Economic History - AP World History: Modern

Adam Smith was a prominent academic in the 1700's. He is considered to be the father of the field of economics. He was a prolific writer and theorist on the subject of wealth and how nations economic policies affect each other.

Wealth of Nations was a book written by Adam Smith in 1776. In it Smith describes the outline for how a nation becomes wealthy and how the division of labor falls within a wealthy vs. non-wealthy society. This book is considered a seminal document in the development of free-market capitalism.

Smith was an advocate of the idea that a nation could only be wealthy by taking advantage of another nation. He said that since wealth is relative, for a nation to be perceived to be wealthy, it must make another nation poor by comparison. Thus he said the colonial system worked to the benefit of the home nation and at the expense of the colony itself.

As the name might suggest, the Industrial Revolution brought industry to the fore as the main economic power. Merchants and traders wealth were no longer the standard to be measured by as the captains of industry amassed more wealth than the world had ever seen before.

The Industrial Revolution brought forth the rise of the corporations. While not a new idea, the corporation had been around for 200 years, there had never been as many corporations before, or ones that proved to be as powerful. Corporations began to dominate the economy and determine the fate of nations.

Cottage Industry practices were against everything the industrial revolution represented. Whereas most manufacturing until the 19th century had occurred in homes or local shops, new technology and urbanization promoted the rise of factories and large companies who manufactured goods cheaply and began trading them around the world.

Western Europe was the first to modernize, nations such as Great Britain and Germany had the natural and financial resources to industrialize while nations such as Spain and Turkey, as well as South America and Africa lacked the resources needed to keep up with the progress of industry.

The United States’ Open Door policy relates to the desire of American businessmen and merchants to have full access to Japanese and Chinese markets. This was achieved in the nineteenth century as the European powers forced access to China and the United States forced access to Japan.

The Treaty of Kanagawa was signed by representatives of the Japanese and American governments in 1854. It opened Japan to trade with western nations, specifically the United States. It also formally ended Japan’s centuries long period of isolationism.

The Suez Canal is located in the Middle East and has led to many disagreements in the area. For example, the Suez Canal Crisis involved the dispute over its usage between Egypt, Israel, Great Britain, and France. It took international involvement to help temporarily resolve these disagreements.

The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1793 dramatically accelerated the productive capabilities of America’s cotton plantations. So much so that by the outbreak of the Civil War, seventy years later, America was producing more than half of the global supply of cotton - approximately sixty-five percent.

Japan’s Twenty-One Demands of China essentially guaranteed Japan would have access to and control over Chinese markets and the Chinese economy. Britain and the United States opposed these demands and feared that Japan would interfere with British and American trading interests and spheres of influence in mainland China.

The Panama Canal was finished in 1914, and from that date until 1999 it was owned and operated by the government of the United States.

Matthew Perry was a commodore in the United States’ navy in the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1852 Perry was tasked by American President Millard Fillmore to force the opening of Japanese markets to American trade. Perry achieved this through gunboat diplomacy - he sailed into Japanese waters and essentially threatened to bombard Japanese cities unless his demands were met. His actions led to the opening of Japanese markets to American trade and the end of Japanese isolationism.

The Industrial Revolution began first in Britain. It then spread outward to Northern Europe, countries like France and Germany embraced the Industrial Revolution in the early nineteenth century. The United States was swept up in the Industrial Revolution by the mid nineteenth century and was shortly thereafter joined by Japan (following the Meiji Restoration in 1868). Russia, with its massive serf population and agrarian society, was not well-suited to the adoption of the Industrial Revolution. It took many decades of forced social change and economic hardship before Russia finally embraced the Industrial Revolution at the dawn of the twentieth century.

The Wealth of Nations was published by the enlightenment thinker Adam Smith in 1776. The Wealth of Nations outlines how nations can and do acquire wealth. It was widely influential and contributed to the break from mercantilism and the embracing of free market capitalism that marked Europe in the early years of the Industrial Revolution.

The Twenty-One Demands were issued by the Japanese government to the Chinese government in 1915. They were intended to ensure Japanese control over China and regional hegemony in the Far East. The Chinese, in no position to dispute the demands after their recent revolution and in the midst of their so-called “century of humiliation,” gave in to Japanese demands and allowed Japan to take control of Manchuria and much of the Chinese economy.

The Marshall Plan was enacted in 1948 and was designed to rebuild the economies of post-war Western Europe to prevent the spread of communism. It also involved the removal of trade barriers and the restructuring of European industry.

The Truman Doctrine was an American foreign policy implemented by President Truman in 1947. Its stated goal was to stop the spread of communism and prevent Soviet hegemony. The doctrine was solidified in 1948 with America giving significant financial aid to Greece and Turkey to discourage the spread of communism in these countries. The Marshall Plan, similarly, was designed to prevent the spread of communism in Europe by providing aid to help rebuild European economies.