Geographical Causues of British Supremacy in a Developing World

Abstract

The following essay takes an analytical approach to understanding how Britain was able to surpass the rest of Europe during the early phases of the Industrial Revolution. Where as many talk about factors such as economics, my main focus is the geography of Britain and the effect’s it had on revolution. To understand what set Britain apart the paper takes a three pronged approach to the analysis. The geographic situations of Britain will be compared and contrasted to other European leaders, Britain making up part “a” of each subsection and the other leader part “b” of said subsection. Part “c” will then discuss the benefits of said geographic advantage (i.e coal powering machinery). To further quantify these differences the analysis will occur on a set list of topics being that of Britain’s having an island, rivers, natural ports/harbors, large deposits of coal, and large deposits of iron. From the research it is visible that Britain did in fact have the upper hand in many of these criteria, hence allowing it to succeed in the Industrial Revolution.

Introduction

It is well known that Britain was able to achieve superiority during the Industrial Revolution. They were the first to start changing towards industrial life, and were leaders of the revolution up through it’s end. But how did this happen? The answer to this is actually it’s geography. It may not be the first thing one thinks of when answering this question, but it is in fact the answer. Britain has a unique geography which has always set it apart from the rest of Europe. Most obviously, it is an island, this creates a physical barrier between the rest of Europe and Britain. Though at first glance having a unique geography and being separated may seem as though it would have negative effects, all of these factors actually worked in Britain’s favor. Britain’s geography was a perfect mixture of natural protection, natural ports/harbors, natural rivers, coal deposits, and iron deposits, all of which propelled it to become the Industrial power it was.

Pre-Industrial Britain (a)

Before the Industrial Revolution, Britain had already gone through a relatively recent revolution of it’s own; The English Revolution. This revolution is in fact surprisingly highly debated amongst historians. The revolution itself encompasses the events in England during the mid 17th century. Specifically, The English Revolution, no matter which side of it you take occurs during the English Civil War of the 17th century. The differences in the theories arrive are the causes and outcomes of the war. 1

To understand the war itself one must understand the social, economic, and political world of Britain at the time. Despite the already small population at the time, most people did not live in cities. Rural villages were the housing style of choice and they were present all throughout the British Island. Most of these villages had only a thousand or so people, and rarely reached beyond a few thousand. Despite the small scale of the villages there was a large variety of classes. From the lowly beggar to the farmer to the nobility, there was a place for everyone. Despite this class diversity and large differences in lifestyle no one had complained. It was seemed as natural that some people would be below others and less successful, even if that was not their choice. Power relied on wealth, and therefore class, which thwarted those outside of the elite from having say in politics. Though the political class was small, their power was great! Even small numbers of elites could work collectively to accomplish their goals. 2

This system may seem like it would cause little argument, after all the citizens were content even if they ranked in the lowest of classes. The issues began to arise when the national government tries to assert its power. Since the smaller governments were so strong, this quickly created conflict. 3

The first step towards revolution was the ending of Elizabeth’s ministers reign. As the last of her ministers died out, their decisions angered subjects. King James was known for his extravagance and indolence. The public positions which should have been filled by trusted officials, became home to his personal friends and their friends as well. As the king’s rule became worse, the resentment rose. Following this another era of unaccomplished political leaders took hold. From 1611 to 1621 the government of Britain took many bad turns. One major incident was that for the majority of this time there was no parliament. Furthermore, the Howard’s took control and attempted to align England with Spanish causes, increasing the dissatisfaction of subjects. As if matters had not been worse enough, once parliament resumed, even they could not agree with each other. The levels of discontent and disagreement within parliament had reached levels never before seen just as the levels of discontent between subjects and their leaders grew. The final nail in the coffin was actually the calmest. The new political leaders were cautious and used less restricting forces on their subjects. These four steps led to the civil war between two groups known as the Royalists and Parliamentarians. About 30 years after the civil war, the Parliamentarians were able to overthrow the James II in 1688. 4

Pre-Industrial Europe (b)

England was not alone in this time of revolution and change before the Industrial Revolution. Europe had faced two large scale continent wide movements during the time before the Industrial Revolution. These movements parallel the struggles in England but take different turns than those of England.

The first of these movements was the Age of Absolutism. Absolutism is the attempt to consolidate the utmost power over one's subjects. It is essentially as the name suggests becoming an “absolute” leader. In Europe, absolutism was not an excuse for extremely cruel and irresponsible leadership, but simply unified leadership. The leaders had enough power to impose their will, yet their subjects had enough power to ensure that their needs are met. It seemed like an ideal answer to the constant struggle, confusion, and strife that had plagued most of Europe in the recent past. By having singular powerful leaders, the disputes would hopefully end and order would once again be restored to Europe. In some cases absolutism was viable and seemed to work for some time, but it was not a universal solution. Whereas it flourished in some areas, absolutism failed in others. 5

After the dawn of the Age of Absolutism came the Scientific Revolution and Age of Enlightenment. In this period a vast amount of information on the world around us was discovered. It was during these years that

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