Janet McClure, age 14, of Decatur, Ill., for her question:
WHAT WAS THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION?
An industrial revolution is the shift from a traditional
agriculturally based economy to one based on the mechanized production of manufactured goods in large scale enterprises. The first Industrial Revolution occurred in Great Britain at the end of the 18th Century and it profoundly altered Britain's economy and society.
The most immediate changes were in the nature of production: what was produced, as well as where and how. Labor was transferred from the production of primary products to the production of manufactured goods and services.
Far more manufactured goods were produced than ever before and technical efficiency rose dramatically. In part, the growth in productivity was achieved by systematic application of scientific and practical knowledge to the manufacturing process.
Efficiency was also enhanced when large groups of enterprise were located within limited areas. Thus, the Industrial Revolution involved urbanization, that is, the process of migration from rural to urban communities.
Perhaps the most important changes occurred in the organization of work. Tasks became increasingly routine and specialized. Industrial production became heavily dependent upon the intensive use of capital the physical plant and equipment were need to increase efficiency.
Because the first Industrial Revolution occurred in Great Britain, that country became the workshop of the world for a time. For much of the 18th Century, London had been at the center of a complex world trade network that became the basis for the growing export trade associated with industrialization.
The export market provided an indispensable outlet for the products of textiles and other industries, where the introduction of new techniques led to a rapid expansion of output.
Britain did not long remain the only country to experience an industrial Revolution.
Historians generally agree that the Industrial Revolution occurred in France, Belgium, Germany and the United States about the middle of the 19th Century; in Sweden and Japan toward the end of the 19th Century; in Russia and Canada just after the turn of the 20th Century; and in parts of Latin America, the Middle East, Central and Southern Asia and Africa about or after the middle of the 20th Century.
Each Industrial Revolution was different, depending on its time and place.
In the beginning, British industry had no foreign competitors that utilized the same methods and exported on a large scale. When other countries began to industrialize, they had to contend with Britain's head start, but they also learned from the British example.
Although government intervention to promote industrialization was far from negligible in the British case, the role of government has been considerable in Germany, Russia, Japan and nearly all the nations that have been industrialized in the 20th Century.