The Industrial Revolution: Causes, Key Innovations and Global Impact

The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was an abrupt change in production methods and industry that took place in a short period of time, originating in Great Britain and then spreading to the rest of Europe.

Causes

Population growth: Decreasing mortality, major hygiene improvements and better food supply.

• Agriculture improvements: new crop systems, new property distribution and new treatments of land.
• Capital accumulation: individuals, small and medium merchants, and farmers invested in industry. They joined with the great merchants who controlled companies and banks.
• Technological development: existing machines were improved due to the situation, and each invention led to another.
• Expansion of trade: abundant and cheap raw materials from colonies. Northern European countries organized trade for their own benefit, including the introduction of cotton cultivation. Cotton cloth made in England was sold to South America, Asia and Europe.
• Development of transport and trade: major improvements in roads and bridges, and new markets to supply. The appearance of the train and the railway.

Advantages

• Supplied cities and investors, who produced profits.
• Increased demand for steel industry products.

Advantages of factories

• Factories: machines reduced labor, raised productivity and speed, and lowered product costs.
• Guilds disappeared, and the division of labor developed.

Disadvantages

• Pollution.
• Workers faced long hours without safety, and home industries and craftsmanship declined.

Industrial pioneer countries

• Great Britain: pioneer of industrialization. Cotton offered many advantages to industry, and the iron and steel industry also developed.
• Belgium: influenced by Britain and its techniques, it had charcoal, a traditional textile industry, increased urban population and a growing bourgeoisie.
• France: advanced later than other countries. It was rich and developed, but the monarchy and nobility held back industrialization.
• Germany: divided into many states. Prussia developed rural industry at home. Merchants accumulated much capital but invested in industry and railways later.

Stages of the industrial revolution

• Pre-industrial economy: subsistence agriculture and low-productivity domestic industry, with textile products made by peasants at home.
• Protoindustrialization: peasants worked as owners of their tools, while merchants supplied them with raw materials and set prices (putting-out system).
• Concentration of capital: work by hand, machinery and local tools gave way to the factory system.

Industrial revolution in Great Britain

Agricultural transformations: high agricultural productivity and an advanced degree of mechanization. Farm owners became entrepreneurs, enclosures eliminated common lands, cultivated areas grew and livestock was better exploited. Advances included the plow and the horse-drawn harrow.

Contributions of agriculture: it fed a growing population and created demand for industrial products, while supplying the capital needed to fund industry.

The role of international trade

International trade contributed to the industrial revolution by providing raw materials at low prices and creating a large demand for industrial products in Europe and the Americas. Colonial capital financed industrialization, and the financial system and the growth of cities gained momentum.

Transport

Great Britain had large transport networks and cheap communication. Roads were improved, bridges were built and customs barriers between regions were removed.

Industries and factories

Machines similar to one another and the first factories launched the industrial takeoff.

Energy

The steam engine was improved by James Watt in 1781. It produced continuous circular motion and used coal as its energy source.

Iron and coal

Coal was used to melt iron and was a substitute for charcoal, which had been scarce. Early iron production was of poor quality, so coke, a mineral derived from coal, was used in foundries.

Economic impact

British demand for coal and iron grew. Improved transport helped supply cheap and solid industrial products, and industrialization spread to other economic sectors, supplying industry and cheap goods to the country.

Causes of British industrial development

Causes included abundant natural resources, population growth, a large merchant fleet, availability of capital, technological innovations and a Protestant (bourgeois) mentality.

Diffusion of industrialization in Europe

Industrialization spread in a chronology of breaks and self-sustained growth in northern Belgium and France (1830), and in regions with coal and iron. Textile and iron industries developed in Catalonia, northern Italy and other areas, while southern and eastern Europe industrialized more slowly.

Problems of industrialization

Protectionist policies and customs barriers hindered trade. Europe's social structure was rigid, and capital was concentrated in a few productive sectors, leaving the poor unable to buy British goods.

Transport revolution

The steam engine was used for transport. The locomotive was invented, and the first passenger railway opened between Liverpool and Manchester in 1830. Railway construction became an economic engine and an instrument for national and international markets. Navigation was transformed by steamboats, and the Suez and Panama canals were opened.

Second industrial revolution

Taylorism and the rationalization of labor emerged, along with joint-stock companies replacing the family firm. Monopoly capitalism developed: companies tried to dominate markets, impose prices and eliminate competition. New financial forms appeared, such as cartels, agreements between companies that remained independent with the common goal of monopolizing the market, trusts (fusion of independent businesses into a single company) and holding companies with financial interests in several firms. Petroleum became the most important energy source. The airplane was designed, and the chemical, steel and construction sectors expanded, with steel replacing iron.