Introduction

Beginning in Britain during the eighteenth century, the industrial revolution soon spread to the continent and beyond. Industrialization featured the increased use of machines and inanimate sources of energy, mass production in factories, and the mass distribution of goods on an unprecedented scale. Although the early stages of industrialization exacted heavy human costs from many workers, the giant leaps in productivity made it possible to create affluent societies in which a majority of the population is economically well off. That transformation reversed the usual pattern in human history. In addition, industrialization led to urbanization. As the first to industrialize, Britain became the first urbanized nation, and every other industrialized country has followed suit.

In a closely related development, improvements in the food supply contributed to rapid population growth and higher living standards. The improved food resources resulted not only from the spread of better farming methods to parts of the continent but also from improved transportation that by the end of the nineteenth century enabled Europeans to import food from the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand on a massive scale.

The spread of industrialization in Europe and the continued growth of more powerful European states provided important bases for a renewed burst of imperialist expansion. During the period from 1870 to 1914, western Europe rapidly extended its already far-flung influence in Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific. This imperialism often involved establishing direct political and military control over non-European populations, but Europe's domination also took other forms. The development of giant business organizations and the growth of financial power enabled Europe to dominate world affairs by indirect means as well.

The middle classes emerged as the main beneficiaries of industrialization, but during the latter half of the nineteenth century, the workers also became substantially better organized and more effective in asserting their demands. Some governments responded by implementing modern welfare programs.

A succession of artistic movements such as romanticism, realism, and modernism brought about changes in the arts that tended to fragment standards and to widen the gulf between popular and elite culture. Meanwhile, Charles Darwin's theory regarding the evolution of species by the process of natural selection generated enormous controversy primarily because it challenged the traditional biblical story about the creation of the world. Christianity adapted to this challenge, of course, and remained a potent force in Europe and abroad.