Industrialization

Wednesday, December 7 2011, 7:54 PM

Britain
Causes
Impact
USA
Factors & Forces
1. The Embargo Act, 1807 led to a ban on all imports into US. So US industries had huge demand in
front of them now.
2. The 1812 Anglo US war led to the realization of a stronger industrial base and development of means
of transport and communications.
3. The government subsequently gave the domestic industries the protection they needed.
Nature & Character
1. Scientific developments were made in methods of production in industry as well as agriculture.
2. Great stress was laid on development of railways to connect raw materials, factories and markets.
3. Electricity was effectively harnessed.
Germany
Nature & Character
1. W and SW Germany was more urbanized and had close contacts with the developments in France,
England and Holland.
2. The
establishment
of
railway
lines
between
1830s
and
1850s gave a great boost to the iron and coal industry. By 1850 the length of railway lines in Germany
was 3K miles. The coal producing sites like Saar, Ruhr were all located in Prussia and traditionally
agriculture based were quickly transformed into great industrial centers. Lorraine was one big iron ore
producing site. After 1871 there was a surge in communications network. Length of railways became
60K km in Germany against 40K in . Roads and canal waterways were extensively developed and
given its location in the center of europe, it became a important hub and benefitted immensely from the
overall completion of railway network in europe.
3. The urban towns transformed themselves into machinery production hubs. The pace of urbanization in
Germany grew remarkably after the unification. While in 1871 only one-third of its population was
urban, by 1914 over two-third lived in cities. In the old urban centers, the city walls were destroyed
and roads, buildings etc. were made so as to give better and increased living space.
4. After the unification Germany grew at a breathtaking pace to overshadow even . By 1914 the ratio of
industrial output of Germany, and France was 3:2:1. Moreover its industries produced mainly for
exports and thus Germany became the new workshop of the world. Her exports began to rival that of
and the lion's share of growth in european trade went to Germany. By 1914 its total exports nearly
matched those of . From a food exporting country in first half of 1800s, it became a food importing
country by 1900.
5. It reorganized most of its banks, strengthened them and used them to provide funding to the new
industries. The state also enacted protective walls for her industries.

Russia
Nature & Character
1.
2.
3.
4.

Russia began late so it could take advantage of latest technologies.

Russian industries were big to begin with and thus could exploit economies of scale.
Russian industries were also concentrated in a few centers to take advantage of economies of scope.
The quality of Russian products was low, hence they could not penetrate into European markets but
could be exported into Asia.
5. Russian commoners were very poor, hence could not give sufficient market for the output.
6. Russian industrial development took place on foreign capital hence mostly the entrepreneurial class was
foreign. This further added to the discontent.
Japan
Industrialization and Globalization