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its colonies further enriched the realm but also sowed the seeds of discontent among independent-minded colonists in America. Closer to home, the ascension of James I to the throne of England after Elizabeth’s death solidifiedEnglish control of Scotland.Prior to 1602,English control and influence had already existed in Scotland, thanks to conquests in the 1500s. The Act of Union of 1707 estab- lished England,Wales, and Scotland as one realm, known as Great Britain.The union would not be easy—uprisings in the early 1700s by the Scots attempted to drive out English rule. The defeat of the Scottish clans at the Battle of Culloden in 1745 secured control of Scotland by the English once and for all. By this time, Ireland had also come under English control, and an Act of Union in 1801 cre- ated the United Kingdom from all the countries of the British Isles. The Industrial Revolution began in England in the mid-1700s, itself a result of the previous Agricultural Revolution that gave birth to new methods of farming. Improved farming techniques increased food production, which in turn resulted in an increased population. Cottage industries, wherein people produced textile goods within their own homes, gave way to mechanized produc- tion of textiles in factories. People flocked from the countryside

Cottonmachines made a difference in the textile industry during England’s Industrial Revolution.

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