Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Key Questions
For Chapter 12
1. Where did the Industrial Revolution begin, and how did it diffuse?
2 . How have the character and geography of industrial production changed?
3. How have deindustrialization and the rise of service industries altered the
economic geography of pr o duction?
WHERE DID THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
BEGIN, AND HOW DID IT DIFFUSE?
The manufacturing of goods began long before the
Industrial Revolution. Families and communities pro-
duced goods in workshops, and merchants traded manu-
factured products throughout the world. For example, in
the towns and villages of India, workshops produced goods
made of iron, gold, silver, and brass. India's carpenters
were artists as well as art
urgently needed better machines, especially for spinning
and weaving. The fi rst steps in the Industrial Revolution
did not involve a revolutionary energy source; improved
spinning wheels were powered by foot pedals, and new
water looms were driven by water running downslope.
The eighteenth century was marked with a series of
inventions that brought new uses for known energy
sources (coal) and new machines to improve effi ciencies
(steam engines), which in turn enabled other new inven-
tions including water pumps and railroads. Funding inven-
tions and supporting inventors and inventions required
money. The eighteenth century was marked by an expand-
ing trade network focused on western Europe that brought
wealth to those in a position to take advantage of changing
circumstances (Fig. 12.2). These developments enabled
investors to fund inventors and to perfect inventions. For
example, James Watt is credited with impro
isans, and their work was in
demand wherever it could be bought. India's textiles, made
on individual spinning wheels and hand looms, were con-
sidered the best in the world. These industries were sus-
tained both by local aristocrats and by international trade.
Within individual homes in rural villages of Great Britain,
rural residents spun thread or wove fabric into textiles dur-
ing the winter months. The quality of production varied
according to place. India's textiles were so fi nely produced
that British textile makers rioted in 1721, demanding legis-
lative protection against imports from India.
China and Japan also possessed a substantial indus-
trial base long before the Industrial Revolution. European
industries, from the textile makers of Flanders and Britain
to the iron smelters of Thüringen, had become substantial
operations. However, in price and quality, Europe's prod-
ucts could not match those of other parts of the world.
Commercial companies, including the Dutch and British
East India Companies, laid the groundwork for Europe's
colonial expansion. Europeans gained control over local
industries in India, Indonesia, and elsewhere, profi ting
from political chaos that ensued in the wake of European
intervention, and pitted local factions against one another.
British merchants imported tons of raw fi ber for their
expanding textile industries. With the eventual develop-
ment of technologies that allowed for mass production,
the British were able to bury local industries in Asia and
Africa by fl ooding the market with inexpensive products
and forcing their colonies to purchase imported goods.
ving the steam
engine by creating a separate chamber to house the steam
and by perfecting the pistons and getting them to perform
correctly. The invention did not happen overnight: a series
of attempts over a few de
cades fi nally worked when Watt
partnered with toymaker and metal worker Matthew
Boulton who inherited great wealth from his wife. Boulton
fi nanced the fi nal trials and errors that made Watt's steam
engine functional and reliable.
During the Industrial Revolution, innovations in
iron manufacturing enabled the production of the steam
engine and a variety of other products. In Coalbrookdale,
England, in 1709, iron worker Abraham Darby found a
way to smelt iron. By burning coal in a vacuum-like envi-
ronment, the English already knew they could cook off
impurities, leaving behind coke, the high-carbon por-
tion of coal. In 1709, Darby put iron ore and coke in a
blast furnace, and then pushed air into the furnace, a
combination that allowed the furnace to burn at a much
higher temperature than wood charcoal or coal allowed.
Mixing the iron ore with limestone (to attract impuri-
ties) and water and smelting it with coke enabled iron
workers to pour melted iron ore into molds (instead of
shaping it with anvils), yielding cast iron . The use of
molds allowed more consistency in iron parts and
increased production of iron components. As the top-
onym indicates, the residents of Ironbridge, a town
neighboring Coalbrookdale, still take pride in their
The Industrial Revolution
During the eighteenth century, markets for European
goods were growing, especially in the colonies. Producers
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