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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 some form of democratic...

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governance today. In this unit, we're gonna talk about a different kind of revolution.

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Dance Dance Revolution? No? Fine. Guess we're talking about the Industrial kind instead.

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But first let's go back in time a bit. Between the epoch of the Greeks and...

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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 darn things. Around this same...

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time, a bunch of Europeans kicked off the Age of Exploration...

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by going out into the world to conquer new lands, enslave...

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new peoples, and steal lots of natural resources from native...

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populations. The end result: the economies of Europe expanded by leaps and...

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bounds, as the loot flowed in. Thinking small and local didn't work anymore. It was time...

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for mercantilism to take the wheel. Fun fact: that was almost the title of Carrie Underwood's song.

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"Mercantilism Take the Wheel." It just didn't have quite the same ring to it, though. Anyway, the central...

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

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This seems like a pretty simple concept, right? However,

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in order for mercantilism to work, the nations of Europe...

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had to embrace protectionism. Sorry, Spaniards, no...

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fine French champagne for you. We hear the ice tea is pretty nice.

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

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

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

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pocketbook. Lots of that lovely money flowed into the hands of businessmen looking to get...

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even wealthier than they already were. While British merchants in particular...

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believed in the power of investing, they had some help for their schemes...

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from the Bank of England. Founded in 1694, the institution...

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existed to help British citizens borrow money at low interest rates...

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which meant lots of entrepreneurs could take our 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...

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than just stellar business acumen. England was an island, which meant it...

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had access to water, which meant its merchants had no trouble getting...

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their products to even the most exotic places. Y'know, like...

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Boston Harbor. Additionally, England was a politically stable...

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country, and had been since 1688. No war or conflict had...

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come along to destroy English infrastructure, or force English businessmen...

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to spend their money on things like AR-15s. England...

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also had a ton of coal and iron at home, which came in handy...

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when Thomas Newcomen invented the first steam engine...

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in 1712. A perfect storm was brewing in England. This...

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tiny island had the money, the geographic location, the stability, and...

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resources to do something amazing. Like lose the American colonies to a bunch of...

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upstart revolutions, for not sharing. Okay, so that maybe wasn't...

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so amazing for the British. But some of the folks on ye olde Albion...

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started to wonder what would happen if animals and people both...

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

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And what if were possible to produce a lot of stuff, like buttons or bullets,

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or jelly beans, really quickly and cheaply? It dawned on the British that...

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the new machines they'd been building, like Newcomen's Steam...

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Engine, could be used to complete work far faster than...

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animals or people could. More efficiency meant more money, which meant more innovation,

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which meant more money. And so the Industrial Revolution was born.

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At least, it was born in England. Don't worry Russia, you'll get to modernize, too.

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Eventually.

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