> A somewhat pedantic point, maybe, but surely one can't call the post-1879
> German Empire "lightly industrialized?"
I was referring to Germany in the long sweep of the 19th century. By the 1890s, sure, Germany was semi-industrialized, but still had a very large hinterlands (as did France, incidentally). The geography of the thing was, the Ruhr industrialized pretty rapidly, but much of the output was devoted to building the Reich's military machine; the eastern regions of Germany remained fairly undeveloped. Politically, this was the source of the infamous alliance of iron and rye, i.e. Ruhr industrialists and Prussian Junkers.
-- DRR