How Did The Industrial Revolution Affect The Economy

In the late 18th century, the Industrial Revolution fired up, like a steam engine, its ceaseless fire roared from Western Europe, to the Ottoman Empire crossing seas reaching as far as North America, lasting until it was finally extinguished on the brink of the 19th century. Unlike other revolutions, which primarily focused on political changes, the Industrial Revolution created technology, developed social changes and expanded the global economy. However, the effects of the Industrial Revolution varied from country to country. For instance, according to the article, “The Industrial Revolution outside the West”, written by Peter N. Stearns, Russia began importing manufacturing goods from Britain as they had already undergone the Industrial
Revolution and Russia refused to. Another example is the Ottoman Empire which, according to the book “International Journal of the Middle East Studies”, the author Edward C. Clark, states that the Industrial Revolution was instrumental in its final collapse, Countries such as Britain began exporting goods east which disturbed the Ottoman’s economy, resulting in a great increase in the unemployment rate, allowing Europe to take control of its fragile economy. Britain was the first to undergo the revolution, during that time; Europe was still trying to deal with the many up risings, such as the French and the Haitian revolution, however, Britain tried to deal with national complications instead of international ones. British workers and engineers began developing new machinery, including the steam engine which was vastly improved. Textile manufacture increased in size, resulting in cotton cloths to make up “half of England’s exports” (Amundson 2015). Following Britain’s immense economic growth, other European countries began to follow its footsteps; suddenly countries such as France, Germany and Belgium were also slowly becoming industrialized. Russia, after seeing these nations growing economically, instead of doing the same and industrializing, they decided to, as Stearns says, “imitate” the westerner’s technology by importing manufacturing goods and hiring skilled workers from the industrialized countries. Russia thought that it would be economically advantageous to remain industrialized and produce their own goods and import the ones they could not manufacture. Furthermore, many other regions tried to keep up with the Revolution but could not; Latin America and The Middle East were few of them. They did not have the capacity, technology and workers which would have allowed them to increase their economy. The Industrial Revolution; however, very beneficial to the economy as a whole, was harmful to most middle class and lower class citizens in Europe. The Industrial Revolution was portrait as a prosperous time for everyone, which resulted in many people to migrate to great cities such as Paris and London, allowing them to find jobs, but these jobs required much more work with about “twelve to seventeen hours of heavy labor” (Amundson 2015). At the same time that opportunities were created due to the creation of factories, parents decided to send their children to the work force at a young age, working at mines and factories, receiving much less than their parents, but helping out nonetheless. Furthermore, women also began working primarily in the cotton mills, making clothes and also receiving less than their husbands. Labor unions were also created during this time in the industrialized countries; they joined workers together as a community as they thought that the most important was for the “community to stay together” (Amundson 2015). With the creation of the factory, many job opportunities opened up, but while it gave jobs to many, a lot more were still unemployed. Unable to provide for their families and refusing to stand and watch opportunities fly by, the unemployed decided to utilize the railroads built throughout Europe and travel looking for work. Russian’s after seeing the slow moving economy their country had, became determined to go somewhere more prosperous, resulting on a high influx of immigrants traveling to industrialized countries, they were surprised to see many factories hiring skilled and some unskilled workers. The Industrial Revolution not only had a major impact on the economies of households but also on the economy of the world, industrialized countries took the global economy as their own, and became extremely prosperous.
During The Industrial Revolution the industrialized countries’ GDP was higher than it had ever been before, Britain was controlling the global market with its fast growing economy, and France was not far behind it, also having one of the biggest economies of its time. Russia took advantage of his neighbors booming economy and as Stearns said, increased trading, but only moderately as its lack of want to industrialize kept it from becoming a super power in this time period. While it may seem as if the Industrial Revolution only increased the economic power of European and Asian countries, it wasn’t the case; an example is the Ottoman Empire. The Westerners began trading east, resulting in a huge disturbance on the Ottoman Empire’s economy, in Clark’s article, he explained that the westerner’s trade left Ottoman workers jobless and reduced Ottoman sources of taxes, which led to the demise of the Empire. The Ottoman could not battle against Europeans, especially Britain, which led the global market; the Empire did not possess the money and the resources to undergo a full Industrial Revolution, and it’s with its shaken economy, the English were able to assimilate and take control of it. The Industrial Revolution is distinctive when compared to other revolutions during the time, making it one of the longest and having the least amount of deaths out of all of them. The Industrial Revolution was peaceful yet effective.
Unlike the French Revolution or the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution was peaceful; however, that fact did not keep it from being one of the most important revolutions ever to take place. The Industrial Revolution’s ultimate goal was to improve machinery, the standard of living and the global economy, and instead of achieving their goal with war and violence, the industrialized countries decided to utilize their own labor to produce their goods. The fact that the Industrial Revolution was not a political one, improved the relations with other countries, increasing trading and immigration. Russia, during the time, increased its imports with England and England allowed the influx of many Russians into their country, allowing them to find jobs that were not available in their slow developed country. While the relations between Europeans and some countries improved, others declined. The Ottoman Empire were being demolished by the fast moving economy the Europeans had, unable to keep up, The Ottoman’s suffered a great hit. The Indian also suffered, as Stearns says, “millions of villagers were thrown out of work”, England saw no hope for the Indians as they did not have the resources to keep up with the English. The impacts of the Industrial Revolution were not only great, but were also the most important in history, while other revolutions sought political power, the Industrial Revolution sought for change, social change, economic change, technology change, the Industrial Revolution can be considered one of the most innovative time periods the world has ever seen.
In an article called “Economic History Association”, author, Jan De Vries, compares the Industrial Revolution to the Renaissance, he explains that this period of time marked the “onset of industrial society and defines the key mechanisms of its progress”.
The Industrial Revolution changed the world as it was before known, this long lasting, eventful and progressive era paved the way for progress, it allowed humans to see the man power, the intelligence and the determination they possessed. Not only Europeans, but the whole entire world was able to see that a revolution did not have to be bloody to result in a change. During the decades that the Industrial Revolution lived through, we were able to not only see technological changes but also social and economic changes, it effected the world so much that the global market was completely changed, trading increased throughout the world, especially in the European nations, their GDP became stable, which had never been before. The Industrial Revolution allowed humans to see that the world was changing, it opened their eyes, and it gave them a taste for the future, something that only happened during the Renaissance as De Vries explained. The Revolution paved the way for the second Industrial Revolution, further improving machinery and life standards, afterwards the whole world became industrialized, paving the roads for future generations to live in, creating more factories and jobs for their children to not become unemployed like many of them were. The Industrial Revolution was not just a revolution, it was a time that was bound to happen, humans are meant to improve, not just technologically but also socially, and it is easy to see this fact, Russia suffered a great loss for not industrializing as soon as their neighboring countries did, the Ottoman Empire was collapsing due to it not being able to industrialize and keep up with England and France. The Industrial Revolution was truly a marvelous time for human
innovation.