The Industrial Revolution.
The birth of modern-day life.
Without it, the world would be quite a bit different than how we know it today.
Manufacturing and even purchasing goods would be vastly altered, as would the workforce.
For many people, the Industrial Revolution was a much-welcomed miracle.
For others, it was a threatening time of change.
But either way, there is one question that can be asked by any of us - how did the Industrial
Revolution actually happen?...
The Industrial Revolution first began in Great Britain during the latter half of the 18th
century.
Throughout the next century, the process of mechanizing the factory systems, replacing
hand production with machine production processes, and the growing uses of steam and water power
all contributed to the industrialization first of Britain and soon of the rest of Europe
and the United States as British entrepreneurs eagerly exported this new knowledge and way
of life to their neighbors and allies.
In terms of how the revolution first began before expanding though, this can be attributed
to a few different factors.
At the time, Great Britain had a level of political stability that could easily endure
such overhauling changes across the country.
It also had a steady economy that was able to fund and maintain the century of industrialization.
A strong pool of entrepreneurs and inventors proved to be a crucial pillar for the revolution
as well, and easily accessible ports and roads for these businessmen to export their new,
quickly produced goods were a helpful addition.
Britain also had a plethora of natural resources which, together with everything else, made
the perfect opportunity for this exact kind of nationwide adjustment to happen…
If not for political stability in Great Britain, the Industrial Revolution may not have been
such a successful period, especially considering the heavy criticism that it received from
many workers.
But luckily for Britain, and eventually the world, the 18th century was a pretty stable
time within the empire.
there were some overseas conflicts such as the Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution,
but nothing was too bad back home and the British Crown was holding strong.
Slavery was also abolished during this period, an important decision that helped to quell
the one significant threat unrelated to rival powers, which was the recurring slave rebellions.
All in all, the political realm of Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution was reliable
and well equipped to handle whatever was to come.
But it wasn’t just the political stability that mattered.
The economy was crucial as well.
During the 18th century, the British economy was prosperous around the globe.
Focused on building a wildly sprawling trade network while other global powers looked to
expand their territorial gains, the British Empire had no shortage of commercial success
or income.
And it was thanks to this steady economy that the Industrial revolution could be funded
and invested in.
Still, money and a reliable government alone can’t power machinery - but natural resources
can.
Great Britain had an excess of coal and iron, in addition to other valuable resources that
played a crucial role in the industrialization process and powering its machinery.
Even with a bounty of natural resources though, in order to utilize them to such a high degree,
there had to be ways of transporting these goods.
And yet again the Brits hit the jackpot because they had exactly this.
Many readily available roads, ports, and canals served as easy ways for resources and even
finished products to be transported to their desired destination, which made powering industrial
machinery and selling the products they produced not only possible but even fairly simple.
Furthermore, it was only due to the eagerness and willingness of these people to share the
new discoveries and methods that the industrialization process was able to spread all throughout
Europe and the former British colonies in the United States.
So with all those factors setting a perfect foundation for the mechanization of Britain.
For a long while, Great Britain had been a leading producer of materials such as wool,
cotton, and linen, and the thought of being able to produce even more, even faster, was
quite appealing.
As a result, some of the early inventions from the Industrial Revolution came in the
form of textile-making machinery.
The flying shuttle, invented in 1733, and spinning jenny in 1770 were some of these
inventions that drastically changed the world of textile production.
The water frame had also come a year prior to the spinning jenny and the power loom would
soon be created in 1785.
All of these new machines would gain sweeping popularity in the British textile industry
as they were able to greatly reduce the use of manpower and increase production.
But it wasn’t just cotton and wool that would soon be easier to produce.
Other inventions such as the milling machine, screw-cutting lathe, and cylinder boring machine
all played important roles in industrialization, as did the popularization of steam power around
this same time.
Although the first steam engine had been birthed back at the start of the 18th century by an
inventor named Thomas Newcomen, it wasn’t until another inventor, by the name of James
Watt, upgraded Newcomen’s design to create a much more efficient version of the engine
which would require much less fuel, that it really became widely accepted.
This alone helped to boost the prevalence of steam power, but the real boom came when
Watt teamed up with another man, Matthew Boulton, to add a rotary motion to the updated steam
engine, making it possible to use in a plethora of industries from paper to flour to iron.
And iron was a significant player in the revolution on its own.
As coke, a material created through the process of heating coal, replaced charcoal in the
production of wrought and pig iron, prices to produce went down thanks to the lowered
fuel cost, and manufacturers could now use larger blast furnaces as well.
Steam engines, cast iron blowing cylinders, and additional changes made in the iron production
industry made it a major piece of the industrialization of Britain.
The steam engine now made it easier for miners to more easily extract larger amounts of coal,
while the steam engine needed coal to be fueled.
Everything seemed to be coming together flawlessly and the world in Great Britain appeared to
be opening up to a new and easier way of life.
But this meant that other areas of life needed to become easier too, not just for the workforce.
For example, in 1837, Charles Wheatstone and William Cooke patented the first commercial
telegraphy system to make long-distance communication easier and more accessible.
Transportation was modernized through the production of steam engine locomotives around
the same time as well, and famed moral philosopher and economist Adam Smith, later dubbed the
‘Father of Capitalism’, began to promote a new form of economy that would make life
easier for entrepreneurs and the changing means of production.
A stock exchange had already been established in London and by the 1790s, the New York Stock
Exchange was born…
And the Industrial Revolution as a whole was now spreading abroad to the United States
and the rest of Europe thanks to eager inventors and entrepreneurs, and to the undeniable success
that the revolution was having on production, transportation, communication, and so much
more.
And although there have been heated debates between economists and historians alike as
to when the general standard of living increased due to the industrialization, it is clear
that following the first century of the process, as wages were adjusted and changes were made
to regulate things such as public health and sanitation, life began to improve slowly for
the average citizen.
As the revolution spread through Europe, it first reached France and Belgium, shortly
making its way to the Germanic region, then Sweden and beyond.
The United States soon joined the industrialization movement through the adoption of British inventions
and the production of some of their own, like the cotton gin.
As the following decades played out, the Industrial Revolution would continue to change the way
the world worked across the board and create the modern way of life as we know it today.
And all of this occurred due to the unprecedented inventions and production shifts made in Great
Britain, likely to accommodate the growing domestic and international demand for commercial
goods.
But the reason why it was able to begin and eventually spread outside of the British Isles
is because of the perfect storm of factors that existed in 18th century Britain.
A stable government, reliable economy, a plethora of natural resources, many entrepreneurial
and inventive spirits, accessible roads and ports for the moving of goods and materials,
and the eventual willingness to share these new discoveries all came together to birth
one of the most important, influential, and modernizing periods of history for first Great
Britain and then the world…