Technology, Economic Backwardness and Industrialisation — General Schema

Abstract

AN Anglocentric view of Europe in the mid-nineteenth century draws a picture of the democratic nations, led by Britain, fearful of the autocratic, armaments-orientated colossus in the East. Yet far more real, and certainly more immediate and prophetic, was Russia’s fear of the industrialising nations of Europe. By 1851 the process of industrialisation dominated European politics.

As we move across the face of Europe in any given period, we find many differences of culture, religious belief, social attitudes, and so on, and they change over time. They will always affect the way in which economic or technological changes were received, and they did so undoubtedly in our period. However, they were increasingly put in the shade by the progress of industrialisation itself which came to dominate the reaction of a society as it came to dominate so much else.

Sidney Pollard, 1982