Editing Industrial Revolution (section)

{{Short description|1760–1840 period of rapid technological change}}
{{for|a more general overview|Industrialisation}}
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{{Infobox historical era
|name = Industrial Revolution
|location = {{plainlist|
* [[Western Europe]]
* [[North America]]}}
|start = c. [[1760]]
|end = c. [[1840]]
|image = Powerloom weaving in 1835.jpg
|caption = A [[Roberts Loom]] in a weaving shed in the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] in 1835
|before = [[Proto-industrialization|Proto-industrialisation]]
|after = [[Second Industrial Revolution]]
|key_events = {{plainlist|
* [[Textile manufacture during the British Industrial Revolution|Mechanised textile production]]
* [[Canal]] construction
* [[Steam engine]]
* [[Factory system]]
* [[Iron production]] increase}}
}}
{{History of technology sidebar}}

The '''Industrial Revolution''', sometimes divided into the '''First Industrial Revolution''' and [[Second Industrial Revolution]], was a transitional period of the [[global economy]] toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succeeding the [[Second Agricultural Revolution]]. Beginning in [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] around 1760, the Industrial Revolution had spread to [[continental Europe]] and the United States by about 1840.<ref>{{cite web |title=Industrial History of European Countries |url=https://www.erih.net/how-it-started/industrial-history-of-european-countries |access-date=2 June 2021 |website=European Route of Industrial Heritage |publisher=Council of Europe |archive-date=23 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210623201807/https://www.erih.net/how-it-started/industrial-history-of-european-countries |url-status=live }}</ref> This transition included going from [[craft production|hand production methods]] to [[machine]]s; new [[Chemical industry|chemical manufacturing]] and [[Puddling (metallurgy)|iron production]] processes; the increasing use of [[Hydropower|water power]] and [[Steam engine|steam power]]; the development of [[machine tool]]s; and rise of the [[mechanisation|mechanised]] [[factory system]]. Output greatly increased, and the result was an unprecedented rise in population and [[population growth]]. The [[textile industry]] was the first to use modern production methods,<ref name="David S. Landes 1969">{{cite book |last=Landes |first=David S. |title=The Unbound Prometheus |date=1969 |publisher=Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-09418-4}}</ref>{{rp|40}} and [[textile]]s became the dominant industry in terms of employment, value of output, and [[capital (economics)|capital]] invested.

Many [[Innovation|technological]] and [[British industrial architecture|architectural innovations]] were British.<ref>{{cite book|title= Reconceptualizing the Industrial Revolution |last1= Horn|first1=Jeff |last2= Rosenband|first2= Leonard|last3= Smith|first3= Merritt|year= 2010|publisher =MIT Press|location=Cambridge MA, London |isbn=978-0-262-51562-7}}</ref><ref>E. Anthony Wrigley, "Reconsidering the Industrial Revolution: England and Wales". ''Journal of Interdisciplinary History'' 49.01 (2018): 9–42.</ref> By the mid-18th century, Britain was the leading commercial nation,<ref>{{cite book|title= Capitalism: A complete understanding of the nature and value of human economic life|last=Reisman|first= George|year= 1998|isbn= 978-0-915463-73-2|publisher =Jameson Books |page=127}}</ref> controlled a global trading empire with [[Territorial evolution of the British Empire|colonies]] in North America and the Caribbean, and had military and political hegemony on the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref name="tong">{{cite book |first=Junie T. |last=Tong |year=2016 |title=Finance and Society in 21st Century China: Chinese Culture Versus Western Markets |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_UQGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA151 |publisher=CRC Press |page=151 |isbn=978-1-317-13522-7}}</ref><ref name="esposito">{{cite book |editor-first1=John L. |editor-last1=Esposito |editor1-link=John L. Esposito |year=2004 |title=The Islamic World: Past and Present |volume=1: Abba – Hist. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KZcohRpc4OsC&pg=PT190 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=174 |isbn=978-0-19-516520-3 |access-date=30 May 2019 |archive-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116111739/https://books.google.com/books?id=KZcohRpc4OsC&pg=PT190 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="rayB">{{cite book |first=Indrajit |last=Ray |year=2011 |title=Bengal Industries and the British Industrial Revolution (1757–1857) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHOrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 |publisher=Routledge |pages=7–10 |isbn=978-1-136-82552-1 |access-date=30 May 2019 |archive-date=16 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116111751/https://books.google.com/books?id=CHOrAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="David_Landes_1999">
{{cite book |last=Landes |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/wealthpovertyofn00land_0 |title=The Wealth and Poverty of Nations |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-393-31888-3}}</ref> The development of trade and rise of business were among the major causes of the Industrial Revolution.<ref name="David S. Landes 1969"/>{{rp|15}} Developments in [[law]] facilitated the revolution, such as courts ruling in favour of [[property rights]]. An entrepreneurial spirit and consumer revolution helped drive [[industrialisation]].<ref name="Kiely"/>

The Industrial Revolution influenced almost every aspect of life. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit unprecedented sustained growth. Economists note the most important effect was that the [[standard of living]] for most in the [[Western world]] began to increase consistently for the first time, though others have said it did not begin to improve meaningfully until the 20th century.<ref name="Lectures on Economic Growth"/><ref name="Feinstein2014"/><ref name="SzreterMooney2014"/> [[Gross domestic product#GDP per capita|GDP per capita]] was broadly stable before the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the modern [[capitalism|capitalist]] economy,<ref name="The Industrial Revolution" /> afterwards saw an era of per-capita [[economic growth]] in capitalist economies.<ref name="The Industrial Revolution ''Past and Future''" /> Economic historians agree that the onset of the Industrial Revolution is the most important event in [[human history]], comparable only to the [[Neolithic Revolution|adoption of agriculture]] with respect to material advancement.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=North |first1=Douglass C. |last2=Thomas |first2=Robert Paul |date=May 1977 |title=The First Economic Revolution |journal=The Economic History Review |volume=30 | issue=2 |pages=229–230 |doi=10.2307/2595144 |jstor=2595144 |issn = 0013-0117 }}</ref>

The precise start and end of the Industrial Revolution is debated among historians, as is the pace of economic and [[social change]]s.<ref name="revolution"/><ref name="google1"/><ref name="lorenzen"/> According to Leigh Shaw-Taylor, Britain was already industrialising in the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Industrial Revolution began in 17th not 18th century, say academics |last=Hall |first=Rachel |date=5 April 2024 |work=The Guardian |url= https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/apr/05/industrial-revolution-began-in-17th-not-18th-century-say-academics |access-date=15 April 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Simpson |first=Craig |date=2024-04-05 |title=Industrial Revolution started in 17th century, historians suggest |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/05/industrial-revolution-start-17th-century-historians-suggest/ |access-date=2024-04-05 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235 |archive-date=5 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240405071731/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/05/industrial-revolution-start-17th-century-historians-suggest/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Eric Hobsbawm]] held that the Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the 1780s and was not fully felt until the 1830s,<ref name="revolution"/> while [[T. S. Ashton]] held that it occurred between 1760 and 1830.<ref name="google1"/> Rapid adoption of mechanized textiles spinning occurred in Britain in the 1780s,<ref name="auto">{{cite web|last1=Gupta|first1=Bishnupriya|title=Cotton Textiles and the Great Divergence: Lancashire, India and Shifting Competitive Advantage, 1600–1850|url=http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/papers/broadberry-gupta.pdf|website=International Institute of Social History|publisher=Department of Economics, University of Warwick|access-date=5 December 2016|archive-date=11 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011065834/http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/papers/broadberry-gupta.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> and high rates of growth in [[steam]] power and iron production occurred after 1800. Mechanised textile production spread from Britain to continental Europe and the US in the early 19th century.<ref name="David S. Landes 1969"/>

A recession occurred from the late 1830s when the adoption of the Industrial Revolution's early innovations, such as mechanised spinning and weaving, slowed as markets matured; and despite increased adoption of locomotives, steamships, and [[hot blast]] iron [[smelting]]. New technologies such as the [[electrical telegraph]], widely introduced in the 1840s [[Electrical telegraphy in the United Kingdom|in the UK]] and US, were not sufficient to drive high rates of growth. Rapid growth reoccurred after 1870, springing from new innovations in the [[Second Industrial Revolution]]. These included [[Bessemer process|steel-making process]]es, [[mass production]], [[assembly line]]s, [[electrical grid]] systems, large-scale manufacture of machine tools, and use of advanced machinery in steam-powered factories.<ref name="David S. Landes 1969" /><ref>{{cite book |title=The Transportation Revolution, 1815–1860 |last=Taylor |first= George Rogers |isbn= 978-0-87332-101-3|year=1951 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe }}</ref><ref name="Roe1916" /><ref name="Hunter_1985" />
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