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Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was the major shift of technological socioeconomic and cultural conditions in the late 18th and early 19th century that began in great and spread throughout the world. During that time, an economy based on was replaced by one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. It began with the mechanization of the textile industries and the development of iron-making techniques, and trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and then railways. The introduction of steam (fuelled primarily by coal) and powered machinery mainly in textile manufacturing underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity. The development of all-metal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century facilitated the manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in other industries.

The causes of the Industrial Revolution were complex, with some historians seeing the Revolution as an outgrowth of social and institutional changes brought by the end of feudalism in Britain after the English civil war in the 17th century. As national border controls became more effective, the spread of disease was diminishing, therefore preventing the epidemics common in previous times. The percentage of children who lived past infancy rose significantly, leading to a larger workforce. The enclosure movement and the British agriculture revolution made food production more efficient and less labor-intensive, encouraging the surplus population who could no longer find employment in agriculture into the cotton, for example weaving, and in the longer term into the cities and the newly-developed factories. The colonial expansion of the 17th century with the accompanying development of international trade, creation of financial markets and accumulation of wealth are also cited as factors, as is the scientific revolution of the 17th century. Technological innovation protected by the Statute of Monopolies in 1623 was, of...