1 We have Britain to thank for starting the Industrial Revolution, and all its many effects.

This is because Britain had all the necessary requirements for such a feat; a good supply of natural resources, strategic sea location and good transport network, a relatively strong bank and limited liability business practice, a market monopoly, and so many more other reasons. It also did not hurt that Britain had been one of the safest places for the Scientific Revolution to occur, and so was open to more innovation. It then eventually spread throughout the Western

Hemisphere and the United States and led to long-lasting ripples of political liberalism (originating in France) and economic liberalism (from Britain) in one way or the other throughout the world. It also led to Western domination of the world by the end of the nineteenth century. It is my impression that although the intent was to encourage economic liberalism, once situations did not work out in their favor, the more industrialized countries resorted to rearranging and monopolizing their new markets. India is a perfect example of this situation. Britain had already been its imperial power before the Industrial Revolution through the British East India Company, so it made sense that it would want to sell its finished products like cotton cloth in Indias large market. Turns out that India, not only produced it, but was also one of the largest exporters of cotton cloth in the world, and that was a problem. Britain then brought in less expensive cloth from its factories, lowered demand for Indian cloth among Indians, and led to the decline of the Indian textile industry. The now unemployed Indian workers resorted to working farms, harvesting raw materials like cotton, and Britain benefitted from that too by exporting home. Latin Americans resented the Spanish and Portuguese rule they were subjected to because powers drained them of their economic resources, and dominated their trade. Haiti was the first

1 successful rebellion towards freedom. In Mexico, January 1861, when President Benito Juarez rose to power, he realized is because the treasury was practically empty, and so decided to suspend all payments for a two year period to the foreign investors in his country; Britain, Spain and France. Spanish, British and French troops landed in Vera Cruz. Spain and Britain were there to protect their financial interests, and France had conquest in mind. The French troops fought for two years, eventually captured Mexico City in June 1863, and placed Archduke Maximilian of Austria on the Mexican throne. This takeover had been facilitated because North America had been involved in the Civil War, and so could not practice the Monroe Doctrine, but by 1865, it got involved. The effect was that it scared the French troops off, leaving Emperor Maximilian in Mexico to fend for himself. He got killed and the people of Mexico returned to liberal nationalism. Once more, we return to the economic-turned-political issue between Britain and India. The problem this time around was how to maximize revenue with the most minimal cost, and Britain decided that for that to happen, India would have to be westernized so they craved British goods even more than before. That too, turned out to be costly, and in order to fill the revenue gap, they made India grow opium, a very addictive drug, and it was sent to China for sale. Chinese officials asked Queen Victoria to stop supplying the illegal drug to its people, and when that did not work, the Chinese government set out aggressive measures to punish whoever was involved in the trade, including British subjects. Britain then used that as an excuse to start the Opium wars (1839-1842) against China. Once they won, the British got China to open up five trading ports for them, limit tariffs on imported British goods, and cover a substantial amount of the wars cost. The British also got the island of Hong Kong, and nothing changed concerning the sale of opium in Chinai. Despite their overwhelming success against China, Britain woefully lost

1 all but one of its men in the Afghan wars (1839-1842), and this, among other religious reasons inspired the Indian mutiny of 1857. This was quickly contained in the North of the country, and British reinforcements arrived quickly, and triumphed against the Indians. The British then decided to take complete control of India from the British East India Company. Politically, the period after Waterloo also led to the creation of political factions and ideologies in Europe. For examples, two groups of conservatives arose; there were the reactionary conservatives who feared the changes that nationalism and liberalism were bringing; they wanted to go back to the old system. A good representative of this group was Prince Klemens von Metternich, Austrian foreign minister, who was a leader at the Congress of Vienna, and later, the Concert of Europe. On the other hand, there were the moderate conservatives (especially in Britain), who disliked the bloodshed of the French Revolution, and wanted changes to happen slowly. Edmund Burke was a big supporter of this. As far as liberalism goes, both moderate and radical liberalists believed in the protection of civil rights, religious toleration for all, separation of Church and State, universal male suffrage, and a laissez-faire economy. On the other hand, Nationalism was simply a desire for each people to obtain their own state, bring unity to it, and then be in unity with other states. This desire threatened the existing political order and led to a few revolts; Belgium revolted against the Dutch Republic to establish a constitutional monarchy in 1815. In France, this resulted in the overthrow of the Bourbon dynasty, and the creation of a constitutional monarchy under Louis-Philippe (1830-1848). When his government did not make changes appropriate with their current economic situation, the French overthrew him, created a new constitution, and elected Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as their President. This turned out to be a bad move because four short years later; he converted

1 himself from President to Emperor, and took his reign from a presidency to an authoritarian regime. ii Another huge impact of economic liberalism was the rapid growth of populations in the cities due to job opportunities in the factories. Unfortunately, there was not enough space to accommodate this sudden influx of people; sanitary issues arose as people had no proper means of garbage disposal, a large number of people were forced to live in cramped quarters, employees wanted to maximize profit so they needed a constant supply of labor. This led to sometimes whole families working, including children as young as seven years old. The work hours were typically twelve to sixteen hours a day, six days a week, in a poorly ventilated and dangerous environment. There was no minimum wage set, so not only did factory workers have to work hard, but children received as little as one third of what an adult worker will earn in the same shift. Even though personal hygiene improved, all these things led to a lot of deaths, and the only way the work force was kept constant was through more people moving to the city. Of course, especially in the second half of the Industrial Revolution period, Britain and other countries really started reaping the rewards of their effort, but a lot had been sacrificed to get there. There were a lot of effects from the Industrial Revolution, and some of the pros and cons of liberalism have just been examined. Economic liberalism was good because it improved lives, led to many inventions, and enabled even clearer decision on how a country wanted to handle its politics. On the other hand, it also led to Western Europe dominion over the world, and especially Britain suppressing the economic and political aspects of its colonies for its own personal gain, for example in India. There was the drama between France and Haiti, and Mexico,

1 and there were a lot of revolts as countries such as Germany, Italy, Hungary, and the Hapsburgs of Prussia fought either among themselves, or their imperial controllers for political stability.

End Notes
i

William Duiker, Jackson Speilvogel, World History Volume II: Since 1500, 649 William Duiker, Jackson Speilvogel, World History Volume II: Since 1500, 739

ii