Chapter 12 continues the historical picture. It examines the preconditions and ultimate factors explaining the Industrial Revolution, including attention for combined genetic and cultural factors, important technological innovations in preceding periods, and the role of the scientific (r)evolution. The development of a core technology of the early industrial era, the steam engine, is schematically considered from an evolutionary angle. Next, the issue of geographical path dependence is addressed with a focus on the pivotal roles of Europe and England. Here two questions are raised: the relatively easy one of why the Industrial Revolution started in Europe, connecting with insights from the previous chapter; and the more difficult one of why it happened in England, rather than in the Low Lands or other parts of Europe. In this context, four main countries are systematically compared to see if they could initiate an Industrial Revolution at the end of the18th Century. The chapter ends with giving attention to human group formation and population growth over extended periods of time.