Industrialization without liberalism?

My point was that, just as industrialization was inevitable by as late as 1760, so was liberalism, in some form or another. I don't think you can honestly expect that the European middle classes would be willingly to accept the continuation of the feudal order when their own power, economically at least, had come to rival that of the nobility and of the church.

They don't need to accept the feudal order. They can accept an enlightened despotism, or secret police, or a new "elite" which is more open to money.

I don't buy the Whig view of history; too many people have gave their lives to stop it from losing.
 

Thande

Donor
I think it's very possible for the two to be separated, but if they were then the kind of industrialisation that resulted would probably look very different from OTL, just because it would be driven by different socio-economic forces and focused on (somewhat) different ends.
 
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