Hi and welcome back to Heimler’s History.
In the last video we talked about how the
Industrial Revolution began and specifically
why it began in England.
In this video we’re going to see how the
machinations of industry spread from England
to much of the wider world.
So if you’re ready, I’m ready—let’s
get to it.
So after the Industrial Revolution was firmly
established in Britain, other nations began
thinking.
So let me get this straight: if we start building
factories in urban centers, then we can get
huge portions of our population to start crowding
into cities, living in squalor, working long
days in dreary and dangerous working conditions,
dumping their urine and dookey into the streets,
polluting the water with industrial waste,
making it impossible to breathe a full breath
because of the cole smoke pouring out of the
stacks?
Well that sounds dumb.
Yeah, but your nation will become fabulously
wealthy.
We’re in!
So from Britain the industrial process spread
into Belgium and France and Germany because
they had many of the same natural advantages
that England had to begin with.
And if you want to know what those are, see
the previous video (linked below).
And after that initial spread into the European
continent, the Industrial Revolution spread
further out to the United States, Japan, and
Russia.
And it’s those three nations that will be
the focus of this video.
So what did industrialization look like in
the United States?
Once industrialization came to the American
shores, it wasn’t long before the U.S. became
the most significant industrial force in the
world.
[high fives bald eagle] And a main reason
for that is the huge waves of European immigrants
that began showing up on her shores in the
late 19th and early 20th century.
Most of these immigrants were Irish and German
and often settled in urban centers.
And because factories needed unskilled laborers
to keep their machines churning, and because
the factories wanted to pay these machine
churners next to nothing, immigrants fit the
bill.
And, not surprisingly, while it was good in
some ways that these immigrants found work,
they also found a substantial chunk of Americans
who thought the immigrant presence polluted
the American nation.
Far as I’m concerned if you don’t speak
American, you ain’t American.
Okay, how about the spread of the Industrial
Revolution into Russia?
Well, here industry focused heavily on the
building of railroads.
And beginning in the late 19th century, Russia
undertook the magnificent feat of constructing
the Trans-Siberian Railroad which stretched
all the way from Moscow to the Pacific Ocean.
And the chief effect of the completion of
this project was a significant increase in
trade with eastern states like China.
And another focus of the Russian industrial
movement was the expansion of the steel industry.
And by 1900 Russia was the fourth largest
producer of steel in the world.
Okay, what did the Industrial Revolution look
like when it spread into Japan?
Well, here it was a little different because
Japan industrialized not because they thought
western manufacturing processes were so great.
Japan’s choice to industrialize was more
defensive in nature, and here’s what I mean.
The Japanese possessed an ancient culture,
of which they were very proud.
And when they looked at all the social and
political and economic changes that came along
with industrialization, the Japanese were
smart enough to see that wholesale adoption
of this new way of life would put their cherished
cultural values at risk.
But at the same time, Japan could see the
writing on the wall—there was no stopping
this new wave of industry.
And it was becoming clear that the power in
the world was gathering around industrialized
nations.
So Japan decided to borrow western industrial
techniques in order to make themselves viable
in that new world order.
But they only did it insofar as it enabled
them to keep the western powers from coming
in and sabotaging their traditions and culture.
And now, an honorable mention goes to the
folks in the Middle Eastern and Asian nations
that continued to produce manufactured goods
for sale, but not on the scale of the industrialized
nations.
As you might expect, their share in global
manufacturing declined during this period.
Let me give you a couple examples.
First example: shipbuilding in India and Southeast
Asia.
Now despite a revival of shipbuilding in this
region at the end of the 17th century, the
increasingly oppressive British rule in India
especially meant that shipbuilding went on
a severe decline.
And one of the main reasons for this was that
the British navy went ahead and took over
in the Indian Ocean.
Second example: iron works in India.
Now, the ground beneath the Indian soil was
rich with iron, and they had previously prospered
by it.
But again, because of the steep tariffs imposed
by the British, the Indians found it was no
longer worth it to mine the iron and engage
in any kind of economically meaningful metalwork.
Also around this time there was an uprising
in India against British rule.
And long story short, the British suspected
that much of the iron the Indians were mining
was being turned into ammunition to be delivered
into the bodies of the British, which they
found incredibly rude.
And so the British, for all intents and purposes,
shut down the Indian iron industry and by
the early 1800’s that industry was basically
non-existent.
Okay, that’s what you need to know about
the spread of the Industrial Revolution from
1750-1900.
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Heimler out.
