Industrialisation (or US
Industrialization) is the process of social and
economic change whereby a human group is transformed from a
pre-industrial society into an industrial one. It is a part of a
wider modernisation process, where social change and economic
development are closely related with technological innovation,
particularly with the development of large-scale energy and
metallurgy production. It is the extensive organisation of an
economy for the purpose of manufacturing.
Industrialisation also introduces a form of
philosophical change where people obtain a
different attitude towards their perception of
nature, and a
sociological process of ubiquitous
rationalisation.
There is considerable literature on the factors facilitating
industrial modernisation and enterprise development. Key positive
factors identified by researchers have ranged from favourable
political-legal environments for industry and commerce, through
abundant
natural resources of
various kinds, to plentiful supplies of relatively low-cost,
skilled and adaptable
labour.
One survey
of countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and
Latin America and the Caribbean
in the late 20th century found that high levels of
structural differentiation, functional specialisation, and autonomy
of economic systems from government were likely to contribute
greatly to industrial-commercial growth and prosperity.
Amongst other things, relatively open trading systems with zero or
low duties on goods
imports tended to
stimulate industrial cost-efficiency and
innovation across the board. Free and flexible
labour and other
markets also helped raise
general business-economic performance levels, as did rapid popular
learning capabilities.
Positive work ethics in populations at large combined with skills
in quickly utilising new technologies and scientific discoveries
were likely to boost production and income levels – and as the
latter rose, markets for consumer goods and services of all kinds
tended to expand and provide a further stimulus to industrial
investment and
economic growth.
By the end of the
century, East Asia was one of the most
economically successful regions of the world – with free market countries such as Hong Kong
being widely seen as models for other, less
developed countries around the world to emulate.The first country to
industrialize was Great
Britain
during the Industrial Revolution.
Description
According to the original
sector
classification of
Jean
Fourastié, an economy consists of a "
Primary sector" of
commodity production (farming, livestock breeding, exploitation of
mineral resources), a "
secondary sector" of
manufacturing and processing, and a "
Tertiary Sector" of
service industries. The industrialisation process is historically
based on the expansion of the secondary sector in an economy
dominated by primary activities.
The first
ever transformation to an industrial economy from an agrarian one was called the Industrial Revolution and this took
place in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in a few countries
of Western Europe and North America,
beginning in Great
Britain
. This was the first industrialisation in the
world's history.
The
Second Industrial
Revolution describes a later, somewhat less dramatic change
which came about in the late 19th century with the widespread
availability of
electric power,
internal combustion
engines, and
assembly lines to the
already industrialised nations.
The lack of an
industrial sector in a
country is widely seen as a major handicap in improving a country's
economy, and power, pushing many governments to encourage or
enforce industrialisation.
History of industrialisation
Most pre-industrial economies had standards of living not much
above
subsistence,
aming that the majority of the population were focused on producing
their means of survival. For example, in
medieval Europe, 80% of the labour force was
employed in subsistence
agriculture.
Some
pre-industrial economies, such as classical Athens
, had trade and commerce as significant factors, so
native Greeks could enjoy wealth far beyond a sustenance standard
of living through the use of slavery.
Famines were frequent in most pre-industrial
societies, although some, such as the Netherlands
and England
of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Italian city states of the fifteenth
century, the medieval Islamic Caliphate,
and the ancient Greek and Roman civilisations
were able to escape the famine cycle through increasing trade and
commercialisation of the agricultural sector. It is estimated that
during the seventeenth century Netherlands
imported nearly 70% of its grain supply and in the
fifth century BC Athens imported three quarters of its total food
supply.
During the
Arab
Agricultural Revolution from the 8th to 13th centuries, the
agricultural sector was revolutionized by a wider
economy established across the medieval
Arab world. This enabled the diffusion of many
crops and
farming
techniques between different regions within and beyond the
medieval Islamic world. As a result, the
Islamic
Caliphate experienced major
changes in
its
economy,
population
distribution, population
vegetation
cover, agricultural production, income, and
urban growth.
Industrialisation through innovation in manufacturing processes first
started with the Industrial Revolution in the north-west and
Midlands of England
in the
eighteenth century. It spread to Europe and North America in
the nineteenth century, and to the rest of the world in the
twentieth.
Industrial revolution in Western Europe
In the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Great Britain
experienced a massive increase in agricultural
productivity known as the British Agricultural
Revolution, which enabled an unprecedented population growth, freeing a significant
percentage of the workforce from farming, and helping to drive the
Industrial
Revolution.
Due to the limited amount of arable land and the overwhelming
efficiency of
mechanized farming, the
increased population could not be dedicated to agriculture. New
agricultural techniques allowed a single
peasant to feed more
workers
than previously; however, these techniques also increased the
demand for
machines and other
hardwares, which had traditionally been provided by
the
urban artisans. Artisans, collectively called
bourgeoisie, employed
rural
exodus
workers to increase their output and meet the country's
needs.
The growth of their
business coupled with
the lack of experience of the new workers pushed a
rationalisation and
standardisation of the duties the in
workshops, thus leading to a
division of labour, that is, a primitive
form of
Fordism. The process of creating a
good was divided
into simple tasks, each one of them being gradually mechanized in
order to boost
productivity and thus
increase
income.
The accumulation of
capital
allowed
investments in the
conception and application of new
technologies, enabling the industrialisation process to
continue to evolve. The industrialisation process formed a class of
industrial workers who had more money to spend than their
agricultural cousins. They spent this on items such as tobacco and
sugar; creating new mass markets which stimulated more investment
as merchants sought to exploit them.
The mechanisation of production spread to the countries surrounding
England in
western and
northern Europe and to British
settler colonies, helping to make those
areas the wealthiest, and shaping what is now known as the
Western world.
Some economic historians argue that the possession of so-called
‘exploitation colonies’ eased the accumulation of capital to the
countries that possessed them, speeding up their
development. The consequence was that
the
subject country integrated a bigger
economic system in a subaltern
position, emulating the countryside which demands manufactured
goods and offers raw materials, while the
metropole stressed its urban posture, providing
goods and importing food. A classical example of this mechanism is
said to be the
triangular trade,
which involved England, southern United States and western Africa.
Critics argue that this polarity still affects the world, and has
deeply retarded the industrialisation of what is now known as the
Third World.
Some have stressed the importance of natural or financial resources
that Britain received from its many overseas colonies or that
profits from the British
slave trade
between Africa and the Caribbean helped fuel industrial
investment.
Early industrialisation in other countries
After the
Convention of
Kanagawa, which was issued by Commodore
Matthew C. Perry, had forced Japan to open the ports
of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade, the Japanese government
realised that drastic reforms were necessary in order to stave off
Western influence. The
Tokugawa shogunate
abolished the
feudal system. The
government instituted military reforms to modernise the Japanese
army and also constructed the base for industrialisation. In the
1870s, the
Meiji government vigorously
promoted technological and industrial development which eventually
brought Japan to become a
powerful
modern country.
In a similar way, Russia suffered during the
Allied intervention
in the Russian Civil War.
The Soviet Union
's centrally controlled
economy decided to invest a big part of its resources to
enhance its industrial production and infrastructures in order to assure its own
survival, thus becoming a world superpower.
During the
cold war, the other
European socialist countries, organised under
the
Comecon framework, followed the same
developing scheme, albeit with a less emphasis on
heavy industry.
Southern European countries saw a
moderate industrialisation during
the 1950s-1990s, caused by a healthy integration of the
European economy, though their level of
development, as well as those of eastern countries, doesn't match
the western standards.
The Third World
A similar state-led developing programme was pursued in virtually
all the Third World countries during the
Cold
War, including the
socialist ones, but
especially in
Sub-Saharan Africa
after the
decolonisation period. The
primary scope of those projects was to achieve
self-sufficiency through the local
production of previously
imported goods, the
mechanisation of agriculture and the spread of
education and
health
care. However, all those experiences failed bitterly due to a
lack of realism: most countries didn't have a pre-industrial
bourgeoisie able to carry on a
capitalistic development or even a stable and
peaceful
state. Those aborted
experiences left
huge
debts toward western countries and fuelled
public corruption.
Petrol producing countries
Oil-rich countries saw similar failures in their economic
choices.An
EIA report stated that
OPEC member nations were projected to earn a net amount
of $1.251 trillion in 2008 from their oil exports. Because oil is
both important and expensive, regions that had big
reserves of oil had huge
liquidity incomes. However, this was rarely
followed by economic development. Experience shows that local
elites were unable to re-invest the
petrodollars obtained through oil export, and
currency is wasted in
luxury
goods.
This is particularly evident in the
Persian Gulf states,
where the
per capita income is
comparable to those of western nations, but where no
industrialisation has started. Apart from two little countries
(
Bahrain and the
United Arab Emirates),
Arab states have not
diversified their economies,
and no replacement for the
upcoming end of
oil reserves is envisaged.
Industrialisation in Asia
Apart
from Japan
, where
industrialisation began in the late 19th century, a different
pattern of industrialisation followed in East
Asia. One of the fastest rates of industrialisation
occurred in the late 20th century across four countries known as
the
Asian tiger thanks to the
existence of stable governments and well structured societies,
strategic locations, heavy foreign
investments, a low cost skilled and motivated
workforce, a competitive
exchange rate, and low custom duties.
In the
case of South
Korea
, the largest of the four Asian tigers, a very fast
paced industrialisation took place as it quickly moved away from
the manufacturing of value added goods in the 1950s and 60s into
the more advanced steel, shipbuilding and automobile industry in
the 1970s and 80s, focusing on the high-tech and service industry
in the 1990s and 2000s. As a result, South Korea became a
major
economic power and
today is one of the wealthiest countries in Asia.
This starting model was afterwards successfully copied in other
larger Eastern and Southern Asian countries, including
communist ones. The success of this phenomenon led
to a huge wave of
offshoring – i.e.,
Western factories or
tertiary corporations
choosing to move their activities to countries where the workforce
was less expensive and less collectively organised.
China
and India
, while
roughly following this development pattern, made adaptations in
line with their own histories and cultures, their major size and
importance in the world, and the geo-political ambitions of their governments
(etc.).
Currently, China's government is actively
investing in expanding its own infrastructures and securing the
required energy and raw materials supply channels, is supporting
its exports by financing the United States
balance payment deficit through the purchase of US
treasury bonds, and is strengthening
its military in order to endorse a major geopolitical
role.
Meanwhile, India's government is investing in specific vanguard
economic sectors such as
bioengineering,
nuclear technology,
pharmaceutics,
informatics, and
technologically-oriented
higher
education, openly overpassing its needs, with the goal of
creating several specialisation poles able to conquer foreign
markets.
Both Chinese and Indian corporations have also started to make huge
investments in Third World countries, making them significant
players in today's world economy.
Newly industrialised countries
In recent
decades, a few countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, such
as Turkey
, South Africa, Malaysia
, Philippines
and Mexico
have
experienced substantial industrial growth, fuelled by exportations
going to countries that have bigger economies: the United States,
Japan, China, and the EU. They are sometimes called
newly-industrialised
countries.
Despite this
trend being artificially
influenced by the
oil
price increases since 2003, the phenomenon is not entirely new
nor totally speculative (for instance see:
Maquiladora). Most analysts conclude in the next
few
decades the whole world will experience
industrialisation, and
international inequality will be
replaced with worldwide
social
inequality.Written By Mr Huzaifa
Other outcomes
Urbanisation
The concentration of labour into factories has brought about the
rise of
large towns to serve and house
the working population.
Exploitation
Change to family structure
The family structure changes with industrialisation. The
sociologist
Talcott Parsons noted
that in pre-industrial societies there is an
extended family structure spanning many
generations who have probably remained in the same location for
generations. In industrialised societies the
nuclear family, consisting of only of parents
and their growing children, predominates. Families and children
reaching adulthood are more mobile and tend to relocate to where
jobs exist. Extended family bonds become more tenuous.
Environment
Industrialisation has spawned its own health problems. Modern
stress include noise, air, water
pollution,
poor nutrition,
dangerous machinery,
impersonal work,
isolation,
poverty,
homelessness,
and
substance abuse.
Health problems in
industrial nation are as much caused by
economic, social,
political, and
cultural factors as by
pathogens. Industrialisation has become a major
medical issue world wide.
Current situation
In 2005,
the USA was the largest producer of industrial output followed by
Japan and China, according to International Monetary Fund
.
Currently the "international development community" (
World Bank,
OECD, many
United Nations departments, and some
other organisations) endorses development policies like water
purification or
primary education.
The community does not recognise traditional industrialisation
policies as being adequate to the Third World or beneficial in the
longer term, with the perception that it could only create
inefficient local industries unable to compete
in a
free-trade dominated world.
See also
References
- Lewis F. Abbott, Theories Of Industrial Modernisation &
Enterprise Development: A Review, ISM/Google Books, revised
2nd edition, 2003. industrialisation lasted from the late 1800s to
late 1900s and is still in some places around world, ISBN
978-0-906321-26-3.[1]
- Industry & Enterprise: An International Survey Of
Modernisation & Development, ISM/Google Books, revised 2nd
edition, 2003. ISBN 978-0-906321-27-0. [2]
- Historical survey > The international slave
trade, Encyclopedia Britannica
- Andrew M. Watson (1983), Agricultural Innovation in the
Early Islamic World, Cambridge University Press,
ISBN 052124711X
- Andrew M. Watson (1974), "The Arab Agricultural Revolution and
Its Diffusion, 700–1100", The Journal of Economic History
34 (1): 8–35
- The Origins of the Industrial Revolution in
England by Steven Kreis. Last Revised October 11, 2006.
Accessed April 2008
- Enslavement and industrialisation Robin
Blackburn , BBC British History. Published: 2006-12-18 Accessed
April 2008
- Joseph Stalin and the industrialisation of the
USSR Learning Curve website, The UK National Archives. Accessed
April 2008
- BOOM E MIRACOLO ITALIANO ANNI '50-60 (CRONOLOGIA)
- [3]
- OPEC to earn $1.251 trillion from oil exports -
EIA, Reutrs
- Understanding New Middle East, Behzad
Shahandeh, The Korea Times, 31 October, 2007
- Background Note: Saudi Arabia
- The effect of industrialisation on the family,
Talcott Parsons, the isolated nuclear family. Blacks
Academy. Educational Database . Accessed April 2008.
Further reading
- Hobsbawm, Eric (1962): The Age of Revolution.
Abacus.
- Pomeranz, Ken (2001)The Great Divergence: China, Europe and
the Making of the Modern World Economy (Princeton Economic
History of the Western World) by (Princeton University Press; New
Ed edition, 2001)
- Hewitt, T., Johnson, H. and Wield, D. (Eds) (1992)
industrialisation and Development, Oxford University
Press: Oxford.
- Kiely, R (1998) industrialisation and Development: A
comparative analysis, UCL Press:London.