Governments' roles in the industrial Revolution

• START HERE: History 2024 class plan

• Heimler's history review guide

• Heimler's History Unit 4 Youtube

• Heimler's History Unit 5 Youtube

• OpenSTAX World History from 1400

• AP World Past Exams

• NotebookLM AP World notebook

• APWorld Timeline (fiveable)

• #hw (hist) Read history Read section 5.7: Economic Developments and Innovations pages 325–331 2025-03-04

• #hw (hist) Read history Read section 5.8: Reactions to the Industrial Economy pages 332–342 2025-03-04

Lesson-specific resource links

• Opium war in 13 minutes

Meiji restoration

After Britain humiliated China in the opium wars, and Commodore Matthew Perry forced the opening of trade, Japan realized they needed to be proactive with industrialization or die. The Meiji Restoration started with the overthrow of the Shogun, then created major changes to keep Japanese culture from being overrun by Europeans.

• abolish feudalism
• Constitutional monarchy like Prussia (emperor rules through subordinate political leader)
• equality before law, abolish cruel punishments
• reoganized military to be like Prussian
• Created a school system
• built railroads
• subsidized industrialization

All in 50 years.

• #quiz What are zaibatsu? (powerful Japanese family business organizations that controlled whole sections of industry)
• #quiz What was the Meiji restoration? (A rapid Japanese move to industrialize in order to protect their culture)
• #quiz What was the issue at stake in the opium wars between China and Britain?
• #quiz What did Muhammad Ali Pasha do in 19th century Egypt (not the boxer)? (industrialized and modernized many parts of the nation).

Topics

• Economic strategies and their effects (Youtube search)

• China and Britain opium war (Youtube search)

• the Spheres of Influence (Youtube search)

• Muhammad Ali's modernization of Egypt (Youtube search)

• Meiji Restoration - 50 years to transition to industrialism (Youtube search)

• Matthew Perry and forced opening of Japan for trade 1853 (Youtube search)

• Adam Smith and Laissez Faire economics

• Corporations - businesses with their own legal status as "entities" (basically, rights like a person).

• Stockholders and stock markets

• Monopoly - one corporation with enough power to completely dominate a market, making it impossible to buy from anyone else and therefore having power to charge high prices

• Insurance - pay a fee to have someone cover risk

• The rise of leisure, consumerism, and sports

Discussion

• This period of history brought enormous change, and it's hard to keep the ideology of different places separate from their ascendant power. Imagine a world in which the Ottoman Empire, or China, had been first to adopt the industrial technologies - how might the rest of history been changed since that time? Consider the differences in culture between those societies and modern western culture. Technology is just a tool, it could have been used to spread any of the world's ideologies.