1HISTORY Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution is the single most important reason that throttled human civilization by decades. During this period, the previously agrarian and rural societies of Europe and the United States of America transitioned into an industrial and urban society. The revolution began in the Great Britain in the late 1700s and then spread to the USA. Prior to this, whatever production were done, were being carried out in household structures using simple machinery and in meager amounts (Crafts). The industrial revolution changed everything dramatically. The biggest reason that fueled industrial revolution was the advent of the great agricultural revolution of the previous century which helped the people to have enough money in their hands to purchase manufactured goods, which again increased the need to produce in large quantities. The biggest reason for industrial revolution to occur in the Great Britain was the imperialist one: since the country had almost the whole world as their colony during that time, it helped them to funnel a lot of natural resources to better equip the factories and produce in a larger scale (Crafts). The advance of the scientific inventions also helped to build the proper infrastructure. Thereareseveralfactorsthatcontributedtothefactofindustrialrevolutionnot happening in either China, India or Asia in general. Geographical advantage of Britain is the best argument for this: the country has a climate that is much more suited for a more physically intense labour force than these two countries. Moderate climate also helped Europe to be free of diseases while the other countries were distraught from tropical health problems (Bagchi). Moreover, since Britain took away a lot of the natural resources from the Asian countries made these countries fall short of the inputs they needed to help in the revolution (Bagchi). el Nino droughts
2HISTORY The el Nino droughts of the late 19thcentury destroyed the agricultural capabilities of China and India, from which the countries were never able to recover fully. The famines that were caused by this natural calamity ranged from Russia to Africa and almost every country were affected to some degree. It is a popular theory that this drought was the pivotal moment in history which created the marked distinction between the economic power of the countries and created what today is collectively named Third World Countries (Davis). Right after the droughts ravaged the lands, during the period of 1896 to 1901, the monsoons faltered again, plummeting the countries towards further troubled times. Social parameters have forever changed after these droughts and the countries that were hit never recovered. One third of Sudan’s entire populace perished. Colonialism played a major role to amplify the effects of the droughts. Even during the mid-19thcentury, the living standard of Europe was lower than that of both India and China. The imperial Britain took away most of the natural resources that were mined in these countries as well as other products and in turn forced the colonies to buy their finished products in a much cheaperamount,drivingthecountries’ownproductioninfrastructuretocrumble.Post- independence, the fight to survive led these countries to try beyond their limits to stay in competition and this destroyed their infrastructure (Davis). The problem of poverty There are more than one billion people living in the world today. The first world countries are in a much better position than the developing nations. One of the biggest reasons that contributed to this was the march of imperialism during most part of the last three centuries. The third world countries are riddled with problems that do not have any immediate solution and
3HISTORY there are scholars in every field trying to give new methods to reduce the poverty gap among countries (Gillis). While education is the best way to reduce the poverty disparity among countries, it is surely not the only solution. There are many economic ways that can help a country to come out of poverty, or at least control the magnitude of the same. One of the best ways to reduce poverty is by creating jobs. If more people have jobs, then that means more people would be earning more money. If the minimum wage rate is increased, the purchasing power will increase and in turn the manufacturing of products will increase, boosting the overall economy of the country (Grindle). Without sustainable economic growth, no country can hope to come out of poverty. However, it must be remembered that education forms the baseline for any planning and implementation, so education is both directly and indirectly the best step to achieve a global economic parity. Chemical dumping A lot of the developed countries dump their hazardous toxic waste nearby the poorer countries which create widespread health hazards for the people who are living near them. It is not only the humans are adversely affected from this: the environment and animals are severely effected as well. The toxic waste changes entire habitats and the anatomy of the humans and the animals, and alters the climate of the countries (Vrijheid). The best way to counter this destructive problem can be achieved by coming up with new technologies that would enable countries to effectively recycle the bulk of the waste and bring down the amount of the wastes to a bare minimum. Having better knowledge about what are the effects of these can be the best driver to motivate the first world countries to reduce the amount
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4HISTORY of toxic waste. Dumping them in seas or barren lands are not an option as they affect the environment in serious ways.
5HISTORY References Crafts, Nicholas FR. "Industrial Revolution in England and France: Some Thoughts on the Question,“Why was England First?”."The Economic History Review30.3 (1977): 429-441. Bagchi, Amiya Kumar. "De‐industrialization in India in the nineteenth century: Some theoretical implications."The Journal of Development Studies12.2 (1976): 135-164. Davis, Mike.Late Victorian holocausts: El Niño famines and the making of the third world. London: Verso, 2002. Gillis, Malcolm, et al.Economics of development. No. Ed. 3. WW Norton & Company, Inc., 1992. Grindle, Merilee S. "Good enough governance: poverty reduction and reform in developing countries."Governance17.4 (2004): 525-548. Vrijheid, Martine. "Health effects of residence near hazardous waste landfill sites: a review of epidemiologic literature."Environmental health perspectives108.Suppl 1 (2000): 101.