no rights to vote strike or form trade unions.
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(iv) Society, became divided into rich and poor, the ‘Haves’ and the ‘Have- Nots’.
(v) It led to wars of imperialism and colonization.