Industrial Revolution

The eighteenth century witnessed the arrival of widespread industrialisation in Western Europe. Many countries underwent the gradual transition from a predominantly agrarian society to industrial development on an extensive scale and the introduction of the modern factory system. Great Britain was the first European country to experience this profound economic and social transformation and it can be labelled the 'innovator' to the process of industrialisation, the stimulus to development. Why was Britain at the forefront …

…label." It can therefore be seen that the factors which contributed to industrialisation in Britain were part of a complex, mutually re-enforcing relationship, which incorporated the influences of chance and took advantage of a potentially favourable situation that existed at the time. Britain was to become the prototype for all other industrialised countries, an example which they found hard to follow, and the innovator of change that led to a whole new era of history.