How Do Western Powers Use the Industrial Revolution to Exploit Their Own Citizens and the Rest of the World - Essay Example

One negative effect of the industrial revolution was the exploitation of labor, for purposes of coming with finished products. Women, children, and women were heavily exploited by wealthy industrialists, for purposes of creating wealth for them (Wyatt, 17).

The government did not initiate any laws that advocated for minimum pays, laws that regulated the age in which an individual could work, and the minimum number of hours that an individual could work in factories or industrial institutions (Allen, 17). Because of the inability of the government to initiate laws and policies that could protect workers, industrialists were able to pay very low wages to these workers; they did not provide safety equipment and tools that could be used by their employees while at work, and they provided very long hours for work, without permitting any breaks. Furthermore, there was the use of child labor.     

These children were paid very minimal wages, compared to the adult workers. This resulted in deaths, because of the bad working conditions that these children were subjected to. However, it is important to understand that because of the input of these workers, countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and United States become very rich, and they had the capability of influencing other countries in the world. For example, Industrialization is one of the major causes of colonialism (Allen, 22). Countries such as France, Germany, Portugal, and United Kingdom embarked on journeys and acquisitions of territories, with the main intention of looking for the raw materials for their industries. Some of these acquisitions were brutal because these countries used force for purpose of subjecting these new territories under their rule.

Western countries were able to snatch the land that belonged to their colonies, making these people be landless, and squatters, in their own countries. Western countries argued that these lands were to be used for purposes of producing raw materials that could be shipped back to their industries in Europe. Furthermore, Western countries were able to make their colonies adapt to their cultures. This included their religious beliefs and style of education. A good example is France, which pursued a culture of assimilation in its colonies. Citizens of their colonies were supposed to adapt to the various beliefs and practices of the French (Wyatt, 13). This was with the intention of assimilating them into the French culture. After independence, these countries still manipulated their colonies, through aid.   

These financial aids were attached with conditionality’s, and an example is the structural adjustment policies by IMF and World Bank. These policies required third-world countries to open up their economies and follow austerity measures as a condition of getting aid. However, these states did not have an economy that could compete with the economies of Western countries which were more advanced.

Based on these facts, Western countries were able to use the concepts of the industrial revolution to exploit both their citizens and other countries in the world. Read More