Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLE 12.1
World's Largest Oil Producers.
TOP WORLD OIL PRODUCERS, 2009
Total Oil
Production
(million barrels
per day)
Country
Rank
Russia
Saudi Arabia
United States
Iran
China
Canada
Mexico
United Arab Emirates
Brazil
Kuwait
Venezuela
Iraq
Norway
Nigeria
Algeria
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
10.12
9.76
9.06
4.17
3.99
3.29
3.00
2.80
2.57
2.49
2.47
2.40
2.35
2.21
2.13
Data from
: United States Central Intelligence Agency, World Factbook, 2011.
diffuse beyond Europe's western fringe. The
primary
industrial regions
that stand out on the world map of
industrial centers by the 1950s were western Europe, east-
ern North America, western Russia and Ukraine, and East
Asia (Fig. 12.7).
Russia and Ukraine
The St. Petersburg region is one of Russia's oldest manu-
facturing centers. Tsar Peter the Great planned and con-
structed the city not only to serve as Russia's capital but
also to become the country's industrial core. Peter the
Great encouraged western European artisans with skills
and specializations to migrate to the region, and he
imported high-quality machine building, optical prod-
ucts, and medical equipment. The St. Petersburg region
soon attracted industries including shipbuilding, chemical
production, food processing, and textile making. After
World War I, the newly formed Soviet Union annexed
Ukraine and used the rich resources and industrial poten-
tial of Ukraine, especially the coal-rich Donbass region,
to become an industrial power. The Soviet Union (and
Russia today) was resource rich. Soviet leaders directed an
economic plan to industrialize the Moscow region.
Communist leaders developed industries in Nizhni
Novgorod, southeast of Moscow, which came to be known
as the “Soviet Detroit.”
North America
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the only seri-
ous rival to Europe was a territory settled predominantly
by Europeans and with particularly close links to
Britain, which provided links to the capital and innova-
tions that fueled industrialization there: North America.
Manufacturing in North America began in New England
during the colonial period, but the northeastern States
were not especially rich in mineral resources. North
America, however, benefi ted from the ability of its com-
panies to acquire needed raw materials from overseas
sources. Industries developed along the Great Lakes
where canal, river, and lakes connected with railroads on
land to move resources and goods in and out of industrial
centers. There was no need to go abroad in search of
energy, however. Coal was the chief fuel for industries at
the time, and there was never any threat of a coal shortage
in the United States: U.S. coal reserves are among the
world's largest and are widely distributed, being found
from Appalachian Pennsylvania to the northwestern
Great Plains (Fig. 12.8).
East Asia
In less than a century after the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution, Japan became one of the world's leading
industrial countries. With limited natural resources, man-
ufacturing in Japan depended upon raw materials
