Origins and Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution up to 1815

1. Origins and Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution up to 1815 By Bhavna Sudera

2. The First Industrial Revolution • Began in the 18th century, merged into the Second Industrial Revolution around 1850, when technological and economic progress gained speed with the development of steam-powered ships, railways, and later in the 19th century with the internal combustion engine and electrical power generation. • Because the national borders controls became more effective, the spread of disease was reduced and therefore the spread of the viruses common in those days was also lessened. As a result of this the percentage of children who lived past infancy rose significantly, leading to a larger workforce.

3. This made the British Agricultural Industry more efficient and less labour-intensive, making the population, who couldn’t find employment in agriculture anymore, into cottage industry, e.g. weaving, and in the longer term into the cities and the newly developed factories. • The expansion of the colony in the 17th century with the development of international trade, creation of financial markets and accumulation of capital are also cited as factors, as is the scientific revolution of the 17th century. • Technological innovation was the heart of the Industrial Revolution and the key enabling technology was the invention and improvement of the steam engine.

4. Britain colonies a benefit? • The start of the revolution also concerns Britain’s progress and lead over the other countries. Some historians have pointed out that Britain had natural and financial resource benefited in it’s many overseas colonies, or that Britain made profit from the slave trade between Africa and the Caribbean which helped fuel industrial investment. • But it has been pointed out that the slave trade and the plantations in West Indian only provided %5 of the British income during the years of the Revolution.

5. Alternatively, the greater freedom of trade from a large merchant base may have allowed Britain to produce and use emerging scientific and technological developments more effectively than countries with stronger monarchies, particularly China and Russia. • Britain emerged from the Napoleonic Wars as the only European nation not ravaged by financial plunder and economic collapse, and possessing the only merchant fleet of any useful size as the European merchants fleets were destroyed during the war by the Royal Navy. • Because Britain was fighting overseas the devastating effects of territorial conquest that affected much of Europe did not effect Britain and further more, Britain had a further advantage as it is an island and is separated from the rest of mainland Europe.

6. Further reasons for the cause of Industrial success. • By the 1760s there were already 1,000 miles of inland canals in Britain; over the next 70 years 3,000 more miles of canals were constructed. • Local supplies of coal, iron, lead, copper, tin, limestone and water power, resulted in excellent conditions for the development and expansion of industry. Also, the damp, mild weather conditions of the North West of England provided ideal conditions for the spinning of cotton, and this provided a natural starting point for the birth of the textiles industry. • The stable political situation in Britain from around 1688, and British society's greater receptiveness to change (compared with other European countries) can also be said to be factors favouring the Industrial Revolution.

7. In large part due to the Enclosure movement, the peasantry was destroyed as significant source of resistance to industrialisation, and the landed upper classes developed commercial interests that made them pioneers in removing obstacles to the growth of capitalism.