Later and non-European industrialisers — Japan and beyond
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Question
What was the Meiji Restoration?
Answer
The 1868 political change in which reformist samurai overthrew Japan's old military government and restored the emperor as figurehead, launching state-led industrialization.
Question
What does 'fukoku kyōhei' mean and why did it matter?
Answer
'Rich country, strong army' — the Meiji slogan linking industrial growth directly to military strength, driven by fear of Western colonisation.
Question
What were the zaibatsu?
Answer
Huge family-owned business conglomerates (e.g. Mitsubishi, Mitsui) that bought state-built industries cheaply and came to dominate Japanese banking, shipping and manufacturing.
Question
How did Japan fund heavy industry in the Meiji period?
Answer
Through exports of silk and cotton textiles, which earned the foreign currency needed to buy machinery and build railways, shipyards and mines.
Question
When did Japan's first railway open, and where?
Answer
1872, between Tokyo and Yokohama — the start of a national rail and telegraph network built under state direction.
Question
Who was Sergei Witte and what did he do?
Answer
Russia's finance minister from 1892 who drove state-led industrialization using foreign loans, protective tariffs, and state-funded railways including the Trans-Siberian.
Question
What role did foreign capital play in Witte's programme?
Answer
France and Belgium provided large loans and investment because Russia's own banking system could not fund heavy industry alone.
Question
Why did Russia's industrialization lead toward the 1905 Revolution?
Answer
Rapid factory growth crowded workers into poor urban conditions with no legal unions, no vote and no welfare, so discontent had no peaceful outlet and built toward unrest.
Question
Compare Japan's and Russia's industrialization strategies.
Answer
Both were state-led from fear of falling behind militarily; Japan's state devolved control to the zaibatsu and gained stability from military victories, while Russia's state kept tight control with no reform outlet, feeding revolution.
Question
What drove Brazil's early industrial growth?
Answer
Profits from coffee exports grown on large estates in São Paulo, invested by planters into railways and early textile mills — a private, export-led path rather than a state-led one.
Question
What is import-substitution industrialization (ISI)?
Answer
Building local factories to make goods a country used to import, protected by high tariffs on foreign manufactured goods.
Question
What did Vargas's government do in 1941?
Answer
Founded the Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional, Brazil's first large state-owned steel plant, marking Brazil's shift toward state-led import-substitution industrialization.
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Topic 12.4 hub
Case studies: industrialisers
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