32-Industrial Revolution

#32Crash Course World History Video Notes
Coal, Steam, and the Industrial Revolution

1. Although it occurred around the same time as the French, American, Latin American, and Haitian
Revolutionsbetween, say, ______ and _______the industrial revolution was really the most
revolutionary of the bunch.
2. Heres one simple statistic that sums it up: Before the industrial revolution, about ______ of the
worlds population was engaged in farming to keep itself and the other 20% of people from starving.
3. So what happened? _________________! Heres my definition: The industrial revolution was an
increase in production brought about by the use of _________________ and characterized by the
use of new _________________ sources.
4. The industrial revolution began around 1750 in _________________ in the _________________
industry: The invention of the _________________ _________________by John Kay in 1733
dramatically increased the speed of weaving, which in turn created demand for yarn, which led to
inventions like the _________________ _________________and the water frame.
5. Soon these processes were mechanized using _________________ power, until the
_________________ _________________came along to make flying shuttles really fly in these
huge cotton mills.
6. The most successful steam engine was built by Thomas Newcomen to clear water out of
_________________.
7. _________________ _________________improved the steam engine and made possible not only
railroads and steamboats but also ever-more efficient cotton mills.
8. And, for the first time, chemicals other than stale _________________, were being used to bleach
the cloth that people worethe first of which was sulfuric acid, which was created in large
quantities only thanks to lead-lined chambers, which wouldve been impossible without lead production
rising dramatically right around 1750 in Britain, thanks to lead foundries powered by coal.
9. Here are some Eurocentric reasons why industrialization might have happened first in Europe:
a. Theres the _________________ superiority argument that basically holds that Europeans are
just better and smarter than other people.
b. And then, others argue that only Europe had the culture of _________________ and
_________________that made the creation of these revolutionary technologies possible.
c. Another argument is that freer _________________ institutions encouraged innovation and
strong property rights created incentives for inventors.
d. And, finally, people often cite Europes small _________________ which required labor-saving
inventions.
10. The problem with these Eurocentric why answers, is that they all apply to either
_________________ or _________________ or both. At the time, China, India, and Europe were
all roughly at the same place in terms of industrial production.
11. Its hard to make the European cultural superiority argument because China had been recording its
history since before Confucius, and plus there was all that bronze and painting and poetry. Its also
kind of difficult to make a blanket statement that China was economically inferior to Europe, since
they invented _________________ _________________and led the world in exports of
everything from silk to china.
12. Its also difficult to say that China lacked a culture of invention when they invented
_________________, and printing, and paper, and arguably _________________. So really, in a
lot of ways, China was at least as primed for an Industrial Revolution as Britain was.
13. So, why didnt it happen? Well, Europeansspecifically the Britishhad two huge advantages: First,
they had _________________ that was near the surface, which meant that it was cheap to mine.
Because there was all this incentive to get more coal out of the ground, _________________
_________________were invented to pump water out of the mines.
14. Secondly, there were _________________. Britain (and to a lesser extent the Low Countries) had
the highest wages in the world at the beginning of the 18th century.
15. But heres one last thing to consider: _________________ was the worlds largest producer of
cotton textiles, despite paying basically the lowest wages in the world. Indian agriculture was so
productive that laborers could be supported at a very low cost. And that, coupled with a large
population meant that Indian textile manufacturing could be very productive without using machines,
so they didnt need to industrialize.
16. But more importantly from our perspective, theres a strong argument to be made that Indian cotton
production helped spur British industrialization. It was cotton textiles that drove the early
Industrial Revolution. Indian cottons created the _________________ and then British
manufacturers invested in machines to increase production so that they could compete with India.

32-Industrial Revolution

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

32-Industrial Revolution

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

32-Industrial Revolution

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

#32Crash Course World History Video Notes

Coal, Steam, and the Industrial Revolution

You might also like