The Workshop of the World: The Industrial Revolution

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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. .

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