How Did Britain Contribute To Industrialization

The Industrial Revolution first took hold in England for several important reasons. First, the merchant class of England was extremely effective in developing commerce. This trade increase raised the demand for goods in the area that helped spur the advent of many new ways to produce the needed goods. Additionally, England homed many individuals that pushed for scientific progress in the industrial sector to help aid the progression of business. These individuals were part of an increasing interest in both scientific investigation and invention. By pursuing their ideas, these scientists and inventors were able to lay the foundation and create machines that eased the use of business. Finally, England followed the idea of the laissez-faire doctrine, which allowed the business world to grow freely and uninterrupted by the government for the most part. These factors all set the early stages for the Industrial Revolution to take place and gain momentum in England first (Hackett).

England’s Industrial Revolution encouraged innovation and competitive industries, although it was at the expense of the natural environment. During the revolution, patents served as an incentive for invention, allowing individuals to have the sole rights to their creations and providing new opportunities for profit. Having a strong patent system encouraged competition by ensuring that the inventors themselves were the only ones who profited directly through the distribution of their machinery. It also guaranteed that they received proper credit for their work, giving them social acclaim. Inventions such as the spinning jenny, the steam engine, the railroad system and the paddle wheel steam boat made production and transportation much more efficient.

The question about why did British have a head start of the Industrial Revolution is addressed by a very different view, by the author. The author views this by analyzing the two most advanced cultures; China and England. The reader sees that colonial resources and overcoming the biological old regime played in the favor of England. The Britons used their colonial resources against the Asians; which is from India, China, and even Japan, inclining the global economic standard, power balance towards the Britons.

When Great Britain started going through urbanization, population grew and cities expanded rapidly, which caused the growth of industrial capitalism. In 1850, the European population almost doubled to 266 million people from 140 million in 1750. A decline in death rates, wars, and major diseases, along with the increase in food, caused this to happen. Then cities expanded and industrial capitalism started. Industrial capitalism is “an economic system based on industrial production”. This grew when more people started working in factories or at other businesses, and then those factories and businesses bought new machines to speed up and better their production rates. The growth of industrial capitalism brought wealth to Great Britain and

In the 1700’s, before the Industrial revolution, production was limited to how much a certain person wanted to work in a single day and by the tools that they had access to in their homes. After the revolution factories ruled the manufacturing market while ideas and inventions spread throughout the country. While many other countries are thought to be a perfect place for something like the industrial revolution to begin, Great Britain was the first place where it established itself. Britain was the first country to industrialize because of Britain's good inclusive institutions and inventions like the steam engine.

It is easy to assume that, through their colonization campaigns, Europeans were responsible for the intellectual and technological advancements of much of the world. This eurocentric view is not wrong, but it does not tell the whole story. Post-Renaissance Europeans gladly spread (although mostly forced) their newfound knowledge upon those which they conquered. However, were it not for these lands (see: Southwest Asia, India, the Middle East), Europe may have never grown to prosperity. For a large chunk of its history, Europe was a “backwash.” For example, the population of Europe in its entirety was roughly 60 million in the year 1100. In contrast, the population of only the Song Dynasty in China was “100 million people” at the same time.

Many people often wonder why the Industrial Revolution started in England. By the end the nineteenth century had rolled around, the island of Great Britain controlled the largest empire in the history of the world. The island of Great Britain is about the size of Louisiana, the state that is. People might ask how this little island became the ruler of the empire. The way that Great Britain got so much power of course is because it had enormous commercial and technological head start of the rest of the world, only because the Industrial Revolution started here. More importantly though, why did it start here.

First, Britain had some tremendous natural attributes. It was naturally endowed with many deposits of coal and iron ore, which were used heavily in the early stages of factory production. In addition, Britain was situated at a critical point for international trade. Its position between the United States and the rest of Europe allowed them to have a serious impact in all matters of trade.

There are many reasons why the industrial revolution began in Britain. First of all, the Agricultural Revolution in the 18th century resulted in increased food production and population growth. Secondly, Britain also has financial innovations such as central banks and stock markets which encouraged people to invest and trade more. Furthermore, Britain had large deposits of coal and iron which was essential to the growth of all new machines made by iron or steel and powered by coal. There were several other factors that made Britain the ideal place for the industrial revolution. There were also many other industries such as the iron-making industry, glass-making industry, mining industry but one of the most important one is the textile industry.

The Reasons For Britain's Industralization From 1780 for just over a century Britain experienced rapid growth and industrialisation, which is popularly known as the Industrial Revolution. This rapid economic growth was due to a number of main factors including; the geographical diversity of Britain, population growth, inventions, transport improvements, and the Government. All of these factors influenced in E.J. Hobsbawn's opinion 'the most fundamental transformation of human life in the history of the world recorded in written documents'. These factors encourage or induce change in Britain, and gave it the incentive to become the first industrial nation by many different means.

The inventions in Great Britain were also significant for the Industrial Revolution. Having gained knowledge and experimented, many inventors began pushing for a more efficient production. For example, Samuel Greg gathered in a small factory for new spinning machines and used energy from the water to power these machines. The mechanization of cotton spinning a novel cotton mill now ran on the nearby source of water. However, these new machineries also relied on hundreds of workers, mostly children and women: “Samuel Greg recruited ninety children between the ages of ten and twelve from nearby poorhouses, attaching them for seven years to his factory as “parish apprentices” (Beckert 2015, 62). Such factors as protectionism, Britain’s colonial power, reliance on its women’ and children’ labor helped Britain to have a comparative advantage in production of Cotton compared to other players. Britain’s comparative advantage was coming from the colonies that provided cheap “raw materials, new capital, and some additional spur to export manufacturing for colonial markets” (Stearns 2007, 45). But only Europeans were the first to exert power over the other countries, have colonies and compete among each other in terms of the trade.

The Industrial Revolution could have happened in a lot of different places around the world. However, the impact that geographical bodies held, made it apparent that there’s a reason Britain contained it all. During the Industrial Revolution, inventions were nonstop and there was a constant feeling of competing with other countries to overtake them economically. Britain did this with inventions, each of them impacted another and with that, the sudden economic and population growth that’s now looked back on today, happened. One of the biggest factors was the combination of the invention of the steam engine and the water channels that Britain holds. With these two together, the Industrial Revolution was started.

So why Europe? What were the elements that contributed to its rise and dominance in the world? In this essay, I will argue that the rise of Europe is due to a particular shared set of cultural values anchored in the feudal age; land equals wealth equals power. The discovery of new goods and lands created competitiveness between nations of Europe causing the use of aggressive tactics to dominate the world such as imperialism and colonization eventually leading to European economic dominance.

Industrialization began locally in England during the late 18th century initiated from the procurement of coal deposits that gave England the boost to start industrializing first. “Europe’s great breakthrough occurred as a result of global developments rather then internal advantages”. The country soon realized they needed more resources then they currently had and expanded outside their borders to further bolster growth and in turn incorporated global populations. They created a colony in North America to provide raw materials and captured Africans to provide the labor to harvest these materials. Other countries soon followed suite and began their own slave trades and founded their own colonies. In the mid 18th century the now superior industrialized states often took economic advantage of countries that didn’t industrialize to continue the states growth; if the states were met with resistance they used their advanced weapons to overcome it. Taking into account the myriad countries and human lives that were changed all over the modern world from the profitable British economy to tortured Africans, industrialization should be considered a global phenomenon.

The industrial revolution in Europe didn't happen overnight but only spread over the continent very gradually. One of the triggers was the unusually high growth in the population which set in around the middle of the 18th century and produced a gigantic reservoir of workers. At the same time new, more efficient methods of production became necessary in order to supply the basic needs of so many people. In this situation Great Britain enjoyed two important advantages: an extremely productive and wealthy agricultural system, and an astonishing number of creative inventors. This was why the United Kingdom dictated the rhythm of progress to the rest of Europe from 1750 onwards for the next century or so.