In 1807, Britain abolished the slave trade in order to keep the profits out of the United States. American independence caused a change in the military environment. The British policed the Atlantic to emancipate slaves being transported for trade illegally, and their navy grew. This, along with industrial naval technology, such as steam-powered all iron gunboats, allowed Britain to establish a naval supremacy, a factor contributing to the success of industrialization. Hence, industrialization was contingent on American …show more content…
Britain, then promoting mercantilism, raised tariffs on Indian imports and banned the importation of some Indian cotton goods to protect their own cotton textile industry. Due to slavery, plantations, and mercantilism, the New World became a British cotton textile market, allowing for the British cotton textile industry to grow. Britain revolutionized cotton textile production with the development of a usable coal-fueled steam engine, as Britain, by historical accident, sat on top of a large supply of coal, and allowed Britain to undersell Indian textiles, even in India. As Britain’s cotton textile industry boomed, India’s cotton textile industry declined and this caused a change in labor in India from manufacturing cotton textiles by hand to farming raw cotton. This “deindustrialization” of India provided Britain with large profits to fund their industrialization, and thus industrialization was dependent on India’s cotton textile industry and the decline of it. The Mughal Empire, the ruling class in India, declined during the eighteenth century. Because of the decline, Britain was able to establish power in India, it became a formal colony in 1857. Indians turned to farming crops such as raw cotton and opium poppies to pay taxes. The British power over India was contingent on the Mughal Empire’s decline, and it influenced a greater supply of opium and raw cotton. As opium and cotton