Industialisation
...is transformed from pre-industrial society into an industrial one. It is a part of a wider modernisation process, where social change and economic development are closely related with technological innovation, particularly with the development of large-scale energy and metallurgy production. Industrialisation also introduces a form of philosophical change, where people obtain a different attitude towards their perception of nature.
History:
Most pre-industrial economies had standards of living not much above subsistence, meaning that the majority of the population were focused on producing their means of survival. For example, in medieval Europe, 80% of the labour forces were employed in subsistence agriculture.
Some pre-industrial economies, such as Ancient Athens, have had trade and commerce as significant factors, enjoying wealth far beyond a sustenance standard of living. Famines were frequent in most pre-industrial societies, although some, such as the Netherlands and England of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Italian city states of the 15th century and the Ancient Greek and Roman civilisations were able to escape the famine cycle through increasing trade and commercialisation of the agriculture sector. It is estimated that during the 17th century Netherlands imported nearly 70% of its grain supply in the 5th century BC Athens imported 75% of its total food supply.
Industrialisation through innovation in manufacturing processes first started with the Industrial Revolution in the northwest and in the Midlands of England, around the 18th century. It spread first to Europe and North America during the 18th and 19th centuries, and it later spread to the rest of the world.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain experiences a massive increase in agricultural productivity known as the British Agricultural Revolution, which enable and unprecedented...
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