The transformation of the world

Make a 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 young people who grew up before such machines were invented. How did they travel from place to place? How did they communicate? How did they cook?

At one time, physical labor provided much of the energy for daily life. Families burned wood for warmth and cooking. Domestic animals helped with chores and transport. Windmills and waterwheels powered simple machines under the right conditions.

However, the early 1700s saw the beginning of a revolution: the Industrial Revolution. Now, people found an extra source of energy that could work for them. That source was fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas. These fuels had been forming from the remains of plants and animals from much earlier geologic times. When burned, such fuels released much more energy than wood.

Early steam engines

The story of the Industrial Revolution begins in Great Britain. Its coalfields and coal mines played an important role. By the early 1700s, coal was being used more and more. Coal mines, though, often filled with water, slowing work. The need to fix this problem led to a key invention. In 1712, Englishman Thomas Newcomen built a coal-powered steam engine. It used mechanical power to pump water from the mines. More than fifty years later, Scotland’s James Watt developed a better steam engine. Other inventors and engineers improved on Watts’ design.

Factories soon found many uses for coal-fueled steam engines. Textile mills were among the first to adopt them. Historically, textiles were woven by hand. In some places, river-driven waterwheels powered textile workshops. Now steam-powered machines could produce cotton thread. They could drive the weaving looms. The result was more work done much faster. Such engines could power many machines at once, and factories hired more and more workers to operate them. Early in the 1800s, the British added steam engines to locomotives and ships. The new technology made transportation faster and more reliable.

The Industrial Revolution continued to gain momentum. Its products were on display at the first world’s fair. This showcase was hosted by Britain in 1851. There, companies demonstrated equipment that was changing daily work and life. They included telegraphs, sewing machines, farm machinery, and steam hammers.

Why Britain?

Britain wasn’t the only place that had deposits of coal. So why didn’t the Industrial Revolution begin somewhere else, like China which had similar fuel resources? What influence did geography and culture have? Historians continue to investigate these questions.

Possible reasons why industrialization began in Britain include:

• Large, easy-to-reach coal deposits and a shortage of wood
• A wealthy ruling class willing to invest money in new businesses.
• A strong navy to protect commercial shipping.
• British colonies in Africa, India, and the Americas; sources of natural resources, labor, and markets.

Possible reasons industrialization did not begin in China include:

• China’s coalfields far from business centers; underground coal deposits difficult to reach.
• A large population, making human labor cheap.
• A culture that discouraged experimentation and change.

Global forces that led to industrialization in Britain include:

• Britain’s location on the Atlantic Ocean.
• British colonies in North America provided land, labor, and markets.
• Silver from the Americas, used in trade with China.

The spread of the Industrial Revolution

Industrial technology and ideas soon spread from Britain. European countries built their own factories and railroads. These rail systems were an important need for industrial development. Trains provided fast and cheap transportation to and from factories.

Industrialization took a major step in the United States in 1789. That year Samuel Slater left Britain for Rhode Island. There, he set up the first textile factory on U.S. soil. Railroad construction followed. It boomed from the 1830s to the 1870s. The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the first truly industrial war. Factories mass-produced supplies and weapons for the war effort. The North was urbanized and factory-based. It used that industrial superiority to defeat the agriculture-based South.

After the war, industrialization accelerated worldwide. Both Russia and Japan shifted from agricultural to industrial economies. Britain lost its place as the world’s industrial leader. By 1900, the United States had replaced it. American industries were producing 24 percent of the world’s output.

Consequences of the Industrial Revolution

Industrialization gained momentum in Europe and the Americas throughout the 1800s. Industrialized nations began to colonize other parts of the world. They took natural resources from these colonies. The colonists also used local people for labor. Colonies served as markets for factory-made goods, as well. The Industrial Revolution led to the age of imperialism.

Industrialization also had remarkable effects on the global population. In 1700, the world’s population was 670 million. By 2011, it was 6.7 billion—ten times larger. In the 20th century alone, the world economy grew fourteen times larger. In turn, people in search of work migrated in numbers never seen before. Millions of people moved from the country to industrial cities. Others emigrated to new countries to find work there.

Table 1: Percentage of urban population growth, 1600 to 2000 CE

Source: Population data adapted from Goldewijk, K.K., A. Beusen, and P. Janssen. “Long-term dynamic modeling of global population and built-up area in a spatially explicit way: HYDE 3.1.” The Holocene 20, no. 4 (2010): 568.

Today, many people around the world enjoy the benefits of industrialization. Machines continue to reduce the amount of physical labor people must do. Hunger has decreased. People live longer. Around the world, people enjoy higher levels of wealth, health, and education than ever before.

The benefits of industrialization, though, have come at a cost. For example, it has led to social problems. Communities often struggle when they experience rapid social change. In addition, industries are overusing many resources. Pollution from fossil fuels continues to do environmental damage, as well. Balancing industrialization’s negative and positive effects is an ongoing challenge.