World History

Opium Wars remain a central element of China´s “patriotic education” s  Some 170 years after that clash between the Chinese and British empires, the Opium War retains an emotional resonance for many Chinese. China faced an immense military and political ambitions of rival European states. Became enmeshed in networks of trade and investment s  Touched by various aspects of European culture – modernity and scientific rationalism. In 1853, 430 million Chinese, had no Industrial Revolution, no agricultural revolution and couldn’t keep up. Huge peasant population, unemployment, impoverishment, misery and starvation high. State was unable to collectively perform many functions: tax collection, flood control, social welfare. Corruption gave rise to bandit gangs, peasant rebellion opposed to Qing Dynasty, Taiping Uprising 1830s British and Americans found enormous, growing profitable market for this addictive drug: opium. Chinese authorities recognized problem, illegal trade, corruption. Ch...

Europeans had defined others largely in religious terms, now they adopted the idea and techniques of more “advanced” societies equals precedent by wealth, and used both to produce unsurpassed military power.   It’s not surprising that their opinions of other cultures dropped sharply. European eyes to the status of tribes led by chiefs as a means of emphasizing their “primitive” qualities. Still Europeans used the apparatus of science to support their racial preferences and prejudices. (Measure the size of the skull, white skull larger; therefore more advance and intelligent) Race in this view, determined human intelligence, moral development, and destiny. “Race is everything”. The sense of responsibility to the “weaker” races. Europeans had “duty to civilize the inferior races”. “Discipline and production for the market to the lazy natives”. Charles Darwin – “the survival of the fittest” led to the “social Darwinism” – destruction of backward races or “unfit” races. Second wa...

No element of Europe´s Modern transformation held a greater significance for the history of humankind than the Industrial Revolution, which took place in 1750 and 1900. French Revolution transform European society, Agricultural Revolution some 12,000 years ago had a way of life been so fundamentally altered. Industrial Revolution in Great Britain, spread much more rapidly than agriculture. More than Christianity, democracy or capitalism. Industrial Revolution enthusiastically welcomed everywhere.  The global context for this transformation lies in the very substantial increase in human numbers. From 375 million in 1400 to 1 billion in 19th century. Industrial Revolution marks a human response to that dilemma as nonrenewable fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas replaced the endlessly renewable energy sources of Wind, water and wood.   Raw materials to feed to fuel industrial machinery- coal iron, petroleum altered landscape in many places. Some from coal fired ...