Industrial Revolution

Submitted by ox407718 on 06/30/2008 05:21 PM

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Industrial Revolution

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

The Industrial Revolution was the historical transformation of more traditional into more modern societies by industrialization the economy. The main defining feature of the revolution was a dramatic increase in per capita production that was made possible by the mechanization of manufacturing and other processes that were carried out in factories. Its main social impact was that it changed an simple society into an urban industrial society. The term Industrial Revolution can be applied to specific countries and periods of the past, but the process known as industrialization is still going on, particularly in developing countries. Since industrialization makes long-term increases in production and income, economists looking to create in other countries a process similar to the one that first happend by accident in 18th-century Britain has been motivated by the Industrial Revolution.

THE REVOLUTION IN GREAT BRITAIN

Historians are not sure on the exact causes of Britain's Industrial Revolution, which may be viewed as stemming from a variety of related and coincidental factors.

Britain's Advantages

Britain had natural advantages that others didn'y to help explain why the Industrial Revolution started there. It was richly coverd with coal and iron ore and easy access to waterways. It was mostly placed at the crossroads of international trade, and internal trade was influencd by the absence of domestic tariffs. After the union of England and Scotland in 1707, the largest free-trade area in Europe, political liberty was guaranteed, and a relatively open social structure made social mobility common, giving an increase to the accumulation of wealth. The principles of the Protestant Nonconformists, who were to form the backbone of the new middle class, encouraged industry and thrift. New knowledge, especially in science, was freely disseminated, breeding an...

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