The Modern World, Part One: Global History from 1760 to 1910 -- Week 1 Video Lecture Summary
Video 1: The Study of History
Figuring out the facts of history is challenging and not straightforward. Answering the questions about what happened isn't easy. In this course, we'll explore why things happened, and not just what happened. The facts are the circumstances, but the interesting things are the choices people made, as well as examining what didn't happen.
Video 2: The Great Divide
The traditional life = rate of change is slow. Modern life = rate of change is high.
The rate of population growth dramatically changes in the late 1700s. Before and after = the great divide.
The world was very populated first in Europe, and then the Americas and Africa became more populated.
The Malthusian trap = more people but less stuff to go around. The amount of stuff is constant (really?), so overall poverty increases. This was the case until around 1800, but around 1800 people became much richer and there was more stuff available.
Politically there was a great divide too because there were political revolutions and the rise of liberal, democratic ideas.
Culturally and conceptually there was a growth in the sense of human control over their environment.
Video 3: The Traditional and the Modern
The traditional as contrasted with the modern.
Energy: natural -- human and animal power. Some pulleys. --> Manmade energy
Population: 10-15% live in communities with over 2k people. --> Living in towns and cities
Real income: constant because of finite resources. People are getting enough food to get by --> economic growth is possible. People have more resources available and are able to save.
Stability: Stable. Your life was like your grandfather's life. Personal lives are unstable but communities and ways of life are stable --> Communities change more, but personal life is more stable.
Religion: Faith is powerful. Mystery. Instability so they need solace and faith --> Science challenges faith.
Local identity and culture: lives were contained in a 30-50 mile radius --> travel more, more communication, feel like a participant in a larger community
States: Large but simple, agrarian empires, taxation, weak administration capabilities --> Empires have more control.
Video 4: The Great Divide -- Why?
Questions
How did the great divide happen? Suddenly or gradually?
Predetermined, slow, and sure fatalistic occurrence or was it lucky and could have gone other ways?
How did cultural and material elements factor into the Great Divide?
Why does technology grow in certain places and not others?
Why did England play such a disproportionate role?
Perspectives
Before vs. after the Great Divide
Eurasia vs. everywhere else
1700 vs. 1800
Interpreting history
In the study of history, we look for causal links between changes that occur and the pre-existing conditions that brought on these changes.
For instance, in the 1700s Europeans were taking on sea voyages more than any other people. Calculating locations at sea required precise time-telling. English people came up with the chronometer which best addressed the problem of time at sea. This led to the English having a competitive advantage when it came to sea voyages.
But of course, this is just an interpretation. It's easy to come up with a story, but when we have a story we are blind to the rest of the possible stories that existed, and also to the stories that came before, because the absence of narrative and alternative, preceding narratives are hard to imagine.
Video 5: The world of 1760
Before the 1700s, Eurasia was dominated by nomadic, raiding horsemen. In the 1500s, this started to change. Settled communities had an advantage: guns. They had more relevant resources than roaming groups to levy taxes, acquire gunpowder and maintain gunpowder armies. This enabled the creation and enforcement of empires.
In 1500, world trade was very limited. However, in 1700 world trade was more active and diverse.
East Asia: The Ming Empire. They had a navy but decided not to pursue sea trade but rather defend against land invasions. In the 1640s there was a new empire: the Qing Dynasty (pronounced Ching). They ruled until the early 1900s. In the mid-1700s the Qing dynasty was at its biggest. A particular court culture and ideal of civilization were attempted to be enforced. They built trading outposts to trade with the west called "factories".
Japan: Nagasaki had a trading outpost to trade with the west. The west was known in Japan as "Dutch culture".
South Asia: The Moguls were dominant. "The Moguls were Muslim invaders who had come in from the north". In the mid-1700s their control diminished and Indian princes take over control of much of South Asia. The Mogul empire becomes weakened. India had many trading outposts, but most of the countryside relied on local output.
In terms of trade during this time period (1700ish) spices were important because they were valuable -- lightweight and expensive.
In the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire was very dominant in the early 1700s. But later that century Europeans were able to push back.
Europe was very fragmented. France and England were relatively solid, but the rest of Europe was fragmented. Portions of it were ruled by different powers. Prussia (modern-day Germany area) rose to considerable power towards the middle of the 1700s.
South America: Europe rules a lot of South America but they barely lived there. There were mostly trade outposts along the coast of the continent.
North America: Same. The French and the British only started penetrating a very little bit inland.
The Caribbean: the wealthiest place in the world per capita at the time because of their monopoly on sugar. Europe discovered sugar and since they couldn't stop. Coffee was also major. And slaves. And tobacco.
"The Atlantic World" -- North and South America, Africa and Europe.
Colonies of extraction: colonies from which colonizers extracted resources like ores, or crops using slavery and plantations. Millions of slaves were brought over to the Americas in the 1600s. Also, tons of slaves were brought to the Caribbean, but they died a lot more there than they did in the Americas.
Africa: Relatively thinly populated relative to the rest of the world. Organized into tribes or more elaborate kingdoms. Africa had been isolated from sea trade. They experienced some overland trade with Arab countries. There were western trading posts that dealt in slaves along the coasts; western attempts to penetrate the continent failed as people succumbed to disease. Local powerful African tribes and kingdoms captured weaker tribes and sold them as slaves to Westerners. This created social turmoil in the continent.
In Northern Europe, more and more trade outposts are erected.
There are tons of trade routes and trade activities in the world in the 1700s. And the Europeans had only established outposts on the fringes of the places they were trading with.
Video 6: The Commercial Revolution
When empires came and went, people's way of life didn't really change. However, now we'll see the commercial revolution bring real, significant change to people's lives.
Trade: Problems, Opportunities, and Approaches
There was a lot of trade in the Atlantic World as well as spice trade with East Asia. Trade comprised of:
* Goods -- Some key goods that interested Europe were sugar, coffee, and tobacco.
* Money -- actual ore money you can dig from the ground
* Land
* Honor
The most populous city in North America was Mexico City.
On the North American East Coast, there were mostly settlements, and some plantations -- tobacco and rice.
There was an air of global discovery during this time. This was a time of opportunity, but also problems.
To partake in the spirit of the times, the following were required: ships, science, finance, labor, protection.
To address these needs:
* Warship building industries were established
* Royal academies were established that tracked innovations
* Banks were established, often in collaboration with governments
* Volunteer labor but also a lot of slave labor was used for hard work nobody wanted to do. The 1700s was the busiest slave trade period. The majority were brought to Brazil and the West Indies. Lots of them died. African slaves were the hardiest so they were enslaved. The professor keeps making points about American slavery not being the worst (not the worst working conditions, not the worst death rates, slave population growth rate rather than decrease).
* Protection was had by building navies and land armies that could be mobilized via ships.
The mercantile-fiscal military system
A new form of state emerged. Previously, kings weren't necessarily powerful because they relied on nobles for cash and armies for protection. But in the 1700s the king could grant companies (held by favored people) trade monopolies which were unique permissions to trade certain goods. These companies borrowed money from banks (how did the banks have money?) who granted them loans because it was a no-brainer investment. The companies paid taxes to the king, and the king could also borrow from the banks. Now the king had an exclusive source of income that was self-dependent (how did the king get to regulating trade? Why did people obey trade regulations?). He could build stronger armies and navies. Thomas Jefferson spoke against this type of tyrannical rule.
Video 7: The military revolution
For a long time people had bows and arrows, spears, knives, and even wheeled chariots. Then guns were invented, and cannons which could be wheeled around and taken on ships. There were also advances in military engineering: sophisticated fortifications and also naval advances like ships that could carry artillery and wage sea battles.
Armies also became more sophisticated. Armies became professional, skilled, career-militarymen armies. They drilled and gained expertise. The Prussian armies epitomised the organized military, and utilized organized, systematic, strategized methods. European armies became professional whereas Ottoman empire armies didnt, which gave the former a battlefield advantage. Staffwork and logistics supported these professional armies’ needs like food supplies.
Professional armies helped create empire dominance in Eurasia. The Qing and Russian empires leveraged armies against nomadic tribes.
Why did professional armies develop in Europe?
European powers kept having to fight each other so they ended up improving their armies constantly. They also had access to printing presses which allowed for dissemination of knowledge regarding military techniques. The commercial revolution also helped by creating the incentives and finances to build larger, more skilled armies. In addition the European powers have the added stimulus of the Atlantic World dynamics.
Europeans aren’t undefeated but they have a distict advantage over the rest of the world.
Video 8: Introverts and Extraverts
Exploring the interactions between European powers (“extraverts”) versus Asian powers (“introverts”). When Europeans encountered Asians, they were struck by the lack of refinement and by a certain simplicity, unspoiled unworldliness. This exoticism was perceived as natural and unaffected. On the other hand, Asians perceived themselves as scholarly but recognized that they had things to learn from the West (“the Dutch”).
They also feared one another. They feared attack but also alien cultures. This is why both sides kept the other side at bay, safely contained in trading outposts and refraining from extended contact.
Both regions — Europe and Asia — were similarly advanced technologically in terms of manufacturing by the 1700s. They also had in common ruling monarchies.
The East, however, was conservative — they were the biggest power so they were complacent and preservation-oriented. The power of the Qing dynasty went unopposed for a long time, with all citizens required to show deference to the empire. Men had to shave their heads and women bind their feet. They were in their own well-maintained cultural bubble ‘looking inwards’. On the other hand, Europe was restless and looking for new adventures. Also, Europeans thought that they were supported by God in their endeavors which gave them the hubris to exert power and dominance.
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