The Dawn of the Industrial Age

Improvements in Farming• Methods of farming

changed to help farmers produce more efficiently:

– Crop rotation

– New farming equipment like seed drills and plows

– Enclosure laws created larger fields and farms to yield more on any given plot of land

New Technology Leads the Way• New methods in harnessing

energy helped to create new industries

– Coal was an important power source and spawned the steam engine

– Coal was vital to the production of iron, which was needed for machines and steam engines

Britain Rises to the Top• Britain became the hub of

industrial development for three primary reasons:

(1) abundant natural resources

(2) financial capital (money) from the slave trade and enterprise (businesses) from shipping and coal mining

(3) stable government that supported economic growth and protected its borders

The Birth of Textiles• Cotton was available in

large quantities to Britain from India

• New inventions like the cotton gin helped increase the efficiency of production

• The textile industry (spinning raw cotton into usable fabrics) was born