it happened later to electricity at the end of the 19th century and to the microchip at the end of the 20th century. When the French revolution has broke out in 1789, there were hundreds of factories powered by steam power. It is true that most of them were still in the United Kingdom, but the number of steam powered applications in continental Europe were growing all the time. Industry follows the needs. The trigger of the Industrial Revolution was the beginning of the demographic explosion of Europe. More people need more goods. Selling more goods means more profit, and if one can create more goods by using mechanical power then the profit will only grow. Our imagination is influenced by the stories about 'the satanic mills' with droves of emaciated workers entering and leaving the factories. Despite that picture, which was correct only in part, it is an undoubted fact that the part of the work per unit of production has considerably dropped. To put it simply, it is possible that the number of workers has increased ten times, but production has increased hundred times. However, the economic considerations of the time are discussed and analyzed in the chapter about the Industrial Revolution. Here, only the socio-political effects are considered. As it was already shown, the social conditions of Europe and the exclusiveness of the old elite, has channeled the demographic increase mainly to the towns. People from the countryside were drawn to the towns. In the towns, the ...
