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European Industrial Revolution and Landscape Changes

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The first phase of the industrial revolution occurred between 1759 and 1840, when

more than 80% of the European population lived on their own farms producing all their basic

needs, including their food, clothing, shelter, and other essentials (Wenyuan, 2019). During

this time, the production which was mainly agricultural depended on animal power and

human labor. Therefore, the main aim of the industrial revolution was to completely replace

these sources of energy with mechanical power which was originally sourced from water

wheels and later from steam engines and steam power. The sequence of events during the

European Industrial revolution caused numerous drastic changes to several aspects, the

European landscape not an exception.

The transportation revolution occurred as a result of the industrialization of the

Agricultural sector. Animal transport used before the industrial revolution could not handle

the massive agricultural production that came with the revolution. Therefore, roads and

railways had to be constructed on the existing natural geographical landscape to connect

several trading centers and markets. In order to connect water bodies such as rivers, canals

for the ox and horse-drawn barges had to be constructed. Furthermore, new ports were

constructed, and existing ones expanded to facilitate intercontinental trade between Europe,

Asia, and America.

During the period of the industrial revolution, there was a massive increase in food

production. The availability of enough food encouraged rapid population growth in most

European countries increasing the demand for housing in those countries. Construction works

therefore escalated to curb this increased demand and major cities, towns, and villages grew

and developed as a result of this. There was the need to build taller buildings, up to an

average of six stories, in order to maximize the utility of the available land. Since the existing

free land could not be enough, wetlands were drained to create space for new construction

works. This increase in construction and interferences with the existing natural geographical
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features changed the landscape of the large cities, towns, and even the small villages which

also started growing.

The technological innovations began in Britain where the Textile industry was the

epicenter of the Industrial revolution. Resulting from the inventions in the textile industry, the

first stages of landscape changes in Europe were the manufacturing landscapes. New, large,

and complex factories were built to improve the efficiency of production in the cotton textile

industry and to provide premises for the large types of machinery that were now being used

in production. The emergence of these large factories also necessitated the construction of

warehouses in order to store the products that were now being produced in excess. To enable

the construction of the new factories and warehouses, large forests had to be cleared and

some hills also had to be leveled to create more land.

Finally, inventions such as the Watt’s steam engine which used steam power were

also made during this period and were first used for spinning in 1785 (Mohajan, 2019). Since

steam power could not provide all the energy to run the machines invented for production and

processing, there was a need for an alternative source of energy. Mining activities such as

coal mining, therefore, increased to provide answers to the need for energy that came with the

invention of heavy machinery. Massive coal mines in countries such as Russia, Germany, and

Poland caused changes to the existing geographical landscape in these counties. Some were

dug so wide and deep creating other man-made features such as valleys.

References

Mohajan, H. (2019). The first industrial revolution: Creation of a new global human era.

Wenyuan, Z. H. A. O. (2019). Industrial Revolution and the Change of Landscape in Modern

England. Journal of Landscape Research, 11(4).

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