The Spread of Industrialization

The development of the steam engine rapidly increased the spread of industrialization.
The steam engine converted fossil fuel into mechanical energy.
Unlike water-powered factories that needed to be built on the banks of fast-moving water, steam engines allowed factories to be built nearly anywhere.
Steam engines were also put in ships, which allowed mass-produced goods to be transported further and faster to distant markets, connecting the world into a growing global economy.

Places with factors similar to those in Great Britain industrialized quickly, while those without them industrialized slowly.
Eastern and Southern Europe lacked abundant coal deposits and were landlocked or hindered by powerful groups like the nobility.
The world divided into industrialized and non-industrialized nations in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Industrialized nations like Great Britain, France, and the United States claimed a growing portion of global manufacturing output and economic wealth.
Countries in the Middle East and Asia saw their share of production decline; for example, the decline of textile production in India and Egypt.
Mass-produced textiles in Britain led to the decline of Indian and Egyptian market share.
Shipbuilding in India and Southeast Asia declined due to Britain's colonial takeover.
Industrial countries made and sold lots of stuff, but non-industrial countries, not so much, which meant that power began to shift to those industrialized countries.

France began to industrialize after 1815, after Napoleon was out of the way.
Industrialization in France was slower than in Britain because France lacked the abundant coal and iron deposits.
Napoleon constructed the Quentin Canal, connecting Paris with the iron and coal fields of the North which laid the groundwork.
The French government sponsored the construction of railroads.
By the 1830s, textile factories were built, creating a significant cotton industry and reviving their silk industry.
France was spared some of the intense social upheavals experienced by Britain because of its slower adoption.

After the Civil War, the US industrialized rapidly and became a major player on the global economic stage.
The US possessed many of the same factors that Britain had, including abundant natural resources and political stability.
A rapidly growing population provided an expanding market for mass-produced goods.
The US economy grew exceedingly prosperous, leading to a higher standard of living for its workers than their counterparts in Europe.

By the end of the 19th century, Russia was still under an absolutist tsar.
The tsar adopted many industrial technologies, most importantly railroad and steam engine technologies.
The construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, stretching from Moscow to the Pacific Ocean, significantly increased trade with Eastern states like China.
Russia's industrialization was a state-driven affair.
The effort led to brutal conditions for the workers.
The brutal conditions led to many uprisings among those workers and would eventually lead to the Russian Revolution of 1905.

Japan began a defensive industrialization during the Meiji Restoration to avoid becoming subservient to Western powers.
They borrowed heavily from Western technology and Western education and quickly became an industrial power in the East.
In a couple of decades, Japan would be the most powerful state in the region.