Theme 4: Industrial Inequality is Global, Not Just Within Nations

Industrialization did not just produce inequality between bourgeoisie and proletariat within nations. It also produced unprecedented inequality between industrial nations and non-industrial nations. By 1900, British workers were poor by British standards but rich compared to Indian peasants or African villagers whose societies had been disrupted by colonial integration into industrial supply chains. This global inequality, which originated in the Industrial Revolution, persists today and is a central theme of Unit 10.9 on globalization.