Origins

Economic history includes three groups of events called revolutions. In the eighteenth century, the first industrial revolution occurred. At the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, the introduction of electric power and the internal combustion engine led to a second industrial revolution. Advances in computing, electronics, data storage, and communications networks have led to an information and knowledge revolution. The impact of each revolution has been massive. In many cases, aftershocks continue centuries later. Modern societies have emerged because of the systematic application of scientific knowledge for productive uses. The late Nobel laureate Simon Kuznets had remarked that “The epochal innovation that distinguishes the modern economic epoch is the extended application of science to problems of economic production.”

The industrial revolution commences with world leadership in productivity and technology for the past six centuries, initially provided by the region that is the north of Italy and the Flanders region of Belgium. These regions, where the renaissance generally took place after the Middle Ages, played the leading role in the global economy from 1400 to 1600. Then the Netherlands led from 1600 to 1820. After 1820, there were two global technology leaders. The United Kingdom had the highest levels of economic attainment, from 1820 to 1890. Thereafter, the United States took over. In the twentieth century, the leader set the stage for others. It was accepted that the United States was the twentieth-century leader.