How Did The Industrial Revolution Change The World

A time of big changes and new beginnings, the Industrial Revolution changed the world so that it was hardly recognizable. The Industrial Revolution brought about inventions as diverse as the steam engine to the telegraph. As time went on, more and more inventions were necessary to advance further into the Industrial Revolution. So much so, that the changes that the inventions themselves went through made them unrecognizable as to what they were in the first place. Some of the greatest changes, though, ended with the economic stability of many countries. The Industrial revolution helped countries like Great Britain and America to become economically stronger today by the development of better inventions to get resources, the trading they did, and the use of those resources within their own country.
One of the ways that countries became more stable was through the development of
inventions.
Modern History Textbook says that England was on the cusp of a revolution once they started implementing ideas such as crop rotation and using inventions such as the seed drill to help with food production (Modern History Textbook). So, as England began to use ideas that increased food production, they started their journey down the road to the Industrial Revolution. Once England started increasing its food production, it had a population boom and suddenly they needed more and more food and clothes and housing and jobs. To solve this developing problem, they, so to say, killed two birds with one stone and created jobs to create clothing. Housing remained a problem for a long time after the Industrial Revolution, but to grow more food, inventors created better ways to produce the needed food. Also important to mention, Ushistory.org says that America started it’s own revolution once they started using Britain’s methods and inventions (Ushistory.org). Which
means, it wasn’t just England that could have a revolution, but wherever these revolutionary ideas and plans went, the Industrial Revolution would follow. Gombrich states, “At first the engine was mainly used to pump water out of mines, but people soon saw the possibility of using it to drive carriages and ships. Experiments with steamships went on in England in 1802, and in 1803 an American engineer called Robert Fulton launched a steamboat on the Seine” (Gombrich, 241). As soon as the revolution’s first inventions started catching steam, they began to evolve into different things that could push the revolution even further in many different countries. When inventions such as the steamboat became more accessible, the idea of trading with other countries became a normal part of a country's development.
Part of the way a country developed was through the trading they did. Modern History Textbook says, “Navigable rivers and canals in Great Britain quickened the pace and cheapened the cost of transportation of raw materials and finished products” and, “It (world trade) also increased wealth that could be loaned by banks to finance more industrial expansion in an upward spiral of economic growth” (Modern History Textbook, The Industrial Revolution Begins). So, the transportation of materials and resources within and outside a country helped the economy so that more trading and more money could be implemented in normal life so the economy could grow even further and further. Modern History Textbook also says, “This now widely embraced idea of a free market system came to fruition during the Industrial Revolution” (Modern History Textbook, The Industrial Revolution Begins). The free market system, where people can trade what they want when they want for their own benefit, became a very important aspect of the Industrial revolution as it allowed for businesses to expand their businesses outside of their own neighborhood to potentially the whole world. The free market system helps the consumer because it might cause the businesses selling their products to keep their prices lower because of the constant competition. Modern Textbook says, “Business owners compete in a free market to make the best product or service at a price that will attract the most buyers. The successful businesses grow larger and employ more workers, thereby growing the economy. Unsuccessful businesses go out of business. The government does not intervene. Proponents of the free market believe that this system encourages innovation, high quality goods, and increases the wealth of countries.” The greater a business grows, the better it can benefit the country it is in through the economy. The cause of this constant expanding was not completely because of the actual trading, however, but partly of the use of these resources within the country and their businesses.
So, the final way that countries became economically stronger was through the use of resources to further develop these countries to become more stable in themselves. When countries like Great Britain started trading with other countries, they would gain resources that they did not have before. Great Britain, because of its colder weather, could not grow cotton. Once they started trading with India and America for cotton, Great Britain could grow its cotton industry to become a great producer of cotton products. Great Britain used the cotton it traded for to grow its economy. Countries needed resources to get along further in the revolution. Gombrich says, “Machines and factories needed coal and iron, so countries which had their own coal and iron were at a great advantage” (Gombrich, 242). Which means, if a country already had coal and iron within their country, they were at a better advantage because they could use that coal and iron to fuel their machines and factories and inventions. As Modern History Textbook says, “Coal and iron deposits were plentiful in Great Britain and proved essential to the development of all new machines made of iron or steel and powered by coal—such as the steam-powered machinery in textile factories, and the locomotive” (Modern History Textbook, The Industrial Revolution Begins). So, Great Britain was at a better advantage than the rest of the world because of the many coal and iron deposits that they could use to power basically everything in the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Some of the things that it powered were things like steam engine and trains. Without the coal and iron deposits, not to mention the use of the cotton collected, along with the intuition to use them, Great Britain would not have gotten far in their own race through the Industrial Revolution.
In conclusion, during the Industrial Revolution, countries such as Great Britain and America became stronger when they developed inventions to gain resources, when they traded, and finally when they used resources to strengthen their countries. The development of inventions during the Industrial Revolution strengthened these countries because they were able to gain resources and move these resources. Through the development of these inventions, they could start to trade, which helped these countries because it strengthened their economy. The use of resources they traded for, or already had, made countries more stable, because resources like coal and iron were necessary to create and continue to create more inventions and to create inventions to transport these inventions. So, without one of these key parts of the Industrial Revolution, creating inventions, trading, and using resources, the countries of today would neither be as advanced nor as stable as they are now.