Industrialisation, Capitalist, spontaneous process of industrial development of the capitalist countries, which leads to the preponderance of heavy industry in their economies, and to the development and establishment of machine production (see Machine Production under Capitalism) constituting the material base of the final victory of the capitalist mode of production over feudalism. It usually begins with light industries which require less capital for their development; the turnover of capital in light industry is faster, which explains the quicker compensation of expenditures and acquisition of more profit. When the demand for the means of production in light industry has grown and sufficient profits have been accumulated in its sectors, heavy industry begins developing and gradually predominates. Resources for capitalist industrialisation are obtained from the exploitation and plunder of the working people both at home and abroad, above all in the colonial and dependent countries, as well as from wars, bondage loans and concessions. Largescale machine production is developed primarily to enrich the capitalists and is coupled with greater exploitation of the workers, the greater instensity of their labour, more industrial accidents and higher unemployment, which exacerbates the antagonisms between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. Capitalist industrialisation promotes rapid urban growth, widens the rift between town and country and heightens the contradictions between the technically advanced and economically underdeveloped countries. Because of the uneven development inherent in capitalism, industrialisation has not occurred simultaneously in different countries, and has proceeded at different tempos. It began with the Industrial Revolution in England (last third of the 18th—first quarter of the 19th century) and later enveloped other countries. It the 19th century Great Britain, Germany, France and the USA had powerful heavy industry and became industrial states. They prevented the industrialisation of the colonies and dependent countries, especially development of heavy industry, and in particular engineering. As a result there are now many countries which are far behind the industrialised world. Only when they freed themselves from colonial oppression were young independent states able to industrialise—an important factor in winning both political and economic independence.