Industrial Revolution: Causes and Key Developments

The Industrial Revolution: Causes and Key Developments

Until the second half of the 18th century, the economic life of European countries was based on farming techniques developed using outdated and rudimentary methods. Industry was reduced to almost artisanal work. From this period in England began a profound transformation of the forms of production that directly affected the lives of the majority of the population.

Causes of the Industrial Revolution

Demographic Revolution

• Decline in mortality
• Maintenance of high birth rates
• Better-fed population
• Improvements in medicine and hygiene

This reduction in mortality resulted in a large population increase. This demographic growth provided the manpower needed by the factories and was a vital stimulus for industrialization, since it created the demand needed to cover mass manufacturing.

Agricultural Revolution

Population growth increased the demand for food, and agriculture shifted from subsistence to a market model through a series of circumstances:

• Increased cultivated area
• Fallow suppression through crop rotation
• Selection of seeds and livestock breeds
• Chemical fertilizers
• New machinery (threshing machine, mower, improvements in the plow, improved horse fittings)

The result was that between 1700 and 1800, productivity increased by 90%, meeting the needs and creating a surplus for export.

Technological Innovations

From the second phase of the Industrial Revolution, innovations were not designed by unqualified people but by scientists and technicians after many previous studies. All these innovations would impact people's daily lives more than the innovations of the first phase, so people had to start getting used to them.

Energy Sources

Coal was one of the engines of the Industrial Revolution. Its high calorific potential made it the main energy source. With the Industrial Revolution, the use of coal as fuel began, and it was also used as a raw material. The steam engine, invented by James Watt in 1781, provided continuous circular movement and used coal as an energy source. In the second phase of the Industrial Revolution, which began around 1870, new energy sources like oil, copper, and steel (iron + carbon) began to be used. Steel had not been used much until then because its acquisition was too expensive.

Raw Materials

There were abundant natural resources such as iron, coal, and wool. In the textile industry, cotton replaced wool. Besides, improvements were introduced in spinning and weaving until finally, the loom appeared. The consequences were a reduction in costs and an increase in production. The textile industry, like the railroad, needed large amounts of iron and coal, causing the mining and steel industries to develop dramatically. In the blast furnace, coke (coal) began to be used for iron, which then underwent a process of puddling and lamination. The property industry in the second phase of the Industrial Revolution was chemistry: mass production of caustic soda, fertilizers, explosives (dynamite), rubber derivatives (tires), pasteurized and condensed milk, medicines, etc.

Revolution in Transport

The Industrial Revolution would not have been possible had a revolution in transport not occurred in parallel and attached to it, connected with the use of the steam engine. The real revolution came with the arrival of the railroad. In 1813, Stephenson invented the steam engine, and in 1830, the first passenger line between Liverpool and Manchester was established at a speed of 40 km/h. The railway had become an instrument of union for markets and nations. With this new transport, everything was closer and more affordable, as well as cheaper. The application of steam to navigation cornered sailboats and allowed the building of ships of greater tonnage. New channels and means were created. In 1869, the Suez Canal opened, and in 1914, the Panama Canal. With these new routes and the steamboat, around 1870, massive exports from distant countries began, supplying food to industrial Europe. Communications and transportation continued to develop much more in the second phase of the Industrial Revolution. The bicycle, motorcycle, car, tram, plane, etc., appeared.