Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T04:05:45.650Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

20 - Changing Europe’s Economic History

from Prosperity and Solidarity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2023

By
Ivan T. Berend
Edited by
Mathieu Segers  and
Steven Van Hecke
Mathieu Segers
Affiliation:
Universiteit Maastricht, Netherlands
Steven Van Hecke
Affiliation:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
Get access

Summary

From the late eighteenth century, Europe started rising to the top of the world. The first industrial revolution in Britain gradually spread over the continent and the first important steps of a second industrial revolution, partly by Germany, were made after the middle of the nineteenth century. By 1870, Europe produced 45 per cent of the world’s total income. Around the turn of the century, however, Europe lost its leading position, and produced only 27 per cent of the world’s total income by 1913. The combined per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of the overseas West (the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) was already more than 70 per cent higher than that of western Europe.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the European Union , pp. 565 - 599
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Recommended Reading

Berend, I. T. An Economic History of Twentieth-Century Europe: Economic Regimes from Laissez-Faire to Globalization (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2016).Google Scholar
Eichengreen, B. The European Economy since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2007).Google Scholar
Judt, T. (with Snyder)., T. Thinking the Twentieth Century (London, Penguin, 2012).Google Scholar
Lowe, K. Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II (New York, NY, St Martin’s Press, 2012).Google Scholar
Mazower, M. Dark Continent: Europe’s Twentieth Century (London, Allen Lane, 1995).Google Scholar
Polanyi, K. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston, MA, Beacon Press, 2001 [1944]).Google Scholar
Sandholtz, W. High-Tech Europe: The Politics of International Cooperation (Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1992).Google Scholar
Servan-Schreiber, J.-J. Le défi américain (Paris, Denoël, 1967).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×