Unit 8: Alternative Models of Industrialization
Recall the beliefs of political activists, such as Karl Marx (from Unit 1), who criticized the exploitative nature of industrial capitalism. Marx encouraged the proletariat to rise up in revolt against the bourgeoisie to promote better living and working conditions. This sentiment provided the philosophical basis that fueled worker and peasant rebellions and the communist revolutions in Russia in 1917 and China in 1949.
After the First World War, a revolutionary government in Russia tried to create an alternative model to capitalist industrial development. The new Soviet Union accomplished massive industrial feats before and during the Second World War, but at enormous cost to the environment and Soviet citizens. In China, a successful communist revolution ushered in another experiment in socialist industrialization after 1949, first along Soviet lines and then according to the plans of Mao Zedong. After the Second World War, leaders in India and other newly independent states tried to find a "third way" of development, rejecting capitalism and Soviet-style socialism as pathways to industrialization.
This unit examines alternative plans for industrial development from the Soviet Union, China, and India. We analyze the efficacy and costs of these different approaches, comparing them to the model followed by capitalist states. We also examine the factors that contributed to two very different outcomes in China and Japan as the forces of industrialization began to affect them in the 19th century.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 8 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- describe different industrialization efforts in the early days of the Soviet Union;
- discuss the effects of the "Great Leap Forward" on China's industrial development;
- evaluate the Meiji Restoration's relationship to Japanese industrialization;
- compare communist and capitalist industrialization;
- explain the different outcomes of industrialization in China and Japan; and
- assess the effects of British rule on India's development and industrialization.
- describe different industrialization efforts in the early days of the Soviet Union;
8.1: Early Days of the Soviet Union: Lenin's New Economic Policy
After he had helped create the Soviet state in Russia, Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) introduced a state-controlled economy characterized by the takeover of private businesses, the nationalization of industry, and the forced state requisition of surplus grain and other food products. These policies led to food shortages, a decline in agricultural and industrial production, and civil unrest, which convinced Lenin to introduce his New Economic Policy, NEP, in 1921.
The NEP meant a temporary retreat from the doctrinaire centralization of the economy and the reintroduction of capitalism to the economy. While the government retained control of the "Commanding Heights" of the economy (banking, foreign trade, and large industries), it fostered a mixed economy that allowed private ownership of small businesses and enterprises. The NEP continued until 1928, following Lenin's death in 1924. Here we read a series of short articles from the same source documenting the Soviet experience.Read this article about the Soviet economic apparatus established in 1917. The Bolsheviks, who had been more of an underground society, theorizing about how to implement communism against the Tsars, suddenly found themselves in control of a large, modern, industrial economy.
Read this short article about the famine of 1921–1922. In addition to political tensions and the difficulty of revolutionizing the economy, the Volga basin was hit by the second crop failure in as many years.
Read this short article about the militarization of labor. It was a two-pronged plan involving the military's mobilization into a labor structure and placing urban workers under strict supervision.
Read this article about the Kronstadt Uprising. Discontented and hungry, many sailors at the Kronstadt naval base mutinied under the slogan, "All power to the Soviets, and not the parties".
Read this short article about the New Economic Policy (NEP), implemented in response to the previously discussed hardships. Among other things, it pinned economic recovery to internal market forces to stabilize the economy.
Read this short article about trade pacts made with the west as part of the NEP. It was a move that was both desperate and pragmatic.
Read this short article about workers' opposition to the NEP and its associated policies. In particular, workers were concerned about the apparent drift toward heavy bureaucracy.
8.2: The Soviet Union: Stalinist Industrialization
Following his rise to power, Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) abandoned the NEP in 1928 when he introduced his first Five Year Plan to dramatically increase Soviet industrial production and force the collectivization of agriculture. While his industrial goals were unrealistic, Stalin managed to substantially increase the industrialization in the new Soviet Union. However, when he forced the collectivization of agriculture, millions of farmers and agricultural workers starved to death when they were left with too little of their crops to live on. Agricultural collectivization was a failure for the Soviet state.
Read this article about the Soviet industrialization debate. It represented a turning point in Soviet history, as people disagreed on how best to modernize the Soviet state.
Read this article about how the productivity demands of the NEP affected labor. "Shock work" was the term for work above and beyond the call of duty. Soon, most workers were "shock workers", making the term more or less meaningless.
To give some context to the foundation of Stalinist Industrialization, read this article about the Soviet Union's first five-year plan, which covered 1928 to 1932. The plan contained several economic goals designed to revolutionize agriculture and industry.
Read this short article about a very significant state newspaper article. It marked a break with the NEP as the five-year plan had begun.
8.3: The Great Divergence
The Industrial Revolution came late to East Asia. By many accounts, China was more industrially developed than Western Europe before 1800. However, England and the rest of Western Europe soon surged ahead with the aid of cheap coal, steam power, and the vast natural resources and markets provided by the Americas. Many believed that China and East Asia failed to industrialize in the 19th century because they were socioeconomically inferior to the West and England in particular. However, research indicates that China had the resources to undergo an industrial revolution but failed to modernize due to Western imperialism and colonialism, not economics.
Watch this video, which describes what some historians consider to be the time of the Industrial Revolution in China: the Song Dynasty. In addition to explaining how the silk trade drove this time of great innovation and empowerment, the presenter considers how historians could call the Song Dynasty the Chinese Industrial Revolution and how it differed from the Industrial Revolution in England.
Read this review of Kenneth Pomeranz's book to learn about the basic argument presented concerning the diverging development paths of China and Western Europe during the Industrial Revolution.
Read this article on the debate surrounding the "Great Divergence". It takes a critical look at the traditional assumptions on why Europe seemed to lead the way in industrialization.
8.4: The Chinese Revolution and the Great Leap Forward
Dependency Theory is a way of conceptualizing the effects of the modern globalized economy on poorer nations. Mirroring social classes within a society, it is particularly concerned with the interdependence between developing countries, where resources are extracted and goods are manufactured to be consumed in wealthier countries at low prices; and the wealthier countries, which then sell those goods back to poorer countries at prices that deplete the poorer countries' resources, in a globalized alienation of labor. In this way, poorer countries may be somewhat "stuck" in their development, unable to get any further ahead. In some ways, Dependency Theory is considered a response to the "failure" of Modernization Theory.
Watch this video about the Chinese Communist Revolution. Consider the title: "When Peasants Changed the World".
Watch this video on the Chinese Communist Revolution, which resulted from a particularly bloody civil war followed by significant political, economic, and social restructuring. All of these changes brought unforeseen complications to Mao Zedong's fledgling rule.
Read this article about the "Great Leap Forward". Mao's attempt to swiftly modernize the Chinese state was largely considered "a major economic and humanitarian disaster".
Read this article about "China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution". It marked a complex refashioning of Chinese labor relations and politics.
8.5: Seclusion of Japan and New Industrial Policies
Industrialized European states forced their way into traditionally-limited markets in China and Japan during the mid-19th century, flooding both countries with manufactured goods. As Chinese officials bitterly resisted European imperial encroachments and lost a battle against economic and military imperialism, Japanese leaders only grudgingly granted limited concessions to foreign interests.
While China buckled under the weight of imperialism and domestic insurrection, Japan's government adopted the military and industrial technology of the West to build a strong, centralized state. Essentially, Japan responded to the threat of Western imperialism by undergoing its own industrial revolution. By 1900, Japan had met or exceeded the West with regard to being an industrialized, imperialistic power able to successfully resist foreign pressure.Read this article about the time of the Edo Period to the Meiji Restoration, otherwise known as the Seclusion of Japan. The Edo Period was especially isolationist.
Read this article about Japan's Edo Period (1603–1868). It was ruled by the isolationist Tokugawa shogunate, with a very elaborate social structure.
Read this article about the Meiji Restoration (1868–1889). Considered by some to be more of a renewal or even a revolution, it is most typically marked by the return of imperial power from the shogun and the opening to trade brokered by Commodore Mathew Perry (1794–1858).
Watch this video about the Meiji Restoration, in which a family tells their experiences of the intense upheaval that characterized this time. The main character is one of the first merchants to open a seaside shop in the developing economy.
Read this article about the initial opening of Japan. It was arguably brought on by the visit of Commodore Perry, whose party arrived in steamships: a technology with which then-feudal Japan was not familiar.
8.6: India: Industrialization under British Rule
While post-revolutionary Russia and China fostered economic development and created a state-controlled economy based on central planning and five-year plans, India pursued an economic "Third Way", which favored a mixed economy. When it gained political independence from Britain in 1945, the state-controlled major industries but encouraged small businesses and enterprises to operate within a typical capitalist framework. The Indian government also retained the foundation of parliamentary democracy inherited from British colonial rule.
Many developing countries in Africa and elsewhere copied India's mixed economic model. While some argue that their centralized planning helped develop basic industries and foster economic development, others believe it may have delayed greater growth and the bureaucratization of the economy.Read this article, which takes a much longer-term historical view of India's contributions to the global economy. In particular, it covers how British colonial rule may have "broken" the economy in ways that have yet to be repaired.
Read this article about post-colonial India and how it set out to modernize politically. It covers an entire political history, specifically focusing on the time between Indian independence and the present, and compares India's modernization to China's. See if you agree.
Read this article about how India modernized industrially and technologically. These processes also had some detrimental effects economically and environmentally.
Unit 8 Assessment
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