524 Ch. 14 • The Industrial Revolution

A Variety of National Industrial Experiences

During the first half of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution

affected Western Europe more than the countries in southern or eastern

Europe. Furthermore, within states some regions underwent significant

shifts toward a manufacturing economy: Catalonia, but not Castile in Spain;

the Ruhr and Rhineland in the German states, but not East Prussia; Pied­

mont and Lombardy in northern Italy, but not southern Italy and Sicily (see

Map 14.3).

Some regions that developed modern industries had the advantage of

building on long-standing economic bases (see Table 14.2). This was true in

Belgium, newly independent since 1831, which emerged with continental

Europe’s greatest concentration of mechanized production and factories.

While Belgium’s northern neighbor, the once-great trading power of the

Netherlands, continued its relative economic decline, Belgium seemed to

offer a blueprint for rapid industrial development. Like the Netherlands, it

was densely populated and urbanized, which provided demand for manufac­

tured goods and labor. Flanders had for centuries been a center of trade and

the production of fine textiles. Belgian manufacturing boomed. Blessed with

rich coal deposits, Belgium’s railroad construction advanced rapidly, facili­

tating the transport of goods from Belgian ports to Central Europe.

Table 14.2. Manufacturing Capacity throughout Europe (thousands

OF HORSEPOWER OF STEAM POWER)

Country 1800 1850

Great Britain^620 1,290

The German states 40 260

France^90270

Austria 20 100

Belgium^4070

Russia 20 70

Italy^1020

Spain^1020

The Netherlands — 10

Europe^860 2,240

Source: Carlo M. Cipolla, ed. The Fontana Economic History of Europe: Vol. 4(1), The Emer­

gence of Industrial Societies (London, 1973), p. 165.

In the Vanguard: Britain s Era of Mechanization

Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in England? Britain was well on the

way to becoming the “workshop of the world” in the second half of the eigh­

teenth century. Capital-intensive commercialized farming began to trans­