Week 4.Technology

Campbell and Carr’s Weekly Review Session #4

Technology

I. Neolithic Revolution

a. Domestication of plants and animals

b. Increased food supply, allowing permanent settlements, allowing civilization

c. Pottery, writing systems (allow transmission of knowledge), organized religion, government, social classes

d. Agriculture

i. Irrigation – small canals/channels that bring water from river to crops

ii. Terracing – cutting steps/platforms into hills or mountains to create a flat space to plant on. Allows farming

iii. Chinampas - man-made “floating islands” used by Aztec to farm on the swampland/shallow lakes of central America

iv. Bone/copper/bronze plows, allow deeper digging into earth for better planting

II. Metals

a. Copper – easily malleable, copper>bone and stone, can be sharpened

b. Bronze – mix of copper and tin (metallurgy i.e. mixing of metals) , sharper and harder than copper (Assyrian conquests), Homeric Age in Greece

c. Iron – harder and sharper still, stronger, more common than other metals, used by Romans, Aryans, Celts.

i. Allows groups to conquer those using older metals (i.e. Aryan-> India)

d. Steel - reserved for weapons until Industrial Age and Bessemer process

(cheaper, more

reliable high quality steel) make steel the main metal for industry

III.

Mathematics and Architecture

a.

Greece – Euclid and Pythagoras, Archimedes develop math that is used in

construction and architecture

i.

Columns – Dorian, Ionic, Corinthian (still used in Western Civs today)

Parthenon

iii.

Human powered cranes

iv.

Water screw – allow water to be drawn up from a low source

Water displacement (finding the density of metals and materials

b.

Rome

i. Advanced roads cross empire, connecting all parts, multi-layered to last long and provide drainage, Promote trade and military conquest/control of empire, Appian Way,

ii. Concrete – soil made good concrete, used in construction and roads iii. Dome – provided great strength in buildings with less material,

iv. Aqueducts – used the dome to carry water from distant mountain streams/sources to cities, allowing cities to grow

v. Indoor heating

vi. Indoor water and running fountains vii. Baths (hot and cold)

c. Golden Age of Islam

i. Domes borrowed from Byzantines, used extensively ii. Calligraphy and mosaics

iii. Developed algebra Al-Khwarizimi based on Greek mathematics 1. Expanded use of decimal system and number 0

iv. Advanced medicine

1. Ibn Sina – physician who wrote a Canon on Medicine, used throughout Asia and Europe for hundreds of years, identified symptoms and offered recommendations for treatment

v. Astronomy, position of stars, measure circumference of earth, rotation of planets etc.

IV.

Gunpowder

a. Developed in China ~1200s while looking for an elixir of immortality b. Fireworks, early firearms and cannons

c. Cultural diffusion through Islamic Trade network and Silk Road i. Adopted in Ottoman Empire (Janissary Corps)

ii. Centralization of power, janissary loyal only to sultan

d. Europe begins adopting

i. Break down city/fortress/castle walls

ii. New styles of fortress required, too $$$ for nobles

iii. Guns and material eliminate superiority of $$$ knights and armored soldiers 1. Punch through armor rendering it mostly useless

iv. Anyone can be trained to use guns, non-noble/knight armies

v. Absolute rulers and kings will use taxes to create standing armies of gunners and pikemen

1. Centralization of power e. Age of Exploration/Imperialism

i. European’s rapid development of gunpowder weapons and technologies allows them to have a military edge over most other peoples.

ii. Allows Europe to conquer South America (New World) and Colonize/create Empires in India, Africa, and China

V.

Age of Exploration Inventions

a. New Technologies allow Europeans to expand their exploration and eventual domination of parts of the world

b. Lateen Sails – Triangular sails, allow sailing in little to no wind or even when wind is against you. Developed/refined by Portuguese and spread through Europe

c. Caravel – ship with Lateen sails, deep draft, able to sail over the Atlantic, Columbus’s ships

d. Magnetic Compass – invented by Chinese, spread through trade/diffusion to Muslim kingdoms and from them to Europe, aids in navigation (going where you want to)

e. Astrolabe- Uses the sunlight to find out your latitude, aids in navigation

VI. Printing Press

a. Wood-Block printing presses invented in China and perfected during the Song and Tang Dynasties

b. European Printing Press (1400’s CE)

i. Before, everything written/copied by hand

1. Books slow to make and very expensive 2. Few libraries

3. Few new works written or published 4. Low literacy rates (many cannot read(

ii. Invented by Johannes Gutenberg, creates a movable-typeprinting Press

1. Can change the letters around to suit needs 2. Books Cheaper

a. Made Faster

3. Gutenberg Bible and printing the 95 Theses allows for the spread of Protestantism

a. Bible printed in the vernacular (spoken language of the region/country) 4. Eventually more authors are able to write and be published, explosion of new

ideas, philosophies and thoughts

5. Literacy rates increase throughout Europe 6. Education becomes somewhat more obtainable 7. Universities expand

8. Lead to… Age of Enlightenment

VII.

Scientific Revolution (1500-1700’s)

a. Expansion of Renaissance ideas of using Reason and Logic to view and understand the world b. Scientific Method – Using Observation and Experimentation to explain theories about how

the world works and develop natural laws

i. Heliocentric Model of Universe - Sun-centered model eventually overcomes Ptolemaic geocentric or earth-centered model of the medieval world

1. Telescope- allowed more accurate viewing of the stars and planets ii. Laws of Gravity and Motion –Sir Isaac Newton

iii. Thermometer- accurately can gauge temperature iv. Theory of Gases, discovery of oxygen

v. Microscopes Antonie van Leeuwenhoek’s invention allows the exploration of the small world of insects and single-celled animals

VIII.

Industrial Revolution

a. Agricultural Revolution i. Enclosures ii. Seed Drill iii. 4 field system iv. Fertilizer

v. Increase food surplus, less people needed to farm, population growth

b. Industrial Revolution

1. Coal 2. Iron

3. Natural harbors

4. Excess labor population (due to agriculture Revolution) 5. Capital ($$$ and banking)

6. Stable political system ii. Spinning Jenny and Power Loom

1. Reduce time it takes to make cloth 2. First factories

iii. Steam engine invented to pump water out of coal mines 1. James Watt and Newcomb make steam engines

2. Steamboats travel upriver, increase speed of trade and business, no need for wind 3. Locomotives (trains) faster, reliable, large cargo loads

4. Machines- never get tired, only need coal and water to work, more power and faster than humans and/or animals

5. Assembly Lines

6. Telegraph- quick communication of messages over long distance 7. Urbanization

a. Factories

b. Pollution

c. Child labor

d. Poor working conditions

e. Bad living conditions

f. Low sanitation

8. Unions (better working conditions, 8 hour working day, no child labor, higher wages)

9. Reformers (Karl Marx and Engels) communist manifesto

IX.

World War I

a. Machine guns b. Poison gas c. Artillery d. Tanks e. Planes f. Barbed wire g. Submarines

X.

World War II

a. Radar

b. Coding machines (early computers)

c. Aircraft Carriers

d. Antibiotics e. Bombers f. Jet fighters g. Rockets

XI. The Green Revolution

a. New chemical fertilizers and pesticides

b. High Yield Vegetables and grains (HYVs) have much more calories and so can feed more people c. Genetically modified foods that are resistant to disease, pests, and have more nutrients

d. Large farm equipment means more food produced with few people and resources e. New irrigation methods ‘

f. Increased agricultural output, avoiding large famines in India and China and to a lesser extent

parts of Africa

i. $$$ so not all countries and most farmers in developing nations cannot afford

XII. Space Age

a. Soviets and US engaged in a Space Race

b. Sputnik first man-made satellite, created by the Soviets, i. Put fear into US and NATO

c. Moon-Landing

d. Satellites increase communication, GPS, International cooperation (ISS) but also fear of some militarization of space

XIII.

Nuclear Technology

a. Cold War fear of Nuclear War , MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) between Soviet Union and the US and a Nuclear War between NATO and Warsaw Pact

i. Arms Race between Soviets and NATO for more powerful nukes and rockets b. Nuclear Power creates “clean” energy for many nations but with risk of nuclear accident

i. 3 mile island in US

ii. Chernobyl in the USSR, core meltdown and town evacuated, poisonous gasses released into air across Europe, many workers died trying to clear rubble, containment melting through

c. Today

i. India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons and an extreme hatred for one another-> instability and world fears of nuclear war there

ii. Fear of more nations developing Nuclear Weapons

1. Iran trying to develop nuclear technology for “peaceful” purposes 2. North Koreahas nuclear bombs

iii. Need to dispose of waste material (radioactive for ~40,000 years iv. Fukushima Nuclear Disaster – 2011 Tsunami destroyed cooling system

1. Towns evacuated, entire area ghost-town

2. Japan begins to close nuclear reactors amid political backlash 3. Other nations question dangers of nuclear energy (France, US etc)

XIV. Internet/Telecommunications

a. Rapid exchange of information and data b. Increase the pace/speed of business

c. Links people, governments, and organizations together like never before d. Sapid access to total sum of human knowledge for free

f. Fear and power of government spying (Great firewall of China) and companies willing to spy on nation’s citizens (Google in China)

XV. Medical Technology

a. Vaccines b. Antibiotics c. MRI

d. Cancer advances e. Genetic manipulation f. Transplants

g. Some incurable, epidemic diseases, AIDS, Swine Flu, new vaccine and drug-resistant forms of old diseases

i. AIDS ravages Africa and increasing in Asia

XVI. Technology and the Environment

a. Industrialization hard on environment

b. Deforestation (Amazon, Thailand/Malaysia, Africa) c. Loss of topsoil

d. Air pollution

e. Global Climate Changing (“warming”)

f. Increasingly unpredictable weather patters g. Strip-mining damages area and poisons water h. Fracking

i. China air and water pollution problems j. Look to renewable sources of energy