The Urban Game

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The Urban Game
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The year is 1700 and the nation is England. The
scene begins in a rural village. 

• Draw a river across your paper connecting east to
  west. The river should be about an inch wide.
  Draw a wooden bridge across the river, 4 roads
  originating from each direction, 10 houses, a
  church, a cemetery, a store, a pub, a coal mine,
  and a lot of trees all over your board.

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It is now 1700 in England

• Life here in village England is similar to other
  villages across Europe in the 18th century.
  Change traditionally comes very slowly. People
  generally moved at a much slower pace and had
  access to very little information outside their
  village. 3 out of 4 people were rural and lived
  in villages much like the one you will be
  constructing.

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• Home life and work life were
• closely integrated as most work
• was done in nearby fields. Every
• member worked from sun-up to
• sun-down.
• The homes of villagers were small
• with inadequate light and
• ventilation. All members of the
• family slept in the same room and
• sometimes even shared living
• quarters with livestock.
• Life expectancy was slightly over
• 40 years of age. Most people
• married in their teens and had
• babies before they were 20. One
• baby out of three died before their
• first birthday, only half of them

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• England was divided into social classes based
  primarily upon wealth. Most were poor farmers. A
  few were middle class. A small few were
  aristocrats and usually owned large tracts of
  land in the English countryside. Land was the
  source of wealth, livelihood, and well-being.
  Having enough land to produce adequate food, or
  to produce enough to sell, or even rent was the
  key to survival. 

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• The main occupation of England was farming. Most
  English peasants or farmers did own their own
  land, however small. 
•   Villages were connected by a system of dirt
  roads that became almost impassable during the
  wet season. As a result, transportation was often
  slow and trade beyond your village was not easy.
  Most English farmers never visited any place
  further than 25 miles from their birthplace,
  ever.

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• Finally, for fuel, there were two sources
  firewood
• and coal. Nearly every English village had a coal
  
• mining operation. These mines employed a small
• number of village dwellers, especially in the
  winter.
• Over the next 100 years, a revolution as
  significant
• as the Neolithic Revolution will completely
  change
• life in your little village. Some historians
  believe
• this revolution is the most fundamental in human
• history. 
• We will experience some of the changes over the
  next half hour. 
• This revolution would become known as the
• Industrial Revolution

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Rules of the Activity

• Rules
• You will listen to a story on the progression of
  society during the Industrial Revolution
• You will be creating a city based on this story
• The story will be divided into different scenes
• Each scene will be read only once
• Listen carefully
• At the end of each scene, you will be given
  instructions on what you need to add to your
  village/city
• The pace will quicken as the story progresses
• Try not to fall behind

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Round 1 - 1745

• It is now 1745. England's geography is unique in
  that no section of the country is more than 90
  miles from the sea, and there are many navigable
  rivers that crisscross the countryside. An
  enterprising young capitalist group (you guys)
  decides to invest money in the construction of a
  canal. The profits are astounding! This new
  revolution in transportation reduced the prices
  of raw materials and reduced the costs of
  transportation dramatically. Coal could now be
  transported from the mines to the towns for half
  the price of horse- wagon transportation. Since
  you invested your money, you made a tidy profit,
• Build yourself 1 nice home anywhere on the map
  you would like it to be.

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Round 2 - 1750

• It is now 1750. For a variety of reasons (soap,
  diet, sanitation, etc.) there is a population
  explosion in England, and your little village.
  The cursed bubonic plague which for centuries
  wiped out your village has been virtually
  eliminated due to the disposal of sewage in the
  canal and in the ocean. 
• Add 5 houses.

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Round 3 - 1760

• It is 1760. The people of your village need a bit
  more food and goods to meet the needs of the new
  inhabitants. Coincidentally, a number of other
  noteworthy events occur around 1760. First, a
  number of new mechanical inventions for farms are
  developed. One is called the seed drill and
  another is the horse-drawn cultivator. Also,
  farmers begin to experiment with new, more
  productive farming practices, like crop rotation,
  new fertilizers, and new livestock breeding
  techniques. Consequently, farm production is
  significantly increased.
• Add 5 more houses

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Round 4 - 1773

• It is now 1773. A man named Richard Arkwright
  invents a new machine that can spin and weave
  cloth a hundred times faster than could be done
  by hand in a farm. He calls his new machine the
  Water Frame. Since the water frame was large, a
  special place was needed and, the first factory
  for prodding cotton cloth was built.
• Add 1 factory.  Remember, the cotton factory
  must be placed
• on the river bank.  Dont add any smoke to this
  factory!!  Add 5
• houses for workers.

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Round 5 - 1774

• It is now 1774, workers are needed to work in
  this new factory. Machines have taken the place
  of people on the farms and the Enclosure Acts
  have forced people to move to your town that is
  now becoming a city.
• Add  5  houses, 1  church , 1  pub,   1 
  store.  You
• may draw additional roads and 1 additional
  bridge. 

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• The profits from the first textile factory are
  enormous. New factories are built in your
  community. The early owners of these factories
  called themselves capitalists because they had
  the capital or money to purchase the raw
  material, the building, the water frame, and pay
  their workers a fixed wage and make a profit. 
• Add 5 new factories (must be on the river bank
  as they need water power). 
• Add 5 houses

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Round 6 - 1780

• It is 1780. Unemployed
• workers from surrounding
• areas flood into your
• community looking for work.
• Although wages are low,
• they look attractive to
• starving families. Housing is
• in great demand and for the
• first time, a new kind of
• housing is constructed
• called tenements. Here,
• dozens of families reside
• under one roof.
• Add 5 Tenements.

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Round 7 - 1781

• It is now 1781. More workers need to live, eat,
  shop, drink, and worship. In addition, boys were
  the only ones to be formally educated at this
  time, and then only the very wealthy attended
  school. Since workers work six days a week, the
  only day of rest was Sunday.
•   Add 1 store, 1 pub, and 1 church.  Also add 1
  school for boys.

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Round 8 - 1782

• Now, it's 1782. Workers work long, hard hours in
  the factories. The average work day begins at
  600am and ends at 900 pm. There is only a 30
  minute break for lunch. After work, exhausted,
  stressed out, workers stop at their favorite pub
  for refreshment and relaxation. Alcohol begins to
  be consumed in record amounts.
• Add 2 more pubs. 

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Round 9 - 1783

• The year is now 1783. Workers are barely eking
  out a marginal existence. Still there are a few
  families whose lifestyle is comfortable if not
  luxurious. These are the large landowning farmers
  and factory owners.    Handsome manor houses are
  built and some are lavishly filled with expensive
  art. These new rich can now enjoy some
  refinements of the rich food, servants,
  furniture, education, clothing, carriages, etc.. 
  
• Add two large, special, luxury homes.
• (Note from this point on trees may be removed
  if you need space).

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Round 10 - 1785

• We move now to 1785. A man
• named James Watt invents a new
• machine called the steam engine.
• It allows factories to be built away
• from the river. The main
• business in England is still textile
• manufacturing.
• Add 10 factories with smoke.  Add
• smoke to all other pre-existing
• factories.  Also, add one nicer
• house since people continue to
• get rich.

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Round 11 - 1800

• The year is 1800. A man named Henry Cort has
• just invented a new process that makes it
  possible
• for coal, which is, fortunately, in abundant
  supply
• in England, to be used as the primary fuel in the
  
• new iron industry. Consequently, your town is
• thrust into the "New Age of Heavy Industry".
• Add 2 new coal mines and a new iron bridge to
  replace the old wooden one.  

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Round 12 - 1815

• In 1815 we see the coal industry flourish.
• There is a great demand for
• coal now home-heating, fuel for steam
• engine, for the production of iron.
• Although in the 1700's coal miners were
• adults, now, the typical workers are
• children between the ages of 8 and 14.
• The work is dangerous and terribly
• unhealthy. Children become victims of
• black lung, explosions and accidents.
• Their growth is stunted as they spend
• most of their 14 hour day stooped over.
• They are malnourished and unable to
• exercise or eat properly.
• Add 1 cemetery.

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Round 13 - 1820

• The year is now 1820. The existing
• dirt roads cannot accommodate the
• heavy industrial traffic. The steam
• engine is used in the creation of the
• railroad.
• Add 1 railroad line connecting
• your factory district to the outer
• coal mining region 

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Round 14 - 1837

• The years pass. It is now 1837. Using steam
  engines and iron, and soon steel, British
  manufacturers introduce power driven machinery in
  many industries. People used machinery to cut and
  finish lumber, to process foods, and make other
  machines. Some new inventions and innovations had
  important BI-products that turned into separate
  industries. Then someone discovered that the
  gases that coal released could be burned to give
  off light. During the 1830's, London and other
  large towns became the first to pipe in gas to
  burn street lights. Soon all around England,
  hundreds of towns used gas to light street lights
  and homes.
• Draw street lights, lining your business
  community streets. 

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Round 15 - 1838

• We move on to 1838. The working conditions
• in the factories continue to worsen.
• Working conditions in both of these areas
• were appalling. Many workers contracted the
• deadly factory fever or white lung disease.
• Other workers were injured on the job in
• factory accidents. There were no protective
• railings around huge moving machines.
• Children, weakened from lack of sleep and
• food, often stumbled into machinery and were
• ripped to shreds.  Women with long hair that
• came undone often were caught in machinery.
• Regardless, if you were unable to work, you
• were fired. There was no health insurance.
• There was always a daily line of unemployed
• workers waiting to fill vacant jobs.
• Add two hospitals, and 1 cemetery.

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Round 16 - 1842

• It is 1842, There are some advantages for many of
  the urban dwellers. City life is quite different
  from country life. For the small, but growing
  middle class, a new cultural life is available.
  Museums, theaters, operas, restaurants, plays,
  concerts are made available. Before, only the
  wealthy, elite would attend these events.
• Add 1 museum, 2 theaters, and 2 private schools. 
  

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Round 17 - 1845

• In 1845, there are no pollution limits or
  controls on factories and businesses. Windows,
  walls even trees are covered with layers of soot.
  The river that once flowed through the quiet
  village for hundreds of years is now unfit for
  drinking, bathing or laundry. A new disease
  begins to take lives of people. Malignant tumors
  in people begin to grown in large numbers. Black
  lung is on the rise. The average life expectancy
  for the poor is now 30 years of age. Your city is
  overcrowded and shrouded in factory smoke.  The
  noise, the loss of privacy, loss of family unit,
  shatters the peace of the old ways. Suicide rates
  double, then triple.
• Add 3 more cemeteries, 1 jail, and 3 more
  hospitals all to accommodate the victims of urban
  life. 

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Round 18 1850

• By 1850, new machines continue to take the jobs
  of worker in England. The Enclosure movement
  also takes the jobs of many farmers. Thousands
  of people move to your city in search of jobs. 
• Add 20 houses, 5 tenements, 2 stores, 1 church, 5
  factories,
• 1 pub, and another huge, nice house. 

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Exit Activity

• As the mayor of this city, name and describe one
  issue that you are going to have to deal with.
• Describe any problems you had while developing
  your city
• What would you do differently if you had the
  chance to create this city again?
• How do you envision your city benefiting the
  people?
• 5. What Social and Economic problems were
  created and how would you combat these ills.