Why was England the first country to industrialize?

1. Why was England the first country to industrialize?

2. FOODYou must have a surplus of food! • The Agricultural Revolution, 1700’s • Improved farming techniques, like crop rotation and the scientific breeding of animals. • There was a great increase in food production. • Fewer people could produce more food. • The pride of food was low, so people could afford to buy manufactured goods. • People could be spared from the farms – to go work in the cities. • There would be enough food to feed the industrial cities.

3. CAPITALYou must have a great accumulation of cash. • The Commercial Revolution, 1700’s • This was trade. • The British accumulated piles of cash from trade.

4. LABOR FORCEThe labor force must be large. • The Population Explosion • From 1750 to 1850, the British population tripled. • With more food, people had more children. • With better sanitation, the death rate fell. People lived longer. • There was an abundant labor supply to mine the coal and run the factories.

5. RURAL TO URBAN MIGRATION • The labor force must already live in cities. • The Enclosure Movement, 1750 to 1810 • To feed to woolen mills, England needed wool. • Landowners gave up raising food and started raising sheep. • It takes only one guy (a shepherd) to raise sheep. All the other farm laborers are redundant.

6. Parliament passed 1000 laws, allowing landowners to evict the tenants from their land! • Dispossessed of their land, folks had nowhere to go, except go to the city and look for a job. • In 1700, 80% of the people were involved in farming. • In 1800, 60% of the people were involved in farming. • In 1900, only 10% of the workforce was involved in farming.

7. The Potato Famine, 1840’s • In Ireland, one million died and one million left Ireland. • Many immigrants went to work in British and American factories.

8. NATURAL RESOURCES • You must have coal and iron mines – already in operation. • Coal. Coal. Coal. • England had already ran out of forests; they turned to coal. • England had an abundance of coal and ion ore. • You can import light raw materials (cotton), but you must have the heavy stuff (coal) inside your country.

9. James Watt invented the steam engine: Using coal, the engine produced power. • Coal powered machines in the factories. • Coking coal and iron ore were used to make steel. • Raw cotton came from British colonies overseas – the US and India. • Manchester became Britain’s textile center because of its proximity to coal mines, the development of the world’s first modern railway and its proximity to coal and the seaport of Liverpool.

10. The Industrial Revolution was driven by coal > steam. • The first factories were built near the coal mines. • The first factories were textile mills. (Manchester became the center of the textile industry.) • The first factory workers were women and children. • Two important industries were coal (to run machinery) and iron (to make machinery).

11. A TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM • You must have a system to transport heavy freight, especially coal. • Coal is heavy – you can mote it cheaply by water and rail. • Britain had a cheap transportation system to move raw materials and finished products. • Long coastlines suitable for harbors. • Navigable rivers • Canal systems. • A dense network of roads • The development of railroads

12. England went through a canal-building craze: Canals linked rivers, the mines, and the factories. • Barges then carried bulk freight (coal to run the factories, grain to feed the cities).

13. England went through a railroad-building craze: Railroads linked everything. • The first railroads carried coal.

14. England went through a ship-building craze: Ocean-going ships imported raw materials and exported finished goods.

15. TECHNOLOGYYou must have new technology, such as the steam engine (1869). • The Scientific Revolution, 1600’s • Ever since the Scientific Revolution, the British were running experiments using the scientific method. • The Royal Society of London encouraged scientific discoveries. • During the 1700’s, inventors and innovators stepped forward to invent solutions to practice problems. • In 1769, James Watt perfected the steam engine!

16. DEMAND • Demand comes before Supply. • A market before you manufacture. • There was already a gigantic demand for British goods. • Low farm prices allowed the British people to buy their manufactured goods. • Wherever the British looked, there was a market for their products: Europe, the US, Asia, Africa.

17. In 1800, 60% of British exports were sold to the US. • The British had colonies around the world: • Colonies provided raw materials – India sent raw cotton to England. • Colonies provided a market – England sold its manufactured foods to its colonies.