How The Industrial Revolution Led To The Changing Of The Guard In 19Th And 20Th Century Europe

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How the Industrial Revolution Led to the Changing of the Guard in 19th and 20th Century Europe

Aaron Fisk
Dr. Georgiadis
November 15, 2008

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During the 1700’s Spain, France, Great Britain, and the Dutch Netherlands controlled Europe. These countries had taken to heart the idea of imperialism, which had been about for thousands of years. Each country was scrambling to become self sufficient, so that they would not need to rely on neighboring countries to lend them materials, raw or finished. The idea behind self-sufficiency is that once an empire, country, or state, should be able to produce everything it needs to survive it will no longer depend on others for loans of any sort and cannot go into debt. The economic theory supporting self-sufficiency is mercantilism. Mercantilist thought states that, “specie (gold and silver) could be acquired with a 'favorable' balance of trade, that is, through earning foreign exchange by selling exports that brought in more money than was paid out for imports” (Scott (Online)). A “favorable balance of trade” would allow for a country to keep a surplus and keep them out of dept. The countries that were almost able to achieve a level of self-sufficiency were Great Britain and Germany. Through the vast amounts of resources found in each countries domains, ability to transport and refine them, and number of bodies able to complete these tasks, Germany and Great Britain were able to climb to the top of the power ladder in 19th to 20th century Europe.
      Rulers knew that their countries would need places outside their territories to bring in supplies and materials that were not common inside their borders. This is the main reason for imperialist ways in the 16th-18th centuries.   Land was conquered in the Americas, Africa, and Asia to supply European nations with what they could not procure or produce in their own homeland.

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      The county most successful in creating an empire was Great...