Industry  

The Industrial Revolution is primarily associated with a period of heightened invention and innovation. England emerged from this century highly mechanized, and had advanced farther than any of its competitors. The essential aspect of the Industrial Revolution was obviously the development of industry; all else followed after that had been established. The several other movements associated with the time period of the Industrial Revolution, such as capitalism, communism, the emergence of the middle class and the human rights movement, all stemmed from the basic inventions that proliferated throughout the world at the time.

The most significant industries - railroads, electricity, mines, steam, steel, and textiles - were essential to the industrial success of a nation. These tended to operate based on the factory system, in itself a key invention of the period. These pages offer more detailed analysis of the progress of each of the main industries of the time.