A Brief History Of The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the widespread transition to new manufacturing methods across the globe, but particularly within the world's richest nations. Historians claim that this event occurred between about 1760 - 1840, and some of those changes included transitions from hand production tools and methods to mechanised machinery production processes, such as steam power, water power, and especially electric power. There was also greater utilisation of natural resources such as coal, iron ore, copper, limestone, zinc, oil, and cotton. The development and evolution of better machine tools and mechanical machinery systems facilitated the rise of numerous manufacturing industries, which led to a greater increase in widespread employment. This change eventually improved average earnings and a higher standard of living, especially for the poorest people within the population. Importantly, there occurred the unprecedented rise of the population growth rate, particularly across Western Europe and America, and the world witnessed the emergence of the middle classes, thought to be an 18th-century phenomenon with great social and political significance.
Historians claim that the British Empire originated from about the 16th century and lasted to the early 20th century. Vast quantities of wealth had been accumulated over many centuries by the United Kingdom from the slave trade and British colonies across the world. A considerable sum of Britain's enormous gains was directed into many of its various industries, including the British sea and army forces, and the sciences. Historians claim that the middle-class began to emerge within the United Kingdom around the mid-18th century, and this event was partly due to the rise of the Industrial Revolution. Before that era, there existed the nobility, the gentry, the yeomanry, and the poor. At that particular time in history, it was mainly the upper-classes and the bourgeoisie, who had access to good education, and from that group the talented minority created innovations and inventions that were later utilized within many manufacturing industries, which were then driven by the enormous labour forces of poor society, namely, men, women, and sometimes even young children, who assisted with the production of many wide-ranging goods. According to some academics, the rise of the Industrial Revolution in Britain entailed many complicated and contributing factors, but the main reasons which led to this event were the emergence of capitalism, European imperialism, technological advancements, population growth, capital accumulation, improved transportation networks, and the agricultural revolution. Moreover, at that time Britain's cotton industry was booming, and Britain's colonies (enslaved people) around the world were producing a rich supply of cotton to the United Kingdom. During that era, four main inventions had significantly boosted the textile industries within the United Kingdom, namely, the spinning jenny, water frame, power loom, and the cotton gin.
During the early part of the Industrial Revolution many of the associated technological innovations were created within the United Kingdom, and by the mid-18th century Britain was the world's leading commercial nation, controlling a global trading Empire with many colonies (a total of 120 colonies by 1919) around the world, some of which included North America, Africa, Australia, and the Caribbeans. It should be distinguished that the term colony relating to European settlements established in nations such as North America or Australia entailed that those citizens were given rights, but they were subservient to British rule, whereas, colonised nations such as the Caribbeans essentially entailed oppressed people that were forced to work in order to make vast profits for the British Crown. Also, in that era, Britain had major military and political dominance on the Indian subcontinent, particularly, the proto-industrialised Mughal Bengal. Meanwhile, within Britain, the Industrial Revolution was said to be the catalyst that impacted social, economic, cultural, and political changes. It is said that some of the foundations which facilitated the Industrial Revolution in Britain were high levels of agricultural productivity, a financial system that had supported many businesses across Britain, as well as the development of new roads, ports, rivers, and importantly, the railway industry, which began between Stockton to Darlington in 1825.
The Industrial Revolution was an expression which was first circulated in Germany by German politician and author Friedrich Engels (born 1820-died 1895). Engels wrote a book entitled 'The Condition of the Working Class in England' which was published in the German language in 1844. After Engels's book received success, subsequently, during the late 1800s, his book was republished in the English language. Nevertheless, over time, the credit for the popularisation of the expression was officially granted to British economic historian Arnold Toynbee (born 1889- died 1975), and this was due to his much-acclaimed work on that subject matter, in the late 1800s. Arnold Toynbee was said to be a prolific writer, lecturer, and professor of international history at the London School of Economics and King's College in London.
During the age of proto-industrialization the work for spinning and weaving was undertaken in rural households partly for domestic consumption, but also for the cottage industry under the so-called putting-out system or domestic system. The putting-out system, also known as the workshop system, was a means of subcontracting employment to home-based workers, who were hired to produce goods under contract to merchant sellers, who had often supplied the raw materials for that type of work to be carried out. Some economic historians have claimed that the proto-industrial phase helped to build some of the foundations for the Industrial Revolution, namely, trade routes, access to raw materials, and the social and economic conditions, all of which had partially contributed to the advent of the Industrial Revolution.
The East India Company
In the 16th century, Holland founded the Dutch East India Company, which was the world's first transnational corporation and multinational organisation that issued shares of stock to the general public. The British later established a similar competitive organisation called 'The East India Company' which was an international organisation that employed agents working for the British Crown to set up trading posts and organize trades throughout the Indian Ocean region, as well as trading agents operating from several other British colonies, which were situated in different parts of the world. The East India Company originated after several important British merchants made an appointment with Queen Elizabeth I to request a Royal Charter that gave them the right to voyage to the East Indies on behalf of the Crown, in exchange for a monopoly on any trades established. Once they had received permission from the Queen, the wealthy merchants collectively financed the expensive venture. And eventually, the East India Company was established by Royal Charter on 31 December 1600. The organization operated as a part-trade and part-nation-state, and it set up overseas trades with India, China, Persia, and Indonesia, the East India Company (EIC) traded in spices, cotton, silk, tea, opium, and other goods, which had generated great wealth for the EIC and the British Crown for over two centuries. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the EIC greatly relied upon slave labour for their considerable profits, and it incarcerated and transported African slaves from different parts of Africa, especially from Madagascar and Mozambique, to relocate them to parts of India, Indonesia, and the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean to gain profit from their labour.
Proto-industrialization
Before the Industrial Revolution, the proto-industrial economy existed between 16th - 19th centuries. Proto-industrialization was the regional development and large-scale industrial production of commercial agriculture, and rural handicraft products for domestic and external markets. This practice existed in Britain before the development of large-scale production of goods by factory workers. This manufacturing system was controlled by wealthy merchants who paid for goods they commissioned to be produced by rural communities, including farmers and their family members. Economic historians such as Mendels, Pomeranz and Kridte have argued that prot0-industrialization had occurred in parts of Western Europe, the Islamic world, Mughal India, and China, and it had created the social and economic conditions that led to the Industrial Revolution. Some economic historians, such as John Clapham and Nicholas Crafts, have argued that the social and economic changes happened gradually over several generations, and that the term 'Revolution' was an incorrect expression for such slow-paced, incremental, but significant changes that have affected societies globally.
The Textile Industry
British textile was the leading industry in the early decades of the Industrial Revolution. When Britain established mechanised powered systems, such as central water wheel systems and steam engine systems, which were state-of-the-art inventions, Britain became the dominant force in the global textile industry. The textile industry was the first to use modern production methods such as mechanised spinning and weaving, which developed from about the mid-to-late 18th century onwards. In the 18th century, British textiles, particularly in cotton and wool, were considered the dominant industry in terms of value, output, and capital investment. The British government introduced the Calico Acts (1700 - 1721), which were primarily undertaken to protect the British woollen and linen industries from the increasing amounts of wool and linen fabrics that were being imported from India and other competing nations, whose labour force costs were a fraction of the British labour force costs. The introduction of the Calico Acts was considered to be one of the earliest and successful forms of British economic protectionism, which essentially levied tariff costs on certain imported foreign goods.
By the early 19th century, some British entrepreneurs who had the knowledge and expertise in the area of industrial manufacturing travelled to certain nations in Europe, such as Belgium, France, and Germany, where they shared their knowledge and skills to establish manufacturing factories within those nations. In some cases, international spies from other nations arrived in Britain, intending to gain knowledge by way of industrial espionage regarding British industrial manufacturing techniques, ultimately, to replicate the same system elsewhere across Europe. Meanwhile, Japan was the first Asian nation to achieve significant success in its economy, after Japan had successfully emulated Western European manufacturing methods in the late 19th century. The USA successfully copied the British industrial system in the early 19th century, especially because both nations had established close, long-term international relations, but eventually, the United States surpassed the UK to become the world's leading industrialised nation by the early 20th century.
The iron and steel industries had flourished impressively across the world during the Industrial Revolution, especially the steel industry, which began in the 1850s, and importantly, the steel industry superseded iron production by the 1870s. The main difference between iron and steel is that the former is a naturally formed element, which is mainly found deep within the earth's crust, in contrast, steel is formulated by an artificial process of amalgamation, namely, an alloy of two or more metallic elements (iron and carbon) that undergoes a slow manufacturing process to eventually produce a material that is far superior in strength and durability than iron. New innovative production processes, such as the Bessemer process, which significantly streamlined production, reduced costs and enabled greater large-scale manufacturing output. Steel was important for constructing buildings, skyscrapers, bridges, ships, locomotives, railway networks, and for constructing a network of steel pipes beneath the ground to transport cleaner drinking water to many homes and businesses across the globe. In 1901, American financier J. P. Morgan purchased Carnegie Steel, creating US Steel, which subsequently became the world's largest cooperation and steel producer, as well as the world's first billion-dollar organisation. The large-scale production of chemicals was said to be another important milestone in this era. The development of chemical compounds proved highly lucrative for the world's major economies, and they provided many important and wide-ranging benefits for the world. In addition, chemical compounds were thought to be a major factor in the acceleration of the Industrial Revolution. John Roebuck was a famous English inventor who created sulphuric acid in 1746, and Charles Tennant was a Scottish chemist who was notable for inventing bleaching powder in 1799. Meanwhile, over in France, French chemist Nicholas Leblanc received acclaim for introducing sodium carbonate to the world in 1790.
18th-Century Textile Manufacturing Innovators
During the 18th century, several manufacturing innovators firmly established themselves in history, following their significant contribution to the textile manufacturing industry in that era. James Hargreaves (British inventor) produced the Spinning Jenny between 1764-1765, said to be the first practical spinning frame with multiple spindles. John Kay (British inventor) developed the Flying Shuttle in 1733. This apparatus proved to be another key development in the early part of the Industrial Revolution that greatly improved the process of fabric production. Richard Arkwright (British inventor) created the Spinning Frame, also known as the Water Frame, in 1769, which functioned by automatically spinning thread or yarn from fibres such as wool or cotton. Lewis Paul (French inventor) constructed the Roller Spinning Frame between 1732 and 1742, which was a device used as the basis of the water frame for spinning cotton in a cotton mill. Edmund Cartwright (British inventor) made an important development when he constructed the Power loom in 1786. Meanwhile, over in the United States, an inventor called Eli Whitney (American inventor) created the Cotton Gin, in 1794, which was a device that separated cotton fibres from cotton seeds. Before each of these illustrious individuals became the well-known yarn, each of them had very well cottoned on to what was needed in the factories to achieve success in that era.
The Luddites
Millions of people within the United Kingdom had benefited greatly in various ways from the Industrial Revolution. However, it is important to mention that many people lost their jobs because of the new manufacturing technological developments. As a result, textile factory workers who were fortunate enough to retain their jobs became deeply anxious about their future employment security. The Luddites were essentially a British group of skilled textile workers who founded a radical movement in Nottinghamshire in 1811. The militant group were vehemently opposed to particular manufacturing technological innovations because they feared that the new systems threatened their livelihoods, especially machinery used in the cotton and textile mills. Therefore, due to their paranoia, the Luddites advocated the destruction of any newly developed industrialised apparatus that was used within the textile industry. The group's extremist ideology became contagious in other parts of the United Kingdom, namely, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Leicestershire, and Derbyshire. The demolition of industrial machinery was a capital offence in that era. Therefore, the British army was commanded to pursue and confront the radicals with uncompromising and ruthless force. As a consequence, by 1813, a majority of the movement was defeated, and only small pockets of resistance persisted in certain parts of Britain. But, eventually, they too were hunted down by the authorities and mercilessly eliminated between 1816-1817. The ceremonial opening of the Manchester and Liverpool railway service occurred in 1830, Britain. This event proved to be the first modern passenger railroad service in the world, and subsequently, new railway network routes were quickly created across Britain for the mass mobilisation of goods and people, which had a major impact on the evolution of the Industrial Revolution.
The Steel Industry (1850s)
In 1792, Scottish scientist William Murdoch invented gas lighting, which was quickly established in many towns and cities across the United Kingdom between 1812 and 1820. In many ways, gas lighting proved to be an illuminating chapter in British history, emitting a radiance of optimism as it chased away sinister shadows that once eternally haunted the streets of towns and cities across the nation. A few years later, in 1879, the famous American tycoon, Thomas Edison, invented the light bulb, an extremely bright idea that was destined to increase worker efficiency and productivity, as henceforth, business proprietors were positively lit up by the realistic and lucrative prospect of uninterrupted opening hours for factories and businesses everywhere. In addition, there seemed to be the equally exciting prospect of far more nightlife entertainment activities. In the United States, construction electrical organisations began to race frantically across the nation to provide homes and businesses with electricity. Meaning, it was farewell to those awkward nights when households once wandered around their homes, sometimes stumbling in the darkness, or ascended and descended stairways guided by luminous oil lamps, or on a walkabout carrying flickering candlelight that created dancing shadows upon the walls and along lonely corridors, which once seemed very sinister and frightening at night.
Written by Star_gazer
Published 1 September 2021