The Industrial Revolution began in Britain for a number of reasons. First, the country had raw materials, like iron ore and coal. Other materials, like cotton, came from overseas colonies. By the end of the 18th century, the country became the world’s largest colonial power. The colonies then became big markets for the industrial goods that Britain produced.

In the early 1800s, the Industrial Revolution spread to the European mainland and across the Atlantic to the United States. By 1850 Belgium, France and Germany became leading industrial nations on the continent.

Japan was one of the first Asian countries to start producing goods in factories and Russian industrialisation started in the early 1900s. China and India didn’t become industrial powers until after World War II, largely because both countries were occupied by foreign powers.


Image: Klaus Rosmanitz
Background map :Crates, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons 



Words

  • century = a period of a hundred years
  • colonial power = a country that had a lot of colonies all over the world
  • cotton = a plant with white hairs on its seeds; used for making clothes 
  • factory = a building in which you produce goods with machines
  • foreign powers = other countries
  • improve = to make better
  • industrial goods = products made by machines
  • iron ore = rock from which you get iron
  • largely = mainly
  • leading = very important, number one
  • mainland = the continental part of Europe, not the islands
  • number = here: many
  • occupy =  to control another country with an army 
  • overseas = a foreign country or place that is across the ocean
  • productivity = how fast and with how many people goods are produced
  • raw materials = materials like coal, oil, cotton that are used to make industrial goods 
  • reason = cause, why something happens
  • spread = move to
  • wealthy = rich