Industrialization and Western Global Hegemony

Overview - Industrialization and Western Global Hegemony, 1750-1914

Summary.  The Industrial Revolution brought great changes to Western economy and society.  The West was able to acquire hegemony through colonization or economic dependence over most other civilizations.   All civilizations had to come to terms with Western civilizations and values.

The Industrial Revolutions.  The period begins around 1750 when the forces shaping the Industrial Revolution emerged:  population growth, expansion of manufacturing, a surge of inventions.  The era closed with the beginning of World War I in 1914 because the conflict fundamentally weakened the Western world.  The Industrial began first in Britain, and spread to Western Europe and the United States.  Its essence was technological change, especially the application of coal-powered engines to replace humans and animals as the key energy sources.  New production equipment followed to speed up processes.  The British lead in the revolution came from its favorable internal resources and from the stimulus for innovation pressured by population growth.  Enlightenment thinking provided ideological basis for change, and the previous accomplishments made in Western societies provided the essential foundations.

Origins of Industrialization, 1770-1840.  The key inventions were made in eighteenth-century Britain.  James Watt devised a stream engine suitable for production.  Factories appeared and spurred new industrial creation.  American inventors developed a production system with interchangeable parts.  Metallurgy advanced through the use of coal and coke in place of charcoal.  Transportation and communication were revolutionized by technological change producing the telegraph, steam shipping, and the railway.  Several basic economic changes contributed to the process of industrialization.  Improved agricultural fed urban industrial populations and allowed massive growth.  The factory system changed human patterns by separating work from the home and facilitated more efficient production and the appearance of larger firms.  The changes had a major, often harmful, environmental effect.  Other nations quickly followed the British example, Belgium and France in 1820s, Germany and the United States soon after.  The changes in European laws after the French revolution abolished many hindrances to industrial progress.

The Disruptions of Industrial Life.  The Industrial Revolution caused huge movements of people from the countryside to cities.  Families were disrupted as young adults moved into unhealthy and crime-ridden urban quarters.  Middle-class families left the cities for suburbs.  New work conditions ended old values of leisurely craft production, driving some workers to destroy machines.  Traditions of popular leisure were threatened as competing owners reduced recreational aspects of work.  City governments attacked off-the job recreations, although attempts to curb drinking failed.   The middle class redefined family life to shelter women and children from the stresses of the new order.  Women were placed in a radically separate sphere from men, and children were sheltered and educated from their future entry into business life.

Industrialization, West, and World.  The West led the way in industrialization for decades and was a key to the “New Imperialism” of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Societies reacted to this new force in the world in different ways.  In the long run, industrialization provided the context for most of the major developments in this period of world history.

Population Movements.  The many changes resulted in huge shifts in world populations structures as peoples moved from their home areas and as diseases were curbed with newly discovered medicines.  In the West and the United States, birthrates fell as machines altered the role of children in society.

Diversity in the Age of Western Dominance.  During this complex period, themes of changes are not confined to Western industrialization ad imperialism.  Individual civilizations continued to experience distinctive developments.

Major Themes Transformed.  The relationship between humans and nature shifted dramatically in this era.  New transportation methods, higher population, medicine, all a part of the Industrial Revolution, evened the odds for human survival but at a cost to soil conditions and water sources.  Legal equality increased and slavery was abolished in most places.

Globalization. By the end of the nineteenth century, interconnections among all parts of the world intensified to an unprecedented level.  The telegraph, steamship, railroad and, by the end of the period, radios and telephones provided the means.  Western industrialism and imperialism created an impressive network of global contacts.