Industrial Revolution Summary

In Robert Marks’ “The Industrial Revolution and Its Consequences, 1750-1850” Marks goes on to describe the end of the biological old regime and the beginning of Industrial Revolution that mechanized the world. In the old regime, people’s necessities all came exclusively from the land. However, in a revolution powered by coal, surplus goods could be manufactured in industries. This allowed the population capacity of the world to increase and a different set of challenges unseen in the old regime to arise.

One of the most influential evolutions occurred in the textile industry after the mechanization of spinning and weaving fabrics like cotton. Although England can be accredited for industrializing textiles, in the late 17th century, India was

Coal fuelled the steam engine, and the production of iron and steel took the world out of the biological old regime. Steam was also heavily utilized with characters like Newcomen and Watts in the 18th century creating steam engines to power steam machines, steam boats, and steam trains. The steam engine revolutionized transportation forever as well as the production of common goods like textiles. However, such a vast source of wealth was abused, hundreds of factories were made, and twelve million people (around six million were women and children) were working in these textile

Chinese markets were booming and their population was striving. They had agriculturally fertile lands and population controlling tactics to maintain their success. In regards to their markets, they were very developed and productive as early as the 18th and 19th century in agricultural commodities and sericulture, as well as nonagricultural products. Chinese peasants did most of the hard labor and large-scale investments by the elites were used to better develop more efficient water transportation in China for their goods. This transportation system helped to create a booming market. Although China did not become industrialized, pushing the limits of the old biological regime with old technology and their growing population size forced China to become a very labour-intensive agricultural giant in order to support themselves.

Overall, although the world had left behind an old and insufficient biological regime, the Industrial Revolution brought with it its own challenges for mankind. Things like cotton, tea, silver, opium, iron, and steam were all items that dominated the Industrial Era. Tea and opium were mass produced by the Chinese, and England stripped silver from the New World to pay for these goods. In addition, iron and steam fuelled transportation and built massive industries along side the energy