The Super Summary of World History (37 page)

The ascension of Napoleon to the crown ended the French Revolution; although, it really ended in 1799 after Napoleon took over as a dictator in everything except name. The French Revolution rocked Europe to its foundations. All the fundamental truths accepted without question for hundreds of years were gone. Critical to European culture was the decreed demise of the Church and the rise of the nation state. After Napoleon, the Church was irrelevant to underwriting a king or queen’s power. The emperor or king or parliament held power because they could and did as they pleased with state power. They determined good and evil by their will alone. The Church lost its lands, and its monastic orders underwent dissolution. God was nothing to the revolutionaries of France.
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In May of 1794, the Revolution abolished the Christian Religion. Reason was to control the minds of men, but “reason” led to the Reign of Terror, the murder of the king and queen, and wars that were brutal beyond measure. The new killing fever was not because one god fought another, but because one man fought another over differing views on government. Gods could not stop men from killing, but now that man claimed to be free from gods, he managed to come up with other reasons to kill every bit as motivating as any god had been. Worse yet, as the government of France existed without the sanction of any god, and as it admitted to no god beyond reason, it was freed from all restrictions as long as “reason” justified the actions. Had the revolutionaries acknowledged the existence of God and the relevance of the Bible, Christian moral restrictions would apply; however, with Christian moral restraints removed and replaced by reason
it
was
found
that
“reason”
could
justify
any
action
including the Reign of Terror (remember the Sophist?). Reason, it seemed, recognized no absolutes.

France decided all things must be questioned by the light of reason. The French decided history itself must center on their Revolution; thus, they created a new calendar to reflect its central importance. The metric system of weights and measures was adopted, new fashions were invented, and the Napoleonic Code was published just to name a very few of the concepts arising from the French Revolution; on the other hand, for all their thoughts about being the center of the world and their Revolution the focus of history,
not
much
changed
. In the end, Napoleon destroyed himself in a series of military blunders rivaling Hitler’s some 124 years later. After a massive attack on Russia and the total loss of his frozen army, Napoleon was sent to the island of Elba and exile. His final gasp was his return from exile followed by France restoring him as emperor (how dumb can people get), the declaration of war on Napoleon by England, Prussia and nearly everyone else in Europe, and the final battle at
Waterloo
in
1815
where a combination of English and Prussian forces crushed the French. This time Napoleon ended up on a drab Pacific island where he died in 1821, probably from poison slipped into his food by a servant working on the island who hated him.

Figure 32 Napoleon’s Empire 1810

After Napoleon’s fall, the nations of Europe assembled in the
Congress
of
Vienna
which sorted out all the trouble caused by the French, re-established the “old regimes” in Europe, and set the foundations for modern Europe.
This
peace
would
hold
from
1815
to
1914
, ninety-nine years in all, and resulted in remarkable prosperity and success for Europe. The Congress of Vienna was historic, and even though small wars occurred during the ninety-nine years, the great powers remained generally at peace saving the world from untold suffering.

The
Impact
of
Empires

1650
to
1950

Empires held by Western European nations had an unqualified impact on world history. The British, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Belgium, and the Netherlands’s empires gobbled up much of the world’s surface outside of Europe and the United States, and these empires lasted a very long time.

From about
1650
to
1950
is a general period for the existence of European Empires; thus,
Europe
had
control
of
most
of
the
world
for
three
hundred
years
. The growth of these empires was especially rapid. In 1815, about 35 percent of the earth’s habitable area was controlled by Europe, but by 1914, this percentage was at 85 percent. The only non-European nation establishing a modern empire was Japan whose empire was Asian. These empires, especially the English, brought Europe’s technological advancements to all parts of the globe. This in turn brought goods and raw materials from the world to Europe, leading to a general prosperity having a worldwide positive impact. The citizens of the mother countries did not run the empires as a whole. A few government administrators in powerful positions made decisions affecting the daily lives of millions of common folks across the planet. In general, a handful of men positioned at the top of their nation’s officialdom governed the colonies of each imperial power. One order could send out lesser administrators to alter lives across the globe.

One must comprehend the worldwide reach of the empires to understand the world of 1700 and beyond. These empires made England, France, Holland, Portugal, and other European states the
center
of
the
world
in financial, military, political, and cultural power for more than three hundred years. As such, the political machinations of Europe hit the entire globe. The boundaries of the empires really displayed political considerations in Europe, and they were placed to assist Europeans in governing their empires. As such, the lines drawn by the European Empires were not a fit solution for the situation existing on the ground. Nonetheless, as the empires toppled, the lines established in Europe became the boundaries of modern-day states. The inappropriateness of these boundaries is obvious as vicious wars over the frontiers continue even today.

As the empires flourished, so did the world. Extensive trade, the adoption of the gold standard to ease the payment problems between nations, and increasing prosperity led to more inventions and more infrastructure development in Europe and their empires. England ruled the world because of her powerful navy and extensive empire. Raw materials from the world over hurried to England’s factories for transformation into finished goods ranging from ships to tea. With Britain’s extensive coalfields, energy to fuel its expansion into an industrial giant was easy to find. The United Kingdom became the world’s richest nation, and its wealth was growing constantly during the Age of Empires. The rest of Europe was doing fine as well, and after the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna, growth and prosperity were commonplace in the Western world.

(See
Figures
19,
20
and
43
for
maps
of
the
colonial
empires)

The
Industrial
Revolution

1750
(approximate
beginning)

Before the French Revolution, another revolution had started which would have considerably more impact on the world. The
Industrial
Revolution
started
about
1750
, when water was first used to power new mills for cutting wood, weaving cloth on new kinds of looms, and otherwise putting something other than human or horse muscle to work making products for growing worldwide commercial markets.
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Since the end of the fourteenth century the population of Europe had been growing, increasing the demand for goods and services.
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Numerous inventions marked the new age. The flying shuttle loom was invented in 1733, improving the production of finished cloth goods; by 1740, the processing of cast iron and steel progressed markedly; 1779 saw the first iron bridge constructed in Britain; in1782,
James
Watt
developed the double-acting steam engine; in 1785, the power loom was invented in Britain, and in 1793,
Whitney
invented the cotton gin in the United States. By 1807 the first commercial steam boat was operating in America; by 1814, the first steam locomotive was running in Britain and by 1825, Britain opened its first railroad. 1837 saw the invention of the steel plow in the US, while in 1839 France photography developed with the daguerreotype.
Goodyear
vulcanized rubber in America that same year. Moreover, these are only
a
few
of the achievements that occurred during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Something invented in England during the Age of Discovery would have an unprecedented impact on the Industrial Revolution—the
corporate
form
of
enterprise
. Originally, these were companies formed by individuals with the approval of the crown and were given an exclusive area of trade such as the East India Company. These were very successful, and soon private stock corporations began to show they too could achieve success. A corporation normally consists of owners (stockholders) who hire people to oversee the corporation (the board of directors). The board of directors hires the corporation executives (president or chief operating officer, treasurer, sales manager and so forth), and the corporate executives are responsible for making money for the shareholders. If they fail to do so, the board of directors can, and will, replace them with other executives. If the board fails to act rationally, the stockholders can fire the board and hire other people to insure the enterprise makes money. The corporate form of enterprise has shown itself to be a most powerful organizational tool. Repeatedly, corporations outperformed individuals competing against it. One example was Henry Ford. He built the most powerful automotive company on earth which he operated as the sole owner. An upstart company combined many small automotive companies together and adopted the name General Motors, but they also adopted the corporate form of enterprise under the leadership of Alfred P. Sloan. Within a few years the men at General Motors had nearly driven Ford Motor Company out of business.

Of course, corporations fail all the time, but the power of the corporate form of enterprise is easily proven in modern business life. The top companies in the world are corporations. Year after year, corporations dominate Fortune Magazine’s list of the top 500 companies. This ability to combine management talent was one reason the Industrial Revolution made such good progress. Once more, we should notice this new organizational tool was perfected in the Western world.

These advances brought a new kind of life to the world, an urbanized life in cities that would be larger than ever before but also connected to the countryside and other cities as never before. As railroads grew, connecting cities across various nations, the ability to transport raw materials increased as well. Factories, such as iron works or textiles, were constructed near the people needed to operate them and close to the populace that would buy the finished goods. The new urban centers brought together the railroads, the workers, the shoppers, and the sellers all in one relatively small area. With demand for labor growing wages were good, and the new machines coupled with cheaper delivery of raw materials allowed the prices of manufactured goods to fall. People financing these new ventures, bankers and stockbrokers for example, made enormous amounts of money as did the new manufacturers themselves.

The urban environment included some very rich folks, many of them new to such wealth. In the urban centers entertainment, housing, food delivery, and many other comforts grew to serve the new wealthy citizens flowing into the cities. For many, the new urban centers were shining examples of a new world where people could live in safety and contentment making a good living and building a sound future. Throughout Europe after 1815, economies grew at an unprecedented pace. Prices were falling and wages were rising all over Europe. Things were looking up for the common person as well. Peasants were turning into factory workers, food production was going up (new growing and harvesting techniques), and new inventions were making work simpler and easier all the time. The confluence of science, inventions, and work were changing the world in dramatic ways.