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In our last unit, we saw how the success of one little revolution back in 1776

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led to most of the world embracing

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some form of democratic governance today.

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In this unit, we're going to talk about a different

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kind of revolution: Dance Dance Revolution…

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No? Alright, fine.

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Guess we're talking about the industrial kind instead.

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But first, let's go back in time a bit.

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Between the epoch of the Greeks and the Romans and the 18th century, mechanical invention was pretty much nil.

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Aristocrats relied on peasants and animals to perform manual labor.

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They would've used windmills, too, but Don Quixote kept coming along and destroying the darned things.

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Around this same time, a bunch of Europeans kicked off the

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Age of Exploration by going out into the world to

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conquer new lands, enslave new peoples, and steal lots of natural resources from native populations.

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The end result? The economies of Europe expanded by leaps and bounds as the loot flowed in.

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Thinking small and local didn't work anymore.

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It was time for mercantilism to take the wheel.

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Fun fact: that was almost the title of a Carrie Underwood song…"Mercantilism Take the Wheel."

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Just didn't have quite the same ring to it though.

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The central tenet of mercantilism is that you must export more than you import.

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This seems like a pretty simple concept, right?

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However, in order for mercantilism to work,

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the nations of Europe had to embrace protectionism.

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Sorry, Spaniards. No fine French champagne for you.

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We hear the iced tea is pretty nice.

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While protectionism was great for the people in charge in Europe, it was terrible for consumers,

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who couldn't get access to all the products they wanted.

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Protectionism also drove up the prices on certain products, walloping consumers right in the pocketbook.

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Lots of that lovely money flowed into the hands of businessmen looking to get even wealthier than they already were.

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While British merchants in particular believed in the power of investing,

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they had some help for their schemes from the Bank of England.

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Founded in 1694, the institution existed to help British citizens

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borrow money at low interest rates, which meant

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lots of entrepreneurs could take out loans to invent and innovate.

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But the British had way more going for them by the time the 18th century rolled around than just stellar business acumen.

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England was an island, which meant it had access to water,

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which meant its merchants had no trouble getting their products to even the most exotic places.

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You know, like, Boston Harbor.

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Additionally, England was a politically stable country,

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and had been since 1688.

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No war or conflict had come along

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to destroy English infrastructure or force English businessmen to spend their money on things like AR-15s.

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England also had a ton of coal and iron at home,

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which came in handy when Thomas Newcomen

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invented the first steam engine in 1712.

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A perfect storm was brewing in England.

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This tiny island had the money, the geographic location, the stability, and the resources to do something amazing.

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Like lose the American colonies to a bunch of upstart revolutionaries for not sharing.

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Okay, well, so that maybe wasn't so amazing for the British.

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But some of the folks on ye olde Albion started to wonder what would happen if animals and people,

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both of which need food and sleep, didn't have to do so much manual labor.

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And what if it were possible to produce a lot of stuff, like buttons or bullets or jelly beans, really, really quickly and cheaply?

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It dawned on the British that the new machines they'd been building,

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like Newcommen's steam engine, could be used

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to complete work far faster than animals or people could.

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More efficiency meant more money, which meant more innovation, which meant more money.

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And so the Industrial Revolution was born. At least, it was born in England.

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Don't worry, Russia, you'll get to modernize, too. Eventually.

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