Humans are an environmental niche, and organisms arise through mutation to populate it. Novel microbes can cause epidemics in which the death rate is very high.
Category: history of economic growth
Feudalism
In the Middle Ages, much of Europe was sparsely populated. People lived in small settlements separated by lawless wilderness, so they had to be self-reliant.
The End of Feudalism
Feudalism ended when the factors that had supported it disappeared: small and isolated populations, limited markets, the dominance of the knight in warfare.
Why Were the Americas so Underdeveloped when Europeans Reached Them?
Eurasia was able to produce food surpluses more than a thousand years before the Americas. Food surpluses led to specialization, which led to rapid development.
Economic Ideology and the Glorious Revolution
At the time of the Glorious Revolution, an ideology that emphasized the value of labour pushed aside an ideology that justified the power of the landowners.
The Industrial Revolution
Britain experienced a period of rapid technological progress that forever changed the nature of work, and that allowed it to dominate markets around the world.
The Steam Engine
The steam engine powered a new generation of industrial machinery, and gave rise to modes of transportation that would stitch the world together.
The Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was one aspect of a dramatic change in the way that people thought of themselves and the world in which they lived.
Why Did the Industrial Revolution Happen in Britain in the Eighteenth Century?
The central feature of the Industrial Revolution was technological innovation on an unprecedented scale, so explaining the time and place of the innovation is tantamount to explaining the time and place of the Industrial Revolution. Why did this wave of innovation occur in Britain in the eighteenth century?
The Nineteenth-Century Rules for Growth
Over the course of the Industrial Revolution, Britain became an industrial superpower. Other countries had to find policies that would allow them to develop their industry despite Britain’s enormous first-mover advantage. These policies necessarily involved protectionist trade policies and government intervention…
Merchants and Mechanics 