Natural Resources. Europe possesses natural resources that were necessary for industrialization, especially navigable rivers and coal basins. In the early phases of industrialization the latent energy in flowing rivers was harnessed to power some of the new machines of the burgeoning textile industry, such as the water-frame. Later, when steam power was employed, the energy from burned coal was tapped to create the steam that powered the all-important railroads and steamships. Coal basins with the mineral close to the surface and thus readily mined were prevalent in Midland England, northeastern England, southern Wales and Lowland Scotland in Great Britain. On the Continent, coal basins were found along the France-Belgium frontier, in the Ruhr Valley in western Germany, in southeastern Germany, in Czechia (Czech Republic), and in eastern Ukraine. Europe was also rich in iron ore deposits, many of which were located close to the coal...