Industrial Revolution 5

1. The Industrial Revolution created a lopsided world where the European parts of the world increased their wealth and power enormously compared to other, non-industrialized parts. This pattern became built into the structure of the world economy. Recent scientific inqui-ries have revealed that, in 1750, the average standard of living was very similar throughout the world, partly because Europe was still a poor agricultural society. By 1970, the average person in the industrialized countries had an income twenty-five times as great as those in the third world. Industrialization opened gaps in average standard of living. Great Britain in 1830 had a lead in average income over the rest of Europe. The lead diminished, and even-tually ended, through the 1800s up to about 1960. Average income in the Third World be-fore World War I was stagnant, and it was only after World War II and the era of colonial autonomy and decolonization that Third World countries made real economic progress. Some scholars believe that these trends occurred because the West used science, technolo-gy, capitalist organization, and critical world-view to create wealth, while others believe the West used its political and economic power to steal much of its riches.

2. In 1815, Great Britain already had a colonial empire that included India, Canada, Australia, and other scattered areas. The technology of the Industrial Revolution allowed Britain to manufacture cotton textiles, iron, and other goods more cheaply but also much more than the domestic demand. Because of this, British manufacturers wanted to export markets to Europe and then around the world. By 1820, Britain was exporting 50% of its production, with Europe buying 50% and India 6%. After European nations and the United States estab-lished protective tariffs, Britain exported 16% to Europe and 25% to India, forcing many In-dian weavers out of their jobs. After the Corn Laws were repealed in 1846, Britain became the world’s best market, a title that lasted until 1914. Free access to Britain’s market stimu-lated the development of mines and plantations in many non-Western areas. Railroads led to an increased growth of trade. Early railroad construction occurred in Europe, the United States, and Canada after 1860. By 1920, more than 25% of the world’s railroads were in Lat-in America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. Railroads greatly reduced transportation costs, opened new economic opportunities, and created new jobs and attitudes. They also were used to settle the land. Steam power was used in steamships, and by the late 1860s, they began to take the place of sails on the oceans. Steel was lighter, stronger, and cheaper than iron and the previous wood. Screw propellers used half as much fuel as paddle wheels. Pas-senger and freight rates fell greatly. Because of new transportations, pioneers were able to open up vast new territories and produce agricultural products and raw materials. With the advent of refrigerated railway cars, Argentina, the United States, Australia, and New Zeal-and were able to ship chilled or frozen beef and mutton to Europe. Traditional tropical products and jute, rubber, cotton, and coconut oil came from Asia, Africa, and Latin Ameri-ca. The Suez and Panama Canals also facilitated intercontinental trade, as with telegraph wires. Because of the growth of trade and faster communications, Europeans made great foreign investments after 1840 to 1914. By then, Europeans had invested more than $40 bil-lion. Great Britain, France, and Germany invested the most, with the United States behind. In the 1910s, Great Britain was investing 7% of its annual national income abroad. About 75% of all European investment went to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America. The most profitable enterprises were constructing railroads, ports, and utilities to settle the frontiers. Much of the investment was peaceful and mutually benefi-cial. However, diseases, liquor, and weapons killed Native Americans and aborigines.

3. For hundreds of years and in the 1700s, China had sent more goods and inventions to Eu-rope than it had received. Chinese tea was tasty to Europeans, and the Manchu Dynasty of China regulated trade with Europe. The Chinese did not make diplomatic relations with Eu-rope and required all foreign merchants to live in Canton and to buy from and sell to only the local merchant monopoly. Practices considered harmful to Chinese interests were for-bidden. By the 1820s, the dominant British had made the trade of opium a rich commodity, though the Chinese government tried to prevent this. By 1836, British merchants in Canton wanted an independent British colony in China and pressured the British government to take action and open Chinese markets. The Manchu government took action to end the trade because it was ruining people and stripping the empire of its silver. The government prosecuted Chinese drug dealers and, in 1839, sent special envoy Lin Tse-hsü. He ordered the foreign merchants to obey China’s laws, the merchants refused, they were expelled, and war broke out. The British won the war and, in the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, forced the imperial government to cede Hong Kong to Britain forever, pay $100 million, and open four large cities to foreign trade with low taxes. The opium trade flourished, Hong Kong devel-oped rapidly, and China still refused diplomatic relations.

4. By 1640, Japan had had enough of Westerners and decided to seal off the country from all European influences to preserve traditional Japanese culture and society. Officials perse-cuted Japanese Christians and expelled all but a few Dutch merchants, who were strictly controlled. Imperial America tried several times to establish commercial relations with Ja-pan, so Commodore Matthew Perry sailed to Edo Bay in 1853 and demanded diplomatic negotiations with the emperor. Some Japanese opposed, but government officials realized that they were weak and signed a treaty with the United States that opened two ports and permitted trade. Over the next five years, more treaties were signed over trade in Japan.

5. After 525 B.C., Egypt was ruled by a series of foreigners, mostly by the Ottoman Turks. In 1798, French armies under General Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt and occupied it for three years. After the French left, Turkish general Muhammad Ali become governor. He dis-posed his political rivals and set out to build his own state on the strength of a strong, Western army. He drafted peasants and hired French and Italian army officers to train the recruits and their Turkish officers. The government was reformed, new lands were culti-vated, and communications were improved. After he died in 1849, his family ruled heredita-rily within the Turkish empire. His policies of modernization attracted many Europeans, with Alexandria having more than fifty thousand Europeans by 1864. They were army officers, engineers, doctors, government officials, police officers, and worked in trade, finance, and shipping. Ali encouraged the development of commercial agriculture for the European mar-ket. The Egyptian government carved large private landholdings out of the state and gave them to Europeans. They then made the Egyptian peasants their tenants and basically insti-tuted feudalism. Muhammad Ali’s grandson, Ismail, was westernized when he became Egypt’s khedive in 1863. His large irrigation networks caused cotton production and exports to grow. He borrowed large amounts of money to install modern communications and completed the Suez Canal with a French company in 1869. Arabic became the official lan-guage, and Egypt became educated in the European way, with city planning. However, Egypt had owed $450 million to foreign bondholders by 1876, causing the governments of France and Great Britain to intervene politically. They forced Ismail to appoint French and British commissioners to oversee Egyptian finances. This created a strong nationalist movement among Egyptians, who, in 1879, formed the Egyptian Nationalist party. More diplomatic pressure forced Ismail to abdicate to his son, Tewfiq, resulting in anti-European riots in Alexandria in 1882. The British fleet attacked Alexandria and eventually occupied all of Egypt. They made the khedive government a puppet one, with the British consul, General Evelyn Baring, ruling Egypt after 1883. He reformed the taxes and improved peasants’ con-ditions, but welcomed in foreign bondholders to collect their interest.

6. In the early 1700s in Europe, birthrates declined but so did death rates because of the rising standard of living and the medical revolution. The population of Europe rose from 188 mil-lion in 1800 to 432 million in 1900, with 60 million people leaving from 1815 to 1932. They went to areas of European settlement, like North and South America, Australia, New Zeal-and, and Siberia, where they continued to multiply. North America went from 6 million to 81 million between 1800 and 1900 because of immigration and high fertility rates. Euro-peans and people of European origin were 38% of the population before World War I. Be-cause of the growing number of people, more people emigrated. More people meant more land hunger and overpopulation. Migration increased twenty years after a rapid growth of population. People left Britain and Ireland greatly after the 1840s, with one-third of all Eu-ropean migrants between 1840 and 1920 coming from Great Britain, as there was rural po-verty and not as much jobs. Not many people left Germany, but many left Italy because of problems in villages and slow industrial growth. Less than half of all migrants went to the United States, as many went to Russia, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, and New Zeal-and.

7. Most of the migrants were poor and from rural areas, but not often from the poorest classes. Many migrants were small peasant landowners or village artisans who were threat-ened by too little land, estate agriculture, and cheap, factory-made goods. Many German migrants were hurt by their tiny landholdings and declining craft industries. Two-thirds of migrants to the United States were under thirty-one, and 90% were under forty. They were energetic. The people who left Europe were considered migrants and not immigrants be-cause they returned home after some time. 50% of Argentinean migrants, 33% Americans, 88% Balkans, 10% Irish, and 5% Eastern Jews returned home. After pogroms and discrimina-tion were instituted in Europe, and with factory competition and oppression, most of Rus-sia’s 5 million Jews left and never went back. Because of cheap North American wheat in the late 1800s, the problems of the Italian village became most severe, and because of un-employment, many Italians left. Most migrants were small landowning peasants whose standard of living was falling because of rural overpopulation and agricultural depression. Many Italians went to the United States, but others went to Argentina and Brazil, especially when these countries subsidized them. Many Italians did not intend to settle abroad and in-stead often returned home in the spring. This trip was not very expensive. Young people in Europe felt frustrated by the small privileged classes, which controlled church and govern-ment and resisted change and greater opportunity.

8. About 3 million Asians moved abroad before 1920, mostly as indentured laborers on planta-tion or in the gold mines of Latin America, southern Asia, Africa, California, Hawaii, and Australia. Many white estate owners replaced blacks with Asians. In the 1840s, the Spanish government recruited Chinese laborers for work in Cuba, where they came under eight-year contracts, were paid 25 cents a day, and were fed potatoes and salted beef. After migration was stopped, they roamed around as virtual slaves. Asians fled the plantations and gold mines as soon as possible, seeking greater opportunities in trade and towns, often coming into conflict with local populations as in Malaya, East Africa, or other European areas. These European settlers demanded an end to Asian migration, and by the 1880s, Americans and Australians had created discriminatory laws against Asian migration. This European policy was largely successful in monopolizing the best opportunities, leading to the lopsided world of industrialized and non-industrialized countries.