The Second Industrial Revolution

The second industrial revolution took place from 1870 to the beginning of the First World War in 1914. (Ryan Engelman. The Second Industrial Revolution, 1870-1914. ushistoryscene.com/article/second-industrial-revolution/ accessed May 2016.)

Violence and destruction did not accompany the second industrial revolution, in contrast with the first one. It had many aspects: steam-powered railways and ships enabled a broad distribution of goods, people, and ideas. These inventions also drove the revolution and led to the spread of telegraphy and telephone technology. It was the first wave of a globalization phenomenon. We will explore this in more detail in the Globalization section in Chapter 3, The Context of the New Engineering Game.

The most prominent aspect of the second industrial revolution was the introduction of assembly-line production, which, again, changed the landscape of the industry. The principle of assembly-line production enabled mass production...