Industrial Revolution Reasons in Great Britain

Reasons for Industrial Revolution in Great Britain

• The Industrial Revolution was a shift from handmade goods to machine-made goods, significantly altering social, political, and economic structures.
• The Agricultural Revolution preceded the Industrial Revolution, leading to increased food supply and expendable income for manufactured goods in Great Britain.
• Great Britain had abundant capital due to wealthy entrepreneurs from the cottage industry investing in new manufacturing methods.
• Britain had a well-developed central bank which loaned Capital to entrepreneurs
• Great Britain fostered abundant entrepreneurship by rejecting absolutism, with Parliament creating a favorable environment for economic innovation driven by private investors.
• Favorable government policies in Britain, with Parliament reforms in 1832, increased the House of Commons' power, representing the interests of the working industry.
• The repeal of the Corn Laws, which put tariffs on grain coming into England, led to the import of cheap grain and labor moving from farms to factories.
• Britain's wealth in mineral resources, especially coal and iron, enabled the backbone of the Industrial Revolution coupled with new roads and canals facilitating transport.
• Great Britain had access to abundance of markets in which to sell their goods, and could utilize its massive empire
• Inventors in Britain had significant incentives through institutions like the British Royal Society of the Arts, and government prizes, leading to crucial inventions.
• James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny in 1764, exponentially increasing textile production speed and reducing costs.
• James Watt invented the steam engine in 1769, using coal and steam to power turbines, which, in turn, could power machines
• The spinning jenny and steam engine were crucial to the rise of the factory system and Britain's industrial and economic dominance.
• Great Britain held the Great Exhibition in 1851 to display their industrial dominance, featuring the Crystal Palace, a massive steel and glass structure.
• The Crystal Palace showcased exhibits from the British Empire, symbolizing British mastery over nature through industrial money.

Industrialization on the European Continent

• France industrialized after 1859 due to Napoleon's foundations and the French government sponsoring railroad construction.
• A slower pace of industrialization meant not as many social upheavals that occurred in Britain occurred in France
• A major factor in France's slower industrialization was the relative lack of coal and iron deposits
• British weaving technology was adopted in France by the 1830s, establishing the cotton industry and reviving the French silk industry.
• Southern and Eastern Europe industrialized slower due to lacking mineral deposits and persistence of old economic arrangements, such as landed nobility and peasantry.
• Landed elites in Southern and Eastern Europe had little incentive to support industrialization due to labor moving from farms to cities for manufacturing work.
• Serfdom was abolished in Russia and the Habsburg Empire, yet many people remained landless and poor.
• Nations that had not industrialized still practiced primitive agriculture, which led to consequences.
• The Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s and 1850s resulted in millions of deaths from starvation and mass emigration due to potato crop blight.