Second Industrial Revolution: Technological Advancements & Global Impact

The Second Industrial Revolution

Business Concentrations: Cartels, Trusts, and Holding Companies

A cartel is an agreement among manufacturers of certain products to reduce or eliminate competition. This agreement often involves fixing prices or allocating clientele. A trust is a fusion resulting from various administrations or activities devoted to the same or different phases of a production process. A holding company is a financial company that invests in and controls various administrations. These giant concentrations developed in the U.S. and Germany. Some industrial powers, like the United States, enacted anti-trust laws that forbade actions hindering competition or creating monopolies.

Economic Protectionism

Economic protectionism consisted of raising tariffs, which meant imposing fees on imported products.

Technical Progress and Technological Innovations

The use of new materials and new sources of energy radically transformed industry. Coordinated technologies transformed steam power, and iron manufacturing was replaced by steel, electric energy, and petroleum. The final decades of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century were a period in which inventions revolutionized many aspects of life and the global economy.

The production machinery industry was boosted when the population could access consumption. The sewing machine, the typewriter, the bicycle, and the automobile became popular for mass consumption. The inexpensive Ford Model T revolutionized the automobile industry. Mass consumption also reached the vacuum cleaner. Aspirin appeared, and installment plans allowed poorer sectors to buy high-priced products.

Electrical energy changed forms of work and daily life for much of humanity. It had numerous applications in industry, transportation, daily life, and communications. Edison manufactured the first light bulb with a carbon filament, paving the way for electric lighting. Edison invented the phonograph, and Marconi put wireless telegraphs into operation.

Oil was the combustible required for new explosion engines used in automobiles, steel ships, and airplanes.

The chemical industry had great applications, such as fertilizers for agriculture, components for the manufacture of paper, medicines, and explosives.

Taylorism and the New Organization of Work

The new organization of work assigned workers fixed and repetitive tasks at some stage in the production chain in order to save time and lower production costs. This new work system was known as Taylorism.

The Partition of Africa

By 1914, the African territory was entirely distributed among the European powers. France annexed Algeria in 1847 and occupied the island of Madagascar and the Gulf of Guinea.

Portugal controlled Angola and Mozambique, Germany controlled Cameroon, German East Africa, and Southwest Africa, Spain controlled northern Morocco, Rio de Oro, and Guinea, and Italy controlled Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia.

The Suez Canal was a strategic piece for the Asian colonial trade. The Berlin Conference, convened in 1884 at the initiative of Chancellor Bismarck, was held to allocate Africa. It was agreed that possession of coastal land gave the right to occupy the interior, the Niger and Congo rivers would be open for free navigation, and the existence of the State of the Congo under Belgian rule was recognized.