Erik Engheim and Terje Tvedt introduced me another important development in Europe that seems connected to the industrial revolution: The Machine Revolution. While Medieval China invented plenty of industrial machines, including the first water-powered textile spinning wheel, by the high middle ages Western Europe was using more water and wind power per capita than anywhere else in history.
...watermills in 1086 did the work of almost 400,000 people at a time when England had no more than 1.25 million inhabitants. That means doing as much work as almost 30 percent of the English population.
Cultural explanations are often given for this divergence but in recent years, geography has been given greater focus. Western Europe had waterways more naturally suited for the use of water-power than the rest of Eurasia.
While water and wind power had been harnessed for centuries prior, this intensification of capital provided Europe with far more output than what would otherwise have been possible and more opportunities for engineers and mechanics to experiment, tinker with, and improve machinery.
It may be that the earliest seeds of industrial revolution were planted as far back as the middle ages.
Erik Engheim and Terje Tvedt introduced me another important development in Europe that seems connected to the industrial revolution: The Machine Revolution. While Medieval China invented plenty of industrial machines, including the first water-powered textile spinning wheel, by the high middle ages Western Europe was using more water and wind power per capita than anywhere else in history.
Cultural explanations are often given for this divergence but in recent years, geography has been given greater focus. Western Europe had waterways more naturally suited for the use of water-power than the rest of Eurasia.
While water and wind power had been harnessed for centuries prior, this intensification of capital provided Europe with far more output than what would otherwise have been possible and more opportunities for engineers and mechanics to experiment, tinker with, and improve machinery.
It may be that the earliest seeds of industrial revolution were planted as far back as the middle ages.