Industrial Revolution

INTRODUCTION

The Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries was revolutionary because it changed -revolutionized - the productive capacity of England, Europe and United States. But the revolution was something more than just new machines, smoke-belching factories, increased productivity and an increased standard of living.

It was a revolution which transformed English, European, and American society down to its very roots, like the French Revolution, no one was left unaffected.
In other words, England, then the Continent and the United States, witnessed a shift from a traditional, pre-modern, agrarian society to that of an industrial economy based on capitalist methods, principles and practices.

Today we see the Industrial Revolution as being responsible for the higher standard of living we enjoy. This, of course, is true, but there was a great and, at times, appalling, price paid in human suffering to attain this standard of living in Europe, and even worse in the colonies (as Vargas Llosa explained in his book "El somni del celta”)