Century Of Furnace Essay, Research Paper

CENTURY OF FURNACE

The 18th century was the Century of the Furnace and industrial revolution glowed China, India, and West. In Europe, there were new ways of thinking strengthened and disrupted. Also, American Revolution strained between Europe and colonies.

In Finland mission was calculate the shape of the world. French Academy sponsored Pierre de Maupertuis led an expedition to the Arctic Circle to settle an argument about the shape of the Earth. They believed that power of the science could solve every problem. The problem was world was it flattened or shaped like a lemon. They went to Tornio River Valley to determine the shape of the world. After six months Maupertuis found that the distance between two points along a line of longitude was greater than expected. Also, they had established the truth. If the Earth were round, all these distances would have been the same.

On November 1, 1755 Lisbon Portugal, there was earthquake and more than 10,000 died in the Lisbon earthquake. Some people thought that that was divine justice and some of them thought that opportunity to reorganize society on rational principles. Pombal who was a prime minister of Portugal supervised the rebuilding of Lisbon. Then, Lisbon became a symbol of the movement known as the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment ideal was a universe comprehended by science and reason. The cult of reason itself took on the characteristics of a religion. By the latter years of the 18th century, “romanticism” had ransacked the traditional airs of Enlightenment.

In 1768, Thomas Jefferson began to build Monticello, his tribute to the European Enlightenment. He believed that native peoples uncorrupted by modern influences possessed their own wisdom. Dissatisfaction with colonial status and the burden of taxation began to grow, along with a common identity. Jefferson took English radicalism, the idea of inherent, popular wisdom and the ideal of an ancient republic, and combined them in the Declaration of Independence. In France, the royal family reveled in the luxuries of Versailles. The French Revolution of 1789 was both a creation of the Enlightenment and its destroyer.

India in the 18th century was an industrial giant and the world’s biggest exporter of manufactured goods. Europe saw India as a province. British took control of northeast state of Bengal and then they disaffected Indian princes and expanded down the eastern coast. British Expansion ended at Mysore. Tipu Sultan, Mysore Muslim leader, had to make sure that hold together the Hindu fiefs. British attacked to Mysore’s wealth and war continued 3 years. Mysore killed in 1799 by British and then Britain had established colonial rule there.

China was prospered in the 18th century and population almost 300 million. The Qing emperor, Kangxi thought that China needed new labor force for their land, which had been destroyed previous century. He send more than a million people to resettled to Szechuan. They helped to farmers to grow new crops. Some people became rich in Cottage industries. Tea became social lubricant. The China trade was one way for European coffers of cash and in 1793, King George III sent a diplomatic mission to China to show the emperor what Britain could produce.

The 18th century was the beginning of technological development, which affected society, and commerce, in ways that are felt even today. This technological development, known as the Industrial Revolution, was one of the main revolutions of this era and it changed manufacturing by changing the way people worked.