THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

     When we talk about the Industrial Revolution, we are basically describing one phenomenon that occurred in the XVIII-century England: the transformation of a familiar productive system into a widespread technical one.

     The first context in which the innovation was applied is the agricoltural one. Starting from the second half of the Eighteenth century, the English vast and extensively coltivated crops were gradually bordered by fences and acquired by the State and, last but not least, new technologies were introduced in them (such as the steam plough or, as regards coltivatory systems, the quadriennial rotation). This evolution led to a massive reduction in the number of farm workers, who since then began to move to the cities where there was a greater work offer, even if without any guarantees. Anyway, the cities weren't able to build sufficient infrastructures, therefore the number of homeless people improved.

     Anyway, the main technological advance took place in the industrial field. All the new machines introduced in factories utilized steam power and greatly improved the industrial productivity. In textile factories, the steam frame was used, and as regards transport, new canals and steam boats were introduced, as well as the railway, which in a few years would become the most important and fastest means of transport.

     On a political level, the Industrial Revolution begot two systems of economic and philosophic thought: Capitalism and Socialism. The first one gave importance to economic productivity and national companies, whereas the second one underlined the importance of an equal wealth distribution, in order to improve the welfare of the lowest classes. Some of the dynamics born during that period are still found in today's global economy and, nonetheless, in politics.