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Introduction
Industrialization altered the world's balance of power in the nineteenth century.
During the "century of the machine," Western powers established world empires by means of
technological superiority and became more powerful than the big-sister civilizations of China,
Islam, and India. Other cultures tried to resist the influence of the industrial powers but
ultimately failed, losing ground to new modes of living.
The machine was truly a new phenomenon in world history,
wedding science and technology. Until the nineteenth century, science had been closely tied
to religion and practiced by many societies in the abstract, while technology was a continuum
of ever-improved tool-making. But when science was applied directly to the creation of
practical tools, the results were astounding. Western Europe, building on its own classical
heritage and that of Islamic, Chinese, and Indian science, pioneered the application of scientific
rationalism to mechanical creations. The result was a revolution in which the source of productive
power was transferred from man to machine. The steam engine, one of a series of new power sources,
gave economic, political, and social power to those who possessed its mechanical secrets. In this
way, Western Europeans began to dominate the Americas, and also Asia and Africa. This domination
was not just physical, in the form of empires, but extended to world-view and religion. Europe
spread the belief that the development of science and technology was equivalent to human progress
and enlightenment. Despite these imperial over tones, science and technological achievements have
proven irresistible to most people the world over, perhaps due to the promise of better living
conditions.
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© 1999 Turner Learning, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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