Why is the Industrial Revolution considered a landmark in history?

Why is the Industrial Revolution considered a landmark in history?

The Industrial Revolution may be defined as the application of power-driven machinery to manufacturing. In the eighteenth century (around 1774) all of Western Europe began to industrialize rapidly. In England, the process was most highly accelerated.




By the beginning of the eighteenth century in England, the used of machines in manufacturing was already widespread. In 1762, Mathew Boulton built a factory which employed more than six hundred workers and installed a team engine to supplement power. In 1733, John Kay, a Lancashire mechanic, patented his flying shuttle. James Hargreaves patented a spinning jenny on which one operator could spin many threads simultaneously. Then, in 1779, Samuel Crompton combined jenny and the water frame in a machine known as ‘Crompton’s mule’, which produced quantities of fine, strong yarn.




Electricity was a major factor in the phenomenally rapid industrialization or Britain and Europe. The coming of the railroads greatly facilitated the industrialization of Europe.




The big railway boom in Britain came in the years 1844 to 1847. British success with steam locomotion, however, was enough to encourage the building of railroads in most European countries, often with British capital, equipment and technicians. Railroads became a standard item of British export. The internal combustion engine was developed in Europe before 1900.




At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the steam driven ships appeared on the horizon. The first practical steamship was constructed by an American Robert Fulton in 1907, and soon steamships were routinely crossing the Atlantic.




Communications also saw developments during this period. In 1871, telegraph cable reached from London to Australia; messages could be flashed halfway around the globe in a matter of minutes, speeding commercial transactions.




Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 transmitted the human voice over a wire. The world continued to shrink at a great rate as new means of transport and communication speeded the pace of life with the coming of the Industrial Revolution.