The British Industrial Revolution, Research Paper Example

For almost the entirety of human history, tools and technology remained relatively unchanged; what changes did appear often arose and spread slowly. The invention of the most basic technologies, such as the wheel, helped to underpin the development of agriculture. For millennia human beings relied on agriculture, hunting and gathering, and other methods to gather supplies of food and underpin the creation of permanent or semi-permanent settlements in the forms of villages, towns, and cities. This capacity to grow large supplies of food was the first developmental revolution in human history, and the repercussions of it allowed humans to expand their reach and scope to nearly all parts of the globe. The available technologies for use in agriculture and other process continued to evolve and be refined, but virtually the entire world would be reshaped in the 18^th century in the era known as the Industrial Revolution. This revolution began in England, eventually spreading to continental Europe and then to other parts of the world. Historians have often questioned and considered why the Industrial Revolution started in England; the best answer to that question may be that the Industrial Revolution should more rightly be called the Industrial Evolution. By considering the Industrial Revolution in the context of the political, economic, and social climate of 18^th-century England, it may be possible to see why that tiny island gave birth to a movement that would change the world.

By most historical accounts, the Industrial Revolution began in the mid-18^th century in England, as new technologies were created for the purpose of increasing the capacity of various economic sectors (Deane, p 5, 1979). Some historians go so far as to assign a specific year -1760- as the starting point of the Industrial Revolution (Deane, p5). If the Industrial Revolution is to be measured solely in terms of technological advances, then this date is, at the very least, not entirely arbitrary. It was in this period that a number of new technologies emerged, from mechanical devices that spun cotton to steam engines, iron works, and other advances. The development of such technologies gave rise to the first factories, the advent of which would bring sweeping change for people in Britain and later in other parts of the world. The implications of the development of factories are enormous, as entire nations began to shift from agrarian and agriculture-based economies to manufacturing-based economies. This led to explosive growth in urban centers as thousands of people moved to cities in search of work in factories, and huge sectors of the British population came to rely on factories as a means of earning a living (Humphries, p 179, 2010).

It must be noted that framing a discussion about the Industrial Revolution solely in terms of technological advances paints an incomplete picture. The technologies that underpinned the Industrial revolution were not created in a vacuum, and did not suddenly appear out of nowhere. These technologies emerged within England’s economic, social, and cultural context, and the fact that they were developed there, and not in France or the British colonies or in other parts of the world, must be taken into account. Those historians who reject the notion that the Industrial Revolution happened quickly, and had a clearly-delineated starting point, argue instead that the revolution arose as part of “the essential continuity of history” (Deane, p 6, 1979). This view of the Industrial Revolution does not discount the significance of technological achievements in the 18^th century; instead, it simply seeks to frame those advances in the larger historical context which provided the environment and circumstances in which they were created.

In taking the long view of history when considering the question of why the Industrial Revolution happened in England, it may be helpful to consider other “revolutionary” changes that preceded it. For more than a century leading up to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, England was an economic and political force on a global scale. England had developed a massive naval and commercial shipping capacity, and was at the forefront of international trade routes that spanned from East Asia to colonies and ports in Africa and the Americas. England was not the only nation with such capacity, of course; the Dutch, the French, the Portuguese, and the Spanish all were deeply invested and involved in international shipping and commerce. It was just as England’s toe-hold in the Americas was giving way to the revolutionary sprit that would birth the United States that the Industrial Revolution was also born; this is no coincidence, as the same revolutionary zeal that underpinned the political changes in the American colonies also underpinned the progressive spirit that spawned new technologies.

The Industrial Revolution was about more than just technology. The Age of Enlightenment that followed the Middle Ages was a period in which people began to question political, social, and economic traditions that had stood for centuries (Mokyr, p 6, 1997). It was the ideas and ideals of the Enlightenment that led to sweeping political change as many people began to question that idea that kings ruled by divine right. The idea that political power was handed down by God began to be replaced in England and Europe with the idea that political power should rest in the hands of the governed. These new political ideas were transplanted across the Atlantic to the British colonies, where many colonists began to question the legitimacy of the ruler of King George, and called for democratic and republican forms of government.

Such political fervor was matched by artistic and creative forces that sought to throw off the confines and restrictions of the church and explore the realm of secular art. This was the age of Humanism, where the idea of exploring the capacities of human achievement fueled a spirit of progress in many areas of life (Deane, p 7). This progressive ideology gained wide popularity, as more and more people began to see the human experience as a process of always moving upward, of making improvements in all areas of human endeavors. Technology was not the only arena in which significant advances were seen; from the Great Masters who painted the classic works of the renaissance to writers who cast off the limitations of theology to explore new philosophical and ideological ideas, progress and development were hallmarks of the post-Middle Ages era.

The Age of Enlightenment fueled a boom in education in Europe and England, and colleges and universities sprang up throughout that part of the world (Mokyr, p 5). England was at the center of a number of different phenomena and circumstances, as the nation’s economic and political systems evolved rapidly. England was also home to a significant reserve of natural resources such as coal, which would be used to fuel the steam engines and other machines characteristic of the Industrial Revolution. Even before the invention of the kinds of machines that would come to be identified with the Industrial revolution, however, England was moving in the direction of streamlining agricultural processes, and the nation’s burgeoning capacity to grow food served to support significant population growth and helped to stabilize the country’s economy.

All of these various factors and circumstances, then, can be seen as serving to create the proper environment, the crucible in which the Industrial Revolution was born. It was a time of significant social and economic progress, as the stable agricultural sector was able to support a growing population. Knowledge and ideas that emerged after the Middle Ages were able to spread through the written word. Revolutionary political ideas were sweeping Europe and England. The reach of England’s international-trade capacity was growing, and the nation was expanding its reach farther and farther around the world. In every aspect of life a progressive mentality was driving changes and development. It was in this context that the Industrial Revolution was forged.

If all this progress and growth and the emergence of new ideas provided an environment in which the Industrial Revolution could happen, it was still necessary to create the technologies that would change the way the people of England worked and lived. The old saying that “necessity is the mother of invention” is never more applicable than when considering the industrial revolution; the growing population of England at the time needed food, clothing, shelter, and fuel, and the first inventions of the Industrial Revolution were developed to serve these basic, fundamental needs (Lloyd-Jones and Lewis, p 15, 1997). One of the single most important inventions of the Industrial Revolution was the steam engine, and it was both fueled by coal and created to make coal mining easier and more productive.

As England’s population grew, the demand for coal grew as well, as coal was used for heating in furnaces long before it drove the power of steam engines. In order to increase the capacity of coal mines, it was necessary to dig deeper and deeper into the ground, and to pump more and more water out in order to get at the coal (O’Brien and Quinalt, p 60, 1993). Pumps powered by humans or by horses and other animals simply could not pump fast enough to keep up with the demand of the coal mining operations. Inventors such as Thomas Newcomb created the earliest steam engines, which harnessed the pressure of steam to move gears and wheels (Deane, p 7). Suddenly the power of coal could be used not just to heat buildings, but to replace –and vastly improve on- the physical labor of people and livestock. This new capacity for harnessing the energy in coal would lead to changes in other sectors as well.

Another economic sector in England that was transformed by technology was the manufacture of textiles. Machines that could spin cotton and looms that created fabrics could now be powered by steam, and the production capacity in these sectors grew exponentially (Deane, p 19). This capacity to produce large amounts of textiles aligned well with England’s heavy involvement in international shipping and commerce, as textiles served as a primary commodity for trade with other nations (Deane, p 19). Similar advances were seen in the agricultural sector. The production capacity of England’s agricultural sector, already grown in the decades preceding the Industrial Revolution, grew significantly once livestock could be replaced by machines for many of the tasks associated with farming. As various sectors were reformed and reshaped by industrial technology, factories were built to take advantage of the newfound technology. The growing production capacity of these sectors fueled a population boom, which put increasing pressure on England’s production capacity, creating a feedback loop that demanded ever-increasing growth.

The period now known as the Industrial revolution did not end with the development of the steam engine, of course; that was, in fact, just the beginning. The technological advances seen in England were soon mirrored in Europe and then in other parts of the world. It is impossible to say whether or how the Industrial Revolution would have or could have developed elsewhere in other ways; history is written as it happened. When considering the question of why the Industrial Revolution took the shape it took, and why it happened in England instead of in some other part of the world. It is necessary to consider a wide range of factors, circumstances, and events. It may be impossible to say with certainty exactly why the Industrial Revolution started in England, but it is clear that it was woven from threads of invention and progress that were formed out of England’s history.

Works Cited

Burnette, Joyce. Gender, Work and Wages in Industrial Revolution Britain. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print.

Deane, Phyllis. The First Industrial Revolution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Print.

Humphries, Jane. Childhood and Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.

Lloyd-Jones, Roger, and M J. Lewis. British Industrial Capitalism Since the Industrial Revolution. London, UK: UCL Press, 1997. Print.

Mokyr, Joel. The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993. Print.

O’Brien, Patrick K, and Roland E. Quinault. The Industrial Revolution and British Society. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Print.