Coal, Steam, and The Industrial Revolution: Crash Course World History #32

Hi, I’m John Green; this is Crash Course World History, and today we’re going to

discuss the series of events that made it possible for you to watch Crash Course. And

also made this studio possible. And made the warehouse containing the studio possible.

A warehouse, by the way, that houses stuff for warehouses. That’s right, it’s time

to talk about the Industrial Revolution.

Although it occurred around the same time as the French, American, Latin American, and

Haitian Revolutions - between, say, 1750 and 1850 - the industrial revolution was really

the most revolutionary of the bunch.

Past John: No way, dude. All those other revolutions resulted in, like, new borders and flags and stuff.

Present John: [sigh] We’ve studied 15,000 years of history here at Crash Course, Me

from the Past. And borders and flags have changed plenty, and they’re going to keep

changing. But in all that time, nothing much changed about the way we disposed of waste or located

drinking water or acquired clothing. Most people lived on or very close to the land that provided their food.

Except for a few exceptions, life expectancy never rose above 35 or below 25. Education

was a privilege, not a right. In all those millennia, we never developed a weapon that

could kill more than a couple dozen people at once, or a way to travel faster than horseback.

For 15,000 years, most humans never owned or used a single item made outside of their

communities. Simon Bolivar didn’t change that and neither did the American Declaration of Independence.

You have electricity? Industrial Revolution. Blueberries in February? Industrial Revolution.

You live somewhere other than a farm? Industrial Revolution. You drive a car? Industrial Revolution.

You get twelve years of free, formal education? Industrial Revolution. Your bed, your antibiotics,

your toilet, your contraception, your tap water, your every waking and sleeping second:

Industrial Revolution.

[theme music]

Here’s one simple statistic that sums it up: Before the industrial revolution, about

80% of the world’s population was engaged in farming to keep itself and the other 20%

of people from starving. Today, in the United States, less than 1% of people list their occupation as farming.

I mean, we’ve come so far that we don’t even have to farm flowers anymore. Stan, are

these real, by the way? I can’t tell if they’re made out of foam or digital. So

what happened? TECHNOLOGY! Here’s my definition:

The Industrial Revolution was an increase in production brought about by the use of

machines and characterized by the use of new energy sources. Although this will soon get

more complicated, for our purposes today, industrialization is NOT capitalism - although,