Industrial Revolution
Steam-powered transformation era
The Industrial Revolution was the transformation of economies from agrarian and handicraft systems to machine-based manufacturing, beginning in Britain around the 1760s and spreading through Europe and North America over the following century.
It brought factories, steam power, railroads, and urbanization, fundamentally reshaping work, society, and daily life.
The Industrial Revolution changed how people lived and worked. (Lowercase industrial revolution describes any similar economic transformation.)
Thermal vapor motor
- spinning jennyEarly multi-spool thread maker
- power loomAutomated weaving apparatus
- cotton ginFiber-seed separating machine
- locomotiveRailway pulling machine
telegraph · blast furnace · Bessemer process · gas lighting · machinery · threshing machine · railways · iron smelting
Population shift toward cities
- migrationMovement to new territory
- population growthIncrease in inhabitants over time
- slumsImpoverished, crowded districts
- tenementsOvercrowded urban dwellings
child labor · working class · middle class · bourgeoisie · trade unions · Luddites · labor movement · social reform
Industrial production facility
- millGrain-crushing facility
- ironworksIndustrial metalworking facility
- foundryMetal casting facility
- forgeFurnace for shaping metal
workshop · assembly line · mass production · factory system · production · labor · workforce · loom
Fixed-track transport systems
- canalsConstructed water passages
- roadsPaved paths for vehicles
- turnpikesFee-charging highways
- bridgesStructures spanning obstacles
ports · harbors · steamships · transportation · coal mines · warehouses · telegraph lines · sewers
Private profit-based economy
- free marketCommerce without state intervention
- investmentDeploying capital for returns
- entrepreneurshipCreating and managing ventures
- commerceExchange of goods, services
trade · exports · banking · stock exchange · merchant class · colonialism · raw materials · surplus
steam engine
Thermal vapor motor
- spinning jennyEarly multi-spool thread maker
- power loomAutomated weaving apparatus
- cotton ginFiber-seed separating machine
locomotive · telegraph · blast furnace · Bessemer process · gas lighting · machinery · threshing machine · railways · iron smelting · vulcanization
urbanization
Population shift toward cities
- migrationMovement to new territory
- population growthIncrease in inhabitants over time
- slumsImpoverished, crowded districts
tenements · child labor · working class · middle class · bourgeoisie · trade unions · Luddites · labor movement · social reform · workhouse
factory
Industrial production facility
forge · workshop · assembly line · mass production · factory system · production · labor · workforce · loom · weaving
railways
Fixed-track transport systems
bridges · ports · harbors · steamships · transportation · coal mines · warehouses · telegraph lines · sewers · waterways
capitalism
Private profit-based economy
- free marketCommerce without state intervention
- investmentDeploying capital for returns
- entrepreneurshipCreating and managing ventures
commerce · trade · exports · banking · stock exchange · merchant class · colonialism · raw materials · surplus · profit
- 18th Century MovementsEnlightenment, Rococo, Neoclassicism, deism, rationalism
- Economic Growthexpansion, growth spurt, prosperity, boom, upturn
- Midlands HistoryBirmingham, Norman Conquest, Coventry, Roman occupation, Leicester
- Victorian HistoryGreat Exhibition, Crystal Palace, Indian Mutiny, Crimean War, Boer War
- Economic ErasGreat Depression, Gilded Age, Roaring Twenties, Great Recession, New Deal era
- historyancient civilizations, past events, historian, epochs, era
Industrial Revolutionagrarian society
Culture organized around farming
agricultural economy · feudalism · subsistence farming · cottage industry · manorialism
Industrial Revolutiondeindustrialization
Loss of industrial capacity
Dark Ages · economic stagnation · Luddism · primitivism · economic decline
Industrial Revolutionstasis
State of inactivity
societal collapse · economic stagnation · traditionalism · conservatism · ancien régime
industry, revolution, industrialist, revolutionize, industrialized, revolutionized, industrialize, industrialists, industrially