How can you explain the surprisingly uneven patterns of global industrialization that emerged in the nineteenth century? Be sure to discuss factors that might have influenced these patterns, including colonial policy

Question

Why might some areas actually have "de-industrialized"? Compare three of the following areas: Europe, the Americas, China, Japan, and India/Egypt.

Answer 1

Answers will vary but correct responses should include: Industrialization impacted the rest of the worldby creating global inequalities of wealth and power and by linking unindustrialized regions in a grid of high-speed communications. The patchiness of industrialization was essential to industrialization's success. It was part of a pattern of specialization in which some regions supplied food and raw materials while others concentrated on manufacturing. If some places had comparative advantage in resources, others had comparative advantage in finance and access to markets, or a relatively disciplined or suitably educated labor force. The system was reproduced at the global level, as large areas of the world became suppliers of primary produce to industrializing economies. In India, deindustrialization was result of the unbeatable competitiveness of mechanized textile production in Britain as well as a deliberate effect of the British Empire to wreck India's industries to boost their own. In Egypt, industrialization was hindered by French and British involvement. Faithfulness to Western models did not sustain industrialization and overspending led to eventual occupation by the British. Competition among colonial powers hurt the industrial development in South America. Japanese views on industrialization were different from that the West in that the Japanese liked to see business as a form of service to the community and the state. On the whole, it happened earliest and fastest in regions where labor was relatively expensive: in areas such as Europe and Japan, where the size of the workforce was relatively modest compared with, say, that of China and India; or in the United States, which, despite the huge increase in its population, was still seriously underpopulated in the nineteenth century.