The beginning of the creation of industrial civilization, contrasted to traditional civilizations, started a new era. Many historians and philosophers associated the use of such characteristics as civilization and civilized society with the bourgeois epoch. A new civilization started formation on fundamentally different principles and foundations. In the contemporary literature, a long and complex process of transition from an old traditional civilization to a new industrial one is usually denoted by a term modernization. In the economic sphere, industrialization became the main vector of the development of modernizing countries. Basically, it was a process of creation of a large-scale machine production. On this basis, there was transition from the agrarian society to the industrial one. The purpose of the current paper is to study the process of industrialization in such countries as England, France, and Germany, as well as its advantages including decrease in production costs and disadvantages of the environmental problems.
Industrialization in various countries proceeded differently regarding timing, speed, price of industrialization, and its social consequences. Despite this, industrialization affected all European states. Ossewaarde wrote that industrialization brought radical changes to the ancient European agrarian (first-sector) economy with its peasants and aristocratic landlords into a modern Europe of factories owned by entrepreneurs and kept running by workers and machines . By the middle of the 18th century, England became a leading capitalist country . In terms of economic development, it exceeded all other European states. At that time, technical and socio-economic conditions improved in England. These conditions were necessary for the transition from manual labor to mechanical. The industrial revolution began in the United Kingdom earlier than in other countries . Different factors contributed to its expansion in the United Kingdom. There was a significant initial capital accumulation and concentration of big capital in a small group of people . In addition, there was a final liquidation of the peasantry and a transition of agriculture to the capitalist path of its development . The bourgeois revolution created the conditions for the rapid industrialization of the economy, and formed bourgeois social and political system, as well as the political union of the land and the financial aristocracy. In addition, bourgeois ownership of the land appeared. There was also a powerful impetus to the agrarian revolution and the rapid growth of the productive forces. The industrial revolution in England began with the textile industry. The stimulus for the technological revolution was the invention in of a mechanical distaff that allowed the employee to work simultaneously on 80 spindles . The invention of the steam engine also became revolutionary and got application in transport and production. The invention of a universal steam engine led to the territorial spread of machine production. Practical application of the steam engine formed the ground for the development of basic industries. Completely new forms of transport, such as rail and steamship, developed . The invention of the steam engine changed the energy base of production in connection with the possibility of its use in virtually any environment in contrast to the engine water. The widespread use of machine technology automatically led to an increase in demand for metal and development of the steel industry. The logical conclusion of the industrial revolution in England was the formation of a fundamentally new industry mechanical engineering . England that was the first to make the industrial revolution became the most powerful state in the middle of the 19th century with a developed private industry and agriculture.
France had certain advantages in comparison with England and claimed to be a leader in Europe. It had a large area and a successfully developed industry and trade. However, from the second half of the 18th century, economic development of France began to lag behind . The main factors restraining the economic growth were preservation of remnants of the feudal economy and the conservative policy of the government. France remained a predominantly agrarian country. At the end of the 17th century, French industry reached a stage of the manufacturing production . Nevertheless, its scope was limited. Feudal landholding, regulation of the industry, and the lack of unified customs regulations hindered the development of the scale of manufacturing. France launched industrial revolution later than England. The main features of the industrial revolution included uneven transition from manufactory to factory, a significant impact of the agricultural sector on the progress of industrial production, and slower growth of the basic industries. The revolution of 1789-1794 played an important role in the industrial development of the country. It held a number of important social and economic reforms . There was the abolition of the feudal system and tax privileges of the nobility and clergy. There were also steps to ensure freedom of enterprise. However, the complete elimination of feudal relations actually did not happen. Only in the 20-40s of the 19th century, the intensity of the industrial revolution increased . The technological progress actively penetrated into the steel industry. On the b