History Essay on Industrial Revolution, Droughts, Poverty & Dumping

This history essay explores the profound impact of the Industrial Revolution, focusing on its origins in Great Britain and its subsequent global effects. It examines the agricultural revolution, imperialist advantages, and scientific advancements that fueled this transformation. The essay contrasts Britain's success with the challenges faced by China, India, and other Asian countries, attributing these differences to geographical factors, colonial exploitation, and the impact of El Nino droughts in the late 19th century. These droughts devastated agricultural capabilities, leading to famines and exacerbating the economic disparities between nations, contributing to the rise of the Third World. The essay further discusses the persistent problem of global poverty, the role of colonialism, and the detrimental effects of chemical dumping by developed nations on poorer countries. It highlights the importance of education, job creation, and sustainable economic growth as potential solutions to poverty, while also addressing the environmental and health hazards caused by toxic waste disposal. The essay concludes with a call for technological advancements to mitigate the negative impacts of waste and a deeper understanding of their effects.

Running head: HISTORY
HISTORY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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.
There are several factors that contributed to the fact of industrial revolution not
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 19th century 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-19th century, 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
cheaper amount, driving the countries’ own production infrastructure to crumble. 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

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 Review 30.3 (1977): 429-441.
Bagchi, Amiya Kumar. "De‐industrialization in India in the nineteenth century: Some theoretical
implications." The Journal of Development Studies 12.2 (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." Governance 17.4 (2004): 525-548.
Vrijheid, Martine. "Health effects of residence near hazardous waste landfill sites: a review of
epidemiologic literature." Environmental health perspectives 108.Suppl 1 (2000): 101.