Cotton Industry Dbq Essay
During the late 1800s and early 1900s both India and Japan worked towards mechanizing their cotton industries, and while there were many similarities in the way that this industry was developed and the end result significant differences were also present. Low pay and poor conditions were present in both areas and in both china and japan a large part of their labor force came from rural areas. However while in Japan the labor force was overwhelmingly female this was not the case in India. Furthermore the mechanized cotton industry developed much more slowly in Japan than it did in India. Documents 3,4,7, and 8 show gender roles and differences in Japan and India in this particular industry. Documents 1,6,9, and 10 address the mechanized cotton industry in India while Documents 2,3,4,5,7, and 8 address the mechanized cotton industry in Japan. Documents 4,5, and 9 address the peasant labor in both Japan and India additionally documents 1 and
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2 point out the speed of growth and development of this industry in both countries. Finally Documents 3,5, and 9 point out the poor conditions and low pay that was present in both countries. Bias could clearly be found in documents 8 as the picture was taken from the official company history so it was probably staged and used to make people believe that the workers were happy and that the conditions were good in their factories. Additional bias is found in document 5 where Tsurumi, a Japanese industrialist, speaks about the many benefits of industrializing the cotton industry. However as an industrialist he is prone to conformation bias and would do everything in his power to make industrialization look like a good thing. Despite the similar development of the cotton industry in these two countries distinct differences emerged, primarily in the work distribution between genders. In japan factory workers in the cotton industry were primarily female (doc.8) wheras in India the opposite was true (doc.10). This point is further proved when you look at actual statistics. In japan a large majority, roughly 80%, of textile workers were women. In India that number fluctuated between 18% and 22% (doc7). This reflects Japan’s beliefs on the role of women in the workplace and shows India’s flexibility on gender roles. While this was the most predominate difference, others did exist. For one, the industrialized cotton industry developed much on a smaller scale in japan, with 666 million pounds of cotton yarn (both hand spun and machine spun) produced in 1914 (doc. 2), than it did in India, with 740 million pounds of cotton yarn (both handspun and machine spun) in 1914(doc.1). This may have been partly due to Britain’s occupation of India and Japan’s early internalization. India’s rapid shift towards machine spun yarn was also due strong financial backing from bankers and investors in India (doc.6). Despite these notable differences, both India and Japan shared various similarities in their mechanization of the cotton industry.
Poor conditions and low pay developed for workers in both countries, especially in japan. Girls were forced to work late in confined space and pay was sparse, on top of that sickness was common and some died from diseases spread in the factories (doc.3). However despite low pay, factory jobs were important for many lower class or farmer families. Many would send their children to work in the factories to provide extra income to their family (doc.4). Also factory jobs provided an escape from those same lower class strata’s for the girls who went to work as they became responsible for themselves and weren’t held back forced to provide for an entire family (doc. 5). This same effect was true in India where the vast majority of workers were recruited from small rural farming villages (doc.9). These similarities are clearly defined as inherent aspects of industrialization in a non-industrialized
society.
In writing this essay an extra document from the richer classes would have been useful to truly contrast and show the effects that industrialization had on the lower class.
2 point out the speed of growth and development of this industry in both countries. Finally Documents 3,5, and 9 point out the poor conditions and low pay that was present in both countries. Bias could clearly be found in documents 8 as the picture was taken from the official company history so it was probably staged and used to make people believe that the workers were happy and that the conditions were good in their factories. Additional bias is found in document 5 where Tsurumi, a Japanese industrialist, speaks about the many benefits of industrializing the cotton industry. However as an industrialist he is prone to conformation bias and would do everything in his power to make industrialization look like a good thing. Despite the similar development of the cotton industry in these two countries distinct differences emerged, primarily in the work distribution between genders. In japan factory workers in the cotton industry were primarily female (doc.8) wheras in India the opposite was true (doc.10). This point is further proved when you look at actual statistics. In japan a large majority, roughly 80%, of textile workers were women. In India that number fluctuated between 18% and 22% (doc7). This reflects Japan’s beliefs on the role of women in the workplace and shows India’s flexibility on gender roles. While this was the most predominate difference, others did exist. For one, the industrialized cotton industry developed much on a smaller scale in japan, with 666 million pounds of cotton yarn (both hand spun and machine spun) produced in 1914 (doc. 2), than it did in India, with 740 million pounds of cotton yarn (both handspun and machine spun) in 1914(doc.1). This may have been partly due to Britain’s occupation of India and Japan’s early internalization. India’s rapid shift towards machine spun yarn was also due strong financial backing from bankers and investors in India (doc.6). Despite these notable differences, both India and Japan shared various similarities in their mechanization of the cotton industry.
Poor conditions and low pay developed for workers in both countries, especially in japan. Girls were forced to work late in confined space and pay was sparse, on top of that sickness was common and some died from diseases spread in the factories (doc.3). However despite low pay, factory jobs were important for many lower class or farmer families. Many would send their children to work in the factories to provide extra income to their family (doc.4). Also factory jobs provided an escape from those same lower class strata’s for the girls who went to work as they became responsible for themselves and weren’t held back forced to provide for an entire family (doc. 5). This same effect was true in India where the vast majority of workers were recruited from small rural farming villages (doc.9). These similarities are clearly defined as inherent aspects of industrialization in a non-industrialized
society.
In writing this essay an extra document from the richer classes would have been useful to truly contrast and show the effects that industrialization had on the lower class.