Industrial Revolution
Where can I find information about the Industrial Revolution?
(Years 7-10)
Image: Het gieten van ijzer in blokken | The casting of iron in blocks by Herman Heijenbrock on Wikimedia Commons.
Entry last updated: 9/02/26
Introduction
The Industrial Revolution began in England in the late 18th century. City populations grew quickly. There was a cultural shift from an agricultural economy to machine-based manufacturing. Machines were invented that replaced human labour. Steam power and factories were also introduced.
General websites
There are a number of websites that have great information about the Industrial Revolution. Here are a few you may find useful.
This is one of the EPIC resources. EPIC is a collection of reliable databases covering lots of different topics. It is put together especially for New Zealand school students and helps to answer questions like this. It is an excellent starting point to find out information about the Industrial Revolution.
Select your learning level - Primary, Middle, or Secondary. (You can always change this later.)
Enter 'Industrial Revolution' into the search area and select the magnifying glass.
The article called Industrial Revolution ((18th-19th century) Europe and United States) has some useful information about the changes that led to the revolution and how they affected people.
Tips: To use the EPIC resources, you need a password from your school librarian. Or chat with one of our AnyQuestions librarians to help you online. Some EPIC databases may also be available through your public library.
World History (Gale In Context)
This is another EPIC resource. It covers world history from ancient times right up to the current time. Information is grouped by type like reference, primary sources, videos, and more.
Go to Browse Topics and choose Economics from the drop-down list.
Look for Industrial Revolution.
Select Read Overview to read the rest of the Overview or look down the page for more resources.
This is an educational show for high school and university level students. They include sources below some of their videos.
Search for 'Industrial Revolution'.
Choose a video to watch eg The Industrial Revolution: Crash Course European History #24 or The Industrial Revolution: Crash Course History of Science #21.
Tips: Some Crash Course videos have a list of sources. Select the 'Watch on YouTube' button and look in the description.
This website has self-guided learning resources for a range of subjects including history.
Enter the keywords 'Industrial Revolution' into the search box.
Select the article called The Industrial Revolution from OER Project: Big History.
You can find out about the author at the bottom of the article.
Tips: Websites that have .org or .net in the address can have good information, but you need to assess how reliable it is. Check the About link on the website, if you can find one. That can tell you what the organisation’s mission and values are.
This is a section of the official website of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Bitesize has online support for students in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Search for 'Industrial Revolution' in the search box at the top right of the page.
This will lead to articles about the Industrial Revolution such as The origins of the Industrial Revolution.
Note that some of the videos are only available to watch if you're in the UK, so may not work in New Zealand.
Tips: Search words, or keywords, are the most important words in our question. You can leave out small words like ‘the’ and ‘of’ and just choose the main ones, eg Industrial Revolution. We can always change our keywords or add more if we need to.
This is the website for the History Channel. Its main focus is US history but also has worldwide topics.
Search using the keywords 'Industrial Revolution'.
Look for the article Industrial Revolution.
This article has information about steam power, transportation, effects and more.
Tips: Some websites have advertisements (or ads) which ask us to buy something or tell us to ‘click here’. It’s best to ignore these ads and focus on the information we’re looking for.
The information on this website includes articles, images, timelines, and videos.
Search using the keywords 'Industrial Revolution'.
Select the article called called British Industrial Revolution. This article has useful information about the causes of the Industrial Revolution and its positive and negative impacts.
Or look through more results for articles like Social Change in the British Industrial Revolution or Top 10 Inventions of the Industrial Revolution.
Tips: We like sites like this because their articles include where they got their information and information on who wrote the article. Just look to the bottom of the page for the 'Bibliography' and 'About the author'.
New Zealand sites
The Industrial Revolution also had some impacts in Aotearoa New Zealand, although later than in the United Kingdom and America.
Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Te Ara is an excellent starting point for all questions about Aotearoa New Zealand. If we look down to the bottom of the page, we can see that the website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage, so the information is well-researched and reliable.
Go to Topics and under Economy choose Government and industrial development.
Read the Story summary and Encouraging industry from the 19th century to see some of the impacts of the Industrial Revolution in New Zealand.
Or you can search for "Industrial Revolution" (with the quotation marks) to see which stories mention what it led to.
Tips: When searching some websites, putting speech marks around your search terms will help you find results that have that exact wording eg “Industrial Revolution”.
NZ History is a great website for information about New Zealand's history. It also comes from the Ministry for Culture & Heritage.
Search for 'Industrial Revolution'.
Open and read New Zealand in 1870 and explore the rest of the story to find out the steam railway coming to New Zealand.
Tips: We like sites like this because they’re reliable. Have a look at their web address – they have .govt.nz in the URL meaning they come from the New Zealand government.
Te Papa is New Zealand's national museum located in Wellington. It has an online collection on a number of topics.
Go to the heading Discover the collections, then select Collections Online from the drop-down menu.
Search the collections for industrialisation.
Choose the Women and industrialisation in the nineteenth century topic.
Books
Your local public library or school will have books about the Industrial Revolution. Here are some suggested titles:
Industrial revolution by Veronica B Wilkins
World history : from the Stone Age to the 21st century by Anne Rooney
Shift happens : the history of labor in the United States by J Albert Mann
Timelines of everything : from woolly mammoths to world wars by DK Children.
SCIS no: 1920549
