What led Great Britain to become the first country to star in the Industrial Revolution, comes down to a complex system of factors, each aspect holds a major role in the contribution in the growth in the Industrial Revolution and of Great Britain. While much is known about the happenings of the Industrial Revolution itself, less is acknowledged about the events that were direct causes of the period. Histories and economist have pointed towards several key factors, each working together like well-oiled machine. First, beginning with the Agricultural Revolution which would increase the production of crops as well and decreasing prices. More food meant more trade. Trade then leads to larger desire for goods and with the need of goods arose new technology. Technology increased the production and efficiency of all factories. With the creation of factories, workers were required to help produce and run machines. The prospect of new work drove people into cities and towns. The Industrial Revolution was a cycle that feed itself, with need came technology and with technology came need and through this process arose advanced society which Great Britain led the world forward.
For any civilization to develop, it must not only be able to feed its people but also be affordable and keep up with rising population. Without a stable source of food and or livestock no nation could support an industrial evolution or even standard grows. For preindustrial Europe around eighty percent of the population depend on farming as a means of work furthermore, it meant that most people lived near farmsteads and or far out in the countryside. Few lived in large towns or cities due to the fact that most had been near their farms. The process of farming was a...
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... could sell a practical model to factories and other industries and employed a huge workforce to transport, install and maintain the engine (McKay, 2014, pg. 660 p.3). Factories and other industries began understanding and utilizing the enormous potential of the steam engine. As more and more machines were driven by steam engines, coal requirements elevated and wood was no longer used as intensely, in the meanwhile a new mode of transportation was being developed. While Great Britain’s waterways and canals were effective, a new mode of transportation was required. The railroad system began to mobilize. Railroad carried massive amounts of coal and iron (Transportation History). The first steam locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick and would become the workhorse of the Industrial Revolution (Transportation History). The railroad was easy and cheap to build due to
By observing the recurring trends throughout history, an individual can conclude that the modern world has evolved through a series of revolutionary eras. Revolutions have occurred since the beginning of mankind and continue to progress into the future. Ranging from a sharp change in political organization or structure, to social divisions within society, all the way to forward-thinking innovations, revolutions have impacted the course of history in numerous ways. Although many revolutions are titled with a specific name to identify the precise location or particular group of people involved, such as the American Revolution or the French Revolution, there are many occurrences in which a revolution is simply identified with a categorization term. However, among all the revolutions that have occurred in known history, there is a specific revolutionary period that has aided in the progress of humanity in addition to establishing the early concepts that shape our modern world. Originating in Great Britain, the Industrial Revolution has transformed the lifestyles of people around the world. However, the progressive transformation introduced a series of outcomes contrary to the prior regime. The Industrial Revolution triggered the growth of Great Britain’s economy, reset the social class divisions, and led to the formation of political reformation.
The Industrial Revolution in North America The industrial revolution started around 1750. It began in Britain and spread throughout the world. England was known as “the world’s workshop” because at that point in time, England was the major manufacturing center of the world. Bailey:
Later there was an inventor who produced the steam engine. This was small but powerful and can be used either on land transportation or in water transportation. With the invention of the steam machine and the invention of the railroads transporting and exchanging goods between cities and even countries were a lot easier and cities and countries received their goods a lot faster. The industrial revolution was an important event that helped shape the western part of the world
A growing population resulted in a greater demand for Great Britain. They were the first to start the Industrial revolution. With their invention of the steam engine transportation of goods and people boomed, railroad, canals, etc. which resulted in a new class system. Before people lived in small communities and their lives revolved around farming, but with the start of the revolution more people and laborers moved to the city which had become urban and industrialized. New banking techniques such as corporations, partnerships, credit, and stocks were invented. Everything used to be made in people’s homes using handmade tools, yet now everything is done in factories using mass production. The three major materials cotton, coal, and iron were the up and coming new products used during the industrial revolution. Cotton was used for the textile industry, coal for steam power, and iron for the new types of transportation. There was also an improvement in living standards for some, but the poor and working people had to deal with bad employment and living conditions. When the laborers moved to the cities clocks and
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.
As mentioned above many products from different industries were discovered and invented which made life easier and cheaper. The factories did not spend fast amount of money on making the products as they were allowed to pay their workers as much as that suited them so it did not cost them much and the innovation of factory machines also helped them produce in big quantities. These products were very demanding which meant that it grew the economy of the making nation, “Britain’s output of coal soared from 5.23 million tons in 1750 to 68.4 million tons a century later” (Strayer, 2012; 835). The industrial revolution did not just grow the economy of industrializing countries it also helped grow the economy of non-industrializing nations. For example, Latin America was one of the non-industrialized nations however its economy grew unexpectedly as they exported demanding raw materials such as rubber, silver, coal and many more resources that were essential for the growth of the industrial revolution (Strayer, 2012; 854). Latin America’s economy depended on the export of these materials and because of their popularity and essentiality it grew the state’s
So after all the years we wonder why Britain lead the industrial revolution, well the reason is that they enjoyed many advantages that helped them take the lead in the revolution. As I have wrote the agricultural revolution increased food production, which freed many laborers to work in indust...
Railroads can be referred to as the first big business, and the first industry to develop management bureaucracy (Ogburn 39). Railroads were a vital part of early American history during the 1800s-1860. The development of Railroads was one of the most important phenomena of the Industrial Revolution. Railroads brought social, economic, and political change to the country (Stover 26). In the United States a turnpike era and then a canal era had immediately preceded the coming of the railroads, which proved to be fast, direct, and reliable in all weather. After 1830 the railroads grew so quickly that within a decade their mileage surpassed that of the canals (Hollingsworth 28).
The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change in the world and changed the way many products were manufactured. Originating in England and Great Britain, its effects spread across the globe and influenced the way people lived and worked and lead to the modern world known today. While it did not always have positive effects, through imperialism, Britain’s Industrial Revolution brought about technological innovations that transformed the world and its economies.
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.”
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.
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 main reasons the industrial revolution worked out as well as it did was the scientific and agricultural revolutions that happened beforehand. Everything is the same, everything is standardized.
The Industrial Revolution of the 18th century changed Europe forever. At the front of this change was Great Britain, which used some natural advantages and tremendous thinking and innovation to become the leader of the Industrial Revolution.
The aims of this paper are to evaluate the effects the Industrial Revolution had on the wider world. This essay will be assessing the impact of technology and innovation on employment of the era, and how the factory system gave rise to socialism. In addition, it will be evaluating how the Industrial Revolution was the precursor to the phenomenon of consumerism and the resulting globalization.
The development of the industrialisation is outcome of the advancement of agriculture. Agriculture has played very important role in the development of human civilisation. Nearly 90 percent of the population lived in rural area during the 18th century. These rural families produced most of the food, clothing and other useful commodities. Talking about the advancement of agriculture, no other name comes to mind except of England. It is to be noted that farmers in England were among the most productive farmers of the world. The new methods of farming brought mass production in early 18th century leading to the Agricultural revolution. “In the early eighteenth century, Britain exported wheat, rising from 49,000 quarters in 1700 to a massive peak of 950,000 quarters in 1750” .The whole benefit of the Agricultural revolution was shared among aristocratic landholders. They were the only top authorities, as English throne was already overthrown by aristocratic class in 1688 during the Glorious Revolution. Landholders started enclosure movement to end the traditional rights of land and to gain full control over the benefits from agricult...