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| British Combination Acts repealed | Great Exhibition held at Crystal Palace in London |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