The American Industrial Revolution: A Case Study
by: Lorenzo Lucino
During the early 19th century, the United States of America, experienced what many of my colleagues in the field of American History , and World History, would say as a national transformation. The beginning of what American Historians would call as “The Great American Manifest Destinyâ€. During this time period, the United States was not considered a world player, as of yet, most of continental Europe were the key players. The British and their overseas empire, which at the time controlled over 1/4th of the world’s land mass, the French with their empire in Indochina, and the heartlands of Africa and parts of the Caribbean; The Dutch and their empire in Africa as well as in the Dutch Malacas (Present day Indonesia).
The United States at this time period was experiencing a rising immigration rate; from Russia, Prussia (Germany), France, Austria-Hungary, Norway, England, Italy and this translated in a massive population boom. Considering the time , there were no such birth agendas, population-check agencies as now, and thus the United States’ population doubled , then tripled in number within the successive generations.
The increased population lead to demographic problems at first, however, were the basis for the industrialization of the country. The population was utilized to build and settle the uncharted areas o the country, colonizing most of Midwestern America, as well as the western basins of California. The building of the railway systems during the mid to late 19th century not only connected continental America for the first time, but allowed the transportation and facilitation of growth in the fringe locations of the country. Agriculture and the agrarian system was utilized in unison with industrial and manufacturing that steamed the United States towards a global role. And it was the population, the natural resources, that allowed the country to transform itself as a 3rd world, backwards former-colony into the leading economic, military and political hyperpower that it is to this day.
The Philippines’ population, natural resources, our rich and expensive islands and coastal areas are all factors for our potential for national greatness and growth.
I do not see the Philippines as a ‘sick man of asia’ and do not see it as a paralytic as what many of you would mention in your descriptives. On the contrary, I see the Philippines as a nation that is on the verge of national growth and future greatness. I believe that the Philippines, like most countries in the world and throughout history, has not yet experienced its ‘time in the sun’. The Republic of the Philippines has the potential, with our innate richness (population, healthy population, active work force, educated populace, cohesive characteristic of Filipinos in general, immense natural resources), to be come a regional and possibly a global power.
As nations such as Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Bulgaria and many western countries, are suffering from a falling population, the Philippines is reaching the 100 million mark. Our country is not weak, not paralytic, but growing, fertile, and ready to boom.
I have been to the Philippines for the first time in 12 years and with my own eyes have seen how much it has grown, improved, and modernized since I was last home in 1998. The country is not as poor and destitute as what others would say. It is growing. And thus following the common trends on national progression towards 1st worldom.
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