The Industrial Revolution is one of the most important “events” to ever occur on this planet (definitely top 3). It changed everything. But, it had to start somewhere. And, for the Industrial Revolution, that means Great Britain. British people aren’t better than you (see 1776), but they had the perfect ingredients for this movement to begin. Check the map below for more. But, they had a perfect storm of CAPITAL (wealth), NATURAL RESOURCES (waterways, coal, iron), and INGENUITY (a huge chunk of the inventors your teacher probably yelled at you are from Great Britain. So, it begins here. It also begins in and around the TEXTILE industry. Don’t think that the Industrial Revolution started with Oil and Skyscrapers… it was more like steam and better ways to make clothing…

1. INDUSTRIALIZATION
2. AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION
3. URBANIZATION
4. COTTAGE SYSTEM
5. FACTORY SYSTEM

1. SPINNING JENNY PATENT (1770), James Hargreaves
2. LETTER FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO ELI WHITNEY (1793), Thomas Jefferson
3. LETTER FROM SECRETARY OF WAR TO ELI WHITNEY (1823), John C. Calhoun
4. INVENTION OF THE STEAM ENGINE (c. 1770), James Watt
5. ENCLOSURE ACT of 1773 (1773), King George III

1. SPINNING JENNY DIAGRAM

2. Eli Whitney’s Whitneyville Armory, c. 1800

3. INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS DIAGRAM

4. CROMFORD MILL (1st water-powered Cotton Mill by Richard Arkwright), Derbyshire England

5. URBAN WESTMINSTER, LONDON (c. 1900)

1. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain.
2. Great Britain had rivers, canals, coal, iron, capital and an empire.
3. Each invention led to another that continually improved production.
4. People stopped working in the home, and worked in factories around complex machinery.
5. Britain will have a huuuuge head start in the Industrial Revolution, but will be copied by others.