Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Diffusion to Mainland Europe
In the early 1800s, as the innovations of Britain's Industrial
Revolution diffused into mainland Europe, the same set
of locational criteria for industrial zones applied: prox-
imity to coal fi elds and connection via water to a port
remained crucial to industrial development. A belt of
major coal fi elds extends from west to east through main-
land Europe, roughly along the southern margins of the
North European Lowland—across northern France and
southern Belgium, the Netherlands, the German Rühr,
western Bohemia in the Czech Republic, and Silesia in
Poland. Colonial empires gave France, Britain, Belgium,
the Netherlands, and, later, Germany, access to the capital
necessary to fuel industrialization and in some cases the
raw materials necessary for production. Iron ore is dis-
persed along a similar belt, and the map showing the
pattern of diffusion of the Industrial Revolution into
Europe refl ects the resulting concentrations of economic
activity (Fig. 12.5).
Figure 12.5
Diffusion of the Industrial Revolution.
The eastward diffusion of the Industrial Revolution
occurred during the second half of the nineteenth century.
© H. J. de Blij, P. O. Muller, and John Wiley
& Sons, Inc.
70°
20°
10°
0°
10°
20°
30°
40°
DIFFUSION OF
INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
ARCTIC OCEAN
Major industrial area
0
250
500 Kilometers
0
250
500 Miles
60°
FINLAND
SWEDEN
NORWAY
ATLANTIC
ESTONIA
MOSCOW
AREA
LATVIA
OCEAN
North
Sea
RUSSIA
LITHUANIA
DENMARK
UNITED
KINGDOM
RUS.
IRELAND
BELARUS
50°
GERMANY
NETH.
POLAND
DONBAS
1860s
RUHR
1880s
1840s
London
UKRAINE
1870s
BEL.
1850s
SAXONY
CZECH. REP.
SLOVAKIA
SILESIA
Paris
LUX.
MOLDOVA
AUSTRIA
HUNGARY
ROMANIA
SWITZ.
FRANCE
SLOVENIA
CROATIA
Black Sea
SERBIA
BOSNIA
BULGARIA
40°
ITALY
MONTENEGRO
ALBANIA
MACEDONIA
PORTUGAL
TURKEY
SPAIN
GREECE
Mediterranean Sea
10°
0°
10°
20°
30°
