Big History 13: Birth of the Modern World

1. Big History 13: Birth of the Modern World

2. From Earlier Worldwide Autonomous Zonal Development to Modern European First • In 1750, ratio of industrial output from “third world” to ”developed” was about 3:1 • In 1980, ratio of industrial output from “third world” to “developed” was about 1:6 • In 1800, European powers controlled 35% of Earth’s surface. By 1914 European powers controlled 84% of the Earth’s surface. • European model of modernity spread as 1) Others imitated it and built on it, and 2) Europeans migrated and founded neo-Europes or neo-Europeanism, such as in the Americas and Australia. • The international costume of commerce and diplomacy became the European suit • Because of the leading role of the UK and the North American neo-UK, the international language became English.

3. Economic Revolution in Britain and Western Europe—Threefold Foundation • Industrial Capitalism The ability to accumulate capital enables large projects in the private sector—railroads, factories • Mechanization of Production For repetitive tasks machines better than human. • Agricultural shift from subsistence to profit. Agriculture becomes an industry

4. The English Social Context • Outward looking—international commerce aligned with military strength and aggressiveness • Acceptance and economic exploitation of brutal economic inequality. • Racism and class-ism—a deep belief the English were inherently superior to others, and within England, a deep belief that upper classes were superior to lower classes. • Contrast to China—enters the period with similar economic potential, but does not appreciate the potential of international commerce. • England had escaped being part of the Mongol Empire

5. English Agriculture • Enclosure Act led to the displacement of traditional farmers and the consolidation of farmland into large individual holdings. • For profit agriculture emerged. • Agricultural structure was landowner on the top, tenant farmers below, farm laborers at the bottom • Competition and larger scale of individual enterprises led to greater efficiency and smaller agricultural workforce. • Migration to cities provided labor for industry. • Although the poor were very poor, no large scale starvation with Malthusian population collapse—as happened elsewhere in this period.

6. English Industry • Scaling up from the workshop to the factory • Improvements in steel and textile manufacture • From muscle power to steam power • More internal markets for manufactured goods as people moved from subsistence economy to wage and commerce economy. • The technical innovations built on ideas and invention from around the world, but the English built an economic and trade system to maximize the development of political and commercial power.

7. Political Revolution, Most dramatic in France • Democratic forms, all may run for office • Many rules, regulating the interactions of people with each other and between them and the government. • Political freedom is within the context of maintaining a wealth-producing system. • Room for creativity, but within the system • Much debate about the balance between individual freedom, individual welfare, and the needs and prerogatives of the state. • Overall, power shifts from royalty and religious leadership to secular, commercial, and political leadership. • Not a smooth transition.

8. Cultural Revolution • Mass literacy, based on compulsory schooling • Ideas compete with each other, as opposed to being based on authority. • Scientific ideas permeate the culture • Abstractions become powerful

9. The second and third waves • Innovations spread from England due to its position as a hub in zonal and world commerce • Pace of innovation increased in other European countries. • The Modern Revolution spread from Europe to Asia and Africa through colonial conquest. European powers established colonial empires. Colonial relationship was typically exploitative. • United States pioneered in the industrialization of war, in the Civil War, foreshadowing the carnage of World Wars in the 20th Century. • Productivity gap between Europe/neoEurope and Asia/Africa increased. For the first time in human history, the wealth gap between states rivaled the wealth gap within states. • Russia was left out—neither thoroughly industrialized nor colonized by other Europeans, setting the stage for the later Communist revolution. One set of the great-grandparents of one of us (Eric) left Russia for the United States in the late 19th Century.

10. The Psychological and Moral/Ethical Challenge of Humanism • In earlier societies authority was vested in a deity or deities, with human leadership deriving from being the voice of the deity. • Increasingly during this period, moral and tangible authority derives from human welfare, human feelings, human needs. • Galileo trying to reconcile evidence of his instruments and his logic with the teachings of the Church that the earth was stationary. • Darwin troubled by divergence of his emerging understanding of evolution from teachings of the church. • By the end of the 19th Century, scientists no longer feeling the weight of the dichotomy. • “Generation gaps” as society changes rapidly

11. By the end of the 19th Century • Mainstream thought in Europe believed that a stable world had been achieved, with Europe on top, but……. • Intra-European tensions, jealousies, and prejudices, plus… • Dramatic inequalities of wealth within and between nations… • Created fault lines that would cause the 20th century to explode… • With energy driven by major discoveries in science and developments in technology.

12. Neo-European Racism • Fact: In the modern era, Western Europeans came to dominate the world militarily, economically, and politically. • Two possible reasons • One is inherent qualities. To take this view in the context of what we know today of human evolution, one must believe that during the tens of thousands of years of biological separation different human populations diverged from each other in ways that made Europeans inherently superior. • The second is geographic and historical causation. To take this view one must believe that it is different geographic factors and the ”accidents” of history that shape who we are.

13. Geographic and Historical Causes Leading to the Western European Empires I • Eurasia was relatively well-endowed with domesticable plants and animals that improved agricultural productivity to a level that people could be fed and also have time for other pursuits. • Eurasia also had a natural pathway (the steppes) for creating a network for trade, ideas, and technological innovation that accelerated progress. The “Silk Roads” are the backbone with secondary pathways for dissemination along the way and at the ends. • Eurasia separated from the Americas and Australia by oceans and from Africa by the desertification of the Sahara.

14. Geographic and Historical Causes Leading to the Western European Empires II • During a relatively stable period there is a rough balance in power and trade between cities, agricultural villages, and nomads. Empires come and go but the balance between ways of life is maintained. • The Mongols, led by Genghis Khan, use the steppes to develop mounted warfare, and create the largest (in land area) empire in world history and enact the most complete subjugation of the conquered population, including comprehensive killing of male leaders and raping of the women. • The Mongols are turned back at the western edge of their empire by local resistance and the forested landscape, unsuited to their means of waging war.

15. Geographic and Historical Causes Leading to the Western European Empires III • After a couple of hundred years the Mongol empire splits into smaller empires and civilizations. • (Eric’s interpretation) the lasting effect of the Mongol empire on the people who were subjected to it is to suppress further innovation, risk-taking, and entrepeneurship. • The Western Europeans were uniquely favored: They had the benefits of the overall Eurasian advances (for example gunpowder and the compass, invented in China and propagated along the silk roads) but had not experienced the trauma of being subject to the Mongol Empire.

16. Geographic and Historical Causes Leading to the Western European Empires IV • The Western Europeans go forth and take control of the Americas, Australia, the Middle East, and Africa. They cause immense damage to the indigenous people and cultures, taking the view that these areas’ main reason for being is to provide resources to enrich Western Europe and derivative cultures (for example the United States), which they see as the repository of the highest human culture. • Because of the natural human tendency (not unique to Europeans) to mistake good fortune for virtue, the Europeans believe that their dominance is due to their inherent racial superiority. Also, they are ignorant of Big History.