Industrial Revolution Dbq Essay

Between 1800 and 1890 we will see a massive explosion of industrial expansion in Europe and especially in Britain. This explosion is called the industrial revolution and would have massive implications on the rest of history that reverberates today. This industrial revolution would be fueled by the competitiveness between nations and one of the biggest driving forces was Britain. Britain would have a monopoly over the industrialized market of the world for many decades. This is because of Britain’s head start on industrializing with the first steam Engine being invented in England in the early 18th century. Britain’s industrialization head start put pressure on other nations at the time to industrialize quicker to not fall behind with the

Since then it would fight in many wars on the continent, but it would be much more distant politically compared to other European nations. This would cause England to focus on its own colonial expansion to build a mostly self-sufficient empire. This would finally be put to use in Document 1 during Napoleon's Continental System which blocked the English from trading with continental Europe. Britain’s response to this as you can also see in Document 1 is Britain’s blockade which Napoleon called “monstrous abuse“, although it was biased based on Napoleon's hate for England, would show the continent that it needed to step up its industrialization to become as self sufficient as England. Of course we know that England would win in this embargo stalemate, but it would set a precedent of industrialization in the 19th century for continental Europe. Document 4 shows us these statistics directly with the growth of GDP per capita in the major industrialized nations such as Britain, Germany, and France. A fact to keep in mind while looking at these statistics is that Germany and France had twice the population of Britain meaning their actual GDP was much much more closer to Britain’s. This fact shows just how quickly continental Europe would catch up to the industry of Britain after the

Capitalism theories had been around for centuries, but it didn’t really make a bold appearance until Adam Smith in the 18th century. He would go on to write many works and become a great deal of influence in British economic policy. This especially became apparent during the Industrial Revolution where liberalism was becoming much stronger in Britain and called for more economic freedom. These ideals would be spread across the world and allowed nations industrial power to be put face to face to improve through other means than just increasing tariffs to limit imports and boost their own