Economic History - AP World History: Modern

Alexandria was the political capital of Egypt at the time, and Egyptian grain, as well as Egypt's navy, were vital to Caesar's attempts at dictatorship.

Sparta was a military power during the Greek Golden Age, a period of well-documented philosophical, architectural, and artistic output.

Athens was a cultural and naval power during the Greek Golden Age, never a major producer of grain.

Carthage was a major antagonist in multiple wars against the Roman Empire.

Troy was a major proponent in the semi-historical Trojan War between the cities of Troy and a league of Hellenes led by Agammemnon.

At the height of its power the Roman Empire effectively controlled the entirety of the Mediterranean. This made trading and sailing relatively efficient and safe (so long as one was a member of the Roman Empire). The Roman navy patrolled the seas and protected traders from the plundering efforts of pirates and rival civilizations.

The Grand Canal is the longest canal or artificial river in the world. It starts in Beijing and links the Yangze and the Huang He rivers. It was completed during the Sui dynasty (581-618 CE).

Silk production had long been a Chinese state secret when a small group of Byzantine monks smuggled silkworms back from China in the sixth century. This led to the breakdown of the Chinese monopoly and the further growth of the Byzantine Empire as the wealthiest in Europe.

All of these statements about overland trade and transport in the classical era are correct. Overland trade was typically cheaper than oceangoing trade, but it was more dangerous and much more likely to be subject to political disruption. Overland trade was primarily carried out by caravans of pack animals, like horses and camels. Although trade was more difficult in places without a reliable system of roads, it was hardly impossible.

Smith believed that the economy should be driven by the market place with no outside interference. The idea was that people should push the economy to fill their needs while also determining what should not be in the economy. They would do this by buying the supplies they chose from the retailers they chose.

Adam Smith is widely held to be the 'father of modern capitalism'. His philosophical treatises on concepts such as the wealth of nations, personal self-interest, and trading laid the framework for the economic system that would become known as capitalism.

With the growth of factories and workhouses in the booming industrial cities, women and children were able to work, and were often prized above men by unethical employers because they could be treated less humanely, and their more delicate fingers were perfect for working the complicated machinery.

Largely due to its political independence, Japan was able to industrialize as early as some European countries. Subsaharan Africa was under the domination of the French and British, who orientated African economies towards the cultivation of natural resources for British and French industrial capital, rather than creating their own. Latin America, under the Spanish, was also barred from participating in the industrial revolution, as was Central Asia under Russian influence.

While corporations had existed in the past and had sold stock before, it had never been a widespread tool. It had also not been something available to the lower classes of society. Now, people had the chance to invest in stock with the hopes they could sell it later at a profit.

The factory system is where one central location houses the machinery of an industry and the workers come to the machinery to work it. This is the reason these places were called factories.

The Industrial Revolution originated in Great Britain in the late eighteenth century. The Industrial Revolution moved manufacturing from the home and into factories, where it became more efficient through the use of mass production and interchangeable parts. The revolution originated with textiles and food processing but soon moved to iron, steel, machine building, transportation, and communication.

The cotton gin was invented by American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793. The machine allowed cotton to be much more efficiently separated from seeds and dramatically increased the productive capabilities of America’s cotton plantations in the south. It did, however, lead to a massive increase in the demand for slaves in the south of the United States. This is because cotton became immensely profitable in the early nineteenth century.

Labor unions emerged relatively quickly after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In many ways they were a continuation of guilds and peasant organizations from the pre-industrial era. However, the change they campaigned for came about very slowly. In the early years the efforts of labor unions were blocked by the government, which was almost exclusively controlled by people who benefited financially from holding unions back. The rate of change accelerated over the course of the nineteenth century and eventually labor unions were able to affect most of the changes they desired - such as child labor laws, limit on working hours, and the two-day weekend.

The so-called Congo Free State, under the initial personal control of King Leopold II of Belgium and later under the control of the Belgian government, was extremely profitable due to the lucrative rubber plantations and the use of forced native labor.

Tsar Alexander II reigned from 1855 until 1881. He is most often remembered for the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, and action for which he is often called Alexander the Liberator. He also enacted a series of reforms to try and modernize the Russian state, including the abolition of capital punishment and the promotion of devolution and local government.

The Industrial Revolution began in England in the second-half of the eighteenth century. There are many reasons why the Industrial Revolution began in England. To begin with England had just recently undergone a type of agricultural revolution that greatly increased food productivity and led to a decrease in the proportion of the population needed to work the fields to provide for the rest of the population. As such there was a surplus of available workers, as well as a growing population. Furthermore, England has an abundance of natural resources and relative ease of transportation. Finally, the government of England encouraged capitalism and free market innovation, leading to many industrial innovations. However, England’s public education system was not universally established until well after the Industrial Revolution was underway.

King Leopold was the king of Belgium when he established a personal colony in the Congo in the nineteenth century. Leopold’s Congo colony was extremely profitable due to the production of rubber, which was much in demand throughout the world. Under Belgian control the people of the Congo were heavily exploited and, according to many estimates, tens of millions of people died. The horrors and profits of Leopold’s Congo contributed to the convening of the Berlin Conference and the division of Africa among the various European imperial powers.

The social consequences of the Industrial Revolution are extremely complex. To begin with the Industrial Revolution actually worsened the quality of life for the majority of the population. Workers, who were used to a degree of autonomy and a reasonable work day, were suddenly forced into effective wage slavery and forced to work fourteen or sixteen hour shifts at factories. Eventually, working conditions got better, unions arose, and the quality of life for the population improved dramatically. But, it cannot be said that the wealthiest members of society became less relatively wealthy. Indeed the Industrial Revolution accelerated the income gap between the owners and the workers.