The industrial revolution on the European continent began in Belgium. Before that, the country had traditionally enjoyed a vibrant trading tradition for many years. Textile production flourished in Flanders, iron processing in Walloon and there were large coal reserves in the south and east of the country.

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The first German textile factory was built in 1784 in Ratingen near Düsseldorf. It was called "Cromford" after its English model and was very much on its own in Germany. Since the country was divided into so many small states and traditional guild privileges were abolished relatively late it was not until after 1800 that the process of ...

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The Industrial Revolution, which brought so many chimney stacks and soot-ridden workers' housing settlements to Europe, began on the fields of British farmers. In the 18th century landowners were able to increase agrarian production to such an extent that they could meet the nutritional requirements of the country on a long term ...

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The course of industrialisation in France was so idiosyncratic that for a long time people wondered whether an industrial revolution had ever taken place in the country. One of the main reasons for this was that the "Grande Nation" did not possess as large and accessible natural supplies of coal and iron ore as countries like Great Britain or Belgium. Coal, in particular, was always ...

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Who would have thought that this small country in the heart of Europe was once one of the largest iron producers in the world? Whereas the north of Luxemburg is mostly agricultural, industrial history has left its traces in the south. Long before the country's capital became a leading financial and administrative centre there were textile ...

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The industrialisation of the Netherlands did not simultaneously result in smoking chimneystacks as in Britain, Belgium and Germany. In the mid 18th century Amsterdam was still a wealthy trade and finance centre, farmers lived from potatoes, flowers and cheese, whilst trades like shipbuilding and fishing were in decline...

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Well into the 19th century Norway was still a pre-industrial country with a poorly-developed infrastructure and transportation system. 90 per cent of the population lived as self-sufficient fishers and farmers. For centuries fishing was the country’s main source of income.
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