This transformation is referred to as the industrialization of the world. The full impact of the Industrial Revolution would not begin to be realized until about 100 years later in the 1800s when the use of machines to replace human labor spread throughout Europe and North America. Fossil fuels replaced wind, water and wood as energy sources used primarily for the manufacture of textiles and iron making processes. The Industrial Revolution began when machinery started to replace manual labor. An estimated 75-100 million people died from the Black Plague leaving a world population of about 360 million. It started in the mid-1700s in Great Britain, some 350 years after the Black Plague decimated the world’s population by nearly 25%. It wasn’t that the Industrial Revolution became a stalwart juggernaut overnight. From human development, health and life longevity, to social improvements and the impact on natural resources, public well-being, energy usage and sanitation, the effects have been profound. The impact of the Industrial Revolution on the world’s health and psyche would not begin to register until the early 1960s, some 200 years after its beginnings. Bottom Image: The Shanghai, China, skyline today as a product of the Industrial Revolution. Top Image: Dillingen, Germany, skyline in 1850 as the Industrial Revolution powers world industrialization. Relatively overnight, it dramatically changed every aspect of human life and lifestyles. The Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in Earth’s ecology and humans’ relationship with their environment.
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