The Modern Revolution

Why did agrarian civilizations have the need to expand?

After the boom in agriculture and farming created a stable source for food, civilizations quickly developed a desire to expand geographically to satisfy the need for more resources to grow the societies within.  They found it was easier to take what others had already produced, rather than putting in the time and energy to develop those same resources themselves.  There was a limit for geographic expansion with the resources found inside the land they currently occupied, so they used tools such as roads and iron to facilitate the conquering of other societies.  The tools used to expand were quickly found to have additional benefits beyond their intended military purpose:  roads for armies became trade routes and iron for weapons and defense turned into machines for more effective and efficient farming.  The rapid expansion of the civilizations prevented the imminent collapse of the civilizations by expanding their infrastructure, government, and military.  Due to the expansion of empires and civilizations there was an increase of collective learning between civilizations which furthered expanded human knowledge and understanding of the world.   

 

RECIPE FOR THE MODERN REVOLUTION:

Ingredients and Goldilocks Conditions:

• Globalization
  • Expansion in size, efficiency, and diversity ofexchange networks
• New energy resources
  • A fossil fuel revolution driven by innovative technologies
• Interconnection of the four “world zones”
  • Through increasingly large and complex global exchange networks and competitive global markets
• Increasing use of energy
  • Enabled by the abundance of new forms of cheap energy

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Complexity:

• A global society
• Rapid population growth
• Human control over energy and resources
• Increasing fragility
  • Threat of nuclear war, rapid extinctions, climate change, acidification of the oceans

 

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