The Workshop of the World: The Industrial Revolution

1441 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Industrial revolution changes in technology

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. .

Show More
Related

  • industrial revolution

    660 Words  | 2 Pages

    America had a huge industrial revolution in the late 1800”s. Many changes happened to our great nation, which factored into this. The evidence clearly shows that advancements in new technology, a large wave of immigrants into our country and new views of our government, helped to promote America’s huge industrial growth from the period of 1860-1900.

    Read More

  • Industrial Revolution DBQ

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Industrial Revolution consequently began as a result of Great Britain’s wealth, resources, population, education, and access to trade. Although Industrial Revolution improved the rate of wages and life expectancy, due to the deformities, life-threatening punishments, and atrocious accident that occurred within the working facility.

    Read More

  • The Industrial Revolution

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    Introduction The industrial revolution took place between 1750 and 1850 all round the world. In this essay it describes the changes made in Middlesbrough in this period and how the managed to cope with the surge of people coming into Middlesbrough. Everything changed in Middlesbrough in the Industrial Revolution like mining, transport, agriculture and even technology. Population grew at great rate as there was plenty of work and cheap labour was readily available.

    Read More

  • Industrial Revolution and the Crime Conundrum

    1624 Words  | 4 Pages

    O'Brien, Patrick, and Roland Quinault, eds. The Industrial Revolution and British Society. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993. Print.

    Read More

  • Industrialization Dbq

    1129 Words  | 3 Pages

    The industrialization of Great Britain led the planet with modern technology because of their ample amount of natural resources and their political stability. With multiple entrepreneurs looking for innovative machines and capital to invest in those machines, they continued to demonstrate to the world they were the leaders in urbanization at that time. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of modernized machines, it was actually a negative thing for society. Industrialization’s negative effects were child labor, separated families, and bad quality of life.

    Read More

  • The Impact of the Industrial Revolution in Britain from 1750 to 1850

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the period of 1750 to 1850, Great Britain experienced an economic growth that transformed the lives of Europeans. It was an era characterized by the rise of machine-powered factories, technological advances, the increase in population and the expansion of trade. The progression of this transformation, however manifested itself into social and living concerns for the working class. Opponents of the Industrial Revolution feel that the effect of free competition and trade is producing wealth without well-being. On the other hand, the advocates for industrialization and the introduction of machinery feel that the lives of the working class are actually improving. Although, the workers of this time period put forth compelling arguments against industrialization, I must settle in favor of industrialization. The process of industrializing brought new opportunities that advanced the lives of owners as well as workers. Economic growth and resources become more obvious for everyday workers. The benefits of the Industrial Revolution advances from the introduction of machinery in the textile industry, the ownership of businesses and the economic shift of urbanizing towns.

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Novel By Evelina Burney

    677 Words  | 2 Pages

    Allen, Robert C., The British Industrial Revolution in a Global Perspective, New York: Cambridge Press, 2009. Pp. viii, 331.

    Read More

  • Comparisons of the Industrial Revolutions

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    The industrial revolution of 17th and 18th centuries saw the transformation of Britain from a Neolithic nation into an industrious nation. However, this spread quickly throughout the world, introducing the modernisation of agriculture, revolution in power and manufacturing of textile.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of The Industrial Revolution In Britain

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Revolutions are the locomotives of history” (Karl Marx). The concept of how far we’ve progressed in the past couple of centuries is hard to grasp. A revolution is defined as an instance of revolving and I think this quote from Karl Marx sums up the significance of revolutions in relevance to us as the human race; they pull us forward and allow us to progress. It’s whether or not these progressions are beneficial or not that makes or breaks the usefulness of a revolution. Although the industrial revolution in Britain had its ups and downs, it ultimately paved the road for Britain to become the world power it is today. There is much discussion about how, or why, the Industrial revolution started in Britain. I contribute this to three main attributes of Britain; the scientific and agricultural revolution, the cheap energy economy, and their social structure.

    Read More

  • Industrial Revolution Argumentative Essay

    989 Words  | 2 Pages

    Major bias exists in discussion of the Industrial Revolution even among its contemporaries. Thus, it is quite impossible to determine empirically whether industrialisation is best described as detrimental or beneficial. Indeed, industrialisation radically changed the way of life in Britain and all of Europe, but the varying changes are intertwined and not able to be separated and compared fairly. Complex change such as this cannot be dissected and scrutinised for good versus bad; the industrial revolution is both and it is neither. It cannot be

    Read More

  • Causes of the Industrial Revolution

    461 Words  | 1 Pages

    One of the darker causes for the Industrial Revolution was the slave trade with overseas colonies at the time. For many merchants who saw the easy money to be made from the voyages, the merchants became extremely rich – and as it is in human nature – these rich merchants wanted to become even more rich, the seemingly best way to do this was to invest profits from the slave trade into the new factories that were arising, this is called “Commercial Revolution”. Britain was one of the few countries that was able to bring in profits from other countries and keep profits in their country, aiding them into being the first country to Revolutionise Industrially.

    Read More

  • Industrialization In Great Britain Essay

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    Great Britain was the first country to experience industrialization due to its abundant natural resources such as coal and iron, immense expansion throughout the world and subsequent economic growth from trade, and its governmental and financial strength. The industrial revolution was fast and maintained strength in Great Britain, whereas other Western countries experienced industrialization much more gradually and with more difficulty, due to political, social, and economic instability. Great Britain’s natural resources were a major factor in its early industrialization. One of the main resources was the abundance of both coal and iron. These two elements could be easily used in many different aspects of industrialization, and the amount of each led innovators to use them in all aspects of manufacturing in order to lower costs.

    Read More

  • Great Britain and the Industrial Revolution

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...not on governments, but on men of initiative, determination, ambition, vision, resourcefulness, single-mindedness, and (not infrequently) good, honest greed” (117). The Industrial Revolution, led by Great Britain, greatly changed the existing attitude of powerlessness towards nature to one of power because now people were able to produce enough goods and food to support the expanding population. The ability to produce a surplus that arose from the ongoing industrialization meant that people no longer had to worry over nature and its effects on the economy. The Industrial Revolution led by Great Britain radically changed Europe's social and economic ways of life and provided the impetus for the tremendous progress of the 19th century.

    Read More

  • The Positive Effects Of Britain's Industrial Revolution

    577 Words  | 2 Pages

    Britain, specifically England, was a politically stable society at the time and became the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution for a number of other reasons. They had merchants who already had the capital for investing in the means of production and producing factories, they held more colonies than any other nation (some already rich in their own textile industries), they had the key raw materials needed for production, and there was a large number of readily available workers (Zmolek

    Read More

  • The Effect of the Industrial Revolution on the Wider World

    2008 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about The Workshop of the World: The Industrial Revolution

Open Document