Chapter Eighteen: Revolutions of Industrialization

What is the Industrial Revolution and why did it start in Europe? And to further this as to why it started in Britain. A similar question was tackled on in an earlier chapter to what the Scientific Revolution was and as to why it started in Europe.

The Industrial Revolution was a time of massive acceleration of technological innovation.  Not only had it brought ways to mass produce goods, bring in more riches, and make services faster, it had also brought new  sources of energy. The spark in the eighteenth century in England was with the variety of systems transforming the cotton textile production. It was not quite until the nineteenth century that Europe hit the full on mass amount of different technologies that would change life back then. Europe’s big breakthrough was the steam engine. Soon this began to attack different aspects, and different ways for people to make life easier, and better what they were already doing at the time. Not only was normal life affected, but the agriculture was as well. The creation of mechanical reapers, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and refrigeration changed the way agriculture was and transformed the ancient ways that they had been using.

These entire different and mass amount of ideas brings up how quick these ideas and creations sparked up across Europe. It also brings to question how did this happen and why did it happen when it did, at the speed that it did? It was completely unimaginable and unplanned to happen, especially in Europe. It was however not only in Europe this was happening but across many other countries such as China, India, and the Islamic world as a whole.  There has been argument in whether to insist why Europe is considered the spark off of the Industrial revolution, Historians from present time arguing with those who simply played it off and Europe’s over power and intelligence form other nations.  However, we have now been able to explain and theorize as to exactly the rapid spread of this Industrial Revolution started in and across Europe. One reason is in looking at Europe’s pattern of internal development and how many small and large states were competitive. What also is said to have sparked it off was all these new countries and states need of taxes and money in their vicinity. 

Britain was one of Europe’s largest countries and many of its landlords had ‘enclosed’ much agricultural land. This led to the series of agricultural innovations such as crop rotation, selective breeding, etc. Tribal and the very beginnings of the transformation to technological innovations. British political life was encouraging commercialization and economic innovation as well. What else took this off and on a roll was the side by side help and “installation” of the Scientific Revolution which fostered Great Britain’s technological innovation.