Western Europe of the industrial revolution: achievements and contradictions

The world economy developed slowly until the middle of the eighteenth century. But after the 1750s, there was a radical change that had a huge impact not only on the economy, but also on culture, society, and life in General. The lever of the main changes was the industrial revolution. As a result, the basis of the economy-agriculture - has ceased to be dominant, and factory production is becoming the basis of the economy. The industrial revolution opened the way for industrial capitalism, which formed its own laws and algorithms of development. But in addition to major changes in the field of labor and production, the market, the social sphere, etc., the period of industrial capitalism is characterized by a number of paradoxes, a detailed analysis of which has yet to be done by scientists. The aim of the work is to identify the main features of industrial capitalism and to emphasize its contradictions in the main countries of Western Europe. To do this, the author uses an Arsenal of historical and historical-economic research methods, analyzes the work of classics of political economy and modern authors. As a result of the study, the author identified some contradictions and paradoxes in the development of Western European countries, focusing on the fact that some of them accelerated the onset of not only imperialism, but also the world war.