The industrial revolution and its aftermath. Industrial Revolution. The course of the industrial revolution in different countries

The Great Industrial Revolution, the achievements and problems of which will be discussed in the article, began in England (mid-18th century) and gradually embraced the entire world civilization. It led to the mechanization of production, the growth of the economy and the creation of a modern industrial society. The topic is covered in the eighth grade history course and will be useful to both students and parents.

Basic concept

A detailed definition of the concept can be seen in the picture above. It was first used by French economist Adolphe Blanqui in 1830. The theory was developed by the Marxists and Arnold Toynbee (English historian). The industrial revolution is not an evolutionary process associated with the emergence of new machines based on scientific and technical discoveries (some already existed at the beginning of the 18th century), but a massive transition to new organization labor - machine production in large factories, which replaced the manual labor of manufactories.

There are other definitions of this phenomenon in the books, including the industrial revolution. It is applicable to initial stage revolution, during which they are distinguished by three:

• Industrial revolution: the emergence of a new industry - mechanical engineering and the creation of a steam engine (from the middle of the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century).
• Organization mass production due to the use of chemicals and electricity (from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century). The stage was first identified by David Landis.
• Use in the production of information and communication technologies (from the end of the 20th century to the present). There is no consensus in science about the third stage.

Industrial revolution (industrial revolution): basic prerequisites

For the organization of factory production, a number of conditions are necessary, the main of which are:

• The presence of a labor force - people deprived of property.
• The possibility of selling goods (sales markets).
• The existence of rich people with money savings.

These conditions were formed first of all in England, where the bourgeoisie came to power after the revolution of the 17th century. The seizure of land from the peasants and the ruin of artisans in fierce competition with manufactories created a huge army of destitute people in need of work. The resettlement of former farmers in the cities led to a weakening subsistence farming. If the villagers themselves produced clothes and utensils for themselves, then the townspeople were forced to buy them. Goods were also exported abroad, as sheep breeding was well developed in the country. In the hands of the bourgeoisie profits accumulated from the slave trade, the robbery of the colonies and the export of wealth from India. The Industrial Revolution (the transition from manual labor to machine labor) became a reality thanks to a number of serious inventions.

Spinning production

The industrial revolution first affected the cotton industry, the most developed in the country. The stages of its mechanization can be seen in the presented table.

Edmund Cartwright improved the loom (1785), because the weavers could no longer process as much yarn as they produced in the factories of England. A 40-fold increase in productivity is the best proof that the industrial revolution has arrived. Achievements and problems (table) will be presented in the article. They are associated with the need to invent a special propulsion force that does not depend on the proximity of water.

steam engine

The search for a new source of energy was important not only in but also in mining industry where the work was especially hard. Already in 1711, an attempt was made to create a steam pump with a piston and a cylinder, into which water was injected. This was the first serious attempt to use steam. The author of an improved steam engine in 1763 was In 1784, the first double-acting steam engine used in a spinning mill was patented. The introduction of patents made it possible to protect the copyright of inventors, which contributed to their motivation for new achievements. Without this step, the industrial revolution would hardly have been possible.

Achievements and challenges (table shown in the picture below) show that the steam engine contributed to the industrial revolution in the development of transport. The appearance of the first steam locomotives on smooth rails is associated with the name of George Stephenson (1814), who personally operated a 33-car train in 1825 on the first railway for citizens in history. Its 30 km route connected Stockton and Darlington. By the middle of the century, all of England was surrounded by a net railways. A little earlier, an American working in France tested the first steamboat (1803).

Advances in mechanical engineering

In the table above, one should highlight the achievement without which the industrial revolution would have been impossible - the transition from manufactory to factory. This invention lathe for cutting nuts and screws. Henry Maudsley, a mechanic from England, made a breakthrough in the development of industry, in fact creating a new industry - mechanical engineering (1798-1800). In order to provide machine tools for factory workers, machines must be created to produce other machines. Planing and milling machines soon appeared (1817, 1818). Mechanical engineering contributed to the development of metallurgy and mining hard coal, which allowed England to flood other countries with cheap manufactured goods. For this she received the name "workshop of the world."

Collective work with the development of machine tool industry has become a necessity. A new type of worker has emerged - one who performs only one operation and is not able to produce the finished product from start to finish. There was a separation of intellectual forces from physical labor, which led to the emergence of qualified specialists who formed the basis of the middle class. The industrial revolution is not only a technical aspect, but also serious social consequences.

Social Consequences

The main result of the industrial revolution is the creation of an industrial society. It is characterized by:

• Personal freedom of citizens.
• Market relations.
• Technical modernization.
• The new structure of society (the predominance of urban residents, class stratification).
• Competition.

New technical possibilities appeared (transport, communications), which improved the quality of life of people. But in the pursuit of profit, the bourgeoisie was looking for ways to reduce the cost of labor, which led to the widespread use of the labor of women and children. Society split into two opposing classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

The ruined peasants and artisans could not get a job due to a lack of jobs. They considered the machines that replaced their labor to be the culprits, so the movement against machine tools gained momentum. The workers smashed the equipment of the factories, which marked the beginning of the class struggle against the exploiters. The growth of banks and the increase in capital imported into England at the beginning of the 19th century led to the low solvency of other countries, which caused a crisis of overproduction in 1825. These are the consequences of the industrial revolution.

Achievements and challenges (table): results of the industrial revolution

The table about industrial revolutions (achievements and problems) will be incomplete without taking into account the foreign policy aspect. For most of the 19th century, England's economic dominance was undeniable. She dominated the world trading market which has developed rapidly. At the first stage, only France competed with it thanks to the targeted policy of Napoleon Bonaparte. The uneven economic development of countries can be seen in the picture below.

The second stage of the revolution: the emergence of monopolies

The technical achievements of the second stage are presented above (see picture No. 4). Chief among them: the invention of new means of communication (telephone, radio, telegraph), the internal combustion engine and the furnace for steel smelting. The emergence of new energy sources is associated with the discovery of oil fields. This made it possible for the first time to create a car on a gasoline engine (1885). Chemistry came to the service of man, thanks to which strong synthetic materials began to be created.

For new industries (for the development of oil fields, for example), significant capital was required. The process of their concentration has intensified through the merger of companies, as well as their merging with banks, whose role has increased significantly. Monopolies appear - powerful enterprises that control both production and marketing of products. They were created by the industrial revolutions. Achievements and problems (table will be presented below) are associated with the consequences of the emergence of monopoly capitalism. are shown in the picture.

Consequences of the second stage of the industrial revolution

The uneven development of countries and the emergence of large corporations led to wars for the redivision of the world, the capture of markets and new sources of raw materials. During the period from 1870 to 1955 there were twenty serious military conflicts. involved in two world wars great amount countries. The creation of international monopolies led to the economic division of the world under the dominance of the financial oligarchy. Instead of exporting goods large corporations began to export capital, creating production in countries with cheap labor. Within countries, monopolies dominate, ruining and absorbing smaller enterprises.

But the industrial revolutions also bring a lot of positive things. Achievements and problems (the table is presented in the last subheading) of the second stage is mastering the results of scientific and technical discoveries, creating a developed infrastructure of society, and adapting to new living conditions. Monopoly capitalism is the most developed form of the capitalist mode of production, in which all the contradictions and problems of the bourgeois system are most fully manifested.

Results of the second stage

Industrial Revolution: Achievements and Challenges (table)

The industrial revolution, the achievements and problems of which are presented in two tables (according to the results of the first and second stages), is the greatest achievement of civilization. The transition to factory production was accompanied by technological progress. However, the risk of military and environmental catastrophes requires that development modern technologies and the use of new energy sources were under the control of humanistic public institutions.

Under industrial revolution(or industrial revolution) understand the transition from economic system based on agricultural production to an industrial-type economy.

According to the Marxist approach, industrial revolution- this is a historical period during which the transition from manual labor to machine labor was carried out and approval on a scale national economy factory production. There are two aspects of the industrial revolution: technical - the transition from manual labor to machine and social - the formation of social classes associated with factory production (wage workers and the bourgeoisie).

Late 18th-early 19th century the time when the industrial revolution took place in most of Europe. A stage in the development of the economy begins, which is called industrial, or machine. This name indicates that machines are increasingly being introduced into production and are replacing manual labor. Machines are turning into a kind of value in itself, the machine industry occupies an important place in the life of society, determining its economic well-being, military potential, and international status. Dynamics, technical progress are the basis of the life of a new type of civilization.

Increasing speed technical progress is possible only through the gradual formation of a close alliance between machine industry and science oriented towards practical ends.

The industrial revolution had the following consequences:

1) the industrial revolution made factory production the leading one. Mass production turned the worker into an appendage of the machine. This was clearly manifested at the beginning of the 20th century, when G. Ford introduced the conveyor at his automobile plants in the USA. The level of labor productivity rose sharply, but labor was mechanized to the limit;

2) factory technology and the associated sharp increase in production went hand in hand with changes in the production of raw materials, machinery, transportation methods, etc. That is, there is a chain reaction. The development of machine production causes the need for the production of machines themselves, a new branch is developing - mechanical engineering. Thus, industrial production began to be divided into two groups: group "A" - the production of means of production and group "B" - the production of consumer goods;

3) technical changes in production were reshaping the market. It was no longer consumer demand that pushed the development of production, but the factory production of goods required the expansion of markets and gradually formed demand;

4) the industrial revolution required large investments. Entrepreneurs, wanting to quickly recoup the costs of introducing machines, lengthened the working day without raising wages. The situation of the working people worsened, they began to wage an economic, and later political struggle;

5) one of the negative results of the technical revolution was industrial crises - periods during which entrepreneurs could not sell their products. They were called overproduction crises;

6) new technical inventions and scientific discoveries led to the development of little-known industries and the creation of new, hitherto unknown ones. In the second half of the XIX century. has risen sharply in importance oil industry. Last third of the 19th century became the era of the development of electricity, which gave production a new energy base. New industries emerged: electrochemistry and electrometallurgy. Advances in the field of chemistry made possible the rapid development of the chemical industry: the production of dyes, artificial fertilizers, synthetic and explosives began.

1. What changes have occurred in industrial production in the 19th century? What role did new industries play in the development of industry?

Since the Middle Ages, textiles have played a leading role in production. It is because of the supply of wool for textile production there was a process of fencing, manufactories developed most actively in this industry, it was there that new industrial inventions mainly appeared throughout the 18th century. However, in the 19th century, the emphasis gradually began to shift to heavy industry. Textiles provide only one human need, while iron and steel are needed to satisfy many needs in a rapidly developing industry and in transport. Therefore, it was heavy industry that quickly began to occupy a leading position.

2. Fill in the table.

Tech revolution

3. Draw a conclusion about how society has changed as a result of the introduction of technological advances. Specify the features of the industrial development of certain regions of Europe. Name the countries that have become leaders in industrial development.

As a result of the introduction of technical innovations, all aspects of society have changed. Another was the daily life of people, their labor activity. We must also not forget about the process of urbanization. In the 19th century, the population of Europe becomes predominantly urban, which means a very different everyday culture. At the same time, not all countries followed the path of industrialization at the same speed. England was ahead of everyone in this respect - by the middle of the 19th century, half of its population lived in cities. Somewhat lagged behind England, but France quickly made up for lost time, Prussia and Austria caught up with them. At the same time, the same Italy (still divided in the first half of the 19th century) remained little affected by industrialization. However, such countries still could not live in the old way, because industrial goods penetrated all over Europe and around the world, changing it.

4. What contradictions in society deepened the industrial era? What were the social consequences of the second industrial revolution?

In countries where bourgeois revolutions took place, the contradictions between privileged and non-privileged classes were no longer relevant. For example, in the UK, they no longer existed. However, the industrial revolution exacerbated the equally ancient contradictions between the haves and have-nots, in this case, the relationship between wage workers (proletarians) and their employers. One of the main social consequences of the industrial revolution was the creation and strengthening of the working class, which in developed countries gradually became one of the main groups in society.

5. Describe the position of the working class in industrial countries.

The working class had no other means of subsistence, except for the sale of its own labor, because of this, it was completely dependent on market conditions: during crises, unemployment rose, wages fell, and working conditions fell. At the same time, even between crises, the position of the workers cannot be called enviable, because in the beginning there were no legislative norms that could restrict their exploitation, and they themselves were forced to agree to any conditions, since they could not earn a living in another way. At the same time, the workers were initially inclined to a collective struggle for rights. In the production itself, they worked in large teams, in addition, they constantly saw the commonality of their lifestyle and their needs.

The Industrial Revolution is the process of transition from an agrarian economy characterized by manual labor and handicraft production to an industrial society dominated by machine production. The process begins in England in the 1740s-1780s and only then spreads to other European countries and the USA. The term itself appeared much later and became widely used only in the last decades of the 19th century.

Background of the industrial revolution

The XVIII century was characterized by a significant increase in the population of a number of European countries, including England. The significantly increased demand for food provoked an agricultural revolution in England: the restructuring of the land use system, changes in land cultivation technologies, the selection of seeds and breeds of livestock, the emergence of specialization in certain regions of the country, and a number of other phenomena. The peasants who held land were replaced by tenants who used hired workers. All this made English agriculture not only much more productive, but also more profitable, and the money that appeared in the countryside, in turn, led to a massive demand for manufactured goods.

The dominant system of production at that time, based on manual labor, could not fully satisfy this demand. In addition, it began to be presented by new sections of society that had no experience of mass use. industrial goods, - those for whom the products of artisans or manufactories turned out to be too expensive, were happy to buy cheaper, although often of lower quality factory products.

In addition, the agricultural revolution made it possible to solve another problem - where to get money for the construction of plants and factories, and often in those industries where there had previously been no industrial production at all. Factories cost several times more than manufactories, and the capital accumulated in agriculture was put into industry.

Thus, by the middle of the 18th century, several factors came together in England at once: the wealth of natural resources, free capital, the desire and ability to invest in that sector of the economy that seemed more profitable, and the massive demand for industrial products, which also ensures the rise in prices for it. , and the market.

Other European countries will follow a similar path after England.

Stages of the Industrial Revolution in England

The question of the stages of the industrial revolution in England remains very debatable. The process dragged on for many decades and not only did not have at least a general plan, but often was not even realized by contemporaries, including the leading economists of that era. It was very uneven: along with radically changing industries, there were those in which nothing changed or changed much more slowly. In this regard, a number of historians raise the question of whether it is correct in principle to use the term "revolution". Inventions often did not follow the needs of a particular industry, but anticipated their needs and remained unclaimed for years. The state did not lead this process - in historiography, the point of view is sometimes expressed that the British government, in the midst of the industrial revolution, is almost turning its back on the economy. All this does not allow us to single out any generally accepted stages of this process.

Looking from the 21st century, one can say, at the risk of hearing a lot of reasonable objections, that until about the 1760s, the foundation was laid on which the industrial revolution would subsequently grow. Following the creation of the Bank of England in 1694, a system of small local banks (country banks) began to develop in the country, providing freer circulation Money. The interest rate on loans is decreasing: if during the wars of William III it was about 7–8%, then by the middle of the 18th century it was 3%. A transport revolution begins: the technology for creating canals is being improved, from the 1740s they begin to be built based on the needs of a growing industry, and toll roads are being actively created. The extraction and transportation of coal, which became the main fuel of the industrial revolution, is developing.

// Distaff "Jenny" by James Hargreaves. Illustration from "History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain" by Edward Bans, 1835 (Wikimedia Commons)

Inventions in these years are relatively rare. Among the most striking are, for example, John Kay's aircraft shuttle (1733), which, however, became widespread much later. Basically, it was a time when England borrowed what appeared in other countries, and often several centuries before technology crossed the Pas de Calais.

Since about the beginning of the 1760s, the situation has changed significantly. "England of the second half of the 18th century already belongs to the future," wrote Pierre Shon. A series of inventions that glorified England begins, which we most often associate with the industrial revolution. James Hargreaves' "Jenny" spinning wheel (1764), the spinning machines of Richard Arkwright (c. 1769) and Samuel Crompton (c. 1779), and the loom of Edmund Cartwright (border 1780-1790s) led to dramatic changes in the manufacture of fabrics. The puddling process discovered by Henry Cort (patented in 1784) made it possible to make iron smelting cheaper and more efficient.

The steam engine appeared in Europe at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries.

In 1708, the Englishman Thomas Newcomen adapted it for a steam pump, but James Watt's experiments with steam began around 1765, and the commercial use of his engine began in 1783, when he proposed a universal engine that could already be installed in factories and factories. Since the late 1770s, wooden rails in mines and mines have been replaced by cast iron ones, from here it is already a stone's throw to the construction of railways. In the 1780s, the first steamboats appeared. At the same time, there is a sharp jump in the number of received patents for inventions.

AT new stage The Industrial Revolution enters with the beginning of the 19th century. Significantly growing role foreign trade: it is already a source of funds for British industry and provides it with an unlimited (or, if you like, cross-border) expansion of the market. Watt's engine conquers England and begins its victorious march across Europe. The transport revolution comes to an end: around 1820, a new road surface developed by John McAdam is being introduced, in 1829 the first passenger railway between Manchester and Liverpool is being built, and shortly before that, the first lines for the transport of goods. Finally, the role of science becomes visible - before that, for the most part, there was an era of engineers and inventors, who often did not have any special education.

The course of the industrial revolution in different countries

During the Industrial Revolution and over the next few decades, England's share of world industrial production increased more than 10 times. It is not surprising that other countries also sought to follow its example, especially since the starting conditions often turned out to be more favorable for them: the state was clearly aware of the need for economic restructuring and actively contributed to it; it became possible to import technologies, personnel and capital from more developed countries; it was approximately clear which industries and in what sequence to develop. First of all, the industrial revolution spreads to those countries where, as in England, a higher intensity of labor compared to the rest of the world could become its basis - it is no coincidence that one of the historians will call the industrial revolution "industrious revolution".

The course of the industrial revolution was various countries lots of common features. As a rule, it was preceded by a significant population growth, it was often accompanied by an influx of money into the agrarian sector of the economy and its radical restructuring, the problem of finding capital and energy sources was somehow solved. Everywhere the development of industry was accompanied by the construction of new means of communication, including railways - in the 1820-1830s they appeared in France, Belgium, Germany, the USA, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Russian Empire. Toll roads appear in many countries, steamboats begin to sail along the rivers.

Wallonia was the first to follow the example of England, which made Belgium one of the largest industrial powers in the world, she was one of the group of world leaders until the last quarter of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, the industrial revolution comes to the United States, much later, in the 1830s-1860s, it takes place in France. There, it was carried out with the support of the textile and metallurgical industries, and the state made a significant contribution to the construction of transport infrastructure. Even later, around the middle of the 19th century, the German states enter the industrial revolution, but by the end of the century, a united Germany is among the leaders.

Inventions made in these countries also quickly became known throughout Europe and overseas, they can be listed endlessly, often we don’t even realize that one or another absolutely familiar thing today appeared precisely during the years of the industrial revolution. In 1807, Robert Fulton creates the famous paddle steamer. In the mid-1830s, based on the inventions of his predecessors, Samuel Colt developed his own revolver. Samuel Morse's invention made it possible in 1844 to build the first telegraph line in the United States using his alphabet. Barthelemy Timonnier creates the first commercially successful sewing machine (1829), Louis Dagger invents the first camera (1839), Joel Huton - dishwasher(1850), James King - washing (1851), Adolf Fick makes the first successful contact lenses (1888).

Industrial revolutions in developed countries certainly had many features.

Thus, in Belgium, the revolution relied primarily on iron ore and coal, as well as on a long tradition of textile production and had many similarities with the English model.

In France, it is often assumed that the dynamics of industrial development in this country turned out to be non-linear: after an initial take-off from the 1860s until the end of the century, a noticeable slowdown is recorded, which was overcome only with the onset of the 20th century. When describing the processes that took place in Germany, a later start is usually explained by the fragmentation of the country, but at the same time it is noted that Germany was rich in natural resources, had capital and had such an education system that made it possible to quickly and practically from scratch train many qualified personnel and achieve excellence in new industries: electrical and especially chemical. In the United States, historians note that, on the one hand, the industrial revolution took place based on overseas technologies and capital, and on the other hand, it initially affected only a relatively small part of the country's territory - the northeast, in particular New England.

Consequences of the industrial revolution

Looking from today, the consequences of the industrial revolution can hardly be overestimated. In fact, it is from it that the entire modern technological civilization grows; its values ​​and principles spread from Great Britain, first to Europe and North America, and then gradually conquer the whole world. The agrarian civilization is becoming a thing of the past, it is being replaced by an industrial one. This can be seen not only through dry figures showing a change in the percentage of the population employed in agriculture or industry, or the number of urban residents, - the whole daily life of people is changing: food eventually begins to be produced in factories, clothes and shoes basically cease to be sewn on individual orders, standard and interchangeable parts appear, metal replaces wood in the construction of bridges and ships, the globe becomes so small that it can be circumnavigated in eighty days. It is difficult to find an area of ​​life that has not been affected by the industrial revolution.

It also affected the very structure of society: the importance of the peasantry is falling, the role of the landed aristocracy is decreasing, many artisans and crafts are disappearing, manufactories are closing. The world with which Marx was fascinated, the coexistence (or opposition) of the industrial bourgeoisie and the industrial proletariat, on which he built his theories, is also a consequence of the industrial revolution. There is a trade union movement, socialist and workers' organizations - thus, the basis of many social upheavals of the 19th and early 20th centuries is also the industrial revolution.

Historians have seen the middle class in a number of European countries almost since the 17th century, but it is after the industrial revolution that it can be spoken of as a separate class. social stratum with its own ethics and philosophy of life. In many ways, this middle class was created by the industrial revolution: these are the owners of small factories, managers, new professional layers, such as, for example, engineers.

Working conditions are changing: the interdependence of people within the same team makes it necessary to impose strict discipline, put some workers under the supervision of others, prohibit being distracted from work or being late for it.

The family still retains its economic importance, however, it increasingly ceases to be a place of work. Falling down economic role women in the family, a new division of labor appears: the man works, the woman runs the house and looks after the children. So home and work working time and leisure hours are clearly separated. At the turn of the 1770s and 1780s, the first kindergartens were opened in Europe, and in the 19th century, a nursery.

In fact, there have been only two revolutions of this magnitude in world history: the first turned the hunter-gatherer into a farmer, the second turned the farmer into a producer of goods and services.

In the nineteenth century completed the formation of an industrial civilization, largely the result of scientific discoveries and industrial revolution. concept industrial revolution (or industrial revolution) covers a set of technical, technological, social, institutional and other changes associated with the replacement of manual labor by machine production.

The first country to apply new way(based on the use of machines and industrial technologies) in industrial production, was Great Britain, in which the "old order" gave way already in the 17th century. a place for parliamentarism and civil equality. The example of this country shows that the most important prerequisite for the industrial revolution is liberal socio-political transformations that affirm the principles of civil equality, economic freedom, inviolability of the person and property. An equally essential prerequisite for the industrial revolution is high productivity. Agriculture due to the so-called agrarian revolution. The agrarian revolution consisted in the transition from extensive to intensive farming methods, which ensured its productivity and profitability. Great Britain was also the birthplace of the agrarian revolution, where “thanks to” the policy of enclosure (continuously carried out from the end of the 17th century and throughout the 18th century) profound changes took place in the production relations of agriculture, and a constant increase in agricultural productivity was observed. Geographical and natural-climatic factors also provided Great Britain with leadership in the industrial revolution. Thus, the country's insular position created for it "free" protection from destructive continental wars and cheap transport. The long coastline, natural bays and many navigable rivers removed dependence on land transport, whose underdevelopment retarded the growth of trade and industry. Sufficient reserves of coal in England contributed to the rapid transition of English metallurgy from charcoal to stone. This made it possible by the end of the eighteenth century. English metallurgy to come out on top in the world.

Thus, the necessary prerequisites for the industrial revolution is a causal relationship of geographical, natural-climatic and socio-political factors. Factors accelerating the industrial revolution are considered to be a free market for capital, labor and demographic growth.

In Great Britain, earlier than in other countries, the most important inventions in the cotton industry were made, which opened the era of the industrial revolution (the invention of the "flying shuttle", the creation of a spinning machine, the invention loom Cartwright). Full use of the advantages of machine production became possible after the invention of the universal steam engine by the London University mechanic James Watt (1782). The beginning of the use of steam energy in industrial production is the central event of the industrial revolution. In the future, steam engines were constantly improved.

Industrial revolutions in various industries followed like a chain reaction. The revolution that began in light industry, put forward the task of increasing the mass of machines, to meet this demand a lot of metal was required, which, in turn, caused a revolution in metallurgy and mechanical engineering; the increased mass of manufactured products (goods) required changes in transport. So, in the 80s. XVIII century The English engineer Symington built the world's first steamboat. In 1814, the Englishman J. Stephenson built the first steam locomotive. In 1825 under his leadership, a railway (56 km) was built in South-West England to transport coal. The steam locomotive "Rocket" designed by J. Stephenson marked the beginning of the "railway revolution" in Europe. At the end of the XIX - early. 20th century it was the turn of the so-called related industries: telegraph, telephone, radio. By the end of the Industrial Revolution, Great Britain had become the leading economic power.

The main consequences of the industrial revolution:

the emergence of factory production;

the birth of mechanical engineering;

lower prices for consumer goods;

market restructuring: not consumer demand shaped the development of production, but production pushed the expansion of markets and formed demand;

an increase in capital investment and the need for rapid turnover led to an increase in the working day and a reduction in wages;

the emergence of industrial crises - crises of overproduction;

the deterioration of the position of the working class and the beginning of social struggle;

accelerating the process of urbanization, changing the ratio between the urban and rural population.