Industrial Revolution: what it is, its characteristics and causes

We explain what the Industrial Revolution was and what its characteristics were. Also, the causes and consequences of this process.

The Industrial Revolution began in the mid-18th century.

What was the Industrial Revolution?

The Industrial Revolution was a historical process of economic and social transformations which took place between approximately 1760 and 1840, and which triggered unprecedented changes in Western societies and then throughout the world. To differentiate it from other later industrialization processes, it is usually called the First Industrial Revolution.

This process was characterized by the use of new technologies applied to large-scale production and the concentration of factories in cities. The most important invention of the period was the steam engine, whose fuel was mineral coal and whose use increased production and transportation to unprecedented levels. Other inventions were also important, such as spinning machines and the power loom, which allowed more textiles to be produced in less time.

The Industrial Revolution began in England, where a series of economic, political, social and technological conditions favorable to this great change had converged. Throughout the 19th century, it spread to other Western European countries, as well as the United States and Japan.

Characteristics of the Industrial Revolution

Among the main characteristics of the Industrial Revolution, the following stand out:

• Large-scale industrial production, especially textiles, metallurgy and food (thanks to the so-called “agricultural revolution”).
• The replacement of artisan workshops and domestic manufacturing production systems by the factory system (mechanized and concentrated in factories).
• The massive migration of population from the countryside to the cities.
• The enrichment of the bourgeoisie (industrial, commercial and financial) and its growing dominance over the economy and politics, to the detriment of the nobility.
• The emergence of a new social class: the proletariat.
• The development of technological innovations (such as the steam engine) and mechanized industries, such as textiles, metallurgy, iron and steel and mining.
• The progressive replacement of iron by steel, a harder and more resistant alloy of iron and carbon that became more important during the Second Industrial Revolution.
• The development of trade worldwide, due to the great production capacity and innovations in land and sea transport.
• The predominance of British capitalism, which benefited from international trade thanks to its maritime power and access to cheap raw materials, especially cotton from the southern United States and India.

Origin of the Industrial Revolution

The industrial Revolution began around 1760 in EnglandThe thriving commercial bourgeoisie, enriched by British naval superiority, had control of colonial trade and, in addition, had other economic and political conditions that allowed it to invest its capital in technological inventions and the establishment of factories.

The factory system, aimed at increasing productivity, changed the organization of work. This change encouraged the growth of large industrial cities, such as Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield.

This first stage of productive innovations concluded approximately in 1840 and just three decades later the next stage of the industrialization process began, which is usually called the Second Industrial Revolution.

First industries of the Industrial Revolution

Spinning machines and the power loom revolutionized the textile industry.

The Industrial Revolution originated in a few main industries:

• The textile industry. Before the Industrial Revolution, textile production was already very important in Great Britain and worked mainly through the “putting-out” system, by which an entrepreneur delivered the tools and raw materials (wool or cotton) to peasant families who were They were in charge of producing textiles in their homes. The Industrial Revolution introduced machines such as the flying shuttle, the spinning Jenny, the Arkwright spinning machine, and the power loom. These innovations allowed the birth of the factory work system, whereby production was concentrated in factories equipped with large machines and large groups of salaried workers. The textile industry reached an unprecedented scale.
• The mining industryFrom the 19th century onwards, charcoal derived from wood was replaced by coking coal or ore. Coal was particularly important as the fuel used in steam engines for transport (e.g. railways and steamships) and for factory production (especially to feed the furnaces in the metal and steel industries). This boosted the mining industry, which brought about the introduction of ventilation and rails for wagons, while increasing levels of labour exploitation and promoting child labour (due to the narrow paths leading into the mines).
• The metallurgical and steel industriesIron and steel were the main raw materials of the time, which were used for the production of agricultural tools, textile machines, locomotives, railway rails and ships. Iron and steel could be worked through the use of industrial furnaces that operated at very high temperatures thanks to the fuel of mineral coal. Steel processing was initially developed in the steelworks of Sheffield (England) in 1740, although it really took off in the mid-19th century and during the Second Industrial Revolution.
• The transportation industry. Until the 18th century, the transportation system was based on means of animal traction or sailing. In the 19th century, transport with horses switched to railways, thanks to the emergence of the steam engine and the development of the steel industry that made it possible to produce locomotives and rails. The railway revolutionized commerce and the transportation of people. The steamboat was also developed.
• Commercial expansionThe Industrial Revolution generated unprecedented commercial growth that impacted the entire world. The invention of the railroad and the steamship facilitated the transportation of raw materials to production centers, as well as the transfer of manufactured products to internal and external markets, sometimes in distant countries. In this way, international trade expanded and favored the bourgeois sectors (especially in Great Britain) dedicated to industry and commerce.

Causes of the Industrial Revolution

The industrial proletariat had to work in factories in exchange for a salary.

The industrial Revolution It was produced by the interaction of a series of factors that initially took place in England. The main causes of the Industrial Revolution were the agricultural revolution (which increased productivity in the countryside), demographic growth, the transfer of rural population to the cities, the availability of raw materials, the political rise of the bourgeoisie and technological innovations. (like the steam engine).

The agricultural revolution

Until the 18th century, agricultural activity was very similar to the practices of the Middle Ages. Manual labor and animal traction were used, there were communal lands (belonging to the community to obtain firewood or pasture) and the level of production was modest due to the “fallow” system (which consisted of letting the land rest after the harvest , so that the nutrients in the soil would be regenerated).

The agricultural revolution introduced changes that expanded the availability of food resources and promoted the movement of the population towards the cities:

• Machinery began to be used to work the land, and, once industrialization began, this mechanization increased.
• The fields became private property accumulated by large landowners through enclosures, which caused landless peasants to become urban workers.
• The old cropping system was replaced by the “Norfolk rotation system,” which consisted of rotating crop varieties so that the same nutrients in the soil were not always saturated.

Population growth

Due to changes in diet, a significant increase in population occurred from the 18th century onwards. When the Industrial Revolution began, This population became increasingly concentrated in industrial cities.

The Industrial Revolution, in turn, introduced changes that impacted population growth, such as a decrease in mortality (due to increased food production), the greater development of medicine (for example, the invention of vaccines) and the consequent increase in the birth rate.

Availability of resources

England had two advantages that explain why it was in this country that industrialization began. On the one hand, English soil had resources such as coal and ironessential for productive transformation.

On the other hand, thanks to its colonial ties and dominant position in world trade, The English had access to fundamental raw materials for the textile industryespecially cotton from India and the southern United States.

The political influence of the bourgeoisie

After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, a parliamentary monarchy was established in England that limited the power of the king and the nobility, while granting a growing capacity for political intervention to the bourgeoisie.

From this fact, Measures were promoted that favored merchants and bankers, including the creation of the Bank of England. In other European countries, the seizure of political power by the liberal bourgeoisie began only towards the end of the 18th century, through more dramatic events, such as the French Revolution, which some historians include in the group of bourgeois revolutions.

The Industrial Revolution depended largely on the accumulation of capital by the English bourgeoisie., but also from certain economic liberalization laws that favored it. This allowed the creation of businesses and the circulation of capital, the development of the industry…