Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume VII
- The Cambridge World History
- Production, Destruction, and Connection, 1750–Present
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Production, destruction, and connection, 1750–present: introduction
- Part I Material matrices
- 2 Energy, population, and environmental change since 1750: entering the Anthropocene
- 3 The economic history of agriculture since 1800
- 4 Global industrialization: a multipolar perspective
- 5 The history of world technology, 1750–present
- 6 A new world of energy
- Part II Population and disease
- Part III Politics
- Part IV World regions
- Index
- References
6 - A new world of energy
from Part I - Material matrices
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
By
Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume VII
- The Cambridge World History
- Production, Destruction, and Connection, 1750–Present
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Production, destruction, and connection, 1750–present: introduction
- Part I Material matrices
- 2 Energy, population, and environmental change since 1750: entering the Anthropocene
- 3 The economic history of agriculture since 1800
- 4 Global industrialization: a multipolar perspective
- 5 The history of world technology, 1750–present
- 6 A new world of energy
- Part II Population and disease
- Part III Politics
- Part IV World regions
- Index
- References
Summary
By the 1750s a few regions of Western Europe were in the early stages of energy transition from plant fuels to fossil fuels and from animate prime movers to machines powered by combustion. Great powers of the past that continued to rely on traditional energy sources and on animate prime movers were swiftly left far behind: in aggregate terms China, with its large population, remained the world's largest economy until the 1880s. This chapter concentrates on just six universal measures for energy developments. They are energy density, power density, the maximum power of prime movers, the efficiency of energy conversions, the per capita consumption of useful energy, and, the maximum energies of weapons. The history of modern energy use make it clear how the combustion of fossil fuels and massive deployment of efficient prime movers created a world in which material comforts, private consumption, mobility, and the overall quality of life are so different from the pre-1750 era.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History , pp. 164 - 184Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
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