Industrial Revolution: Causes, Energy, and Production
Causes of the Industrial Revolution
Population Increase: Since the eighteenth century, plague epidemics were disappearing, and the development of agriculture allowed for the growth of food production, leading to a significant decline in mortality.
- European mortality, including infant mortality, declined.
- The birth rate decreased slowly but remained high, resulting in a considerable increase in vegetative growth.
- The population increase was greater in the cities. There were also migrations, especially to America.
Improvements in Agriculture: Enclosures (concentration of land on large estates) continued with government support, allowing the introduction of technical improvements and specialization in more profitable crops.
- The increase in production allowed for feeding a rapidly growing population.
- Technical improvements reduced the number of farmers needed to work the land, providing labor for industry.
- The profits made by landowners were invested in agriculture, trade, and new industries.
- The metal needs for agricultural tools and machinery led to the development of metallurgy and steel.
Technology Development: The increased demand for machinery led to technical innovations that increased production and profits. These inventions began in England in the textile sector and were initially simple, built of wood by craftsmen and people without scientific training.
- The important thing is not the invention itself but its diffusion in industry: an invention only applies when the employer will pay out.
- Each invention is not important in itself, but because it brings new innovations. The most important innovation was James Watt’s steam engine, which produced major consequences.
New Energy Sources
The surge of oil and electricity left carbon behind. The invention of the dynamo (1869) allowed for the production of electricity from hydropower. The generator and transformer made the transfer of current possible. Electricity had many uses in industry, transport, communication systems, and lighting. The invention of the internal combustion engine was used as car fuel. The diesel engine application allowed for more rapid navigation. Aviation was another innovation made possible by oil. The metals industry experienced a major boost with the production of new metals such as aluminum and stainless steel. The auto industry got a major expansion with the invention of the small car by Henry Ford. The chemical industry had an important development in Germany thanks to the manufacture of fertilizers and pesticides. Reinforced concrete began to be used to build the first skyscrapers.
Organization of Industrial Production in the 19th Century
The organization is geared towards mass production to increase productivity and reduce costs. This method is known as Taylorism, which involves the manufacturing chain, namely the division of the production process into very specific tasks using high-precision machines. Each worker performs a very specific task in the process and is paid for their labor. This system was born in the U.S. in the Ford car plant. The result was a standardized, mass production of cars with lower costs. The high capital investment stimulated industrial concentration, and companies became larger. To restrict competition, agreements were signed between companies to fix prices. The cartel (agreements between different companies), the trust (merger), the holding company (financial group that owns most of the actions of a group of enterprises or banks), and the monopoly (exclusive right of a company to market a product) were born.