Industrialization in Western Europe - Essay Example

Industrialization in Western Europe Introduction Industrialization is a phenomenon in an economy, which explains a shift of primary occupational structure of a nation from an agrarian to an industrial one. The change generally takes place with certain transformations in the economic and social sector of the nation. It should be noted that the period of industrialization had been different in separate economies of the world. This paper will analyze the cause which had led to industrialization in Western Europe, before the Asian nations, even though the state of scientific knowledge and technological development in the latter was better than the former. Industrialization in Western Europe In times preceding the period of Renaissance, regions in the European continent were divided in forms of principalities. The Pope of the church was considered to be the representative of God and King of a principality was considered to be the representative of Pope. Common men in the principalities did not have the freedom to undertake decisions regarding any facets of livelihood. After this era of brutality and cruelty on mankind, Europe faced the age of “rebirth” or Renaissance. Following that, Europe experienced a socialistic economic system for a long period of time. However, from the theory of Karl Marx, it can be stated that towards end of the 18th century, economy of Western Europe had experienced a capitalistic form of market system. The capitalist class in the economy were the merchants, who owned land as well as newly invented and superior state of technology (Hoffman, 2000). The labour resource, at that point of time, was almost utilized a non-living materialistic resource. The population of the nations of Western Europe were significantly increasing. The economies were subjected to product and food crisis. Land owning farmers started to sell off their lands for establishing new factories. Crisis and scarcity forced economies to become more productive in nature. So, in order to become more productive, economies undertook the process of industrialization in Western Europe in early 19th century. Colonial rule became a common method of territory expansion for these Western European nations as economies required adequate raw agricultural inputs from its conquered colonies, for sustaining the demand for its new industrial sector. Industrialization in Asia Industrialization had initially taken place in the economy of Japan in Asia, in the second-half of 19th century. However, in the latter half of 20th century, industrialization was experienced in other major economies of the Asian Continent, like, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. There were several reasons for which industrialization had taken place in these economies at such great speed. The low cost of motivated labour force, high level of foreign investments, economic competitive advantages, structured societies and strategic locations were some of these reasons. Among all these economies, the economy of South Korea was the most powerful. Overtime, this transformation took place in other economies of the world as well. Critical Analysis Both the economies of Western Europe and Asian nations were benefited significantly with the essence of industrialization. The transformation facilitated generation of large amount of employment opportunities for all nations. A rise in per person income level significantly helped in the growth of domestic products of the economies. However, it should be noted that growth of industries in an economy depends on the existing state of technology and scientific innovation in a nation. Such resources were rich in the Asian nations, more than that in Western Europe. Most of the individuals living in the Western European nations, just before industrialization, used to be concentrated in rural regions. Yet, it is astonishing to observe that even then, industrialization in Western European nations had taken place before most of the Asian countries. Many economists state that European continent is correctly named as “European Miracle” and that explains the continent’s overall modernity and cultural austerity. Historians, in the current era, often try to analyze the reasons for which the Western nations are still found to dominate the rest of the world. The famous scholar, David Landes, claimed that causes, for which Western Europe experienced industrialization before Asia, was its unique competency in strong political practices, good cultural values and appropriate social intuitions. The ‘European Miracle’ paradigm is often viewed as the Eurocentric view of analysis. David claimed that unique technological progress in the Western European nations was experienced only due to superior cultural openness in the economy. Some of the innovations made, during the industrialization period in Western Europe, were printing, wheel water, gunpowder and eyeglasses (Mankiw, 2011). European nations also possessed the superior engineering skills of shipbuilding that helped the nations to travel overseas and conquer other nations. Western European nations were the first to experience industrialization because majority of individuals in these economies were willing to change and improve. The industrialization that took place in economies of Western Europe was a result of its natural economic development, which occurred from its high capital accumulation, technological progress and rise in gross commercial activities. According to Landes, underlying reasons behind the advent of industrialization in European nations before the Asian nations are stated as follows: Increasing autonomy of intellectual inquiry Reutilization of several researches Diffusion of several researchers (Mahajan, 2008) Attributes of freedom, rationality, individualism, openness and innovativeness were extensively apparent in most of the marketplaces across the Western European nations. According to Landes, industrial revolution in these economies had culminated inevitably due to some of these special attributes (Li and Vinten, 1997). Rather, among all nations of Western Europe, industrialization had sprouted in the economy of Great Britain because it possessed the highest level of imagination, enterprise and ingenuity in its marketplaces. Industrialization took place in Europe substantially with the help of technological innovations in economies. Nonetheless, compared to the Western European nations, economies of Asia could not undergo the same processes, at that point of time (with help of technological innovation). This was because such economies lacked proper protectoral framework to safeguard private property. In the early 19th century, the Asians did not possess sufficient zeal to undertake changes and modifications in their economic systems. Though the state of technology and scientific innovations were substantially adequate in the Asian nations, but individuals in most of these economies still lacked proper senses of freedom, rationality, individualism, openness and innovativeness. It should be noted that such attributes are extensively important for experiencing a progressive economic revolution. Since such qualities were relatively scarce in economies of Asia, industrialization had taken place here much later than in Western Europe. Moreover, following industrialization, the economies of Western European nations started to expand their colonial territories in many of the Asian nations. Strong industrial growth in the European nations generated high demand for agricultural raw materials. These materials were procured from Asian colonies (as industrial inputs). Many scholars state that the Western nations strategically discouraged industrial growth in their Asian colonies. They promoted commercialization of agricultural sector and hence, stimulated the development of agrarian sector of the economy for the sake of required industrial raw inputs. Such strategic hostile policies formulated by the colonial rulers of Asian regions resulted in generating industrial revolution much later in the latter’s economies. Many critics, like, Karl Marx and Max Weber, claimed that it was not correct to analyze history of all economies on the basis of the history of European economy (Iwami, 2001). They suggested that it was incorrect to regard modernity as a technological project, first undertaken by the European nations. According to the scholar, Andre Gunder Frank, the concept of European dynamic in contrast to Asian stagnation is simply a Eurocentric myth, which cannot be supported with any sort of real life evidence. According to him, real world is the era between 1400 and 1800, where Asian nations dominated the rest of the world. The present economic growth of any nation is remarkably dependent on this era. Thus, Frank rejected the notion of European exceptionalism. Conclusion The global economy has experienced significant changes and progress with the essence of industrialization across various nations. There are various occupational sectors in an economy. However, in general, it is believed that development of the primary or agrarian segment in a nation helps in progress of the industrial sector. Finally, growth of the industrial sector facilitates stimulation of the service or tertiary sector of an economy. If the perspectives of Marx and Frank are ignored and only that of Eurocentric principles are considered, then it would be correct to conclude that industrial development had first taken place in the Western European nations. These nations had the power of socio-cultural openness and proper intuition regarding economy, which was not very efficient in the Asian nations. Only technological innovation and scientific progress are not enough for the growth of industrial sector. Eurocentric paradigm is based on Humanocentric Global Paradigm (Ferguson, 2004). This states that the nature of human capital in a nation significantly influences its industrial growth. According to the Eurocentric view, this difference in quality of human capital had positively affected Western European nations (as industrialization had emerged there) and negatively influenced the Asian nations (as industrialization failed to occur here initially). This view states that more potent social thoughts in the Western European nations, generating its natural internal economic development, gave rise to industrialization, much before Asia. Perhaps, this led to the generation of western dominance over the global economy, which significantly persists even today. Reference List Ferguson, M., 2004. Why the west? [pdf] HAQL. Available at: [Accessed 4 February 2014]. Hoffman, P. T., 2000. Why was it that Europeans conquered the rest of the world? The politics and economics of Europe’s comparative advantage in violence. [pdf] YALE. Available at: [Accessed 4 February 2014]. Iwami, T., 2001. Economic development and environment in Southeast Asia: an introductory note, International Journal of Social Economics, 28(8), pp. 605 – 622. Li, L and Vinten, G., 1997. An overview of the experiences of Chinese industrialization strategies and development. Managerial Auditing Journal, 12(4), pp. 183 – 191. Mahajan, M., 2008. Managerial economics. New Delhi: Nirali Prakashan. Mankiw, N., 2011. Principles of economics. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Read More