WI: Industrial revolution never happens?

so, what if somehow, the industrial revolution never happens or happens so slow? by that I mean, it doesnt engulf the world like it did in OTL?
 

Deleted member 114175

It depends greatly on how the Industrial Revolution was prevented. It requires weakening both Britain and the French Revolution.

Perhaps the Franco-Spanish Armada of 1779 succeeds, establishing a Jacobite/High Tory regime in Britain and severing Britain's connections to overseas commerce. The Jacobites restore "divine right of kings" absolutism, holding the gentry at higher status over bourgeoisie and commoners, and encourage a religious revival which restricts private investment and corporations. Aiming to weaken the nascent industrialist class, the Jacobite regime also makes an 'unlikely alliance' with the Luddites, turning a blind eye to their machine-breaking which causes early industrial enterprises to be economically unsustainable. Ultimately mitigating the First Industrial Revolution in Britain itself.

Bourbon France, profiting from colonies in India that it usurped from Britain in 1779, manages to delay or defeat the French Revolution and continue the Ancien Régime. Alternatively, the Revolution still happens but the War of the First Coalition leads to a Coalition victory and much earlier Bourbon Restoration. In Holland, Prussia places the Orangists in firm control, slowing economic and technological development in the Low Countries as well.
 
Top