Chapter 9-3

Chapter 9-3
• Industrialization Spreads
▫ I) Industrial Development in the United States
▫ II) Industrialization Reaches Continental Europe
▫ III) Worldwide Impact of Industrialization
I) Industrial Development in the United States
• The Industrial Revolution that began in Britain soon
spread to other countries that had similar conditions
that made for rapid industrialization.
• Eager to keep the secrets of industrialization to itself,
Britain had forbid engineers, mechanics, and
toolmakers to leave the country.
• In 1789 however a young mill worker named Samuel
Slater snuck out of Britain and designed a spinning
machine from memory which was put in the 1st United
states factory in Rhode Island.
I) Industrial Development in the United States
• In 1813 Francis Cabot Lowell and four other investors
revolutionized the American textile industry by
mechanizing every stage in the manufacturing of cloth.
• Thousands of young single female workers flocked from
their rural homes to work as mill girls in factory towns,
toiling 12 hours a day for 6 days a week.
• Despite a great deal of industrialization in the Northeast
in the early 1800’s, the United states remained primarily
a agricultural nation until the Civil War ended in 1865,
when the country experienced a technological boom.
I) Industrial Development in the United States
• As in Britain the US had a wealth of natural resources (oil, coal,
iron), a burst of inventions (light bulb, telegraph) and a swelling
urban population that consumed the manufactured goods.
• Railroads played a major role in America’s industrialization, and
building large businesses like railroads required a great deal of
money.
I) Industrial Development in the United States
• To raise the money entrepreneurs sold shares of
stocks, and people who bought stock became part
owners of the business.
• These businesses were called corporations, where
stockholders share in the profits but are not personally
responsible for its debt.
I) Industrial Development in the United States
• Big business tried to control entire industries and
made big profits by cutting the cost of production,
such as Standard Oil (John Rockefeller) and Carnegie
Steel Company (Andrew Carnegie).
• While workers earn small wages for long hours at hard
labor, stockholders earned high profits and corporate
leaders made fortunes. Profits!!
II) Industrialization Reaches Continental Europe
• While other European nations yearned to adopt the
“British miracle”, they were absorbed by the French
Revolution and Napoleon until the 18th century.
• Belgium led the way in adopting Britain’s new technology,
as a Lancashire carpenter named William Cockerill
smuggled secret plans for building spinning machinery out
of England which helped his son John eventually build an
enormous industrial enterprise in eastern Belgium.
• Although Germany was a politically divided empire,
beginning around 1835 they began to copy the British
model by importing equipment and engineers and sending
children to England to learn industrial management.
II) Industrialization Reaches Continental Europe
• Most importantly Germany built railroads to link its
growing manufacturing cities, and its growing industrial
strength allowed it to develop into a military power by
the 19th century.
• In France, industrial growth did not occur until after
1850 when the central government constructed railroads
that created a thriving market for new French products.
• Elsewhere in Europe industrialization proceeded by
region rather than country, and in some nations the
social structure or geography prevented them from
industrializing.
III) Worldwide Impact of Industrialization
• The Industrial Revolution shifted the balance of
power by promoting competition between
industrialized nations and increasing poverty in
less developed nations.
• To keep factories running and workers fed,
industrialized nations required a steady supply of
raw materials from less developed land and in turn
sold their manufactured products back to them.
• Soon industrialized Western nations, led by
Britain, seized and exploited overseas colonies for
their resources and markets.
III) Worldwide Impact of Industrialization
• This policy of extending one country’s rule over many
other lands, Imperialism, gave even more power to the
wealthy nations.
• Industrialization gave Europe and the West
tremendous power, especially since the economies of
Asia and Africa were still based on agriculture.
• The industrialization that took place in the 18th and
19th centuries revolutionized every aspect of society,
and despite the hardships the development of a middle
class created great opportunities in education and
improvements in daily life and health for the majority
of the population.