>The Industrial Revolution, also known as the [[First Industrial Revolution]], was a period of global transition of human economy towards more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes that succeeded the [[Agricultural Revolution]], starting from Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines; new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes; the increasing use of water power and steam power; the development of machine tools; and the rise of the mechanized factory system. Output greatly increased, and the result was an unprecedented rise in population and the rate of population growth. The textile industry was the first to use modern production methods,  and textiles became the dominant industry in terms of employment, value of output, and capital invested. > >Rapid economic growth began to occur after 1870, springing from a new group of innovations in what has been called the [[Second Industrial Revolution]]. These innovations included new steel-making processes, mass production, assembly lines, electrical grid systems, the large-scale manufacture of machine tools, and the use of increasingly advanced machinery in steam-powered factories.