We all know Great Britain started the Industrial Revolution. But many of her colonies were sad backwaters. What if the British Empire spread industrialization to all (or most) of her colonies?
We all know Great Britain started the Industrial Revolution. But many of her colonies were sad backwaters. What if the British Empire spread industrialization to all (or most) of her colonies?
Why? Manchester wouldn't want that, even if it was possible.
Allow me to alter the question. What would be the effects of a fully or mostly industrialized British Empire?
Collapse. The British empire was based on the exploitation of the ressources of the Empire and the sale of manufactured product to the same area. Here you would have more or less the same amount of raw materials, so more or less the same amount of industry, but dispersed in the empire. It was actually a strategy of Gandhi to boycott British textile industry, to destroy British economic domination. Anyway, i don't think it is really possible, as many areas of the British empire would lack some things like coal deposits.
Allow me to alter the question. What would be the effects of a fully or mostly industrialized British Empire?
The British economy plummets. The entire rationale of the Empire in the 19th C was to extract raw materials from India (and later Malaya), turn them into manufactured goods in Britain and sell them back to the Empire. IIRC India and Malaya were the only colonies that even turned a profit- almost all the other colonies were operating at a loss in order to secure the routes to India and Malaya.
Of course, excluding Canada, Australia and the like, which produced massive productive trade flows after a certain period.
Maybe it industrializes the colonies that don't really do much of anything in regards to raw materials, basically bringing prosperity to the glorified checkpoints Britain established across the world to serve as a conduit to her Asian colonies.
Of course, this does eliminate the one other factor of mercantilist economies: captive markets.
Basically, from the way their system works, it would collapse if they tried any sort of serious industrialization, a prosperous, self-sufficient colony has more likelihood of being a rebellious one as well.
The British economy plummets. The entire rationale of the Empire in the 19th C was to extract raw materials from India (and later Malaya), turn them into manufactured goods in Britain and sell them back to the Empire. IIRC India and Malaya were the only colonies that even turned a profit- almost all the other colonies were operating at a loss in order to secure the routes to India and Malaya.