Industrial Revolution Scale - PDF

Scale of the Industrial Revolution By Trevor Getz Where did the Industrial Revolution begin? This may sound like something we should have figured out a long time ago, but there are still big debates about how to answer this question, and these debates tell us a lot about both history and the presen...

Scale of the Industrial Revolution By Trevor Getz Where did the Industrial Revolution begin? This may sound like something we should have figured out a long time ago, but there are still big debates about how to answer this question, and these debates tell us a lot about both history and the present. 1120L Scale of the Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz Origin stories Historians argue a lot about the Industrial Revolution. That’s because it matters a great deal. Industrialization changed a lot about the world—sometimes quickly, sometimes gradually. Production and distribution methods are some of the most obvious examples, but it was more than that. Society, the way the state worked, how people thought about time and space, the family, the workday, how kids spent their time, how long we lived, what we ate… all of it changed. One of the biggest debates about the Industrial Revolution is about where it all began. This shouldn’t really be a debate, right? We should know the answer to this question. Surely, we just have to look for the first steam-engine factories! That part is easy. But two big questions about the Industrial Revolution’s birthplace remain. The first is the “scale” of the “where” industrialization actually happened first. If we wanted to study that first industrial change, would we be looking at one city? At one country? At a continent? The second question is where would we look to find the reasons that industrialization happened there. Would those reasons be local or would they be global? Let’s examine these two questions, the first one briefly, and the second one in greater detail. The scale of the first industrialization While it is technically an abstract concept, Coalfields industrialization is, in many ways, visible to the eye. We can see it. We can see the first steam-powered Glasgow machines that did the work people and animals had been doing. We can see James Watt’s steam engine 1775 Watt’s first and the breakthrough device that it powered, efficient steam engine North Richard Arkwright’s machine for spinning thread. Sea We can see the first steam-powered factories, like 1779 Crompton’s the Coalbrookdale and Wilkinson’s iron works, and mule developed the Lancashire textile works. We can see the first 1733 John Kay’s first flying shuttle 1804 first steam locomotive and railroads in the cities of Leeds steam locomotive 1764 Hargreaves invents and Swansea. And the thing is, all of these happened Spinning Jenny Bury Leeds in the small island state of Great Britain, mostly over 1785 Cartwright builds power loom Irish the course of the eighteenth century. Sea Manchester Broseley Derby 1770-1808 Soon after, similar changes happened elsewhere, Wilkinson’s 1769 Arkwright’s iron-work especially across the Atlantic Ocean in North 1773-1779 First cast-iron Birmingham spinning machine Shrewsbury America (the British North American colonies, later bridge built the United States) and in other parts of Europe. Thus, 1748 Paul invents wool carding historians have sometimes argued that the Industrial Swansea Revolution started in Europe or in the North Atlantic. 1807, first London In some cases, these arguments were really being passenger railroad 1754 Cort’s first iron rolling machine used to support bigger points that people wanted to ATLANTIC 1779 First steam powered mills Southampton prove. Some European scholars argued for European OCEAN superiority, and US scholars, in particular, wanted to suggest that the United States had a part to play English Channel in this important innovation. But in general, most 0 90 180 Kilometers historians now agree that Great Britain was the place 0 90 180 Miles where the Industrial Revolution began. Early industrial sites in Great Britain. By WHP, CC BY-NC 4.0. 2 Scale of the Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz Local causes of the first industrialization Even if most historians agree on the location of the first industrialization, they frequently disagree about where to look for explanations for why it happened first in Britain. There are many different arguments in this debate, but we will focus on two. First, some scholars argue the Industrial Revolution happened in Britain because of local factors. But others respond that Britain benefited from its particular place in global networks. Let’s begin with the argument that it was Britain’s unique local conditions that caused it to industrialize first, starting with the island nation’s geography and environment. As an island, Britain was easy to defend (at least in the modern era) and relatively peaceful. It was also pretty flat, making it easy to transport goods and to build canals and railroads. These things are essential for successful industrialization. Canals and railroads were needed for moving coal from the various places it was found to the cities and factories where it was used as fuel. Plus, Britain’s land was lucky to have a whole lot of coal available. Contrast these conditions to Japan, another island but one with lots of mountains, and the vast area of China, where the coal they had was impractically far from cities and places where factories were likely to be built. Britain also had a favorable demographic situation. The British population was expanding rapidly in the eighteenth century, as death rates fell and birth rates rose. This meant there were lots of available workers for factories, once those were built. Why? Partly because the agricultural land, where most people had lived as farmers until this period, was being bought up by merchants. They were raising sheep in order to use their wool to produce cloth to sell to this growing population. We call this process “enclosure,” and it was happening faster in Britain than in other parts of Goods produced in factories were in high demand as the number of consumers grew. Soap, advertised here by a the world, even mainland Europe. company called Pears which still exists, was especially You might be asking, but with so many people important because the industrial revolution was really grimy! Public domain. switching to factory work, how were they still growing enough food? This was a result of the agricultural revolution that occurred before the birth of modern factories. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, advances in farming brought improved tools like better plows, new methods like crop rotation, and other innovations that made it possible to grow a lot more food using less labor. This happened in Britain earlier and faster than in many other parts of the world. 3 Scale of the Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz A big difference between being a farmer who is home all the time and working in a factory all day is that you no longer had time to make your own stuff—clothes, furniture, etc. Now you had to buy stuff that was made in— you guessed it—factories. People needed more goods than hand-working could produce, and that really drove industrialization. But factory workers’ demand for stuff was nothing compared to the demand of a growing middle class, mostly merchants and people who owned some property. They had more money and wanted even more industrial goods. Importantly, this middle class of merchants and professionals also had political power. Britain, with its parliamentary system, gave the middle class a representation in parliament. Because these people had property, they passed laws that protected property, making it safer to invest in new factories and other properties in Britain than elsewhere. Bottom line: laws and government now favored industrialization. These men and women also had money to invest in innovation, and they funded many of the inventors and tinkerers who created the machines that cranked up industrialization. Global causes of the first industrialization All of these local factors may have made industrialization more likely in Britain, but some scholars still argue that it was Britain’s global presence that helped it to industrialize first. Certainly, Britain’s big empire helped them a great deal. British merchants and leaders had made a lot of money from the Atlantic slave trade and the plantation system. They could invest that money in inventions and factories. The scale of slave plantations in the Americas may have also inspired factories. Giant sugar plantations in the British Caribbean, in particular, had gang labor systems and giant machines much like the factories that came later in Britain. Docks built in London to handle trade from the colonies, eighteenth century. Notice how flat it is. By SMU Central University Libraries, public domain. 4 Scale of the Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz The colonies were also vital for feeding materials to British industry and food to the British people. Would the Industrial Revolution have happened without lumber and cotton from North America and wool from Australia? Would the country have been able to feed workers without the calories from Caribbean sugar, American beef, and North Atlantic cod? Even before industrialization, the agricultural revolution had been partly the result of observing how people grew things in other parts of the world and adopting new crops from the Americas such as potatoes and corn. Finally, trade drove British production. By the early nineteenth century Britain was probably the world’s greatest trading power, with a large navy to protect its massive trading fleet. British textile exports, in particular, helped to drive the growth of industry. Along with factories producing exports, British ports expanded rapidly in Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Bristol and elsewhere. These provided jobs and drove the expansion of railways bringing goods to port. Of course, each of these theories—whether focused on global or on local causes of industrialization—has its critics. As often happens in debates like this, the answer is a combination of these factors. But they help us to see that viewing a major historical event at only one scale can lead us to false conclusions. Looking at it from two or more scales can help us to develop a more complex, and likely more accurate, understanding of what really happened. 5 The Industrial Revolution By Cynthia Stokes-Brown (for BHP) Abundant fossil fuels like coal led to innovative machines, like engines. These inventions launched an era of accelerated change that continues to transform human society. 1220L The Industrial Revolution Cynthia Stokes-Brown The transformation of the world Try to imagine your life without any machines working for you. Make a list of the machines in your house. You might be surprised how many there are. Now imagine young people who grew up before machines. How did they move from place to place? How did they communicate? What foods did they eat? At one time, human communities provided most of their own energy. They ate plants and animals to fuel their bodies, burned wood for warmth and cooking, and used domestic animals for help with chores. Windmills and waterwheels captured some extra energy, but little could be saved. All life depended on the energy the Sun sent to the Earth. However, in the 1700s, everything started to change with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Now, people found an extra source of energy that could work for them. That source was fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas. These fuels had been forming from the remains of plants and animals from much earlier geologic times. When they were burned, they released energy, originally from the Sun, that had been stored underground for hundreds of millions of years. Take coal, for example. This useful fuel was formed when huge trees from the Carboniferous period (345 to 280 million years ago) fell and were covered with water, so that oxygen and bacteria could not decay them. As other materials covered them over time, they were compressed into dark, carbonic, burnable rock. Oil and gas were made from a similar recipe, formed over 100 million years ago from tiny animal skeletons and plant matter that fell to the bottom of seas or were buried in sediment. The weight of water and soil compressed this organic matter until it turned into the oil and gas that we now use for energy. While coal, oil, and gas are relatively common on Earth, they are not evenly distributed. Some places have much more than others because of the diverse ecosystems that existed long ago. This uneven distribution of suddenly valuable resources, essential for industrialization, led to inequalities around the world that are still felt today. Early steam engines The story of the Industrial Revolution begins on the small island of Great Britain. By the early eighteenth century, people there had cut down most of their trees either to build houses and ships or to burn for heating and cooking. So now they needed something else to burn. They knew those hunks of black stone near the surface of the Earth were flammable, so they dug deeper to see how much there was. These coal mines were not an instant success. They were so deep in the Earth that they would fill with water as you were digging. Miners tried using horses to pull up buckets of water, but that was too slow. In 1712, Englishman Thomas Newcomen created a coal-powered steam engine capable of pumping water from the mines. More than fifty years later, James Watt, a Scottish instrument maker, designed a better version. This steam engine— which would have a long career powering trains, ships and other things—was first used to efficiently pump water out of coal mines. After his patent ran out in 1800, others further improved on his engine. By 1900, engines burned 10 times more efficiently than they had a hundred years before. Engraving of Boulton and Watt’s steam At the beginning of the nineteenth century, British colonies in North engine, 1781, from Robert Henry Thurston’s A America were producing lots of cotton. Machines, which were usually History of the Growth of the Steam Engine. powered by hardworking people in their homes but also by waterwheels New York: D. Appleton, 1878, p. 104. By and windmills situated near rivers, were used to spin the cotton thread Robert Henry Thurston, public domain. 2 The Industrial Revolution Cynthia Stokes-Brown on spindles (rods) and to weave it into cloth on looms. Attaching a steam engine to these machines was like trading a bicycle for a jumbo jet. The work went much, much faster. One steam engine could power many spindles and looms. But you can’t park a jumbo jet in a bike rack. Now people had to leave their homes for work because the steam engines were so large and expensive. As a result, textile work shifted from a primarily home-based occupation to factories. Early in the nineteenth century, the British also invented steam locomotives and steamships, which revolutionized travel. In 1851, they held the first world’s fair where they exhibited telegraphs, sewing machines, revolvers, reaping machines, and steam hammers to demonstrate that they were the world’s leading manufacturer of machinery. By this time, the characteristics of industrial society—smoke rising from factories, bigger cities and denser populations, railroads—loomed large in many parts of Britain. Why Britain? Britain wasn’t the only place that had deposits of coal. So why didn’t the Industrial Revolution begin somewhere else that had coal, like China? Did it start in isolation in Britain, or were there global forces at work that shaped it? Did geography or cultural institutions matter more? Historians have vigorously investigated these questions. Possible reasons why industrialization began in Britain include: Shortage of wood and an abundance of convenient coal deposits Britain had “wet coal”—mines flooded and they had to devise a way to get the water out of the mines, which led to the invention of the steam engine Elites who were interested in business, A capitalist economic system, with very little government involvement; a monarch who had limited powers Government support for business projects and a strong navy to protect ships Cheap cotton produced by Africans enslaved in North America Profits from the transatlantic slave trade provided Britain with capital to invest in industrialization Possible reasons why industrialization did not begin in China include: Location of China’s coal—the north—while most economic activity was centered in the south China had “dry coal” that was deeper in the ground than Britain’s “wet coal” A large, rapidly growing population, allowing for human labor instead of machines Confucian ideals that valued stability and discouraged experimentation and change Lack of Chinese government support for sea explorations, thinking its empire seemed large enough to provide everything it needed China’s focus on defending itself from nomadic attacks from the north and west Global forces influencing the development of industrialization in Britain include: Britain’s location on the Atlantic Ocean British colonies in North America, which provided land, labor, and markets Silver from the Americas, used in trade with China Social and ideological conditions in Britain, and new thoughts about the economy, that encouraged an entrepreneurial spirit 3 The Industrial Revolution Cynthia Stokes-Brown Of course, that burnable rock we call coal wasn’t the only fossil fuel mentioned earlier. What roles did oil and natural gas play while coal was powering the Industrial Revolution? They had been discovered long before and were already in use, but mostly just for lamps and other light sources. It wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century with the invention of the internal combustion engine that oil caught up—and surpassed—coal in use. And if you’ve ever been in a car that’s not electric, you’ve used a combustion engine for transportation. The spread of the Industrial Revolution Britain wanted to keep secret how its machines were made. But visitors soon learned about them and took the techniques back home. Sometimes they smuggled machines out in rowboats while others memorized factory and machine plans. The first countries after Britain to develop factories and railroads were Belgium, Switzerland, France, and the states that became Germany, all between the 1830s and 1850s. Building a national railroad system was an essential part of industrialization, as trains could transport raw materials and coal to factories at an accelerated rate. Children working in a mill in Macon, Georgia, 1909. By Lewis Hine, public domain. Industrialization came to the United States in 1789. That was the year Samuel Slater left Britain for Rhode Island, where he set up the first textile factory on U.S. soil. He couldn’t bring any notes or plans from Britain, so he had to set up the factory from memory. Once factories were built, railroad construction in America boomed from the 1830s to 1870s. The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the first truly industrial war in that factories mass-produced supplies and weapons for the war effort, troops were transported by rail, and the telegraph was used to send remarkably fast communications. The increasingly urbanized and factory-based North was fighting against the 4 The Industrial Revolution Cynthia Stokes-Brown agriculture-based South. After the war, industrialization grew explosively and by 1900, the United States had overtaken Britain in manufacturing, producing 24 percent of the world’s output. Four decades before that, both Russia and Japan gave up their feudal systems to compete in the industrializing world. In Japan, the monarchy was flexible enough to survive early industrialization. But in Russia, a rural country, the czar and nobles tried to industrialize the country while keeping a grip on their dominance. You’ll read more about industrialization in other regions of the world later in this era and in Era 7. Consequences of the Industrial Revolution As industrialization took off in Europe and the Americas, nations began to use their strong armies and navies to colonize many parts of the world that were not industrialized. The industrialized nations then began exploiting colonies for their natural resources, labor, and potential new markets. This would lead to the age of imperialism. The negative consequences of these activities would be felt for generations. These topics will be covered extensively in the remaining lessons of Era 6. The effects of industrialization on global population are staggering. In 1700, before fossil fuels were in use, the world’s population was 670 million. By 2011, it was 6.7 billion, a tenfold increase in only 300 years. In the twentieth century alone, the world’s economy grew fourteenfold, per capita income grew almost fourfold, and the use of energy expanded at least thirteenfold. In addition, from 1900 to 2000, urban population growth increased substantially, as more people left rural areas for cities. This kind of growth has never before occurred in human history. Region 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 World 5% 5% 7% 16% 47% Western Europe 12% 13% 21% 41% 75% North America 1% 2% 7% 38.5% 79% Africa.5% 1.25% 3% 8.5% 39% China 7% 6% 6% 7% 37% Table 1: Percentage of urban population growth, 1600 to 2000 CE Source: Population data adapted from Goldewijk, K.K., A. Beusen, and P. Janssen. “Long-term dynamic modeling of global population and built-up area in a spatially explicit way: HYDE 3.1.” The Holocene 20, no. 4 (2010): 568. Many people around the world today enjoy the benefits of industrialization. With extra energy flowing through the system, many of us do much less physical labor than earlier generations. Child mortality rates have decreased, as more people are able to feed their children and get medical care. Life expectancy has increased, with the largest gains having occurred after the 1850s. Many people vote and participate in modern states, and these states provide education, social security, and health benefits. Large numbers of people enjoy levels of wealth, health, education, travel, and life expectancy unimagined before industrialization. The benefits of industrialization, however, have come at great cost. For one thing, the rate of change (acceleration) is now so rapid that individuals and social systems struggle to keep up. In addition, the natural resources that industrialization depends on are being undermined. Humans continue to use fossil fuels at rates that exceed the time it takes for these resources to replenish. The burning of these fuels also leads to environmental impacts that will continue to impact the Earth for generations to come. 5 The Global Transformations of the Industrial Revolution By Bennett Sherry The Industrial Revolution transformed life in Britain. But the transformation of the British economy had consequences for people in every corner of the world. 1100L The Global Transformations of the Industrial Revolution Bennett Sherry Industrial Connections Though the Industrial Revolution started in Britain’s factories, its innovations were entangled globally. We often think of coal, steam engines, cheap cotton clothes, steel, and agricultural advances as the seeds that grew into the Industrial Revolution. But they were less like separately grown seeds and more like nuts, bolts, and wires. Together, they created connections and links that enabled this massive change in how humans work and live. How did these entanglements shape the lives of people in Britain, and how did these changes ripple around the world? We’ll start by examining how industrial production changed British economics, labor, and culture. Then, we’ll go global and examine how three industrial commodities changed communities, production, and trade all over the world. It’s important to realize that different people in different places experienced the changes of the Industrial Revolution in different ways. Some wealthy and middle-class people in northwestern Europe really benefited, enjoying new wealth and opportunity. For people in Europe’s colonies, industrialization brought new and painful exploitation, as European imperialists sought to maximize profits. And for the working poor in industrialized countries like Britain, it was a pretty mixed bag. Working conditions and life expectancy dropped for most people moving to cities in the nineteenth century. The skyline of Manchester, England. By the nineteenth century, Manchester had become the heart of British textile manufacturing. The factories of industrialization transformed the skyline. Manchester from Kersal Moor, by William Wyld, 1852, public domain. Britain’s “dark Satanic Mills” We can thank the Industrial Revolution for all shiny new tech, and for cotton underwear, which beats scratchy wool. We can get fresh fruit in winter almost anywhere on Earth. Fun, right? But for the people living through it—especially poor workers—the Industrial Revolution was degrading and dehumanizing. The millions of working poor who migrated to cities found a dismal life of exploitation as wage laborers. The poet William Blake famously 2 The Global Transformations of the Industrial Revolution Bennett Sherry referred to the factories of Britain’s Industrial Revolution as “these dark Satanic Mills.” He was not alone in expressing horror at industrialization. Friedrich Engels, the son of a German businessman, visited England as a young man. What he saw inspired him to write The Condition of the Working Class in England. He concluded that English workers were not treated as human beings. “They were merely toiling machines in the service of the few aristocrats who had guided history down to that time.” In other words, though the Industrial Revolution improved conditions for the middle class, it mostly enriched a few at the expense of the many. Magnolia Cotton Mills spinning room, 1911. Public domain. But Engels’s analysis wasn’t just about economics. The Industrial Revolution destroyed communities and culture. The patterns of rural life were shattered by so many people moving to cities to work in factories. Extended family communities in villages ensured stability. Community and family support provided a safety net. But as rural farmers became urban wage laborers, extended family communities were replaced by nuclear families—often with a single parent (usually the mother). Without the stability of extended family networks, urban families lacked support in times of crisis, meaning poverty and homelessness for many. The disintegration of family networks and the rise of factories endangered children and unmarried women. Early nineteenth-century England had over a million child laborers, many of whom made their way from orphanages to workhouses. Historian Jane Humphries estimates that up to 15 percent of England’s industrial workforce were children. Some children were forced to work for no money in exchange for food and a bed. 3 The Global Transformations of the Industrial Revolution Bennett Sherry Women’s lives changed as industrialization moved production out of the home. In rural England, women spun textiles for use at home and for sale at market. Women also worked in agriculture and domestic service. The Industrial Revolution didn’t really change the work women did, just where they did it. One of the few opportunities for women to improve their financial status was to work in factories, often in textile production. Married women often left the workforce, either because their husbands demanded it or because they had few prospects of rewarding work outside factories. Social mobility Despite its new burdens, the Industrial Revolution opened up new horizons for new people. Factory life was brutal, but people had their reasons for abandoning their farms and moving to the city. For some people, urban wage labor provided a chance at social mobility and financial freedom. The Industrial Revolution made some social progress precisely because of the misery it produced. Britain became the wealthiest nation on Earth. Soon, British workers, politicians, and writers started looking around and wondering why—in the world’s richest country—so A child laborer in a textile mill, New England, 1910. Image by many people lived and worked in such poor conditions. Lewis W. Hine via the Metropolitan Museum of New York. These were the seeds of the reform movements Processed and colorized by Kelly Short. Public domain. that pushed children out of factories and into public education. Reformers fought for a minimum wage, safe working conditions, and an eight-hour work day, among other causes. However, these reforms often did not spread to the colonized world, where Britain was putting lots of people to work extracting raw materials. Industrialized sugar comes home Production and profit in one part of the world relied on extraction and exploitation in another. To understand this, let’s consider the impact of the Industrial Revolution on three global commodities: sugar, wheat, and copper. You’ve read about how Europeans brought sugarcane to the Caribbean from Southeast Asia. They forced enslaved people to harvest and refine that sugar. The world got addicted to the sweet stuff and demanded more. Then, at the start of the nineteenth century, the British government outlawed the slave trade, and enforced that law with gunboats roaming the Atlantic on the lookout for slavers. This meant that sugar plantations—which relied on forced labor—became less profitable. In response, European colonizers and financiers took their business to Southeast Asia, where sugar got its start. The Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia) were especially productive. The Dutch forced colonized peoples to turn farms toward sugar production. The Dutch built sugar factories on an industrial scale. Farmers became wage laborers, and farms became sugar factories. 4 The Global Transformations of the Industrial Revolution Bennett Sherry Forcing people in the Indian Ocean to grow sugar didn’t just hurt those people; it also devastated Caribbean societies that relied on sugar. Enslaved people in some Caribbean islands may have been freed, but they still needed cash crops like sugar to sell on the global market. The rise of industrial sugar production in the Indian Ocean drove prices down and devastated Caribbean economies. Wheat-fueled industrialization Historian Thomas Finger argues that wheat—as much as coal—powered England’s factories. Coal fed the machines, but wheat fed the workers. Global wheat production was revolutionized in the nineteenth century to feed English wage laborers. In the early nineteenth century, bread prices soared. This created unrest in Britain’s cities, where a bunch of working-class people now lived and depended on cheap bread. If they wanted to keep factories open, the British needed cheap bread. Their efforts to import more wheat transformed wheat-producing regions around the world, particularly in Russia, Argentina, and California. The Port of Odessa, Russia, 1890. From the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division. Public domain. British capitalists funded railroads in southern Russia near the Black Sea. This made it easier to get Russian wheat to British ships in the port of Odessa. British demand for cheap wheat transformed this part of Russia into one of the world’s major wheat producers. Russian peasant farmers were connected to English wage laborers by hundreds of miles of rail tracks. In Argentina, British financiers funded new railroads and ports, transforming subsistence farms into industrial wheat farms. In California, nearly all wheat exports made the 17,000-mile sea voyage from San Francisco to Liverpool, England. This lucrative exchange (and the British financing that came with it) changed California’s landscape. Gold miners became wheat farmers and vast stretches of inner California became wheat fields. 5 The Global Transformations of the Industrial Revolution Bennett Sherry Copper connects the world to Wales For thousands of years, humans smelted metal ore near where it was mined. The historians Chris Evans and Olivia Saunders explain that industrialization changed that. The city of Swansea, in Wales, was a center of British copper smelting. It had always gotten its copper from nearby mines. Around 1830, steamships made it possible for Swansea to import copper ore from the Caribbean, South America, Australasia, southern Africa, Algeria, the United States, and Canada. This tiny corner of Wales became the center of a global copper network that touched every continent. By the mid-nineteenth century, Swansea produced 50 percent of the world’s copper. Its copper network included enslaved Africans, Indigenous Americans, Chinese indentured laborers, British and Indian financiers, and sailors from all over the world. They were all connected to satisfy Britain’s demand for this orangish metal. Copper also connected with the wheat and sugar industries. The steam engines that moved sugar and wheat around the world relied on copper components. Copper vats were essential to sugar refining. The demand for copper transformed Swansea into a fouled landscape reeking of sulfur and choked with smoke from copper furnaces. Conclusion Each of these three industries—sugar, wheat, Bristol company copper works near Swansea, 1811. Public domain. and copper—depended on British steam engines, financial systems, and wage laborers. In each case—from British children forced to work in factories, to colonized people forced to farm sugar, to the peasant farmers of southern Russia, to the thousands of forced and free laborers who smelted copper—the global connections forged by the Industrial Revolution restructured local communities, trade networks, and the lives of workers. An old copper vat in an abandoned sugar mill in the British Virgin Islands. Public domain. 6 Meiji Restoration By Dennis RM Campbell The arrival of American warships in 1853 destabilized Japan’s political system and launched a transformation that made Japan into a major world power in less than 25 years. 1130L Meiji Restoration Dennis RM Campbell Japan before the Meiji Restoration In 1839 and 1856 Asian nations were shocked by Britain's crushing victories over China in the two Opium Wars. Industrialization—it was now pretty clear—gave massive advantages to European nations, including more money and better weapons. In Asia, China had been the dominant power and richest economy. But the British navy, using new artillery and gunboats, easily defeated China's much larger military. These wars demonstrated that European technology had far outpaced China's. Across the East China Sea, the Japanese were determined not to fall behind the Europeans the way China had. The result was the 1868 political transformation known as the Meiji Restoration. Drawing from both Western models and Japanese traditions, the Meiji Restoration allowed Japan to develop into a modern industrial nation-state that rivaled European nations in both military and economic power. By the nineteenth century, an emperor had reigned in Japan for around 1,500 years. But from 1185 to 1868, the actual emperor held very little power. It was the shogunate (government run by a shogun) that dominated Japanese politics. The shogun was a military leader who held power as a hereditary dictator. While the emperor reigned as a "god on Earth", he was really just a figurehead with some religious authority. Japan was divided into several different regions controlled by Monochrome photograph of Yoshinobu Tokugawa, the last shogun daimyo. Daimyo were feudal lords who controlled their of Japan. Public domain. lands with the aid of samurai. The samurai were an educated military class who were granted land in return for military service to a daimyo. The Tokugawa family took control of the shogunate around 1600, bringing some welcome stability after a period of unrest. The Tokugawa shogunate established strong control over local daimyo, and enforced traditional, Confucian policies. This prohibited peasants (around 80% of the population) from working any job other than farming. The Tokugawa were also extremely suspicious of European influence. In 1636, the shogun announced the Act of Seclusion, which made it illegal for Westerners to trade in Japan. (Well, the Dutch were granted a single trading outpost in Nagasaki, but they were treated with suspicion.) Though Japanese merchants could still trade in China and Korea, the Act of Seclusion effectively cut the Japanese off from Europeans. 2 Meiji Restoration Dennis RM Campbell The fall of the shogunate Japan's isolationist policies worked for over 200 years, but the Tokugawa shoguns couldn't block foreign interference forever. On July 8, 1853, four American naval ships under the command of Commodore Perry anchored in Tokyo harbor as a kind of "shall we trade or shall we fight?" message. Since the Japanese didn't have a navy, they knew they couldn't fight Perry's small squadron. Instead, they opened up negotiations with the Americans. Through Perry, US President Fillmore forced Japan to open its harbors to US trade, breaking the centuries-long prohibition against foreign trade. This opened up Japan to European ideas, but the introduction of foreign money into Japanese markets happened too quickly. It destabilized the economy. Japan had just witnessed the Opium Wars in China—an apparent outcome of doing business with the West—and were now on high alert to avoid a similar conflict. Photograph of one of Commodore Perry’s “Black Ships” that The shogun's domestic polices made matters worse and opened up Japanese markets to US trade. Originally published in tensions arose as people blamed the shogun for their the book Bakumatsu Meiji Taishō kaiko hachijūnenshi by Yonezō problems. The shogun appointed many lower-ranking Ōsawa and Tōyō Bunka Kyōkai (Tokyo: 1933-4). Public domain. samurai to official government positions. Normally this was a great promotion, but Japanese society had a rigid hierarchy that prevented these men from actually having samurai-level power. Many of these lower-ranking samurai became disillusioned. They already felt like the upper class was abusing them, and now they believed that the Tokugawa shogun was endangering Japanese sovereignty by letting in foreign influence. So they used their loyalty as a weapon. The lower-ranked samurai undermined the shogun by glorifying the emperor. Their slogan was sonnō jōi—"Revere the emperor, Expel the barbarian." These rebellious factions attacked foreigners at Japanese ports, and caused local uprisings against the shogun. The attacks alone could not end the shogunate, but they greatly weakened the shogun's position among the elites. Japanese print from 1854 showing a paddlewheel steamer belonging to Commodore Perry’s squadron. Public domain. 3 Meiji Restoration Dennis RM Campbell The Meiji Restoration Samurai leaders from southern regions began to advise the new emperor, Meiji. The emperor was only 14 at the time, and the samurai used their influence over him to politically restructure Japan. They increased pressure on Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun, stressing the shogunate's failure to protect Japanese interests. Yoshinobu stepped down, then soon rebelled against those who had replaced him, only to be even more firmly defeated. The emperor's position as the sovereign leader of Japan had been reasserted… in theory. In reality, the Japanese government was now controlled by the emperor's new samurai advisors. Japan becomes a nation-state On April 17, 1868, the emperor announced something called the Charter Oath that all would swear to him. This oath presented the emperor's commitment to transforming Japan into a modern nation-state. The five points of the oath were modelled on the ideals of European nation-states. They included the creation of assemblies, public discussion, and allowing people of all social classes participation in government. The oath also said people could pursue jobs that they wanted, rather than being limited to class-specific traditional occupations. Finally, the new government pledged to openly seek out knowledge all over the An 1861 image expressing the “jōi” or “Expel the world to improve and empower Japan. Barbarians” part of slogan sonnō jōi. Public domain. The emperor appointed many samurai to roles in government and education. But that meant these samurai now worked for the state, not for individual daimyo. Slowly, over the next two decades, the emperor and his government stripped the samurai class of many traditional privileges, like stipends (bonus payment) and the right to carry swords. Though some resisted, the samurai went from the military and political backbone of a divided country to just another privileged and wealthy class in the centralized Japanese nation-state. Military reforms So it was the Meiji Restoration that made Japan a nation-state. During the era of the shogunate, each region had its own military, controlled by samurai loyal to their daimyo. Under the Meiji emperor, these regional armies were replaced by a national army, Samurai from the Choshu clan, who supported the and all male citizens were required to serve in the military. The emperor. Public domain. new government embraced new ideas and technologies brought to Japan by Western merchants and diplomats. By adopting industrialism—specifically factories—the Japanese military could now rival European armies. 4 Meiji Restoration Dennis RM Campbell Woodblock print from 1894 showing Japanese soldiers in European-style uniforms (right) chasing retreating Chinese troops (left) during the Sino-Japanese War. Public domain. Within two decades, Japanese victories illustrated the success of these military reforms. They set their eyes on expanding into Korea, which was under Chinese control. Japan's victory in the First Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895) forced China out of Korea. However, Japanese control over the Korean peninsula was quickly challenged by European powers, like Russia. Anti-Asian biases in Europe made the Russians believe that they had nothing to fear from Japan, so Russia invaded Korea. But the Japanese military had grown since the Meiji Restoration so the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) ended in victory for Japan. This sent shockwaves through Europe and told the world that European militaries were not invincible. Over the next 15 years, Japan dominated Korea's economy as it exerted military control over the peninsula. After the Russo-Japanese war, Korea officially became part of the Japanese empire. Becoming part of the Japanese empire would benefit Korea in many ways, as Japan focused on modernizing the region, but many Koreans also suffered greatly at the hands of the Japanese. 5 Meiji Restoration Dennis RM Campbell What did the Meiji Restoration accomplish? Unlike many of the revolutions in Europe and the Americas during the long nineteenth century, the Meiji restoration was not a liberal, democratic event. The uprising was not led by oppressed masses fighting for more rights. Instead, it was the elites (okay, lower- ranking elites, but still much higher status than most of the population) who forced a change in the existing political organization of Japan. Though the new government adopted Western technologies and instituted reforms based on Western models, Japan didn't become a European-style state. Rather, the reformers used Western ideas to reconfigure and reorganize the government while still holding on to some Japanese traditions. In many ways, Japan became a model for colonized people around the world. They had learned from their enemies' strategies and beaten them at their own game. The Meiji Restoration transformed Japan. The government became centralized around the figure of the emperor, and the political system now allowed people to pursue new opportunities. Japan also underwent rapid industrialization. That meant the Japanese people experienced social changes, including better education and increased rights and opportunities. At the same time, it created new tensions as focus (and money) was concentrated on urban industrialization at the expense of rural farmers. Japan was so committed to keeping pace with Western developments, it quickly became recognized as a world power. Political cartoon about the Russo-Japanese War. A confident Japanese man is shown beating a Russian opponent at the game of dai shogi. Public domain. 6 Meiji Restoration Dennis RM Campbell Photograph by Uchida Kuichi of the Emperor Meiji (1872) in his Photograph by Uchida Kuichi of the Emperor Meiji (1873) in his formal court outfit. Public domain. military outfit. Public domain. 7 Japan’s Industrial Revolution By Trevor Getz The modernization of Japan can best be expressed in the following haiku: You threaten us with Industrialization? We can win that game 1070L Japan’s Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz In 1853, four modern American warships sailed into Tokyo Bay, Japan’s great harbor. It was a show of power. Commodore Matthew Perry hoped it would force Japan to change its trading policies and allow American imports to be sold. For the previous two centuries, the Japanese had kept their national economy mostly closed off to foreign trade. But American businesses saw Japan, with its vast population, as a great potential market for their pots, cloth, and other goods they were now rapidly producing for distribution. It may not have been an act of war, but the sudden appearance of warships was certainly a hard sell. Japanese woodblock print of Perry (center) and other high-ranking American seamen. Public domain. Did Perry’s aggressive marketing work? To get an idea of how Japan responded to this forceful display, check out this Japanese poster from 1887. It teaches the Japanese versions of “fashionable English words.” Japan in the late nineteenth century was already one of the most literate societies in the world. The fact that they were now learning English reveals how quickly—and intentionally—they prioritized international business. 2 Japan’s Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz The Tokugawa Shogunate So why now? Before 1868, for about seven centuries, Japan had been under the rule of the Tokugawa shoguns. Japan did have an emperor, but his role was purely ceremonial. Shoguns were military leaders (some would say dictators) whose job was to maintain the stability of society in a certain territory. Japan’s rigid class system during this era put peasants at the bottom, farmers and makers (artisans) above them, and then a class of soldiers called samurai above them. The samurai served regional lords, called the daimyo. Stability was important, so the lines between classes were drawn very clearly. However, people were still able to move up and down these classes. In fact, peasants had sometimes managed to become important lords! Japanese society also had a high regard for intellectual pursuits. During this time, the country had a rich intellectual and artistic life, with new art, literature, early forms of comics, and philosophy constantly emerging. Japan had far more people who could read than most of the world’s other regions at this time, so literature and poems were highly prized. However, contact with the outside world was strictly regulated. Under the Tokugawa Shoguns, Europeans were only ever legally allowed to trade at one port, Nagasaki. (That’s another reason Perry’s warships in Tokyo Bay were English-Japanese lesson sheet, a “collection of fashionable such a shocking sight.) English words”, by Kamekichi Tsunajima, 1887. By Library of Congress, public domain. But Tokugawa Japan had an economic problem. The shoguns relied on taxation from agriculture to keep the country going and to stay in power. Over time, this did not produce enough money for the government, especially since the regional daimyo lords and samurai had to be paid. The only way to keep things going was to raise taxes on the peasants, who as a result were increasingly angry. This weakened the government of Japan at a critical time. When Commodore Perry tried to force Japan to “do business,” literally at gunpoint, Japan’s leaders naturally feared a future invasion. They could also see how nearby China was being defeated and torn apart by European states that were trying to force the Chinese to buy their products (including opium!). They worried, with good reason, that something similar could happen in Japan if they did not modernize. Hoping to protect Japan from a potential European threat, they began to demand military Japanese print shows map of harbor area of Nagasaki. and industrial reforms in response. But these changes fed By Library of Congress, public domain. 3 Japan’s Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz into the unrest already bubbling up within Japan from the peasants and samurai classes. The result was a period of political chaos. Many argued against copying the Europeans and Americans, wishing to preserve Japanese culture and way of life. In the mid-1860s, a brief civil war broke out, and the reformers—the ones who wanted modernization in the style of those Western nations—won and took power. They were called the Meiji. Meiji The new government quickly tried to inspire popular support for their movement. They took control of the imperial palace and claimed they were merely restoring the Emperor to power, rather than admitting that they were really creating a brand new government. That’s why this event is often called the Meiji “Restoration” though it was more of a revolution. This government—not afraid to use propaganda—sponsored new forms of national art and literature that praised the new government, the emperor, and modernization. With the goal of modernizing, they quickly studied European and U.S. political structures. But their innovations weren’t a total imitation. Japan’s leaders developed a new form of government that mixed Western industrial styles with their own traditions and needs. They built even more schools and changed the curriculum to train people to work in and run factories. They re-organized the army and trained it with new weapons. Woodblock print depicting “A Glance at the Distinguished Figures of the Meiji Period,“ 1877. By Yamazaki Toshinobu, public domain. As Meiji Japan rapidly industrialized and modernized, its rulers looked at the United States and Europe as dangerous competitors. The West’s increasing interference in nearby China and elsewhere had Japan on high alert. Some Meiji leaders argued that only by industrializing could Japan protect itself. This idea is often called “defensive modernization.” 4 Japan’s Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz Unfortunately, Japanese industry was at a disadvantage. The island country lacked many raw materials, including that very important burnable rock called coal. The goods they were able to produce faced significant tariffs— import taxes—from already industrialized countries. Determined to increase industry as rapidly as possible, Japan took actions more drastic than anything that had been seen in Europe or the United States. They actively brought business leaders into government. They poured tax money into industrialization. They sought new markets for their goods, and resources to make the goods. Like industrialized societies elsewhere, they created some markets by forcibly taking colonies. Korea, with both a relatively large population (potential consumers) and lots of natural resources, was an early target. Japan continues to be an industrial power today, but because of its unique history, its industrial economy remains focused on very large companies, many of which are closely tied to the country’s government. As a result, while Japan fits into the wider model of changes to production and distribution brought in by the Industrial Revolution, its particular place within this system is unique. 5 Egypt’s Industrial Revolution By Trevor Getz During the nineteenth century, Egypt became a major producer of cotton and embarked on a process of building an industrialized economy. However, ultimately Egypt’s industrialization failed, for reasons that are still debated. 1090L Egypt’s Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz In the early nineteenth century, Egypt connected two vast, overlapping regions. One was the enormous empire of the Ottoman Sultans. The other was the even larger African continent. Both were immense zones of trade and interaction. But both were also struggling to find their place in a world that was industrializing faster than anyone expected. The Ottoman Empire in 1829. By Esemono, public domain. For centuries, the Ottoman Empire had been at the center of Eurasian trade that flowed between east and west. It had also been a major center of manufacturing. Workshops in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and other parts of the empire produced handmade goods that were frequently in great demand in Europe and Africa, in particular. But the industrialization of Europe meant that cheaper, machine-made goods soon flooded into the Ottoman Empire. These goods also went to regions that had once purchased Ottoman goods. The result of this sudden competition was increasing unemployment and de-industrialization. Production in much of Africa, meanwhile, had fallen after centuries of the Atlantic slave trade. Africa was increasingly seen as a place that provided resources and raw materials to European factories, not a place that could have factories of its own. But Egypt was an African country that was technically still part of the Ottoman Empire. So in the early nineteenth century, when a new Egyptian ruler wanted to rapidly industrialize, he had to carefully figure out how to work with the Ottoman sultans and the big European powers. And, of course, he couldn’t ignore the Egyptian people either. Muhammad Ali and Egypt’s industrial expansion This ruler, Muhammad Ali, was appointed to control Ottoman forces in Egypt at a pretty rough time. Egypt had recently suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the French army of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798. With British help, the Ottoman forces eventually drove the French out of Egypt. Following this, Ali managed to bring about Egyptian independence from the Ottoman Empire in everything but name. Ali put in motion a campaign of modernization, beginning with his military. He required Egyptian peasants to enlist, hired European advisers, and bought modern weapons. By 1831, he was effectively an independent ruler of a stronger, more modern Egypt. 2 Egypt’s Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz This painting, by a European artist, shows Muhammad Ali in traditional Ottoman clothing, doing business involving modern sailing vessels. It is true to his reputation as a reformer and modernizer who still valued his country’s own culture and traditions. By Farouk Misr, public domain. Egypt’s rural elite had ideas of their own. Ali skillfully kept them happy by restoring many Egyptian traditions and also encouraged a sense of a shared Egyptian identity across society. But he also introduced many changes in order to modernize Egypt’s economy. Egypt was already a small-scale producer of cotton, which was sold to Britain, where British factories would turn it into cloth. Ali encouraged even more cotton production in Egypt. This changed life for most Egyptian peasants. They were used to working much of the year to grow food, but always got to rest in winter. After the 1810s, men, women and children still labored to grow food in summer and fall, and then in winter they were forced into cotton production. Using the money from this cotton production, Ali’s government then began to sponsor factories so that Egypt could profit from its own industrialization. These factories processed cotton into clothing—beginning with the uniforms for the new military—but also produced foods and some other goods. By the late 1840s, it looked like Egypt would eventually become an industrial power. However, the Egyptian economy slowly declined in the second half of the nineteenth century. The factories stopped producing, and by the 1880s, Egypt was deep in debt to Britain. So in debt, actually, that British banks and “advisers” were calling the shots. Though Egypt remained technically independent, the reality was that now it functioned more like a British colony than a sovereign state. 3 Egypt’s Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz What went wrong? Three explanations… One explanation for the collapse of the Egyptian economy was a failure of leadership. Muhammad Ali was succeeded by members of his family, but some scholars argue they were not very effective rulers. Their focus on cotton production at the expense of other crops meant that Egypt had to rely on a single export. They lived lives of great pomp and luxury, spending extravagantly while borrowing money from European banks. These banks used this debt to influence Egypt’s leaders, and eventually came to dictate much of Egypt’s policy. A second explanation for Egypt’s failure was environmental. They didn’t have the coal resources Britain and Europe had, so Egyptian factories ran on animal power. Donkeys, or other strong creatures, had to be harnessed to mechanisms that turned the mills and other machines that automated the work. This system was more expensive and less efficient than burning coal. A third explanation was that Egyptian industry was purposefully driven into the ground by countries that also made cloth and didn’t want the competition. Most of the big industrial countries, like Britain and France, had put tariffs (import taxes) on imported cloth in order to help their own industries. This meant Egypt could not sell to them at a competitive price. But these countries had also forbidden the Ottoman Empire, and hence Egypt, from putting tariffs on European goods. Egyptian factories just could not match their low prices. Reform and tradition In this difficult economic climate, the Egyptian people had a problem similar to what many nations faced during industrialization. Some looked for solutions in modernizing, or becoming more like Europeans, while others wanted to return to their Islamic roots. Some Egyptians believed Western-inspired reforms could still function within an Islamic framework, as a kind of middle ground. One scholar, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, argued that Islam could be modernized and mixed with democracy. He was joined by Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, an intellectual born to a family of Muslim scholars. Al-Jabarti studied the French when they invaded and wrote about French ideas that were worth adopting, and others that he thought should be rejected. Still another was Rifa’a al-Tahtawi. A young religious leader, or imam, al-Tahtawi traveled to France to study military and scientific technology in order to start a new university in Cairo. He studied geometry, physics and math. Upon his return, he argued these ideas were entirely compatible with Islam. But he criticized French scholars for being too secular, or non- religious, and argued that religion was necessary for the proper and thoughtful use of science. Meanwhile, Europeans kept meddling in Egypt. One reason was the Suez Canal, built between 1859 and 1869. Because it connected the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea’s Gulf of Suez, the canal was an extremely valuable shortcut for European powers to access their Rifa’a al-Tahtawi, imam and scientist. Public domain. colonial empires. They all wanted control over it. 4 Egypt’s Industrial Revolution Trevor Getz Artist’s impression of the Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea (and then the Indian Ocean). By Artmod, public domain. Egypt’s leaders could not agree on how to deal with the challenge of European intervention. They were already stressed from the industrial collapse that left their country bankrupt. Eventually, in 1875, the king sold his shares in the Suez Canal Company to the British, giving them control of this important national resource. A group of Egyptian military officers were not pleased. Led by Colonel Ahmad Urabi, they took control of Egypt’s government in 1881, as a new nationalist leadership. But the powerful British took advantage of this turmoil and instability and seized the country. They restored the king, but only as a puppet ruler they could control. Thus, Egypt’s industrialization and actual independence had both been ended by 1882. Egypt did not become an industrialized nation-state until much, much later–and on worse terms–than Muhammad Ali had planned. 5 Imperialism and De-Industrialization in India By Whitney Howarth How did India go from producing clothing, to producing cotton? Doing business with Britain seemed like a good idea at the time, but one country’s industrial advances can have the reverse effect on another. 1160L Imperialism and De-Industrialization in India Whitney Howarth Before 1750, much of the world went shopping for textiles (cloth) in India. Some historians believe that India was the most important manufacturer in world trade, producing about 25 percent of the world’s industrial output at that time. After 1750, this changed dramatically, and by the mid-nineteenth century, most textile production had shifted to Britain. A key part of that story is the de-industrialization of India. India’s strong economy was based on the exports of the cotton textiles manufactured there. It was devastated by European industrialization and the commercial changes this inspired. India’s impressive textile output had relied on hand-loom technology, but that part of the process was now done by machines in Britain 4,500 miles away. British industrialists were also careful not to let the new technology get into the hands of competitors in India. As a result, the Indian economy collapsed. Millions of laborers lost their jobs and had to work in cash-crop agriculture—specifically, raw cotton—to survive. So A fine cotton morning coat, produced in India for sale to a wealthy French aristocrat. Before de-industrialization, India produced instead of exporting cloth (a manufactured good) India much of the finest finished textiles in the world. Cleveland Museum became an exporter of cotton (a raw material). This of Art. Public domain. process, which took a hundred years, is what we mean when we say “de-industrialization.” It meant a lot of the profit for turning the cotton into the cloth now went to Britain instead of to India… where the cotton was. Let’s explore this process in greater detail. Shifting global patterns of production By the mid-eighteenth century, more and more English merchants were arriving on the shores of India demanding raw cotton instead of textiles. They shipped it back to English mills where machines spun it into yarn and threads to mass produce textiles. The result? Tons of inexpensive factory-made textiles flooded the markets in England, Europe and India. Sellers of handmade fabrics in Indian markets could not compete with the lower priced English cloth that was suddenly so abundant. Indian weavers and those who sold their products were put out of work. This shift in production negatively impacted India’s long-term industrial development. De-industrialization resulted in wide-spread famines, mass migrations (as weavers sought new jobs) and the de-stabilization of markets throughout the region. Hundreds of thousands of displaced, now jobless textile laborers were evicted from their lands or unable to eat as wages declined, taxes increased, and the cost of rice and other foods rose. The decline of the Mughal Empire Let’s look at some of the political history behind this change in production and distribution. One reason for India’s early domination of global textile manufacturing and trade had been its stability as a community. Before the eighteenth century, the Mughal Empire had created a vast and safe infrastructure that supported a strong export trade system of cotton cloth. Indian silks, jute1 and Kashmir cloths were used or worn in lands as far as Persia and 1 Jute is a rough fiber used for making rope, and can be woven into sacks and matts. 2 Imperialism and De-Industrialization in India Whitney Howarth China. Mughal society also prized full employment, and the hand-made cloth industry kept many people employed. Additionally, the Mughal state provided safe ports for international business. It encouraged private traders to expand trade networks. The state worked through a complex political alliance system to collect taxes. These taxes were used to develop military and public works. They built safer roads, bridges, water systems, and port cities. Trade expanded and the region’s economy was strong. However, this long period of prosperity ended by the mid-eighteenth century. The centralized authority of the Mughal Empire slowly lost its grip as rival leaders and European merchants gained more control of the region. As the Mughal state declined, increasingly independent merchants and leaders in each region of India began forging new commercial alliances. They did business with Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English trade companies and merchants. Some Europeans arrived as independent merchants employed by private joint stock trading companies. The English East India Company (E.I.C.), established in 1600, was one of them. Others came as representatives of foreign governments to trade on behalf of monarchs. In either case, local governors and princes did not think their commercial contracts with Europeans were political. Nor did they consider their partnerships with European agents any threat to their power or to the authority of Mughal state. Similarly, wealthy Bengali bankers were willing to extend a credit line to Englishmen in service of the English East India Company. Through these merchants and bankers, lots of money was now flowing around the local economy. Much of it was in the form of silver and gold originally from the Americas. But this cash wasn’t staying in India. It was going to foreign companies who were buying cash crops like cotton in India, but then turning them into finished products in Europe. Some of it was also being used to pay foreign mercenaries. That included the troops of the East India Company, who fought the wars that happened as the Mughal Empire was breaking up. It was kind of like a deer, annoyed by ticks, hiring a lion to pick them off. From merchants to colonizers Let’s talk about those hired troops. Little did the Mughal state realize that by granting trade companies, like the E.I.C., the rights to trade, they were also inviting more European political involvement. European merchants traveled with the troops they employed to protect their goods. These armies grew even bigger than many national armies back home. The merchants also recruited local soldiers, called sepoys. As more European troops were stationed in port cities along the coast of India, it was obvious that their military strength could become a commercial advantage. Europeans became more involved in local politics and in local military rivalries in order to gain greater access to the goods and land they wanted. Because they had so many troops, the East India Company secured a treaty with the Mughals to appoint men to political offices, control native military forces, and collect taxes in the province of Bengal. This gave them direct authority to control agricultural lands and the crops grown on them in this province. Soon, they An East India Company officer around 1750, by Indian artist Dip expanded their control to other provinces. Slowly but Chand. Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Public domain. 3 Imperialism and De-Industrialization in India Whitney Howarth surely, parts of India were absorbed into the British Empire, one piece at a time. By rejecting older indigenous traditions about how land was owned and used, and re-organizing the tax system, the British government created conditions that helped their commercial goals, but hurt the Indian people. Small rice farmers who could not pay their taxes were evicted and larger plantations were created where more cotton could be grown to feed the textile mills of England. Convincing the Indians that they had to wear British factory-made pants, vests and bowler hats in order to be truly “civilized” also insured greater commercial profits. The shift in political control was now paving the way for de-industrialization. The Swaraj Flag, officially adopted by the Indian National Congress in 1931. Public domain. The results As cotton fields replaced rice fields, the cost of food rose. A series of crippling famines hit India in 1769, 1783, and 1791, which resulted in about 30 million deaths. Famines are usually linked to environmental factors like drought, but most historians agree it wasn’t just that. Indians had less access to food because of the dramatic shifts in the economy. The East India Company had focused on profitable cotton more than on food. This further weakened the region, and paved the way for formal British colonial rule. Later, in the twentieth century, when Indian nationalists organized a campaign against British rule, they saw this period of de-industrialization in the eighteenth century as the beginning of their own conquest. Educated people in India identified the economic practices of the British Empire as extractive and exploitive. They saw their hope for greater political independence linked to greater economic self-reliance, a concept they called swadeshi. Nationalists framed this struggle symbolically to inspire people from all backgrounds to participate in mass protests. Many students and laborers took action, first in Bengal and then elsewhere. They heaped British factory-made pants, vests, coats and bowler hats into piles in the streets and burned them. Non-violent freedom fighters like Gandhi encouraged Indians to wear home-spun cloth (khadi) in traditional styles. No more mimicking Westerners and their fashions. Gandhi even promoted the use of spinning wheels in every home, by men and women alike. In 1931, the first flag adopted by the Indian National Congress featured a spinning wheel in celebration of India’s proud industrial past. 4