Manchester

Manchester is a city in northwest England whose growth as a textile and manufacturing center made it a major site of industrialization and political activism.

Industrial Revolution: A period of major economic and technological change driven by mechanized production, beginning in Britain in the eighteenth century. Manchester became one of the Industrial Revolution’s defining manufacturing cities.
Steam engine: A machine that converts the energy of steam into mechanical work. Steam power freed Manchester’s mills from dependence on water sites and helped concentrate production.
Richard Cobden: A British politician and manufacturer who campaigned for free trade and helped lead the Anti-Corn Law League. Cobden organized Manchester’s free-trade movement into a national political force.
The Condition of the Working Class in England: Friedrich Engels’s 1845 study of poverty and living conditions among English industrial workers. Engels drew heavily on what he observed in Manchester’s working-class neighborhoods.
Manchester Town Hall: A Victorian Gothic civic building in Manchester, opened in 1877 and designed by Alfred Waterhouse. Its scale and design expressed the city’s confidence during its industrial heyday.
Cottonopolis: A nineteenth-century nickname for Manchester, highlighting its dominance in cotton manufacturing and trade. The nickname captures the city’s specialization in cotton during its industrial expansion.
Power loom: A mechanically operated loom that weaves cloth faster than a hand loom. Its adoption transformed Manchester’s textile production and displaced many handloom weavers.
John Bright: A British Quaker, orator, and politician who campaigned for free trade and parliamentary reform. Bright’s speeches helped connect Manchester activism with national reform campaigns.
Chartism: A British working-class movement that sought political reforms outlined in the People’s Charter of 1838. Manchester’s large industrial workforce made the city a major center of Chartist agitation.
Manchester Museum: A university museum in Manchester with collections in natural history, archaeology, and anthropology. Its collections grew from the civic and educational institutions of industrial Manchester.

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