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- [Sal] This is a map of
European colonial possessions

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in the early to mid 1700s.

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And you immediately see a few things.

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Spain has a lot of territory
in Central and South America.

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Even the small country of Portugal,

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because of its prowess during
the Age of Exploration,

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a significant amount of territory

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in what would become Brazil,

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but they also have
possessions and colonies

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along the coast of Africa

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and even things in India, like Goa.

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You have the British, having
possessions in North America,

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things that would eventually evolve

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into the United States and Canada.

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At this point in time,

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France also has significant possessions,

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which will later be taken by Britain

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and then an independent U.S.

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as it grows across
continental North America.

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But the thing to notice in this map

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is despite these significant possessions,

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much of the world is not
controlled by the Europeans.

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Yes, England also is starting to have

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a bit of a colonial possession,

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although at this point
it's a corporate possession

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in eastern India, in Bengal,

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but much of Africa and Asia
is not under European control.

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But then as we enter into the second half

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of the 18th century, and
especially the 19th century,

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something important happens
in the scope of human history,

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and that's the Industrial Revolution

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or maybe you could say the
Industrial Revolutions.

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Now, there's many
technologies that are central

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to the Industrial Revolution,

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but probably most important
is the steam engine,

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although you could contend
maybe it's the steam engine,

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maybe it's electrification,
maybe it is the telegraph.

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But the steam engine all
of a sudden allows us

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to harness the power of really coal

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to create steam to turn engines.

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And then these engines could
be used to power factories

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so that you could amplify what
human labor could do before.

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This factory right over
here, it looks like

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they're creating fabric
from some kind of thread

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or they might be sewing of some kind.

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And a human equipped with a power loom

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or with a sewing machine
could produce much, much more

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than they could've ever
produced before by hand.

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The steam engine and
things like electricity

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also create a revolution
in transportation,

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the transportation of goods and people,

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but also the movement of information.

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This right over here is
a picture of a steamship,

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which you could use for trade,

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but you could also use it
to project military power.

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This here is a railroad.

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Similarly, transport goods and people

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but it also allows you to keep control

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over a larger swath of territory.

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And this is a telegraph.

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And then a telegraph, all of a sudden,

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for the first time in history,

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you can communicate across
the globe in a mere instant.

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And what used to take months
to figure out what was going on

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could now happen in seconds.

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So, once again, this
is valuable for trade,

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but it's also valuable for
coordinating military power.

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So in large part to these
revolutions that we're seeing,

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and we will study more in other videos,

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the map of the world looks very different

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roughly 150 years later.

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This is what the world looks
like around the year 1900

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and you immediately
notice some differences

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from that previous map.

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Most of those colonial possessions

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in North and South America
are now independent

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but you notice something
dramatic happening

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in Africa and in much of Asia.

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Africa has now been carved
up by the colonial powers.

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In this salmon color, you see
where the British have control

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in much of South Africa and
then around Egypt and Sudan

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and parts of East Africa.

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You see the French have control of Algeria

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and much of Eastern Africa.

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What started off for the British

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as a corporate possession in
Eastern India has now grown

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to become a possession of the Crown.

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You have India, part
of the British Empire.

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Even Japan, which is one of
the first Asian countries

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to industrialize, is in on imperialism.

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It has control in Korea and in Taiwan.

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So why this kind of imperialism?

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There's always the standard
motivations for imperialism

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that we've seen throughout world history.

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If you have conquest, that
leads to more land plus people

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under your rule.

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And if you have more land,
which is for the most part

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used for agriculture,
well, you're going to have

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more taxes and wealth.

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So, taxes.

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And if you have more people,
they will have output

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so you can tax that, but
they can also be used,

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they could be taxed, so to speak, for war.

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They could produce more soldiers

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and so the more revenue
and soldiers you have,

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well, that could help you just
accrue more and more power.

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And so this is the
classic loop that you see

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why most empires tried to expand

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and sometimes when they stopped expanding,

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you see that they started to decline.

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But now in this video,
from the early 18th century

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to the beginning of the 20th century,

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we have new things at play.

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We have the technological innovation

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from the Industrial Revolution,

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things like electricity and steam power.

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You see the notion of
capitalism come into its prime,

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this focus on where do
you maximize your returns

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for a given amount of
capital that you have?

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And land is a form of
capital, but as we will see

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or as we saw in some of those pictures,

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as technology becomes
more and more valuable,

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things other than land
become very important

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forms of capital, like
factories, like railroads,

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like ships.

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And related to these two ideas,
you have industrialization,

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which is the use of technology
to become more productive,

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to increase output.

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And they all feed off of each other.

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A capitalist says, how do I get
better return on my capital?

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Well, I should industrialize.

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I should make my factories more efficient.

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Well, to make my factories more efficient,

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I have to also invest in technology

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to get that industrialization.

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The more I industrialize,
the better my profits,

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and so the more I am
going to be able to invest

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in this cycle.

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As I'm trying to industrialize,
I have all sorts of problems

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that I'm trying to solve,
so it's going to drive

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the need to improve my technology.

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And those who develop the technology,

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well, they're going to have
more capital to invest.

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So, once again, it's creating this cycle

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which is going to feed
the fuel of imperialism.

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Think about it.

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In the Industrial Revolution,

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the owners of capital started
to have more and more power.

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If you think about a factory...

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So that's my factory right over there.

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It takes raw materials...

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Raw materials.

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If you think about it,
it's a clothing factory.

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It might take raw cotton
or turn it into thread

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or it might take that cotton thread

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and then turn it into some type of fabric

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and then you have finished
goods, maybe this is clothing.

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So even before the Industrial Revolution,

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people would take raw
materials, do something to it,

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and then you would have finished goods.

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But now, this center portion
is being supercharged

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by technology, by industrialization.

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It is really becoming the central focus

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and it's becoming more productive.

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So as it becomes more productive,

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there's a hunger for more raw materials.

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Where do you get those raw materials from?

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Well, if you're a small
country like the United Kingdom

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or Japan, your raw materials are limited.

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But, there's the rest of the world

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and especially the rest of the world

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that is not at the same level

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of technological sophistication yet,

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so you can, perhaps, use your military

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in order to force them to trade with you.

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Similarly, what do you do with
all of those finished goods?

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You have limited markets on your island,

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but what if you could sell
to the hundreds of millions

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of people who aren't
directly in your country?

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This desire for more raw materials

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and more and cheaper raw materials

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and this desire to sell your goods,

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the outputs of industrialization,

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this, to a significant degree,
drove this imperialism,

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this colonization, and in general,

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a motivation for freer trade in general.

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When the free trade didn't happen freely,

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sometimes it was forced on the country

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that was being traded with.

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And as alluded to already,

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the technology which helped
fuel this Industrial Revolution

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also made it easier to
control a far-flung empire.

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Before the Industrial Revolution,

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a country like the United Kingdom

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being able to control
this far-flung empire,

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this would've been impossible
for the Romans or the Persians

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to do using their technology.

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But now you have the steamship,

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you have railroads,
you have the telegraph,

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which are parts of this
Industrial Revolution

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but they also allow you to project power

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and project power much quicker
and much more efficiently

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than ever possible.

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So once again, technology,

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industrialization, and capitalism,

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these were the fuel of
the Industrial Revolution.

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They provided the
motivation for colonization,

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for imperialism, and
freer trade in general.

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But then, that was able to be enforced

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because of that same technology.

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You could project your power
through those steamships,

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railroads, and the telegraph.