Class 71 First Industrial Revolution 218th3

Apuntes

Class 7: First Industrial Revolution (18th) Great divergence: Why the west? The Industrial Revolution began in the West in the 18th (more specifically in England). Why in the West? ● Earlier explanations → Western exceptionalism. ● Technological changes. ● Britain and the Dutch Republic → Rejection of political absolutism. ● Scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, and the nature of its religion. ● Mercantilist and imperialist policies → Creation of the global trade network (todas las rutas que crearon los portugueses a china, los malina galeons de españa, etc que permitieron expandirse). 0 As regards England, by the end of the Middle Ages, the country began to develop a lot of overseas commercial networks. Overseas commercial networks of England This trade brought to England: ● English goods (including wool cloth). ● New products like spices, sugar, coffee, ceramics, metals. ● Cotton textiles particularly from India → Very popular and in high demand in Britain. 0 As the popularity of cotton grew, Asia started restricting the import of cotton cloth into Britain (So Britain started producing cotton goods by themselves → this created the beginnings of a British cotton-cloth industry...