The Industrial Age

The INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION was one of the most dramatic transformations in human history, beginning in Britain around 1760 and spreading across Europe and North America over the following century. Before this era, most goods were made by hand in homes or small workshops, and the majority of people lived and worked on farms. The revolution introduced MECHANIZATION — the use of machines to do work that humans and animals had previously done by hand. This shift moved production from rural cottages into large FACTORIES, fundamentally changing where people worked, how they lived, and what they could buy. Two key INVENTIONS that ignited this transformation were the steam engine and the spinning jenny, both of which multiplied productive output many times over. The age also gave rise to entirely new SOCIAL classes, particularly the industrial working class and a growing merchant middle class.