Before seventeen hundred, the most important event across Europe every year was the harvest. Most people lived and worked the land in rural areas. Many never traveled more than ten miles from their villages.
From seventeen hundred to eighteen hundred, however, rural life throughout Europe began to change. New farming methods and technology such as iron plows, crop rotation, and fertilizers made farms much more productive. Europe's population exploded, nearly doubling to one hundred and ninety million by eighteen hundred. No change, however, had as many effects as the one that began in England in the seventeen hundreds. The Industrial revolution was a period of time when great technological advantages changed the way goods were made and the ways people lived. Industry became the focus of the economic activity. Unlike national revolutions, this revolution was felt around the world.