This is World Civilization.
My name is Dr. Long; this video deals with old world technology.
As such, it will explore some major technological developments in the world before the modern
era, or prior to 1500 CE.
Because technology and new technological developments are such an essential part of the modern world,
many people seem to think that few technological developments took place prior to the modern
era.
However, that is not the case.
Indeed, the word technology itself comes from the ancient Greeks – from the word techne,
which means skill with art or with craft.
The reason that technology is important to humans is because it saves labor and time.
To give one brief example, you can wash all of your clothes by hand down by the river.
That's how people washed clothes for thousands of years and how people in many developing
countries still wash clothes today.
However, washing your clothes in a washing machine saves you time and allows you to avoid
a tedious chore.
So the point of technology, again – is to save time and to save labor.
According to historian of technology, Joel Mokyr, a society needs 3 things to innovate
technologically.
First it needs a core group of resourceful innovators; second, it needs social and
economic institutions that give incentives – particularly financial and social – for
people to innovate; and third and finally, it needs to be a diverse society that is tolerant.
Now other historians, such as William McNeil and JR McNeil, stressed the human web that
connects different groups of peoples sharing different ideas – including technology.
Now not all ancient peoples had the ingredients that Mokyr mentions or the connections that
the McNeil's emphasize, you know, connections across different civilizations.
Nonetheless, some of them did have connections across civilizations leading to important
innovations.
Technological developments began with the rise of agriculture and the domestication
of animals, as this led to larger and more settled populations – and trade.
For instance, around 3500 BCE the wheel was developed in Mesopotamia – probably first
for use in making pottery.
The wheel also became used for transportation, particularly with the domestication of animals
such as horses; donkeys; and oxen.
Also, around 3500 BCE, the Sumerians in Mesopotamia developed bronze.
The Hittites, in Asia Minor, likewise developed iron around 1500 BCE.
Advances in metallurgy were important as metals such as bronze and iron were used for
both tools and weapons.
Many ancient civilizations – particularly those that were wealthy and had large populations
– were also successful builders and building techniques were part of the rise of technology.
For instance, the ancient Egyptians with their pyramids, or the ancient Sumerians with their
ziggurats, were very impressive builders in the pre-modern world.
Likewise, the Mayans in the Americas also built impressive pyramids.
For their part, the ancient Greeks and Romans also built impressive temples, theaters, and
coliseums – as well as roads and bridges.
Roman advancements in masonry allowed their roads and bridges to be of such high quality
that they were used for hundreds of years after they were first built.
The Roman has also built baths and aqueducts, which meant that they made advances in hydraulic
engineering.
The Romans and Greeks did develop a few machines, as well as pulleys; screws; gears; and levers.
Yet most of the machines they invented – such as the catapult – were for use in military
siege equipment.
The Romans and Greeks clearly possessed the capacity to develop more machines.
However, medieval Europeans were far more technologically innovative.
Now the common stereotype of medieval Europeans is that they lived in quite a dark age and
the dark age is considered the entire Middle Ages, but roughly a thousand years between
the collapse of the Roman Empire in 476 CE and 1500 CE, the era of Columbus and the Protestant
Reformation.
Now this idea of the Dark Ages is really not true.
Medieval Europeans, which were often seen as ignorant and backward, were actually very
technologically innovative.
For example, medieval Europeans developed a heavy plow that was much superior to the
plow the Romans used, and the heavy plow helped improve agriculture and crop yields.
Likewise, medieval Europeans developed the horseshoe, as well as the horse harness and
the stirrup, and all of these things made it much easier to ride a horse than in Roman
times – as well as to use horses for agricultural tasks – neither the Romans or the Greeks
had any of these things for their horses.
In addition, during the Middle Ages, the Vikings came up with ships that were far superior
to the Greeks and Romans, allowing the Vikings to sell as far away as the Americas and to
explore into the Mediterranean.
Medieval Europeans particularly made advances with windmills and with water-powered engines
that they used in mills and for breweries.
For instance, the Doomsday Book, compiled in 1086 after William, Duke of Normandy conquered
England lists over 5,600 water wheels in England.
So why were the medieval Europeans so willing to innovate technologically, and to create
new machines – much more so than the ancient Romans and Greeks?
Well according to historian Joel Mokyr, slavery may have been the main factor.
The ancient Greeks and Romans were slave societies with very large slave populations.
Medieval Europeans, on the other hand, had serfs who worked under a lord with the very
low status, but this status was still higher than slaves.
Slavery gave the Greeks and Romans no reason to innovate, and to create new labor-saving
machines and devices, as most of their tedious work was done by slaves.
Medieval Europeans, on there are other hand, who did not have slaves, had a real incentive
to develop new technologies, as they could and did benefit from their economic improvements
and from their labor-saving devices.
Now another factor medieval Europeans had that was going for them was their connection
to other civilizations, or to the or to the human web as William McNeil and JR McNeil
put it.
During the Middle Ages under the Tang Dynasty, which was from 618 to 907 CE, and under the
Song Dynasty, which was from 960 to 1279 CE, China made a number of impressive advancements.
In agriculture, the Chinese had an iron plow and sophisticated irrigation for rice fields.
The Chinese had invented a number of other things – such as paper; gunpowder; movable
type; the compass; and the stern-post rudder.
These were all incredible advances in the pre-modern era.
By 1400, Chinese ships were far superior to those of other civilizations, as for instance,
with Ching Ho’s large fleets.
Ching Ho, who led a series of exploratory voyages in the 15th century, had ships that
made Columbus's ship look like a rowboat.
During the Middle Ages, the Islamic world lay between Europe and China.
The Islamic world, during the Middle Ages, had larger cities; higher literacy rates;
and greater knowledge of science, mathematics, and medicine than did medieval Europeans.
Muslims made advances in textiles – for instance – in pioneering the use of cotton
in clothing.
They also were noted for their advancements in metallurgy.
Swords made in the city of cities of Toledo and Damascus were of legendary quality.
The Islamic world also borrowed from other civilizations.
For example, the Islamic world borrowed from Greek science and from Indian mathematics.
Muslims had contacts with many different peoples, including on the Silk Road and in Central
Asia with China.
Since the Islamic world lay in the middle, between Europe and China, some Chinese technology
– such as cast-iron forging; paper; gunpowder; and the compass – reached Europe either
through the Islamic world or on the Silk Road.
The Chinese invented the first printing press or movable type.
However, in Europe during the 1450s, Johann Gutenberg seems to have invented the printing
press independently of any Chinese influence.
The Gutenberg printing press had a revolutionary impact on Europe.
By 1480, there were over 380 working printing presses across Europe.
Fifty years after Gutenberg’s first printing press, more books have been published in Europe
than in the thousand years before.
The price of books was falling, literacy was on the rise, and knowledge was spreading – and
all of this occurred during the Renaissance, with Renaissance figures such as Leonardo
da Vinci making drawings of flying machines and machine guns, clearly indicating even
increasing interest in technology in Renaissance Europe.
By 1500, Europe began to pull ahead of both China and the Islamic world – both of which
became more insular and less innovative over time.
After 1500, Europeans would especially pull ahead in military technology.
Europe; the Islamic world in China – all had contacts with each other, as they were
part of a larger Eurasian system.
Now civilizations that were not part of Eurasia tended to be more isolated and much further
behind in technology – a good example of this are the Americas.
Native American societies – before Columbus – had very few domesticated animals, particularly
compared with Europeans or Asians, and because of that, because they had no animals that
were beasts of burden, or that can serve as transportation – such as horses; mules;
and oxen.
Native American societies did not even invent the wheel.
Between their lack of technology and their lack of immunity to Eurasian diseases – such
as smallpox – this all put Native Americans at a huge disadvantage to Europeans after
the arrival Christopher Columbus in 1492.
So let's make a few concluding points.
First, technological development is not a phenomenon that is exclusive to the modern
world.
Prior to 1500, humans made a number of technological developments – many of which are still in
use.
These developments benefited the lives of pre-modern peoples.
For instance, medieval Europeans had a great incentive to make more advances than others
– such as the Romans and Greeks.
Also contact with other civilizations, and the willingness to borrow ideas, and to borrow
machines was key in the pre-modern world.
Medieval Europeans borrowed a great deal from the Chinese – paper; gunpowder; and the
compass are just a few examples.
In the end, technology is a defining aspect of the modern world, but dynamic technological
development is hardly limited the modern world, and I'll stop with this point – thanks for
watching.