Christian Fundamentalism was probably caused by the Second Industrial Revolution (which had a much bigger impact on society).
It took about 100 years for it to finally "go public" (1980s). The rationale behind going public was mostly driven by politics and money - incidentally this is also the time when Christianity started becoming a multi-billion dollar industry.
Christian Fundamentalism is easily traced as a response to Christian Liberalism; you can find pretty good information on both on wikipedia.
Here's a caricature of how it went down:
(mid 1800s, Liberalism): "Hey, it turns out when you look at ancient copies of the Bible from 2 different areas, there are occasional differences in spelling and word order. Therefore, the Bible is totally fiction, but teaches moderately useful lessons, so long as we understand the figurative language it's using."
(late 1800s, Fundamentalism): "What? You guys are quacks. The King James Bible is totally reliable because God specially preserved it. Therefore, there's no figurative language whatsoever, everything is literal."
It's my perception that Fundamentalism's influence is waning; I run into far fewer "fundies" than I did during my childhood (but I live in the same house and attend the same church.) In surveys I've seen, a lower percentage of people self-identify as Fundamentalist, and a lower percentage agree with certain key Fundamentalist doctrines. They may be louder than before, but I don't think they're any more prevalent.
It took about 100 years for it to finally "go public" (1980s). The rationale behind going public was mostly driven by politics and money - incidentally this is also the time when Christianity started becoming a multi-billion dollar industry.