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2007-11-29 13:02:53 · 1 answers · asked by babyghurl_4u 1 in Social Science Economics

1 answers

Lot's of theories on this, including the idea that Capitalism is the driving force behind imperialism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism

What is undeniable is that industrialization has required access to resources that are not available to any single country no matter how large.

Some of these are minerals and the like that are only available in certain places in the Earth's crust. Some have been biological materials only available in certain climes (bird guano for fertilizer, etc.). Some have been manufactured goods.

But another resource has been capital. No society has successfully industrialized on its own without some support, in the way of finance and trade, from the outside.

For example, much of the funding for the U.S. railway system was raised in Europe.
http://books.google.com/books?id=i8_lxaQKjpAC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=us+railway+bonds+europe&source=web&ots=oduOP5o9Hb&sig=wGNHgHUBUHRnZqt-_AJZ3IJ_KAA

At the same time, industrialization has frequently developed a technology in which there are significant economies of scale. Therefore many industries looked for markets for the products outside the local area. This was clearly more important in small countries than in large, but has been important in all industrialized countries.

But as noted above, this is only one part of the story.

2007-12-01 18:08:18 · answer #1 · answered by simplicitus 7 · 0 0

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