ABSTRACT
In tandem with the intellectual and cultural changes of the Enlightenment, the late eighteenth century saw the beginning of the incredible transformation in technology that is commonly called the Industrial Revolution. England, the first country to industrialize, was an ideal zone not only because of its economic and political dominance, but also because it has significant coal deposits which are also located near navigable waterways. The Industrial Revolution occurred in part because it also overlapped with other major societal changes in demography and agriculture. Demographic change was supported by concurrent agricultural changes that enormously increased agrarian productivity, allowing more food to be produced on the land and bringing more land under production. These included improvements in crop rotation, fertilizer, the use of new crops such as potatoes and sugar beets, and the development of more productive crops and animal breeds. In addition, unequal labor relationships have been recapitulated in the developing world, and they continue to cause problems globally.
