Make a mental list of the machines around your house, from bicycles to cell phones to microwaves. You might be surprised by how many there are. Now imagine people who grew up before any of these machines were invented. How did they travel from place to place? How did they communicate? How did they cook?

At one time, people used the energy from the Sun, wind, and human and animal power to survive, work, and travel. They burned wood for warmth and cooking and used domestic animals for help with chores. Windmills and waterwheels provided some extra energy, but that energy couldn’t be stored for later use.

Around 1700, all that changed. This was the beginning of a revolution—the Industrial Revolution—when people discovered they could use a new source of energy to power machines to do huge amounts of work for them. The new source of energy? Fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels are made from the remains of plants and animals that died millions of years ago, buried deep beneath the Earth and subjected to intense heat and pressure. When burned, these fuels release energy that had been stored underground for millions of years. That’s right—the cars and electricity all around you today are powered by stuff that died when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Early steam engines

Textile: a woven or knitted fabric; a fiber or yarn that can be woven or knitted

Factory: a building or set of buildings where products are manufactured

The story of the Industrial Revolution begins in England. By the early 1700s, the British had cut down most of their trees to build houses and ships and to burn for heating and cooking. They needed something else to provide heat and energy. They knew that hunks of black stone (coal) found near the surface of Earth could be mined to provide this energy. But coal mines in Great Britain were often filled with water, which made mining difficult. In 1712, an Englishman created a coal-powered steam engine. The steam engine burned coal to heat water, and that heated water produced steam, which powered a pump. The engine was capable of pumping water from the mines. More than 50 years later, the Scottish inventor James Watts designed a much-improved version. His steam engine was soon adapted for other uses, including milling and weaving. Other inventors later improved upon Watts’s design.

People soon took advantage of coal-fueled steam engines to produce goods. Textile mills were among the first to start using steam engines to power machines. Before the steam engine, textiles were woven by hand or in workshops powered by waterwheels and windmills. But steam-powered machines could spin the cotton thread and drive the looms for weaving, and they could do it much faster and without needing to worry about whether the wind was blowing. Attaching a steam engine to textile machines was like trading a bicycle for a jumbo jet. It allowed much more work to be done, and much faster. These large engines were installed in factories where they could power many machines at once.

The Industrial Revolution changed how people lived and work. Workers had to leave their homes for work. Until this time, textiles were woven by hand in home workshops. But steam engines were too large and too expensive to be installed in people’s homes. So, workers woke up every morning and headed to factories, where they worked for someone else and were paid a wage for their work. In the early 1800s, the British added steam engines to trains and ships. The technology made travel faster and more reliable. Inventors and companies developed new industrial technologies, such as telegraphs, sewing machines, and farm machinery. Industry was changing society and transforming the landscape as cities grew, and factories changed where and how people worked.

Why Britain?

Britain wasn’t the only place that had deposits of coal. So why did the Industrial Revolution start in Britain instead of somewhere else, like China? What global forces shaped its emergence? Historians continue to investigate these questions. Here are some of the factors they consider:

Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Britain?

• Large, easy-to-reach coal deposits and a shortage of wood.
• Frequent flooding of coal mines, which sparked innovations like the steam engine to get rid of the water.
• Coal mines were located close to rivers, making it easy to transport heavy coal on boats.
• A wealthy ruling class that was willing to invest money in new businesses.
• Little government involvement in business.
• A strong navy to protect commercial shipping.
• Relative safety of Britain as an island nation.

Why didn’t industrialization begin first in China?:

• China’s coal was far from business centers.
• “Dry coal” mines in China did not need machines to pump water out
• Chinese coal mines were far away from rivers that made it easier to transport coal.
• Coal resources that were deeper underground, and therefore harder to access compared to Britain’s.
• A large, rapidly growing population, which made human labor cheap (less incentive to replace human labor with machines).
• Cultural ideals that valued stability and discouraged dramatic change.

What global factors influenced Britain’s industrialization?

• Britain’s location on the Atlantic Ocean.
• Profits from the transatlantic slave trade that gave Britain the money to invest in industrialization.
• British colonies in India, Africa, and the Americas, which provided land, natural resources, labor, and markets in which to sell factory-made goods.

The spread of the Industrial Revolution

Industrial technologies, practices, and ideas soon spread from Britain to other parts of Europe and the United States. In Europe, countries established their own factories and railroads in the early 1800s. Building a national rail system was an essential part of industrialization. Trains could move raw materials like cotton and coal to factories faster and more cheaply.

Industrialization took a major step forward in the United States in 1789, when the first textile factory was set up. Once factories were built, railroad construction in America boomed from the 1830s to the 1870s. We can say that the American Civil War (1861–1865) was the first industrial war because for the first time, factories mass-produced supplies and weapons for the war effort. The North won in part because it had more cities with large factories, and it used its industrial power to defeat the farming-based South.

After the war, industrialization accelerated worldwide. Both Russia and Japan shifted from agricultural to industrial economies. By 1900, the US had overtaken Britain in manufacturing. It produced 24% of the world’s industrial goods.

Effects of the Industrial Revolution

Throughout the 1800s, industrialization took off in Europe and the Americas. Industrialized nations began to colonize other parts of the world. They took advantage of these colonies for their natural resources and labor, and also used them as markets for factory-made goods. Industrialization was the driving force in the age of imperialism.

The negative effects of these activities would be felt for generations.

Industrialization also had significant effects on the global population. In 1700, the world’s population was 670 million. Today, it’s over 8 billion. Industrialization touched every aspect of society. In the twentieth century, the world economy grew fourteen times larger. As incomes grew, millions of workers moved around the world searching for work, moving to cities and to new countries.

Today, many people around the world enjoy the benefits of industrialization. Machines continue to reduce the amount of physical labor people must do. Food supplies and access to health care have increased life expectancy. Large numbers of people enjoy levels of wealth, health, and education than ever before.

The benefits of industrialization, however, have come at a cost. Industrialization has led to social problems as communities have been disrupted by rapid social changes. In addition, industries are overusing many resources. The continued use of fossil fuels has had serious environmental impacts. Balancing industrialization’s negative and positive effects is an ongoing challenge.