WW Chap 19: "New Motives, New Means"

This section of chapter 19: Internal Troubles, External Threats, starts off by reminding us that the nineteenth century was Europe's age of global expansion. During this century, Europe became the center of the world's economy, with numerous ties of trade and investments all over the globe. This section of chapter 19 introduces us to the great expansion of the Industrial Revolution. This revolution gave rise to a newly formed economy in which there were much more productivity of industrial technology, and an economy that also found a greater need for extensive raw materials and agricultural products.

In regards to our potential midterm question, my opinion of the Industrial Revolution is very in-between. I like to think that the Industrial Revolution has its share of both positive, and negative effects towards our society and way of living. With positive results, the Industrial Revolution had evolved to form an economy that raised the standard of living. The Industrial Revolution introduced us to a time that allowed our society to grow as a whole, that ultimately shaped and affected, the way we live today. I find that the Industrial Revolution is partially positive, because without that revolution, we would not be anywhere near where we are today. Our society would not be as financially independent (excluding the current economic downfall we are currently facing today), and neither would our society be as advanced as we are today.

Although, besides the Industrial Revolution having just positive effects, I also think of this time period to be slightly negative as well. The Industrial Revolution brought upon a time period where factories and buildings were fairly new. These inventions made rise to a lot of pollution, that probably at the time, they did not know about. Because in our society today we are striving to become more earth friendly, it is partially the Industrial Revolution's fault, that the world is so polluted. If we did not have as many factories, cars or machines, our world would definitely not be as polluted as we are today.