- What conditions in eighteenth-century Europe made it uniquely suitable as a site for the
Industrial Revolution?
- How had commercial developments during the preceding two centuries paved the way for a
revolution in industry?
- Describe what each of the following factors contributed to England's leadership in the early
Industrial Revolution: a) geographical position; b) natural resources; c) social structure and
traditions; d) the government's economic policy.
- Explain why English cotton manufacture expanded so dynamically during the first half of the
nineteenth century.
- How did the expansion of textile manufacture stimulate the development of other industries?
- What were the advantages of using coal instead of wood as a fuel in the heating of molten
metal? Can you think of any disadvantages?
- If the expansion and mechanization of industry was spread gradually over several generations,
why did it nevertheless constitute a revolution?
- What physical and what political or social factors delayed the progress of the Industrial
Revolution on the European continent?
- To what extent did the French Revolution inhibit, and to what extent did it promote,
industrialization?
- What major change in the population of Europe occurred in the nineteenth century, and how
did this affect the process of industrialization?
- Explain why government played a more active role in industrial development on the continent
of Europe than in England.
- What two motives were uppermost in the rapid growth of railroads in the 1840s? To what
extent did railroad construction promote, and to what extent did it slow, the pace of
industrialization in Europe?
- Who were the "navvies"? What was their role in the process of industrialization?
- In what branches of industry did Britain retain a commanding lead in 1870? In which
branches did pressure from competitors become most intense? Who were the major competitors?
- Why was the process of industrialization slowest in southern and eastern Europe?
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