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than the benefits derived, but few noticed at the time. England’s imperial system created a preferred trade zone where exchanges within the British Empire were duty free. Britain protected the sea-lanes, built railroads to bring goods to market, and otherwise expended effort to gain more benefit from its colonies. To make this work Britain needed several colonies with a wide variety of raw materials and locally manufactured goods. Unless another nation could recreate this variety of resources and pour a lot of money into infrastructure development the payoff was not there for gaining colonies. The English put the infrastructure in place over many decades; thus, the funds were sunk costs, and maintenance alone could hold the infrastructure together. New nations on the colonial scene had a lot of expensive catching up to do, as the USA, Germany, Italy and others were to find out. Smart political leadership looks for new ways to achieve goals, but smart political leadership is a rare commodity; thus, new nations chased England and France to become world powers. Not smart. At least the US kept it small and did not get upset when more could not be acquired. Germany would react differently.

From 1800 to 1900, industrial and technological development around the world continued. Especially important was the development of electricity. From about 1800, when Alessandra Volta invented the battery, to 1886 when Nikola Tesla invented alternating current, the new phenomenon of electricity was showing what the future could look like. Michael Faraday invented the electric motor in 1821 and this allowed the use of electricity for an ever-increasing number of applications. The invention of alternating current propelled the world forward into a new age of power some have termed the second industrial revolution. Tesla invented so many modern concepts he is called the Father of the Modern World. Some of his accomplishments include alternating current, the induction motor, the rotating magnetic field, wireless technology, and the US Supreme Court deemed Tesla the true inventor of the radio. In 1884 in Britain, Parson’s steam turbine was unveiled. In 1885, Daimler of Germany created the internal combustion engine.[150] In 1895, the first public cinema opened in France. In 1901, J.P. Morgan created US Steel, the first billion-dollar corporation. America cheered its first Rose Bowl game in 1902.[151] On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers became the first to manage powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.[152] In 1908, Henry Ford opened the first assembly line for vehicles.

Figure 42 Tesla, father of the modern world

However, something patented in 1883 by Hiram Maxim would change the face of the world by blowing it off with great efficiency—the machine gun. The name itself tells the story, a gun of the machine age. It fired large amounts of ammunition automatically, that is, without a person reloading it one round at a time. By just pulling the trigger it fired until the ammunition ran out. The main financier of the factory needed to construct these guns was Vickers (an English firm), and they were constructed in large numbers by England in the late 1800s. Their use in colonial warfare was decisive, allowing advancing technology to keep the Europeans in control of their far-flung empires with fewer men. Their use in the Great War of 1914 to 1918 caused paralysis on the Western Front and millions of deaths.

The world is now at 1900, a watershed in history. The world changed dramatically since 1800. The twentieth century saw unmitigated change, social disorder, ideological upheaval, and endless butchery. It is to that story we now proceed.

Books and Resources

Dreadnought, Robert K. Massie, 1992, Ballantine Books. Massie reviews the entire era leading up to WWI in grand style. He gives fairly complete biographies on each major personage of the times from Cecil Rhodes to Queen Victoria.

Wizard:TheLifeandTimesofNikolaTesla:BiographyofaGenius, Marc Seifer, 2001, Citadel Press Books

Chapter 12

1900: The Dividing Line

to the