Evaluation of the industrial revolution

In order for the industrial revolution to occur, manufacturers needed raw materials such as cotton, produced by slave labour on the plantations of the southern US. American cotton was crucial to the growth of the British & American textile industries. Slaves working on an American cotton plantation in the early 1850s, produces the raw material of early industrialization. Even though the British abolished the slave trade in 1807, and the US forbade Southern planters to trade in slaves the same year, slavery persisted for another 56 years.

Once the Civil War ended, slavery & the plantation system collapsed in the US, and British manufacturers turned to Egypt & India for raw materials, thus expanding the global reach of the industrial economy. Cotton grown by slaves in the American South fueled industrial revolution. In US, beginning in the last decade of the 18th C, textile factories sprang up along rivers throughout New England. The industrial revolution that began in England and spread to the US and continental Europe by the 1840s and 1850s had tremendous effects around the world.

Although Europe, western E, and the US were the fist major areas to experience IDs, by the end of the 19th C, other countries—notably Russia, Japan, and Sweden, among others—joined in. For the captains of industry produced gods in order to sell, trade or barter them, and their commercial activities circled the globe. The salve trade provided labor for the cotton plantations of the US, which in turn fueled the cotton textile industry & the ID in England, illustrates this global trading network.

Slaves frm Africa transported to US, and also Caribbea, where the French and British grew sugar & manufactured rum. Slave trad ebegain in 1500s whern the Portuguese and Spanish begain shipping human cargo to Brazil and South America. In the 1700s, it expanded when slave trade is realized to be profitable, being used as free labor growing cotton, tabacco, coffe and producing sugar. Although histoerians disagree about extent o which slave trade provided money(capital) to invest in industry, most acknolowedge ID in British cotton textiles linked to enslavement of African mena dn women.

ID made it necessary for manufacturers to have accesss to continuous supply of raw materials & amarkets in which to sell manufactured goods. One way to do this is build overseas empires in undeveloped parts of world rich in natural resources—imperialism. EG: British North American & Carribean colonies, sources of tabacco and ctoon. France’s colonies in Indochina, sources of silk. Belgium conquered rubber in Congo By the end of 19th C, other countries joined roster of those that had experienced ID. Sweden’s industrial revolution, like Japan’s & Russia’s, occurred late in 9th C).

Russia’s ID ocured more slowly. Eg while B and US wer industrializaing, Russia remained a predominantly agricultural society that relied on West for imported manufactured goods. Two things happended in second half of 19th C: Emancipation of Russian serfs in 1861=large no of rural folk free to work in large cities Secondly: massive railway building in the 1870s allowed R to exploit its immense natural resources of coal and iron more efficiently. Factories such as Moscow and St Persburg appeared.

Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, when workers protested harsh factory conditions and dprivation during WW1) Japan also industrialised around same timea s Russia, beginning in 1860s and 1870s Like Russia, J benefited form support of gvmt in building railroads, crucial to transporting natural resources & creating national market for manufactured gods. J gvmt abolished guilds, liberating owrkers, allowing industrial innovation occur frely. Gbmt took major role in supporting & operating metalworking factories, shipyards, mines and vibrant silk industry emerged.

Over the course of the 19th C, European contries extened reach of empires in Africa and SEA. By the late 19th C, industrialization has spread beyond western Europe. Russia, for example, benefited from earlier industrialization of other European countries & relied heavily on West for $ and technical expertise for railway building, textile machineary etc. Eg trans-Siberian railway whih begun in 1892 and finishe din 1916 linked Moscow w eastern port of Vladivostock on Sea of Japan.

Railways enabled Russia expand ctrl over Russian Empire & crucial to development of national market. Railway—desired impetus to colonization and development. By making whole country a vast transit route between east and west open up a whole world. By about 1870, Japan also began to experience ID. Textile manufacturing led J’s ID. Japanese silk known all over world for high quality. Success of J silk industry depende on its ability to mechanize, use cheap labor, and compete in international market.