Industrialization in Continental Europe AP European History Mc

Industrialization in Continental Europe AP European History Mc. Kay, Chapter 22

I. National Variations • 1. The new technologies developed in the British Industrial Revolution were adopted rather slowly by businesses in continental Europe. But, by the end of the 19 th century, several European countries as well as the U. S. had also industrialized their economies to a considerable but variable degree.

II. The Challenge of Industrialization • 1. English industry continued to grow and improve between 1789 and 1815. • 2. On the Continent, the unending political and economic upheavals such as the French Revolution, had a disruptive effect on trade and created runaway inflation. • 3. The Napoleonic era in France widened the gap between England the Continent regarding an industrial economy.

II. The Challenge of Industrialization • 4. The Continent was absorbed in war from 1792 to 1815, thus Continental firms had little hope of competing with mass-produced British goods in foreign markets for quite some time. • 5. British technology had also become so advanced that few engineers or technicians outside of England understood it. • 6. The technology of steam power had grown much more expensive. It involved large investments in the iron and coal industries and required the existence of railroads, which were very costly.

II. The Challenge of Industrialization • 7. Continental business people had great difficulty finding the large sums of money the new methods demanded, and there was a shortage of laborers accustomed to working in factories. • 8. These disadvantages slowed the spread of modern industry. • 9. After 1815, however, the continental countries began to face up to the British challenge and they had three important advantages.

III. Continental Advantages • 1. Most continental countries had a rich tradition of enterprise, merchant capitalists, and skilled urban artisans. • 2. Continental capitalists did not need to develop their own technology, instead they could borrow the British technology as well as engineers. • 3. European countries such as France and Russia had strong independent governments which could create economic policies to serve their own interests. • 4. They would eventually use the state to promote the growth of industry and catch up with Great Britain.