Did Colonialism Spur European Industrialization?

Abstract

Mitta Gifawosen Markos

This article specifically addresses the role of colonialism in the European industrialization. In order to examine this process, the article used secondary sources of data and employed desk analysis to make replicable and valid inferences from texts. Unlike the conventional wisdom which claims the phenomenon was solely driven by internal developments in Europe, this articleargues that external factors, specifically colonialism, had an important role in fueling the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, perhaps through the supply of land, raw material, labor force, and being a market destination of industrial productsfor the European countries, particularly Great Britain.

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