British Industrial Revolution - Essay Example

Industrial Revolution in Britain There is no single reason as to why the industrial revolution first started in Britain, but rather a perfect coalescence of individual parts that led to Britain’s successful industrial revolution. Diverging reasons have been given to explain the dominance of England in this front. Key among these reasons is the belief that the British were just fortunate people who happened to be at the right place at the right time. However, the people could have opted not to work.

Nature had given the Britons more to work with than people in other places and so the task advanced more quickly (Morris, 2010). This argument forms the basis of my thesis that resources and geographical endowments led to the industrial revolution in Britain.The geographical location of Britain provided an advantage to Britain in the race for industrialization. Farming resulting from the domestication of animals started in Britain, and this led to the agricultural revolution. In fact, agriculture in the rest of the world began many years after Britain had tried her hand at farming.

It is this agricultural revolution that brought about growth. Nevertheless, it is not all obvious that growth and markets get you an industrial revolution. Industrial revolution was something diverse that generally involved, immense increases in energy use per capita.The extensive deposits of coal provided sufficient fuel for use in factories as well as in the generation of electricity. Moreover, Britain had certain institutional and other kinds of arrangements that facilitated the industrial revolution.

However, they werent sufficient without some different things, like the location of huge coal deposits (Laichas, 2007). Iron was also in plenty and utilized for agricultural tools, chains, nails, horse stirrups, bolts sickles, locks and anchors (Laichaz, 2007). The relatively small size of Britain made transportation of these minerals, quick and reasonably cheap. The need to pump water out of these coal mines led to the invention of the steam engine. The same steam engines were later used in cotton mills with their efficiency improved.

The cultural strengths of Britain as evidenced in the technological innovations also made it an ideal place for industrialization to thrive. Engineering and machine tools were invented now and then and complimented the human labor that was in force. In 1764, James Hargreaves invention of the Spinning Jenny ensured that yarn could be produced in greater quantities. The power loom and the steam engine further revolutionized the cotton industry. Unlike early devices motorized exclusively by the use of water, the steam engine was powered by coal.

This improvement meant that factories no longer needed to be located next to sources of water.Though the Britons were hardworking and innovative, that alone could not guarantee an industrial revolution. Factors such as the fortunate geographical location provided massive resource deposits that were the primary driving points of industrialization. It is quite clear that a single clear-cut factor cannot be identified to be the one that brought about this revolution. Rather, it is the combination of these many factors that worked towards the industrial revolution in Britain.

Works citedDunn, Ross, and Laura Mitchell. Panorama: A World History. Vol. 2. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2015. 608-620. Print. Laichas, Tom, “A Conversation with Kenneth Pomeranz.” World History Connected 5.1 (2007): 19 pars. 16 Oct. 2014 . Morris, Ian. “Latitudes Not Attitudes: How Geography Explains History.” History Today 60.11 (2010): 30 par. Web .