The Industrial Revolution that occurred between the eighteenth and nineteenth century has been characterized as a transformation of a society no longer rooted in agricultural production. A burgeoning relationship between society and technology is at the core of what allowed Britain to emerge as the world’s first industrialized nation. This interaction between political, social, economic and demographic forces altered almost every aspect of daily life, bringing about “modern” economic development due to continual progress in all sectors of the British economy (Mokyr, “Industrial Revolution”). Amid intensified economic activity and competition throughout the world, Britain struggled for raw materials, markets for their commodities, and places to invest their money. In response to Britain’s growing authority, and in order to compete economically and politically, continental Europe attempted to replicate Britain’s technological innovations, but not necessarily in identical fashion. In this essay I am going to outline the most important factors that brought Britain to the pinnacle of industrialization. An argument of why the Industrial Revolution occurred in Britain before anywhere else, and why it took the form it did, needs to look at the advantages that Britain had over other European countries. Its good fortune of having large supplies of coal and the kind of institutions that were conducive to economic development and technological progress gave them the opportunities to lead the charge on industrialization. “The process was long and complicated, not sudden and violent as most revolutions are” (Lines 107). The term revolution is actually relatively misleading because the time period is more an evolution of technological growth ... ... middle of paper ... ...ory. : Oxford University Press, 2003. Oxford Reference. 2005. Date Accessed 10 Mar. 2014 . Montagna, Joseph A. "81.02.06: The Industrial Revolution." The Industrial Revolution. Yale, 6 Feb. 1981. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edwin Cannan, ed. 1904. Library of Economics and Liberty. 10 March 2014. . Stearns, Peter N. The Industrial Revolution in World History. 4th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1993. Aug. 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. Ward, J. R. "The Industrial Revolution and British Imperialism, 1750–1850." The Economic History Review 47.1 (1994): 44-65. JSTOR. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. .
The period during which there was an increased output of machine-made goods, also known as the Industrial Revolution, played a critical role in reshaping Britain’s economy. The Industrial Revolution, stimulated by advancements that were made during the Agricultural Revolution, began in Great Britain for many reasons. In addition to Britain’s broad availability of natural resources, the count...
Introduction The industrial revolution took place between 1750 and 1850 all round the world. In this essay it describes the changes made in Middlesbrough in this period and how the managed to cope with the surge of people coming into Middlesbrough. Everything changed in Middlesbrough in the Industrial Revolution like mining, transport, agriculture and even technology. Population grew at great rate as there was plenty of work and cheap labour was readily available.
The Industrial Revolution brought mass advancements in technology to the people in Great Britain, Europe and in other places in the world during the time of 1750-1850. Britain’s wealth, population, technology, education and resources led to it as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. While the Industrial Revolution increased work wages, it also consequently resulted in harsh punishments, poor living conditions, and deadly accidents.
In the late eighteenth century, the Industrial Revolution made its debut in Great Britain and subsequently spread across Europe, North America and the rest of the world. These changes stimulated a major transformation in the way of life, and created a modern society that was no longer rooted in agricultural production but in industrial manufacture. Great Britain was able to emerge as the world’s first industrial nation through a combination of numerous factors such as natural resources, inventions, transport systems, and the population surge. It changed the way people worked and lived, and a revolution was started. As stated by Steven Kreis in Lecture 17, “England proudly proclaimed itself to be the "Workshop of the World," a position that country held until the end of the 19th century when Germany, Japan and United States overtook it.”
Nevertheless, it is true to say that, even though the meaning of the concept is disputed, the period was truly a key transition in Britain’s history with Eric Hobsbawm describing the time as “the most fundamental transformation of human life in the history of the world recorded in written document”. For some historians such as De Vries and Wrigley the term ‘Industrial Revolution’ may have been a helpful concept to explain the period characterised by new energy, increased productivity and industry, ways the labour force worked and wages. However, it would seem that the term has now become increasingly open to debate due to growing developments in our understanding of the time and new evidence like that of Crafts. With these new advances the term has become more problematic and incomplete as, for some academics such as Mokyr and Landes, it doesn’t project certain aspects or changes of the time which are seen by some as key to this shifting period in history but are instead absent. However, the problem may not lie in the term ‘Industrial Revolution’ itself but in the act of trying to define such a broad and changing period in history characterised by many transitions of the time both on a ground level and societal. With this, any single term or phrase to account for all the changes taking place
The Industrial Revolution in Britain’s history is marked as the period of great development that led to the modern era of growth, improved living standards and technology. Moreover, this revolution was not just limited to Britain; it affected the rest of Europe and America in the same positive manner. Due to the Industrial Revolution’s success in many countries, it is now commonly cited as the surest way for a country to develop. In economics, goals of a developed country are high production of goods, high Gross Domestic Product (GDP), low unemployment and sustained growth; during an Industrial Revolution all these are achieved. However, despite the main goal of IR to improve living standards for the population, the actual success when weighed against the social cost is debatable. It is accepted that IR improved the living standards of many; it created a new class, which Marx called the “bourgeoisie”, who had control over wealth, decisions and helped improve the lives of many others. However, many historians view this new class as “rapacious landlords and conscienceless capitalist[s]” [9] who exploited the working class for their own benefit. For a majority of “the working class… ‘Industrial Revolution’ … must have appeared… as a gigantic and cruel experiment, which, insofar as it was affecting their house, their health, their subsistence and their pleasure, was proving a calamitous failure” [9]. Therefore, this group will be examined to determine more general effects of IR on the society.
The Industrial Revolution is a major turning point in mankind's history. It is no more viewed as the drastic change that its name prescribes, for it was the consequence of an economic evolution that began in the sixteenth century. However, the eighteenth century does speak to an unequivocal change in innovation technology and the growth of economy. The acclaimed inventions–the spinning jenny, the steam engine, coke smelting, thus forth–deserve their eminence, for they mark the begin of a process that has conveyed the West, in any event, to the mass thriving of the twenty-first century. The motivation behind this article is to identify what happened in the eighteenth century, in Britain, and how the methodology of their invention has converted the world.
Britain was the world’s first industrial economy, in fact, the process of industrialization began in Britain. This process was greatly advanced during the second part of the eighteenth century. These innovations were centered mainly in two sectors cotton textiles and ironmaking.
Beers, Burton F. "Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution in Britian." World History: Patterns of Civilization. Scarborough, Ont.: Prentice-Hall Canada, 1989. 65-67. Print.
O'Brien, Patrick, and Roland Quinault, eds. The Industrial Revolution and British Society. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993. Print.
Allen, Robert C., The British Industrial Revolution in a Global Perspective, New York: Cambridge Press, 2009. Pp. viii, 331.
The industrial revolution of 17th and 18th centuries saw the transformation of Britain from a Neolithic nation into an industrious nation. However, this spread quickly throughout the world, introducing the modernisation of agriculture, revolution in power and manufacturing of textile.
“Revolutions are the locomotives of history” (Karl Marx). The concept of how far we’ve progressed in the past couple of centuries is hard to grasp. A revolution is defined as an instance of revolving and I think this quote from Karl Marx sums up the significance of revolutions in relevance to us as the human race; they pull us forward and allow us to progress. It’s whether or not these progressions are beneficial or not that makes or breaks the usefulness of a revolution. Although the industrial revolution in Britain had its ups and downs, it ultimately paved the road for Britain to become the world power it is today. There is much discussion about how, or why, the Industrial revolution started in Britain. I contribute this to three main attributes of Britain; the scientific and agricultural revolution, the cheap energy economy, and their social structure.
One of the darker causes for the Industrial Revolution was the slave trade with overseas colonies at the time. For many merchants who saw the easy money to be made from the voyages, the merchants became extremely rich – and as it is in human nature – these rich merchants wanted to become even more rich, the seemingly best way to do this was to invest profits from the slave trade into the new factories that were arising, this is called “Commercial Revolution”. Britain was one of the few countries that was able to bring in profits from other countries and keep profits in their country, aiding them into being the first country to Revolutionise Industrially.
Horn, Jeff, Leonard N. Rosenband, and Merritt Roe Smith. Reconceptualizing the Industrial Revolution. Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2010.