WEBVTT

00:00:00.497 --> 00:00:03.640
- [Sal] This is a map of
European colonial possessions

00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:05.807
in the early to mid 1700s.

00:00:07.057 --> 00:00:09.592
And you immediately see a few things.

00:00:09.592 --> 00:00:13.759
Spain has a lot of territory
in Central and South America.

00:00:15.315 --> 00:00:17.368
Even the small country of Portugal,

00:00:17.368 --> 00:00:20.388
because of its prowess during
the Age of Exploration,

00:00:20.388 --> 00:00:22.409
a significant amount of territory

00:00:22.409 --> 00:00:24.087
in what would become Brazil,

00:00:24.087 --> 00:00:26.948
but they also have
possessions and colonies

00:00:26.948 --> 00:00:28.951
along the coast of Africa

00:00:28.951 --> 00:00:31.868
and even things in India, like Goa.

00:00:32.703 --> 00:00:36.083
You have the British, having
possessions in North America,

00:00:36.083 --> 00:00:37.826
things that would eventually evolve

00:00:37.826 --> 00:00:41.259
into the United States and Canada.

00:00:41.259 --> 00:00:42.514
At this point in time,

00:00:42.514 --> 00:00:45.763
France also has significant possessions,

00:00:45.763 --> 00:00:48.977
which will later be taken by Britain

00:00:48.977 --> 00:00:51.108
and then an independent U.S.

00:00:51.108 --> 00:00:54.858
as it grows across
continental North America.

00:00:56.150 --> 00:00:58.361
But the thing to notice in this map

00:00:58.361 --> 00:01:01.452
is despite these significant possessions,

00:01:01.452 --> 00:01:06.067
much of the world is not
controlled by the Europeans.

00:01:06.067 --> 00:01:08.576
Yes, England also is starting to have

00:01:08.576 --> 00:01:10.605
a bit of a colonial possession,

00:01:10.605 --> 00:01:12.755
although at this point
it's a corporate possession

00:01:12.755 --> 00:01:15.719
in eastern India, in Bengal,

00:01:15.719 --> 00:01:19.886
but much of Africa and Asia
is not under European control.

00:01:21.416 --> 00:01:23.899
But then as we enter into the second half

00:01:23.899 --> 00:01:27.909
of the 18th century, and
especially the 19th century,

00:01:27.909 --> 00:01:32.221
something important happens
in the scope of human history,

00:01:32.221 --> 00:01:34.399
and that's the Industrial Revolution

00:01:34.399 --> 00:01:38.381
or maybe you could say the
Industrial Revolutions.

00:01:38.381 --> 00:01:40.955
Now, there's many
technologies that are central

00:01:40.955 --> 00:01:43.003
to the Industrial Revolution,

00:01:43.003 --> 00:01:46.409
but probably most important
is the steam engine,

00:01:46.409 --> 00:01:48.854
although you could contend
maybe it's the steam engine,

00:01:48.854 --> 00:01:52.311
maybe it's electrification,
maybe it is the telegraph.

00:01:52.311 --> 00:01:54.458
But the steam engine all
of a sudden allows us

00:01:54.458 --> 00:01:57.469
to harness the power of really coal

00:01:57.469 --> 00:02:00.625
to create steam to turn engines.

00:02:00.625 --> 00:02:04.536
And then these engines could
be used to power factories

00:02:04.536 --> 00:02:08.408
so that you could amplify what
human labor could do before.

00:02:08.408 --> 00:02:10.085
This factory right over
here, it looks like

00:02:10.085 --> 00:02:12.599
they're creating fabric
from some kind of thread

00:02:12.599 --> 00:02:14.887
or they might be sewing of some kind.

00:02:14.887 --> 00:02:17.788
And a human equipped with a power loom

00:02:17.788 --> 00:02:20.855
or with a sewing machine
could produce much, much more

00:02:20.855 --> 00:02:24.385
than they could've ever
produced before by hand.

00:02:24.385 --> 00:02:26.731
The steam engine and
things like electricity

00:02:26.731 --> 00:02:30.314
also create a revolution
in transportation,

00:02:31.173 --> 00:02:33.535
the transportation of goods and people,

00:02:33.535 --> 00:02:36.696
but also the movement of information.

00:02:36.696 --> 00:02:39.571
This right over here is
a picture of a steamship,

00:02:39.571 --> 00:02:41.215
which you could use for trade,

00:02:41.215 --> 00:02:45.130
but you could also use it
to project military power.

00:02:45.130 --> 00:02:46.790
This here is a railroad.

00:02:46.790 --> 00:02:49.227
Similarly, transport goods and people

00:02:49.227 --> 00:02:51.973
but it also allows you to keep control

00:02:51.973 --> 00:02:54.330
over a larger swath of territory.

00:02:54.330 --> 00:02:56.928
And this is a telegraph.

00:02:56.928 --> 00:02:58.807
And then a telegraph, all of a sudden,

00:02:58.807 --> 00:03:00.346
for the first time in history,

00:03:00.346 --> 00:03:04.831
you can communicate across
the globe in a mere instant.

00:03:04.831 --> 00:03:08.538
And what used to take months
to figure out what was going on

00:03:08.538 --> 00:03:10.766
could now happen in seconds.

00:03:10.766 --> 00:03:13.643
So, once again, this
is valuable for trade,

00:03:13.643 --> 00:03:18.318
but it's also valuable for
coordinating military power.

00:03:18.318 --> 00:03:21.956
So in large part to these
revolutions that we're seeing,

00:03:21.956 --> 00:03:24.147
and we will study more in other videos,

00:03:24.147 --> 00:03:26.803
the map of the world looks very different

00:03:26.803 --> 00:03:29.235
roughly 150 years later.

00:03:29.235 --> 00:03:33.402
This is what the world looks
like around the year 1900

00:03:34.386 --> 00:03:36.374
and you immediately
notice some differences

00:03:36.374 --> 00:03:38.003
from that previous map.

00:03:38.003 --> 00:03:40.317
Most of those colonial possessions

00:03:40.317 --> 00:03:43.348
in North and South America
are now independent

00:03:43.348 --> 00:03:46.047
but you notice something
dramatic happening

00:03:46.047 --> 00:03:48.933
in Africa and in much of Asia.

00:03:48.933 --> 00:03:53.419
Africa has now been carved
up by the colonial powers.

00:03:53.419 --> 00:03:57.873
In this salmon color, you see
where the British have control

00:03:57.873 --> 00:04:02.079
in much of South Africa and
then around Egypt and Sudan

00:04:02.079 --> 00:04:04.490
and parts of East Africa.

00:04:04.490 --> 00:04:07.669
You see the French have control of Algeria

00:04:07.669 --> 00:04:10.582
and much of Eastern Africa.

00:04:10.582 --> 00:04:12.312
What started off for the British

00:04:12.312 --> 00:04:15.915
as a corporate possession in
Eastern India has now grown

00:04:15.915 --> 00:04:18.437
to become a possession of the Crown.

00:04:18.437 --> 00:04:22.504
You have India, part
of the British Empire.

00:04:22.504 --> 00:04:25.372
Even Japan, which is one of
the first Asian countries

00:04:25.372 --> 00:04:29.245
to industrialize, is in on imperialism.

00:04:29.245 --> 00:04:32.412
It has control in Korea and in Taiwan.

00:04:34.121 --> 00:04:37.226
So why this kind of imperialism?

00:04:37.226 --> 00:04:40.261
There's always the standard
motivations for imperialism

00:04:40.261 --> 00:04:43.744
that we've seen throughout world history.

00:04:43.744 --> 00:04:47.911
If you have conquest, that
leads to more land plus people

00:04:52.360 --> 00:04:54.231
under your rule.

00:04:54.231 --> 00:04:57.149
And if you have more land,
which is for the most part

00:04:57.149 --> 00:04:59.148
used for agriculture,
well, you're going to have

00:04:59.148 --> 00:05:00.981
more taxes and wealth.

00:05:01.988 --> 00:05:03.617
So, taxes.

00:05:03.617 --> 00:05:05.970
And if you have more people,
they will have output

00:05:05.970 --> 00:05:08.773
so you can tax that, but
they can also be used,

00:05:08.773 --> 00:05:11.542
they could be taxed, so to speak, for war.

00:05:11.542 --> 00:05:14.707
They could produce more soldiers

00:05:14.707 --> 00:05:18.244
and so the more revenue
and soldiers you have,

00:05:18.244 --> 00:05:22.411
well, that could help you just
accrue more and more power.

00:05:22.411 --> 00:05:25.056
And so this is the
classic loop that you see

00:05:25.056 --> 00:05:27.347
why most empires tried to expand

00:05:27.347 --> 00:05:29.113
and sometimes when they stopped expanding,

00:05:29.113 --> 00:05:32.526
you see that they started to decline.

00:05:32.526 --> 00:05:37.342
But now in this video,
from the early 18th century

00:05:37.342 --> 00:05:39.650
to the beginning of the 20th century,

00:05:39.650 --> 00:05:41.812
we have new things at play.

00:05:41.812 --> 00:05:45.104
We have the technological innovation

00:05:45.104 --> 00:05:47.478
from the Industrial Revolution,

00:05:47.478 --> 00:05:51.242
things like electricity and steam power.

00:05:51.242 --> 00:05:55.409
You see the notion of
capitalism come into its prime,

00:05:56.785 --> 00:06:00.759
this focus on where do
you maximize your returns

00:06:00.759 --> 00:06:03.972
for a given amount of
capital that you have?

00:06:03.972 --> 00:06:07.756
And land is a form of
capital, but as we will see

00:06:07.756 --> 00:06:09.832
or as we saw in some of those pictures,

00:06:09.832 --> 00:06:12.429
as technology becomes
more and more valuable,

00:06:12.429 --> 00:06:14.755
things other than land
become very important

00:06:14.755 --> 00:06:18.340
forms of capital, like
factories, like railroads,

00:06:18.340 --> 00:06:19.649
like ships.

00:06:19.649 --> 00:06:23.816
And related to these two ideas,
you have industrialization,

00:06:25.282 --> 00:06:29.838
which is the use of technology
to become more productive,

00:06:29.838 --> 00:06:31.565
to increase output.

00:06:31.565 --> 00:06:34.426
And they all feed off of each other.

00:06:34.426 --> 00:06:38.526
A capitalist says, how do I get
better return on my capital?

00:06:38.526 --> 00:06:40.947
Well, I should industrialize.

00:06:40.947 --> 00:06:44.739
I should make my factories more efficient.

00:06:44.739 --> 00:06:47.309
Well, to make my factories more efficient,

00:06:47.309 --> 00:06:49.831
I have to also invest in technology

00:06:49.831 --> 00:06:52.626
to get that industrialization.

00:06:52.626 --> 00:06:55.990
The more I industrialize,
the better my profits,

00:06:55.990 --> 00:06:59.534
and so the more I am
going to be able to invest

00:06:59.534 --> 00:07:01.404
in this cycle.

00:07:01.404 --> 00:07:04.428
As I'm trying to industrialize,
I have all sorts of problems

00:07:04.428 --> 00:07:06.963
that I'm trying to solve,
so it's going to drive

00:07:06.963 --> 00:07:10.558
the need to improve my technology.

00:07:10.558 --> 00:07:12.085
And those who develop the technology,

00:07:12.085 --> 00:07:15.240
well, they're going to have
more capital to invest.

00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:17.616
So, once again, it's creating this cycle

00:07:17.616 --> 00:07:21.474
which is going to feed
the fuel of imperialism.

00:07:21.474 --> 00:07:22.908
Think about it.

00:07:22.908 --> 00:07:24.937
In the Industrial Revolution,

00:07:24.937 --> 00:07:29.104
the owners of capital started
to have more and more power.

00:07:30.096 --> 00:07:32.304
If you think about a factory...

00:07:32.304 --> 00:07:34.757
So that's my factory right over there.

00:07:34.757 --> 00:07:37.471
It takes raw materials...

00:07:37.471 --> 00:07:38.638
Raw materials.

00:07:39.834 --> 00:07:41.451
If you think about it,
it's a clothing factory.

00:07:41.451 --> 00:07:44.474
It might take raw cotton
or turn it into thread

00:07:44.474 --> 00:07:45.983
or it might take that cotton thread

00:07:45.983 --> 00:07:48.471
and then turn it into some type of fabric

00:07:48.471 --> 00:07:52.051
and then you have finished
goods, maybe this is clothing.

00:07:52.051 --> 00:07:54.820
So even before the Industrial Revolution,

00:07:54.820 --> 00:07:57.232
people would take raw
materials, do something to it,

00:07:57.232 --> 00:07:59.004
and then you would have finished goods.

00:07:59.004 --> 00:08:02.501
But now, this center portion
is being supercharged

00:08:02.501 --> 00:08:05.714
by technology, by industrialization.

00:08:05.714 --> 00:08:07.900
It is really becoming the central focus

00:08:07.900 --> 00:08:11.150
and it's becoming more productive.

00:08:11.150 --> 00:08:13.418
So as it becomes more productive,

00:08:13.418 --> 00:08:16.333
there's a hunger for more raw materials.

00:08:16.333 --> 00:08:18.617
Where do you get those raw materials from?

00:08:18.617 --> 00:08:20.630
Well, if you're a small
country like the United Kingdom

00:08:20.630 --> 00:08:23.934
or Japan, your raw materials are limited.

00:08:23.934 --> 00:08:26.591
But, there's the rest of the world

00:08:26.591 --> 00:08:28.193
and especially the rest of the world

00:08:28.193 --> 00:08:29.847
that is not at the same level

00:08:29.847 --> 00:08:32.040
of technological sophistication yet,

00:08:32.040 --> 00:08:35.183
so you can, perhaps, use your military

00:08:35.183 --> 00:08:38.600
in order to force them to trade with you.

00:08:39.726 --> 00:08:42.845
Similarly, what do you do with
all of those finished goods?

00:08:42.845 --> 00:08:45.510
You have limited markets on your island,

00:08:45.510 --> 00:08:48.297
but what if you could sell
to the hundreds of millions

00:08:48.297 --> 00:08:52.130
of people who aren't
directly in your country?

00:08:53.229 --> 00:08:55.553
This desire for more raw materials

00:08:55.553 --> 00:08:57.547
and more and cheaper raw materials

00:08:57.547 --> 00:08:59.895
and this desire to sell your goods,

00:08:59.895 --> 00:09:02.560
the outputs of industrialization,

00:09:02.560 --> 00:09:06.824
this, to a significant degree,
drove this imperialism,

00:09:06.824 --> 00:09:08.667
this colonization, and in general,

00:09:08.667 --> 00:09:11.672
a motivation for freer trade in general.

00:09:11.672 --> 00:09:13.751
When the free trade didn't happen freely,

00:09:13.751 --> 00:09:16.270
sometimes it was forced on the country

00:09:16.270 --> 00:09:18.217
that was being traded with.

00:09:18.217 --> 00:09:20.144
And as alluded to already,

00:09:20.144 --> 00:09:24.187
the technology which helped
fuel this Industrial Revolution

00:09:24.187 --> 00:09:28.609
also made it easier to
control a far-flung empire.

00:09:28.609 --> 00:09:30.427
Before the Industrial Revolution,

00:09:30.427 --> 00:09:31.983
a country like the United Kingdom

00:09:31.983 --> 00:09:35.061
being able to control
this far-flung empire,

00:09:35.061 --> 00:09:38.990
this would've been impossible
for the Romans or the Persians

00:09:38.990 --> 00:09:41.395
to do using their technology.

00:09:41.395 --> 00:09:44.361
But now you have the steamship,

00:09:44.361 --> 00:09:47.944
you have railroads,
you have the telegraph,

00:09:49.083 --> 00:09:51.978
which are parts of this
Industrial Revolution

00:09:51.978 --> 00:09:55.090
but they also allow you to project power

00:09:55.090 --> 00:09:58.601
and project power much quicker
and much more efficiently

00:09:58.601 --> 00:10:00.352
than ever possible.

00:10:00.352 --> 00:10:02.252
So once again, technology,

00:10:02.252 --> 00:10:04.329
industrialization, and capitalism,

00:10:04.329 --> 00:10:06.446
these were the fuel of
the Industrial Revolution.

00:10:06.446 --> 00:10:09.937
They provided the
motivation for colonization,

00:10:09.937 --> 00:10:13.972
for imperialism, and
freer trade in general.

00:10:13.972 --> 00:10:16.440
But then, that was able to be enforced

00:10:16.440 --> 00:10:18.790
because of that same technology.

00:10:18.790 --> 00:10:21.534
You could project your power
through those steamships,

00:10:21.534 --> 00:10:23.545
railroads, and the telegraph.