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Why did the British Empire decline in the second electrical revolution? Why did Germany rise?
The relative decline of Britain after the Second Industrial Revolution. The main reason is that Britain is a country with many colonies, a large population and a large market. Therefore, British products are not worried about product sales, and Britain has also made considerable profits. When the situation is good, no business owner will take the initiative to update technology, and the country will not consider industrial upgrading. In this way, the development of scientific research and new technologies will lose the market demand and, of course, the development momentum. Scientific research and new technology without market demand are meaningless! The reason why Germany rose is that they seized the opportunity to explore actively.

Before 1825, British craftsmen were forbidden to immigrate, and the ban on technologically advanced steam engines, parts and drawings continued until 1842. But only 14 years later, Siemens of Germany invented the generator, and then the internal combustion engine, automobile and electric light were invented one after another. Mankind entered the second era of electrical industry revolution, and the leading role of this revolution was replaced by Germany and the United States. By 1896, Britain was surpassed by the United States in terms of total economic value, and its main industrial level and technical level were behind Germany.

At that time, the British government was completely unprepared for the second industrial revolution. The most typical thing is that urban construction has not kept up. After the industrial revolution, more than 654.38 million and hundreds of thousands of farmers lived in slums after entering the city, and the plague prevailed. In the 1950s, the smell in London was so bad that the windows had to be closed during the day. It was not until the second half of the19th century that various municipal facilities were built.

The middle and upper classes in Britain are generally hostile to the second industrialization, suspicious of change and innovation, and tend to maintain the status quo. Unwilling to update domestic production equipment and adopt new technologies. Because of the huge cost of replacing new technology and equipment, British industrialists prefer to continue to use existing equipment, such as steam engines. Although emerging countries are adopting new technologies and equipment, Britain is still using old machines and equipment. In the capitalist's view, it is uneconomical to tear down the old machinery and equipment that can still be used and replace them with new ones, which hinders the progress of British industry.