The Rise and Impact of Industrial Capitalism

Miacademy & MiaPrep Learning Channel

This educational video provides a comprehensive overview of capitalism's emergence during the Industrial Revolution, contrasting it with the preceding feudal system. It uses a modern-day analogy of a t-shirt business to explain complex economic concepts like profit, supply and demand, and market exchange before diving into the historical realities of Industrial England. The narrator introduces key figures like Adam Smith and concepts such as laissez-faire economics, explaining how the shift from subsistence farming to mass production fundamentally changed society. The video presents a balanced analysis of industrial-era capitalism by detailing both its significant benefits—such as self-determination, innovation, and massive economic growth (GDP)—and its severe drawbacks. These drawbacks include extreme wealth inequality, worker exploitation (including child labor and dangerous conditions), the rise of monopolies, and environmental degradation. The content highlights the complexities of the system, showing how it led to both unprecedented prosperity for some and difficult lives for others. For educators, this resource serves as an excellent primer for units on the Industrial Revolution, Economics, or World History. It effectively breaks down abstract economic terms into digestible examples and provides clear visual data (graphs on GDP and wages) that allow for quantitative analysis in the classroom. The video concludes by setting the stage for government regulation and the rise of labor unions, making it a perfect bridge to lessons on social reform movements.