The powerful industries of the United States and the Soviet Union laid the foundation for the new post-war international order

IS420UCSCS2A  In 1800-1850, the United States was still a backward agricultural country. The industries in the north were mainly food processing and textile industries, and raw materials such as wood and minerals were also produced. The South had a plantation economy, with farms holding slaves and growing cotton, tea, and grain.

IS420UCSCS2A  After the Civil War, the United States, like Germany, seized the opportunity of the second Industrial Revolution. In addition, the United States had better development potential than Germany — vast territory, rich resources, huge population and unique geographical environment, which made the American industry explosive growth from 1868 to 1880. American steel production grew at an average annual rate of about 40%, to the eve of World War I, the United States ranked first in the world’s industrial production, accounting for 32% of global industrial output, steel, coal, oil and food production ranked first in the world.

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IS420UCSCS2A  By the eve of World War II, the United States accounted for 38.7 percent of global industrial production. This is why the United States built a fleet carrier every two months during World War II, producing 40,000 aircraft and 20,000 tanks a year.

IS420UCSCS2A  On the eve of World War I, Russia’s industrial output accounted for 8.2% of the world’s total industrial output, although it seems that the industrial strength is not bad, but a large part of the industrial output comes from foreign investment in light industry, domestic heavy industry only accounts for 1/5 of the total industry, which is why Russia is called “mud giant”.
In the First World War, the Russian army was much less equipped than the Germans, and in some cases even three soldiers shared a rifle. After the establishment of the Soviet Union, especially under Stalin’s guiding ideology of steel industrialization and planned economic system, the Soviet Union ushered in the era of high-speed industrialization, to the eve of World War II, the Soviet Union’s industrial output accounted for 17.6% of the world’s total industrial output, and the industrial structure to military, heavy industry as the main body.It was on the strength of heavy industry that the Soviet Union produced 108,000 tanks and self-propelled guns and 144,000 aircraft during World War II, and ultimately won the Great Patriotic War, meeting with the Allies on the Elbe River and redrawing the post-war international order with the United States.