Industrial policy in the colonies in the 70's if no decolonisation

Hi all,

So, the basis of industrial policy was not to push it and sometimes actively restrain it as it could hurt the metropolitan industry: a job on the assembly line in Dakar is a job not in Paris.
That works when the work is of low value. So, what happens when a gap arrives between high value industrial work, like the car industry today, with very skilled labor, versus the need for cheap, unskilled labor, like the clothing industry or cheap consumer goods like in East Asia?

The gap started to come around the 70's I'd say. So, when something like that happens, if there wasn't such big decolonisation movements (many PoDs, at least for France), would we see a push for "cheap" and unskilled industry in the colonies, to play a role similar to what China and Taiwan have done in that time period?

Cheers!
 
If for some reason, decolonization is not accepted by the metropolitan elite, the industrial policy in the colonies would be terrible. Expect a continued focus on resource extraction. Little to no base industry would develop in the colonies, out of fear of the resulting economic and political development in the colonies.

The tension would be extremely high, a substantial amount of tears, blood and gold would be sacrificed to keep the colonies "loyal". Quite possibly the efforts to squash independence movements would result in concentration camps (in everything but name) in which the prisoners work in light industry and heavy resource extraction. This workforce would most likely enrich the metropolitan elite.

So, in this gloomy picture, I would say, fascism light to straight out fascism and an even heavier focus on resource extraction in the colonies, coupled with forced labour not that dissimilar from slavery.

Gloomy, yes.
 
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kung Zog said:
If for some reason, decolonization is not accepted by the metropolitan elite, the industrial policy in the colonies would be terrible. Expect a continued focus on resource extraction. Little to no base industry would develop in the colonies, out of fear of the resulting economic and political development in the colonies.

More than the metropoles clamping down, I was more thinking of a lesser demand for independance. Say, Indochina is resolved in a softer way, with a commonwealth type of deal, there would be less tensions in the rest of the Empire. Add a decent colonial politic allowing more emancipation of the natives and I don't think it's fundamentally out of the question to have some countries stay within the Empire (although probably more as protectorates than direct administration).

In such a commonwealth however, there would probably be a heavy economic integration.

I'll admit it's unlikely to have a fully rosy picture but I do believe that OTL is kind of a worse case scenario for quite a few countries
 
In many colonies the beginnings of industrialisation, however this was usually light industry based on making consumer goods for local markets. These were usually foodstuffs and beverages. There were also, soap and detergent factories, saw mills, tanneries, paper and pulp mills, and textile factories. In British India the textile industry grew during the 1920s and 1930s, and at independence it produced 11% of the world's cotton textiles, with modern textile mills being owned largely by Indian entrepreneurs.

The Dutch West Indies had a developed industry around Batavia by 1940, producing rubber tires, shoes, light bulbs, bicycles, soap etc. By 1940, the Dutch were encouraging heavy industry in the Indies to free the colony from reliance on foreign imports (mostly Japanese and American). Most were left on the drawing board by the war.

The Portuguese empire was the only one that really survived until the 1970s and the government encouraged manufacturing heavily in Angola, Mozambique and Macau. Both Angola and Mozambique produced large amounts of consumer goods for the local and export markets, such as textiles, foodstuffs, beverages, tobacco goods etc. Heavy industry had begun to emerge in both with the introduction of steel mills, petroleum refineries, and chemicals plants.
 
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