Question

How did the industrial revolution lead to European Colonization?

Answer 1

Hint: Western European colonialism was initiated by the Spanish and Portuguese regions and later the French, Dutch and British followed their path way before the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution started in Britain, North Ireland and Western Belgium between 1760 and 1775 , at least a century later.

Complete answer:
The industrial revolution did not lead to colonization. The colonies were present even before the beginning of the industrial boom. But this process certainly helped nations like England to dump more power on these regions. During the initial stages of the industrial revolution created an enormous amount of money especially for countries like England. On top of this they needed comparatively poor regions in order to sell their products and create more working class as the industries expanded. They weren’t able to create a market among their European rival countries due to the issues with tariffs and also to protect their domestic companies. No one was aware of the concept of ‘discretionary income’, which would have created consumers out of workers. Hence, they started establishing markets in their colonies in Asia and Africa. The industrial revolution also created opportunities for new raw materials and increased demand for available materials. They were also establishing a market out of energy production. The discovery of oil in the US was one of the major developments. Hence England found it easier to charge the people with more tax or loot the colonies than pay huge amounts for oil from the US or coal from countries whose production was beginning to fall due to the upcoming war.

Note: Western expansionism has seen rising technological differences between those of Europe's leading nations and those of the rest of the world. In the early part of the 18th century, gaps between the level of technology in Europe and some of the regions on other continents were not great. In fact, some of the main technological knowledge used at that time in Europe was originally from Asia.