preview

The French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution Essay

Decent Essays
Open Document

The period of 18th and 19th century is marked by the greatest transformations, reformations, revolutions and many other critical events that ever took place in human history. The credit is given to all these revolutions for enlightenment of mankind. The two most important revolutions were the French revolution and the industrial revolution. One can feel that both of these revolutions mutually reinforced each other and later became the back bone of all other revolutions. On the other hand, both revolutions had totally different impacts and consequences at various economical, political and social realms. The development of the industrialisation is outcome of the advancement of agriculture. Agriculture has played very important role in the …show more content…

The high production lowered the cost of the food and raised the standard of life. On the other hand, small farmer and peasant class was unemployed as they lost their land to rich landholders. There was increase in the labour force. It seems that socially and economically England possessed everything needed to fuel the industrial revolution. Also, the cottage industry of England was not able to fulfill the demands of increasing population. The ratio of demand to supply increased tremendously as population doubled in less than half century. Therefore, people began to focus on the ways to improve the cottage industry. In 1765 cotton spinning jenny was invented by a carpenter named James Hargreaves. At the same time, Richard Arkwright invented the water frame in 1768. These two inventions triggered the production of the cottage industry and cotton became cheaper and affordable to all classes. The real breakthrough comes when James watt invented steam engine in 1776 which made possible the establishment of coal and iron factories to more suitable areas. Initially, steam engines were used for pumping water out of coal mines and in iron industry to create draft in blast furnaces. Steam power was efficiently applied to transportation, agriculture, and other technological sectors. In 1856, Henry Bessemer invented Bessemer Convertor that converted iron into cheaper and durable steel. Steel production

Get Access