The Industrial Revolution was a process of technological, economic, social and political transformation, originating in the United Kingdom from the second half of the 18th century. The transformations that occurred were so profound that a similar change had not been seen in the world since the Neolithic revolution some 10,000 years earlier, when we moved from a rural and agrarian society and economy to urban and industrial ones.
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The First Industrial Revolution concluded, before spreading across the European continent, around the middle of the 19th century. From that point on, the Second Industrial Revolution began, which in a few decades spread throughout much of Europe until it came to an end in 1914, with the First World War. However, with the exception of the national capitals of the south, no new large industrial centers appeared beyond those existing in 1880.
The main source of energy for industry at that time was coal, and most industrial centers arose in the proximity of important coal deposits. The two major industries that fueled the Industrial Revolution were textiles and steel. The presence of iron and coal at that time, together with communication facilities, such as navigable rivers and canals, continue to explain the distribution of the industry in today’s Europe. The European blue banana It links from London to Genoa some of the largest industrial centers of the 19th century around the Rhine and Po rivers and their coal and iron mines.
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Although the presence of coal and iron was decisive in the appearance of large industrial regions, in southern Europe, poor in these resources, some industrial regions appear thanks to the existence of a traditional proto-industry, mainly linked to the textile sector, such as This is the case of Catalonia or the Italian industrial districts, still fundamental to explain Italian geopolitics.
The arrival of the Industrial Revolution to the continent through the Netherlands region allowed a small newborn stopper country like Belgium, rich in coal, become an industrial power. Its relevance was such that Belgium came to rival the great powers of the continent and even had its own colonial empire, the fruit of of the division of Africa. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the main industrial region was Bohemia, which favored greater Germanization of the territory, but also the appearance of an enlightened and nationalist Bohemian elite that It promoted the birth of Czechoslovakia, but also its subsequent disintegration.
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