Industry, Ideology, and their Global Impact, 1700-

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Scientific & Industrial Revolution in 1700 Century AD: An Introduction The Industrial Revolution is thought to have started in Britain, and broaden quickly to Western European countries as in North America. The mid-18th Century AD was an era of big industrial modernization with economic and social consequences for the whole world. The industrialization that started in Britain, and which was at first most outstanding in its agricultural field, helped the country to significantly improve the standard of living of the people though definitely not all of its population. The rationales for the origins of the Industrial Revolution taking place in Britain and finding its initial and utmost signs in Western Europe and North America are generally credited to the political and economic systems that were present in those areas. Whilst the notion of democratic regime had not yet completely taken root, the levels of economic and intellectual independence that ruled all over those regions certainly played a critical part in helping the technological modernization that took place and the consequent integration of that modernization into their respective economic spheres. As one historian of that era stated, “The political and moral advantages of [Britain], as a seat of manufacture, are not less remarkable than its physical advantages. . . Under the reign of just laws, personal liberty and property have been secure; mercantile enterprise has been allowed to reap its reward; capital has accumulated in safety . . . [T]he manufacturing prosperity of the country has struck its roots deep, and spread forth its branches to the ends of the earth” (Baines, 1835). The correlation between technological modernization and economic development on the one han... ... middle of paper ... ...centrated on Britain. In large measure this is as a result of the impact of one individual, Robert K. Merton, and his study, Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth Century England. In some ways, Merton is as fundamental to the historiography of the social supports of this era. Merton's research developed the tradition of Max Weber, R. H. Tawny, and others, to use statistical methods to data compiled from the Dictionary of National Biography and other sources for what became known as the Merton thesis: yet there is a clear relationship between the development of scientific activity in 17th Century Britain and the social and religious existence of Puritanism. Since the emergence of this study, a series of scholarly studies has appeared concentrating on the relationship among science, religion, society, politics, ideology, and organizations (Hatch, Undated).

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