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9. Revolutions of Industrialization

Global context

population explosion (375 million in 1400 to 1 billion in early 1800s)

energy crisis

most pronounced in Europe, China, Japan

wood and charcoal became more scarce/costly

new energy, technologies

New energies

fossil fuels: coal, oil, natural gas

replaced wind, water, wood, muscle

temporarily allowed for much greater quantities of energy

mid-19th: learned to use guano (seabird poo) from Peru

fertilizer

enabled input-intensive farming practices

crops to feed draft animals, human population

Western Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand

New technology

18th-century Britain: innovations changed cotton textile production

19th: Europe forged ahead of rest of world

coal-fired steam engine: inanimate, almost limitless amount of power

Industrial Revolution later spread beyond textiles

iron and steel production

railroads and steamships

food processing

construction

later 19th: second Industrial Revolution

chemicals

electricity

precision machinery

telegraph, telephone

rubber

printing

agriculture

mechanical reapers

chemical fertilizers

pesticides

refrigeration

“culture of innovation”: things can be endlessly improved

Output

Britain (origin): 50x from 1750 to 1900

unprecedented, unimaginable

spread to continental Western Europe, then to United States, Russia, Japan

Environmental impact

massive extraction of nonrenewable raw materials (coal, iron ore, petroleum, etc.)

sewers and industrial waste emptied into rivers that became poisonous cesspools

1858: Thames River smelled so bad that the British House of Commons had to suspend its session

coal-fired industries, domestic use of smoke → air pollution in urban areas → increase of respiratory illness

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