Western Civilization II / Unit 9 WC2 0801 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Why Europe? The Anchor's Answer Is Energy, Not Culture
Captions available
The idea
Why did Europe dominate the nineteenth century? The anchor rejects the cultural answer and the racist one as self-serving and inaccurate. Its answer is energy: near-exclusive access to fossil fuels for about a century, which built the factories, steamships, telegraphs and calories that won the late century's contests.
In practice
Dominance lasted under a century.
Where people slip
The thesis is the anchor's, attributed.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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