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Which countries were failing to compete with the British economy during the Industrial Revolution? Other than France, are there historical accounts of countries that were trying to pursue economic power but falling behind?

Eric Frenkil

 

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Dear Mr. Frenkil,

The very advances that Britain’s Industrial Revolution brought about—steamships, railroads, telegraphs—made it impossible for Britain to keep its inventions at home, even if legislation was passed in an attempt to limit its export. The industrial exhibition at the Crystal Palace in 1851 displayed the culmination of those advances for the world to see, but other countries, often with British help, were already industrializing. The first was Belgium, a small country whose iron deposits, cities and ports were close together; it opened its first national railroad in 1834. France under Emperor Napoléon III also embarked on an ambitious industrial expansion, with a national railroad linking north and south in 1870—one year after the United States (largely funded by British banks) established its first transcontinental railway liking east to west. Canada completed its transcontinental railroad in 1885. Germany did not begin serious industrialization until it was unified in 1871, but then advanced exponentially. By 1900 the United States was a dominant industrial power, Italy and Russia were beginning to expand their industry and only Austria-Hungary seemed to be lagging by 1914 (ironic, in view of its being first to declare what became a world war for which it was among the least industrially prepared). Outside of Europe and America the only major industrial power was Japan, which after being forced to open itself to the world in 1854 decided, under the Meiji Emperor in the 1870s, to emulate the nations that would otherwise dominate it. The European imperialist powers did not take Japan’s efforts seriously until 1905, when the Russo-Japanese War ended with a spectacular victory by up-to-date Japanese warships at Tsushima Strait.

Sincerely,

 

Jon Guttman

Research Director

World History

www.historynet.com

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