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0:00Okay, so good morning. Today we are doing the gunpowder revolution. Specifically, we are going to ask the question how did Europe, starting about the year 1700, conquer the world? So, after the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe became divided, 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 and nations. Okay?
So, the four specific examples we've looked at are Sparta, Athens, Macedonia, and Rome. Because Sparta had a hoplite army, it became an oligarchy. Okay? Oligarchy means rule by the few. The rule by the elite.
And hoplites 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 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 Alexander the Great is from, um it was a cavalry-based army.
2:00And 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 nations in the Italian peninsula. And as such, it was a republic. Now, the difference between a republic and a democracy is that in democracy, everyone has the right to vote, so the decisions are based on majority rule, okay?
But in a republic, it is rule 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 your 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, when uh the poleis were fighting each other, in very much the same way that the warring states were fighting each other in China, uh the main uh soldier is called a hoplite. The hoplite means shield in uh Greek. And um the thing about the hoplite that's very important is that it was a self-sufficient self-sufficient soldier, meaning that most of the time he was a farmer, but when there was a war, he would grab his armor and his shield and
4:02his spear, and he would go to war. You didn't need a economy to allow the hoplite to exist, okay? This This was a self-sufficient system. Um Over time, the Macedonians will take the hoplite formation and turn it into the Macedonian phalanx. 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 cavalry, the Roman cavalry, 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 steppe 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 steppe people were the dominant military force in the world. Okay? They could come in and conquer all the agricultural empires.
Uh this would include the Yamnaya, which we talked about, but it also include um the Turks and the the Mongolians. Okay? Um in medieval Europe, they develop a
6:02new 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, Constantinople was the wealthiest, most powerful city in Europe. They are the heirs to the Roman Empire.
They consider themselves the Eastern Roman Empire. And they are invincible because of their
8:02high walls. Remember, we talked about the Byzantine Empire before. And for about a thousand years, Constan- 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 lay sie- laid siege to Constantinople, and they destroy the walls. And this was unimaginable before. And so, it's gunpowder that allows the Ottomans to destroy the once impenetrable Constantinople. 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 steppe people cease to be a threat. Okay?
So, for thousands of years, the steppes, right, the Mongolians, the Turks, the Yamnaya, they drove history because they could come in and conquer empires and establish new societies. Now, with gunpowder, the cities can defend themselves against the steppe people, and eventually, over time, the Russians will colonize the steppes. And they will cease to be a factor in development of global history, okay? So, this is the end of the steppes. 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
10:02gunpowder, right? About over a thousand years ago. But it is Europe that will perfect gunpowder as the ultimate military weapon. And that and it will allow Europe to defeat everyone, including Ottoman Turks, including the Chinese. Um everyone, okay?
The third and most important fundamental change is that gunpowder 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 step the borderlands 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 the 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 depth. Mass just means a lot of people. Organization means a centralized bureaucracy. And then depth 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
12:02empire 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 need 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 gunpowder, 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 gunpowder empire are the Ottomans, right? They're the ones who took the cannons, the artillery, and they're the ones who destroyed Constantinople. And uh 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 their use of professional soldiers called Janissaries.
Janissaries are um young boys who became slave who are Christian and they became slaves to the Ottomans. And they were educated become professional soldiers. And because they basically slaves, they owed their entire loyalty to the Sultan, the king of the Ottoman Empire. Okay? And um these are professional
14:03soldiers who uh made effective very effective use of gunpowder in battle. Okay? So, that's the Ottoman Empire. But then you also have the Mughal 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 Safavid Empire, which is in modern-day Iran. They are the heirs 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 most powerful of these gunpowder empires is China. Okay?
This is the Ming Empire. Uh remember, it was China who invented the gunpowder. But what's interesting is when China invented the gunpowder, it was not used that effectively. Um the Chinese army used gunpowder mainly as bombs or as fireworks, as incendiaries to blow things up, okay? It was but because of the Islamic Golden Age and because of of Genghis Khan's conquests, globalization came into being.
And this 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 propel it. Okay? It's something like that you shoot people at, a a projectile. And that's why we have cannons and um muskets.
And so, it was 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's that's that's that was the process. Um yeah. So, this is China and uh the use of gunpowder.
Okay. So,
16:03the paradox is this. It was China who invented the gunpowder. And the four great gunpowder empires are the Ottomans, the Safavids, the Mughals, 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 um 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 gunpowder, you need specialized workers, you need engineers, you need iron workers, and that happens in towns and not in villages.
18:05Okay? 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 procure resources necessary for gunpowder. And the third major change that happened in Europe that really didn't happen in anywhere else is a shift in focus from religion to science. Okay? Religion is asking a question, "What does God want from us? How can we best serve God?" Science is is asking a 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 happened in Europe that really didn't happen in 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, and 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 classes open cooperative competition.
This is the main driver of innovation in the world. When was China most creative? During the Warring States period, right?
20:08Okay? 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 gunpowder 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 use 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 used were too heavy. So, they were only a small part of your military.
Also, what's important for us to remember is that there's always been a battle between artillery and fortification. Okay? So, even though the Ottomans used a cannon to destroy Constantinople, engineers would figure out ways to better defend the city. Okay, so the first strategy against um gunpowder was the idea of earthworks. 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, earthworks 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
22:08is designed differently. Most fortresses before were rectangular because 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 fortress 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 want You want to breach the fortress, but a 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 gunpowder 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 together.
Okay? They also have cavalry as well. So, the problem for 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 gunpowders are in the front, and the cavalry is to the wings, okay? And this provides more flexibility in your army.
And because Europeans are 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
24:09very quickly the formation of gunpowder. How is gunpowder made? Well, gunpowder is made using three different um resources, okay? They are saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. Charcoal is pretty easy to get.
Okay? Sulfur you get from basically from volcanoes. And in Europe, the place where they they had the most volcanoes was Italy on the in 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 controlled trade with the rest of the world, and also because the church was there, the pope was there.
Okay? Um saltpeter is uh the 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 saltpeter is important because um as they chemically enhance gunpowder, they discovered that um saltpeter should go from 41% to almost 70%, okay? So, saltpeter was the main ingredient in gunpowder.
And the Europeans had to figure out ways to mass produce saltpeter. And that's why they came up with these um uh nitre 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?
26:10Because because one huge issue with gunpowder is it's very hard to store. So, for example if it rains, guess what? No more gunpowder, okay? So, they have to 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 good possibility that along the way uh the gunpowder um 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 ironworks, right? Because you need iron and metal to make cannons, which was the main use of gunpowder. Um these are foundries where they will make gunpowder. 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 arquebus is that they're very heavy. Now, these are metal. Okay? So, uh the soldier basically needs something to stabilize the gun.
But even once the 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 arquebus 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, 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 arquebus. One is that um it's not very accurate, and second of
28:10all, 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 Ottomans were most able to use gunpowder 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 volley, okay? So, what would happen is soldiers would stand in line, they they would come up, shoot it, then walk to the back, and new line would come up and shoot it again, okay? They weren't aiming, they were just shooting it.
And this is what we call volley fire. Right? So, this is the main tactic. Okay? So, does this make sense to you guys so far?
Um but over time um gunpowder will become 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 peace-loving, pretty uh simple individuals who were used to freedom to ones who were obedient, who were bloodthirsty, and who could kill other people, okay? And that's why you
30:10have now have the invention of something called schools. Okay? You want to know where schools come from? It comes from the need to uh create as many soldiers as possible for your mass army, okay? So, a concept that I 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 to structure your society so that people in society are able to follow the rules. Okay? They're able to follow the rules, then your society can become much more prosperous and become better um um uh can have more effective militaries, okay? So, the two classic examples in this world of synchronicity, the two societies that do synchronicity the best are Germany and Japan. Okay?
Go to Germany, go to Japan. And go 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 line, 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, well, it's it's 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? Does that make sense?
32:11If 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 is really important, is the Ottomans destroy the Europeans. The Ottomans are able to destroy Constantinople, 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 Hundred 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 years 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
34:11uh more people are dying. The 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 what allowed Spain to colonize South America. But, um in this war, England will destroy the Spanish Armada, the Spanish 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 and World War II, okay? So, this is a really pivotal point in history, the sinking of the Spanish Armada by the 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, 242,000. Uh War of the Holy League, it's 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
36:11other 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 Nine 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 7 years. French Revolutionary Wars, we'll discuss this later on, but 663,000 killed. The French Revolutionary 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 more powerful European adversaries. Guys, so this is the this is the beginning of what we call the nation-state, when a 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 count 20 million people, okay?
20 million people die in this war. So, you can see how the casualty 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're 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 We'll talk about talk about this later on. All right.
So, as I said before, um the thing about Europe is that it's always
38:11divided 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 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 Roman Empire goes down to 19 million, but France is arising, so is Russia.
Okay? 1623, uh the Holy Roman Roman Empire uh is still around. So, Holy Holy Roman Empire and Ottomans are the dominant powers. But, by the time of 1660 1660, France actually becomes the dominant power in Europe. And because France becomes the 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.
40:131824, 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 in what they call 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 a 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 Was this clear to you guys? Okay, any questions? Every time in a war, they kill so many people, and especially for the male labor in the society, how can they recover from such a hurt every time? 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 there are many many factors going on, okay? But what's important is the rise of something called the nation-state. Okay?
So, the nation-state replaces the role of religion in people's lives. Right? Before, you had to sacrifice your life to the will of God.
42:16You had 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 And what does that mean?
It means that 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 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, Does that make sense? We'll We'll We'll be dis- 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 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 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 op- opportunities that didn't exist before. That creates social mobility.
44:16So, 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 lieutenant, come back and start his own business. And that wasn't available before, right? Because in peacetime, the social hierarchy 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. The My kids aren't going to rise up in the social social 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 a 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.
An- An- 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 thou- the year 1000 to 1400, okay? 1500, okay?
So, how does feudalism work? Feudalism works
46:17because each part of society is partitioned into different lands run by lords, okay? Maybe Lord A, Lord B, Lord C, Lord D. And 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 happened 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 often happen is that maybe C betrays the king, okay? This would happen a a lot in European history. But this is how most wars are fought um in the feudal era, okay?
Now, with the gunpowder, okay? With gunpowder, 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 conscript people to fill the ranks of your army. And 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 the king Only the king can organize a centralized
48:17bureaucracy. Okay? So, now, what happened 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'd go off to battle, okay? With gunpowder, you need different elements, okay? First of all, you need material. The The two main materials are sulfur and um saltpeter.
And therefore, you needed to do trade and production. Okay? You needed to create a gunpowder economy if you were 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 to how to use the guns.
Okay? You so 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
50:17simple um what what I'm doing. But as you can see, what this means is you need a what I 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 used a whole society approach and not China? Not the Ottomans, not the Indians, okay? And the reason why is whole society 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. It who? The merchants. So now you have to give the merchants, the capitalists, trades people, more power in your society.
Right? And the And the bureaucrats don't want that.
52:18Okay? 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 and 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, printmaking, 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 around the year 800.
In Europe it'll be 1400, okay? So this is like a huge advantage over Europe. But these four inventions did not really
54:19impact 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 printmaking, 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 And because people are now able to read and write, it gives rise to the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, okay? And the gunpowder allows Europe to conquer the entire world. Conquest. Okay? So think about that.
You're 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? Let's look at paper and printmaking, okay? The problem in China is that you have these Confucian 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 with the compass.
The compass would allow China to explore the world and bring in new ideas and new goods. The bureaucrats didn't want that. They want to protect the social hierarchy. With gunpowder, yes, it's fine, but the problem is if now everyone has a gun,
56:20they can revolt against you, right? Okay? So for China, it was much more important to maintain the 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 the 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 we did a broad overview of the history, and we'll go in 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 questions, guys. 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.
58:22Okay? 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, this is 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 you will fight for you, if 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 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 the 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 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 the matter but to innovate. But sometimes the innovation can keep up with the social change.
And that's what happened in the French Revolution, which will which will we will discuss
60:22uh 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 the bureaucrats who want to maintain their privileges. Okay? And if you can't resolve this conflict, then the only outcome is revolution. All 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? But yeah? I understand. So, didn't China have the same problem?
But didn't they have enemies or I mean, I I think they have revolutions. I mean, like they they always have like revolution that have different dynasties. Okay. All right. Um that's a good question, okay?
So, why is this happening in China? Okay. All right. So, um the first thing about China that's different 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 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,
62:25ensuring 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 Kuomintang, which is the dominant power in China. Japan is coming in, conquering most of China, controlling the industrial heartland. And what is Chiang Kai-shek doing? Does he care about the Japanese?
Not at all. He cares about the Communist Party. These peasants in these caves in northwest China. Why? The Japanese are a much more a are 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 a much greater threat. Okay?
That Does that make sense? But that's a logic um in China. Okay? Maintain the social hierarchy. If foreigners want to come and conquer China, that's fine because we can work with them to maintain the social hierarchy.
Okay? But uh these peasant rebels are the real problem. Okay? Um so, if the Chinese are already trying their best for the stabilization, why are our dynasties still not lasting long or stable? If they like they are only valued for the social hierarchy, but they are actually not minding that which emperor is exactly who it is.
Yeah. Okay. So, that's a good question, okay? Um Why is it that Chinese dynasties don't last very long, right? Okay.
So, I I I know this is hard to understand, uh but what what Chinese civilization is,
64:27it's bur- it's it's a bureaucracy. Okay? Bureaucracy. Because the bureaucracy represents a social hierarchy. Okay?
Confucianism. If the Confucian culture lives on, China lives on. So, what's important is to protect the Confucian culture, which puts scholar officials or bureaucrats at the top of society. So, you can have the Mongols, you can have the Japanese, you can have, I don't know, Zhu Yuanzhang, who cares? The emperor doesn't matter.
You understand? The emperor doesn't really matter in this 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 the bureaucracy, even though you may need to put in a foreign leader. Okay? In fact, you're better off with a foreign leader because the foreign leader is much more dependent on the bureaucracy than maybe a local leader. So, they actually don't care about who it is, the emperor, right?
Yeah, it doesn't matter. The 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? So, it's a bureaucracy that has all the power. And that's why China doesn't innovate, because the bureaucracy is too powerful. Okay?
Does it Does that make sense? Okay, great. Questions? So, like um European countries were all like kind of related with each other in some way. Like their nobilities are intermarried Yeah.
or brother or sisters. Yeah. So, why didn't they like think about unite unification, like? Yeah. Okay, so that's a great question, okay?
So, the thing 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
66:29Russians, 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 do we explain this? And the answer is um we we can use game theory, okay?
Game theory. The native game theory is that you can be related to each other, but you're all participants in a game in which you're they're 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, and this is really interesting, is they represent different political factions who are all striving for power. And the sons 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, everyone's trying to be the top dog. Everyone's It It's really
68:29Okay, 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 they're different theories.
Okay? Great. Any more questions? You mentioned that in Europe, schools were were institutions that create soldiers. And that's kind of like not the case in China where like Confucius and all that academy in China.
And then you mentioned that later on, China also adopted the European ways. Okay. So, let's go over the history of schooling, okay? So, the modern schooling model that we use today is from Prussia. Okay, Prussia.
Okay, schools. Okay, and so if you are in 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 separate from their families, they feel more anxious, they feel more stressed, they're less loved. 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 their families from an early age, and then uh train them to be a soldiers from an early age,
70:29okay? That And this is a model that we adopt for today universal schooling. And every country uses the 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 this system because it's it's it was invented 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 this system gives you the best factory workers. Okay? Does it make sense? Great. Any more questions?
Okay. So, great questions, guys. Um I really enjoy it when 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 the after the midterms, okay? Okay.