Just a few hundred years after the interconnection of the world zones, there was a dramatic acceleration in innovation and population growth. These changes ushered in the Modern Revolution.
Driving Question: How did the Modern Revolution develop?
- What does a day in your life look like? How do you think it compares to someone who lived 500 years ago? If you’re like me, technology rules your world. Often our phones are the first thing we reach for in the morning and the last thing we see before going to bed. Five hundred years ago, this certainly wasn’t the case, but there were changes happening that would come to impact us today. In fact, people living in 1520 were experiencing a new revolution, one that would put humans at the top of the food chain. The way we’ve been able to harness our resources and develop new innovations has led humans to be the dominant species on the planet.
Word of the Day: Modern Revolution
- Definition: Far-reaching transformations that created the contemporary era of human history.
- The Modern Revolution began around 1500, as exchange networks expanded globally. At the same time, new discoveries of energy sources like coal fueled new innovations and enabled rapid population growth. Ultimately, the Modern Revolution marks the first time in history that the planet became dominated by one species—humans.
Lesson
- Go to Khan Academy and watch Threshold 8: The Modern Revolution.
- In the video, David Christian outlines the critical ingredients that allowed new complexities to emerge. Keep track of all those emergent properties! Think about what characteristics allowed humans to become a global species.
Historian’s Journal Prompt
- How would you periodize and name a recent time in history?
- We call this new era we’re living in “The Modern Revolution,” but it started way back in 1500. What would you call the last 100 years of our human history? What events do you think define the past 100 years? Will COVID-19 get its own periodization or is this just a blip on the radar of history?
