During a time when the road infrastructure was completely underdeveloped in all countries, the fact that so many river could be interconnected greatly increased communication between the various parts of Britain.
Additionally, Britain also saw the development of some of the most important technology during this period of time, which facilitated the industrial revolution. Technological instruments such as Watt's steam engine allowed an immediate increase in productivity and efficiency.
There are certainly several political and military reasons that are worth enumerating. At the historical moment we could estimate the beginning of the modern economy in Britain, somewhere in the 18th century, the other main economic powers that would dominate the continent in the 20th century were either defeated or too weak to contest Britain's economic supremacy. France had been defeated in the Seven Years wear and had lost most of its colonies in North America and India, making it a lesser player in the commercial global disputes. Germany and Italy were not yet united, while Russia was still economically a backward country. For Britain, the absence of a true competitor on the global market facilitated its concentration on the development of a proper, modern economic system.
Politically and militarily, Britain was also an area that had been relatively safe from conflict throughout its history. Other that some internal conflicts, such as the War of the Two Roses or the Civil War, there had been no true war on its soil. All of the other European countries had, at some point or other, been devastated by such large-scale conflicts, usually involving more than one enemies. The Hundred Years War had been fought, throughout the 14th and 15th century entirely on French soil. The Thirty Years War had devastated German territory in the 17th century. All the wars of the 18th century had been fought throughout Germany, France or Italy, but they had all spared Britain. Again, this type of argument comes to show that...
This was due to death of one of its greatest leaders, Aurangzeb early 1709. Leadership was seemingly absent as the last of the old and experienced leaders passed on and the new leaders took over. One of the new leaders, referred to as the nawab of Bengal took control of the British port and ordered for payment of increased tax from the British. This move was obviously advised by
The names of British factory cities would soon spread around the world symbolizing the peak of industrialization: Liverpool, Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield, Birmingham and especially Manchester. In order to get a better image of the city's growth and development, we will turn to statistics once again. In the 1770s, Manchester had a population of about 25, 000 and by 1850, less than a century later, its population had increased to
Other employment prospects in fields such as petty trading, retailing, transportation and domestic service also developed simultaneously in urban areas. In the nineteenth century, when the industrial working class became much larger and more important in the social structure they begin to assert themselves socially, politically and economically, evolving into the social order we see today. Growth of Cities According to Jeffery G. Williamson (1990) Britain grew at an unusually rapid
Industrial Revolution It has been called the "Western Miracle" and the "European Miracle," but it is commonly known as the Industrial Revolution. During the later half of the 1700's and to the beginning of the 20th century, The European continent and North America went through some amazing changes. These changes did not involve politics, but centered on economics and a new way of business in the U.S. They would also
Industrial Revolution and Beyond It is difficult for anyone now alive to appreciate the radical changes that the Industrial Revolution brought to humanity. We imagine that we know what it was like before this shift in economics, in culture, in society: We think of farmers tilling fields and of their children piling hay into stacks for winter forage, or of trappers setting their snares for the soft-pelted animals of the
Why Britain?The Industrial Revolution as it has been described in Eurocentric historical analyses began in Britain during the late eighteenth century, with advancements in the textile industry. However, English imperialism and colonialism patterns are what provided the new market in raw materials that spawned the revolutionary technologies of the English Industrial Revolution (Marks, 96). Profiting off its colonies, England was able to amass the capital needed to invest in new
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