Industrial Revolution – spreading from Britain to Europe and America
HistoryRevolutions & Industrial AgeAges 13–14
Use it with your class: students open it from a link or a QR code, with no account needed.
Next in Revolutions & Industrial Age
A map of Western Europe and North America paired with a timeline from 1760 to 1870 shows how the Industrial Revolution began in Britain and then spread to the United States, France, and Germany. Students drag the timeline marker to watch industrialised regions widen and inventions appear where they were born. Click an invention marker to learn how that machine changed production and everyday life.
Lesson: The Industrial Revolution; The workers' movement and the origins of scientific socialism
What it shows
The Industrial Revolution was the shift from hand production to machine production, powered first by water and then by steam. It began in Britain's textile industry in the 1760s, where capital from trade, abundant coal and iron, a growing labour force and large overseas markets came together. The map shows industrial regions spreading to the United States around 1790, France around 1830 and Germany around 1840, while inventions such as the spinning jenny, Watt's steam engine and the steam locomotive appear where they were first built. A separate group of markers traces the social consequences: fast-growing industrial cities and a new industrial working class.
How to use
Press Play at a low Timeline playback speed and pause at 1780, 1830 and 1870 to ask what has changed on the map. Use Filter by content group to follow Britain alone, then the United States and France, Germany, and finally Social consequences to link machines with cities and workers. Click any invention dot to read how it changed production, and turn off Show event labels on the map when students should identify events on their own.
Parameters you can change
- Year shown on the timeline 1760–1870 year
- Filter by content group All, Britain, United States, France, Germany, Social consequences
- Timeline playback speed 1–40 years/second
- Show event labels on the map
Questions to explore
- Which industry was mechanised first in Britain, and which inventions made this possible?
- Roughly how many decades separate the start of industrialisation in Britain and in Germany?
- Which social changes appear on the map at the same time as factories and railways?
