Industrialization:
Where is Industry
Distributed?
Major Industrial
Regions
• Small minority of countries have become
industrial economies
• Four primary industrial regions have
emerged all in the Northern Hemisphere
–
–
–
–
Western and Central Europe
Eastern North America
Russia and Ukraine
Eastern Asia
Four Industrial Regions
•
¾ of the world industrial production is in
four regions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
•
NW Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern North America
East Asia
Less than 1% of the world’s land is
devoted to industry
Four Industrial Regions
3
1
2
4
Europe
• Four Main Industrial Districts
– United Kingdom
– Rhine-Ruhr Valley
– Mid-Rhine
– Northern Italy
• Became important because of their
proximity to raw materials (coal and iron
ore) and markets (large concentrations of
wealthy consumers
United Kingdom
• The Industrial Revolution
originated in northern
England and southern
Scotland
• Late 1900’s – industry was
expanded by attracting
high-tech industries
• Japanese companies have
built more factories in the
United Kingdom than any
other European country
Rhine-Ruhr Valley
• Location – mostly in NW
Germany, extends in to
Belgium, France, and the
Netherlands
• Iron and Steel
Manufacturing
• Heavy-metal industries –
locomotives, machinery,
and armaments
Mid Rhine
• Western Europe’s second most important
industrial center
• SW Germany, NE France, and Luxembourg
• German portion – lacks raw materials, but it is
the center of the consumer market
• The most central industrial area in the EU
• The French portion – Alsace and Lorraine –
contains Europe’s largest iron-ore field, and
produces 2/3 of France’s steel
Northern Italy
•
•
•
•
The Po River Basin
Textile manufacturing – 1800s
Numerous workers willing to work for low wages
Inexpensive hydroelectricity from the Alps
Eastern Europe
Industrial Districts
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Central
St. Petersburg
The Volga
The Urals
Kuznetsk
Eastern
Ukraine
7. Silesia
2
7
4
1
6
3
5
Central Industrial
District
• Russia’s oldest, centered around Moscow
• Produces ¼ of the country’s output
• Specialize in textiles (linen, cotton, wool,
and silk), chemicals, and light industrial
goods
St Petersburg
Industrial District
• Railways
• Specializes in shipbuilding
• Goods that meet the needs of the local
market (processed food, textiles and
chemicals)
The Volga Industrial
District
• Along the Volga and Kama Rivers
• Grew during WWII when plants in the
Central and Ukraine regions were
occupied by the Germans
• Largest petroleum and natural gas fields
The Urals Industrial
District
• The Ural Mountains
contain more than
1,000 types of minerals
• Iron, copper, potassium,
bauxite (aluminum
ore), and salt
• Industrial development
is hindered by a lack of
nearby energy sources
Kuznetsk Industrial
District
• Russia’s most important manufacturing
district east of the Ural Mountains
• Contains the country’s largest reserves of
coal and iron ore
Eastern Ukraine
Industrial District
• Donetsk coalfield – contains one of the
world’s largest reserves of coal
• Also – iron ore, manganese, and natural
gas
Manganese
Silesia
• Southern Poland and northern Czech
Republic
• Near coalfields but iron ore must be
imported
North America
• Concentration in the NE U.S. and SE
Canada
• The east coast was tied to Europe from its
founding
• By 1860 – The United States had become a
major industrial nation, second to the
United Kingdom
U.S. Industrial Areas
1.
2.
3.
4.
New England
Middle Atlantic
Mohawk Valley
Pittsburg-Lake
Erie
5. Western Great
Lakes
3
5
4
1
2
New England
• Developed in the early 19th century,
beginning with cotton textiles
• European immigrants
• Now – relatively skilled but expensive
labor
Middle Atlantic
• Between NYC and Washington D.C.
• The largest U.S. market
• Industries that depend on foreign markets
or imported raw materials have located
here: NYC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and
Wilmington DE
• Other firms seek to be near the financial,
communications, and entertainment
industries (NYC)
Mohawk Valley
• Upper New York state along the Hudson River and Erie
Canal
• Buffalo
• Inexpensive, abundant electricity, generated by Niagara
Falls has attracted aluminum, paper, and electrochemical
industries
Pittsburg-Lake Erie
• The area between Pittsburg and Cleveland is the
nation’s most important steel producing area
• Close to Appalachian coal
• Minnesota became an important source of iron ore
• Great Lakes
Western Great Lakes
• Extends from Detroit and Toledo to
Chicago and Milwaukee
• Chicago
– Dominant market between the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts
– Center for transportation networks
• Automobile manufacturing
Canada’s Industrial
Areas
• St. Lawrence Valley-Ontario Peninsula
• Hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls
• Car manufacturing, aluminum, papermaking, flour mills, textile manufacturing,
and sugar refining
East Asia
• Heterogeneity – the most heterogeneous
region in terms of level of development
• Japan – one of the world’s wealthiest
countries
• China – second largest economy, behind
the U.S.
• China has abundant resources of coal, iron
ore, and minerals, but the rest of East Asia
has very few
East Asia
• Labor force = East Asia’s most abundant
resource
• Although industry was devastated after
WWII, Japan became an industrial power
in the 1950’s and 1960’s by offering low
priced products
• Highly skilled jobs
• Japan is the world’s leading manufacturer
of automobiles, ships, cameras, stereos, and
TVs
East Asia
• Uneven Distribution
• Japan’s industry is
concentrated in the
central region
between Tokyo and
Nagasaki
• China’s
manufacturing is
clustered near the
East Coast
Secondary Industrial
Regions
• South of the world’s primary
industrial region
• Industrial regions usually consist of
several zones, each dominated by a
particular kind of industry
– Iron and steel zone
– Coal mining in another
– Textiles in a third
• Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, and
Vietnam share the economic growth
in Pacific Realm
• Most of the world’s industrial activity
has traditionally been found in
developed countries of the
midlatitudes
Maquiladora
• Secondary manufacturing zone
• Developed in northern Mexico
near border with US
• Where manufactured products
could be sent to US free of
import tariffs
• US companies established plants
designated to transform
imported, day free components
or raw material in finished
products
• Owned by US
• Young women= cheaper wages
Maquiladora Continued
• Factory that imports material and equipment on a duty-free and
tariff-free basis for manufacturing and re-exports the assembled
product
• Variety of industries
– Electronics, transportation, textiles, machinery
• NAFTA
– tax-free
– Industry expanded more rapidly
• Dense number of maquiladoras
– Pollution
– Hazardous waste
• Lack proper waste management facilities and the ability to clean up
disposal sites
– Hazardous waste illegally disposed