| ca. 1765 | Hargreaves invents spinning jenny; Arkwright creates water frame |
| 1769 | Watt patents modern steam engine |
| ca. 1780–1850 | Industrial Revolution and accompanying population boom in Great Britain |
| 1799 | Combination Acts passed in England |
| 1805 | Egypt begins process of modernization |
| 1810 | Strike of Manchester, England, cotton spinners |
| 1824 | British Combination Acts repealed |
| 1829 | Stephenson’s Rocket; first important railroad |
| 1830s | Industrial banks promote rapid industrialization of Belgium |
| 1833 | Factory Act passed in England |
| 1834 | Creation of a Zollverein (customs union) among many German states |
| 1842 | Mines Act passed in England |
| 1844 | Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England |
| 1850s | Japan begins to adopt Western technologies; industrial gap widens between the West and the rest of the world |
| 1851 | Great Exhibition held at Crystal Palace in London |
| 1860s | Germany and the United States begin to rapidly industrialize |