Why Industrial revolution happened only in England? Why couldn't it have happened in any other nation like in China or in the Ottoman Empire? How this tiny island nation off the coast of France made it happen? Questions like this have always appeared inside my mind, whenever I was thinking about the industrial revolution.
England is a very tiny nation both in terms of population and land area. While India or China were both separate civilizations with massive populations and land areas. England had very very less number of people than both of the before mentioned civilizations. Every intellectual would accept that more people means more ideas and more innovations. But how on earth could such a tiny number of people could have made this great leap that would change all of humanity?
To answer this question, I want to tell you about the world in which this (industrial revolution) took place. The Renaissance and Enlightenment era had ended. China followed a policy of isolationism and India was disintegrated after the fall of Mughal Empire. Most of the European powers that controlled big swathes of colonies all around the world were devastated by the Napoleonic wars but luckily UK was safe from the destruction of war, protected by its geographical isolation from the mainland. All this with discovery of coal deposits in the British Isles and invention of steam engine during the prior centuries has made Britain a favorable place for the Industrial revolution.
This could have not been possible if any of the fore-mentioned factors has not been true. Industrial revolutions can also been possible in different places in different times in history. Even Greeks have found something that was similar to steam engine that used steam to rotate. It could have been in China during Song dynasty when China saw rapid increase in population and food production, when gunpowder technology developed a deadly weapon that would revolutionize warfare.
This new step in humanity's development could have took place anywhere and anytime in the world if circumstances were favorable. It just happened where it happened because it was favorable for it to happen there at that time.
England is a very tiny nation both in terms of population and land area. While India or China were both separate civilizations with massive populations and land areas. England had very very less number of people than both of the before mentioned civilizations. Every intellectual would accept that more people means more ideas and more innovations. But how on earth could such a tiny number of people could have made this great leap that would change all of humanity?
To answer this question, I want to tell you about the world in which this (industrial revolution) took place. The Renaissance and Enlightenment era had ended. China followed a policy of isolationism and India was disintegrated after the fall of Mughal Empire. Most of the European powers that controlled big swathes of colonies all around the world were devastated by the Napoleonic wars but luckily UK was safe from the destruction of war, protected by its geographical isolation from the mainland. All this with discovery of coal deposits in the British Isles and invention of steam engine during the prior centuries has made Britain a favorable place for the Industrial revolution.
This could have not been possible if any of the fore-mentioned factors has not been true. Industrial revolutions can also been possible in different places in different times in history. Even Greeks have found something that was similar to steam engine that used steam to rotate. It could have been in China during Song dynasty when China saw rapid increase in population and food production, when gunpowder technology developed a deadly weapon that would revolutionize warfare.
This new step in humanity's development could have took place anywhere and anytime in the world if circumstances were favorable. It just happened where it happened because it was favorable for it to happen there at that time.
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