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It grew out of advances in science and technology which had grown after the Renaissance. It started in England when steam engines were used to pump water out of mines and to drive machines in factories. Steam power began to replace muscle power and let people do a lot more work. An important use of steam was to drive the cotton mills to manufacture cloth. People in England began to leave the land and move into cities. The factory owners grew rich, the workers were poor. Jobs were specialized and so production became more efficient. This is called the Industrial Revolution.
Factories produced more goods than the country could use. So industrial countries needed their colonies both for raw materials and as a market for these extra goods. The technology gap between the industrial countries and their colonies increased.

Most of the forests which grew before people arrived had been burnt or used for building. In England people began to use coal instead of wood to make iron and fuel their steam boilers. Pollution from coal began to affect industrial areas.