Imagine a world without electricity or machines. That’s what the world was like throughout most of history.
The world we know, with its roar of motors, was born during the Industrial Revolution. Britain’s Industrial Revolution led the way. Other countries, including France, Belgium, Germany, the United States, and Japan, soon followed. The structure of society shifted. It started as a traditional economy, where people grew their own food. It shifted to a market economy, where people earned wages and bought what they needed.
The market economy that arose was capitalism. This is an economic system in which individuals invest capital, or money and resources, in businesses. Manufacturing built up this new economy. It attracted workers, who poured into cities. The way people lived, worked, and thought changed dramatically in industrialized nations. Let’s take a look at how industrialization paved the way for the Age of Imperialism, which was just around the corner.
