World’s Largest Industrial Countries | Economic Geography

Here is a list of world’s largest industrial countries:- 1. Countries of Europe 2. Countries of North America 3. U.S.S.R. 4. Countries of Asia 5. Parts of the Southern Continents.

Countries of Europe:

Europe was the home of the Industrial Revolution and was the first to develop heavy industries on a large scale. In terms of industrial output, the variety of in­dustries and the number of people employed in the industrial sector, it is still the greatest in the world.

European industries have the following characteristics:

1. A high degree of technological proficiency, es­pecially in the fields of engineering, textiles, chemicals and electronics.

2. Industrial areas are usually located on or near the coalfields, though some of the newer industries such as electro-metallurgical and electrochemicals industries in Sweden and Switzerland are based on hydro-electric power. Industries based on petro­chemicals are located at the importing ports such as Antwerp, Rotterdam and Europoort.

3. Industrial establishments are often rather old with less modern equipment than their counterparts in Japan or some parts of the U.S.A. Factories that were destroyed during the two world wars, however, have been replaced by more modern installations. Factories are either oil-powered or run by electricity, though much of the electricity is generated by coal burning.

4. Industrial operations are highly mechanized. The Europeans, especially the British, Germans, French and Swiss have long been noted for their in­ventive genius and are responsible for inventions with a wide range of industrial applications.

5. Europe has a large, town-based industrial pop­ulation. A large proportion of its people work in fac­tories and enjoy a high standard of living. European education is technically biased and every effort is made by the governments to improve industrial facilities.

6. The manufacturing belt of Europe is not con­tinuous. The principal manufacturing zone extends, from west to east, from Britain through north-eastern France, Belgium, the Rhinelands of West Germany, Saxony-Bohemia to Silesia. Other important indus­trial areas are found on the Swiss Plateau, northern Italy, in central Sweden and in many large towns and cities throughout Europe such as London, Paris, Berlin, and Milan.

i. Great Britain:

Most of Great Britain’s industrial regions are very closely associated with the coalfields. At the present time industry is declining due to cheaper and more efficient production overseas, old equipment and labour troubles at home and world recession. Those regions worst hit are in the west — S. Wales, Lancashire and Belfast, where basic decline is increased by distance from markets in Europe now that Britain is part of the EEC and by distance from the new sources of oil and gas in the North Sea. The country is highly urbanized and the majority of the people work in some type of industry.

The following are the major industrial areas:

(a) The Midlands:

This is the largest British indus­trial belt centred at Birmingham. Its early growth was entirely due to the presence of coalfields, but its cen­tral location has been its most lasting advantage and has brought about the development of a dense network of roads and railways. Today industrial power is pro­vided mainly by thermal electricity and imported oil.

The region makes anything ‘from a pin to a battle­ship’, but specializes in smaller metal-goods manu­facture and high quality items. Heavy goods would incur high transport costs from this inland position.

The South Staffordshire coalfield has long supported a thriving metallurgical industry in the industrial conurbation formed by Birmingham, Dudley, Wolver­hampton, Wallsall and West Bromwich, often called ‘the Black Country’ because of its smoky, dirty ap­pearance due to centuries of industrial development. It has iron and steel, engineering, transport equipment, electrical apparatus, hardware, glassware and vehicle components industries and many minor manufactures such as needles, nails, locks, keys, brassware and jewellery.

Coventry, the heart of the automobile industry, is located on the Warwickshire coalfield. It began with the making of bicycles, and sewing machines and later turned to cars, coaches and trucks. It is the head­quarters of British Leyland which is the largest British automobile corporation. Smaller industrial towns in­clude Rugby (locomotives).

North of Coventry is the Leicestershire coalfield, on which is found Burton-on-Trent, the largest brewery town of Britain. The other industrial centres include Derby, noted for textiles and engineering and Nottingham, which specializes in hoisery, pharma­ceuticals and cigarettes and tobacco.

On the North Staffordshire coalfield is the pottery town of Stoke-on- Trent which originally depended on local coal and clay. Kaolin is now brought from Cornwall. The pottery industry grew in importance in the eighteenth century because of the skill and enterprise of Spode and Wedgwood, and is still extremely important. It now uses electric kilns and imported raw materials.

(b) North-East England:

This region has heavy en­gineering and a wide range of metallurgical industries. By virtue of its location on the Northumberland and Durham coalfield, and its proximity to the iron ore of the Cleveland Hills (now exhausted), it developed an iron and steel industry, with related marine, mechan­ical and constructional engineering, shipbuilding, chemicals and glass industries.

These now rely mainly on imported iron ore and oil as well as local coal. New­castle on the River Tyne has shipbuilding (now de­clining) and transport equipment industries. Other major industrial centres are Darlington (locomotives), Stockton (engineering), Middlesbrough (iron and steel), Gateshead (structural engineering), Sunderland (marine engineering), West Hartlepool (shipbuilding), South Shields (port industries) and Billingham (chem­icals, especially fertilizers, drugs and synthetic fibres).

(c) Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire:

Britain’s woollen and worsted textiles region in the Aire and Calder Valleys is centred around Bradford and Halifax (worsted), Huddersfield and Wakefield (woollens) and Leeds (garments). Coal from the Yorkshire coalfield and the soft water from the Pennine streams for washing, bleaching and dyeing were ideal for processing local wool from the Pennine sheep. The textile mills are now highly mechanized and make use of imported wool. Other industries in the region include the manufacture of textile ma­chinery.

Extending Southwards from the West Riding tex­tile region is another outstanding industrial district centred at Sheffield, the world’s largest cutlery town. Its growth was due to the availability of both coking and steam-raising coal from the Derbyshire-Notting­hamshire coalfields, iron ore from Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire and the limestone of the Pennines, as well as a tradition of skilled labour in cutlery- making.

The region has an important iron and steel industry with steelworks in Sheffield and blast furnaces and rolling mills in surrounding towns. The engineer­ing industry is also well-developed, producing tools, machine parts, locomotives and other metal products. The chief steel and engineering towns, apart from Sheffield, are Rotherham, Doncaster and Chesterfield.

This inland region, especially Sheffield, has retained its importance even though the largest iron and steel mills are now on the coast, because of the high quality and specialized nature of the finished goods. This offsets higher transport costs.

(d) The Lancashire Region:

On the other side of the Pennines in Lancashire is the original cotton tex­tiles region of Britain, centred at Manchester and served by the port of Liverpool. With local power from the Lancashire coalfield, imported cotton from the U.S.A. and Egypt, salt from Cheshire and the technological skill of the local people, the region was able to develop into the cotton textile centre of the world.

The main towns are Bolton and Bury (spinning) and Blackburn and Rochdale (weaving). The cotton industry has de­clined rapidly during the twentieth century but other traditional industries have continued to grow. Ship­building (Liverpool and Birkenhead), marine engi­neering, chemicals (Widnes, Runcorn, Warrington) and the processing of many tropical products are im­portant in southern Lancashire. Soap is made at Port Sunlight; margarine at Bromborough near Manchester; glass at St. Helens; heavy chemicals along the Man­chester Ship Canal; oil is refined at Ellesmere Port and motor vehicles are assembled at Halewood.

ii. France:

France has many important industries but as a whole is far less urbanized and industrialized than Britain.

The major industrial areas are as follows:

(a) The North-East industrial region:

This is the largest single industrial district of France noted iron and steel, textiles and engineering. Two major factors, the presence of the coalfields of Nord and Pas-de-Calais (a continuation of the Sambre-Meuse coalfield of Belgium) and the relative ease with which iron ore can be brought from Lorraine or imported from Sweden, make industrial growth possible.

A coastal location has allowed the region to retain its prosperity despite the declining importance of coal. The iron and steel towns of Dunkirk, Douai, Denain and Valenciennes also make metal parts and machin­ery. Lille makes cotton, woollen, linen and synthetic textiles. Roubaix, Tourcoing, Armentieres and Cambrai are the other textile towns. Some of these towns also manufacture agricultural machinery and have chemical plants associated with the textile mills.

(b) Lorraine:

This region was traditionally the major French producer of iron and steel. The indus­try was based on local minette ores and on some local and some imported coking coal. Rolling mills and tin- plating works are also found in the region but engi­neering is less well-developed than in the north-east.

The main industrial towns of Lorraine are Metz, Thion- ville, Longwy and Nancy. Nowadays the location of the region far inland, the decline of coal and marginal economic viability of the steel industry, as well as competition from more efficient producers in the Saar and Ruhr make it a declining industrial region.

(c) Greater Paris:

The area of greater Paris con­tains 8.5 million people, more than ten times the population of Marseilles, the second city of France. It therefore provides a vast labour force and a large market. It makes a very wide range of goods such as jewellery, cosmetics, ornaments, porcelain, wearing apparel, cigarettes, furniture, musical instruments, precise scientific instruments, automobiles, locomo­tives, aircraft and chemicals.

iii. West Germany:

The West German industrial areas are more concentrated and much greater in extent than those of France. Industries are based mainly on coalfields, though other raw materials such as iron ore in the Ruhr and timber in the Black Forest have assisted industrial development consider­ably.

(a) The Ruhr-Westphalia Region:

This is Ger­many’s largest industrial region.

The factors which contributed to its growth in the nineteenth century were as follows:

1. Coal outcrops in the Ruhr coalfield, much of the coal being suitable for coking, encouraged the development of the iron and steel industry.

2. Local iron ores which were replaced when they were exhausted by ores from nearby Siegerland and later by imported ores.

3. An excellent position in relation to transport routes. The region lies not only on the Rhine, which provides a cheap form of transport for heavy goods, both imports and exports, but also on a major east- west land route which linked the region with the rest of Germany. Communications were added to and improved by the building of canals including the Dortmund-Ems canal linking the area to the North Sea and facilitating the import of Swedish iron ore, as well as railways and modern roads.

In response to all these locational advantages a wide range of industries, especially heavy industries includ­ing iron and steel (at Duisburg, Essen, Bochum and Dortmund); heavy chemicals (around Dusseldorf and Leverkusen); engineering (Gelsenkirchen, Oberhausen, Rheinhausen, Essen and Dortmund) including large interests in armaments; and a number of specialized industries such as cutlery (at Solingen and Remscheid, and textiles (at Krefeld and Wuppertal).

The region became a vast industrial conurbation with a population of around 5 million which forms a large supply of labour and also a large local market for smaller manu­factured goods, consumer goods and service industries.

In common with other industrial regions located on coalfields, the Ruhr has suffered a decline in the mining industry as such. The mines which are still operating in the northern part of the region now exploit a wholly concealed portion of the coalfield and are gradually being closed. German coal output is gradually declining. Unlike many other regions, how­ever, the decline has not greatly affected other in­dustries in the region.

(c) Other Industrial Cities of W. Germany:

Apart from the large industrial regions there are several large cities which have developed a wide range of industries. West Berlin is the largest and owes its industrial de­velopment to its former status as the capital of the whole of Germany. It makes consumer goods, such as furniture and luxury articles, and has important chemicals, engineering and electrical industries. Elec­trical apparatus and electronic equipment are most important.

It makes generally high-cost items which can withstand the cost of transport across East Ger­many as well as having market-based industries. Ham­burg is a major port with important shipbuilding and marine engineering works. Munich makes beer, musical instruments, scientific instruments, photo­graphic equipment. Stuttgart makes automobiles, optical and surgical equipment, car components and watches.

Hanover has metal and chemicals industries and Aachen and Saarbrucken in the west of the coun­try are based on small coalfields and have iron and steel, engineering and textile industries.

iv. East Germany:

The main industrial areas of East Germany are based on the Saxony coalfield and the Stassfurt salt deposits. The Elbe provides excellent water transport. Leipzig is famous for its optical instruments and Jena for Zeiss photographic equip­ment. Dresden is the centre for Dresden porcelain and Karl Marx Stadt for textiles. The abundant supply of potash salts in Saxony has led to the development of all kinds of chemicals industries in such towns as Magdeburg, Stassfurt and Halle.

Other industries in the region include processing of agricultural products from the surrounding region; printing and publishing; and engineering. East Berlin, the capital of East Germany, is another major industrial centre with engineering, textiles and electrical industries.

v. Other European Industrial Regions (Except U.S.S.R.):

Britain, France and Germany are the major European industrial countries but most European countries have important manufacturing activities. These are outlined below.

In Belgium heavy industries, including iron and steel making and the manufacture of armaments, are found on the Sambre-Meuse coalfield, particularly at Liege, where John Cockerill constructed the first Belgian blast furnace in 1823. Charleroi makes cut­lery, mining equipment, chemicals and electrical ap­pliances. Mons has textiles and brewery industries while Namur is noted for agricultural engineering.

The outskirts of Brussels, the capital of Belgium, have many industrial activities, including textiles, chemicals, paper, food processing and metal goods. It is linked to its premier port Antwerp whose ancient special­ization in diamond cutting has been completely over­shadowed by rapidly-growing port industries including shipbuilding, oil refining and petrochemicals, and mechanical engineering.

A textiles manufacturing area is concentrated in the Lys valley with emphasis on linen textiles at Ghent, Courtrai and Tournai. The town of Bruges specializes in lace and embroidery. There are a number of important industrial towns located on the Kempenland coalfield which make bricks, paper, glass and chemicals and smelt metals such as zinc and copper. Genk, Hasselt and Turnhout are the main towns.

South of the Belgian Ardennes is the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg which has only one major industry: the iron and steel industry. This is located at the town of Esch, and at the neighbouring centres of Dudelange and Differdange on the iron ore fields. It derives its low-grade minette iron ores from the continuation of the French Lorraine iron ore fields.

The ore, which has a high content of phosphoric im­purities, could not be successfully worked till the in­vention of the basic Bessemer process of iron smelting in 1878. Luxembourg City has engineering industries. Steel is of great importance to Luxembourg, but as in nearby Lorraine, it faces great difficulties and is tending to decline.

The Netherlands has 40 per cent of its population engaged in the industrial sector and many branches of modern industries are well-represented there. Marine engineering and shipbuilding are important in Rotter­dam, Schiedam and Dordrecht. Engineering industries are well-developed in Utrecht (light machinery), and Eindhoven (electrical engineering, home of the Philips electrical company).

Chemical plants are found in Pernis and Europoort near Rotterdam, and Maastricht. Groningen is the centre of industries based on the extraction of natural gas from the North Sea. There are a number of towns noted for textiles: Tilburg (woollen textiles), Eindhoven (linen), Enschede (cot­ton), Arnhem (rayon) and Breda (synthetic fibres). Amsterdam has long been a centre for diamond cut­ting and Arnhem for tin smelting. Oil refineries are located in Rotterdam, Pernis and Europoort.

Dairying, brewing, sugar refining, food processing and oil milling are also important industries in the larger towns in the agricultural polder-lands. Industrial ac­tivity in the Netherlands is much more important than many people realize, for the country is usually thought of as an agricultural one.

Amongst the Scandinavian countries, Sweden is the most industrialized. The main industrial region is in central Sweden, the so-called Lake Depression, with its main centre at Stockholm. Sweden has the richest iron ore resources of Europe, has developed much hydro-electric power and has a long history of tech­nological skills.

Some of its internationally-known exports include Volvo cars, Bofors guns, Aga beacons, Electrolux refrigerators, Laval cream separators, Ericsson telephones, Nobel dynamites and Johansson’s instruments. The industrial towns are well-linked by railways, roads and inland waterways.

Stockholm’s engineering products can be transported by the Gota Canal to Goteborg, the premier port and leading shipbuilding centre of Sweden. Eskilstuna is known as ‘the Sheffield of Sweden’ and produces excellent cut­lery and ornamental goods. Other metal and engineer­ing centres are Vasteras, Falun, Dannemora and Oxelosund. Orebro makes footwear, Norrkoping makes textiles; and Karlstad, Norrkoping, Orebro and Trollhattan make paper.

Norway’s leading industries are marine engineering, shipbuilding, fish-canning and the pulp and paper in­dustries. There are aluminium smelting plants at Odda and Ardal, and iron and steel is made at Mo-i-Rana. The capital Oslo, located on Oslo Fiord, and its sur­rounding region has pulp mills, shipyards, chemical plants and fish-canning factories.

The towns of Bergen, Trondheim, and Stavanger are noted for their fishing and shipping activities and Stavanger has become a major port servicing the North Sea oil and gas fields. Electro- chemical industries are web-developed in the Glommen Valley and Telemark where cheap H.E.P. is available. Such plants manufacture fertilizers, plastics, explosives, and smelt ferro-alloys.

Denmark’s industries are centralized at Copenhagen in Zealand. Dairying and agricultural industries are important but chemicals, textiles, fishing vessels, beer (Carlsberg), silverware, machinery and electrical equip­ment are also made. Copenhagen also specializes in diesel engines. The smaller industrial towns such as Odense, Flensburg, Esbjerg and Aarhus are concerned mainly with agricultural industries: grain-milling, sugar-refining, and food-processing, especially the production of butter, cheese, milk and meat.

Despite its mountainous nature, Switzerland is highly industrialized. Four main branches of industries are important, namely watch-making, engineering, chemicals and textiles. Because of its land-locked position, which raises costs of transportation of raw materials, Switzerland specializes in manufacturing ar­ticles that are high in value but small in bulk.

The Swiss Plateau has the greatest concentration of in­dustrial plants based mainly on cheap H.E.P. from the Alps. The engineering industry (machinery, tools, electrical, surgical and optical instruments) is located at Zurich, Basel, and Baden. Textiles have always been a speciality of St. Gallen, Appenzell and Zurich. Clocks and watches are traditionally a product of the Jura towns, e.g. La Chaux-de-Fonds, Biel and Le Locle. Swiss-made watches find ready markets all over the world. The chemicals industry, which makes acids, drugs, plastics and synthetic fibres, is found in the larger towns, especially in Basel and Geneva.

In Italy industrial growth has concentrated in the north rather than the south but governmental influ­ence is helping to develop the south. The Lombardy Plain is the largest industrial region, and contains the major industrial cities of Milan, Turin, Genoa and Mestre (Venice). H.E.P. from the Italian Alps and natural gas exploitation in Emilia and the Po delta have contributed greatly to the industrial needs of the north.

The Po River, the ports of Genoa and Venice and the close network of railways in the Lombardy Plain allow smooth movement of goods and workers within the region. The large local labour force is supplemented by migrants from the south. The densest industrial zone is that formed by the three cities of Milan, Turin and Genoa within which are located a wide variety of manufactures including iron and steel, chemicals, textiles, automobiles (e.g. Fiat cars, Vespa and Lambretta scooters) machinery (e.g. Olivetti typewriters and sewing machines), tyres (e.g. Pirelli), electrical goods and agricultural machin­ery.

Turin is noted for automobiles, rail coaches and aircraft and Milan for textiles (silk in particular) and engineering works. Genoa has shipbuilding and repair­ing industries. Venice has long-established craft indus­tries: Venetian glass, lace, silverware, silk brocades and ornaments, and newer mainland towns such as Mestre and Porto Marghera have heavy industries in­cluding oil refining, petrochemicals and metallurgical industries.

In the South, Naples is the most important town, with wine making and food-processing industries. Iron and steel and petrochemicals have been introduced in Taranto, Bari, Naples and Catania (Sicily). Rome has some light industries but is not a-major industrial centre.

In Poland there is an important industrial region in the south of the country including the towns of Wroclaw, Czestochowa, Bytom, Katowice, Chorzow and Krakow, where coal mining, iron and steel and heavy engineering, chemicals, textiles and zinc/lead refining are all important.

The region is located near the Silesian coalfield, and there are local iron ore, pet­roleum and natural gas resources. Road, rail, and water communications are good. Elsewhere in Poland, Warsaw the capital, and Gdansk on the Baltic Sea are major industrial towns.

Elsewhere in Europe there are few industrial regions but many other large towns with well-devel­oped industries. These include Barcelona, Madrid and Bilbao, Lisbon, Athens, Budapest, Vienna and the capital cities of the other central and East European countries.

Countries of North America:

Despite a somewhat later start in industrialization than Europe, North America has achieved greater in­dustrial and technological advances. The U.S.A. is now the wealthiest and most highly developed nation in the world. Southern Canada is also well-developed.

The reasons for this may be outlined as follows:

1. North America (U.S.A. and Canada) is a vast continent, twice the size of Europe and has a most varied range of relief and climate and therefore of agricultural products, which form raw materials for many industries.

2. North America is endowed with rich mineral resources. It has reserves of practically every known mineral and fuel. North America produces 13 per cent of the world’s petroleum, 40 per cent of its natural gas, a quarter of its coal, a third of its electricity.

3. The population of North America was originally made up of immigrants from the many advanced European nations, especially the British, the French and the Germans. These people brought with them the experience, skill and technical know-how of their mother-countries and applied them in their new homes. North America thus had a ready-made skilled labour force for industrial development.

This advantage has been maintained by adequate educational and training facilities and a technologically-biased educational system. It also attracts skilled scientists and techno­logists who migrate from countries where industrial progress is slower. This ‘brain-gain’ helps to give the U.S.A. a lead in scientific modern industries such as electronics, computers and so on.

4. Location on the opposite side of the Atlantic from Europe has stimulated trade and growing world markets have led to industrial expansion. The exten­sion of water transport to the heart of the continent, via the Great Lakes, has greatly stimulated industry by providing a cheap means of transport for raw materials and finished goods.

i. The U.S.A:

The U.S.A. is the world’s leading indus­trial nation.

There are six major industrial regions, which are described below:

(a) Southern New England:

This part of north­eastern U.S.A., centred at Boston, was the earliest to be developed by settlers from England. The two dom­inant industries have traditionally been shipbuilding (at Boston and Quincy) and textiles (including foot­wear), but both have now declined as newer centres with greater advantages have emerged in the mid- Atlantic States, the Great Lakes and the West.

The engineering industry is still important, especially for the production of specialized goods, such as electrical machinery at Springfield, aircraft and armaments in Hartford, instrument-making at Bridgeport and tex­tile-machinery manufacture at Worcester, Lowell and New Bedford.

Two towns, Boston and Beverly, are spe­cialists in footwear machinery and the former is a shoe- making centre. The traditional textile towns are Lowell and Providence for woollen textiles; and New Bedford, Worcester and Fall River for cotton textiles; but these now produce mainly high-quality goods. Mass production is now more economic farther south.

(b) The Mid-Atlantic States:

The most densely populated part of the United States and also one of the most heavily industrialized is the Mid-Atlantic region, including the cities of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. This region has a great diversity of manufactures.

Pennsylvanian anthracite, coal and oil from the Appalachians, as well as a steady supply of immigrants forming a vast, relatively skilled labour force, were the basis for the growth of an enormous industrial conurbation from New York to Baltimore. This vast conurbation has been called Megalopolis. The industries of the region include all aspects of iron and steel, engineering, printing, electrical goods, wear­ing-apparel and consumer goods industries.

(c) The Pittsburgh-Lake Erie Region:

From Pitts­burgh to Lake Erie are a number of industrial towns which once drew coal from the Northern Appalachian coalfield, and iron from the Mesabi Ranges via the Great Lakes, as the basis for a prosperous iron and steel industry. The region has an excellent location between the Great Lakes and the metropolis of New York and is the core of the U.S.A.’s heavy industry. Pittsburgh became the ‘iron and steel capital of the world’.

Nearby towns of Wheeling, Youngstown, Warren, Sharon and Cleveland, also produce steel. Other industries include mechanical engineering, glass, pottery and chemicals. The town of Akron is the world’s largest synthetic rubber and tyre-making centre. Cleveland specializes in wearing apparel and East Liverpool in pottery. Further north-east is Buf­falo, generating H.E.P. from Niagara Falls, which makes chemicals, metal goods and is the largest flour- milling centre of the U.S.A.

The older parts of the industrial region are de­clining in importance today as a result of exhaustion of oil, less coal mining, inland location and restricted location in valleys and distance from major transport routes, but the lake-shore cities of Cleveland, Erie, and Buffalo are increasingly important.

(d) The Detroit Industrial Region:

At the western end of Lake Erie is the greatest automobile manu­facturing region of the U.S.A., centred at Detroit. The city was at first a centre for wagon and carriage- making which later led to the assembly of automobiles in the region. It is the headquarters of several giant motor corporations including Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors.

Other locational advantages were the large market for cars in the Mid-West, where other forms of transport, e.g. railways, were relatively poorly developed in the early twentieth century; and the ease of transporting steel from Pittsburgh via Lake Erie.

The automobile industry extends to many other towns around Detroit, e.g. Lansing, Flint, Jackson, Pontiac, Dearborn and Toledo, and car assembly is linked with other branches of manufacture such as tyre-making, electrical wires, glass, batteries, paints, polishes, alloyed steel, spare parts and components.

(e) The Lake Michigan Region:

Another distinct industrial area is that of the southern shores of Lake Michigan of which Chicago, with a population of 3 million, is the largest city. There are some 10,000 factories in and around Chicago, amongst which the iron and steel plants are the most important. Other industries are based on the agricultural prod­ucts of the surrounding regions, e.g. meat-packing, grain-milling and the making of agricultural ma­chinery.

Chicago is a focal point at the convergence of roads and railways from all over the U.S.A. This gave rise to the construction and repair of railway engines, coaches and other transport equipment. Milwaukee, further north on the western shores of Lake Michigan, has steel, engineering brewing, tex­tiles, footwear, meat-packing and automobiles in­dustries. Gary, near Chicago, is most concerned with iron and steel production.

ii. Canada:

Canada’s industrial areas are rather restricted by its northerly latitude and sparse popu­lation. Its main industrial region, stretching from the Lake Peninsula to Montreal along the St. Lawrence is a continuation of the American Great Lakes industrial area to the South. Good accessibility, cheap H.E.P. and the investment of American capital are some of the main factors that have resulted in the expansion of industry.

Toronto, the second largest Canadian city, has engineering, automobiles, chem­icals, textiles, saw-milling, pulping, food processing and other industries. Some of these industries are also found in its industrial suburbs and satellite towns of Oshawa, Clarkson, Oakville and others.

The city of Hamilton at the western end of Lake Ontario con­centrates on heavy engineering and has been nick­named ‘the Birmingham of Canada’. It makes iron and steel, cars, porcelain and agricultural machinery. Windsor and the adjacent towns of the Lake Peninsula have automobile and tyre-making industries due to their proximity to Detroit.

One of the world’s largest oil refineries is located at Sarnia, on the shores of Lake Huron, while aircraft are designed and tested at Malton. The chief industry of Kingston is locomotive manufacture and that of Guelph is electrical engi­neering.

Further down the St. Lawrence are pockets of in­dustrial concentration at Montreal, Quebec and Ot­tawa. The industries of Montreal, the largest city of Canada, are comparable to those of Toronto with emphasis on shipbuilding, oil refining, railway en­gineering, chemicals, paper and pulp.

It is also the leading grain port and headquarters of the C.P.R. (Canadian Pacific Railway) and C.N.R. (Canadian National Railway). Quebec specializes in marine engineering and shipbuilding, but Ottawa, the national capital, has mainly saw-milling, paper and pulp- making industries. Agricultural industries such as food processing and machine-making are also found in this region.

In the continental interior of the Canadian Prairies Winnipeg is most prominent, especially in wheat milling, brewing, textiles, fur dressing and tanning. Edmonton and other prairies towns have industries based on local extraction of oil, natural gas, potash and coal. They also have agricultural industries. Van­couver on the Pacific coast is a centre for lumbering, timber industries, fish-canning (salmon) and metal smelting.

U.S.S.R.:

Industrial development in different parts of the Soviet Union varies tremendously. In the pre-Russian Revolution era before 1917, manufacturing industries were confined to the European part of the U.S.S.R. It is only in the last half century, through the various five-year plans, that the vast territory of Asiatic U.S.S.R. has been gradually developed. Much develop­ment is still going on.

i. The Moscow-Goiki Region:

The oldest and the greatest of Soviet industrial regions include such cities and towns as Moscow (the national capital), Gorki, Tula, Yaroslavl and Ivanovo. The central location, with Moscow as the focal point of a radial pattern of rail communications, as well as the large market and labour supply, contributes greatly to its industrial success.

However, its expansion has been restricted by the lack of local raw materials including coking coal and iron ore and the fact that the low grade lignite of the Moscow-Tula field yields little heat or power. Power supplies are now supplemented by electricity from the Volga and oil brought by pipe­lines from the Urals and Western Siberia.

Moscow it­self is noted for textiles, machines, chemicals and light industries. But Gorki, Tula and the region as a whole have diverse industries, including heavy engi­neering, steel mills, railway equipment, automobiles, aircraft and food processing.

ii. The Ukraine Industrial Region:

This region is based on the rich Donetz or Donbas coalfield and the Krivoi Rog-Kerch ironfield. It has all the mineral resources required for large-scale heavy engineering including large deposits of manganese from Nikopol and vanadium from Kerch. Many large industrial cen­tres have emerged at Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Krivoi Rog, Kharkov and Rostov, which make iron and steel, machinery, and chemicals as well as smelting a wide range of ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

iii. The Urals Industrial Region:

This is a compar­atively new region that has only been developed since the Second World War. It is well-endowed for heavy and metallurgical industries with many mineral re­sources close at hand. There are rich reserves of copper (in the central Urals and at Karabash), iron ore (Nizhni- Tagil-Kushva, Magnitogorsk), chromium (Sarany, Khalilovo), as well as nickel, cobalt, manganese, vanadium, lead and zinc.

There are very productive oil and gas fields around Ufa and Kuybyshev in the west and around Urai, Surgut and Nizhnevartovsk in the east. The region, however, does not have adequate supplies of good quality coking coal for metallurgical purposes. This has to be brought by rail from the Kuzbas and Karaganda coalfields 2,400 km (1,500 miles) away.

There has been a very rapid development in the last two decades in the Ural region. There are now many blast furnaces, and steel mills, and metallurgical in­dustries, heavy engineering and chemicals are also very important at such towns as Magnitogorsk, Perm, Chelyabinsk, Nizhni Tagil, Ufa and Sverdlovsk.

Heavy engineering and metallurgical industries dominate all other activities. Oil refineries and petrochemical plants at Perm, Ufa, Kuybyshev, Surgut and Tobolsk and H.E.P. plants at Kama and Kuybushev will further accelerate the growth of the southern Urals.

iv. The Kuzbas Region:

This area, located in the western part of Asiatic U.S.S.R. has extensive coal deposits in the Kuzbas coalfield as well as many large thermal plants and an H.E.P. plant. Oil can be brought from the fields on the eastern side of the Urals around Tyumen, Surgut and Nizhnevartovsk.

The Central Siberian region also has considerable deposits of iron ore (at Kuznetskiy), tungsten (Kolyven), mica (Barga), asbestos (Chadan and Minusinsk) and un­limited supplies of softwood timber. The industries of the region are similar to those of the Urals including iron and steel, metallurgical industries, engineering and chemicals including petrochemicals; but in the northern Kuzbas sawmilling, pulp and paper are also very important. The main towns are Novosibirsk (H.E.P. engineering), Novokuznetsk (iron and steel) and Barnaul (textiles).

v. Other Isolated Industrial Centres:

Besides the large industrial regions, there are many large industrial towns. Leningrad has a strategic location at the en­trance of the Baltic Sea and is the European terminus of the 8,960-km (5,600-mile) long Trans-Siberian Railway, as well as once being the capital of Russia.

It has long been a major industrial city with textiles, chemicals, sawmilling, pulp and paper, engineering, precision instruments, electrical apparatus and ma­chine parts industries. Arkhangelsk (Archangel) is a centre for timber industries. Along the River Volga are many industrial towns such as Volgograd, Kazan, Saratov and Volsk. Good rail and water communica­tion, coal and gas deposits, and H.E.P. from the dams on the Volga have stimulated many industries es­pecially constructional engineering, oil refining and light industries.

In Asiatic U.S.S.R. there are many minor indus­trial areas. There are some industries in the ancient towns of Central Asia such as Bokhara and Samar­kand, including modern engineering, some textiles and craft industries. Karaganda near rich, coal and iron ore fields has an iron and steel industry.

In a zone along the Trans-Siberian Railway are many in­dustrial towns including Krasnoyarsk, with iron and steel and engineering; Bratsk with pulp and paper, aluminium smelting; Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo, with foot­wear, chemicals and timber works; and other towns such as Chita. There is also industrial development in the Soviet Far East at Vladivostok, Magadan and Khabarovsk, based on minerals and timber from the interior.

Countries of Asia:

Despite its large size and rich mineral and agri­cultural resources, the continent of Asia is generally less industrialized than either Europe, or North America. Some of the main factors which have led to this situation are lack of technical know-how, lack of financial resources and conservative attitudes towards industrialization, but the position is rapidly changing.

Japan has risen to become one of the most important industrial nations in the world; Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan have become major exporters of textiles and other goods; China has industrialized rapidly in the last 30 years and will continue to put great stress on industrial development; India and Pakistan already have well-established iron and steel, chemicals and textile industries and are striving to increase industrial development to reduce unemployment among their large populations.

The South-East Asian region, though traditionally agricultural in outlook, is also developing industries such as iron and steel, agriculture-based industries, timber-based industries and oil refining. So far Singapore is the most industrialized of the South- East Asian countries.

The Middle East has one major resource, namely oil, and though in the past most of the oil produced in the region has been exported, the more stringent attitude on the part of the oil producers which has now begun to take effect, will ensure that oil refin­ing, and petrochemicals will become increasingly im­portant in the region.

On the basis of their oil roy­alties, some countries, notably Iran, are also develop­ing a wider range of industries. The more important Asian countries and their industries are described in greater detail below.

i. Japan:

Japan is the most highly-industrialized country in Asia. Despite its shortage of industrial raw materials and solid fuel, it has been able to de­velop industries at an astonishing rate. In 1930, less than 20 per cent of Japan’s population was engaged in manufacturing industries, but today this has risen to more than 65 per cent.

Japan was once a major im­porter of all manufactured goods, but nowadays, almost all its exports are of manufactured products. Most of the industrial development of Japan has taken place since the Second World War.

The reasons for Japan’s spectacular industrialization are outlined below:

1. Japan has little coal but has developed almost all its H.E.P. resources to provide power for Indus­trialization.

2. Japan has an indented coastline and many large ports. These aid the import of large quantities of raw materials from all over the world.

3. The greatest possible use has been made of existing raw materials in the country such as copper, manganese, iron ore and sulphur as well as silk, kaolin and timber. For the same reason textiles manu­facturers have turned from cotton to synthetics which can be made within the country from local timber or imported oil.

4. Japan is located in proximity to mainland Asia and the mainly agricultural countries of the continent provide a ready market. In the early days when labour costs were low, Japan established markets in Europe and North America. Nowadays, although labour costs are higher, the high quality of Japanese goods ensures an ever-growing market.

5. The large population of the country provides a ready source of labour and the development of indus­tries relieved pressure on the rather small areas of agricultural land in the country.

6. The government gave every encouragement to industrialists and has formulated a technically-biased educational system which has meant that Japan has caught up with, and even surpassed, many traditional industrial countries in technological advancement.

7. Many Japanese industrial installations were ruined during the War. Generous aid from the U.S.A. and other countries assisted post-war recovery and new, more efficient plants replaced pre-war installa­tions, and thus increased the competitiveness of Japanese industries. Moreover Japanese workers have been more willing than elsewhere in the world to accept automation which is now very common, lead­ing to high productivity and efficient production.

(a) The Keihin Region:

The greatest industrial re­gion of Japan is in the Kwanto Plain and is formed by the conurbation of three chief towns, Tokyo, Kawa­saki and Yokohama. Within the conurbation live a fifth of Japan’s population and it accounts for a quarter of the nation’s industrial output. Light in­dustries dominate, amongst which textiles, furniture, chemicals, paper and pulp are important.

Tokyo is noted for electrical engineering (especially television sets, refrigerators, washing machines and computers). Yokohama has precision engineering, shipbuilding, oil refining, petrochemicals and port industries. Kawasaki has marine engineering, cement works and glassworks. The town of Chiba has huge integrated iron and steel­works.

(b) The Hanshin Region:

Another great industrial conurbation is formed by the three cities of Osaka- Kobe-Kyoto which produces 20 per cent of the nation’s industrial output. Sprawling over the Kinki Plain are many industries based on cheap H.E.P. and mainly imported raw materials. Osaka is the greatest textiles town though generally textiles are nowadays a declining industry.

Plastics, footwear and textiles machines are also made. Kobe concentrates on ship­building, oil refining, and petrochemicals industries. Kyoto, the imperial capital, has traditional handi­crafts, oriental porcelain, toy and lacquer works. The Hanshin ports face the busy Inland Sea and handle much foreign trade.

(c) The Ise Bay Region:

This is the third indus­trial region dominated by one large town, Nagoya. Spreading around Nagoya on the Nobi Plain are a wide range of manufacturing industries including: textile mills that process local silk, imported cotton and wool and also synthetic fibres; engineering indus­tries including all kinds of machinery, automobiles, locomotives and aircraft. The nearby towns of Tajimi and Seto are noted for fine porcelain. Musical instru­ments such as guitars, violins and pianos are mass- produced at Hamamatsu.

(d) The Kitakyushu Region:

In the northern Kyushu area, the Chikugo coalfield and good accessi­bility gave rise to a conurbation, called Kitakyushu, which embraces several towns, including Yawata, Kokura and Moji. The industrial area extends south­wards to Fukuoka and Nagasaki. It makes steel, ships, machine parts, chemicals and textiles.

Outside the above four major industrial regions there are several scattered industrial towns. Iron and steel is made at Muroran; oil refining is important at Akita and Niigata; engineering at Hiroshima; ship­building at Kure; textiles at Okayama. Hakodate and Sapporo in Hokkaido also have some industrial de­velopment.

Parts of the Southern Continents:

The southern continents have traditionally de­pended on agriculture and primary extractive indus­tries, especially mining, more than manufacturing in­dustries. The sparse population, and the under-devel­opment of many parts of the southern continents, have prevented large areas from being industrialized. However, some countries, especially Australia, S. Africa and Brazil are increasingly dependent upon industrial development.

In Australia the main industrial area is the south­east where the concentration of early settlement, the favourable climate, the presence of coalfields around Sydney, and of iron ore resources, led to the establishment of the iron and steel industry, especially at Newcastle and Port Kembla. There are also many engineering industries, including the manu­facture of cars, locomotives and aircraft, cement works, chemicals and shipbuilding.

Melbourne has also developed many industries similar to those of Sydney, but based on the Gipps- land lignite deposits and the H.E.P. from the Snowy River Scheme. Melbourne has chemicals, shipbuilding, aircraft engineering, railway equipment and motor vehicles industries. Adelaide, located on the St. Vin­cent Gulf and serving as the outlet of the Murray- Darling Basin, has well-developed agricultural indus­tries such as fruit-canning, flour-milling, dairy indus­tries and woollen textiles. It also has iron and steel (at Whyalla) and engineering industries.

Brisbane is the major industrial city of Queensland and is located near the Ipswich coalfield. Locomotives are made at Brisbane, Ipswich, Maryborough and Mackay. Along the coast of Queensland many towns deal with cane- sugar refining, e.g. Cairns, Mackay and Bundaberg. Dairying and tanning industries are well represented.

In Western Australia, Perth is the main industrial city dealing with the agricultural products of Swanland and the mineral resources, e.g. iron, aluminium, of the interior. The large cities, housing the vast majority of the Australian population, have all the usual light industries and consumer goods industries associated with a large market.

In South America the rate of economic develop­ment of the different republics varies tremendously. Argentina and Brazil are probably the best developed. In Argentina and Uruguay the main industrial region is along the shores of the Plate estuary extending in­land as far as Rosario. The main industries are ship­building, at Buenos Aires, Rosario, Cordoba and General Pacheco. The La Plata urban districts have chemicals, textiles, aircraft engineering and steel in­dustries. Meat-packing, dairying and flour-milling are the dominant industries of the Pampas lands.

Brazil is the most industrialized of Latin American countries. The chief industrial region is the south-east and the city of Sao Paulo has diverse industrial acti­vities including steel mills, chemical plants, motor vehicle assembly plants, paper, cement and beer industries. Rio de Janeiro has similar industries with shipbuilding and aircraft engineering in addition. Belo Horizonte is the major metallurgical centre with iron and steel and other metal industries based on H.E.P. and the rich mineral resources of Minas Gerais.

Chile’s main industries are found in Santiago, Val­paraiso and Concepcion. Elsewhere in South America industries are concentrated in the capital cities of the various states, e.g. Lima, Caracas, Bogota and in certain other large towns.

Africa is the least developed of all the southern continents. The main industries are those connected with either mining or agriculture, e.g. smelting and refining of copper in Zambia and Zaire, and process­ing of rubber, oil palm fruits, etc. in West Africa. Nigeria also has petrochemicals industries.

South Africa is, however, an industrially developed country. The main industrial region is the Witwatersrand where there is not only gold but coal, iron and a range of ferrous and non-ferrous metal deposits, as the basis of iron and steel, engineering, locomotives, and other industries.

Chemicals, textiles, cement and light in­dustries are also fairly important. Elsewhere in Africa the main industrial development has been in capital cities such as Salisbury, Dar-es-Salaam, Nairobi, and so on. Such cities have cement, brewing, food processing and light industries mainly geared to import substitution.