The Importance Of The Industrial Revolution

During the decades following 1760 England made a very large shift toward industrialization that many historians consider to be a very clear take off (or turning point) that contrasts greatly with how the country was as a society before industrialization, it is important to note that it has been uncovered that the “take off” refers to the contrast but not the speed at which the revolution occurred. Making great advancements in technology, England went from largely agrarian to very much industrialized within the course of several years. At the same time in history France, having gone recently through it’s own revolution, becoming the world center for ideas and culture under a social revolution just finishing the great period known as the Enlightenment and subsequently before that the scientific revolution that took place in France; many historians wonder why it was England and not France that was the first to adapt and assimilate the technological and societal advances of

This essay aims to seek out the antecedents and factors in place before the industrial revolutions (or in the case of France the very slow process toward industrialization rather than a revolution) to explain why England got there “first”. From this focus we can narrow it down to several base factors that ultimately prevented the take off of France’s industrial revolution and others that poised England to take the charge to become the first to industrialize. The most important of these factors being that during the time when technological advances were being made in France, the country remained an wholly agrarian society presents the base reason for the slow adoption of technological advances in France (Griffin). While England and France both had very large coal deposits and methods of accessing them quite easily the main difference between