How did the developed countries get there?

Looking into the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, we must look into Britain, Germany, and Switzerland, and over time many others followed. But what was the driver and what made it work? In history books, we read a lot about natural resources like coal, iron, and so forth but there were countries with far more of those resources. Then we read about education – which is a far more important aspect but interestingly enough, most of the ingenious ideas and the realization of those ideas did not require any special education. Moreover the top educated people believed in things that have been created and proofed hundreds of times that things worked. Yet this was not true for the steam engine, nor for the diesel engine, not for cranes and not for steel ships let alone airplanes and so forth. In some cases history tries to make us believe war or politics is one driver but nobody can prove that this is true.

Now, looking into how Carl Benz developed the first Automobile, it becomes apparent that it was a bit of accidental ideas, inspiration, a bit of free time at hand and the support of friends and family. Most others found it stupid or dangerous, or meaningless, and so forth. But continuous effort and an amazing energy to make it work was finally the main necessity to create the first automobile that was driven by his wife to friends in order to demonstrate it worked.

The pattern of Carl Benz’ development is also the pattern one way or the other of Robert Bosch, Werner v. Siemens, Friedrich Krupp in Germany,  Alfred Escher, Robert Schindler, Henri Nestle and much later Tim Berners-Lee in Switzerland, Much later when Silicon Valley emerged it was William Shockley, Robert Noyce, Gordon Moor und later Steve Jobs that laid the foundation for yet another Industry Leap in the US. Equally interesting is to look at Sooth Korea and the sudden rise of their economy which where mainly driven by Lee Byung-Chul of Samsung, Koo In-Hwoi of LG and Chung Ju-Yung of Hyunday.

All developed economies have been built by entrepreneurs, taking risks and creating what seamed to be impossible.

In other words, globally we experienced several industrial revolutions in different countries at different times and the latest and most substantial one in China.

In other words

An Industrial Revolution is NOT a singular event that happened in the 1800’s and those who did not participate are out. However, many countries who create a industrial revolution back then and got more and more controlled through governmental rules and structures, also began to prevented other countries to rise. In particular those who had resources the industrialized nations needed and wanted them cheap.  Even though colonialism was not evoque anymore, a silent “Neo colonialism”  emerged.

What went wrong?

Lack of creativity, fierce competition, increased pressure from investors and many other things led to a significant loss of innovation power and rise of fast and dirty business practices most of the ordinary consumer had no idea about. Today the “West” operates in a way that is simply speaking inacceptable – not only for the the countries who are exploited but also the population that has to live with that inacceptable practice.