The Industrial Revolution made a lot of manufacturing processes much, much more efficient. Before the revolution, you had one manufacturer of everything in every region/village. One blacksmith, one seamstress, one cobbler, one baker, you name it. The Industrial Revolution made large-scale manufacturing possible, freeing up a lot of time for things like education and innovation.
Think of it. In today's society, there is almost nothing around you that hasn't been manufactured by one single person from a to z. The amount of collaboration and globalization in our society is mindboggling, something that was unthinkable before the Industrial Revolution.
So it's not just the past 100 years, it's more like the past 200 years. It's easy to look at someone from 1840 as ancient, simple even. Just keep in mind that things like the steam engine, photography or electrification were just as novel and influential then computers or the internet in our age.
Think of it. In today's society, there is almost nothing around you that hasn't been manufactured by one single person from a to z. The amount of collaboration and globalization in our society is mindboggling, something that was unthinkable before the Industrial Revolution.
So it's not just the past 100 years, it's more like the past 200 years. It's easy to look at someone from 1840 as ancient, simple even. Just keep in mind that things like the steam engine, photography or electrification were just as novel and influential then computers or the internet in our age.