The technological revolution initiated in Britain in the 18th century was a huge revolution in the history of technological development. It ushered in an era in which machines replaced hand tools. This revolution began with the birth of working machines and was marked by the widespread use of steam engines as power machines. This technological revolution and the related changes in social relations are called the first industrial revolution or industrial revolution. In terms of production technology, the Industrial Revolution replaced manual workshops with factories and replaced manual labor with machines; in terms of social relations, the Industrial Revolution eliminated the peasant class that was attached to backward production methods, and the industrial bourgeoisie and the industrial proletariat Classes formed and grew.
Britain is the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The British Industrial Revolution began in the 1760s and was basically completed in the 1840s. It was no accident that the Industrial Revolution started in the UK. It had profound political, socio-economic and scientific and technological prerequisites. The British bourgeois revolution in the mid-17th century overthrew the British feudal autocracy and established a constitutional monarchy based on the alliance of the bourgeoisie and the landed aristocracy, thus becoming the first country in the world to establish bourgeois political rule. The bourgeoisie used state power to accelerate the implementation of policies and measures to develop capitalism, which promoted the rapid formation of various prerequisites for the industrial revolution.
Through large-scale external plunder and the national debt system and consumption tax policy implemented at home, the bourgeoisie accumulated huge wealth and provided the necessary monetary funds for the industrial revolution; the large-scale enclosure movement provided The Industrial Revolution provided a large amount of "free" labor and a vast domestic market.
The high development of the British factory handicraft industry has cultivated a large number of skilled workers with rich practical experience, creating conditions for the invention and application of machines; the development and achievements of natural science, especially Newton's mechanics and mathematics, It laid a scientific theoretical foundation for the production of machines.
Although other European countries also have outstanding and capable workers and people with inventive spirit, these countries lack the funds, labor and markets needed to develop machine industries, as well as the politics and culture to ensure the development of capitalist economies. and other conditions.
In 1789, the Great Revolution broke out in France, abolishing the privileges of the feudal ruling class and removing obstacles to capitalist industrialization. After Napoleon came to power, he attached great importance to the development of science and technology, creating conditions for the Industrial Revolution in France. After that, Germany, the United States, Japan and other countries also joined the ranks of the industrial revolution. By the end of the 19th century, these countries had completed the industrial revolution.
Some important inventions before and after the Industrial Revolution Inventors
In 1712, the Englishman Thomas Cowman obtained the patent for a slightly improved steam engine
James Hargreaves' spinning jenny in 1764
Joseph Brahm's flush toilet in 1778
Senefield lithography in 1796
Henry Maudsley's screw-cutting machine in 1797
In 1781 James Watt improved the Cowman steam engine, and the modern steam engine took shape
Trevishek in 1812 Colney boiler
1815 Han Davy miner's lamp
1844 Chenglian Feiburn Lancashire boiler