The paper looks at the modern history and how the industrial revolution changed Europe and in a great extent the entire world. It looks at the inventions that were a product of the industrial revolution and the economic impacts they had in the society. It also looks into the political structures and the political changes that came with industrial revolution.
¶ … 1770 and 1850, the economy of England became industry based as opposed to agriculture based as it used to be before (Toynbee, 1884). This was due to technological inventions that were ongoing in many spheres that were finally integrated. This led to the development of factories that really never existed before. The development of industries was owed to better transport system that created larger markets. It took the society some time to adjust to the new economic system different from the agrarian economy they were conversant with. This paper seeks to highlight why industrial revolution started in Britain. There were quite a number of factors that led to British Industrial Revolution.
One of the major factors that caused industrial revolution in Britain was the expansion of trade save for the mercantile economic policies that had early been instituted. Because of decline of feudalism, farmers were no longer bound to the land (Kreis, 2011). The decline of the guild system also caused the British industrial revolution. It was impossible for a guild for a particular trade to control whoever was intending to set up new business. The decline of the system of customary prices made the market to become freer. I the old system one could change the price at times when there shortages in order to maximize profit.
Changes in how agriculture was done also led to industrial revolution in Britain. When the old system of communal farming was abolished and replaced with family farms, land was equally distributed as was the norm before. The share of land given to certain farmers was, however; not enough to make them survive as independent farmers. They subsequently went out of business and had to go looking for work in other destinations. When four field crop rotation concepts was introduced whereby farmers could rotate wheat, turnips, barley, clover or alfalfa in that order enabled farmers to rare livestock. Livestock products like milk, cheese, beef, and skin ha to be processed hence the emergence of industrial revolution. New scientific approaches also led to the advent of industrial revolution in Britain. It should not be lost on us that one of the pioneer scientific investigators of agriculture was an Englishman by the name Jethro Tull. The average agricultural surplus per worker doubled from about 25% to about 50%. The English farmers had learnt more about manure and other fertilizers. They were treating farming as a science and this led to realization of much yield (Kreis, 2011). English families, because of abundance of food, never spent everything they earned on bread. They started purchasing manufactured goods. Workers who were no longer needed in the realms of agriculture were free to look for industrial jobs where there skills could be better used. Farmers also managed their large as they deemed fit.
England imported most of its iron. This could be attributed to shortage of charcoal that could be used in smelting iron. However, when it was established that coke could be used in smelting iron, the iron industry took off. England was endowed with vast deposits of iron ore and coal.
Invention of steam engine also led to industrial revolution in Britain. It all began with the invention of Newcomen engine in about 1712 where a cylinder was filled with steam and the steam condensed to draw the piston down. This engine was used to draw water out of coal mines. Watt Engine, invented in 1774, had a separate condenser that made it more efficient. James Watt later added sun and planet gear, automatic control mechanism, and double acting engine to the Watt Engine. For transportation applications, high pressure engines were developed after 1800 (Kreis, 2011).
Transportation technology was also one of the causes of the industrial revolution in Britain. Improved roads were built in large numbers between 1750 and 1815 (Kreis, 2011). Transportation costs were therefore reduced by between 20-30%. Canals were also built notably the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal which was 7 miles long. This canal helped halve the cost of coal in Manchester. There was a boom in erection of canal between 1750 and 1800 (Kreis, 2011). Courtesy of canals, England had 3875 miles of navigable water by 1830. This provided means of cheaper transport to bulky industrial goods.
The coming of the railroad system also occasioned in a way the industrial revolution. Locomotives that were at first used in coal mines proved to be very heavy for the existing tracks that were used by horse drawn cars. The erection of the railroads expedited the transportation of coal from the mines to the industries where they were used to smelt iron ores. Stockton and Darlington Railroad was the first career to use locomotives. This happened in 1825. In 1829, Liverpool and Manchester had a contest to test locomotives (Mack, 2005).
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