Modern World History: The Industrial Revolution in Britain
A revolution is a big change. The Industrial Revolution changed just about everything: where people live, how they work, how people meet their needs, and how they use natural resources. The Industrial Revolution began the the center of the world's largest empire, Britain, in the late 1700s and spread to most of the rest of the world over the next century. As a result of the revolution, just about everything is made in factories (instead of in homes), by machines (instead of by hand), and using coal, oil, and electricity (instead of wind, water, and muscle power) as a source of energy. Unlike other revolutions (like the American Revolution), the industrial revolution was a process, not an event, and it is a process that continues to the present day.