Pre-industrial

Before we had factories and machines to help us make things, people had to make everything by hand. This is what we call the "pre-industrial" time period. People had to work really hard every day just to survive. They had to grow their own food, make their own clothes, and build their own houses.

This time period lasted for a very long time, from the very beginning of human civilization all the way up until the late 1700s. During this time, people didn't have many of the things we take for granted today, like electricity and running water. They had to rely on the natural resources around them to survive.

But even though life was hard back then, people were still able to create amazing things. They built huge and beautiful structures like the pyramids in Egypt and the Great Wall of China. They also invented things like the wheel and the plow, which made life easier in many ways.

Eventually, though, people started to figure out better ways to make things. They invented machines that could do the work of many people at once, and factories where these machines could produce goods quickly and efficiently. This was the start of the "industrial" time period, which changed the world in many ways. But before that, people had to rely on their own hard work and ingenuity to survive.