ABSTRACT
THE SECOND MOST SIGNIFICANT CHANGE in recent human history was the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and early 1800s. This dramatic change in technology, economics, the organization of business and society occurred in England during the period 1760–1840. Termed the “Workshop of the World” (Chambers 1961), the island nation established the framework on which our modern industrial economy rests. This revolution was characterized by a shift from an agrarian to an industrial society where the locus of production shifted from the home and workshop to the factory. The principal features of this radical transformation and its sequelae included over 11 major changes in the technological and nonindustrial spheres:
(1) the use of new basic materials, chiefly iron and steel, (2) the use of new energy sources, including both fuels and motive power, such as coal, the steam engine, electricity, petroleum, and the internal-combustion engine, (3) the invention of new machines, such as the spinning jenny and the power loom that permitted increased production with a smaller expenditure of human energy, (4) a new organization of work known as the factory system, which entailed increased division of labour and specialization of function, (5) important developments in transportation and communication, including the steam locomotive, steamship, automobile, airplane, telegraph, and radio, and (6) the increasing application of science to industry. These technological changes made possible a tremendously increased use of natural resources and the mass production of manufactured goods.
(Encyclopaedia Britannica 1993, Vol. 6, p. 305) New developments in nonindustrial spheres included(1) agricultural improvements that made possible the provision of food for a larger non-agricultural population, (2) economic changes that resulted in a wider distribution of wealth, the decline of land as a source of wealth in the face of rising industrial production, and increased international trade, (3) political changes reflecting the shift in economic power …, (4) sweeping social changes, including the growth of cities, the development of working-class movements …, and (5) cultural transformations of a broad order. The worker acquired new and distinctive skills, and his relation to his task shifted; instead of being a craftsman working with hand tools, he became a machine operator, subject to factory discipline.
(Ibid.)