ABSTRACT
Symbolically, the European civilization of 1914 could be represented as precisely by the steam-hammer or the steam warship as it had once been by the cathedral spire or the knightly banner. Modern technology had established itself across wide areas of a continent dominated, only decades previously, by the feudal lord and the urban guild. There were engineering works in Spezia and Tsaritsyn, automobile factories in Vienna and Milan, dreadnought yards in Fiume and Ferrol. In the great coal and metallurgical complex of Rhine-Ruhr, Europe could boast the world’s most concentrated and integrated industrial area. And at St Etienne, Hayange, or Décazeville, the French industrialists had created a handful of manufacturing installations which could rival any in existence. To the casual glance, it might appear that industrialization had overtaken Europe from the Mediterranean to the Baltic, from the Channel to the Danube. But, clearly enough, industrialization did not possess the same value wherever it touched. A machine-shop in Budapest did not possess the same significance as a machine-shop in Birmingham or Berlin. Despite the outward similarities, industrialization in Europe was a phenomenon of very variable pace and intensity, offering radically different prospects of wealth and power as it crossed frontiers and resource areas. To begin with, it may be useful to provide a rough outline of the divergent pattern of achievement among the main industrial contenders.
