Age of Industry
Description
This episode examines how Britain's Industrial Revolution created the modern world with inventors such as James Watt and George Stevenson improving the steam engines and railways. Trade with China was opened up, albeit illegally with the Chinese Opium Wars at the ports of Guangzhou. Following in Britain footsteps, in Russia social change was underway when Count Leo Tolstoy attempted to free his serfs at his Yasnaya Polyana Estate. However, they were holding out for a better offer, that of Tsar Alexander II's offer of an emancipation act. In North America we visit the cotton fields of Richmond, Virginia, to hear the story of the South. At a Samurai house in Japan, we hear the story of Samurai Saigo Takamori, the last Samurai, as a direct result of the new world trade. In Brussels, we learn how the British explorer Henry Morton Stanley mapped out the Congo River, only for King Leopold II of Belgium, in his quest to conquer as much as he could, caused genocide in the Congo, effects of which remain today. In Germany, we find out how their Foreign Secretary, Arthur Zimmermann brought America into the First World War.
Runtime
50 min
Series
Subjects
Genre
Date of Publication
[2014], c2012
Database
Films on Demand
Direct Link
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