AP European History
AP European History
The tale of modem European history can be seen as a series of revolutions. The Protestant Reformation was truly a revolution in Christian worship. The Scientific Revolution gave birth to a completely new way of thinking about the universe. The French Revolution attempted to establish a government along the lines of Enlightenment ideals. And the Industrial Revolution brought manufacturing into the modem era of mass production and consumption.
The Scientific Revolution, of course, was a major prerequisite of the Industrial Revolution. It created a climate of fascination with mechanics, physics, and technology without which the engineering achievements of the Industrial Revolution could never have taken place.
The Industrial Revolution began in Britain long before it developed on the European continent. This was due to a variety of factors, including Britain's stable government and society and its lack of direct involvement in the Napoleonic Wars. British engineers and inventors developed most of the technology that would make the Industrial Revolution possible.
The Industrial Revolution arrived on the European continent around 1830; it took root first in the nations that already had the mercantile mind-set and the natural resources to make it happen. As the nineteenth century rolled on, the nation-states began altering and developing their banking systems, the source of finance that made industrial growth possible. In addition, governments soon saw from Britain's example that by industrializing, they would make money on a vast scale; therefore, they supported laws and regulations that favored industrial development.
The Industrial Revolution also saw a major change in society; for the first time, individual workers realized that they had the power to improve their own working conditions. This did not happen overnight and it was met with fierce resistance from the owners and managers, but slowly the workers of Europe began to achieve recognition as a class with its own power and its own rights.
The Industrial Revolution began in Britain for two main reasons; one was its geographical makeup and the other was its society.
The island of Great Britain was crisscrossed by a network of canals and rivers; therefore, it was relatively cheap and easy to transport goods. The climate was temperate enough for travel and outdoor work year-round, except in the very coldest weeks of winter, and there were no major geographical obstacles to transportation, such as mountain ranges or vast deserts. Britain also had vast resources of coal, which was a main element of industry until late in the twentieth century.
Due to its geographical isolation from the European continent, Britain was largely unaffected by the Napoleonic Wars that consumed Europe from the end of the eighteenth century to 1815. Although Britain sent troops to the continent and British troops played a major role in Napoleon's defeat on the battlefield, France did not invade Britain, and its government and economy were not shaken up by the wars.
From the Glorious Revolution in 1689 to the beginning of World War I in 1914, Britain was a very stable society. The constitutional monarchy functioned well, the banking system was prosperous, and the population was thrifty. Men and women who owned their own small businesses-taverns, stores, mills, or farms-tended to invest their profits back into the business. In addition, men who owned small businesses could vote; this connected the interests of industry to those of government.
The British agricultural industry adopted Dutch methods of crop rotation, fertilization, and diversification. The term crop rotation refers to planting a field with a different crop each year-for example, wheat the first year, rye the second, and potatoes the third. Each crop drew different nutrients and minerals from the soil; therefore, rotating the crops allowed the soil to replenish its own resources. Diversification worked well for the same reason. Planting a variety of crops made the best possible use of the soil. It also cut down on poor harvests; if the wheat crop failed, for example, the potato crop might still thrive.
In 1701, Jethro Tull perfected a seed drill that could be harnessed to a horse. As the horse walked down the field, the drill sowed the seeds neatly and uniformly. Previously, the farmer had had to do his own sowing by walking down his rows and casting handfuls of seeds as he walked. The seed drill sped up the process and made it more efficient. Food production increased 300 percent over the course of the eighteenth century in Britain. Many people credit Tull's seed drill and other pioneering agricultural ideas with a major part in this change.
Probably because of the increase in food production, the British population would double between 1780 and 1851.
Because innovations in farming made large-scale farms more economically profitable than small ones, landowners began the process of enclosure-fencing in large tracts of privately owned land. Traditionally, the British had always permitted subsistence farming on any open fields, regardless of who owned the land. This made it possible for villagers to raise crops and feed their families. With the changes in agricultural methods, however, landowners joined in the enclosure movement, thus consolidating their fields for large-scale farming. Enclosure forced many villagers to move to the cities looking for work for wages. This large-scale urban migration, of course, provided the factories with a steady supply of workers. In this way, agriculture played its own major role in the overall manufacturing economy.
Britain's textile industry – both cotton and wool – was a major part of its economy. Sheep grazed the grasslands that covered the nation. For generations, their wool had been sheared, spun into yarn, and woven into cloth. Before the eighteenth century, this work had been done largely by hand.
Major changes in the textile industry began in 1733, when John Kay invented the flying shuttle. In 1764, James Hargreaves followed with the spinning jenny. Together, these inventions made the spinning and weaving process much faster and more efficient. More changes came later in the century: In 1779, the spinning mule combined the capabilities of the spinning jenny with the power of an invention called the water frame. When Edmund Cartwright perfected the first steam-powered loom in 1787, the weaving and spinning process took another giant step toward mass production.
Steam is probably the single most important word for an understanding of the Industrial Revolution. Europeans had understood the power of fire for many generations, and wood had served well as fuel. At the same time, although timber was a renewable resource, trees were slow to grow and had to be planted. Britain, once heavily forested, had used up most of its timber by the 1700s. Coal was another source of power, and coal was abundant, but it was also buried deep below the ground, and getting it out was difficult, expensive, and time-consuming. On time, coal became so necessary to British productivity that a major coal-mining industry developed.) Steam had the advantages of being accessible, free, and available as long as the rivers had water in them.
Thomas Savery developed Britain's first steam engine just before 1700. In 1705, Thomas Newcomen improved Savery's design. In 1763, James Watt improved the Newcomen engine. By the late eighteenth century, all the mills and factories in Britain were steam-powered. It was steam power that made the first railway locomotive possible; later, coal powered the engines.
In 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway opened. This development marked a major change in European lives. Until this time, nothing could move over land faster than a person could walk or a horse could run. Now, people could travel rapidly; journeys that had once taken seven or eight days could now be completed in a few hours. The railway proved popular and profitable, and within fifty years British workers had laid track and were driving engines all over the country. By 1880, technology had progressed so much that the trains were moving at three times their 1830 speed.
The main reason for building the railway, of course, was not for passenger travel but for freight. The railway made it possible for large quantities of goods to be transported quickly and efficiently over land for the first time in history. This reduced shipping costs, which in turn created larger markets and greater demand for goods; as demand rose, production increased. Owners were making enough profits to expand their businesses, building more factories and hiring more workers.