Events in society a large determined by the response of the population- find a better word for this. Space designing response strategies especially in things like pandemic are heavily influenced by the demographic factors the culture etc. For instance South Korea was pretty quick to use masks where as much of the rest of the world so face masks as a stigma.
The industrial revolution showed similar characteristics. The response of populations to environment is what determined England as the key players of industrial revolution. It was less of a contribution by economic institutions because China and Japan had them. It was also less about rapid technological progress because China and Japan had at least as much if not more progress than the Western world in the pre-industrial era.