European History: Industrial Revolution

EUROPEAN HISTORY: INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION NAME INSTRUCTOR COURSE DATE European History: Industrial Revolution The history of the world has been long and winding and there have been several activities that have shaped to world to be what it is today. Industrial revolution is one of those “key breaks” in history that define our lives. Industrial revolution was the most important episode to ever take place from the 18th century and yet there are still questions on why it is started in Britain and what caused it. The big questions that have been asked about it were “why did it start in Britain?” “What were its causes?” “What were its major impacts?” In the 1820’s, the fact that industrial revolution started in Britain was attribute to security and political liberty that was well documented in the Bill of Rights, together with the various geographical and economic features. Industrial revolution in Britain was also attributed to demography, transport, commerce and agriculture that made it possible for Britain to undergo industrial revolution. However, the fact that industrial revolution started in Britain left several people puzzled because the general agreement is that they were never that superior when it came to “macro-inventions” and many people believed that only things invented in France and worked in England were considered perfect. It was not until in the 1930’s that the macro-economic effects of the industrial revolution were eminent in Britain. It was evident that there was an improvement in the living standards as one of the effects but previous researchers have overblown the extent of the impact.[MacLeod, Christine, Robert C. Allen, Nigel Goose, and Larry Neal. The Journal of Modern History 83, no. 1 (2011): 167-69. doi:10.1086/658014.] [North, Douglass C. The Journal of Economic History 26, no. 3 (1966): 386-88. /stable/2115660.] [Harris, J. R. Technology and Culture 37, no. 1 (1996): 180-81. doi:10.2307/3107215.] [Mokyr, Joel. Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 18, no. 4 (1986): 671-73. doi:10.2307/4050158.] Those studying industrial revolution fall into two main categories. The first is those who believe that industrial revolution was as a result of changes in British society and economy and those that believed that it was due to technical changes in certain industries such as iron and cotton industries. The people in the first category believe that social and economic factors such as living standards, institutions, social norms, firms, gender, demography. However, it is quite widely accepted that technology had a lot to play in the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution also occurred at the age of iron, cotton and the water power. There was a rapid growth of exports and output within the cotton industry and it played an important role in the i...