V. TECHNOLOGY AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTS 1750–1914

Economic, political and social changes occurred so rapidly in this 150 year period that is difficult to keep track of them all. The flow chart in section VII of this chapter provides a good outline of the causes and effects of these changes. Advances in power and transportation drove the Industrial Revolution. Steam provided consistent power for new factories. In transportation news, and millions of miles of rail lines were laid through out Europe, India, Africa, and throughout eastern Asia. This facilitated the movement of resources and manufactured goods. The new industrial world required large numbers of laborers. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, this need, along with the abolition of slavery, resulted in large-scale migrations around the world. Europeans and east Asians immigrated to the Americas, and south Indians moved into other British-controlled territories.

This rapidly transforming world also resulted in the creation of new forms of entertainment for the urban working-class, new literature and revolutionary new ideas, exhibitions, fairs and amusement parks, professional sports, as well as the first department stores with widely available consumer goods. Both English and Japanese women published novels, some of which were indictments of working class life. The rapid industrialization also created the need for new forms of job protection including unions and new ideas about the relationships between the social classes.

With industrialization came new imperialism and interactions. The arts and culture of Europe were influenced by contact with Asia and Africa, and new more modern forms developed. Meanwhile, the Japanese started to integrate Western styles into traditional art forms. The seemingly radical Impressionist period in nineteenth-century European painting was based on depictions of real life, while the modernist art movements included cubism, surrealism, and art nouveau.

New industrialization and imperialism also resulted in new reasons and new ways to make war. This period saw the development of automatic weapons, including the Maxim gun of the 1880s. The assembly line allowed for mass production of gasoline powered automobiles and eventually the first tanks, which led to the massive destruction wrought on the battle fields of World War I.