Transcription
Well, hey, and welcome back to Heimler's History, and welcome to the first topic video of Unit 9 of our AP World History curriculum. And this topic is here, and this unit is here to help us come to terms with globalization.
Now, in previous units, we've talked about global wars, and migration, and ideologies. And in this unit, we're going to bring that all together and see how all of this led to an increasing global interconnectedness. And we're going to look at what the consequences of that global interconnectedness were. And in this video, we're going to talk about a major player in the globalization of the world, namely technology and the exchange of goods. So, if you're ready to get them brain cows milked, I am. Let's get to it.
Okay, so with respect to technology and globalization, let's first look at communication and transportation technologies. Second, we'll look at new energy technology. Third, we'll look at agricultural technology. And we'll round it all out by talking about medical technology. All right.
First, communication and transportation technology. So, in case you haven't noticed, the world is a mighty big place. And after 1900, new communication and transportation technologies were busy making the space between us much smaller. First, there was the radio in the early part of the 20th century. And this certainly wasn't the first medium of mass communication available to humanity, but it certainly did change a lot. This little box in people's homes allowed individuals and families to actually hear the voices of the people who were delivering information to them at a distance, as opposed to, say, a newspaper, which was only in print. Also, it eliminated the intermediary filter between the speaker and the listener. Prior to this, for example, if a leader gave a press conference, that message would then be filtered through the news reporter who might emphasize his or her own pet biases. But on the radio, that leader could speak to the listener exactly as he or she wishes. American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt utilized this medium and broadcast his voice into American homes during the Great Depression and World War II. He used the medium to comfort Americans during hard times and to update them on policies that he was enacting to support them.
Second, there was the advent of television in the middle part of the 20th century. And with this new medium of communication, you had all the benefits of radio with the added benefit of being able to see the person who was actually talking to you.
Third, and later in the 20th century, cellular technology was developed, which put the ability to communicate with each other in our pockets. People could instantly communicate with anyone all over the globe. We've all grown up with this technology, and so the revolutionary nature of it can get lost on us. So, just to get a sense of how much cellular technology has changed, consider this little episode from the Seven Years' War in the 18th century. Now, part of this war was fought on the American continent between the British and the French. Now, Britain ended up winning this war, but the American colonists kept on fighting for like six weeks because it took so long for news to travel across the Atlantic. But now it would be like, okay, and shut it down now.
Along with the cellular technology and related to it was the rise of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. These platforms essentially democratized communication and gave anyone a platform to say whatever they wanted to and then to gain an audience. Now, a key historical event in which social media played a part was the Arab Spring, which happened in the early 2010s and was a series of anti-government protests across the Arab world. Many of these protests were organized and documented on cell phones and social media. And it speaks to the significance of these platforms that governments in these places often shut down the internet and censored social sites. In the days before these protests, it was cellular technology and social media that allowed the rest of the world to know about these people's discontent with their governments.
So, all of these communication technologies reduced the metaphorical space between each other, even if the literal space was still there. But the literal space between people was also growing smaller with the advent of commercial airline. Instead of requiring weeks to trek from one side of the continent to another, now the distance could be traveled in a matter of hours. Also, people came to much closer and more abundant contact with the goods that they wanted to purchase. Mass shipments of goods could be more easily and quickly transported through the air. Also, with the development of massive shipping containers, which could be loaded in bulk and transported across the sea in bulk without having to unload the cargo, people could get more goods faster.
Okay, that was communication and transportation technology in the 20th century. Now let's look at new energy technology. So, ever since the rise of the Industrial Revolution, factories and the cities that grew up around them needed energy in order to power their machines and deliver services to the people that lived around them. Now, in the beginning, that energy came from burning coal, but by the 20th century, they were using petroleum and natural gas, and that had the effect of actually upping productivity. Another significant energy technology was nuclear energy. So, you probably recall that at the end of World War II, the Americans dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. And I guess somebody looked at that and said, "You know, I wonder if instead of blowing people up with nuclear fission, we could actually produce power instead." And as it turns out, you can. Now, petroleum is a non-renewable resource that releases copious amounts of pollution into the environment. Nuclear energy, on the other hand, while not unlimited, is far more renewable than petroleum and much cleaner, all things being equal. And sometimes with nuclear energy, all things are not equal; the much cleaner part of that statement goes out the window in a case like the disaster at the Chernobyl power plant in Russia in the 1980s. One of their reactor cores exploded and released about 400 times more radiation into the environment than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
Okay, now let's turn and talk about agricultural technology in the 20th century. Something called the Green Revolution occurred. This was a revolution because scientists developed new kinds of grain and wheat that yielded more abundant harvests and were more resistant to pests. And how did they do that? Well, one significant way they did it was through genetic engineering; they actually modified the cellular organization of these crops to make them accomplish what they wanted. Additionally, during the 20th century, we saw the increased use of fertilizers and pesticides and irrigation. Along with all of this came a huge increase in the worldwide acreage devoted to farming. And all of this was deployed in order to feed the mouths of a rapidly growing world population. Now, one consequence of all this new farming technology was the rise of commercial farming. All these new technologies were complex and expensive and generally out of the reach of your average farmer. Therefore, small farmers found themselves unable to compete on the scale of larger, wealthy commercial farmers, and that led to the consolidation of small farms into the hands of these corporations.
Fourth, let's consider new medical technology. After 1900, there are a couple significant medical advances that helped people to live longer. The first was antibiotics, which is the substance that killed bacterial infections. And in 1928, the first antibiotic was developed, and it was called penicillin. It saved the lives of many people, not least of which was soldiers fighting in wars, and gave them a means by which they could survive infections that previously would have killed them. Second, we see the widespread use of vaccines. Now, vaccines, of course, were not new to the 20th century, but there certainly was a spike in the use of these; were shots that people got that inoculated them against diseases like smallpox and measles and polio. And yet another medical technology was developed during this time that didn't extend people's lives, but it certainly did change them. This development was medical birth control. In the 1950s, a birth control pill was developed, which consisted of a synthetic hormone which prevented pregnancy. And the result of the widespread use of this pill caused fertility rates across the world to decline, which is to say women were having fewer babies on average.
All right, that's what you need to know about Unit 9, Topic 1 of AP World History. If you need help getting an A in your class, in a five on your exam, and bathing review packet right here. Hey, educational technology; it's gonna help you. If you wanna reduce the metaphorical distance between yourself and the Heimler family, then go ahead and subscribe and join us. Heimler out.