INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

On the one hand, Austria possessed all the prerequisites for industrialisation: plentiful natural resources, particularly iron ore and salt, and a long mining tradition.
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The industrial revolution on the European continent began in Belgium. Before that, the country had traditionally enjoyed a vibrant trading tradition for many years.
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In many respects, the industrialisation of today’s Czech Republic, the historic Habsburg dominions of Bohemia and Moravia along with part of Silesia, followed a typical ...
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Not many nations have succeeded in managing the transition to industrialisation as an agrarian society. Most of the European countries, which continued to depend on farming ...
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Finland’s rise as a prosperous industrial nation is due primarily to two very different factors: its extensive forests and its historically close relationship with Russia.
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The course of industrialisation in France was so idiosyncratic that for a long time people wondered whether an industrial revolution had ever taken place in the country.
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The first German textile factory was built in 1784 in Ratingen near Düsseldorf. It was called "Cromford" after its English model and was very much on its own in Germany.
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Regardless of whether we compare it with western or eastern Europe, the history of industry in Greece remains a special case. The initial conditions were unfavourable ...
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For a long time, Hungary’s economy was dominated by foreign powers, starting with Ottoman rule in the 16th century. Development thus followed a painful, inefficient up-and-down course.
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Ireland is today widely known as the “Emerald Isle”, but this successful branding hides a bitter history: until well into the 20th century, unprofitable agriculture predominated on the island.
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Who would have thought that this small country in the heart of Europe was once one of the largest iron producers in the world? Whereas the north of Luxemburg is mostly agricultural ...
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The industrialisation of the Netherlands did not simultaneously result in smoking chimneystacks as in Britain, Belgium and Germany. In the mid 18th century Amsterdam was ...
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Well into the 19th century Norway was still a pre-industrial country with a poorly-developed infrastructure and transportation system. 90 per cent of the population lived as self-sufficient ...
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Industrialisation within the territory of today’s Poland was extremely disparate as repeated partitioning of this nation occurred during the decisive 150 years in which ...
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For a long time, Portugal was isolated within Europe, due both to its location on the western fringe of the continent and to policies that focused more on exploiting resource-rich colonies ...
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Industrialisation in Spain varied geographically. Three regions were the pioneers: Basque Country, Asturias and Catalonia. In the Basque Country, the iron industry was concentrated.
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Sweden’s long road to becoming an industrial nation followed a common path, in that the process began with agricultural surpluses and a consequent population growth.
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On the face of it, the prerequisites were lacking: Switzerland is almost entirely devoid of the classical raw materials of coal and iron, and the mountainous terrain makes agriculture ...
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By the beginning of the 20th century, the once-glorious Ottoman Empire had deteriorated for all practical purposes into an agricultural colony of the West. Due to its crushing foreign debt ...
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The Industrial Revolution, which brought so many chimney stacks and soot-ridden workers' housing settlements to Europe, began on the fields of British farmers.
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