INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
AUSTRIA
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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BELGIUM
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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BULGARIA
Dramatic political upheavals defined Bulgaria’s economic history and for many years impeted the path to industrialisation. Although a textile factory was founded in Sliven ...
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CROATIA
For centuries, Croatia was squeezed between the expansionist Ottoman Empire in the southern Balkans, the Habsburg Empire in the north and the Kingdom of Hungary to the east.
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CZECH REPUBLIC
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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DENMARK
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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ESTONIA
After the Russian Czars assimilated Estonia into their empire in 1710, the first manufactories gradually emerged, such as the saw mill in Räpina, glass works at Põltsama ...
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FINLAND
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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FRANCE
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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GERMANY
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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GREECE
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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HUNGARY
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
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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ITALY
Italy’s lack of natural resources and long history of fragmentation were its greatest obstacles on the road to industrialisation. The disparity between North and South only became acute ...
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LITHUANIA
All three Baltic nations lack deposits of raw materials, but Lithuania remained an agricultural country the longest. Since 1795, when the Russian Czars annexed it into their empire ...
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LATVIA

Latvia’s industrialisation was quite similar to Estonia’s: in the 19th century, both countries were under the rule of the Russian czars, and both lacked classical raw materials ...
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LUXEMBOURG
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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NETHERLANDS
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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NORWAY
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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POLAND
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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PORTUGAL
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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ROMANIA
Romania’s economic history was shaped by the tensions between its extremely passionate striving toward self-sufficiency and the dominance of foreign powers.
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SLOVAKIA
Though Slovakia has a long mining tradition, it remained an agricultural nation until well into the 20th century. The late Middle Ages was the golden age of Slovakian mining.
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SLOVENIA
Slovenia was considered a part of the agricultural periphery of the Habsburg Empire for centuries. However, wherever economic potential became apparent between ...
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SPAIN
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
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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SWITZERLAND
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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TURKEY
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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UNITED KINGDOM
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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