Western Civilization II / Unit 9 WC2 0805 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Coal: Why Britain Burned It and Where It Lay
Captions available
The idea
Coal was long disliked for smoke, ash and flooded mines. Britain burned it because it ran out of forests, and by eighteen fifteen, the anchor says, British coal yielded the energy of a forest the size of England, Scotland and Wales.
In practice
A coal band from England through Belgium to the Ruhr.
Where people slip
Necessity, not genius, the anchor says.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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