Which of the following statements regarding the Industrial Revolution is/are correct? 1. It was change of a society from a rural and agricultural lifestyle to one in which most people earned their living in the industrial or secondary sector of the economy. 2. The first Industrial Revolution began in Germany in the early eighteenth century. 3. During Industrial Revolution, technological advances in iron smelting, and later steel production, were accompanied by the invention of steam engine. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 and 3 only
- (c)1 and 3 only
- (d)1, 2 and 3
Correct — C, 1 and 3 only. Statement 1 is a fair description of what the Industrial Revolution was — the movement of a society away from a rural, farming way of life to one in which most people earned their living in industry, the secondary sector of the economy. Statement 3 is also right: better iron smelting, and later cheap steel, arrived alongside the steam engine, and the two together supplied the machines, the factories and the railways of the age. Statement 2 is the false one, and it is wrong twice over — the Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, not Germany, and it is dated from about 1760, that is the second half of the eighteenth century rather than the early part of it. Germany industrialised later, in the nineteenth century. Drop statement 2 and you are left with 1 and 3.
- (a)1 only — Throws away statement 3, which is true — iron smelting, the later shift to steel and the steam engine are the standard technological core of the Industrial Revolution.
- (b)2 and 3 only — Keeps the one false statement (Germany, early eighteenth century) and drops the true statement 1.
- (d)1, 2 and 3 — Accepts statement 2. Britain, not Germany, is where the Industrial Revolution began, and it began around 1760.
The Industrial Revolution was the shift from hand production to machine production, from workshop to factory, and from an economy built on farming to one built on manufacturing. It began in Great Britain around 1760 and had spread to continental Europe and the United States by about 1840. Its technological core was coal, improved iron and steel, the steam engine, machine tools and the mechanised factory.
Three-statement items are usually decided by one planted error, and here the error is a country name. Statement 2 sounds textbook-shaped until you read the word Germany. Britain had the coal, the iron ore, the capital, the colonial markets and the navigable rivers and canals; German industrialisation is a nineteenth-century story, and Germany's real lead came in the second industrial revolution after about 1850, in chemicals and electricity. Once you reject 2, only options (a) and (c) remain, and (c) wins because statement 3 is plainly true.
- The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain around 1760 and had reached continental Europe and the United States by about 1840.
- Substituting coke for charcoal in smelting sharply lowered the fuel cost of pig iron and wrought iron, which is why iron output could grow so fast.
- James Watt's improvements turned the steam engine from a mine pump into a source of rotary power that could drive factory machinery.
- Cheap bulk steel came later than iron and belongs mainly to the second half of the nineteenth century.
- Letting the country name slide past because the rest of statement 2 sounds plausible.
- Mixing up the first Industrial Revolution (Britain, from about 1760, coal, iron, steam, textiles) with the second (from about 1850, chemicals and electricity, where Germany and the United States led).
- Assuming a three-statement item must contain at least two true statements.
Asked as a statement-verification item in which one planted error — a wrong country or a wrong century for the start of industrialisation — decides the whole question.
Which among the following was/were among the factors for England to experience the Industrial Revolution first? 1. The scientific inventions had paved the way for Industrial Revolution. 2. It had favourable social and political structures in place. 3. Navigable rivers had made inland transport easier. 4. It had seen the ascendancy of capitalist practices. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a) 1 and 3 only
- (b) 1, 3 and 4 only
- (c) 4 only
- (d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Answer(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
The other half of this CDS item. Where CDS 2024 asks you to reject the claim that the Industrial Revolution began in Germany, that NDA item asks WHY England was first — inventions, social and political structures, navigable rivers and capitalist practice. Learn the England-first reasons and the Germany trap answers itself.
Which of the following statements about the technological innovations during the Industrial Revolutions are correct ? 1. Mule was the nickname for a machine invented in 1779, that allowed the spinning of strong and fine yarn. 2. Water Frame, invented in 1769 by Richard Arkwright, made it possible to weave pure cotton clothes. 3. Power loom, invented by Edmund Cartwright in 1787, could be used to weave any kind of materials. Select the correct answer using the code given below :
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 1, 2 and 3
- (c) 2 and 3 only
- (d) 3 only
Answer(b) 1, 2 and 3
Same period, tested on the machines rather than the geography. Statement 3 of the CDS item asserts that technological advance in iron and steel came with the steam engine; that NDA item drills the parallel textile sequence — mule, water frame, power loom — and their dates.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Industrial Revolution is generally dated as beginning in which country and in roughly which decade?
- (a)France, in the 1690s
- (b)Great Britain, around the 1760s
- (c)Germany, in the 1710s
- (d)The United States, in the 1820s
Answer(b) Great Britain, around the 1760s — it reached continental Europe and the United States only by about 1840.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which sector of the economy is described as the secondary sector?
- (a)Agriculture and mining
- (b)Manufacturing, processing and construction
- (c)Trade, transport and services
- (d)Research and information technology
Answer(b) Manufacturing, processing and construction — the secondary sector adds value by transforming raw materials into finished goods.