Positive Factors Of Industrialization And Modernization example essay topic

Throughout the eighteenth century until the nineteen fifties, different countries have participated in the acts of industrialization and modernization more fully then others. There were many factors that permitted these countries to industrialize and modernize at a much greater pace than their significant opponents in the world industry. While rapid urbanization in Britain and dictatorship in Argentina and Russia promoted industrialization and modernization, the imperialist policies and ideas of Britain hindered industrial development in Egypt. Rapid urbanization played a very important role in the industrialization and modernization of Britain. Industrialization was a long hard process in Britain; however they were the first group of people to undergo this long process. The reason industrialization occurred in Britain was due simply to the fact that they had an astronomical jump in population.

Within a one hundred year span, Britain's population grew from 5.5 million in 1750 to over 16 million in 1851. The large population growth caused a great deal of economic and agricultural improvements for the British people. Farming was made easier and more efficient due to England undergoing a process of agricultural improvement that enabled fewer farmers to feed more people while cultivating the same amount of land. "People also migrated at an unprecedented rate- from the Countryside to the cities" (Bulliet, page 610). This caused a great population shift from the agricultural southeast to the midlands and the north. Due to the fact that people started to search for jobs, a large portion of the population started to migrate to the midlands and the northern parts of the country; this gave a large source of inexpensive labor for the rich business owners to profit.

(Bulliet, pages 609-612) A great deal of the British Industrialization was involved in the cloth and clothing industry. Britain was importing raw material such as cotton and silk from India, mass producing it, and then selling it back to India for an enormous profit. Now that urbanization brought a huge amount of the labor force to the factory towns and cities, this made it so that Britain could now produce more and more cloth and before they even knew it they were the largest producers of cloth in the world. (Bulliet pg. 610) Historians propose a number of reasons for the cause of industrialization and modernization in Britain. Among the most persuasive is the enormous increase in food production following the establishment of the enclosure laws of the eighteenth century by the British parliament.

Parliament passed a series of laws that permitted lands that were in the hands of the common insignificant farmers to be enclosed into large, private farms worked by a much smaller more efficient labor force. While these laws drove the small and insignificant farmer off their lands, it increased agricultural production and caused an enormous increase in the urban population, the reason being that the only place dislodged peasants could to go was to the cities for jobs. (web) Dictatorship also had an influence on the world of industrialization and modernization. After the end of the Great War, Russia was in a horrific condition. Civil wars occurred all the time for over three years.

Many years of warfare revolution and mismanagement caused the Russian economy to plummet to one-sixth of its prewar economic status. Many roads and factories were shutdown because of the lack of fuel, raw materials and valuable parts. Also, cities have starved by the cause of dead livestock and un fertile farmlands. Lenin, master of a ruined Russia, decided to release the economy from party and government control. Lenin's master piece, the New Economic Policy "allowed peasants to own land and sell their crops, private merchants to trade, and private workshops to produce goods and sell them on the free market". (Bulliet, page 788) However, the important business such as the banks, railroads, and factories remained under government ownership and control.

The decade after the end of the wars consisted of painful recoveries form the ruins of the war and then followed by years of growing peace and prosperity. (Bulliet, pages 788-789) A second example of how dictatorship was a positive factor in the process of industrialization and modernization can be seen in Argentina with Dictator Juan Peron. Colonel Peron lead a revolt in 1943 against a government that during its thirteen years of rule, did nothing to "lessen the poverty of workers or the frustration of the middle class" (Bulliet, pg. 852) When Peron first gained control of Argentina himself and his colleagues (who happened to be his friends) spent a great amount of money on new military equipment and their own ridiculous salaries. As World War II took a turn in favor of the allied powers, Peron found himself as well as his crew's reputation and popularity at a rapid decline. Then Peron made a change in the right direction. He centered his platform around the urban workers.

Peron was elected president in 1946 and established a populist dictatorship modeled after their close neighbor Brazil. "Like Brazil, Argentina industrialized rapidly under state sponsorship. Peron spent lavishly on social welfare products as well as the military". (Bulliet, pg 852) Peron also used another tactic to industrialize much quicker then usual. This tactic he used was called import - substitution industrialization. This process is one in which you import powerful new machines to give the industries a huge jump start.

(Bulliet pg. 851) Unlike urbanization and dictatorship which were positive factors of industrialization and modernization, Imperialism was a negative factor in which it hindered industrialization and modernization for the imperial ized country. Britain was the first country in the world to industrialize; this was affected positively by urbanization. However, because of urbanization Britain needed a more abundant source of natural resource. So they turned to their colonies in India, Egypt, and China.

Britain would go into their colonized lands extract the resources; bring those resources back to the factories in Britain to make them into useful products. They then would sell these finished products back to their colonies for a hefty profit. This behavior was also known as the new imperialism. "The imperial powers used economic and technological means to reorganize dependent regions and bring them into the world economy as suppliers of foods and raw materials and also as consumers of industrial products".

(Bulliet, pg 750). While rapid urbanization in Britain and dictatorship in Argentina and Russia promoted industrialization and modernization, The Imperialist policies and ideas hindered Industrial development in Egypt. These important factors helped these countries to industrialize and modernize in much greater pace then their significant opponents in the world economy. Because of the power of large nations and individuals, dictatorships and imperialist policies helped a great deal in industrialization and modernization of our world..