The Golden Age Of European Growth

However, it wasn’t solely the government that was influencing the economy, there were other factors that played a vital role in Britain’s recovery too. For example, the expansion of the economy was mainly in new industries such as electrical engineering, which grew at between 4-5% per annum, and expanded so rapidly that in the 1930s electricity consumption per head of population increased by 70%. Furthermore, industries such as household electrical goods, cars, and transport flourished in parts of the south and midlands creating new jobs which gave people money to spend and created even more demand for new products. It is therefore arguable that it was new technology

Britain had become one the world’s most profitable countries with spending increased by 20% during this period– even though the economic growth remained at just 3%.

Britain enjoyed the significant economic advantages during the early years of the Industrial Revolution for many reasons. The Industrial Revolution built on earlier developments, but took time to progress. It eventually began to help ordinary people in the West to gain a higher standard life of living. Great Britain had more advantages such as natural resources, political stability and favorable geography. According to the textbook, A History of Western Society, “Britain possessed a unique set of possibilities and constraints, such as abundant coal, high wages, a relatively peaceful and centralized government and well developed financial systems…” (622) and the list goes on. Furthermore, agriculture played an important role in the Industrial Revolution in Britain. “English farmers were second only to the Dutch in

From around 1750 to 1900 Britain went through major changes or transformation in industry, agriculture and transportation that affected everybody’s lives. For some it generally improved their lives, however not all were so lucky. The industrial revolution brought with it many changes good for some and bad for others.

It’s no understatement to say that the War messed up many countries’ economies. The UK and Germany went through different

Outlined in previous sections, in terms of GDP, Germany outperformed the United Kingdom in the Golden Age by a vast amount. Consequently the important question to ask is, what were the causes of such a great difference in GDP between the two countries mentioned, during that period of time.

World War II was a period that changed many countries forever after the war ended: Germany was split in two, an iron curtain fell across the continent shortly after the war’s end, and acres of land and millions of people were destroyed and lost in the war. However, many changes happened during the war as well, and this is easily observed in Britain during the beginning of the war, when the country was constantly being bombed and attacked during the Battle of Britain. The Battle of Britain forced British citizens to change their mindset as a society and as a functioning economy in a split second, regardless of whether or not the people were ready for it.

The American economy thrived tremendously after World War II. During this time, more families were able to be considered middle class, thus enhancing our economy. It gave opportunities for families to move up economic classes in order to improve their wealth. The distribution of wealth evened out because of this concept. The programs and situations that concern to expanding the economy were the defeat of Japan and Germany, Baby Boom, GI Bill, Levittown, and Interstates. Furthermore, the programs and situations that concern to wealth distribution were Baby Boom, GI Bill, Levittown, Unions, and Interstates.

In contrast to Russia and Japan, Great Britain’s industrialization occurred differently. England was actually the first to industrialize and industrial Great Britain served as a model for Japan’s and Russia’s later on. Industrialization was a slow, organic process in England started after feudalism but did cause much of the populace to leave their farms and migrate to urban centers, causing the creation of tenements. However, England’s industrialization was privately incentivized. Rather than the government creating economic incentives to modernize, England’s few natural resources and therefore ambition to take the resources of others caused private capitalists to invest money into building factories and growing industries. And like Japan, England’s industrialization was very successful, as the technological advancements and new innovation allowed their superior military to overcome other countries and imperialize, take over new regions. Thus, even though industrialization in different countries around the world did have differences, industrialization as a process that countries go through have similar characteristics. It causes massive social changes and the growth of urban centers, development and innovations in not just the military but also

For the United States the event of WWII was most likely the single largest factor in determining the nation’s financial, political, and social prowess in the 20th century. Where most have knowledge of the war itself, few understand the sheer reach it had and the massive effects it produced globally. At home, it ended the great depression and strengthened our government’s ability to manage the economy. Leading up to the war virtually all industry in the country was majorly crippled if not dead, a problem that may not have ever been fixed were it not for increased demands via the defense industries.

During the 18 century, in Britain occurred the most important phenomenon that changed the history, Industrial Revolution. It was a major turning point in their history but in the world’s history as well because the impact of the inventions changed the economical, social and political field forever. The standard of living increased therefore the population had increased.

Britain as an Awkward Partner in the European Community Britain emerged from the war in a relatively favourable position, compared to its European neighbours. In 1946 industrial production was as high as at any time pre-war, and increasing quite fast. By the end of the year exports had regained their pre-war level along with this there was little unemployment and retail prices remained fairly stable. All this contrasted strongly with the situation in France, Germany and Italy. Indeed in the late 1940's and into the early 1950's Britain's economy performed better then it's European counterparts.

World War I produced major economic changes. British industry had been to a large extent transformed by the mobilization of millions of soldiers and by an unprecedented switch to war production. Under a positive perspective, the economy had shown a new production capacity. Although total output had decreased, due to the smaller workforce, productivity definitely increased. There had been much state-sponsored modernization. Electric power was used more than

The United Kingdom finished World War I a few years prior to the Great Depression, and was a big factor in the length of the depression. The reason why the U.K’s depression’s length was so long was because of the debt that the European countries had grossed during World War I. This debt that had to be paid, left the Europeans in a sticky situation, as they tried to rebuild their economy to what it once was. The effect of this debt and other economic problems had caused the unemployment rate to accelerate from one million to 2.5 million unemployed UK citizens, some cities even reached rates from as high as 70%. When other countries received the hit from the depression, Britain couldn’t export nearly as much as they used to. This was a chain reaction that caused the world to be effected as a whole, and what caused Britain to get hit so strongly. Great Britain didn’t use their Government revenue expansion very strongly to an extent, however later on did increase the

The essence of institutional drift is a key factor of the 6th chapter. Countries such as Venice and Ancient Rome are used to describe why so many nations fail, due of the extractiveness of their governments. There was a short time when these countries had an inclusive system that was working and helping them grow. But the elite became greedy and power hungry, which set them on a downward hill to failure. Whereas, in England the opposite was happening where there was a demand for property rights and change. The elite were too afraid of losing their power to not agree and it is precisely why England is still one of the most powerful countries in the world.