ABSTRACT
The coming of industrialisation to Europe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries had an enormous impact on attitudes towards religion, politics, economics, social problems and, not least, education. The Industrial Revolution, which resulted in the establishment of factories employing labour in methods of mass production, relied heavily on children to carry out some of the more tedious processes. The link between nationalism, imperialism and education became clearer after 1870 when the great European powers, England, Germany, France and Italy, indulged in large-scale imperial expansion. The belief that the failure in British industrial efficiency and performance could be directly attributed to an inadequate educational system is now seen as too simplistic. There are complicated cultural, political and economic factors which are of considerable importance and it cannot be assumed that education and training are the main influences.
