Effects of the Napoleonic Wars on the Industrialization Process in Europe
Napoleonic wars had a great effect on the industrialization process in Europe.
Napoleonic wars had a great effect on industrialization process in Europe. Let's take Great Britain as an example because of its position of the most powerful industrial country of that time.
While Europe's "great men" plotted grand schemes to pursue their political and intellectual ambitions during the crisis of the Napoleonic wars, obscure British inventors designed machines whose impact would dwarf their efforts. They industrialized textile making by using machines and new power sources to accomplish a task formerly done by human and animal power. They began what has been called by some the Industrial Revolution. The huge increase in productivity made possible by using machines can be shown in the amount of raw cotton Britain imported in 1760 and 1850. In 1760 the British imported a bit over 1000 tons; in 1850 the number had risen to over 222,000 tons.
The story behind the growth of the textile industry is one of a continual "catch-up" game between the spinners and weavers to respond to a growing market. After the 1707 Act of Union with Scotland, Britain possessed an expanding population with a larger per capita income than that of any other European state. The population growth stemmed from a gradual decline in death rates and an increase in the birth rate. (J. D. Chambers ) It provided more customers and workers.
Practical people seeing the need for greater output solved the practical problems of production. In the many steps from the raw cotton to the finished cloth, there were bottlenecksprimarily in making yarn and weaving the strands together.
In 1733, John...
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The Industrial Revolution was a fundamental change in the production of goods that altered the life of the working class. Similar to most other historical turning points, it had skeptics, or people that doubted the change, and fanatics, people who saw the value in the change being made. The Industrial Revolution and the period that followed shortly after highlight these varying opinions, as people were more conflicted than ever about the costs of industrialization. While industrialization started in England as an attempt to capitalize on the good fortune they had struck, it quickly developed into a widespread phenomenon that made the production of goods more exact and controlled by higher level people. Many industries, such as the cotton and textile businesses, were previously run through organizations called “cottage industries”.
Europe as a continent includes many nations and yet the structure and boundaries of European countries have morphed multiple times creating and dissolving governments through war and conflict. The Napoleonic wars were from around 1803 to 1815, though this may not be exact since the wars’ start date is a matter of opinion due to earlier conflicts with Europe during the entire French revolution. They were a geographical and political restructuring of Europe that lead to the creation and organization of the Europe nations that eventually became the primary combatants and effected territories of World War 1. The nations of France, England, and kingdoms of Germany experienced sweeping changes in their positions in the world due to Napoleon’s actions and the French’s influences across Europe. The spread of new ideas of nationalism, society, and government that spread across Europe as a consequence of the Napoleonic wars and French Revolution impacted each of these countries to varying degrees and set their position in the world until the start of the first World War.
In Britain, industrialization changed the lives of workers in many ways. One way workers lives changed is being able to earn higher wages. They could make more money in factories than on farms. Wi...
The period during which there was an increased output of machine-made goods, also known as the Industrial Revolution, played a critical role in reshaping Britain’s economy. The Industrial Revolution, stimulated by advancements that were made during the Agricultural Revolution, began in Great Britain for many reasons. In addition to Britain’s broad availability of natural resources, the count...
The factory system was the key to the industrial revolution. The factory system was a combination of Humans and new technology. New technology was arriving every day. The greatest invention during this time was the steam engine. The creation of the steam engine was credited to James Watt. There had been other steam engines before James Watt’s but none of them were efficient. Watt’s engine was the first efficient engine that could be used in a factory. The steam engine had the strength of ten thousand men.(Pollard) This was not the only invention that helped the factory system evolve. Textiles were a major product of the Industrial Revolution. Production was slow at first in the factory. In 1764, a British inventor named James Hargraves invented the “Spinning Jenny.” This lowered production time which enabled the factory to produce more per day. In 1773, John Kay, an English inventor, created the “flying shuttle” which lowered the production time even more.(Encarta) If production had not been speed up, the Industrial Revolution would have not had that big of effect as it did in North America.
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
O'Brien, Patrick, and Roland Quinault, eds. The Industrial Revolution and British Society. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993. Print.
The Industrial Revolution in nineteenth-century England brought about many changes in British society. It was the advent of faster means of production, growing wealth for the Nation and a surplus of new jobs for thousands of people living in poverty. Cities were growing too fast to adequately house the numerous people pouring in, thus leading to squalid living conditions, increased filth and disease, and the families reliance upon their children to survive. The exploitation of children hit an all time peak in Britain when generations of its youth were sacrificed to child labor and the “Coffers” of England.
By the 1750ís the Industrial Revolution had begun. The Industrial Revolution was directly related to the rise of the factory system.(1) The incentive to invest in factories came from the fact that they were extremely efficient, so there was a great potential for increased profit. Men, women, and children were employed to keep the machines running and the factory system was established to provide the greatest efficiency of material and labor, at the lest expensive cost.(2) Factories provided the oppo...
The revolution of the 18th and 19th century saw an immense transformation in science, technology and our economy, hence, the transformation from a Neolithic economy to an industrial economy. The revolution impacted on the social-economic in terms of the industrial research and development. Before the revolution labour was manly manual force however, the first revolution saw the materlisation of machines. For examples, the introduction of steam engines provided powered energy used in replacement of manual labour, therefore ...
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 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.
Horn, Jeff, Leonard N. Rosenband, and Merritt Roe Smith. Reconceptualizing the Industrial Revolution. Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2010.
In conclusion, the Industrial Revolution had profoundly impacted Europe in the 18th century. The Industrial Revolution also had considerable impact upon the nature of work, people, geography, and technology. It significantly changed the daily lives of ordinary men, women, and children. All of these factors came together in the late 18th century to create the unique conditions in England that culminated in the first-ever Industrial Revolution.