The United States, Western Europe, China, and Brazil were the ones receiving the most foreign investment in millions. This may have been attributed to the Industrial Revolution. A series of agricultural innovations began in Europe therefore making it easier to create foreign investments. . The British government put high tariffs on Indian goods and favored men of business that aided in keeping these cheap Indian textiles out. Britain also established laws that kept workers unions and their science was more concerned with observation, experiments, precise measurements, mechanical devices, and practical commercial applications. This science allowed for innovations such as the steam engine to come to life. In continental Europe, entrepreneurs, scientists, and makers of scientific experiments were not as close in contact with them as they were with Britain. This may have been why the United States seems to be big on foreign investment because they wanted to give all of their factory jobs to outsources.
Study the Snapshot titled “Global Development and Inequality, 2011” on page 1031. What trends stand out to you? If you were having a small group discussion in a classroom setting, what would your contributions to the conversation be?
The United States and other European nations that were doing economically well had higher ;ife expectancy rates and higher years of education. This may have been a result of their industrialization. They were able to come up with new medicines, new technology that aided in helping with jobs that could potentially hurt people in the workplace. These places also had more cell phones per person and population growth was minimal. In a place where people were obtaining more education, the direct result may have been a slow rate of population growth. As people started getting more jobs because of their education, they waited longer to have kids. This is very common among women living in more developed areas. In low income areas, the birth rate is high, but the life expectancy is low due to the lack of technological advancements.
How can we explain the dramatic increase in the human impact on the environment in the twentieth century?
Factories were producing a lot of carbon dioxide which ultimately made the air less sanitary before. The use of chemicals in factories resulted in increased air and water pollution and an increased use of fossil fuels. There was an increase in population, and an increase in living standards which led to the depletion of natural resources. Cities were vastly overcrowded and smoky with wholly insufficient sanitation, periodic epidemics, endless row houses and warehouses, few public services or open spaces, and inadequate often polluted water supplies. Strayer states that as,”Englishmen obtained the right to vote, politicians got an incentive to legislate at their favor abolishing child labor, regulating factory conditions, and even, in 1911, inaugurating a system of relief for the unemployed.” The environmental movement during the 1960s and 1970s focused on Congress passing laws to fix the pollution in our air and water, and sought to find a way to get rid of toxic wastes. Rachel Carson wrote “Silent Spring” which focused on the impacts of DDT on human health and our environment. Silent Spring said that humans were endangering their natural environment and needed to find some way of protecting themselves from industrialization.
