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
5 - The history of world technology, 1750–present
from Part I - Material matrices
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
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
Technological change accelerated with the Industrial Revolution and extended to all processes on all continents from smelting and mining to power production, to transportation, agriculture, and housing, and to communications. This chapter focuses on the United States, Europe, and the former Soviet Union because these nations have been the major engines of technological change since the 1750s for economic reasons; political reasons; military concerns; and the competition between these states for resources and power. A crucial aspect of the Industrial Revolution, tied to the others, was the rise of steam power. Historians have had their differences over the social consequences of the Industrial Revolution, particularly its impacts upon living standards. Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations have begun to tame the Mekong River delta with scores of hydroelectricity projects that raise questions of post-colonial oustees and environmental degradation. After 1750 a revolution in transportation changed the face of human interaction, commerce, military thinking, diet, leisure, and much else.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History , pp. 136 - 163Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
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