Industrialization and imperialism | World History | Khan Academy

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

in the early to mid 1700s.

And you immediately see a few things.

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

Even the small country of Portugal,

because of its prowess during
the Age of Exploration,

a significant amount of territory

in what would become Brazil,

but they also have
possessions and colonies

along the coast of Africa

and even things in India, like Goa.

You have the British, having
possessions in North America,

things that would eventually evolve

into the United States and Canada.

At this point in time,

France also has significant possessions,

which will later be taken by Britain

and then an independent U.S.

as it grows across
continental North America.

But the thing to notice in this map

is despite these significant possessions,

much of the world is not
controlled by the Europeans.

Yes, England also is starting to have

a bit of a colonial possession,

although at this point
it's a corporate possession

in eastern India, in Bengal,

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

But then as we enter into the second half

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

something important happens
in the scope of human history,

and that's the Industrial Revolution

or maybe you could say the
Industrial Revolutions.

Now, there's many
technologies that are central

to the Industrial Revolution,

but probably most important
is the steam engine,

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

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

But the steam engine all
of a sudden allows us

to harness the power of really coal

to create steam to turn engines.

And then these engines could
be used to power factories

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

This factory right over
here, it looks like

they're creating fabric
from some kind of thread

or they might be sewing of some kind.

And a human equipped with a power loom

or with a sewing machine
could produce much, much more

than they could've ever
produced before by hand.

The steam engine and
things like electricity

also create a revolution
in transportation,

the transportation of goods and people,

but also the movement of information.

This right over here is
a picture of a steamship,

which you could use for trade,

but you could also use it
to project military power.

This here is a railroad.

Similarly, transport goods and people

but it also allows you to keep control

over a larger swath of territory.

And this is a telegraph.

And then a telegraph, all of a sudden,

for the first time in history,

you can communicate across
the globe in a mere instant.

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

could now happen in seconds.

So, once again, this
is valuable for trade,

but it's also valuable for
coordinating military power.

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

and we will study more in other videos,

the map of the world looks very different

roughly 150 years later.

This is what the world looks
like around the year 1900

and you immediately
notice some differences

from that previous map.

Most of those colonial possessions

in North and South America
are now independent

but you notice something
dramatic happening

in Africa and in much of Asia.

Africa has now been carved
up by the colonial powers.

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

in much of South Africa and
then around Egypt and Sudan

and parts of East Africa.

You see the French have control of Algeria

and much of Eastern Africa.

What started off for the British

as a corporate possession in
Eastern India has now grown

to become a possession of the Crown.

You have India, part
of the British Empire.

Even Japan, which is one of
the first Asian countries

to industrialize, is in on imperialism.

It has control in Korea and in Taiwan.

So why this kind of imperialism?

There's always the standard
motivations for imperialism

that we've seen throughout world history.

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

under your rule.

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

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

more taxes and wealth.

So, taxes.

And if you have more people,
they will have output

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

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

They could produce more soldiers

and so the more revenue
and soldiers you have,

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

And so this is the
classic loop that you see

why most empires tried to expand

and sometimes when they stopped expanding,

you see that they started to decline.

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

to the beginning of the 20th century,

we have new things at play.

We have the technological innovation

from the Industrial Revolution,

things like electricity and steam power.

You see the notion of
capitalism come into its prime,

this focus on where do
you maximize your returns

for a given amount of
capital that you have?

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

or as we saw in some of those pictures,

as technology becomes
more and more valuable,

things other than land
become very important

forms of capital, like
factories, like railroads,

like ships.

And related to these two ideas,
you have industrialization,

which is the use of technology
to become more productive,

to increase output.

And they all feed off of each other.

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

Well, I should industrialize.

I should make my factories more efficient.

Well, to make my factories more efficient,

I have to also invest in technology

to get that industrialization.

The more I industrialize,
the better my profits,

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

in this cycle.

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

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

the need to improve my technology.

And those who develop the technology,

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

So, once again, it's creating this cycle

which is going to feed
the fuel of imperialism.

Think about it.

In the Industrial Revolution,

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

If you think about a factory...

So that's my factory right over there.

It takes raw materials...

Raw materials.

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

It might take raw cotton
or turn it into thread

or it might take that cotton thread

and then turn it into some type of fabric

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

So even before the Industrial Revolution,

people would take raw
materials, do something to it,

and then you would have finished goods.

But now, this center portion
is being supercharged

by technology, by industrialization.

It is really becoming the central focus

and it's becoming more productive.

So as it becomes more productive,

there's a hunger for more raw materials.

Where do you get those raw materials from?

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

or Japan, your raw materials are limited.

But, there's the rest of the world

and especially the rest of the world

that is not at the same level

of technological sophistication yet,

so you can, perhaps, use your military

in order to force them to trade with you.

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

You have limited markets on your island,

but what if you could sell
to the hundreds of millions

of people who aren't
directly in your country?

This desire for more raw materials

and more and cheaper raw materials

and this desire to sell your goods,

the outputs of industrialization,

this, to a significant degree,
drove this imperialism,

this colonization, and in general,

a motivation for freer trade in general.

When the free trade didn't happen freely,

sometimes it was forced on the country

that was being traded with.

And as alluded to already,

the technology which helped
fuel this Industrial Revolution

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

Before the Industrial Revolution,

a country like the United Kingdom

being able to control
this far-flung empire,

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

to do using their technology.

But now you have the steamship,

you have railroads,
you have the telegraph,

which are parts of this
Industrial Revolution

but they also allow you to project power

and project power much quicker
and much more efficiently

than ever possible.

So once again, technology,

industrialization, and capitalism,

these were the fuel of
the Industrial Revolution.

They provided the
motivation for colonization,

for imperialism, and
freer trade in general.

But then, that was able to be enforced

because of that same technology.

You could project your power
through those steamships,

railroads, and the telegraph.