The Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain around the mid-1700s.
Until then, families made just what they needed at home. About the mid-1700s, businessmen began giving raw supplies, like cotton, to families. Everyone in the family worked. They would turn the supplies into things other people needed, like yarn. This was called the “domestic system.” Making things that way took a long time. The quality wasn’t always good. So inventors started coming up with ways to make things faster. Soon, people had to go work in factories, instead of at home. Starting around 1760, the trickle of inventions became a flood. Here are major events from the century that industrialized the Western world.
