THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND THE FORMATION OF THE MODERN WORLD SYSTEM

Abstract

The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the mid-eighteenth century, represents one of the most transformative episodes in human history. It restructured social hierarchies, geopolitical power relations, global trade networks, and the conception of progress itself. This article examines the origins, mechanisms, and consequences of the Industrial Revolution through the lens of world-systems theory, exploring how the transition from agrarian to industrial capitalism created the foundational architecture of the modern world system. Drawing on historical, economic, and sociological scholarship, the article argues that the Industrial Revolution was not an isolated British phenomenon but a systemic event rooted in specific conjunctures of geography, politics, labor relations, and global resource flows. The article further analyzes how industrialization reconfigured core–periphery hierarchies, accelerated urbanization, generated new class formations, and embedded social and ecological contradictions that continue to define the twenty-first century.