What is meant by the industrial revolution ? Discuss its causes?
Answers
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the US, in the period from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, the increasing use of steam power and water power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the mechanized factory system. The Industrial Revolution also led to an unprecedented rise in the rate of population growth.
Textiles were the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and capital invested. The textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods.[1]:40
The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and many of the technological innovations were of British origin.[2][3] By the mid-18th century Britain was the world's leading commercial nation,[4] controlling a global trading empire with colonies in North America and the Caribbean, and with some political influence on the Indian subcontinent, through the activities of the East India Company.[5] The development of trade and the rise of business were major causes of the Industrial Revolution.
The word ‘Revolution means, something “sudden and quite swift”. Industrial Revolution resulted in revolutionary changes in all walks of life.
The causes are
(i) Growing International Market: In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, merchants from the towns in Europe began moving to the countryside, supplying money to peasants and artisans, persuading them to produce for an international market.
(ii) Increase in demand: With the expansion of world trade and the acquisition of colonies in different pans of the world, the demand for goods began growing. It was controlled by merchants and the goods were produced by a vast number of producers working within their family farms, not in factories.
(iii) Proto-industrial System: The expansion o: market and demand lead to proto-industrial growth which provided a base to Industrial Revolution.
(iv) New Inventions: A series of inventions in the eighteenth century increased the efficacy of each step of the production process (carding, twisting and spinning, and rolling’1 They enhanced the output per worker, enabling each worker to produce more, and they made possible the production or stronger threads and yarn. Then Richard Arkwright created the cotton mill.
(v) Availability of Capital : The vast amount of capital which England had accumulated out of profits of her growing trade enabled her to make large expenditure on machinery and buildings. This led to new technological developments.