Riassunto esame Economic history, Prof. Tusset Gianfranco, libro consigliato Among the waves of Globalisation - An economic history of the world , Alfani, Colli

ECONOMIC HISTORY · UNIVERSITY STUDY SUMMARY

AMONG THE WAVES

OF GLOBALISATION

An Economic History of the World

From the Industrial Revolutions to the polycrisis: a chapter-by-chapter summary with key

dates.

Study summary

Based on G. Alfani, A. Colli (2025), Among the Waves of Globalisation – An Economic History of the World,

Giappichelli.

Covers Section 2 – Chapter 5 to Section 5 – Chapter 20 (pages 55–300).

This is an unofficial study summary. It is not affiliated with the authors or the publisher and does not replace the textbook.

Among the Waves of Globalisation · Study summary

Contents

Click a title to jump to its page.

Chapter 1 – The First Industrial Revolution.............................................................................................. 3

Chapter 2 – The Second Industrial Revolution ......................................................................................... 4

Railways and the Great Exhibition .................................................................................................................................................. 4

Workers and skills ........................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Germany: unification and heavy industry ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Italy: a new state and the Southern Question ................................................................................................................................ 5

The United States: from Civil War to industrial giant ..................................................................................................................... 5

Living and working conditions ........................................................................................................................................................ 5

Inequality, the Corn Laws and Marx ............................................................................................................................................... 6

India under the British Raj .............................................................................................................................................................. 6

China: from the Qing to the People's Republic ............................................................................................................................... 6

Japan: from isolation to the Meiji Restoration ............................................................................................................................... 7

Chapter 3 – From the Globalisation's peak to the Great War ................................................................... 8

The Gold Standard .......................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Science, transport and winners and losers ..................................................................................................................................... 8

Chapter 4 – The First World War (WWI) .................................................................................................. 9

Chapter 5 – The interwar period (1919-1939) ........................................................................................ 10

The turbulent post-war years (1919–1922) .................................................................................................................................. 10

The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression ......................................................................................................................... 10

The Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler .................................................................................................................................. 10

The New Deal and the collapse of the Gold Standard .................................................................................................................. 10

Chapter 6 – The Second World War (WWII) and the post-war ................................................................ 12

The war and the two blocs ........................................................................................................................................................... 12

The wartime economy .................................................................................................................................................................. 12

Bretton Woods and the end of the war ........................................................................................................................................ 12

Reconstruction and the Marshall Plan .......................................................................................................................................... 13

Chapter 7 – The Cold War (1948-1989) .................................................................................................. 14

Main episodes ............................................................................................................................................................................... 14

The end of the Cold War ............................................................................................................................................................... 14

The space race .............................................................................................................................................................................. 14

Chapter 8 – Decolonisation ................................................................................................................... 15

Independence and its problems ................................................................................................................................................... 15

South Korea and the Little Asian Tigers ........................................................................................................................................ 15

Chapter 9 – Privatisation ...................................................................................................................... 17

Stagflation and the rise of monetarism ........................................................................................................................................ 17

Thatcher, Reagan and the privatisation campaigns ...................................................................................................................... 17

How companies were privatised................................................................................................................................................... 17

Chapter 10 – The new globalisation ...................................................................................................... 18

Global Value Chains ...................................................................................................................................................................... 18

The 2007–2008 financial crisis ...................................................................................................................................................... 18

The Gulf War and the Western model .......................................................................................................................................... 18

Chapter 11 – The end of the 20th century ............................................................................................. 20

The Maastricht Treaty and the European Union .......................................................................................................................... 20

Japan: the keiretsu and the bubble .............................................................................................................................................. 20

The New Economy ........................................................................................................................................................................ 20

China: reforms, the WTO and the Belt and Road Initiative ........................................................................................................... 20

Chapter 12 – Globalisation and inequalities .......................................................................................... 21

International inequality: three eras .............................................................................................................................................. 21

Internal inequality ........................................................................................................................................................................ 21

Who benefitted from globalisation .............................................................................................................................................. 21

Chapter 13 – Polycrisis ......................................................................................................................... 22

A contested legal framework ........................................................................................................................................................ 22

Populism, nationalism and revisionist powers.............................................................................................................................. 22

Key dates at a glance ............................................................................................................................ 23

Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 24

Economic History | page 2 | ↑ Contents

Among the Waves of Globalisation · Study summary

Chapter 1 – The First Industrial Revolution

c. 1750 – 1850

The First Industrial Revolution took place approximately between 1750 and 1850 and marked the shift from

the previous system, based on agriculture, to a new system based on industry. The main country leading the

revolution was Great Britain, which started from an agricultural revolution. This happened because Great

Britain, being an island, did not have enough fertile land and resources to satisfy its internal demand, despite

its size. New agricultural methods helped to meet that demand more fully.

A second factor was the availability of coal and other minerals (iron and steel), which allowed the country to

develop one of the largest railway systems in Europe at the time. Where railways could not be laid, canals

and navigable waters filled the gap.

Once the transport system had been innovated and modernised, new productions and sectors emerged in

the economy of Britain and of the whole European continent: the cotton, wool and, more generally, textile

industries. The legal framework fostered innovation in this sector: when new machines (the water frame, the

mule, the spinning jenny and the self-acting mule) were created, their inventors patented them, which

allowed them to monetise the fruits of their work. Thanks to this, machines and engines were developed and

helped firms to improve their work.

As anticipated, the rich presence of coal mines in Great Britain supplied the fuel for the engines. Another

fundamental condition was the legacy of the former British empire: the dominions that the British Crown

held around the world supported the country's development, including that of its industrial sectors, and

supplied raw materials which were not available domestically, even though the motherland exploited its

bargaining power against other nations.

At the same time, the dissolution of the former Napoleonic empire, which gave way to new countries, created

new markets that needed someone to supply them with what they lacked. Great Britain exploited the

situation to increase its power.

After the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the map of Europe was redrawn: among other changes, the United

Kingdom of the Netherlands was created (Belgium became independent from it in 1830), while Switzerland

redefined its borders and has not changed them since. The Netherlands and Belgium experienced a

flourishing period in which they began to renew their agricultural systems. Understandably, the countries

that gave a boost to new agricultural methods were those facing constraints in terms of the quality and

availability of land and high wages, because, in simple terms, a machine cost less than a worker.

The Netherlands and Belgium also developed their industrial sectors, becoming competitors of Great Britain

on the other side of the English Channel. All these countries specialised their production particularly in the

textile sector, supplying all the other European states. The credit system, in the Netherlands in particular,

supported this development: a new form of bank, the universal bank, began to affirm its business model, at

first under the control of the state.

Belgium became independent in 1830 and took the form of a constitutional monarchy, which means that the

rule of law was respected. The same happened, over a longer period, in Great Britain, as its unwritten

(customary) constitution and the structure of its parliament – the House of Lords and the House of Commons

– show. In other words, no violent revolutions altered the stability of these countries.

Economic History | page 3 | ↑ Contents

Among the Waves of Globalisation · Study summary

Chapter 2 – The Second Industrial Revolution

1850 – 1914

The First Industrial Revolution was characterised by a few countries (Great Britain, Belgium and the

Netherlands) which led the development of new infrastructure, new machines and the textile sector. The

situation changed with the Second Industrial Revolution, which lasted from 1850 to the eve of the First World

War, in 1914. Its protagonists were the same countries, but also all the other European countries and Japan

– what we usually call "the West". The sectors involved were no longer only the textile one, but also steel,

chemicals and electricity. All the production factors necessary for the industrial development of a country

were therefore involved in this new phase of modernisation.

An important consideration is the following: the countries that industrialised later learned from the errors

made by the first countries during the First Industrial Revolution, which allowed them to avoid those mistakes

and to perform faster and better than in the previous phase.

Governments played a relevant role: through their investments and their control of credit, exercised via the

banking system, they boosted the development of their industries, even though they often engaged in trade

wars with other nations by imposing tariffs to protect national sectors.

Railways and the Great Exhibition

The European railway system was powered by innovations and investments made by Great Britain, whose

network expanded rapidly from the 1830s onwards. In 1829 the Rocket, built by Stephenson, showed the

potential of the coal-fired steam locomotive (the first public steam railway, the Stockton–Darlington line, had

opened in 1825).

Great Britain was the leading country in Europe, as the Great Exhibition of London in 1851 demonstrated:

Her Majesty's country presented all its inventions to the world. As expected, the Exhibition attracted many

tourists, who found infrastructure and a transport system able to meet their needs.

However, Great Britain did not plan its railway development carefully, which created discontinuities, also

because the railway system was largely financed by private investors. Belgium, independent since 1830,

understood this weakness: its government planned the national railway system and also financed it.

Workers and skills

Another difference between the two industrial revolutions concerned workers' skills: the First revolution

needed skilled workers who, understandably, were not the majority of the population; in the Second,

scientific progress replaced skilled workers with machines, and this allowed entrepreneurs to hire unskilled

workers in their factories too (including, as a plague of the time, children working in inhuman conditions).

Germany: unification and heavy industry

Germany, which unified in 1871, was one of the latecomers of the industrial revolution, because it was not a

single country: it was the unification of Prussia and the other small German kingdoms under the Prussian

Crown of the Hohenzollern and the government of Bismarck (the "Iron Chancellor"). Before the official

unification an economic unification already existed: the Zollverein, a customs union between Prussia and the

German kingdoms. The unification process lasted about forty years: from the establishment of the Zollverein

in 1834, through the defeat of Austria in 1866, to the defeat of France in 1870–1871.

Economic History | page 4 | ↑ Contents

Among the Waves of Globalisation · Study summary

Even though the unification process was long, afterwards Germany experienced a period of flourishing and

renewal. Bismarck based the German economy on heavy industry – iron, coal and steel – exploiting the Saar,

Ruhr and Silesia regions, which were rich in these minerals. At the same time he reformed the educational

system, providing the nation with a new class of skilled graduates who could meet the needs of industry. All

these results were reached thanks to the strong relationship between economic, political and military powers

and, as in the other states, the banking system was vital for this development.

Italy: a new state and the Southern Question

Italy was born in 1861 after the unification promoted by the Kingdom of Savoy and its prime minister Cavour.

After unification the new country had to be built: a new civil and commercial code was issued, a new currency

(the lira) was coined and new infrastructure (railways and roads) was built. All this was also meant to address

the Southern Question: the South of Italy (the Mezzogiorno) was less developed than the North-West (the

North-East was still under Austrian rule), and the various governments tried to improve conditions in the

South, also to prevent possible secession attempts. Terni was the core of the Italian steel industry; Turin

hosted the production sites of the new Italian carmaker FIAT, founded in 1899. All these investments were

supported by banks, which had strong relationships with their German counterparts.

Italy, however, rem