The Industrial Revolution in International Context

Even in 1950 most people in the world lived in societies that were not yet engaged in a full industrial revolution. The industrial economies were still geographically concentrated in Europe (now including east-central regions such as Poland and Czechoslovakia plus parts of Spain and Italy), Russia, Japan and much of North America. Most of Asia and virtually all of Africa and Latin America were not yet industrialized. However, the spread and intensification of the industrial revolution in the major centers inevitably had a far greater world impact than during the revolution’s earlier decades. Shipping increased in volume as international trade climbed—the construction of the Suez and then the Panama canals had a huge impact on this growth—and the airplane and radio speeded communication worldwide from the early twentieth century onward.