What the Industrial Revolution was and why it began in Britain

1Why this matters

The phone in your pocket, the bus to Nyabugogo and the factory-made cloth in Kigali's shops all rest on a change that began in Britain about 250 years ago. The Industrial Revolution was the shift from making goods by hand at home to making them by machine in factories, using new sources of power such as the steam engine. It began in Britain around 1760, spread to continental Europe and the United States by about 1840, and has been spreading across the world ever since.

It also matters for African history. The factories of Europe needed raw materials and new markets, and that hunger is one of the main causes of the colonisation of Africa, which you will study later in this course.

2Key words

• Domestic system (or cottage industry): goods such as cloth were made by hand in workers' homes.
• Factory system: workers gathered in one building to operate machines driven by a single power source, working set hours.
• Mechanisation: replacing human or animal muscle with machines.
• Capital: money and goods available for investment in business.

3Why Britain first? The factors

1. Coal and iron. Britain had rich deposits of coal and iron ore, often close together, as well as many fast rivers for water power. Coal fuelled the steam engines and the iron furnaces.
2. The Agricultural Revolution. New farming methods and the enclosure of common land (fencing it into private farms) produced more food with fewer workers. The surplus fed growing towns, and people pushed off the land became factory workers.
3. A growing population. More people meant more workers and more customers.
4. Capital from trade and empire. Merchants had grown rich from overseas trade, including the trade in enslaved Africans and the goods they produced. Historians still debate how much this wealth financed industry, but it was part of the picture.
5. Banks and a stable government. After 1688 Britain had a stable constitutional monarchy, the Bank of England and laws protecting property and contracts, so investors felt safe.
6. Markets. Britain had no internal customs barriers, a large home market, and colonies and trading partners abroad that bought its goods.
7. Transport. An island with long coastlines, navigable rivers and, later, canals could move heavy goods cheaply.
8. Inventors and a patent system. Patents protected inventors' ideas and let them profit, which encouraged invention.
9. Raw cotton. Colonies and plantations supplied cotton for the new mills.
10. Naval power. The Royal Navy protected British shipping and trade routes.

Worked example: using the evidence

Question: Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Britain rather than in the Netherlands, which in 1700 was richer and more urbanised?

The Netherlands had good transport, rich merchants and a literate population, but it had almost no coal. Britain, by contrast, mined most of the world's coal in 1700. Coal allowed Britain to run steam engines and iron furnaces without being limited by timber or water power. So although several conditions were present in both countries, Britain's combination of coal, iron and capital was unique. The lesson: a single factor rarely explains an event; the combination of factors does.

Practice

Solution. The change, beginning in Britain around 1760, from producing goods by hand at home to producing them by machine in factories, using new power sources such as water and steam.

Solution. Better farming produced more food with fewer workers. The surplus fed the growing towns, and many rural people who lost their land through enclosure moved to the towns and became factory labour.

Solution. In the domestic system, workers made goods by hand in their own homes, at their own pace, often with the whole family. In the factory system, workers came to a central building to operate machines powered by one source, under supervision and for fixed hours.

Solution. Investors put money into factories and machines only if they believed their property and profits were safe. Britain's stable government, courts and banks after 1688 gave them that confidence.