The Industrial Revolution began around 1750 in Great Britain, transforming it from a rural agrarian society to an urban industrial one. Several factors contributed to Britain being the birthplace of the revolution, including lucrative agriculture, wealthy landowners, and inventive entrepreneurs. New spinning and weaving machines revolutionized the textile industry, and water power helped drive machinery in early factories located near streams. The Industrial Revolution brought massive social changes as people moved to cities for work, often in difficult conditions, and Britain's economy and global power grew significantly.

1. The Industrial Revolution Why in England and western Europe and not somewhere else in the world? By: Donald Johnson Edited from a slideshow by JmClark

2. The Industrial Revolution Today, most historians agree that the Industrial Revolution was a turning point in the history of the world. It changed the Western world from a rural and agrarian society to an urban and industrial society.

3. Advent of change Starting around 1750 Great Britain was to set the pace in Europe for the next century or so, thanks to its lucrative agrarian industry, wealthy landowners and an astonishing number of creative inventors.

4. Cottage Industry Before the Industrial Revolution, textiles were produced under the putting-out system , in which merchant clothiers had their work done in the homes of artisans or farming families.

5. Cotton was spun and woven into cloth by hand in England until textile machinery, developed in the late 1700s, revolutionized its manufacture.

6. Spinning Jenny First on the scene were spinning machines. These were followed by mechanical looms and before long textile factories were shooting up all over the place.

7. Water power The first textile mills, needing waterpower to drive their machinery, were built on fast-moving streams in rural England.

8. An English Mill Town Period art showing the transformation of the countryside during the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain

9. Cotton mill A cotton mill, c. 1850 . By the mid-19th century, cotton manufacture was an entirely factory-based operation, notably in the Lancashire towns of Manchester and Oldham as shown in this photograph at right.

10. Child Labor When the industrial evolution first came to Britain and the U.S., there was a high demand for labor. Families quickly migrated from the rural farm areas to the newly industrialized cities to find work.

11. Work conditions Once they got there, things did not look as bright as they did. To survive in even the lowest level of poverty, families had to have every able member of the family go to work. This led to the high rise in child labor in factories. Children were not treated well, overworked, and underpaid for a long time before anyone tried to change things for them.

12. Labor The way people worked changed, as did they way they lived - not always for the better.

13. Industrial Revolution Britain changed more during this era than at any other time. People moved from the countryside to the new towns and cities.

14. Superpower Britain became the world's biggest superpower with the huge increase in industrial production, and imperial expansion.

15. Ironbridge Gorge The world’s first castiron bridge, spanning the Severn at Coalbrookdale, was built in 1779 using iron from furnaces owned by Darby. Considered the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, it had all the necessary ingredients for industrialization: coal, clay, ironstone, and limestone exposed at the surface.

16. Soana layout A map from 1761 illustrates in very fine detail, a group of buildings settled on the right bank of the Soana torrent. By the mid-1700s, the blood-red skies above the gorge meant power and success to the pioneering industrialists.

19. Iron It was needed everywhere, from the framework of spinning mules to the boilers and cylinders of steam engines.

20. James Watts’ steam engine

21. Double acting stationary engine The huge ironworks would never have come into existence without the steam engine, the third great trigger of the age.

28. Developing infrastructure The development of the railway stimulated the economy by providing cheap and efficient transport which lowered the carriage cost of goods.

30. T e m x i t l l l i l e In this modern textile mill many machines whir busily in an initial stage of processing fiber into fabric.