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History vocabulary · Economic History

Industrialization

Meaning in history, with examples

/ɪnˌdʌstriəlaɪˈzeɪʃn/nounCore term

In history, industrialization means: The process by which an economy shifts from mainly farming and handicrafts to large-scale manufacturing in factories using machines.

In Turkish: sanayileşme

How it is used

Historians compare early and late industrialization, rapid or state-led industrialization, and its effects on cities, workers and the environment. It usually goes together with urbanization and railway building.

Example sentences

  1. Rapid industrialization transformed Germany in the late nineteenth century.

  2. In the 1930s the Turkish state tried to speed up industrialization by founding state factories.

Common collocations

  • rapid industrialization
  • state-led industrialization
  • late industrialization
  • the process of industrialization
  • Industrial RevolutionThe shift from hand production to machines, factories and new energy sources such as coal and steam, which began in Britain in the late eighteenth century.
  • urbanizationThe growth of towns and cities, and the movement of a growing share of the population from the countryside into urban areas.
  • social classA group of people in a society who share a similar economic position, such as wealth, occupation or education, and often similar status and opportunities.
  • agrarianRelating to farming, land and the people who work it, or describing a society or economy based mainly on agriculture.

More terms: Economic History

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