Industrial and Colonial Expansion: Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries
The Big Push of Transport and Communications
The expansion of rail and waterways was accompanied by the appearance of the tram, subway, bicycle, automobile, and aviation.
Railway and Navigation
Steel made it possible to increase the capacity of the cars, speed, and security and lower prices. National markets were unified. Steam navigation, from 1865, was imposed by the use of iron for the construction of the hulls and the invention of the propeller, which decreased costs and increased capacity. The Suez and Panama canals shortened distances, and refrigeration revolutionized the transport of perishable goods.
Auto and Aviation
The car is the result of the invention of the gasoline internal combustion engine and the tire. Henry Ford produced the Model T Ford assembly line in a cheaper way and it was imposed after 1945. Aviation was the Wright brothers’ invention but did not develop until the First World War.
- Other Means of Transportation: The metro and tram revolutionized interior transport and the appearance of cities, and the bicycle was also invented.
- Communications: The telephone and wireless telegraphy allowed transmission.
The New Industrial Powers
In 1913, Britain was surpassed by the U.S., and Germany exceeded Britain in the steel, chemical, and electrical industries, but Britain remained the world financial center, and sterling was the currency of international exchange.
Germany
In 1910, Germany became the second world power, and in 1913, the second commercial power due to the development of transportation, the application of new techniques and scientific organization of production, the high degree of industry concentration and financial formation of cartels, and protectionism by the German government.
United States
The U.S. became the world’s leading industrial power in the late nineteenth century by the conjunction of several factors: a huge, unique, and rapidly growing market; abundant resources; an extensive railway network; regional specialization due to the geographical division of labor; and the early incorporation of technical innovations into the American manufacturing system based on mass production and standardization. The modern large industrial corporation in America was born and took the form of a trust in steel (U.S. Steel), petroleum (Standard Oil), electricity (General Electric and Westinghouse), and automotive (Ford Motor Company). The government had to make laws to protect competition.
Meiji Japan
In 1868, Emperor Mutsuhito opened the Meiji era, deposing the last Tokugawa Shogun and making major reforms to adapt to Western models of industrialization. The state monopolized the business between 1868 and 1880, creating public and private companies and subsidizing imported technology and foreign expertise. It also created compulsory primary education, and in 1900, universal literacy was achieved. It also modernized the financial network. Since 1882, it allowed financial and industrial concentration in the hands of big capitalists. Thanks to the cheap labor and high production rates, Japan became a major industrial power that needed a foreign market to sell its products, which led to imperialism.
Forms of Colonial Domination
Political, social, and cultural control and subjugation of colonized peoples began being conducted by operating companies, but soon the state took over. There were a variety of control systems; the most common were colonies, dominions, protectorates, and concessions.
- Settlements: Territories where the indigenous population was entirely subject to the metropolis and had European government and administration (predominant in Africa and Asia). The supreme power was held by the governor, appointed by the metropolis. The settler colonies were those in which a European population settled, imposing its language and institutions (Algeria).
- Dominions: Specific to the British Empire, these were colonies of settlement with a system of self-government with the Governor’s powers limited by a parliament elected by the colonists. They had complete autonomy in domestic policy, and everything else depended on the mother country (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa).
- Protectorates: Territories where there was already a sovereign state. The metropolis respected the sovereign government but led Indian foreign policy, military control, and economic exploitation.
- Concessions: Parcels of land temporarily transferred from a sovereign state to a colonial power for its economic exploitation, without officers and without military occupation.