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Industrial Revolution
The eighteenth century was marked with a series of inventions that brought new uses for known energy sources (coal) and new machines to improve efficiencies (steam engines), which in turn enabled other new inventions including water pumps and railroads.
* Of course, the "March 11" date on here is completely incorrect, but it seems I have no choice but to fill that in.
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Diffusion to Mainland Europe
In the early 1800s, as the innovations of Britain's Industrial Revolution diffused into mainland Europe, the same set of locational criteria for industrial zones applied:proximity to coal fields and connection via water to a port remained crucial to industrial development.
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Diffusion Beyond Europe
Western Europe's early industrialization gave it a huge economic head start and put the region at the center of a developing world economy in the nineteenth century. But, it was not long before industrialization began to diffuse beyond Europe's western fringe. The primary industrial regions that stand out on the world map of industrial centers by the 1950's were western Europe, eastern North America, western Russia and Ukraine, and East Asia.
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A More Favorable Source
During the mid-1900s, oil was seen as a more favorable source of energy over coal, thanks to the many technologies brought up through the Industrial Revolution.
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Agglomeration
A part of Weber's Least Cost Theory, agglomeration is the advantages afforded by like industries clustering.
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Weber's Least Cost Theory
Weber's least cost theory focused on a factory owner's desire to minimize three categories of cost: transportation, labor, and agglomeration, which is advantages afforded by like industries clustering.
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Fordist Production
The manufacturing boom of the twentieth century can be traced in part to early innovations in the production process. Perhaps the most significant of these innovations was the mass-production assembly line pioneered by Henry Ford, which allowed for the inexpensive production of consumer goods at a single site on a previously unknown scale. So significant was Ford's idea that the dominant mode of mass production that endured from 1945 to 1970 is known as Fordist.
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The Chinese Juggernaut
Although some industrial growth occurred in China during the period of European colonial influence, and later during the Japanese occupation, China's major industrial expansion occurred during the communist period. When communist planners took over in 1949, one of their leading priorities was to develop China's resources and industries as rapidly as possible.
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Primary Industrial Regions
The primary industrial regions that stand out on the world map of industrial centers by the 1950s were Western Europe, eastern North America, western Russia and Ukraine, and East Asia.
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The Rise of East Asia
Throughout the better part of the twentieth century, Japan was the only global economic power in East Asia, and its regional dominance seemed beyond doubt. Other nodes of manufacturing existed, but these were no threat, and certainly no match, for Japan's industrial might. The picture began to change with the rise of the so-called Four Tigers of East and Southeast Asia: South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s.
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Dramatic Shift
During the 1970s and 1980s a dramatic shift occurred, with a small number of large Asian producers-particularly in Japan-seizing a much larger percentage of the market and with a few European firms increasing their position as well. By 1990, ten large firms were responsible for 80% of the world's color television sets; eight of them were Japanase and two European.
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Dramatic Shift (Part 2)
The television production industry has three key elements: research and design; manufacture of components; and assembly. Research and design was and continues to be located in the home countries of the major television manufacturers. During the 1970s, the major firms began to move the manufacture of components and assembly out of the country. U.S. firms moved these functions to the maquiladora of Mexico and the special economic zones of China; Japanese firms moved component manufacturing and... -
The Rise of East Asia (Part 2)
In 1977, China took over the government of Hong Kong from the British, and a showplace of capitalism came under Chinese communist control. / Rapid economic growth entails risks, and in 1977 risky lending practices and government investment decisions caused Thailand's currency to collapse, followed by its stock market; banks closed and bankruptcies abounded. -
The Chinese Juggernaut (Part 2)
On August 15, 2010, China officially surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy.
