Great Britain's Success During The Industrial Revolution

During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, with the French Revolution, Declaration of Independence, Napoleonic War, and Opium War, none compares to the Industrial Revolution, which completely revolutionized the whole world with new technological advancements. The Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain in the mid-eighteenth century with the improvement of the steam engine. In the 1760, machinery began to take over hand-crafted jobs; for instance, the spinning jenny for clothing and the textile industry. Furthermore, trains now powered by steam engines became more efficient and allowed the building of railroads for transportation. (Blanco “What’s so revolutionary about industry?”) The British were extremely successful during and after

Other countries were not as developed as Great Britain and France. On the other side of the continent, the United States had just declared their independence, while Asian countries like China was not having those ambitions. Great Britain, on the other hand, always had geographic advantages as an island (no cities were more than fifty miles away from water) in Europe since trading was mainly by ship; furthermore, their abundance of coal certainly helped them to be successful during the Industrial Revolution. (McKay 692) The question arises of how did Great Britain’s natural resources and geography contribute to the nation’s economic superiority during the Industrial Revolution? Great Britain, with the abundance of coal and geographic advantage created a ‘snowball’ effect pair with the steam engine, which allowed Britain to build railroads, generate power, and perform chemical experiment, while the geographic position favored Britain to expand their already efficient trading system by

As an island in Europe, Great Britain was surrounded by sea while trading by ship was the most prominent way during the Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, the natural resources of Britain were accessible in populated area, which significantly improved their chance to succeed in the revolution. (Clark and Jacks 2). In the eighteenth century, Britain had a sizeable lead for trading by water because the port access and “shipping goods is cheaper than by land.” (McKay 692). Along with the steam engine refinement, British had never gave this advantage away. Furthermore, “Pomeranz (scholars Clark and Jacks quoted) argues that Britain, in contrast to China, had accessible deposits of coal near population centers. That, rather than differences in innovative potential, explains British success and Chinese failure”. This illustrates one of the most geographic advantages Great Britain had during the Industrial Revolution. As coal was one of the most important assets to any countries, the accessibility of coal near dense populated area was no doubt one of the reason Britain had such great success in technological advancements. Comparing to Asian countries like China, Britain’s location of their natural resources assisted them rather than caused them more trouble. On the other hand, China has severe trouble in transporting their resources. (Clark and Jacks