The Industrial Revolution: The Great Divergence

After doing a bit of reading about the Great Divergence and the factors that possibly lead to its occurrence, it's quite apparent that there is quite a bit of controversy on this topic. The Great Divergence began in the later years of the fifteenth century. The Great Divergence occurred when parts of Europe and North America became prosperous. Europe and North America flourished while other parts of the world were poverty-stricken. This is where the name the Great Divergence comes from great divergence means the great dividing. A country was either prosperous and on the wealthy side or poverty-stricken and on the poor side of the spectrum. I believe one factor alone cannot be completely responsible for the occurrence of the Great Divergence,

The discovery of new technology had a great impact or influence on the Great Divergence. The Industrial Revolution was one movement that helped spark the Great Divergence to occur. The Industrial Revolution began in Britain during the eighteenth century. However, the Industrial Revolution also had a huge impact on North America and North-Western Europe. It began in Britain because “Britain has access to waterways, constructed a network of canals, and has large supplies of coal and iron-key materials used in manufactured products”. (Elizabeth Pollard, Clifford Rosenberg, Robert Tignor 548) One of the very important inventions was steam power. Steam power allowed mass production to become possible. Before the discovery of steam power, goods were not as easily or quickly produced. Another reason why the Industrial Revolution flourish in Britain is that “. . . Britain had access to New World lands as sources of financial investment, raw materials, and markets for manufactured goods”. (Elizabeth Pollard, Clifford Rosenberg, Robert Tignor 548) This gave Britain the tools that it needed to flourish during the Industrial Revolution. The primary source I chose to use for this topic was written by Friedrich

Trading and the high demand for imported goods can cause tensions to arise between countries. During the Great Divergence goods of all sorts were in high demand especially because certain countries like China had an abundance of natural resources that other countries did not have. Since some countries were not blessed with the natural resources that they wanted trading with countries that had these goods was very important. Countries like Britain wanted to trade with China because China had silk, porcelain, and tea all products that Britain wanted. In 1793, Britain sent George Macartney to China on a mission to request a new trading port in China from the emperor that would be controlled solely by the British. However, China was not interested in allowing the British to have their very own trading port so the Chinese declined Britain's request. “Nevertheless, O do not forget the lonely remoteness of your island, cut off from the world by intervening wastes of sea, nor do I overlook your excusable ignorance of the usages of our Celestial Empire” (Qianlong Emperor 3) The consequence of the Great Divergence for the people in the West reflects this particular article because the British did not get the permission from China that they wanted. Therefore, the people in the West are going to have to respect China’s wishes and continue using their original trading port that all