Compare and Contrast the process of Industrialisation in France and Germany prior to 1914.

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Compare and Contrast the process of Industrialisation

in France and Germany prior to 1914.

The rate of industrialisation of both Germany and France was at a very similar level

for much of the nineteenth century. With a few differences in the speed towards the

beginning of the twentieth century. But it is important to signify when the industrialisation

process began and ended. I believe that if it had not been for the war in 1914 that Germany

would have continued in its massive upturn and surpassed even Britain in industrial

magnitude. This was when the process ended as man power and machinery was at use for

militancy. The process can be marked as starting at the beginning of the 1800s because

although Britain had begun earlier the French and Germans had started later and continued

upon a slow road to industrial compliance. I have used three yardsticks by which to measure

the industrial development of the two countries Germany and France. The beginnings of the

industrial age, the production levels of iron, coal and steel in the second half of the century

when the real gains were made and the development of the transport systems mainly the

railways. These three categories are important as the first measures the ability of the

countries at the outset while the second measures their adaptability to a new kind of

industrialism. The railways and the transport systems are important because this can show us

the efficiency of coal transport which at this time was used in all major industries as well as

the governments efficiency in providing for the people as well as businesses, this should

improve as a country becomes more dependant on those people to keep it at the forefront

of industry.

During the first half of the nineteenth century both France and Germany experienced

a level of industrialisation which can be seen as slow and in respect of Britain, quite inferior

to it. French industries as a whole in the entire century were remodelled however it is far

from credible to say that the French had any kind of Industrial Revolution. There was a

gradual transformation of French industry along with a slow shift in the country's economic

centre from agriculture to industry. However, that shift in an entire century was by no means

as complete of that which the Germans experienced in the forty years after 1871. The

French industrial movement was hardly perceptible despite the fuss made about it except in

special circumstances when it is possible to highlight a town or an industry in which

something spectacular occurred. It is a good idea to use the growth of populations inside a

country's major cities as a measuring stick for their success in the field of industrialisation.

Take Paris as an example, at the beginning of the century it could boast a population of

548,000 and was second only in Europe to London, while the smaller major cities of Lyon,

Marseilles and Bordeaux where in the region of 75,000 to 110,000 inhabitants more than

any major city except London. That was in 1801 however, and in the fifty years that
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followed these major cities doubled their populations while smaller cities grew by around

30%. Now, to give you something to weigh this up against, the British towns of Sheffield,

Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool grew in population by 30% in the single decade of

821-1831. The slow industrialisation of France is strange to me as the French Revolution

had removed all the burdens upon free trade, as the motto itself promoted liberty and

equality for all it is hard to believe that the French did not rush to the ...

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