Okay. So, good morning. Uh, today we are doing the gunpowdered revolution. Specifically, we are going to ask the question, how did Europe starting about the year 1700 conquer the world? So, um, after the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe became divided, uh, very poor and very weak compared with the rest of the world.
But then starting in the year 1700, Europe very quickly in only about 200 years time will go on to conquer the entire world. So today we are going to examine how this happened. Okay. Um so before we begin I want you guys to remember a very important concept that we have been developing throughout this course and the concept is this. The nature of the military determines the nature of the political system in societies in nations.
Okay. So the four specific examples we've looked at are Sparta, Athens, Macedonia, and Rome. Because Sparta had a hoplight army, it became an oligarchy. Okay, oligarchy means rule by the few. the rule by the elite and hoplights were farmers who could afford their own armor and weaponry.
Okay. Um, Athens had a navy and so it was a democracy and the idea here is that anyone and everyone can row a boat and if you uh can row a boat you can fight a war, you can help Athens win and therefore you can participate in the political process. So Athens was a democracy. Macedonia where Ector the Great is from um it was a calvaryarybased army and because only the nobility could afford horses, it was a monarchy. And the last example is Rome.
Now the thing about Rome that made it distinct from these societies is that um it was willing to make tremendous sacrifices on the battlefield because it could replenish its soldiers with allies from neighboring uh nations in the Italian peninsula and as such it was a republic. Now the difference between a republic and democracy is that democracy everyone has the right to vote. So the decisions are based on majority v rule. Okay. But in a republic it is ruled by laws and tradition and history.
So people will do what has been traditionally accepted as the norm. And as such you can bring in immigrants into into your society very quickly. This is important for us because Rome will become the model for America. Okay. America is not democracy.
It is republic. a very important um difference. So I got I want you guys to remember this idea. The military the nature of the military will determine the nature of your political system in your society. Okay.
All right. So um let's go over some basic military history. Um in Greece do when uh the polices were fighting each other in very much the same way that the waring states were fighting each other in China uh the main uh soldier is called the hoplight. The hoplight means shield in uh Greek. And um the thing about the hoplight that's very important is that it was a self-suffic self-sufficient soldier, meaning that most of the time the he was a farmer, but when there was a war, he would grab his armor and his shield and his spear and he would go to war.
You didn't need a economy to allow the hoplight to exist. Okay, this this was a self-sufficient system. Um over time the Macedonians will take the hoplight formation and turn it into the Macedonian phallax. Um and the Romans will have their legion. Okay.
Now the difference between the Macedonians and the Romans uh sorry the difference between this um system and the traditional Greek system is now you have a standing army. These are professional soldiers that must be supported by the economy. Um, this is calvary, the Roman calvary. And obviously these are nobility because only they can afford to have horses. These are the Vikings that we've studied before.
Again, this is pretty self-sufficient. The Vikings are able to build their own ships very quickly and repair them. and they are able to go off in small bands. Okay. Um the steps people became archers, right?
So the Mongol the Mongolians are the classic example. And again, the thing here is that um these people ever since they were born could ride horses and shoot arrows and that's why they were so effective soldiers and that's why for the longest time the steps people were the dominant military force in the world. Okay, they could come in and conquer all the agricultural empires. Uh this will include the Yamaya which we talked about but it also include um the Turks and the the Mongolians. Okay.
Um in medieval Europe they develop a new system um where the knight becomes the main military force in the army. Now the knight uh as you can see it requires armored horses and armored um and weapons and this is very expensive and so and you have to train from an early age to become a knight and that's why you now have a system called feudalism where the entire economy revolves around maintaining knights for war purposes. Okay, this is where feudalism comes from. What makes feudalism stick um is the idea of castles. Um so feudalism is about decentralization where the knights and the lords have control over the local territory and there's nothing the king can do about it.
Why? Because maybe if there's a fight between the lords and the king well and the king comes with his army. Well the lords can just hide in their castle. And as you can see, um, it's very hard to besiege and destroy a castle. First of all, there's a defensive perimeter, the moat.
Um, and then the high walls, okay? And eventually, um, the king will have to give up. So, in the feudal system, the king is more like a figurehead who is appointed as maybe the chairman or the elected leader. Okay? But the king does not have that much power over the local um areas.
This changes in 1453. Okay. In the city of Constantinople. So for about close to a thousand years, Constantinopole was the wealthiest most powerful city in Europe. They are the heroes to the Roman Empire.
They consider themselves the Eastern Roman Empire and they are invincible because of their high walls. Remember we talked about the Bison Empire before and for about a thousand years Constantinople was a was powerful because they were invincible. You cannot you cannot besiege the city. Okay. But in 1453 this changes because the Ottoman Turks come in with cannons and they lelay siege to Constantinopole and they destroy the walls and this was unimaginable before and so it's gunpowder that allows the Ottomans to destroy the once impenetrable Consenopol and this marks a revolution now in Europe.
Now people understand that you need gunpowder if you are to win wars in the future. Okay, this is a revolution now in Europe. So over the centuries what will happen is this gunpowder will radically remake the world in three fundamental ways. The first way that's important is the step people cease to be a threat. Okay.
So for thousands of years the steps right the Mongolians the Turks the Naya they drove history because they could come in and conquer empires and establish new societies. Now with gunpowdered the cities can defend themselves against the step people and eventually over time the Russians will colonize the steps and they will cease to be a factor in development of global history. Okay. So this is the end of the steps. That's the first fundamental change.
Second is this will mark the beginning of Europe as the dominant global power in the world. It is China that invents gunpowder right about over a thousand years ago. But it is Europe that will perfect gunpowder as the ultimate military weapon that and it will allow Europe to defeat everyone including the Ottoman Turks, including the Chinese um everyone. Okay. The third and most important fundamental change is that gunpowdered will usher in a whole society revolution that will remake the fabric and structure of European society.
Okay. So I will explain all three as we move on. But these are the three fundamental impacts of gunpowder. All right. Let's talk about um the the steps.
So before we discuss why the step people, the Vikings, the borderland people, they usually tend to win out against empires even though empires have much more resources, much more people, much more technology. Okay, so this is the uh chart that explains why the Borderlands wins out in the end because the Borderlands have energy. The people are much more courageous. They're much more hungry. They're much more determined.
Uh openness. Um the set pe the border lens people tend to be much more innovative. They're open to new ideas. They don't invent things but they take inventions and they apply it to their society. The last is opportunistic where um they will only attack you if they think you're weak.
Okay. Uh the empire has three advantages. Mass organization and death. Mass just means a lot of people. Organization means a centralized bureaucracy.
And then death just means that they can afford to lose a lot of battles. Okay? And um for most of human history, the borderlands had advantages over the empire. But with the advent of gunpowder, the dynamic changes. So now that the empire is able to control and crush the borderlands, the main reason why is with gunpowder technology, you need organization.
You need centralization. Remember before armies were self-sufficient. You needed to go to war. You told you told everyone, "Let's go to war." And then the people who were soldiers would get their armor and they would rush to battle. Okay?
That's what the Greeks did against the Persians. But with gunpowdered, you need a professional army, you need engineers, you need the resources that allow you to make gunpowder. Okay? So, you need specialization. With specialization, you need centralization, hierarchy, and bureaucracy.
And that's what empires do very well. And the borderlands don't do this. Okay? And that's why eventually the empires will win out against the borderlands in the long term. All right?
Um so there are four major gunpowder empires meaning these four societies are most equipped uh most ready to take advantage of the gunpowder revolution. The first and most important gunpower empire are the Ottomans, right? They're the ones who took the cannons, the artillery, and they're the ones who destroy Conan Pole. And the Ottomans after that became the dominant power in Europe and the Middle East. Okay, the Ottoman Empire.
Um, what made the Ottoman Empire so fierce was the use of professional soldiers called generies. Geniseries are um young boys who became sla who are Christian and they became slaves to the Ottomans and they were educated become professional soldiers and because they're basically slaves they owe their entire loyalty to the Sultan the king of the Ottoman Empire. Okay. And uh these are professional soldiers who uh made effective very effective use of gunpowder in battle. Okay.
So that's the Ottoman Empire. But then you also have the Mogul Empire which was the height of Indian civilization. They were also for the longest time a centralized bureaucracy and they were also able to take advantage of gunpowder. Um then you have the Safetit Empire which is in modern day Iran. They are the heres to the Persian Empire.
And remember what you learned last semester is it was really the Persians who created bureaucracy um in the world. Okay. And of course the last uh and arguably the most powerful of these gunpowder empires is China. Okay. This is the Ming Empire.
Uh remember it was China who invented gunpowder. But what's interesting is when China invented gunpowder, it was not used that effectively. Um the Chinese army used gunpowder mainly as bombs or as fireworks, as inaries to blow things up. Okay, it was but because of the Islamic golden age and because of of Genghaskhan's conquest, globalization came into being and the technology of paper and gunpowder spread all the way to Europe. It was the Europeans who in who innovated gunpowder and turned it into a propellant.
Okay, something that that you shoot people at a a projectile and that's why we have cannons and um musketss. And so it's the Europeans who actually invented um gunpowder as a projectile and then what would happen is the technology would come back to China and China would adapt this into their own army. Okay. So that's that that that that was a process. Um yeah.
So this is China and uh the use of gunpowder. Okay. So the paradox is this. It was China who invented the gunpowder and the four great gunpowder empires are the Ottomans, the Saffodits, the Moguls and the Chinese. But at the end of the day, it is Europe that conquers the entire world.
Okay, that's the paradox. That's the uh mystery that we're looking at today. And so the thesis, the answer is European nations would surpass the gunpowder empires because they would adopt a whole society approach to warfare. Okay, so what does that mean? It means that um if you are to have if you are really to integrate gunpowder into your military effectively, you need to change the structure of your society.
You have to change the status quo. You have to move from a society that is heavily centralized to one that is both centralized and open as well. Okay. So I'm going to explain to you what changes Europe had to make in order to uh move to become a modern military. Okay.
The first change is it went from a feudal system to a nation state system. Okay. Does that make sense? Feudal is decentralized local powers. Nation state is you have a centralized bureaucracy.
Okay? You need that and that's what Europe did. Second change is it went from a focus on villages on agriculture to a focus on towns and industry right because um with gunpowdered you need specialized workers you need engineers you need iron workers and that happens in towns and not in villages. Okay, does that make sense? Okay.
Also, when you move to towns, you start to create proto capitalism. So, the merchants become much more important than the bureaucrats because the merchants who go and procur resources necessary for gunpowder. The third major change that happened in Europe that really didn't happen anywhere else is a shift in focus from religion to science. Okay. Religion is asking the question, what does God want from us?
How can we best serve God? Science is asking the question, um, how can we win this war? How can we make gunpowder much more effective? How can we kill more people? Okay, so these are the three major revolutions that happen in Europe that really didn't happen anywhere else.
Okay, and when they happen in Europe, um, it will unleash these extremely violent and powerful revolutions as well. Okay, including the French Revolution, which we will study, the American Revolution. And it and it it's a bloody process that takes centuries to unfold and to develop. But it will make Europe into the dominant power in the world. It will allow Europe to conquer the entire world and force nations like China to adopt European um social frameworks.
Okay, does that make sense, guys? Okay, so that's um the main idea here. Okay. Um the main advantage that Europe had over the rest of the world was also its main disadvantage which was Europe ever since the fall of the Roman Empire was always divided and poor and always fighting each other. Okay, this this is what the concept we use for for this in our class is open cooperative competition.
This is the main driver of innovation in the world. When was China most creative? During the war and states period, right? Okay. So, this is this is consistently true throughout history.
Whenever a society is fractured and the different constituent parts are forced to fight each other, this will lead to massive innovation not just in the military but also in society, in philosophy, in literature. Okay. Um, so we talked about the three revolutions in Europe that came about because of the gunpower revolution. Okay. All right.
So, um, one thing to keep in mind is in the beginning it was not obvious to people gunpowder was a revolutionary force. um it would take centuries before societies the military used gunpowder as the main weapon. Okay. And the reason why is in the beginning gunpowder was very unstable. It was hard to store.
It was hard to make and um the guns that you use were too heavy. So they were only a small part of your military. Also, what's important for us remember is that there's always been a battle between artillery and fortification. Okay, so even though the Ottomans used the cannon to destroy Consenipole, engineers would figure out ways to better defend the city. Okay, so the first strategy against um gunpowder was the idea of earth works basically and it's very simple.
you just dig trenches around your city and then therefore the cannons cannot get get come into range of your city. Okay, does that make sense? So there are different strategies you can use to um negate the advantage of gunpowder. Okay, so earth works is one advantage. But then what they figured out was something called a star fortress.
Okay, and this is a another revolution in the military. A star fortress is designed differently. Most fortresses before were rectangular because they were the most intuitive and the easiest to build. But with a star fortress, you have different points in the fortress so that you even if one part gets destroyed, guess what? You can fill the gaps, right?
This part gets gets destroyed, but then you fill the gaps here, that part gets destroyed, you fill the gaps here. Okay? So, you basically have to attack the entire forces at once. And most armies don't have these resources to destroy the entire fortress at once. You can only do it part by part.
Okay, you you want to breach the for fortress, but the star fortress allows you to be resilient. Okay, to be flexible. The the word that we use for this is ductile. Okay, ductile just means the resilience of materials. Um the gunpowire revolution will also mark um radical changes in military formation, organization and hierarchy.
Okay. So um again at this particular stage gunpowder is only a small fraction of the entire army. Most people are using spears and pikes to gather. Okay. They also have cavalry as well.
So the problem for the Europeans is how do you best utilize all these resources in a much in a efficient and effective manner. Okay. So this is one possibility where the pikes are at the back, the gunpowers are in the front and the cavalry is to the wings. Okay. And this provides most flexibility in your army.
And because Europeans always fighting each other, they're always able to figure out new strategies. Okay. Um, this is a picture of an European army in the 16th century. Okay. All right.
So, let's talk about very quickly the formation of gunpowder. How is gunpowder made? Well, gunpowder is made using three different uh resources. Okay, they are salt, pepper, sulfur, and charcoal. Charcoal is pretty easy to get.
Okay. Sulfur you get from basically from volcanoes. And in Europe, the place where they had the most volcanoes was Italy on the Ital Italian peninsula. So if you look at the history of Europe, most wars, the vast majority of wars were actually fought over the Italian peninsula. One because you need sulfur for gunpowder, but also because the Italian peninsula could control trade with the rest of the world.
And also because the church was there, the pope was there. Okay. Um, so pepper is uh the the the technical name is potassium nitrate and it comes from manure. Okay, manure. Um, it doesn't really grow naturally.
So they have to farm it. They have to make it. They make it basically by um taking horse manure, animal manure and planting in the ground and then farming it. Okay. So this became an industry onto itself.
And so pepper is important because um as they chemically enhance gunpowder, they discovered that um salt pepper should go from 41% to almost 70%. Okay? Okay. So, salt pepper was the main ingredient in gunpowder and the Europeans had to figure out ways to mass-produce salt pepper and that's why they came up with these um uh nitiv okay or farms. Okay.
And this became a very important part of European society. Um you also had chemists working in laboratories to better refine the technology of gunpowder. Okay? Because because one huge issue of gunpowder is it's very hard to store. So for example, if it rains, guess what?
No more gunpowder. Okay? So they constantly have to refine the chemical composition of gunpowder to make it resilient uh against rain, to make it easier to store, to make it easier to transport. There's also a good possibility that along the way uh the gunpowder u explodes on you. Okay, so this was an absolute necessity to figure out how to better make store and use gunpowder.
Um you also had iron works, right? Because you need iron and metal to make cannons which was the main use of gunpowder. Um these are foundaries where they will make gunpowders. And again uh this helps us explain why towns became much more important than villages, right? Because it's towns where you have the specialization going on and not the villages.
Um the thing to remember about the early guns called the uh arubus is that they're very heavy. Remember these are metal. Okay? So, uh, the soldier basically needs something to stabilize the gun. But even once a gun is stabilized, it's not very accurate, right?
You can't it's I mean, you're better off actually off with a bow and arrow. And that's what most people were using, bow bow and arrow. Okay. The other thing about the Arbus and the musket is it's very, very slow, right? You have to aim it, then you have to fire it, and then you have to reload it.
That could take uh maybe 10 minutes, half an hour, you know, it like the technology will get better and better over time, but it's very very slow. So, you have two issues with the guns, the musket, the archabus. One is that um it's not very accurate, and second of all, it's very slow. So the only solution is to have mass army to have a lot of soldiers firing at once. So you don't even care uh you don't even want to aim.
You you just want to shoot it directly at cavalry or or soldiers. Okay? And that's the idea. And that's why um these armies like the Ming and the armaments were most able to use gunpower effectively because they could organize mass armies. Okay.
So the Ming um were one of the main innovators of gunpowder armies using something called a folly. Okay. So what would happen is soldiers were sent in line that they they would come up, shoot it, then walk to the back a new line would come up and shoot it again. Okay? They weren't aiming.
They were just shooting it. And this this is what we call volley fire, right? So this is a main tactic. Okay? So does it make sense to you guys so far?
Um but over time um gunpowder will be will become much more effective, much more accurate, much faster. Okay. And now what you can do is conscript more soldiers. So in other words, what is required now is more conscripts for your army. Okay.
So this is a picture of um a battle. But not only that, but you need your soldiers to be obedient, okay? Because you're asking them to charge into gunpowder, okay? And so you needed to change the nature of people into basically peaceloving pretty um simple individuals who were used to freedom to ones who were obedient who are bloodthirsty and who could kill other people. Okay?
And that's why you have now have the invention of something called schools. Okay? Okay, if you don't know where skills come from, it comes from the need to um create as many soldiers as possible for your mass army. Okay, so a concept that I want to introduce you today and we will go over a lot in um uh this semester is the idea of synchronicity. Okay, synchronicity is to structure structure your society so that people in your society are able to follow the rules.
Okay, they're able to follow the rules, then your study can become much more prosperous and become better uh um can have more effective militaries. Okay, so the two classic examples in this world of synchronosity, the two societies that do synchronosity the best are Germany and Japan. Okay, go to Germany, go to Japan and go on the subway. Guess what, guys? Even though it's really really crowded, everyone stands in line perfectly.
Okay, everyone knows his or her position in the lie and everyone's waiting willing to wait in line. That's why um in the 20th century Japan and Germany had such effective militaries. Okay. And also why they also have very effective industries. Okay, schools will is is preparing people not just for the military but also for the assembly line, the workplace.
And again, societies that are most able to stand in line orderly will be the most effective in terms of industry and military and that's usually the European societies and Japan as well. Okay. So again, gunpowder uh marks a whole society revolution changing not just the military and how how wars are fought but changing the very um nature of what it means to be human. Okay. Doesn't make sense.
If you want to know where schools come from, it comes from the need to fight wars. All right? And again, um, China will adopt all these policies and struct social structures for itself. Okay. Um, let's go over some wars.
So, what's really important about Europe at this time and and why Europe became the dominant power in the world is it never stops fighting each other. Okay, it's always fighting wars internally and externally against the Ottomans. Okay, so um um the wars between Europe and the Ottomans are called the Hungarian Ottoman wars and this will last for about 300 years. And in the beginning, this really important is the Ottomans destroy the Europeans. The Ottomans are able to destroy Consanopole and they're able to take over most of Eastern Europe.
Okay. So, the Ottomans for many centuries up until the year 1700 is a dominant military power in Europe and around the world at this time. Um, there's also something called the 100 years war that is fought between France and England. Okay. Um, let's now go over some some wars.
And what I will do now is show you the casualty count like how many people are killed in action. All right. So again, as I mentioned, a lot of wars are being fought on the Italian peninsula. So um the second Italian war, there's maybe 200,000 killed during this war. Okay, these are soldiers killed, not civilians.
But when you get to a few few years later, it's 31,000. Okay, and then it goes up to 30,000. and then 75,000. Okay, these numbers are going up. Why?
Because the armies are getting larger and the weapons are getting much more precise and effective. Okay, the this is the reason why uh more people are dying. The span English Spanish war it is really important. Um 48,000 people died. This is important because remember last class we talked about about how Spain is a dominant naval power in the world and that's what allowed Spain to colonize South America.
But um in this war England will destroy the Spanish Armada the sp the Spanish navy and England now will become the dominant navy in Europe and around the world and they will maintain this position until America in World War II. Okay. So this is a really pivotal point in history, the sinking of the Spanish Amarda by the in by the English. We said this 30 years before um which was a religious war between the Protestants, Protestant Europe and the Catholics. This will kill between 4.5 million to 8 million people over a span of 30 years.
This is the worst war in Europe before World War I. Okay. So these wars are becoming much more violent, much more uh deadly. Um, Spanish Portuguese war 80,000. Franco Spanish war 108,000.
Okay, you're seeing these numbers go up, right? Franco Dutch War 342,000. Uh, war the Holy League almost 400,000. This is important because this is when Europe is finally able to defeat the Ottoman Empire. This marks a radical turning point where Europe will now become the dominant military power in the world and the Ottomans will now decline rapidly.
Okay. Now you may be asking yourself, wait a minute here, why are all these wars being fought? And the answer is um Europe is divided among different kingdoms and the main policy of all these kingdoms is balance of power. So whenever a new power arises the other powers get together and try to take down that empire. Okay?
So before it was Spain and then Spain was destroyed, then it was France, then it was Russia, then it was Germany. Okay? So that's the idea here. Um 9 years war almost 700,000. The seven years war is really the first world war because it's a war fought between France and England for control of the entire world.
Okay? It's being fought in North America and it's being fought in Europe and almost a million people get killed in this war over seven years. French Revolutionary Wars, we'll discuss this later on, but 663,000 killed. The French Revolution wars is important historically because a lot of people who fought in this war, they are not professional soldiers. They're just citizens who have revolutionary devotion and fever.
They love their country. They want freedom for the country. So they take up arms and they're able to defeat much more powerful European adversaries. Okay. So this is this is the beginning of what we call the nation state when the citizen is completely loyal to the nation.
All right. We'll be talking about this um later on the French Revolutionary Wars. The and then of course the climax is World War I and you get 20 million people. Okay, 20 million people die in this war. So you can see how the casual rates just go up exponentially over the decades.
And that just shows you how fast the Europeans are innovating. Okay? They're innovating in terms of bureaucracy, meaning that they are able to tax their citizens much more effectively. They're able to conscript more soldiers effectively. They're also innovating in terms of technology because of science, right?
They now have like machine guns. in uh World War I. They also have trenches. We'll be talk about talk about this later on. All right.
So, as I said before, uh the thing about Europe is that it's always divided into different factions who are always fighting against each other. And what you will see what what these maps will show you is two things. First is that um the status quo is always switching back and forth between different nations. Okay? So in the beginning in 1448 the Holy Roman Empire is a dominant power in Europe with a population of 15 million people.
Okay, that's the first thing I want you guys to notice about these maps. Um the dominant power is always changing over time. The second thing that you will notice is that even though this is really interesting, even though these wars are deadly, they're continuous and they're becoming much more violent. the population of every nation in Europe goes up over time. Okay, so um 1554 the Ottomans now are in control and they're at 24 million.
The Holy Roman Empire goes on at 19 million, but France is arising. So is Russia. Okay. 1623 uh the Holy R Roman Empire uh is still around. So holy empire and Ottomans are the dominant powers.
But by the time of 1666 1660 France actually becomes the dominant power in Europe and because France becomes a dominant power in Europe all the nations decide to go against France. Okay. And this leads to a series of wars. Um 1727 France has has 23 million that matches the population of the Ottomans. Russia is rising now.
Okay. Right before the French Revolution 1780, France is now the most populous country in Europe. Okay. 27 million. The Ottomans have 26 million.
Okay. And this and this is right before the French Revolution. 1824. The Russians are now at 49 million. They become now the dominant military power in Europe.
And this will bring them in conflict with the rest of Europe. Okay, so England and Russia will fight something called the Great Game. We'll we'll be going over this in in a future class. Okay, so the rivalry between the United Kingdom and Russia, which still goes on today, by the way. Okay, it it's still going on today, the Great Game.
Um, Germany is now rising in 1890. Okay, this is right before World War I. And so Germany now is the dominant power in Europe. So guess what happens? All the nations in Europe combine together to attack Germany.
And this leads to something called World War I. Okay. All right. So that's the quick introduction to uh the history of the military revolution in Europe. Okay.
We'll be going into specifics in future classes. All right, any questions about this? Was was this clear to you guys? Okay, any questions? How can they recover from?
Okay, great question. Okay. So the question is um these wars are so deadly, right? And so how's it possible for these societies to be resilient and to recover? Okay.
Um so um there are many different reasons there different many factors going on. Okay. But what's important is the rise of something called the nation state. Okay. So Indonesian state replaces the role of religion in people's lives, right?
Before you had to sacrifice your life to the will of God. You have to serve God. Now with the French Revolution, you now have to dedicate your life to the nation. Okay? The glory of the nation.
What what And what does that mean? It means like you have to do whatever it takes in order for your nation to beat other nations in war, which includes um um working hard, making a lot of money, but it also includes basically having a lot of children. And this is facilitated by the scientific and agricultural revolution. Remember last class we talked about how um because of the age of exploration, the Europeans were able to bring back the potato, corn, tomatoes, squash. These are pretty easy to grow and they provide a lot of nutrition for the European nations.
Okay. But um what but what's important is what's really driving the population growth is war and the necessity for having a large population. So the government will provide a lot of policies that promote population growth. Okay, does that make sense? Well, we we'll be discussing this in future classes.
All right. And I mean I I know it's hard for us to imagine, but war gives people meaning and purpose. Okay? Does that make sense? It's it's like it it's like rooting for a sports team.
You want your sports team to win no matter what. Okay? You're you're you're going to go and cheer them on. Okay? That's what war does.
War really galvanizes the energy of people. So people feel extremely patriotic during wars. even though their children are getting killed. The other thing that's really important about war um is that it gives people hope in the future. I I know this is paradoxical, okay?
But so let me explain. With war, a lot of people die. With death comes opportunities that didn't exist before that creates social mobility. So it's perfectly possible that you're a peasant but because of war the nobility dies off and your son can go join the army become like a captain or a lieutenant come back and start his own business and that wasn't available before right because in peace time the social hackery stays stagnant okay does that make sense so um yeah I I mean like and and so if you think about it it's because we live in a world of peace Okay, something called the PAX Americana, the American peace. And that's why a lot of young people refuse to have children.
Okay, why are young people refusing to have children? They really don't see a future, right? It's like, I'm not going to rise up in the social hierarchy. My kids aren't going to rise up in the social social hierarchy. There are fewer fewer economic opportunities.
Your old people aren't dying. Okay? They're not dying. I mean, I know a lot of old people who are extremely successful and they will live over 100. They are like 90, 80 right now and they are extremely healthy.
They're happy with their lives. They're very wealthy. They don't have they don't have any reason to die and they won't die. So all that wealth becomes monopolized by old people. And so young people are like, why would I want to have children?
Why would I want to work hard? Why why do I even want to be ambitious? There's no point. Okay. Does that make sense?
Okay. All right. Good. Great question. Any more questions be before I continue?
All right. So, what I'm going to do now is I'm going to summarize what we learned. Okay. Um, just so you have a clear clear understanding of how everything fits together. All right.
So, feudalism. What is feudalism? This is a system that was in Europe for 100 years. Okay. in something called the high middle ages or the late middle ages which was maybe about a thousand to 1400 okay 1500 okay so how does feism workism works because each part of society it's partitioned into different lands run by lords okay maybe lord A, Lord B, Lord C, Lord D.
The king was more of a figurehead and he really didn't have that much authority over the local regions because each region has their own army with castles. So it's very hard to invade every single part. Okay? And so um whenever there's a war, what would happen is the king says, "Okay guys, we need to go to war." So A would come in with his army, B would come in with his with his army, then C then D and they would fight independently. Okay.
And what would often happen is that maybe C betrays the king. Okay. This would happen a lot in European history. This is how most wars are fought um in the feudal era. Okay.
Now with gunpowdered, okay, with gunpowdered, okay, you need centralization. Why? Because the thing about gunpowder as I discussed is you need a huge army in order to best effectively use this gunpowder. So you need two things, taxation and conscription. And therefore, you need a bureaucracy.
Okay, does that make sense guys? You need to do resolve these two issues. You have to tax people to create a central army and you need to constrict people to fill the ranks of your army. You can only do it through a centralized bureaucracy. Therefore, at this time, historians say that the feudalism transitioned into an absolute monarchy where the king now has absolute power because a king only the king can organize a centralized bureaucracy.
Okay. So now what would happen is that um the king would ask for conscripts from all lands to create a centralized army. Okay. So why you need to do this is the nature of gunpowder. So remember before um soldiers were self-sufficient.
If there's a battle, they just went and got their armor and then the sword and then they go off to battle. Okay, with gunpowdered, you need different elements. Okay, first of all, you need material. The the two main material, sulfur and um salt, pepper, and therefore you needed to do trade and production. Okay, you needed to create a gunpowder economy if you are to have a gunpowder army.
But you also need um specialists. Specialists are just people who are able to make gunpowder and who are able to use gunpowder in battle. Okay, you need industry. Industry are people who manufacture gunpowder and manufacture cannons. You need research.
And these are just scientists who help you refine gunpowder over time. Okay. You also need a bureaucracy to coordinate and you also need a military hierarchy. Why? Because these soldiers need to be trained on how how to use the guns.
Okay? Okay, you need a hierarchy to control the training of soldiers and the deployment of soldiers in battle. Okay, so so I mean like this is very simple um what I'm doing but as you can see what this means is you need a what we call a whole society approach. Okay. You have to radically transform your society so that it is all resources are directed to the use of gunpowder in battle.
And the society that is most able to do this will be the most effective in war. Okay. And who are the who are the people who are most able to do this over time? The Prussians which will become Germany and the Japanese. Okay.
And these these are just two examples. also the Americans as well and they are the most effective in in war a whole society approach. Now the question then is well okay the logic here makes sense but why is it that it's Europe that use a wholesale side approach and not China not the Ottomans not the Indians okay the reason why is wholesided approach means a radical transformation of your social hierarchy and social order that's the reason why all right so the Three major changes as we discussed is to go from feudalism, okay, basically an aristocracy to a bureaucracy. Okay, a national bureaucracy bureaucrats. So the power shifts from the aristocrats to the bureaucrats.
Okay, that's one radical social change. But then you have to go from um agriculture to industry. Who? The merchants. So now you have to give the merchants, the capitalists, trades people more power in your society, right?
And and the bureaucrats don't want that. Okay? And then you have to go from religion to science. So now the people with the most authority in your society are no longer priests, which has historically been true, but scientists, right? So this is a radical social transformation that overturns the entire social hierarchy.
And that's why and that's why this is really important. This is a process that will take centuries and which will lead to traumatic social revolution including the French revolution, the American revolutions. Okay, we'll be discussing this later on. Okay, so that's what you have to do and most societies are not willing to do this because the elite don't want to give up power. Okay, it's that simple.
Okay, the elite do not want to give up power. Their power has to be taken away from them. Okay. So, let me give you an example to illustrate how hard it is to transform society. Okay.
All right. So, let's look at China. Let's look at Europe. Hey guys. So, China is um one of the first societies to centralize.
And when you centralize, you um accumulate a lot of resources. And these resources allow you to make great inventions. And so the four great inventions of China are the compass, right? Paper, print making and um gunpowder. Okay, these are the four great inventions of China.
China was the first to invent this by hundreds of years. Okay. So the printing press in China was maybe about the year 800. In Europe it would be 1400. Okay.
So this is like a huge advantage over Europe. But these four inventions did not really impact society in China. They had no impact on society. But in Europe when they are when they go over to Europe the compass will bring in the age of exploration, right? It will allow Europe to conquer the entire world.
The age of exploration, right? Paper and print making. What does it do? It creates universal literacy. Everyone in Europe is now able to read and write because of paper and printmaking.
It radically transforms the entire fabric of European society. And because people are now able to read and write, it gives rise to the renaissance. suppressor re reformation revolution. Okay. And the gunpowder allows Europe to conquer the entire world conquest.
Okay. So think about that. Europe China was the first to invent all four and Europe was able to take all four and radically transform the society and make Europe into the dominant power in the entire world. Right? So then the question then is why is it China didn't make use of these four inventions?
Just look at paper and printmaking. Okay. The problem in China is that you have these confusion bureaucrats and what is their source of power? It's the monopoly over literacy and knowledge production. Right?
So they didn't want to make it possible for everyone to read and write because that would reduce their power over the people, right? Does that make sense? Same thing with the compass. The compass would allow Chinese to explore the world and bring in new ideas and new goods. The burgers didn't want that.
They want to protect the social hierarchy. With gunpowder, yeah, it's fine. But the problem is if now everyone has a gun, they can revolt against you, right? Okay. So for China, it was much more important to maintain a social hierarchy than it is to innovate and to dominate the world.
In fact, what's important for us to remember is that if you give governments a choice, they would always choose to maintain a social hierarchy rather than to to innovate because that's just the easiest thing to do. But, and this is important, Europe didn't have a choice in the matter. It was a matter of life and death. You either innovate or you will get destroyed by your neighbor. Okay, does that make sense?
Okay, great. Okay. So um so we we did a broad overview of the history and we'll go go into very specific details um over the next few weeks. Okay. So next class will be on the enlightenment which will then give rise to the French Revolution and the American Revolution.
Okay. All right. So but this is just a very broad overview. All right. So um questions guys?
Yes. Chinese. Yes. Okay. So why did Europe innovate, right?
Okay. Great. So let's look at Europe like let's just look at France or Okay. Okay. So as a nation you are under two types of pressure.
external. Okay, external just means Britain, Russia, Germany, Holy Roman Empire. Okay, you have a lot of enemies, okay? And so you're competing against them. at the same time that's really important.
You have sorry um internal pressure as well. Okay? Because remember what they're doing now is they're recruiting more and more people to join your army. And the general rule is that if people fight for you, they die for you, they also have a say in your society. Okay.
Also, you need you need you need you need to get people to have children to replenish your population. You need everyone to get get you need to get them to work hard. Okay? So, you're always afraid of revolution, discontent, and also the idea of indifference, right? People don't care anymore.
So, you're under these two pressures. So because of these two pressures, it creates contradictions in your society and these contradictions force you to balance these contradictions which leads to innovation. Okay, does that logic here make sense to you? Right? This creates conflict and contradiction, right?
Which will then lead to uh innovation. And if you don't do if you don't innovate, then you'll have a revolution or defeat. Okay? Does that make sense? If you don't innovate, your enemies will come and conquer you or your people will rebel and overthrow you.
Okay, those are the two options. You don't have a so you don't have a choice in a matter but to innovate. But sometimes the innovation can't keep up with the social change. And that's what happened in the French Revolution which which we we will discuss uh later on is that okay the government was trying to make these changes but you have too many social classes the merchant class uh the educated middle class lawyers basically you you have all these different social groups now who want a greater say in government but then you have this hierarchy of like clergy, nobility um and um bureaucrats who want to maintain their privileges. Okay?
And if you can't resolve this conflict, then the only outcome is revolution, right? So, so it's either you choose to resolve it or it will be resolved for you. Okay? So, this is a process of constant innovation and revolution. Okay.
Yeah. Didn't China have the Okay. All right. Um, that's a good question. Okay.
So, why isn't this happening in China? Okay. All right. So, um, the first thing about China, let's say from Europe, is that China for the longest time has been much more united and there are natural boundaries that protect China. Okay.
So the sea, the mountains, the desert to the north. Okay. So China has these natural boundaries that Europe doesn't have. Um so from the perspective of Chinese bureaucrats, they're not afraid of e external enemies. Okay?
Because like Japan, Korea, they're not really threats to China at this time. They're more afraid of internal revolution. Okay? So that's that's where the focus is is on like how do we maintain internal coherence? And the best way to do that is by co-opting the local elite, by bribing the local elite.
Okay? And the best way to bribe the local elite is by helping them stamp out local discontent. Ensuring that the people that are most loyal to you are always in power in local areas. Okay, does that make sense? So um so the example is this.
example is think back to uh the Japanese invasion of China. Okay, World War II. You look at the KMT, the Guingong, which is a dominant power in China. Japan is coming in conquering most of China, controlling the industrial heartland. And what is Jangir doing?
Does he care about the Japanese? Not at all. He cares about the Communist Party. These peasants in these caves in north west China. Why?
The Japanese are a much more are a much greater military threat, but they are not a threat to the social hierarchy. You can work with the Japanese, right? The Japanese are perfectly willing to work with you to control China. The communists represent an overturning of the social hierarchy. Therefore, they are much greater threat.
Okay, does that make sense? But that's a logic um in China. Okay, maintain a social hierarchy. If foreigners want to come and conquer China, that's fine because we can work with them to maintain a social hierarchy. Okay, but uh these peasant rebels are the real problem.
Okay, if their best not only value for social hierarchy but they actually not which emperor is exactly who it is. Yeah. Okay. So that's a great question. Okay.
Um why is it that Chinese dynasties don't last very long, right? Okay. So I I know this is hard to understand uh but what what Chinese civilization is it's it's a bureaucracy. Okay, bureaucracy because the bureaucracy represents a social hierarchy. Okay, confusionism.
If the confusion culture lives on, China lives on. So what's important is to protect the confusion culture which puts scholar officials bureaucrats at the top of society. So you can have the Mongols, you can have the Japanese, you can have I don't know Julian Jang. Who cares? The emperor doesn't matter.
You understand? The emperor doesn't really matter in the system. What matters is the bureaucracy. And that has been consistent for 2,000 years. Okay.
Does that make sense? Okay. So, so the intention, the strategy is to maintain a bureaucracy even though you may need to put in a foreign leader. Okay? In fact, you're better off a foreign leader because a foreign leader is much more dependent on the bureaucracy than maybe a local leader.
So actually don't care about who is the Yeah, it doesn't matter. The emperor is just a figurehead. The emperor has has no power, right? Because you think about it, the emperor is just one person. But the information that he gets is all from bureaucrats.
And therefore, you can control and manipulate the emperor based on the information you provide him. Right? All right. So, it's a bureaucracy that has all the power and that's why China doesn't innovate because a bureaucracy is too powerful. Okay.
Does does that make sense? Okay. Great. Questions? European countries like Yeah.
Okay. So that's a great question. Okay, so the thing about the European nations is that even though they're divided, they um are basically one big family. Okay, like so for example, the Germans, the Russians, the English, they were just like one big family. They were cousins of each other, but they still went to war and they still killed millions of people.
Okay. Um so how to explain this? And the answer is um we can use game theory. Okay, game theory. Native game theory is that you can be related to each other, but you're all participants in a game in which there going to be one winner, right?
So um um you still have to think about your own survival and you can survive as long as you have the if as long as you have authority and legitimacy among your people, right? Because if if they think that you are representing a foreign interest, your soldiers won't be loyal to you. They'll they'll kill you. Okay? Does that make sense?
Okay. And also like like look look there's a very common very simple uh example where it's very common that a king dies right and guess what what the two sons start a civil war right they're brothers but why are they fighting a civil war and the reason why is okay this really interesting is they represent different political factions who are all striving for hour and the suns are just figureheads for these political factions. Okay, does that make sense? Okay. Okay.
So, civil wars are fought between different political factions and they will appoint maybe son A to be the head. Okay. And son A if he doesn't agree they'll find someone else. Okay. So Evan's trying to be the top dog.
Evans, it's it's really okay. Yeah. So, so there's a theory, but the theory is called status. What we really want is status, right? And so, um, brothers hate each other the most because only one can have status.
The other must obey. And that's why uh throughout history so much violence has been between princes, okay, who are striving for this top top position. So so so there are different theories. Okay, great. Any more questions?
You mentioned that Europe schools were institutions that kind of Okay. Um, so let's go over the history of schooling. Okay. So the modern schooling model that we use today is from Prussia. Okay.
Schools. Okay. And so if you are a military, you need soldiers. And what you discover is if you want soldiers to be obedient, you need to train them from an early age. But not only that, but you need to separate them from their families at an early age.
Okay? Does that make sense? Because if they are separated from their families, they feel more anxious, they feel more stressed, they're less love. Therefore, they're much willing to accept authority and they're much more willing to kill other people. Okay.
So that's a basic theory of schooling. Um make them obedient from an early age and separate them from the families from an early age and then uh train them to be soldiers from an early age. Okay, that and this is a model that we adopt for today universal schooling and every country uses this system because not only is it good for the military, it's also good for industry, right? Companies also want this system where you go in and you work hard because you're anxious. You want to make money.
You want to prove yourself, right? Whereas if you feel loved by your family, you don't care. You're like, you know, like I don't like this boss. I'm I'm going to go home and be with my mother. Okay?
So, um that's why every nation adopted the system because it's it's it was another for the military, but it really helps with the industry. Okay. So, the question then is why did China adopt this? Well, because of industry, right? Because China needs factory workers and the system gives you the best factory workers.
Okay, does that make sense? Great. Any more questions? Okay, so great questions, guys. Um I really enjoy when when you ask questions and and like they're really perceptive.
Okay, and I think that by asking them you learn a lot as well. So um next class we do the enlightenment. Okay. And this will pave the way for the American and the French revolutions. Um, there's no class next week because of midterms, but I'll see you after after the midterms.