Causes of the Industrial Revolution

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England was the first country to experience the advantages and disadvantages of the Industrial Revolution, as it was the very first country in which the event happened, primarily because England was such a good source of coal and iron, arguably the most important resources needed by a country during the Industrial Revolution. Although England also experienced the Industrial Revolution because England was bountiful in lead, copper, tin, limestone and fast water supplies, overall, England was probably the most ideal place for the Industrial Revolution to be staged in the first place.

A major cause for the Industrial Revolution was the enormous spurt of population growth in England. Along side the fast growth in population, medical systems had also improved, thus there was a reduction in the number of epidemics that spread resulting in less of a death toll through lack of medical knowledge. From this, the percentage of children who lived through childhood also began to increase, thus the future workforce would be even large than previously. The increase in population meant that there were more people in surplus from agricultural jobs and they had to find work in industrial factories, which was the basis of the Industrial Revolution.

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.

The new invention of steam power was one of the great motives for the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, steam was used to power many of the machines, thus with the invention of steam power, the Industrial Revolution was powered onwards. The duo of inventors, Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen were both based in Britain, thus, this was the place where the inventions were first used giving Britain the time advantage over other countries.

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