Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution refers to a period of economic, technological, and social transformation that occurred primarily in Great Britain beginning in the 1760s and ending approximately 80 years later. The major innovations associated with this revolution include steam powered manufacturing, cheaper and higher quality iron and steel, increased use of chemicals in industry, the invention and diffusion of railroads, and the appearance of the first large, mechanized, highoutput factories for producing cotton textiles and some other consumer goods. Some historians argue that this was only the first of two such revolutions, and a second Industrial Revolution took place in the United States and, to a lesser extent, Germany during the last decades of the 19th century. This second revolution was characterized by the emergence of ...