Industrial Revolution

A stage of development that began in the 18th century when manual labor was gradually replaced by machinery and large-scale factory production by replacing manual production in workshops. It is generally held that the Industrial Revolution originated in central England. It was a historical necessity that the Industrial Revolution was first to break out in England. After the bourgeoisie attained its dominance in England, it gathered capital and a large amount of labor through the enclosure movement and expanded its domestic market. The overseas trade opened up by new routes and colonial expansion accumulated primitive capital, provided a vast source of raw materials and a market for dumping goods for Britain, and stimulated its domestic commodity production. Britain also had a relatively complete science and advanced technology and experience. As the market demand increased, manual production could no longer meet the demand and the machinery revolution was born.

In 1764, the appearance of Spinning Jenny marked the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, and in the mid-18th century, a series of technological revolutions triggered a major leap from manual labor to power-driven machinery after the British Watt improved the steam engine. The steam engine was the first man-made, controllable, movable, non-natural force engine in human history, and the “engine” of the Industrial Revolution. Machinery marked by the steam engine, then spread throughout England and continental Europe, to North America in the 19th century, and later to every country and region of the world.

The Industrial Revolution was an important stage in the history of capitalist development. The Industrial Revolution created the conditions for the capitalist society to obtain its corresponding economic foundation, and brought about a shift from the traditional agrarian society to the large-scale industrial society. The Industrial Revolution was both a revolution in the mode of production and a profound revolution in social relations. In terms of the mode of production, it made machinery replace manual labor and factories replace manufacture. In terms of social relations, it simplified social relations—the society as a whole was clearly split into two directly opposite classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The Industrial Revolution also gave a great impetus to the development of natural science in the 19th century.