The First Three Thresholds

FIRST PAGES

the fi rst three thresholds

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 10 08/03/13 10:11 PM FIRST PAGES

chapter 1

The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

Seeing the Big Picture 13.7 to 4.6 Billion Years Ago

What do we mean by “thresholds” in big history? And why are these turning points so important?

Why does the appearance of the universe count as the ﬁ rst threshold? What existed after that threshold that did not exist before?

If you wanted to persuade someone that the big bang was a true story of the origin of the universe, what evidence would you give?

Why does the emergence of stars count as the second threshold of increasing complexity?

Why does the emergence of new elements in dying stars count as the third threshold of increasing complexity?

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 11 08/03/13 10:11 PM FIRST PAGES

to “point a fi nger at the moon” in the Buddhist metaphor. Threshold 1: Big Bang Cosmology Notice how this phrase invites curiosity. It’s mysterious and the Origin of the Universe like the cosmos itself because, though we can understand a lot, we can never fully understand everything. That’s why The formation of the universe counts as our fi rst threshold people always use complex, poetic, and metaphorical lan- because, as far as we know, that moment saw the origin of guage when they try to explain things as mysterious as the everything around us. It is the beginning of the history of origin of the universe. everything (Threshold 1 Summary).

Threshold 1 Summary

GOLDILOCKS EMERGENT THRESHOLD INGREDIENTS c STRUCTURE c CONDITIONS = PROPERTIES

BIG BANG: ORIGIN Energy, matter, space, Energy and matter within ? quantum ﬂ uctuations Potential to create OF UNIVERSE time (everything in our a rapidly expanding within the multiverse ? everything around us. universe!). space–time continuum.

So, our fi rst question is: how did history begin? This is Third, at the center of all these stories is a paradox, one of the deepest and the most important questions we the paradox of beginnings. All these stories begin by try- can possibly ask. Whatever society you live in, it is impor- ing to describe a time when what we know did not exist. tant to know the best available answers, whether or not you agree with them. FIGURE 1.1 Some cave paintings, such as this Australian painting of a “rainbow serpent” from Traditional Origin Stories Arnhem Land in northern Australia, hint at the For most of human history, accounts of the origin of ev- origin stories that all human societies seem to erything depended on little more than imaginative guesses, have told. or intuition, or what many experienced as “revelation,” the Source: Photo from Chris Scarre, ed., The Human Past: World Prehis- whispered words of divine beings or inner voices (Fig- tory and the Development of Human Societies (London: Thames & ures 1.1 and 1.2). Nevertheless, the question of how our Hudson, 2005), 273; photo by Tom Hill. universe came to exist is so important that people seem to have asked it in all human societies. And, having asked the question, humans came up with a huge variety of answers. Table 1.1 shows some brief extracts from the beginnings of a number of traditional origin stories. Note that despite their differences these accounts of the origin of everything share important features. First, note that from outside, the origin stories of other societies usually seem naive and simplistic. They also lack emotional power for those who did not grow up with them. But we should not forget that within the societies that told them, such stories could have great, almost magical power, like the story of the birth of Christ in Christian societies, or accounts of the Buddha’s nirvana or enlightenment within Buddhist societies. Second, all the extracts we have cited are poetic. When- ever humans try to describe the indescribable, they must resort to metaphors, stories, parables, to language that tries to convey more than can be conveyed in simple, direct prose. So it is usually a mistake to take origin stories too literally, and it is probable that those who told them did not always treat them as the literal truth. Origin stories are attempts to describe things that words never fully convey,

12 Chapter 1 The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 12 08/03/13 10:12 PM chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 13 TABLE ca. 1200 the Rig-Veda, whichdates to From ofhymns, cycle theIndian ofPangustory From anotherversion ofthe Pangu of many versions ofthestory From China,oneof southern Arizona From theHopiofnortheastern Genesis 1:1 From theOld Testament, Somalia from An Islamicorigin story life to Adam, thatis, to humankind. from the origin story conveysWest. apowerful imparting it,Godisdepicted In artwork FIGURE . Accounts oftheOriginEverything from OriginStories 1.1 BCE 1.2 God Grants Adam Life, SistineChapel, the Vatican. today, withanadze inhishand.withwhichhefashionedtheworld.” the Undeveloped, AndPangu thedivineEmbryo. burstoutoftheegg, four timeslarger thanany man “First there wasthegreat theeggwasChaos, cosmicegg. andfl Inside oating inChaoswasPangu, Pangu, thefirst being, theGreat theCreator.” Man, were thetwo split intwo: maleandfemale. producedThese two more, two produced andthesetwo “At first there wasnothing. Time passedandnothingbecame something. Time passedandsomething Creator.” immeasurable void thathaditsbeginning andend, time, shape, andlife inthemindof Taiowa the All elsewasendlessspace. There wasnobeginning andnoend, notime, noshape, nolife. Justan fi“The was rst world Tokpela [endlessspace].Butfirst, theysay, there wasonlytheCreator, Taiowa. darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God wasmovingover wasuponthefaceofdeep;andSpirit thefaceofwaters.”darkness thebeginning,“In Godcreated theheavens waswithoutform andvoid, andtheEarth. The Earth and thing, Hemerely says to it: ‘Be!’ anditexists.” “Before thebeginning oftimethere wasGod. Hewasnever norwillHeever Hewishesa born die. If Nought elseexisted then.” That Onebreathed, windless, byitsownenergy: No sign ofnightorday. wasthere then, Neither deathnorimmortality What waswater, thedeepunfathomable? What diditencompass? whoseprotection?Where? In Nor atmosphere, norfi norwhatisbeyond.rmament, neitherBeingnorNot-being was “When Threshold 1:BigBangCosmology andtheOrigin oftheUniverse This famous FIRST PAGES 08/03/13 10:12 PM 13 the fi rst three thresholds FIRST PAGES

Then they explain how something appeared out of noth- In medieval Europe, explana- Early Cosmologies ing. Many of them insist that a creator made the world, but tions of the origin of the universe always there is the nagging problem: How was the creator were based on two main traditions. The fi rst was Christian created? Or, to put it more generally, how did something theology. Christianity, like Judaism, is a monotheistic reli- come out of nothing gion. It posits the existence of a single, supreme God, and We will see that the account of origin contained within it explains the appearance of the universe as God’s work. modern big bang cosmology (the modern, scientifi c ex- By the third century ce, as Christianity spread within the planation of the origin of the universe) shares all these fea- Roman Empire, a number of Christian theologians at- tures. Viewed from outside, it may seem quite crazy. It also tempted to date the moment of creation. Their attempts has poetic or metaphorical qualities because even modern were “scientifi c” insofar as they were based on evidence science must sometimes use poetic language when it tries from the most authoritative written source they knew: the to describe the indescribable. The phrase “big bang,” for Bible. Using this source, a number of early Christian schol- example, is a metaphor; no modern cosmologist really ars tried to estimate the moment of creation by counting the thinks there was a “bang” when the universe appeared! generations recorded in the Old Testament. These estimates Finally, even modern cosmology (the study of the evo- suggested that God had made the Earth and the universe in lution of the universe) cannot solve the paradox of begin- about 4000 bce. That meant that the universe was just over nings. Although cosmologists are often keen to speculate 4,000 years old at the height of the Roman Empire. (See about what was there before the big bang, the truth is that the section “Shaping of Earth’s Surface” in Chapter 2 for at present we have no idea why a universe should have ap- more on this.) peared out of nothingness. We don’t even know if there was The second tradition on which medieval Christian cos- nothing there before the big bang. One speculation, which mologies were built was the work of the Roman-Egyptian was taken quite seriously until recently, is that there was a astronomer Ptolemy of Alexandria (ca. 90–168 ce). Ptol- previous universe that shriveled to nothing, then exploded emy was a geographer, mathematician, and astronomer. again to form a new universe (see Chapter 13). Another His greatest work on astronomy was written in Greek, speculation, which is now taken more seriously, is that but when Muslim scholars translated it into Arabic, they there is a vast multidimensional “multiverse” within which called it al-Majisti, or “The Great Work.” Medieval Chris- universes keep appearing, each with its own distinctive fea- tian translators referred to it as the Almagest, and in the tures, so that our universe may be one of countless billions Christian world it became the foundation for ideas about of universes. astronomy and the universe (Figure 1.3). Ptolemy rejected The modern origin story is also different from other earlier Greek models of the universe, which suggested origin stories in important ways. Above all, it offers a lit- that the Earth and planets orbited the sun. Instead, he ar- eral account of the origin of everything. It expects to be gued that the Earth lay at the center of the universe and taken seriously as a description of what actually happened all the other heavenly bodies orbited around it. Christian beginning about 13.7 billion years ago. It is not simply theologians argued that the Earth was a realm of sin and a poetic attempt to make up for ignorance. It claims to imperfection; but surrounding it, in Ptolemy’s model, was offer an accurate account of the very beginnings of history a realm of perfection. This upper world consisted of sev- because it is based on a huge amount of evidence, gener- eral perfect, fl awless, transparent crystalline spheres that ated through numerous measurements over several centu- carried the stars, the sun, the planets, and other heavenly ries, and based on rigorous and carefully tested scientifi c bodies. The spheres rotated at different rates, and their ro- theories. It is the only origin story accepted by scientists tations explained the movements of the heavenly bodies as throughout the world. But because it is based on evidence, seen from Earth. and new evidence can always turn up, the same scientists In the Christian world, most scholars accepted Ptol- also know that many of its details will change in coming emy’s model for more than 1,500 years. This was partly years. It is not a fi xed or absolute story and does not claim because it enjoyed the backing of the Catholic Church. But to be perfect. it also did a pretty good job of explaining the movements of the heavenly bodies. And it fi t well with our strong intuitive The Origin of Big Bang Cosmology sense that Earth is not moving. After all, if Earth were moving, wouldn’t you expect to feel the movement? It is easier to understand modern big bang cosmology if you understand how it evolved over many centuries. The However, in the sixteenth cen- Scientiﬁ c Challenges cosmological ideas that are shared today by scientists tury, Ptolemy’s model of the uni- throughout the world evolved within the modern European verse came under attack from several directions. The scientifi c tradition. However, the roots of those ideas can Protestant Reformation undermined the authority of the be traced back to mathematical, scientifi c, and religious Catholic Church. Even more signifi cant were the scientifi c ideas that originated in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and criticisms directed at Ptolemy’s cosmology. Nicolaus India; in classical Greece and Rome; and in the Muslim Copernicus (1473–1543), a Polish-born astronomer, re- world. Modern cosmology draws on ideas, techniques, and vived the ancient idea that the sun, not the Earth, lay at the traditions from much of Afro-Eurasia. center of the universe. And he was able to show that such

14 Chapter 1 The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 14 08/03/13 10:12 PM chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 15 throughs, forthey provided anextremely simpleway of of motionwereonethegreatest ofallscientifi but decreasedasthey moved farther apart.Newton’s laws strength increasedasthemass oftheobjectsincreased, force pulledallphysicalobjectstoward eachother, andits there was auniversal force,whichhecalledgravity. This apples, withjustafew simpleequations.Hesuggestedthat Earth, boththemovements ofplanetsandthefalling of you couldexplain themovements ofobjectsonheaven and emy’s complicatedsystemofimaginaryspheres.Instead, showed thattounderstandastronomyyoudidn’t needPtol- physicist andmathematicianIsaacNewton (1642–1727) feel itmoving. at aspeedofalmost70,000mph(110,000kph),wedon’t That’s why, althoughtheEarthismoving throughspace cause itshareswithyoutheplane’s forward movement. perhour);itfalls backintoyourhandbe- (800 kilometers the airitdoesn’t shootbackward at500milesperhour all, ifyouaresittingonaplaneandthrow aballin the samedirection,itfeels He pointedoutthatifeverything onEarthismoving in leo alsoexplained why wedon’t feeltheEarthmoving. moons. Bothfacts contradictedPtolemy’s model.Gali- being fl doing sohewas abletoshow thatthesun’s face, far from tronomers toview theheavens throughatelescope.By were completelydistinct.Galileowas oneofthefi put toresttheideathatsublunarandheavenly regions cosmology, but inellipses,orsquashed-upcircles. ets didnotorbitintheperfectcirclesrequiredbyPtolemy’s Johannes Kepler (1571–1630),demonstratedthattheplan- Furthermore, aGermanastronomer, actly whatyouwould expect tosee. with alltheotherplanets,thisisex- Earth wereorbitingthesun,along verse. Copernicusshowed thatif their orbitsseembriefl of theplanets,fact thateachyear tions forthe“retrograde”movement offered somewhat contrived explana- For example, Ptolemy’s cosmology anomalies inthePtolemaicsystem. an ideacouldsolve someimportant Toward theendofseventeenth century, theEnglish Finally, GalileoGalilei (1564–1642), anItalianscholar, universe. heavenly bodies. transparent the spheres thatcarried and surrounded byrevolving at thecenter oftheuniverse was Ptolemy inwhichtheEarth ancient Egyptianastronomer of theuniverse proposed bythe most scholarsaccepted theview FIGURE awless, was covered withspots,whileJupiterhad 1.3 Ptolemy’s In medievalEurope, In y togointore- as ifnothingismoving. After c break- c rst as- rst Threshold 1:BigBangCosmology andtheOrigin oftheUniverse (Move itaway from yournoseandwag yourheadto check moves willdepend onhow far away itisfromyour eyes. will seemtomove againstthebackground;andhow far it ger still,but waggle yourheadfromsidetoside. Your fi ger infrontofyou,closetoyournose.Now keep yourfi ment oftheobserver (Figure 1.4). tionship betweentwo fi do it. You use lem. The ancientGreeksalreadyknew inprinciplehow to out whetheryoucoulddoit.It’s asubtleandcomplex prob- going outoneevening tolookatthestarsandtryfi tions—the positionandthemotionofstars—inturn. map theuniverse. We willtake eachofthesetwo ques- verse anditsoriginwould emerge fromthese attempts to ing theirmotionthroughspace.Modernideasabouttheuni- ways ofmeasuringthedistancestonearbystarsandtrack- nineteenth centurydidastronomersdevelop morereliable movements ofthestars. And thatwas noteasy. Notuntilthe do thisyouwould have todeterminetheexact positionand verse asgeographerswere beginning tomaptheEarth? To universe bettermeantmapping it.Couldyoumaptheuni- those formulatedbyNewton. could beexplained through simplescientifi claws suchas sun. They alsocametobelieve thattheuniverse asawhole universe seriously. They acceptedthattheEarthorbited provide thekey tounderstandingtheuniverse. explaining movements ingeneral. To many they seemedto Mapping theUniverse To getasenseofhow parallaxworks, holdupyourfi How canyoutellthedistancetostars?It’s worth By 1700,few scientiststookPtolemy’s modelofthe parallax:thechangeinapparentrela- xed objectscausedbythemove- Now astronomersfaced new challenges. Understandingthe FIRST PAGES nger gure n- n- 08/03/13 10:12 PM 15 the ﬁ rst three thresholds FIRST PAGES

FIGURE 1.4 How parallax works, showing the triangles that allow trigonometrical calculations. Parallax depends on the fact that As the Earth moves, see if any stars seem to shift against the background. as you move, objects in the middle distance (such as a nearby star) seem to move against objects Distant stars that are farther away (such as more remote stars (background) or galaxies). In principle, it should be possible to B determine the extent of the motion and then use trigonometry (note the triangles in the diagram) Nearby star to determine the real distance to the nearby star. (to be measured In practice, the movements even of the nearest like your ﬁnger) stars are so small that it was not possible to use this method to determine the distance to nearby stars until the nineteenth century. Earth moves as it orbits sun Us on Earth (like your head waggling)

A brightness seems to vary in a regular pattern. These were known as By measuring the shift and using elementary trigonometry Cepheid variables, after the con- (see the triangles?) you can stellation of Cepheus in which they estimate the distance to the star. were fi rst detected. She realized that the rate at which their brightness varied depended on their size, and that meant you could calculate how big this.) The Greeks saw that this simple principle should they were. Because the size of stars correlates closely with allow you to measure the distance to the nearest stars. As their brightness, this meant you could estimate their true the Earth orbits the sun each year (remember, some ancient (or “intrinsic”) brightness—that is, how bright they would Greek astronomers accepted a sun-centered model of the be if you could observe them from close up. By calculating universe), some of the nearest stars ought to move against a how bright they appeared to be when seen from Earth, you background of more distant stars, just as your fi nger seems could estimate how far away they were because the amount to move across the background when you wag your head. of starlight that reaches a distant object diminishes in a By measuring how far nearby stars seem to move against mathematically precise way as the light is spread through a the background of more distant stars, and using simple larger and larger volume of space. In this roundabout way, trigonometry combined with rough estimates of the size of Leavitt realized you could estimate the real distance of Ce- the Earth’s orbit and the distance to the sun, you should be pheid variables. able to estimate how far away the stars are. In 1924, Edwin Hubble (whom we will return to later) The Greeks had the right idea. Unfortunately, even showed that some Cepheid variables were outside our own the nearest stars are so remote that you cannot detect any galaxy, the Milky Way. This proved for the fi rst time that movement with the naked eye. Not until the mid-nineteenth there were many different galaxies in the universe, which century were telescopes and measuring instruments precise showed once again that the universe was much bigger than enough to detect and measure tiny changes in the position most astronomers had supposed. of some of the nearest stars. But these were enough to Astronomers also wanted to know whether stars and allow astronomers to estimate the distance to some of these galaxies were moving through space. Remarkably, tech- stars. And when they did so they began to realize that the niques emerged in the nineteenth century for doing just universe was far larger than most of them had supposed. this. And these would eventually lead to some even more We now know that even the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, momentous discoveries. is more than 4 light-years away. That’s about 25 trillion Early in the nineteenth century, a German glassmaker, miles (40 trillion kilometers) away. If you tried to fl y there Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787–1826), created a device in a commercial jet cruising at about 550 mph (880 kph), it called a spectroscope. Spectroscopes (or spectrographs) would take you about 5 million years! And remember that allowed observers to split the light from stars into its differ- there are hundreds of billions of stars out there, and this ent frequencies. Simple glass prisms do exactly the same is the closest of them all; in astronomical terms Proxima thing. They split light into different frequencies, which we Centauri is our next-door neighbor. see as different colors, which is why prisms seem to cre- Measuring more distant stars required different tech- ate artifi cial rainbows, with colors running from red (which niques. One was developed by an American astronomer, has a lower frequency) at one extreme to blue (with a higher Henrietta Leavitt (1868–1921). At the end of the nine- frequency) at the other. But in the spectra (the “rainbows teenth century she studied a special type of star whose of light”) that Fraunhofer’s spectroscopes created from

16 Chapter 1 The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 16 08/03/13 10:12 PM chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 17 lines seemedtohave shiftedaway fromtheir in thespectraofdistantobjectsabsorption ous featureofabsorptionlines.Occasionally, in Flagstaff, Arizona, foundanothercuri- Slipher, working attheLowell observatory were formedandwhatwas inthem. cial laterwhenastronomersbegan tofi from whichthelighthadcome. This ideawould prove cru- absorption lineswhatelementswerepresentinthestars cies. Ifyouknew thosefrequencies,youcouldtellfromthe which tendedtoabsorblightenergy atdifferent frequen- lines wereduetothepresenceofspecifi (Figure 1.5).Experimentsinlaboratoriesshowed thatthese reduced energy, whicharenow known as starlight, hesaw something odd.Hefounddarklineswith Distant galaxy Nearer galaxy In laboratory In At theendofnineteenthcentury, Vesto expanding. thatshowed that ouruniverse is discovery be movingaway. This was thefundamental away was, anobject thefaster itseemedto remote galaxies. Hefound thatthefarther telescope inPasadena, California, to study lines. galaxies. distance andmovements ofremote the faster theyare movingaway. moving away away from theyare, us, andthefarther intheuniverse seemtothat alldistantobjects be shifted). Hubbleusedsuchmeasurements to discover red-shifted either movingaway from is us (whenthefrequency star are eitherstretched orcompressed becauseitis is duetoeff theDoppler Lightwavesect. from the position(i.e., their expected theirfrequency). This however, linesare theabsorption from slightlyshifted frequencies. Often, elementsatparticular particular oflightfromthe spectra stars, showthepresence of FIGURE FIGURE Even nearer galaxy Absorption lines, linesthatappearon Absorption thedark . The Dopplereff andabsorption ect 1.5 . Hubble’s graph ofthe 1.6 Hubble usedtheMount Wilson ) ortoward isblue- us(whenthefrequency 0 0 0 700 600 500 400 700 600 500 400 c elements,eachof gure outhow stars absorption lines Threshold 1:BigBangCosmology andtheOrigin oftheUniverse be moving away fromus (Figure1.6). larger theredshift;inotherwords, thefaster itseemedto even morecurious: The farther away theobjectwas, the mates ofthedistancestotheseobjects,hefoundsomething Hubble combinedestimatesofthesemovements withesti- most astronomersassumedtheuniverse was stable. When Earth. Nooneexpected thatbecausesinceNewton’s time, In otherwords, they seemedtobemoving away fromthe remote objectsintheuniverse seemedtobe oddity was thattheuniverse seemedtobeunstable.Most picture thatemerged was completelyunexpected. The fi ing totrymaptheoverall shapeoftheuniverse. The at thetime,heusedtechniqueswehave beendescrib- dena, California,oneofthelargest telescopesintheworld 1920s. Working attheMount Wilson observatory inPasa- American astronomerEdwinHubble(1889–1953)inthe The work thatputallthesefi ndingstogether was doneby Big BangCosmology they laidthefoundationformodernbigbangcosmology. distance andmovements ofstarsinsomedetail because moving. This was aremarkable technicalbreakthrough. away fromus. We couldeven calculatehow fast they were objects suchasremotegalaxiesweremoving toward usor was), thismeantthatwecoulddeterminewhetherdistant away fromus.IfSlipherwas right(andwenow know he them ismoving toward us,but stretchedoutifitismoving sound waves asbeingbunched upiftheobjectemitting from us. The effect iscaused bythefact thatweexperience as itcomestoward us,anddropinpitchasitmoves away that seemstocausethesoundfromasirenriseinpitch They werecausedbytheDopplereffect,sameeffect ward us(theblueshifts)oraway fromus(theredshifts). shifts werecausedbythemovements ofthestars eitherto- lower frequenciesattheredend).Slipherargued thatthese the blueendofspectrum)orred-shifted(shiftedtoward might beblue-shifted(shiftedtoward higherfrequenciesat expected positions. Thus, theabsorptionlinesforhydrogen We have discussedthesetechniquesformeasuringthe FIRST PAGES red-shifted. rst 08/03/13 10:12 PM 17 the fi rst three thresholds FIRST PAGES

What did this mean? It appeared to mean that when seen Had Hubble come up with a realistic description of the at very large scales different parts of the universe were universe? Or were his results due to a sort of optical illu- moving away from each other. We now know that gravity is sion? At fi rst no one was sure. But if his description was re- powerful enough to hold groups of galaxies together. This alistic it had important consequences for our understanding is true, for example, of the group of galaxies that includes of the history of the universe. In 1927, Belgian astronomer the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy, so the Androm- and Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre (1894–1966) pointed eda galaxy is not moving away from us. But Hubble was out that if the universe was expanding, this meant that it observing objects at much greater distances, and at these had a history. Cosmology was not a static description of huge scales, whole groups of galaxies seemed to be mov- the universe; it was a historical discipline, like human his- ing apart from each other. It seemed as if the entire universe tory. He added that it was possible to say some signifi cant was expanding. It was as if different parts of the universe things about the shape of that history. If the universe was were like separate fragments from an exploding grenade. expanding now, then in the past it must have been smaller No astronomer had expected this. Indeed, Einstein— than today. And at some time in an inconceivably remote whose theory of relativity had appeared a few years before past, everything in the universe must have been packed into Hubble published his results—was so shocked by Hubble’s a tiny space as small as an atom. Lemaitre called this the results that he insisted for a time that there must be an error. primeval atom. He even modifi ed his own theory of relativity to avoid the For astronomers, this was an astonishing conclusion. possibility of an unstable universe by suggesting the exis- Lemaitre had described how the entire universe must have tence of a new type of force that balanced gravity. (He later begun in an unimaginably small bundle of energy. And if accepted Hubble’s results, calling his attempts to avoid it the universe really was expanding, he had to be right. one of his greatest blunders. Curiously, recent develop- Although Hubble’s research laid the foundations for ments may have partly vindicated Einstein, for, as we will modern big bang cosmology, it would take several decades see later, his quick fi x seemed to point to the existence of before most astronomers accepted the idea. In part, this a new force that we now call dark energy. Dark energy is may have been because at fi rst it seemed crazy. Indeed, in a form of energy that seems to push space itself apart, and 1950 a British astronomer, Fred Hoyle (1915–2001), de- that pervades the entire universe.) scribed this idea, maliciously, as the big bang. Hoyle never Whereas Ptolemy’s universe had been small and stable, accepted big bang cosmology, and used the name big bang and Newton’s universe had seemed to be vast and stable, as a term of derision in a radio interview. the universe Hubble described was very unstable. Hubble’s At fi rst, few scientists had any idea what to make of universe began tiny and kept expanding until it became Hubble’s fi ndings. What would the early universe have very large indeed. But we now know it wasn’t really ex- looked like? In the 1940s, research on the construction of panding into anything because it was creating the dimen- atomic weapons began to generate new ideas about the na- sions of time and space as it expanded. And that makes it ture of fundamental particles and their behavior under ex- hard to imagine its shape. Don’t try to think of the universe treme pressures and temperatures. These were exactly the as having a center or an edge. It doesn’t, just as the surface conditions that must have existed early in the history of of the Earth doesn’t have an edge or a center. the universe if Hubble’s and Lemaitre’s model was correct.

The Large Hadron Collider Today, cosmologists research the origin of the universe using huge, expensive machines that smash particles together at extremely high speeds to see what they are made of. In the Large Hadron Collider (LHC; Figure 1.7), a huge circular tube under the airport in Geneva, Switzerland,

FIGURE 1.7 The Large Hadron Collider, Cern. The Large Hadron Collider is the largest and most expensive scientiﬁ c experiment ever created. It consists of a huge underground tunnel beneath Geneva airport, in which subatomic particles are smashed together at close to the speed of light in order to discover what they consist of. This is a bit like smashing cars together to ﬁ nd out what is inside them, but it is our only way of determining the nature of the basic components that make up our universe. The white circle marks the position of the LHC. In the foreground is the Geneva airport.

18 Chapter 1 The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 18 08/03/13 10:12 PM chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 19 exists today. when theuniverse fi great detailthevarious stagesthatledfromthemoment the decadessincethen,ithasproved possibleto explain in it was possibletoconstructareasonablysensiblestory. In Hubble’s resultswerecorrect.Remarkably, they foundthat might have looked like andhow itmighthave behaved if (1904–68), began towork outwhattheearlyuniverse Hoyle andtheRussian American physicistGeorge Gamow points inmodernscience. to Higgs’s originalideacountsasoneofthegreatturning discovery thattherereallyisaparticle corresponds Higgs, andsubsequentlybyseveral otherphysicists. The was fi matter hasmass. The ideathat theremustbesuchaparticle the “Higgsboson.” This istheparticlethatexplains whyall had foundevidence fortheexistence ofaparticleknown as on July4,2012,scientistsattheLHCannouncedthatthey made of! And itmakes forvery exciting science!Indeed, like smashingtwo Ferraristogethertoseewhatthey are in thefi entists areineffect re-creatingconditionssimilartothose particles arebeingsmashedtogethersoviolentlythatsci- energy as itappearedbegan tocreatespace,time, parts ofthatstory. evidence. What follows isabrief,nontechnicalaccountof mology cantelladetailedstorybasedonlarge amountsof second aftertheappearanceofouruniverse, bigbangcos- the universe appeared. However, fromatiny fractionofa makes noattempttoexplain theprecisemomentatwhich timate question,but atthemomentbigbangcosmology the future,astronomersmayfi in thebigbangalongwithspace,matter, andenergy. In meaningless, asitispossiblethattimeitselfwas created appeared. Indeed,thevery ideaofa“before”maybe anything scientifi caboutthemomentwhenouruniverse known. We simplyhave noevidence, sowecannotsay What existed beforeour universe appearedremainsun- to BigBang Cosmology The OriginofEverything according a hydrogenbomb,orthecenter ofastar, mattercan be energy atrest. At extreme temperatures,suchasthosein underlying substance;loosely, we canthinkofmatteras matter andenergy arereallydifferent formsofthesame into energy. As Einstein’s theoryofrelativity hadproved, into particlesofmatter, andthesekept transformingback energy wereinterchangeable.Energy constantlycongealed energy oftoday’s universe. Itwas sohotthatmatterand surprising. After all,thisatom-sizedspacecontainedallthe than anatom.Itwas alsoinconceivably hot. This ishardly shape matter). At fi cupy space;energy consistsoftheforcesthat In the1940s,anumberofscientists,includingFred About 13.7billionyearsago,somethingappeared,and rst proposedin1964bytheBritishphysicistPeter rst secondoftheuniverse’s existence. This isabit (matter consistsofentitiesthathave mass andoc- rst, spaceitselfmayhave beennolarger rst appearedtothesortofuniverse that nd away oftacklingthisul- matter, and move and Threshold 1:BigBangCosmology andtheOrigin oftheUniverse a criticaltemperaturethreshold was crossed,protonsand were powerful enoughtobind themtogether. Suddenly, as tively charged protons andnegatively charged electrons more subdueduniverse, theelectriccharges betweenposi- to jigglearoundlessfrantically. Eventually, inacooler and light began toloseenergy, andsubatomicparticlesbegan perature closetothatonthesurface ofoursun,photons portant new phasechange. As theuniverse cooledtoatem- at about380,000yearsafterthebigbang,therewas anim- about twiceaslonghumanshave lived onEarth.) Then, tangled withthesecharged particles. packages ofelectromagneticenergy, would have beenen- magnetic energy. Photons,whichwecanthinkofassmall with electricityandconstantlybuffeted byintenseelectro- atomic matterintheuniverse would have beencrackling protons andelectronscarryelectriccharges, mostofthe tions (plasma)exist today atthecenterofstars.Because were notyetboundtogetherwithinatoms.Similarcondi- which protonsandelectrons(whichhave negative charges) now existed intheform ofaplasma, cooling sofast thatnomorefusioncouldoccur. Matter tons fusedtoformlithiumnuclei,but theuniverse was to formthenucleiofheliumatoms. A tiny numberofpro- trons (whichhave asimilarmasstoprotonsbut nocharge) ofthemfusedtogetherandjoinedupwithneu- 25 percent nuclei ofhydrogenatoms,hadalreadyappeared,andabout take onmorestableforms.Protons,thepositively charged matter. and alsothesortofmatterwearemadefrom, cluding darkmatter(whichwedon’t reallyunderstand), forces, thebasicconstituentsofmatteralsoappeared,interest mainlytonuclearphysicists.) Along withthesefour particles suchasprotonsandelectrons.Sothey areofin- atom andhelpcontrolthebehavior ofatomsandsubatomic other forces. They actonlyover distancessmallerthanan a majorroleinourstory. We willspendlesstimewiththe tromagnetism later;they arefamiliar forcesandwillplay nuclear forces.(We willcomebacktogravity andelec- gravity, electromagnetism,andthe“strong”“weak” energy appearedasaresult ofphasechanges. They were in today’s universe. it, theuniverse mayhave beenthesizeofanentiregalaxy the endofthisperiod“infl universe), theearlyuniverse expanded extremely fast. At lionth ofabillionthsecondaftertheappearance change andturnsintoliquidwater. enheit (about100degrees Celsius)itundergoes aphase when steamcools;suddenly, atabout212degrees Fahr- changes forces anddifferent typesofmatter. Scientistscalledthese this soupbegan todifferentiate intodifferent typesof As itexpanded, however, itcooledrapidly. And asitcooled universe consistedofasortsoupenergy andmatter. transformed backintoenergy. Soatthevery beginning, the The plasmaexisted foralmost400,000years.(That’s Within thefi Within afractionofsecondmore,fourbasicforms For amoment(wearestillwithinbillionthofbil- phase changes. They areabitlike whathappens rst 20minutes,matterandenergy began to ation,” astheastronomerscall ahot,gaslike statein FIRST PAGES atomic 08/03/13 10:13 PM 19 the ﬁ rst three thresholds FIRST PAGES

electrons throughout the universe linked up to form atoms that were electrically neutral because the opposite charges of protons and electrons canceled each other out. It was as if the entire universe suddenly lost its electric charge. The networks of charges in which electromagnetic radiation had been entangled vanished, and photons of light could now move freely through the universe. In the late 1940s, George Gamow suggested that at this point in the story there would have been something like a huge fl ash of energy as photons disentangled themselves from matter. Perhaps, he suggested, it still might be possible to detect that fl ash. It is a sign of how skeptical most cosmologists still were about the idea of a big bang that at the time no one seems to have seriously looked for the remnants of this ancient fl ash of energy.

More Evidence in Support FIGURE 1.8 Cosmic background radiation. The of Big Bang Cosmology radio antenna with which Penzias and Wilson ﬁ rst detected the cosmic background radiation in 1964. As late as the early 1960s, the idea that the universe had been created in a big bang remained little more than an intriguing hypothesis. (A hypothesis is a scientifi c idea that does not yet have enough supporting evidence to be that the big bang should have released a huge fl ash of widely accepted. A theory is a scientifi c idea that does energy and was in the process of trying to build a radio have enough evidence to be widely accepted.) Most as- telescope that could detect this background energy. He im- tronomers doubted that it was a real description of what mediately concluded that Penzias and Wilson had detected had actually happened. An alternative hypothesis, known the ancient fl ash of energy predicted by Gamow and others. at the time as the steady state theory (it was described as Penzias and Wilson had found a very weak signal, a theory because at the time it was widely accepted), was whose energy levels were equivalent to approximately fi rst proposed in the 1920s and subsequently modifi ed and –455 degrees Fahrenheit (–270 degrees Celsius), just a few improved. It gained the support, among others, of Fred degrees above absolute zero. (Absolute zero is the lowest Hoyle, who would remain a critic of big bang cosmology temperature that is possible.) This was very close to the throughout his life. The steady state theory argued that energy level that cosmologists such as Gamow and Dicke though the universe was indeed expanding, new matter and had predicted. What was most remarkable was the unifor- energy were being constantly created at a rate that balanced mity of the background radiation. It came from everywhere the rate of expansion. The result, according to the steady in the universe. In short, even though the signal was very state theory, was that on very large scales the universe had weak, it represented a colossal amount of energy, and it always looked much the same as it does today. seemed to be at almost exactly the same intensity every- How could you test these two hypotheses, both of which where. The steady state theory had no way of explaining claimed to explain the red shift that Hubble had found? the source of this cosmic background radiation (CBR). Which was right? But, as we have seen, the big bang theory predicted it. The answer arrived, suddenly and unexpectedly, in Making strange predictions that turn out to be true is 1964. Arno Penzias (b. 1933) and Robert Wilson (b. 1936), one of the most powerful tests of any scientifi c hypothesis. two astronomers working at the Bell Telephone laborato- And that is why, since the discovery of CBR, most cos- ries in New Jersey, were trying to create an extremely sen- mologists and astronomers have come to accept that the big sitive receiver for satellite communication (Figure 1.8). To bang hypothesis offers a correct account of the origin of the refi ne the hornlike antenna they were building, they tried universe. That is why we can now describe the big bang as to eliminate all background signals. They found a tiny, but an established theory, and why we will start describing the persistent and uniform background hum of energy that they steady state theory as a hypothesis. Furthermore, since its could not get rid of. Remarkably, it seemed to be present discovery, CBR has been studied very closely because it in whatever direction the antenna was pointed, so it did not can tell us a lot about the nature of the universe at the time seem to come from any particular object in space. They it was emitted, about 380,000 years after the big bang. began to suspect problems with their own equipment and at one point removed pigeon droppings from the antenna, Although CBR and the red shift Even More Evidence for fearing that the tiny amounts of heat emitted by the drop- are perhaps the most powerful Big Bang Cosmology pings might be the source of the hum. Eventually, they pieces of evidence in support of contacted Robert Dicke (1916–97), a professor of physics big bang cosmology, there are plenty of other forms of evi- at nearby Princeton University. Dicke knew of predictions dence in its support. Here, we list just three more important

20 Chapter 1 The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 20 08/03/13 10:13 PM chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 21 of whichhave positive electric changes,but bythetime are neededtoovercome therepulsionbetweenprotons,all larger nucleiwithmoreprotons. Very hightemperatures lium toform,atomicnucleimust befusedtogethertoform 92 electrons).So,forelementslarger thanhydrogenorhe- its nucleus,alltheway uptouranium (with92protonsand chemical elementhasacharacteristicnumberofprotonsin helium (whichhastwo protonsand two electrons).Each just oneprotonatitscenterandorbitingelectron) nuclei toform. The simplestelementsarehydrogen(with there would betimeforonlythesimplest ofallchemical that, astheuniverse cooledrapidlyinthefi over time. of thesteadystatehypothesis,thattherewas littlechange a historyofchangeover time,andrefutestheconclusion bang cosmologythattheuniverse, like humansociety, has all galaxies.)Suchresearchsupportstheconclusionofbig into thehugeblackholesthatseemtolieatcenterof that emitcolossalamountsofenergy asstarsaresucked stands for“quasi-stellarradiosource”;quasarsareobjects as quasarsthatarevery rareintoday’s universe. ( verse. Itwas morecrowded, anditcontainedobjectssuch the earlyuniverse was indeeddifferent fromtoday’s uni- was notlongafterthebigbang. These telescopesshow that some ofthemostpowerful canshow ustheuniverse asit Earth. Powerful telescopesarelike time-travelers, and it hastaken thelightthey emitbillionsofyearstoreach at thoseobjectsasthey were billionsofyearsagobecause lion kilometers].)Bydoingsothey are,ineffect, looking light cantravel inayear, orabout6trillionmiles[10tril- light-years fromEarth.(Alight-year isthedistancethat powerful moderntelescopescandetectobjectsbillionsof what itistoday. And thatisjustwhatthey fi the universe 10billion years agowas very different from idea ofhow different fromsocietiestoday(seeChapter4togetsome expect thathumansocieties10,000yearsagowerevery like humansocieties,ithaschangedover time.Justaswe bang theoryimpliesthattheuniverse hasahistory, sothat, tion isjustwhatyouwould expect. However, ifthebigbangtheoryiscorrect,this agedistribu- assumed), theabsenceofolderstarswould bevery strange. or ifitwereinfi If theuniverse was infact hundredsofbillionsyearsold, suggest thatany starsareolderthanabout13billionyears. and itsmass.Noneofthesecalculationsareeasy, but none features suchasitstemperature,chemicalcomposition, ments, astronomerscanestimateastar’s ageby measuring mately tellaperson’s agebyposture,skintone, andmove- fi how starsevolve fromtheirinfancy totheiroldageand astronomers now have areasonablygoodunderstandingof about 13billionyears. We willseelaterinthischapterthat understand. pieces ofevidence, allofwhicharerelatively easyto nal collapse. This meansthat,justaswecanapproxi- Third, theearlytheoristsofbigbangtheoryargued Second, unlike thesteadystatehypothesis,big First, noobjectintheuniverse appearstobeolderthan different they were),cosmologists expect that nitely old(asthesteadystatehypothesis rst few seconds, nd. The most nd.The Quasar

Threshold 1:BigBangCosmology andtheOrigin oftheUniverse hope itwilldiscover otherformsofenergy andmatter As itbegins tooperateateven higherenergy levels, many LHC hasdiscovered whatappearstobetheHiggsboson. soon offer someanswers. We have already seenthatthe that experiments suchastheLarge HadronCollidermay entire bigbangtheory. explained, aquestionmarkwillcontinuetohover over the mers. Untilthetruenatureofdarkmatterandenergy is energy intheuniverse isdeeplytroublingtomany astrono- fact thatwedon’t reallyunderstandmostofthematterand detect lessthan1percentofthematterinuniverse. The even mostatomicmatterisinvisible, sowecanactually of heavier chemical elementsfromcarbontouranium.But hydrogen andheliumonlyabout1to2 percent consists up ofatomicmatter. Mostatomicmatterisintheformof mass oftheuniverse. The remaining4to5 percent ismade formed. Darkmatteraccountsforanother25 percent ofthe years afterthebigbang,atabouttimeourEarthwas due totheincreasingpower ofdarkenergy, about9 billion the rateofexpansion of theuniverse began toaccelerate, will increaseastheuniverse expands. Indeed,itseemsthat space thatexists, thisis a formofenergy whoseimportance the universe. Becausedark energy islinked totheamountof driving thingsapartratherthanpullingthemtogether. known asdarkenergy, whichactsasasortofantigravity, that thisaccelerationisdriven byanew formofenergy, the universe isaccelerating, andmostcosmologistsbelieve late 1990sitbecameapparentthattherateofexpansion of call we what is detect. That perhaps 20timesasmuchmassastronomerscanactually The actualmovements ofstarssuggestthattheremustbe estimate how fast starsshouldbeorbitinglarge galaxies. stars ingalaxies.Usingthelaws ofgravity, itispossibleto matter thanwecanseewhenstudyingthemovements of that wecandetectbut donot yetunderstand. as wehave alreadyseen,areformsofmatterandenergy ture, istheexistence ofdarkmatterandenergy. These, one thatismostlikely togeneraterevisions inthenearfu- from perfect.Oneofthemoststrikinganomalies,and accurate accountoftheoriginuniverse. Butitisfar out tobetrue. cosmology hadgeneratedastrangepredictionthatturned most oftherestconsistshelium.Onceagain,bigbang the atomicmatterinuniverse consistsofhydrogen,and space betweenstars,they foundthatabout75percentof fi surface. However, asastronomersusedspectrographsto unexpected predictionbecausebotharerareontheEarth’s ought toconsistofhydrogenandhelium. That itselfwas an enough todothis. This meant thatmostoftheuniverse fi nd outwhatelementswerepresentinstarsandthe rst atomshadformed,temperatureswerenowhere high Cosmology Problems withBigBang However, astronomersandcosmologistsareoptimistic Dark energy makes upabout70percentofthemass Astronomers fi rst realizedthattheremustbemuchmore bang theoryoffers areasonably cosmologists acceptthatthebig Today, mostastronomersand dark matter. Inaddition,inthe FIRST PAGES 08/03/13 10:13 PM 21 the ﬁ rst three thresholds FIRST PAGES

that can help explain what dark energy and matter really from the cosmic background radiation. There was hardly consist of. These are exciting times to be a physicist or a any variation from region to region: Indeed the wonderful cosmologist! surveys of CBR taken by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisot- Meanwhile, despite such diffi culties, there is no theory ropy Probe (WMAP) satellite have shown that temperatures that seriously rivals big bang cosmology, and it manages varied by less than 0.0006 of a degree Fahrenheit (0.001 of to explain a colossal amount of information about the uni- a degree Celsius) over the whole universe. Everywhere, the verse. It is by far the most powerful and convincing answer universe seemed to be exactly the same, with no variety, no available today to the fundamental question: How did the diversity, nothing, really, to make it at all interesting. universe begin? Yet a few hundred million years later, the universe contained huge smudges of light, the fi rst galaxies. Each was made up of billions of points of light: the fi rst stars. The evolution of galaxies and stars was the fi rst step toward Threshold 2: The Origin the evolution of more complex things, including planets, bacteria, and eventually, ourselves. So, to understand the of Galaxies and Stars appearance of more complex things in the universe, we A few hundred thousand years after the big bang, the uni- must begin with the evolution of stars and galaxies. The verse was simple by today’s standards. Most atomic matter appearance of the fi rst stars counts as the second major existed in the form of vast clouds of hydrogen and helium threshold in our course because their presence made the atoms embedded within, and shaped by the gravitational universe brighter, more complex, and more varied. In a tug of even vaster clouds of dark matter. There were no sense, though, this is a threshold that keeps being crossed, galaxies, no stars, no planets, and certainly no living or- even today, because stars have been appearing ever since ganisms. The universe was dark, apart from a dim glow (Threshold 2 Summary).

Threshold 2 Summary

GOLDILOCKS EMERGENT THRESHOLD INGREDIENTS c STRUCTURE c CONDITIONS = PROPERTIES

STARS Atomic matter, in the Inner core (fusion); Gradients of density and New local energy ﬂ ows; form of hydrogen (H) outer layers with temperature in early galaxies; potential to and helium (He) atoms reserves of H and universe 1 gravity create new chemical and/or their nuclei. He 1 eventually other creating temperatures elements through elements up to iron. high enough for fusion. fusion.

How Were the First Galaxies test Einstein’s idea by seeing if the gravitational pull of the and Stars Formed? sun could bend light rays. He realized you could do this by watching the position of a star as the sun moved in front To explain how the fi rst stars appeared, we must return to of it. If the gravity of the sun was bending light rays from gravity, one of the four fundamental forces created in the big the star, then you ought to be able to see the star for a mo- bang. Gravity was the force identifi ed by Isaac Newton in ment just after the sun moved in front of it because its light the seventeenth century. He realized that the same force that beams would be slightly curved by the sun’s gravity. Un- pulled a falling apple to Earth could also explain the move- fortunately, the sun is so bright that you cannot normally ments of the planets around the sun. Gravity was a force of watch stars near the sun. But you can do this during a total attraction that operated between all forms of matter. eclipse of the sun, and that’s why Eddington had to wait Early in the twentieth century, Einstein showed that until 1919. What he found when he studied an eclipse from gravity also affects energy. As we have seen, Einstein the African island of Principe was exactly what Einstein proved that matter and energy were different forms of had predicted. As they approached the edge of the sun, the the same underlying “stuff.” At extremely high tempera- stars seemed to hover momentarily and then vanish quite tures, matter can change into energy, and vice versa. So it quickly. The hovering effect was caused by the fact that should not surprise us that gravity affects energy as well as light from them was bent enough that they remained visible mass. This was demonstrated in 1919, just after the end of for a moment even after they had passed behind the sun. World War I, by an English astronomer, Arthur Eddington Here is another example of good science (Einstein’s in this (1882–1944), who was also a well-known pacifi st and a case) generating strange predictions that turn out to be true conscientious objector. Eddington decided that you could when they are tested.

22 Chapter 1 The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 22 08/03/13 10:13 PM chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 23 Protons began tocollidesoviolentlythatthey fusedtogether. degrees Celsius),acriticalthreshold was crossed. 10 million isolated, charged protonsandelectrons. creating theplasmaofearlyuniverse, whichwas fullof electrons wereonceagainstrippedfromtheirprotons,re- more violently. Eventually, theheatwas sointensethat rapidly, collidingwitheachothermorefrequentlyand atoms withintheseclouds,andthey began tomove more that wereheatingupasthey collapsed.Heatenergized the Embedded withinweresmallercloudsofatomicmatter out theearlyuniverse slowly collapsinginonthemselves. Now wecanimaginevast cloudsofdarkmatterthrough- verse because,sofar, theuniverse hadbeencoolingdown. This was anovel phenomenon inthelifeofyounguni- areas ofincreasingdensity, thetemperaturebegan torise. We aretalkingofregions thesizeofgalaxies!)So,inthese and thetemperaturerises.(Smallerisarelative termhere. a generalprinciple:Pack moreenergy intoasmaller space collapsed inonthemselves they began toheatup. This is selves. As hugecloudsofdarkmatterandatomic ity pulledmorestrongly, drawing thoseareasinonthem- are viewing thebirthofuniverse!” Smoot’s diagramoftheearlyuniverse, heexclaimed, “We could have formed. When thecosmologistJosephSilksaw he foundwereenoughtoexplain how galaxiesofstars designed tostudyCBR.Itturnedoutthatthedifferences Smoot, studiedthesedifferences usingasatellitespecially its temperature.In1992,an American astronomer, George studies showed thattherewere,infact, tiny differences in be nosignifi were struckbyhow homogeneousitwas. There seemedto verse. When astronomersfi rststudiedit,inthe1960s,they differences indensityandtemperaturetheearlyuni- tronomers neededbecauseitoffers asortofsnapshot whether theearlyuniverse was homogeneousornot. galaxies andstars.Soitwas vitalforastronomerstofi into densecloudswould eventually leadtotheformationof new formsofcomplexity becausethegatheringofmatter emptiness inbetweenthem. This was thefi it couldstartcreatingclumpsofmatterwithareasrelative strongly inareaswithslightlymoremass,andbydoingso density oftheearlyuniverse, thengravity would pullmore erything else.Butiftherewereeven tiny differences inthe jam, witheverything exerting exactly thesamepullonev- every otheratom),theresultwould have beenasortoflog- in theuniverse hadbeenexactly thesamedistance from verse hadbeenperfectlyhomogeneous(i.e.,ifevery atom volved andthedistancesbetweenthem.Clearlyifuni- from areatodependingonthemassofobjectsin- between massesincreases. This meansthatitseffect varies where thereismoremass,anditdecreasesasthedistance something moreinteresting. The power ofgravity increases Temperature Gravity, CBR,and Then, atabout18milliondegrees Fahrenheit (about Where therehappenedtobeslightlymorematter, grav- Fortunately, CBRprovided exactly theinformationas- cant differences. Butlaterandmoreprecise Gravity playsacentralroleinour change asimpleuniverse into story becauseithadtheabilityto rst steptoward nd out bomb. Einstein’s famous equation,E protons.) This iswhathappens inthecenterofahydrogen a heliumnucleushave slightlylessmassthanfourisolated lot ofenergy. (We know thisbecausethefourparticlesof tons fuse,atiny amountoftheirmatterisconverted intoa pro- together toformheliumnucleiisknown asfusion.As bound tightlytogether. The processbywhichprotonssmash lium nuclei,whichconsistoftwo protonsandtwo neutrons atomic distances. The result istheappearanceofnew he- the strongnuclearforce,whichoperatesonlyover tiny, sub- close enoughtoeachother, they canbebound togetherby overcome theforceofrepulsion,andoncetwo protonsget other. However, ifthecollisionisviolentenoughitmay Protons arepositively charged, sonormallythey repeleach others willlastformany billionsofyears.Like allcomplex relatively stable;somelastforjustafew millionyears, while heat ofthecoreandsuppliesit with morehydrogen.Starsare fusion occurs,andouterlayers whosepressuremaintainsthe star, inturn,hasitsown structure,withahotcoreinwhich most having existed almostaslong astheuniverse. Each links betweenbillionsofstars,andthey arerelatively stable, of complexity. They areobjectsformedby thegravitational ties, includinghumanbeings.Galaxiesrepresentanew level eventually beusedtocreatenew andmorecomplex enti- These energy fl ows from starsintosurroundingspace would which energy pouredintotheextreme coldofemptyspace. stars wereformed. The youngstarsformedhotspots,from ies appeared,withbillionsoftiny lightsswitchingonasnew way throughitslife. for 8or9billionyears(Figure1.9). Today, itisabouthalf- way, about4.5billionyearsago,anditwillprobablyexist fusion reactionsgoing.Ourown sunformedinthesame heat andlightaslongithasenoughhydrogentokeep it escapesintoemptyspace.Eachstarcankeep generating that slowly works itsway throughthestaruntileventually furnace atthecenterofeachstargeneratesheatandlight fall intothecorethey fusetoformnucleiofhelium. This with acentersohotthatashydrogennuclei(i.e.,protons) began tolightup. composed ofbillionsindividual stars,andtheuniverse of matterintheearlyuniverse, thefi cess was repeatedthroughoutthehuge,collapsingclouds stops itcollapsingany further andstabilizesit. As thispro- cloud ofatoms. This furnaceatthecenterofeachcloud amount ofheatisgeneratedatthecentercollapsing the atomicbombdroppedonNagasaki August 9,1945. of Enewetak in1952,was almost500timesaspowerful as are sopowerful. The fi rstH-bomb,testedonthe Pacifi a colossalnumber. And thatexplains whyhydrogenbombs miles persecond(300,000kilometerssecond),sothisis the speedoflight(c lent totheamountofmass(m amount ofenergy releasedin suchaprocess(E “And There Was Light!” So wecanimaginethedarkuniverse lightingupasgalax- As new heliumatomsareformedbyfusion,ahuge Threshold 2: The andStars Origin ofGalaxies ) squared!Lighttravels atabout186,000 of hydrogen(andsomehelium), Stars areessentiallyhugestores ) converted toenergy, times rstgalaxiesappeared, 5

mc FIRST PAGES 2 , says that the , saysthatthe ) isequiva- c atoll 08/03/13 10:13 PM 23 the ﬁ rst three thresholds FIRST PAGES

Heat from the its multiple “supernova” explosions (discussed later in the center travels out chapter), nor at the edge where there is much less energy, New supplies of but in the regions in between. Similarly, it is unlikely that hydrogen from very complex things can be created inside stars, where outer layers there is so much energy that anything complex is likely to be destroyed as soon as it forms. Where we should expect to fi nd greater complexity is not in the center of stars, nor in empty space where there is not enough energy, but in the Fusion in regions around stars. And that is where most of the story of the core big history will take place: close to stars. From about 200 million years after the big bang, then, we can imagine billions of clouds of matter collapsing to form billions of new stars held together in billions of new galaxies. Gravity herded galaxies into large clusters to form the huge, weblike structures that are the largest organized structures in our universe. At scales larger than clusters of galaxies, the power of gravity diminishes and we begin to see less structure as the force of expansion takes over. The sun’s energy Heat and light to drives life on earth the solar system At these very large scales, different parts of the universe move away from one another. That was the expansion that Hubble had observed in the 1920s. FIGURE 1.9 The structure of our sun. The sun has a simple structure, with fusion taking place in the center, and stores of hydrogen in the upper layers. But it is a more complex object than anything that had Threshold 3: The Creation existed previously, and the energy produced in stars created new local energy ﬂ ows that would help create of New Chemical Elements more complex entities such as planets and, eventually, Stars not only generate huge fl ows of energy in the regions living organisms. close to them; they also create new forms of matter, new chemical elements. These chemical elements are the key to the next levels of complexity. That’s why the forging of new things, stars display emergent properties such as the ability chemical elements in dying stars counts as the third major to generate energy from fusion in their cores, and they are threshold. With new chemical elements it was possible to sustained and stabilized by these same energy fl ows. make new types of matter by assembling atoms in new and Galaxies and stars also lay the foundations for new more complex ways. After the crossing of threshold 3, the forms of complexity. Within galaxies there is a sweet spot, universe became more chemically complex (Threshold 3 perfect for complexity. It is not too close to the center with Summary).

Threshold 3 Summary

GOLDILOCKS EMERGENT THRESHOLD INGREDIENTS c STRUCTURE c CONDITIONS = PROPERTIES

HEAVIER CHEMICAL Hydrogen and helium Increasing numbers Extremely high Potential for chemical ELEMENTS nuclei (i.e., protons). of protons linked by temperatures created in combination, mainly via strong nuclear force dying stars or (even more electro-magnetism, to into increasingly large extreme) in supernovae create almost inﬁ nite atomic nuclei. 1 strong nuclear force. range of new types of matter.

We have seen that in the early universe atomic matter con- humans to emerge, a much more diverse palette of chemical sisted, essentially, of hydrogen and helium. It is impossible to elements is needed. Today, instead of just 2 elements, we have imagine a world as complex as ours created from just these 92 different stable elements, as well as a few more that break two elements. This is partly because helium is inert; it does up rapidly because their huge nuclei disintegrate as a result of not react with any other elements. For planets, bacteria, and the repulsive forces between their numerous protons.

24 Chapter 1 The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 24 08/03/13 10:13 PM chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 25 tral. All thedifferent typesofmatteraroundusaremadeby cancel eachotherout,makingmostatomselectricallyneu- same asthoseoftheprotonssothatcharges normally much massasprotons,but theirnegative charges arethe of Earth’s atmosphere.” would becherrypitswhizzingaboutintheoutermostlayer a basketball locatedatthecenterofEarth,electrons cording toNatalie Angier, “If thenucleusofanatomwere buzz aroundthenucleusatagreatdistance;indeed,ac- but have noelectricalcharge. Negatively charged electrons contain particlescalledneutronsthataresimilartoprotons that containspositively charged protons.Mostnucleialso we have seen,atomsconsistofanucleusattheircenter so unstablethatwedon’t normally encounterthem). As well asafew moreelements,suchasplutonium,thatare Today, atomsappearin92distinctforms,orelements(as Chemical Elements sibility oflifeitself. stars bequeathedtotheuniverse notelixirs,but thepos- the hotfurnacesofdyingstars.Bycreatingtheseelements, ments werebeingformedthroughouttheuniverse within drugs thatcouldcheatdeath. We now know thatnew ele- by turningleadintogold,they couldcreateelixirsoflife, chemists. Many hopedthat,byforging new elements,or Stage 3:‘Neutroncapture’insupernovae Creating new elementswas thedreamofmedieval al- Rb Na 87 Cs 55 37 19 11 IA Fr Li H K 1 1 3 Mg IIA Ra Ba Ca Be 88 56 38 20 12 Sr 2 4 102 89– 57– 70 Stage 2a:Fusion Stage 1:Bigbang 103 IIIB Sc 21 Lu 71 39 Lr Y 3 1 Electronshave only1/1,800thas 104 IVB 22 Ac 89 La 57 72 40 Rf Hf Zr Ti Alkali metals Nonmetals 4 105 VB Nb Db Ce 23 Th 90 58 73 41 Ta V 5 Iron (26Protons) Uranium (92Protons) 106 VIB Mo Pa Sg 24 91 59 42 74 Cr Pr W 6 yrgn( rtn Helium(2Protons) Hydrogen (1Proton) Transition metals Alkaline earthmetals VIIB 107 Mn Nd Re Bh 25 92 60 43 75 Tc U 7 108 Pm Np Ru Os Hs Fe 26 93 61 76 44 89 red giantsby‘neutroncapture’ Bismuth (83)alsoformedin Stage 2b:Elementsupto VIIIB 109 Sm Rh Co Pu Mt 27 94 62 77 45 Ir ample, someextremely unreactive gases—such ashelium, as thenumberofprotonsincreases(Figure1.10).For ex- ered, similarchemicalpropertiesseemtorecurregularly called theperiodictablebecause,asMendeleev discov- list ofelementsin1869.Nowadays, thelistofelementsis (1834–1907), whocompiledthefi pioneering work oftheRussianchemistDmitriiMendeleev of chemicalelementsandtheirpropertiesisbasedonthe ments intodifferent typesofcompounds. The modernlist and thecountlessmaterialsformedbyassemblingele- elements, thefundamentalbuilding blocksofchemistry, chemists was todistinguishclearlybetweenthechemical challenge ofchemistry. combine tomake morecomplicatedmaterialsisthecentral with neighboringatoms.Explainingindetailhow elements that formastheelectronsatedgesofatomslinkup structures known asmoleculesorcompounds,structures combining these92typesofatomsintomorecomplicated Uun 110 Am Pd 28 95 Eu 63 46 011 10 78 Ni Pt One ofthegreatachievements ofnineteenth-century Finally, allotherelementswere formed insupernovae. were formed by by fusionindyinglarge starsandelementsupto lead thebigbang.after Elementsupto iron were formed three stages. Hydrogen andheliumappeared soon present today tablewere intheperiodic forged in FIGURE Halogens Other metals Gold (79Protons) Uuu 111 Cm Gd Cu Ag Au 29 96 64 47 79 IB Threshold 3: The Creation ofNewChemicalElements .0 The periodictable. 1.10 Uub 112 IIB Hg Cd Zn 30 Bk 97 Tb 65 48 12 80 neutron capture indyinglarge stars. Lanthanide series Actinides series IIIA Ga Dy 31 66 81 49 13 13 98 Al Cf Tl In B 5 Uuq 114 IVA Ho Ge Pb Sn 67 82 50 32 14 14 99 Es Si C 6 100 Fm VA Sb 68 15 83 51 As 33 15 Er Bi N P 7 rst, albeitincomplete, The elements Uuh Noble gases 116 101 VIA Tm Md Po Se 69 16 84 52 34 16 Te O S 8 FIRST PAGES VIIA 102 No Yb 70 17 35 17 85 53 Br Cl At F 9 I VIIIA He Ne Rn Xe 18 10 18 36 86 54 Ar Kr 2 08/03/13 10:13 PM 25 the ﬁ rst three thresholds FIRST PAGES

neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon—are grouped astronomers have studied millions of stars, each at a dif- together at the right side of the periodic table. They are ferent stage in its life cycle. Slowly and painstakingly, they known as the noble gases. They are grouped together partly have used this vast database, accumulated since the nine- because they have similar chemical qualities and partly be- teenth century, to build up a collective portrait of how stars cause the number of protons they contain increases in a live and die. reasonably regular pattern (helium has 2 protons, neon 10, For a long time, the most important instrument for argon 18, krypton 36, xenon 54, and radon 86). studying stars was the spectroscope. We saw earlier that the To explain the forging of new chemical elements we absorption lines on the spectra from starlight can tell you must return to the hydrogen atoms that still make up most what elements a star contains, and their intensity makes it of the atoms in the universe, and we need to review some possible to estimate roughly how much of each element very elementary chemistry. Because hydrogen has just it contains. (More of a given element absorbs more light one proton in its nucleus, it is given the atomic number at particular frequencies so that the absorption lines are of 1 and appears as the fi rst element in the periodic table. darker.) A tiny number of hydrogen atoms (roughly 0.02 percent) The surface temperature of a star can be estimated from also have a neutron in their nucleus. We call this form of its color. As a general rule, red stars have lower surface hydrogen deuterium. It weighs about twice as much as a temperatures than blue stars. The real (or intrinsic) bright- normal atom of hydrogen because neutrons have about the ness of a star, or the total energy it emits, depends on the same mass as a proton. Chemists call such deviant forms amount of matter it contains. This is because stars with of atoms isotopes. As we will see, most elements come in greater mass generally have denser and hotter cores so standard forms, but can also exist as isotopes, or atoms that they generate more energy. We will see that, in general, contain more or less neutrons than the element’s standard large stars have higher surface temperatures and also larger form. (Carbon-14, which we met in the introduction, is an masses, but there are some exceptions and they turn out to isotope of carbon with 6 protons and 8 neutrons; the most be rather interesting. common form of carbon is carbon-12, with 6 protons and Using spectroscopes and powerful telescopes, astrono- 6 neutrons.) mers can tell a lot about the mass, the temperature, and Helium, the next element on the periodic table, consists the chemical composition of stars. Using this information, of two protons and two electrons. It is rare on Earth and astronomers have built up a general account of the life and was not discovered until the middle of the nineteenth cen- death of stars. tury, when astronomers using spectroscopes detected huge As so often in science, understanding came when some- amounts of it in the sun. The most common form of helium one found a simple way of making sense of complicated contains two neutrons as well as the two protons, but there information. This is what Newton had done with the huge also exists an isotope with just one neutron, which is, of amount of data available in his time about the move- course, about three-fourths of the weight of a normal he- ments of the stars. He had distilled that information into lium atom. a few simple statements about the workings of gravity. So the defi ning feature of each element is the number of Mendeleev had done something similar when he created protons in its nucleus. This determines its atomic number. the fi rst periodic table of chemical elements. In 1910, a But each element may also exist in a number of slightly Danish astronomer, Ejnar Hertzsprung, and an American different forms, or isotopes, depending on the number of astronomer, Henry Russell, found a way of distilling the neutrons in the nucleus, so different isotopes of the same rapidly accumulating information about stars in a way that element may have slightly different atomic weights. Other began to explain a lot about the life cycles of stars (Fig- important elements are carbon (atomic number 6), oxygen ure 1.11). They assembled information about many differ- (8), iron (26), and uranium (92), the largest of all the stable ent stars into a simple graph. On one axis they plotted the elements. All elements heavier than lithium (atomic num- real brightness of each star (which, as we have seen, can ber 3) were made inside dying stars. tell you its mass, or the amount of material it contains); and on the other they showed its surface temperature. The The Life and Death of Stars graph they produced is known as a Hertzprung–Russell (H–R) diagram. The atomic matter in the early universe consisted, as we The fi rst thing to note on the H–R diagram is that most have seen, almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. To stars appear in a band running from the bottom right to create new elements it was necessary to smash protons the upper left. In the bottom right corner we fi nd stars that together so violently that they fused to form larger nuclei are reddish, which means they have lower surface tem- with larger atomic numbers. Where in the universe could peratures, emit less energy, and are smaller. In the upper you fi nd temperatures hot enough to do this? In dying stars. left corner we fi nd stars that are blue, which means their So, to understand how elements were created in dying surface temperatures are very high, they emit more energy stars, we need to understand the life cycle of stars. in total, and have a lot of mass. Rigel, at one of the cor- Even the shortest-lived stars keep burning for millions ners of the constellation of Orion, is an example of a blue of years. So from Earth we can never watch the life cycle star. This band of stars running diagonally from the top of a single star as it is born, matures, and dies. Instead, left to the bottom right corners of the diagram is known to

26 Chapter 1 The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 26 08/03/13 10:13 PM chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 27 their surface temperaturesarerelatively low, so they amount ofenergy, which meansthey arevery large. Yet upper rightcornertherearestars thatareemittingahuge larger thanaverage. sequence; itisamedium-sizedstar, perhapsjustslightly star’s mass.Oursunappearsroughlyinthemiddleof brightness arecorrelatedbecausethey bothdependonthe Within themainsequence,surface temperatureandreal lot ofmasssothey createalotofpressureintheircores. because they brighter. Those withhighsurface temperaturesappearhot fi move leftward andupward alongthemainsequenceyou densities attheircoresandhottertemperatures.So,asyou much massthey contain, becausemoremassmeanshigher Their positiononthesequencedependsonething:how of thetime:fusingprotonsintoheliumnucleiintheircores. sequence arematurestars,doingwhatmoststarsdo astronomers asthemainsequence. All thestarsonmain nd startsthataremoremassive, aswellhotterand But notallstarsappearonthe mainsequence.Inthe Hertzprung–Russell diagram. Hertzprung–Russell and white dwarfs at the bottom left ofthediagram. atthebottom left and white dwarfs sequence. Redgiants canbefound inthetop right, The sunisapproximately inthemiddleofmain to helium,withlarger starsto andbrighter theleft. the phaseinwhichtheyare hydrogen converting showswhereleft, moststarscanbefound during sequence, runningfrom to thebottom thetop right of thelife ofstarsdiff cycles of many stars, astronomers slowlybuiltupapicture their absolutegraphing brightness. theposition By temperature and to basicqualitiessuchastheirsurface Russell diagram graphs thepositionofstarsaccording FIGURE 1.11 Simplifi are hot, andthey arehotbecausethey have a ed version ofthe erent sizes. The main The Hertzprung– enough, thecoremayreach such ahightemperaturethat core raisesthetemperatureat thecenter. Ifthestarislarge turning intoaredgiant.Meanwhile, theshrinkingofits drogen fusiontocontinue. As aresult,thestarwillexpand, peratures mayrisehighenoughinitsouterlayersforhy- because itnolongerhasenoughhydrogentoburn, tem- least, moreinteresting. As thecoreofalarge starcollapses will bemorecomplicated,prolonged,and,forusat ing untiltheendoftime. and constantlygrowing starcemeterythatwillkeep grow- side withanincreasingnumberofotherdeadstars,inavast and doingnothingforcountlessbillionsofyears,sideby out starsblackdwarves. Itwillsimplysitthere,invisible, a cold,inert,cinderofstar. Astronomers calltheseburnt- heat willdissipateanditcool,turningeventually into energy generatedwhenitwas arealstar. Butslowly this the lower partofthediagram.Itsheatnow comesfromthe moved off themainsequenceofH–Rdiagramandto brightly becauseoftheintenseheatinitscore.Ithasnow dwarf, muchsmallerthantheoriginalstar, but shiningvery than Earth,anditscenterwillheatup.Itisnow awhite nearby space.Itscorewillcontractuntilitmaybenolarger collapse. Ifthestarissmall,itwillsheditsouterlayersinto out ofhydrogen,andfusionwillcease. The corewillthen tually, thecorewillfi llupwithhelium,the starwillrun nuclei andcreatesmoreheliuminitscore.Even- pheid variables vary slightlyinbrightnessandsize. slightly. Suchtiny variations explain whystarssuchasCe- shrink slightly;iftheheatincreases,starmayexpand years. Iftheheatatcenterfalls slightly, thestarmay life onthemainsequence,usuallylastingmany billionsof the collapse). At thatpoint,thestarsettlesdown intoalong star inonitself)andtheheatatcenter(whichchecks is achieved betweengravity (whichtendstocollapsethe core, theheatatcenterstopscollapse. A balance pulls themtogether. Butoncefusionstartsinthestar’s of atomsthatarecollapsinginonthemselves asgravity results maybeeven morespectacular. food andthehumanwilldie.Deprive astaroffuelandthe helium thatitbegins torunoutoffuel?Deprive ahumanof most oftheirlives. hydrogen nuclei,theprotonsthatsustainstarsthroughout are attheendoftheirlives. They have begun torunoutof giants andwhitedwarfs arebehaving oddlybecause they brightest starinthenightsky, isawhitedwarf. Bothred white dwarfs. SiriusB,thecompanionstartoSirius, even thoughthey seemquitesmall. These areknown as graph, ontheotherhand,arestarsthathave hotsurfaces on aclearnightwiththenaked eye. At thebottom ofthe corner oftheconstellationOrion.Itcaneasilybeseen famous example isBetelgeuse,thelarge redstaratone appear asredstars. These are known asred giants.A Inside Dying Stars Inside Dying However, ifthestarislarge enough,itsdeathagonies As astarburns, itslowly usesupitsstocksofhydrogen You willrememberthatstarsformwithinhugeclouds Threshold 3: The Creation ofNewChemicalElements turned somuchhydrogeninto What happenswhenastarhas FIRST PAGES 08/03/13 10:13 PM 27 the fi rst three thresholds FIRST PAGES

helium atoms begin to fuse. These processes move the star Nonburning hydrogen off the main sequence, but in the opposite direction of a white dwarf. Its surface temperature may fall as it expands, but the total amount of light being emitted will increase as Hydrogen fusion the temperature rises in its core. In another 4 or 5 billion Helium fusion years, our sun will turn into a red giant. When it does so, Carbon fusion it will expand until it includes (and obliterates!) the inner Oxygen fusion planets of Mercury, Venus, and Earth. Neon fusion In very large stars the collapse of the center creates temperatures so high that helium begins to fuse to form carbon, Magnesium fusion one of the more abundant elements in the universe, and the Silicon fusion critical element in the evolution of life itself. However, he- Iron ash lium burns at higher temperatures, and much faster than hydrogen, so the star will run out of helium much faster than it ran out of hydrogen. When that happens, the core FIGURE 1.12 Illustrations of the buildup of the will collapse once again. new elements in dying large stars. In the ﬁ nal What happens next? When our sun reaches this point it stages of their existence, large stars start burning will shed its outer layers, scattering carbon through nearby helium and other elements. Gradually, they develop a space. Then it will collapse on itself, and turn into a white layered structure until ﬁ nally, they start creating iron in dwarf. It will move from the upper right part of the H–R their core. After that, they will either collapse or, if they diagram to join the other white dwarves at the bottom of are large enough, explode in a supernova. the graph. And, like all white dwarves, it will eventually cool down and turn into a black dwarf, after which it will do nothing more. However, stars that are larger than our sun have a few will collapse into a tight dense mass to form a neutron star more tricks up their sleeves. When they run out of helium, or even a black hole. A neutron star is a form of matter as their cores collapse, but there is still enough mass so that dense as the nucleus of an atom; it is so dense that a mass the collapse builds up much higher temperatures, tempera- the size of a small mountain might weigh as much as the tures high enough for carbon to start fusing, creating other whole Earth, and the whole thing may spin several times a elements such as oxygen and silicon in a series of violent second to form what astronomers call a pulsar, a body that burns. This pattern repeats. As each new fuel is used up, the emits regular fl ashes of light. If the original star is large core collapses once more, temperatures rise to even higher enough, it will collapse to form a black hole, a region of levels, and the dying star starts burning new fuels. The space so dense that nothing can escape its gravitational process becomes more and more frenetic, with different pull, not even light. Black holes are very strange objects, fuels being used in different layers of the star. Eventually, and they will make one more brief appearance at the very when their cores reach about 7 billion degrees Fahrenheit end of this book. (about 4 billion degrees Celsius), stars start producing In the explosion of a supernova one more thing happens: large amounts of iron (atomic number 26). Here is Cesare In just a few seconds all the remaining elements in the pe- Emiliani’s description of the violent fi nal years of a very riodic table, from iron (26) up to uranium (92), are created large star: “A star 25 times more massive than the sun will by neutron capture and blown into space. (Some elements exhaust the hydrogen in its core in a few million years, will beyond uranium are also created but they are so unstable burn helium for half a million years, and—as the core con- that they decay within fractions of a second.) We can see tinues to contract and the temperature continues to rise— the results of such an explosion in the Crab Nebula, which will burn carbon for 600 years, oxygen for 6 months, and represents the remnants of a supernova explosion observed silicon for 1 day.”2 (See Figure 1.12.) by Chinese astronomers in 1054 (Figure 1.13). This process of creating new elements through fusion So, the elements of the periodic table, the basic constitu- ends with iron. However, a second process, known as neu- ents of the matter from which we are made, were manufac- tron capture, can form signifi cant amounts of even heavier tured in three main stages. Most of the universe consists of elements in dying massive stars. In this process, nuclei hydrogen (almost 75 percent) and helium (about 23 per- capture stray neutrons, which then decay to form protons. cent), which were created in the big bang. That’s the fi rst More protons increase the “atomic number” of the nucleus, stage. The second stage happens inside stars. Here, a lot transforming it into a heavier element. Step by step, this of hydrogen is turned into helium by fusion, and in bigger process can form nuclei as heavy as those of bismuth (83). stars some of the helium is then turned into carbon, oxy- Once the center of a massive star has fi lled up with iron, gen, silicon, and several other elements up to iron (atomic fusion will cease and the star will collapse one last time number 26). In red giants, neutron capture can create even in a colossal explosion known as a supernova. Briefl y the heavier elements, up to bismuth. As these stars die, the new star will shine as brightly as an entire galaxy, and most of elements they have manufactured are scattered into sur- its mass will be blown into outer space, while its center rounding space. The third stage occurs in supernovae, the

28 Chapter 1 The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 28 08/03/13 10:13 PM chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 29 The youngsunblastedmost hydrogenandheliumaway greater abundance andplayedamuchmore importantrole. difference, but insomeplaces,higherelements appearedin different ways fromallotherelements. protons andelectronsand,asaresultitbehaves inslightly universe becauseeachelementhasadifferent numberof the universe. Their presenceincreasedthediversity ofthe may make upabout2percentofall theatomicmatterin were nohigherelements,but today, aswehave seen,they between thestarshasbeenslowly increasing. At fi since then,thenumberofnew elementsfl novae 200to300millionyearsafterthebigbang.Ever The fi ofChemistry The Importance much smallerquantities. capture eitherindyingstarsorsupernovae; they exist in The remainingelementswereallmanufactured byneutron roles inthechemistryofEarthandlifeonEarth. carbon, nitrogen,iron,andsilicon,allofwhichplaycrucial tured byfusionwithindyingstars. They includeoxygen, common arethoseelements,uptoiron,thatweremanufac- cent ofallatoms. Among theremaining2percent,most scattered intospace. capture injustafew seconds. Then thesenew elementsare elements oftheperiodictablearemanufactured byneutron pernova somany neutronsaregeneratedthatalltheother life ofthevery biggest stars.Intheintenseheatofasu- huge explosions thataccompany thefi In muchoftheuniverse, thenew elementsmadelittle Today, hydrogenandheliumstillmake upabout98per- that was observed byChineseastronomers in1054. that wasobserved Crab Nebulaconsistsoftheremains ofasupernova FIGURE rst large starsprobablydiedorexploded assuper- .3 RemnantsofCrab Nebula. 1.13 nal secondsofthe oating inclouds The rst there charges thatbindtheatomstogether. Inmetallicbonds,the tive charge andtheother apositive charge, anditisthese from oneatomtotheother. This gives oneatomanega- form salt(sodiumchloride, or NaCl),electronsmigrate holds theatomstogether. In ionicbonds,suchasthosethat tive charges inseveral nucleiandthiselectromagneticbond in theiroutershells. The electronsareattractedtotheposi- ecules ofwater, two ormoreatoms cansharetheelectrons each atom.Incovalent bonds,suchasthosethatformmol- depend onthebehavior oftheoutermostelectronsorbiting even billionsofatoms. All chemicalbondsbetweenatoms ecules, And water, aswewillsee,isvitalforlife. both ofthesecolorlessgases:yougetwater (Figure1.14)! oxygen atomyougetsomethingentirelydifferent from For example, ifyoucombinetwo hydrogenatomswithone types ofmaterialswithentirelynew emergent properties. from theaverage compositionoftheuniverse. why thechemicalcompositionofEarthisvery different num, andnitrogenareonlyslightlylesscommon. That’s and many otherelements, includingiron,carbon,alumi- dominated byheavier elementssuchasoxygenandsilicon, from theorbitofourearlyEarth,soEarth’s crustis Atoms bondtogetherinvarious ways toform Atoms cancombineinmany different ways toformnew linked byacovalentbond.linked atomstwo ofhydrogen andoneatom ofoxygen are electrons are shared and(b)awater molecule, inwhich a water molecule. FIGURE H H somewithjustafew atoms,somewithmillionsor Threshold 3: The Creation ofNewChemicalElements .4 Illustration ofcovalent bondand 1.14 (a) Polar Covalent Bond O (b) WaterMolecule ( a) Acovalentbond, inwhich Chemical reaction H H FIRST PAGES O H 2 mol- O 08/03/13 10:13 PM 29 the ﬁ rst three thresholds FIRST PAGES

bonds that hold most metals together, almost all atoms lose as water, and also some of the basic ingredients of life. But electrons from their outer shells, and hordes of unattached space is a tough environment; it’s very cold and there is electrons fl ow through and between the individual atoms. limited energy, so few of the molecules we fi nd in space Because each atom has lost an electron, it has a slight posi- contain more than 100 atoms. tive charge, so it is attracted to the sea of electrons fl owing The surface of Earth was a much more promising en- around it. vironment for interesting chemistry because it contained Chemistry is the study of how atoms combine to form many elements that could combine in different ways to new materials, from rocks, to diamonds, to DNA, and of produce entirely new materials. It was a Goldilocks en- course to you and me. This is why the formation of new ele- vironment for chemistry. In each of the Threshold Sum- ments inside stars counts as one of the fundamental thresh- maries that appear throughout this book, the Goldilocks olds in this course. It made possible a vast range of new factors are those that permitted the threshold to occur and materials with entirely new properties. Nowadays, we can be crossed. The next chapter will describe the creation of study the clouds of matter around distant stars, and identify Earth and the Goldilocks conditions that would eventually many different molecules, including simple materials such make it possible for life to appear.

SUMMARY

In this chapter we described how modern science explains chemical elements into nearby space. Shock waves from three crucial thresholds in the appearance and evolution of this explosion, like the vibrating skin of a drum, rippled our universe and our world. We saw how big bang cosmol- through the clouds of matter near the supernova and trig- ogy explains the beginnings of our universe; how, in the gered the beginnings of a slow, gravitational collapse. simple early universe, the fi rst galaxies and stars appeared; Slowly, in a pattern that should by now be familiar, a cloud and how, in their death throes, large stars created the chem- of matter consisting mostly of hydrogen and helium, but ical elements that provided the raw materials that would also containing tiny amounts of all the other chemical ele- eventually make it possible to build new types of materials ments, began to collapse in the early stages of star forma- and new objects such as planets and life itself. tion. Out of this collapse our own sun and solar system In our own part of the universe, a supernova explosion eventually formed. That story leads us to a new threshold occurred just over 4.5 billion years ago, scattering new of complexity, and we will tell it in the next chapter.

CHAPTER QUESTIONS

1. What do you think are the main differences between 4. What is cosmic background radiation and why was its traditional origin stories and the accounts of origin discovery so important for modern cosmology? contained in modern science? 5. How were stars created? 2. What new forms of evidence persuaded Edwin 6. How were new elements created inside dying stars? Hubble that the universe was expanding? How 7. In what ways can we say that the emergence of stars convincing is that evidence? and the death of stars make the universe more com- 3. What were the most important events that happened plex than it was just after the big bang? in the fi rst three minutes after the big bang?

KEY TERMS

absorption lines cosmic background fusion parallax atomic matter radiation (CBR) Hertzprung–Russell (H–R) periodic table big bang cosmology diagram plasma big bang cosmology dark matter and dark energy light-year red giants black hole Doppler effect matter red shift Cepheid variables energy molecules spectroscope

30 Chapter 1 The Universe, Stars, and New Chemical Elements

chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 30 08/03/13 10:13 PM chr85611_ch01_010-031.indd 31 2 Cesare 2. Emiliani, Natalie 1. Angier, Addison-Wesley, 2007. Introduction toModernCosmology. SanFrancisco:Pearson Duncan, Todd, andCraig Tyler. Your CosmicContext: An Cambridge University Press,1998. to theEmergence ofLifeandIntelligence. Delsemme, Armande. Broadway Books,2003. Bryson, Bill. larly thechaptersoncalibration,physics, andastronomy). Basics ofScience. Angier, Natalie. ENDNOTES FURTHER READING Wiley, 1995),61. World withFacts, Figures, andFormulas, 2nded.(New York: Science (New York: HoughtonMiffl in,2007),86. A ShortHistoryofNearlyEverything. New York: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour oftheBeautiful New York: HoughtonMiffl in, 2007(particu- Canon: A Whirligig Tour oftheBeautifulBasics The Scientifi cCompanion:Exploringthe Physical Our CosmicOrigins:From theBigBang Cambridge,UK: World. SanFrancisco:Harper, 1991. Sproul, Barbara. Cosmos.New York: Penguin,2006. of theUniverse: Discovering OurExtraordinary Place inthe Primack, Joel,andNancy Abrams. Texture ofReality. London:PenguinBooks,2005. Greene, Brian. New York: Wiley,1995. Physical World withFacts, Figures, andFormulas. 2nded. Emiliani, Cesare. The Fabric oftheCosmos:Space, Time andthe Primal Myths:Creation Mythsaround the The Scientifi cCompanion:Exploringthe The View from theCenter FIRST PAGES Endnotes 08/03/13 10:13 PM 31 the ﬁ rst three thresholds FIRST PAGES

on the brink of a threshold

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 214 04/04/13 1:04 AM FIRST PAGES

chapter 10

Toward the Modern Revolution

Seeing the Big Picture

1000 to 1700 CE

What distinguishes today’s world from all earlier eras of human history?

In what ways did agrarian civilizations prepare the way for the “modern revolution”?

What forces accelerated the pace of change in the last 1,000 years?

Was the modern revolution inevitable given our capacity as a species for continual, sustained innovation through Collective Learning?

215

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 215 04/04/13 1:04 AM FIRST PAGES

Unwittingly, we have begun to change the chemistry of the The Approach of the Modern atmosphere; the range, variety, and distribution of plant and Revolution animal species; and the nature of the water cycle and other fundamental geological processes such as erosion. These In this chapter, we will survey the era just before the eighth changes may transform the workings of the biosphere for of our major thresholds. We call that threshold, with delib- centuries or even millennia, because many have long-term erate vagueness, the modern revolution. consequences and some, such as species extinctions, are In the wide-angle lens of big history, what stands out irreversible. Never has a single species had such power be- about the modern period is the sharp increase in human fore in the entire history of planet Earth, and it is not at control over the resources of the biosphere that begins with all clear that we can control the forces of change we have the Industrial Revolution, described in the next chapter. We unleashed. have already seen something similar in the agricultural revo- In this chapter, we will look for the roots of the modern lution that began over 10,000 years ago. Suddenly, humans revolution in the period since 1000 ce. What prepared the increased their control over the energy and resources of the way for the crossing of the eighth threshold? Why were biosphere. Increasing access to energy and resources allowed different regions affected in different ways? And what did humans to form larger, more populous, more complex, and these changes have to do with Collective Learning? more diverse societies, societies that had new emergent prop- The answer to the last question is simple: everything! erties that had never been seen before. The modern revolu- The technologies and social structures that enabled hu- tion was similar, except that this time everything happened mans to increase their control over resources arose from much much faster and on a far larger scale (Figure 10.1). the ancient process of innovation through the sharing of A sudden increase in available resources meant societ- information that is the most distinctive feature of human ies could grow faster than ever before, they could produce history. But why should the pace and synergy of Collective more than ever before, and they could become much more Learning have accelerated so sharply in the Modern era? complex. The results were transformative. In 2002, Paul And why did rates of change vary so greatly from region to Crutzen, a Nobel Prize–winning chemist, argued that early region? These are the central questions asked in this chap- in the nineteenth century the planet entered a new geologi- ter. To answer them we have to look more closely at some cal epoch, the Anthropocene. By that he meant the era in of the factors that can encourage or discourage Collective which humans have become the dominant species on Earth. Learning and innovation. (We will discuss this idea in more detail in Chapter 12.)

500 Gas Oil Coal 450 Why Rates of Innovation Nuclear Hydro + Biomass 400 Increased: Drivers of Innovation 350 We have already seen several factors that can affect the 300 pace and power of innovation in different times and places. 250 We call these factors drivers of innovation. In recent cen- 200 turies, three powerful drivers of innovation have become

Exajoules* / year 150 more and more important, and as they have evolved they 100 have worked together to generate powerful new synergies. 50 0 Driver 1: Increased Exchange Networks 1850 1875 1900 1925 1950 1975 2000 Year Humans exchange goods and ideas through exchange *Human energy consumption as measured in exajoules. A joule is networks. It is a reasonable assumption that more infor- the power required to produce one watt for one second; an exajoule mation will be exchanged and stored in a community of 1 is a million million million joules. million people than in a community of 100 people. Math- FIGURE 10.1 World energy consumption, 1850 ematically, this can be expressed by saying that, as the num- to 2000 CE. In 1850, most of the energy used by ber of “nodes” (i.e., people) increases within a network, the humans still came from traditional sources: human number of possible links between the nodes (or exchanges and animal labor, water power, wind power, and the between people) increases much faster (Figure 10.2). (For energy locked up in wood. By the year 2000, total the mathematically inclined, if the number of nodes in a net- human energy use had multiplied by many times and work is n, then the number of links (l) 5 n * (n 2 1)/2.) So, overwhelmingly that energy came from the three as a general rule, we should expect rates of innovation (the major forms of fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. generation of new ideas, whether religious, artistic, ethical, Source: Alfred W. Crosby, Children of the Sun: A History of Humanity’s or technological) to be much faster in large than in small Unappeasable Appetite for Energy (New York: Norton, 2006), 162. communities. That explains why, at large scales, population growth itself tends to encourage Collective Learning.

216 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 216 04/04/13 1:04 AM chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 217 tion people exchange informationandideas;by science andtechnology. as BukharaandSamarkandweremajorcentersofworld one reasonwhy, 1,000yearsagoCentral Asian citiessuch regions throughnetworks suchastheSilkRoads,whichis ing city-statesoftenpooledinformationfromacrossvast and areexchanged over large areas.In Afro-Eurasia, trad- complex societieswheregoods,people,andideastravel as aruleofthumb,weshouldexpect moreinnovation in the possibilitiesforsuchexchanges aremagnifi dise. Where many citiesareconnectedover large areas and exchange ideasand informationaswellmerchan- which peoplefromvery different backgroundscanmeet resources, technologies,andcultures. and extensive connectionsbetweenregions withdifferent large andcomplex societieswithdiverse internalstructures we expect Collective Learningtowork morepowerfully in turalists, bothsidesmaylearnsomethingentirelynew. So about whatthey already know. Butifforagersmeetagricul- If everyone isaforager, peoplewillprobablytalkmostly of new ideasbeinggeneratedwithinanexchange network. ties exchanging information shouldincreasethelikelihood By Communications and Transportation Driver 2:Improvements in Cities (particularlytradingcities)offer environments in We alsoexpect thatgreaterdiversity inthecommuni- mathematics from graph theory. faster. This canbedemonstrated byasimplepieceof Collective grows Learning withinthatnetwork much grows,people inanetwork thepotential synergy of FIGURE communications we meanthetechnologiesby which peopleandgoods 02 The math iseasy. 10.2 we meanthetechnologiesby which different ways (i.e. n21)4byways528 Eight farmerscanlinkupin8x7 ‘vertex’, eachlinkisan‘edge’. mathematics. Eachpersonisa From ‘Graphtheory’ in (n 321))/2 The numberoflinks(edges)is As thenumberof And 1millionfarmers?… transporta- e. So, ed. and spreadsinnovations moreeasily. Ontheotherhand, society tobeoneinwhichCollective Learninggenerates time, but byandlarge weexpect amorecommercialized hood ofinnovation. Notalways, ofcourse,andnotallthe competing tosellloansatinterest,thegreaterlikeli- merchants orfarmers hiringlaborers, themorefi the morepeasantssellinggrainorcraftgoods, engaged inmarket transactionsoncompetitive markets, lists donotface competition. The morepeoplethereare plier ofacommodity)stifl monopolies ics isthatcompetitive markets stimulateinnovation, while place. Oneofthefundamentalaxiomsmoderneconom- or betterways ofstoringcashormoving itfromplaceto or faster ways ofbuilding houses,ormoreeffective cures, age innovation: new and cheaperways ofmakingclothes, than thatofyourrivals. Socompetitive markets encour- uct, youwillmake aprofi selling, too,andyoucannotforcepeopletobuy yourprod- are sellinggoodsorservicesinamarket whereothersare commerce createspowerful incentives toinnovate. Ifyou kets forgoods,services,andlabor. It’s nothardtoseewhy novate was commerce:theexistence ofcompetitive mar- tivity thanCatholicism. Protestantism was moresupportive ofentrepreneurialac- sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920)famously argued that extremely innovative inphilosophy;andtheGerman portive ofinnovation thanothers.ClassicalGreeceproved and philosophicaltraditionsseemtohave beenmoresup- to seeknew sourcesofwealth.Inaddition,somereligious guns) ortobuild roadsfortheirsoldiersandmerchantsor to seekoutnew militarytechnologies(suchaschariotsor often suspiciousofnovelty, they usuallyhadgoodreason new knowledge andnew ways ofdoingthings. attitudes andintereststhathave encouragedthesearchfor incurably curious. And wecanoftenidentifystructures and societies. Yet therehave always beenindividuals whowere vations ingeneral.Conservatism hasbeentheruleinmost of doingthings,new religionsandtechnologies,inno- hostile mostearliersocietiesweretonew ideas,new ways different kindsofincentives. Sowecaneasilyforget how tion througheducation,research,andbytheuseofmany cause welive insocietiesthatactively encourage innova- new information. Today, wetake innovation forgrantedbe- wherever wefi should expect thepower ofCollective Learning toincrease eties thateitherencourageordiscourageinnovation. We By Driver 3:Increased Incentives toInnovate innovation. so, they canaccelerateCollective Learningand encourage ity ofsocietiestostoreandspreadinformation.Bydoing communications andtransportationcanincreasethecapac- are moved fromplacetoplace.Improving technologiesof But perhapsthemostpowerful ofallincentives toin- For example, thoughgovernments andrulerswere incentives toinnovate Why Increased:Drivers ofInnovation Rates ofInnovation (environments inwhichthereisonlyonesup- nd directincentives toinnovate orseekout t onlyifyourproductisbetter e innovation becausemonopo- we meanthosefactors insoci- FIRST PAGES nanciers 04/04/13 1:04 AM 217 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

monopolistic markets tend to discourage innovation be- today. Above all, the major world zones were still sepa- cause those who control the market have little incentive to rated from each other. It may be that individual voyagers improve or cheapen their product and every incentive to had crossed the Atlantic before 1000 ce, or that Indonesian suppress new ideas that threaten their revenues. mariners sometimes made landfall on the coast of Australia, Many societies of the Agrarian era had plenty of market or Polynesian navigators on the shores of the Americas. activity. But most people were peasants who grew most of But such contacts were too rare and brief to make much their own food and had limited contacts with markets. Be- difference. Away from the main trade networks such as sides, in agrarian civilizations governments often did not the Silk Roads, most people lived in small communities support merchants or competitive markets because they with few links to other regions. Most of the land surface enjoyed monopolies over many of the resources and much of the Earth was occupied by foragers or pastoralists or by of the labor of society. They were hostile to market activ- small-scale farmers, and these communities accounted for ity because it could threaten the “tributes” they extracted most of the cultural diversity of our species. Languages, through the use of legal or physical force. Elites in agrar- for example, were generally much more diverse in regions ian civilizations often despised those who did not have the of thin settlement. Today, when so many traditional lan- right or power to exact tributes, including merchants. And guages have disappeared elsewhere, it is estimated that the that meant that they despised market activity in general once remote agricultural villages of the highlands of Papua and rarely supported it. That is why we have sometimes New Guinea contain about 25 percent of the world’s living referred to agrarian civilizations as tribute-taking societies. languages. We will refer to societies in which elites and govern- However, things were about to change. John Man ar- ments are highly supportive of commercial activity as gues that in 1000 ce it would have been possible, in prin- capitalist. Today, most societies in the world can be de- ciple, for the fi rst time in history for a message to circle scribed as capitalist in this sense because most resources, the world. In his thought experiment, he imagines a mes- including taxes, are mobilized through market activity, sage sent from a major city such as Baghdad, in the Islamic through buying and selling, as individuals sell their goods heartland of Afro-Eurasia. From Baghdad, the message or their labor to others, and governments encourage com- could have traveled south along the Nile or on camel cara- mercial activities because they expect to profi t from them. vans through the Sahara, from where it could have been In summary, we have identifi ed three key drivers of in- passed from community to community through villages novation that have become more and more important in the of Bantu farmers and pastoralists to the Khoisan peoples Modern era and can help us explain the dramatic increases of South Africa. The same message could also have trav- in innovation in recent centuries: eled north through Byzantium to Russia, whose recently established Viking rulers could have passed it on to Scan- 1. The increasing size and variety of exchange dinavia, where other Vikings could have carried it to the networks. Viking colonies of Iceland and Greenland and then on to 2. The growing effi ciency of systems of communica- the recently established colony of Vinland in Newfound- tions and transportation. land. Once in the Americas, locals could have taken the 3. The expansion of commercial activity, competitive message south, to Mesoamerica, through the tropical for- markets, and capitalism. ests of Central America to the Andes and perhaps as far as Tierra del Fuego in the far south. Or perhaps they could CE have carried the message north to Canada, where people of The World in 1000 the Thule Inuit culture could have carried it west to Alaska How important were these three drivers of innovation and the Bering straits, from where there was an easy and 1,000 years ago, toward the end of the Agrarian era? This familiar crossing to eastern Siberia. From eastern Siberia question gives us a chance to review more generally how it could have traveled south to Japan, Korea, and China or people lived, worked, traded, and exchanged information westward through the steppes of Inner Eurasia. Or Chinese before the Modern era. merchants might have carried it to Southeast Asia, where traders seeking sea cucumbers (trepang) along the northern Driver 1: Exchange Networks coasts of Australia could have passed it to local communities that could have begun to spread it throughout Australia. A thousand years ago, most exchange networks were still The seafaring peoples of the Indonesian archipelago might fragile and local. The world historian David Northrup has conceivably have carried it to the islands of Melanesia and argued that for some purposes world history can be divided then, perhaps, to Polynesia where migrants might (just!) into just two periods: before and after 1000 ce. Before have carried it to newly settled lands such as Hawaii or 1000 ce, human societies tended to get more and more dis- New Zealand. Meanwhile, from China and India, the mes- connected and diverse; after 1000 ce they began to connect sage could have returned either through the Inner Eurasian again, and to do so faster and faster. steppes or through Afghanistan and Iran to Baghdad. David Northrup would be the fi rst to admit that this is a Of course, none of this happened. But Man’s point is highly simplifi ed scheme, but there is much truth in it. In that in 1000 ce, perhaps for the fi rst time in human history 1000 ce, the world really was a less connected place than it is just possible to imagine it happening. Here we have

218 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 218 04/04/13 1:04 AM chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 219 process eventually reachacrosstheentireworld. Today, wecallthis of weaving new andlarger exchange networks thatwould the shadowy beginnings ofthemillennium-longprocess the Saharafrom Timbuktu inthethirteenthand fourteenth of 25,000camelsthattookgold andslaves northacross they couldtravel incamelcaravans, such asthecaravans carried inlitters.Ifthey lived inaridanddesertregions, ridden onhorsebackorinwagons or they mighthave been and lived inthe Afro-Eurasian world zone,they mighthave walked. Ifthey werewealthier(or they werepastoralists) it! That was asgoodcommunicationssystemscouldbe. WAR! FIRE!) rapidlyover large distances.Butthatwas beacons couldcarryvery simplemessages(DANGER! ment. Away fromtheagrarianheartlands,drumsorhilltop Reichenau, containedjust450books,allwrittenonparch- est monasticlibrariesofmedieval Europe,Germany’s Arabic armieshadfoughtfromChina. ers duringthebattleof Talas in751,thefi rsttimeinwhich had spreadwestward afterthecaptureofChinesepapermak- been invented inChinaearlythefi rstmillennium,and books. Many usedpaper. This was anew mediumthathad library ofCairoissupposedtohave contained1.5 million with exceptional respect. Earlyintheeleventh century, the and herebooks,beginning withtheholyQur’an, weretreated lay atthecenterofEurasia’s extensive exchange networks the majorclearinghouseforknowledge intheworld, forit 100 booksellers. At thattime,theMuslimworld was perhaps cetherewereabout of information.InBaghdad,in900 block fi century Korea. Eachword was carved onasinglewooden The fi rstprintingusingmovable typedatesfrom eleventh- to make multiplecopiesofdocumentsusingstoneblocks. carved wood blocks,thoughtheChinesehadlongbeenable probably intheeighthorninthcenturies,usingcarefully printing, ormechanicalcopying, was developed inKorea, to- decipher documentsknown aspalimpsests. The fi away andoverlaid withanother, producingthediffi ten wereusedseveral times,asonemessagewas scraped by hand.Oftenthematerialsonwhichthey werewrit- treasured andcopiedmany times,slowly andpainstakingly, vellum), neitherofwhichwerecheap,somanuscripts papyrus (inEgypt)oronsheepcalfskins(parchment priests. Beforethespreadofpaper, youhadtowriteon the mostparttoscribes,offi Eurasia, andeven thereitwas aneliteskill,confi of agrariancivilizations, inbothMesoamericaand Afro- of communicationsandtransportation. tions arosefromtheineffi In part,thelackofconnectednessmostagrarianciviliza- Transportation Technologies Driver 2:Communications and As fortravel andtransportation, on landmostpeople But theCairolibrarywas unusual.Oneofthelarg- Books, whetherwrittenorprinted,werepreciousstores Writing was commononlyintheheartlandsandcities xed inpositionaprintingframeusingwax. globalization. ciency oftraditionaltechnologies cials, scholars,ormonksand ned for ned cult- rst years earlier. traveled littlefurtherandnofaster than they had1,000 where river levels changed. invented, boatsstillhadtobecarriedorhauledover land until thetwelfthcentury, whenthefi to carryriceandothergoodsthecapital,Beijing.But Yangtze River inthesouthto Yellow River inthenorth, the SuiDynasty(581–618 ce) acanalwas built linkingthe China, river transportwas soreliableandcheapthatunder voyage, againstthewind,couldtake amonthortwo. In take aweektotravel fromSicilytoEgypt;but thereturn years ago,aRomancargo shipwithafavorable windmight Russia) oranimals,alongcanalsandrivers. Two thousand teams ofmen(suchasthefamous “Volga boatmen”of Table 10.1). and runthatthey were normally usedonlyinwarfare (see reach 13mph(21kph),but they weresoexpensive tobuild in shipspowered byoars. Athenian triremescouldbriefl drawn wagon. 1 millionkilograms),or1,000timesasmuchahorse- better; they couldcarry upto2.2millionpounds(about eler, IbnBattuta(fourteenth century)saw inIndiadideven much by1500 ce. The ChinesejunksthattheMuslimtrav- cargo asahorse-drawn wagon in1000 ce and400timesas the monsoonwindscouldcarryover 100timesasmuch the Arab dhows thatsailedacrosstheIndianOceanusing carry perhaps2,100pounds(960kilograms)ofgoods.But well-shod horseswithshoulder-hugging collarscould and awell-built medieval wagon drawn bywell-fedand 50 pounds(22.5kilograms)ofgoodsover large distances, form oftransportationinthe Americas) couldcarryupto the coast,oronopenseas. A humanporter(themain ple orgoodswas bywater—along rivers orcanals,along soldiers, pilgrims,orcapturedslaves. than thelocalmarket town, unlessthey weremerchants, as travelers onfoot).Butmostpeopledidn’t travel farther in justaweekwhennecessary(orabout12timesasfast the PersianRoyal Road,changinghorsesevery few miles, Persian Achaemenid Empire,relaysofriders couldtravel from placetoplace,was throughpost-horsesystems.Inthe Internet, andthefastest possibleway ofgettinginformation Ephesus inmodern Turkey. The ancientequivalent ofthe (referred toinChapter7)fromSusamodernIran 1,677 miles(2,799kilometers)ofthePersianRoyal Road quick walk, soitnormallytookthreemonthstocover the and cobblestones.Still,few peopletraveled faster thana sive layersofsand,fl and durabilitythey werebuilt many feetthickusingsucces- The bestwerecambered,todrainwater, andforstrength some weresowellbuilt thatthey survive tothepresentday. (80,000 kilometers) ofroadways over several centuries,and their soldiers. The Romans built atotalof50,000miles and thebestroadswerebuilt bythemajorempiresfor centuries. Caravans followed tracks,forroadswererare, In general, in 1000 ce goods,people,andinformation In general,in1000 ce Commercial shipsusedwindpower orwerehauledby The fastest way totravel shortdistancesover water was The cheapestandoftenthefastest way ofcarryingpeo- at stones,gravel cementedinconcrete, rst canallockswere The World in1000 FIRST PAGES y CE 04/04/13 1:04 AM 219 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

TABLE 10.1 Haulage Capacity by Land and by Sea

Form of Transportation Approximate Weight Carried Human porter, Andes 50 pounds (22.5 kilograms) Llamas, Andes 70 pounds (32 kilograms) Team of 30 llamas with 1 driver 2,100 pounds (950 kilograms) Packhorse can carry 30% of its weight 300 pounds (140 kilograms)

With North Arabian saddle (invented ca. 500 BCE) camels 700 pounds (320 kilograms) Roman horse-drawn wagon 700 pounds (320 kilograms) Medieval horse-drawn wagon (after invention of padded, shoulder-hugging collar) 2,100 pounds (960 kilograms)

Indian dhows, 1000 CE 220,000 pounds (100,000 kilograms)

Indian dhows, 1500 CE 880,000 pounds (400,000 kilograms)

Large Chinese junks, 1500 CE 2,200,000 pounds (1,000,000 kilograms)

Driver 3: Incentives to Innovate technologies that might take decades or even centuries to yield a profi t. We have seen that in the Era of Agrarian Civilizations, in- Peasant farming also discouraged innovation. Most novation was painfully slow by modern standards. food, fuel, and textiles came from small peasant farms that used traditional techniques and had little access to capital In the Agrarian era there were or new technologies. Most peasants lived in rural areas, Limits to Innovation few incentives to innovate. Gov- away from the intellectual powerhouses of the cities. Their in the Agrarian Era ernments and aristocrats enjoyed contacts with markets and new information were limited monopolies over many of the resources in their societies, because they produced most of the food, fuel, and textiles so they usually preferred traditional ways of doing things they needed themselves. Finally, most peasants were taxed over new-fangled methods that were unlikely to work and so heavily and so arbitrarily by governments or landlords might have unintended consequences. Merchants and craft that they had no incentive to improve their farming meth- workers were often equally conservative, and in a world ods. Why produce more if you knew your landlord would without patent laws those who tried to innovate would confi scate any surplus? Rough estimates suggest that peas- often fi nd their innovations copied instantly by others or ants often surrendered up to half of what they produced to suppressed by powerful craft gilds (as they were called in rulers and landlords. The low productivity of peasant farm- Europe). In such environments, it was rarely worth invest- ers, who made up most of the population and produced ing in new technologies. most of the wealth of agrarian civilizations, ensured that Sometimes important inventions appeared, only to be productivity in general remained low. Low productivity ignored or left undeveloped. In Chapter 9, for example, we on farms also limited the size of towns and cities because, saw that the wheel was known in the Americas but used only as a rule of thumb, it normally took about nine peasants for toys, probably because there were no large domestic to support one city dweller in much of the Agrarian era. animals that could haul wagons or carts. In China, the mix- This meant that cities could normally make up only about ing of saltpeter (potassium nitrate) and sulfur with charcoal 10 percent of the population. In 1400, only about 10 per- to make gunpowder was familiar by the year 1000 ce, but cent of the world’s populations lived in settlements of more developing effective gunpowder weapons would take many than 5,000 people. centuries, and most of the innovations would take place in Limited supplies of energy also lowered productivity. the constantly warring states at the western end of Eurasia. Almost all the energy used by human societies came from The slow pace of technological change throughout the sunlight recently captured by plants through photosyn- Agrarian era was itself a discouragement to innovation thesis. Sunlight grew the trees that supplied fi rewood or because it meant that investors were unlikely to reap any charcoal for fi res and furnaces, as well as the crops that rewards in their own lifetimes. For entrepreneurs, it made fed horses, oxen, and camels, and the humans who had do- more sense to use force and the law to protect monopoly mesticated them. Sunlight also drove the wind currents that rights over trade goods such as silks or precious stones than powered sailing ships and the fi rst windmills (introduced to seek ways of trading more effi ciently. For governments, in Persia around 1000 ce). But the main way of mobiliz- it usually made sense to grow your economy by seizing the ing solar energy was by exploiting the energy of domestic wealth of neighboring states. In a society without research animals (to draw plows and carts and to carry goods) and of institutes and competitive corporations, warfare, though humans, who, when captured as slaves, were often treated risky, was generally less risky than investing in uncertain simply as stores of intelligent energy. This is why slavery

220 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 220 04/04/13 1:04 AM chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 221 distances. Beforetheappearance ofcoins,mosttradehad tions thatmadeiteasiertouse andtransfercashover large fi which bruteforcesometimesgave way tocommercial the Muslimworld. Itwas here,withintradenetworks in the famous whiteandblueporcelains thatsoldsowellin Jindezhen withPersiancobaltglazessothey couldproduce potters fromthegreatporcelain-manufacturing centerof chants intheChinesecityofQuanzhouprovided Chinese in Chapter8,thelatethirteenthcenturyMuslimmer- Mediterranean, andintoCentral Asia andIndia. As wesaw created hugenetworks thattraded throughout Europe,the the fi of tradersboundtogetherbyethnicityorfamily ties.In Often, thesecitieswerehomestointerregional networks whose elitesspecializedinhandlinginternationaltrade. or states,suchasthegreatcity-statesofPhoenicians, just beyond theirreach, thereemerged independent cities their goodsandservices. best andmostcheaplywerelikely tofi as ageneralrule,thetradersorartisanswhodidtheirjob where therewas competition,effi markets, therewas sometimesroomforcompetition,and peacefully incompetitive markets. Buteven ininternal merchants whohadsomeknowledge ofhow totrade silks forhorses. And todothathewould have toemploy costly thateventually he realizedhewould have totrade his initialimpulsewas tosendanarmy. Butthatwas so ful “blood-sweatinghorses”ofFerghana inCentral Asia, peror Han Wudi (156–87 bce) wanted tosecurethepower- goods producedbeyond theirborders. When Chineseem- even themostpowerful ofempireshadlittlecontrolover were dominatedbytribute-taking andmonopolies.But competitive markets. vation was thekey tosuccess. That was wherethereexisted seemed tobemoreorlessfi a zero-sumgameinworld inwhichavailable resources ing thewealthofneighboringstates.Growth was seenas meant notproducingmoreorraisingproductivity, but seiz- son why, throughoutthe Agrarian era,growth generally build themostimpressive monuments. This isanotherrea- could mobilize,transport,andfeedthelargest armiesand gies. The statesthatweremost successfulwerethosethat achievement ratherthanamatterofinnovative technolo- sis, mobilizingresourceswas apoliticalandadministrative and thatwas costlyanddiffi had toassemblealotofpeopleandanimalsinoneplace, meant thattogenerateareallylarge amountofenergy you slaves werelike highlyversatile batteries.Butthisalso was soimportantinmuchofthepremodernworld; nesse, thatinnovation was mostlikely. and Innovation Commerce, Markets, Particularly importantincentives totradewereinnova- Sometimes, usuallyattheedgesofgreatempiresand We have seenthattheeconomies oftheagrarianworld In aworld whoseenergy camefromrecentphotosynthe- rst millenniumce, Armenian andJewish merchants ian civilizations, inwhichinno- area ofsociallife,even inagrar- However, therewas atleastone xed. cult. ciency matteredbecause, nd buyers for Civilizations markets hadalimitedimpactoninnovation. against them,whichiswhyduringtheEraof Agrarian their infl ments toraisetaxes. pand thereachofmarkets aswellthepower ofgovern- worked, they couldcheapenthecostofexchanges andex- was notalways true,ofcourse.Butwheresuch methods ways honorthepromisestopaythatthey represented. That as customerswereconfi promises topay. These couldbeuseduniversally, aslong own, whichwereineffect government-backed IOUs,or Chinese SongDynastybegan toissuepapernotesofits in responsetoshortagesofbronzeandsilver coins,the money tobetransferredover large distances.In1024 ce, Such IOUscouldoftenbeboughtandsold,whichallowed with anextra sumtocompensatethesellerfordelay. the purchaserpromisedtopaybyacertaindate,often for merepromisestopay, papernotesor“IOUs”onwhich existed, merchantswould sometimessellgoodsinreturn counted asgeneraltokens ofvalue. Where suffi throughout Eurasia. They madetradeeasierbecausethey of thefi ers thatissuedthem,appearedin Anatolia in themiddle was nodeal. The fi rstcoins offi ciallystampedbytherul- duce exactly thegoodstheircounterpartswanted orthere consisted ofbarter, whichmeantthatbothsideshadtopro- cline. Faced withdecliningresources,stateswould return polluted, andeventually levels ofhealthwould begin tode- be overused, leading tofamines; towns would becomemore would grow faster thanavailable resources;thelandwould and literaryactivity. encouraged thegrowth oftowns, building, andeven artistic lated commercialactivity throughexchange networks, and animal energy. Suchperiodsofgrowth normallystimu- area beingfarmed, andincreased supplies ofhumanand demand andencouragedeconomicactivity, expanded the innovations spread,populationsincreased,whichincreased deeper andturnedtoughersoils. As productivity-raising lars inEuropethatallowed horsestopullplows thatcut strains ofriceinsouthernChinaorimproved horsecol- novations, suchasthe introductionofmoreproductive sudden crashes.Often,Malthusiancycles began within- and productionseemedtorise,onlybefollowed by of Malthusiancycles: long periodsinwhichpopulations throughout the Agrarian eraexplains thepervasiveness seen aslow trickleofinnovations. that explains why, throughoutthe Agrarian era,wehave than today. However, they werenever entirelyabsent,and ers ofinnovation wehave identifi edwerelessimportant weaker thantoday. This was partlybecausethethreedriv- duce new ideas,methods,andtechnologiesweremuch Malthusian Cycles Slow Innovation and So, thoughmarkets existed throughoutthe Agrarian era, But theboomsalways endedinacrash.Populations As wehave discussed,theslow paceofinnovation rst millennium bce. By 1000 ce coinswereinuse rstmillenniumbce.By1000 ce uence was limitedandrulersoftendiscriminated dent thatthegovernment would al- Agrarian era,incentives tointro- ce,asthroughoutthe in 1000 In general,then,wecansaythat The World in1000 FIRST PAGES cient trust cient CE 04/04/13 1:04 AM 221 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

to the familiar strategy of seizing resources from neighbors regional states such as England and France. Finally, in the through war, and the brutality and devastation caused by decades after 1200, the Mongols, from a base in the steppes warfare would reduce production in many areas and spread north of China, created the largest land empire that had ever diseases and death. The source of the Malthusian cycles existed and eventually went on to conquer Iran and China. that dominated human history in the Agrarian era can be In the Americas, there may have been renewed popula- found in the slow rates of innovation throughout the era. tion growth both in Mesoamerica and the Andes as a result In the rest of this chapter, we will trace how, during two of warmer climates after 800 ce. As we saw in Chapter 9, great Malthusian cycles, the three drivers of innovation we new state systems emerged in Mesoamerica, fi rst in the have identifi ed began to increase in importance, fi rst in the tenth century among the Toltecs. New state systems also ap- Afro-Eurasian world zone, and then throughout the world. peared in the Andean region in Bolivia (near Lake Titicaca) The fi rst Malthusian cycle, which we can call the postclas- and farther north, on the coast of Peru (the Chimor state sical cycle, began well before 1000 ce in Afro-Eurasia from the tenth century). after the fall of the great classical empires. It lasted until During this long, and apparently global upswing all the crash of the mid-fourteenth century associated with the three of the drivers of innovation and Collective Learn- devastating pandemic known as the Black Death. The sec- ing described in the previous section seem to have become ond cycle, the early modern cycle, began in the fourteenth more infl uential. century and lasted almost until 1700. Expanding Exchange Networks The Postclassical Malthusian Exchange networks expanded as a result of population CE growth, which encouraged the colonization of regions Cycle: Before 1350 away from, or at the edge of, older regions of settlement. In the centuries before 1350, there was signifi cant growth In the centuries before 1000 ce the settlement of in many different areas, above all in the largest world zone, Polynesia was completed with the occupation of Hawaii Afro-Eurasia. Innovation was not the only cause of ex- and Easter Island, probably around 500 ce, and of New pansion. Global climates were generally warmer between Zealand and nearby islands, probably in about 1000 ce. 800 ce and about 1200 ce, and in many regions, warmer Although some of the most remote islands, including climates meant more rainfall and increased production of Easter Island, became disconnected from Polynesian ex- foodstuffs and other agricultural products. This was par- change networks, exchanges continued between the islands ticularly true in more marginal regions at the edges of the dominated by the Lapita culture in the western Pacifi c. We major civilizations. But new technologies also stimulated know this because archaeologists have traced the move- growth. For example, new crops appeared in the Islamic ment of obsidian through trade routes extending over world, at the heart of the Eurasian world. Sorghum and 2,800 miles (4,500 kilometers). The spread of sweet po- cotton (originally from Africa) and citrus fruits (originally tatoes from South America to western Polynesia suggests from Southeast Asia) spread widely, increasing output that there must also have been some contact between South (sorghum often replaced millet because it was tougher and America and the islands of the eastern Pacifi c. Meanwhile, more productive), and expanding textile production. Hawaii reestablished contacts with Tahiti in the twelfth and During the long upswing of the postclassical Malthusian thirteenth centuries. cycle, population growth stimulated urbanization and en- In the Americas, the Toltec city of Tula exchanged goods couraged the cultivation of new lands, particularly in frontier over large areas of Mesoamerica, including the Maya city regions such as eastern Europe and southern and western of Chichen Itza 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) to its south. China. Farming expanded in Scandinavia, where popula- The spread of Mesoamerican corn and infl uences (includ- tion growth helped drive the astonishing migrations of the ing the famous ball game) northward along the Mississippi Vikings. With increasing rural prosperity, cities multiplied River shows that there were at least intermittent exchanges and grew in Europe, around the Mediterranean, in Africa between Mexico and lands far to the north in what is today south of the Sahara, in India, Southeast Asia, and China. This the United States. In the Andes region, the great diversity is the era of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the Gothic cathedrals of resources produced at different altitudes encouraged of Europe, and the Mali Empire of West Africa. exchanges from the coastal regions, with their rich fi sh- In China, growth was particularly marked in the south. ing resources, up into the highlands where corn, coca, and In 750 ce, 60 percent of China’s population lived in China’s potatoes were grown and llama and alpaca were herded. northern regions; by 1000 that percentage had fallen to What is striking about the exchange networks of the 40 percent and China’s center of gravity had shifted south. Americas, though, is the absence of signifi cant exchanges Populations increased in Africa south of the Sahara, ris- between the two major populated regions—the Andes and ing from about 11 million to 22 million during the fi rst Mesoamerica. millennium ce, as Bantu migrations spread iron metallurgy In the North Atlantic, two ancient migratory currents and the cultivation of bananas southward. In Europe north converged in about 1000 ce to briefl y link the world’s larg- of the Mediterranean, and in Southeast Asia, population est world zones, the Americas and Afro-Eurasia. Warmer growth encouraged urbanization and the emergence of new climates may help explain the migrations to Greenland of a

222 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 222 04/04/13 1:04 AM chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 223 Muslim merchantsweretraveling regularly acrossthe Netherlands landwas reclaimedfromthesea. ers colonizedunderpopulatedlandstotheireast,andinthe history ofallEuropeinthisera.EastEuropeanfarm- larger pulseofexpansion andcolonizationthatshaped the Scandinavia. The activities ofthe Vikings werepartofa large quantitiesinhoardsthat reachfromCentral Asia to this becauseCentral Asian silver coinshave turnedupin craft productsofCentral Asia andByzantium. We know amber, furs,andothernortherngoodsforthesilver and the river systemsofRus(today’s Russia),tradinghoney, to IrelandandSicily. To theeast, Viking tradersexplored lands tosettle,creating Viking kingdomsfromNormandy fi raided Ireland,Britain,France,andtheMediterranean, made Greenlandmoreorlessunfarmable. inhabitants; andbythefourteenthcentury, colderclimates Newfoundland colony couldnotbedefendedagainstlocal ited consequencesbecausethey proved unprofi and Newfoundland. Their Atlantic expeditions hadlim- Irish monks),andthen,inthetenthcenturytoGreenland to Icelandbythe860s(wherethey hadbeenprecededby plain thesuccessof Vikings inmigratingfrom Scandinavia Warmer climatesandfavorable oceancurrents mayhelpex- which couldcarryupto10peoplealongwiththeirstores. Inuit. They traveled inkayaks orthemuchlarger umiaks whale- andseal-huntingpeopleknown todayasthe Thule rst insearchofbootyandeventually insearchofnew nArc,tasShrntaeboe.B 0 ce, 800 By boomed. trade trans-Saharan In Africa, Elsewhere, the Vikings weremoresuccessful. They AFRICA Mozambique Alexandria Mombasa Zanzibar Sofala Adulis Kilwa Malinda Mogadishu

Cairo

e d

S e MADAGASCAR a 40°E Mecca Aden ARABIA Basra

Baghdad

l f Siraf Hormuz PERSIA 60°E N o Arabian v. – Sea Fe b. INDIAN OCEAN M on so on table. The table. Cambay Surat Masulipatam Delhi Calicut INDIA Quilon CEYLON A p 80°E r il –S ep t. M , on Nov.–Feb. winds Monsoon April–Sept. winds Monsoon Trade routes s oon Bengal Bay of settlements andsetupmerchantcolonies.Unwittingly, they the easterncoastof Africa, wherethey establishedtrading monsoon winds(Map10.1). Arabic traderswere active along lennium ceasnavigators learnedtomake useof theregion’s the localpriceofgold. that the Arabic historianal-Umarireportedasharp fall in famous pilgrimagetoCairo,whichbroughtsomuchgold In 1324–25,emperorMusa(r. 1312–37)ofMali madea founded byawarrior kingknown asSundiata(1230–55). were replacedbyanew imperialsystem,theMaliEmpire, Intheearlythirteenthcentury,probably by1000 ce. they western Eurasia. The rulers ofGhanaconverted toIslam, was atthetimerichestsourceofgoldinwhole steppes ofthesouthernSaharatoward Cairo. West Africa both northward toward Moroccoandeastward, throughthe Ghana’s goldthatreallystimulatedtrans- Saharan trade, in returnforhorses,cotton,metalgoods,andsalt.Butitwas along theseroutes,including West African ivory andslaves, eighth centuryasa“landofgold.” Many goodsweretraded Senegal Rivers, whichMuslimwritersfi emerging statessuchasGhana, betweentheNigerand Sahara incamelcaravans. SouthoftheSaharathey reached of Melaka Trade expanded intheIndianOceanduringfi the world zones.the world zoneEurasian world ofall byfarthebestconnected routes theAfro- oftheSilkRoadscombinedto make 1600 MAP 10.1 Indian Ocean Indian trade networks, 600to 10.1 MAP Strait CE 100°E CHINA . SUMATRA The Indian Ocean searoutes Ocean andtheland TheIndian Palembang The Postclassical Cycle: Malthusian Before 1350 Y ell Melaka (H ow Chang’an ua ng He) Guangzhou Luoyang Quanzhou BORNEO China South Sea Hangzhou 120°E PHILIPPINE ISLANDS MALUKU ISLANDS rst describedinthe FIRST PAGES 140°E PACIFIC OCEAN

20°S

Equat rstmil-

or 20°N

0° CE 04/04/13 1:04 AM 223 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

even began to create a new language, Swahili, which com- worship. The requirement to make the pilgrimage to Mecca bined elements from Arabic, Persian, and Bantu languages. encouraged travel and cultural exchange throughout the In the eighth century, Javanese ships began raiding the shores Muslim zone, and Arabic emerged as a common language of Cambodia and Vietnam. There are depictions of some of for merchants throughout the Indian Ocean. This rich, var- these voyages in the remarkable temple of Borobudur in Java, iegated, and vibrant cultural world was described vividly which was built in the eighth and ninth centuries with profi ts in the literature of the time, including the One Thousand from local trading systems. At about the same time, using the and One Nights. From around 1000 ce, Chinese merchants outrigger craft fi rst developed in Southeast Asia and used for began to enter the trade at the eastern end as Song China, the great Polynesian migrations, migrants from the islands of increasingly cut off from the land-based Silk Roads by its modern Indonesia traveled right across the Indian Ocean to northern rivals, the Jurchen and the Xia-Xia, began to in- settle the island of Madagascar. vest in trade through the Indian Ocean. Porcelain exports By the ninth century, Muslim traders were traveling expanded because fragile porcelains could be transported regularly from the Persian Gulf to China and Korea, and more easily by sea than by land. a large Muslim trading colony was settled in Canton. The By 1000 ce, the Indian Ocean networks had begun to trading system of the Indian Ocean was dominated by link the economies of China, India, Persia, Africa, and the small trading city-states dotted along the ocean shores Mediterranean into the world’s richest and most active from East Africa to the Middle East to India and Southeast trading system. Asia, rather than by great empires. Curiously, this meant There was also increased travel and trade along the that commercial competition in this region was genuine; Silk Roads (Map 10.2). This was a result of several fac- rarely was it distorted by the activities of powerful rulers tors, including the growing interest of local rulers that sup- who could monopolize goods or trade routes. plied protection and often (sometimes with the support These networks also helped spread Islam throughout much of the region. By doing so they began to create a common cultural zone within which traders could fi nd MAP 10.2 The Silk Roads, 200 BCE to 300 CE. similar fi nancial and commercial practices (including long- Exchanges through the Silk Roads and the Indian range networks of credit), legal regulations, and forms of Ocean combined to make the Afro-Eurasian world zone by far the best connected of all the world zones.

B M Byzantium l ack

e S C d ea

i a t s e Aral r p TURKESTAN 40°N r i Sea a a Land routes

n n

e Antioch MONGOLIA

a T n S Turpan i

e S g e Bukhara ) Sea routes

a w r

a e

i o s l H Tyre l Merv e g

Dunhuang Y n PalmyraE Kashgar TAKLAMAKAN a u DESERT u Luoyang EGYPT p (H h BACTRIA r Khotan at Taxila es Chang’an Berenice PERSIA (C g) 20°N hang Jian Persian s zi u g Gulf d n n Ya I HI MALAYAS CHINA

e l Barbarikon G i ARABIA anges Guangzhou N Red PACIFIC Sea Barygaza South OCEAN Arabian China INDIA Sea Bay of Sea Bengal Isthmus Ankamedu of Kra 0°

Muziris MAM LAYAL uator AL Eq L AYAAY A BORNEOBORB NEONNE StraitStrait ofof MelakaMelaka INDIANI NDIAN OCEANOCEAN SUMATRASUMSUUMUMATATRA A 140°E 40°E

120°E

60°E 100°E 80°E

224 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 224 04/04/13 1:04 AM chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 225 in farming regions. Fodder cropssuchasoats(inEurope) equipped withstern-postrudders andwatertight bulkheads. nologies alsoadvanced withthe constructionoflarge junks by portagefromriver toriver. InChina boat-building tech- sea andalongrivers, andwhennecessaryitcouldbecarried In thenorth, Viking longboatcould travel fast bothat fi in theMediterranean,whereitbecamepossiblefor was inusethroughouttheIndian Ocean systemandeven the eleventh century, bythethirteenthcenturycompass away fromlandorundercloudyskies.UsedinChina south andthenorth. The compassmadenavigation easier extensive canalsystems,whichlinked theeconomiesof the twelfthcentury, improving transportationalongChina’s tion. InChina,canallockswerebuilt forthefi rsttimein tural improvements. ments todisseminateinformationonirrigationandagricul- Wood blockprintingmadeitpossibleforChinesegovern- cheapened thestorageanddisseminationofinformation. through theMuslimworld ofpaperandpapermaking technologies. The invention inChinaandeventual spread by improvements incommunicationsandtransportation The expansion ofexchange networks was driven inpart and Transportation Improvements inCommunications societies onEarthandthelargest thathadever existed. works. This was thelargest connectednetwork ofhuman Africa werejoinedwithinaseriesoflinked exchange net- century allofEurasiaandlarge partsofSoutheast Asia and lapping exchange networks (Map10.4).Bythethirteenth of Afro-Eurasia was linked togetherbythesevast andover- century, whentheMongolEmpirewas atitsheight,much an ambassadoroftheMongolrulerPersia,Il-Khan. Rabban Saumawould eventually visitRomeandParis as north China,RabbanSauma,inthelatethirteenthcentury. direction, taken bya Turkic NestorianChristianmonkfrom know ofatleastonecomparablejourney intheopposite guides thatwerealreadycommonintheIndianOcean. We planning ontraveling toChina,similarthenavigational Italian publisherswereprintinghandbooksformerchants Indian Ocean(Map10.3).Bytheearlyfourteenthcentury, 1271, stayedfor17years,andreturnedbyseathroughthe merchant, MarcoPolo,wholeftforChinawithhisunclesin tire routefromtheMediterraneantoChinaandbackagain. time, merchantsandtravelers began totravel alongtheen- to the Mediterranean. As aresult,moreorlessforthefi in tradeandprotectedroutesalltheway fromChina thirteenth century, therulersofMongolEmpireengaged itself asthemainlanguageofcommerceandtrade.In routes oftheSilkRoads,Persianlanguageestablished where travelers couldrestandresupply. Along theland of religiouscharities)built caravanserais (roadsideinns) rst time tonavigate withconfi Several innovations improved theimportanceofhorses There werealsoimportantinnovations intransporta- Janet Abu-Lughod hasshown thatinthemid-thirteenth Best known ofthesetrans-Eurasiantravelers istheItalian dence away fromthecoasts. rst were usuallykeen tosupporttradeandbenefi Muhammad hadhimselfbeenamerchant,governments in otheragrariancivilizations, partlybecausetheprophet where commercehadalways enjoyed higher statusthan both urbancentersandruralregions. IntheMuslimlands, Market activity increasedinmany partsoftheworld, in Increasing Markets andCommerce the thirteenthcenturyitincreasedcostsbyonly33percent. kilometers)increasedtheircostby100percent; (160 trade. InRomantimes,transportingheavy goods100miles of landtransportation,whichstimulatedlong-distance increased theloadhorsescouldpullandreducedcost which they couldbeused.Betterfeedandimproved breeds durance ofhorsesandwideningtherangesurfaces on and Europe fromtheeleventh century, increasingtheen- tation. NailedhorseshoeswereintroducedinbothChina with brakes andfrontaxlesthatcouldturn)intranspor- plowing and(aftertheinvention ofimproved wagons lennium ce. They increasedthevalue ofhorsesbothfor and spreadthroughEuropefromtheendoffi lowing horsestopullmuchharder, wereinvented inChina collars thatgrippedtheshouldersratherthanthroat,al- or alfalfa madeitcheapertofeedhorses.Improved horse and sizeofcitiesexpanded inallthemoredenselysettled and therelative independenceofmerchants. The number more spontaneous,stimulated byrapideconomicgrowth tion, over 700yearslater. that would notreallytake off untiltheIndustrialRevolu- mechanize theproductionofsilk,anticipatinginnovations sued inlarge quantities,andattemptswereeven madeto began tousegunpowder inwarfare. Paper money was is- production roserapidly, andboththeSongJurchen tories mass-producedthousandsofsuitsarmor. Copper world beforetheIndustrialRevolution. Government fac- in quantitiesthatwould notbeexceeded anywhere inthe teenth centuries.Intheeleventh century, ironwas produced remarkable innovation in theeleventh, twelfth,andthir- mercialization atmany different levels ofsocietyledto commercial activity andrapideconomicgrowth andcom- vestment inimproved farming andirrigationmethods. encouraging specializationamongpeasantfarmers andin- Market activity began toreachdeeperintotheeconomy, to foreigntradersandbyexpanding thesupplyofmoney. so they encouragedforeign tradebyopeningupnew ports Jurchen, theSongbegan toseekrevenues fromcommerce, pay forconfl traditional Confuciandisdainformerchants(Map10.5). To commerce thanmostearlierdynasties,whichhadshareda ized southernregions and began totake moreinterestin in 1125,cameundertheinfl uenceofthemorecommercial- the SongDynasty, after being expelled fromnorthernChina the IndianOceanandMediterranean.InChina,rulersof become themajortradingcentersforgoodstradedbetween from it.Bythetenthcenturyce,Cairoand Alexandria had In otherpartsof Afro-Eurasia, commercialization was In SongChina,thecombinationofstatesupportfor ictswiththeirnorthernrivals, theManchurian The Postclassical Cycle: Malthusian Before 1350 FIRST PAGES ted fi nancially rst mil- rst CE 04/04/13 1:04 AM 225 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

Moscow

EUROPE Venice Aral Se C Genoa k a Blac Se s a p ia n S e Constantinople a

M e d i ter ranea Baghdad Fez n Sea Jerusalem SAHARA Cairo Siraf Persian Medina Gulf

R Mecca e d S e Timbuktu a

Aden MALI AFRICA

Mogadishu

Malindi Mombasa

Kilwa

ATLANTIC OCEAN

MAP 10.3 Travels across MADAGASCAR Afro-Eurasia. The Mongol Empire made it possible for almost the ﬁ rst time for individuals such as Marco Polo (thirteenth century) Mongol Empires and Ibn Battuta (fourteenth century) to travel the entire Marco Polo’s travels length of Afro-Eurasia and Ibn Battuta’s travels helped bind the diﬀ erent parts of the Afro-Eurasian world one closer together.

226 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 226 04/04/13 1:04 AM Aral Sea Arabian chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 227 MALDIVE IS. Sea

In d u s Delhi INDIAN OCEAN

INDIA

ASIA

CEYLON e s Bengal Bay of

Karakorum

g z i

Melaka Y

SUMATRA el

low

(

Khanbaliq a

Guangzhou e (C ) h a n

a n

Quanzhou Hangzhou g

JAVA ) China South Yellow Sea Sea AUSTRALIA China East Sea Sea of Japan PACIFIC OCEAN Tropic ofCancer Tropic ofCapricorn The Postclassical Cycle: Malthusian Before 1350 Equator FIRST PAGES CE 04/04/13 1:04 AM 227 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

Bruges I Troyes Karakorum Venice Caffa Genoa Black Sea Caspian Constantinople Sea III Peking II Tabriz Bukhara Samarkand Mediterranean Sea IV Alexandria Cairo Baghdad Basra Hangchow Hormuz East Zaytun China Red Sea Muscat Canton Jiddah Cambay VIII Sea Timbuktu Bay of Arabian South ATLANTIC Gao V Bengal Aden Sea Calicut China OCEAN VI Quilon Sea Malacca VII INDIAN OCEAN Palembang

0 500 1,500 Miles

0 500 1,000 Kilometers

MAP 10.4 Janet Abu-Lughod’s map of the thirteenth-century world- system. Each circuit represents a region of vigorous, interconnected trade networks. Note how networks in diﬀ erent parts of Afro-Eurasia seem to be coming into closer and closer contact with each other.

SongSong DDynastyyn SouthernSouthern Song Dynasty Jin EmpireEmpire GrandGrand CanCanal MONGOLIA MANCHURIA Yell ow

Sea of Japan

( (

( K H H Hu

u O (East Sea)

a a a

n n

n R

g g g

E He) H H He) e

e A

) )

Yellow Chang’an Sea Kaifeng

Y an (C gz h i an Hangzhou g Jian g) Ningbo East MAP 10.5 China in the China era of the Song Dynasty, Sea 960 to 1279 CE. For more than two centuries, China Guangzhou was divided between A M N M N several competing empires. e k South o A n Increased competition g China Sea triggered signiﬁ cant military, 0 250 500 mi technological, and economic 0 500 1000 km innovation.

228 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 228 04/04/13 1:04 AM chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 229 family memberstoseekwage laborinthetowns. by sellingsurpluscropsorhandicraftgoodssending ages thatforcedfamilies toseeknew sourcesofincome increasing taxes and,aspopulationsgrew, by land short- of Afro-Eurasia. Peasantswereoftendriven tomarkets by ing goodstomarket orbuying luxurygoodsin many parts worlds. There isalsogrowing evidence ofpeasantsbring- terms withthegreatempiresofMuslimandChristian and militarypower enabledthemtotradeonalmostequal states suchas Venice andGenoa,whosecommercialreach the IndianOceanwas thegrowing power ofmerchantcity- 1400. Particularly strikingintheMediterraneanregion and on Earth,with9ofthe25largest citiesintheworld in Dynasties, Chinabecamethemosthighlyurbanizedregion India, thenbyCairoandParis. DuringtheSongand Yuan probably Nanjing,followed by Vijayanagar insouthern regions ofEurasia.In1400,theworld’s largest citywas new Malthusian cycle thatwould last untiltheseventeenth growth resumedover thenext century ortwo, startinga more carbondioxide. once beenfl spheric carbondioxideasforestsreappearedinwhathad argues itledtoasignifi cantreductioninlevels ofatmo- tion infarmlands was sosharpthat William Ruddiman deserted farmlands; andshrunken economies. The reduc- Afro-Eurasia withfewer people,cities,towns, andvillages; The BlackDeathleftmostofthemorepopulousregions of Cycle: 1350to 1700 The Malthusian EarlyModern important inthisperiodthanthey hadever beenbefore. ent partsofEurasiaweremuchmoreextensive andmore Death isitselfpowerful evidence thatlinksbetweendiffer- networks. Inotherwords, thedamageinfl the plague. This was asignofthelimits earlierexchange tions. Second,many regions ofEurasialacked immunityto goods, andthey didsoacross entirecontinentsandciviliza- networks encouragedthecirculationofdiseasesaswell Eurasia fortwo mainreasons.First,expanded exchange whatever itssource,itis clearthatitspreadrapidlythrough that itwas thesameasmodernbubonic plague.But the BlackDeathisdisputedtoday;itnolongercertain killed uptoathirdofthepopulation. The exact nature of beginning inthe1330s. Inmany regions theBlackDeath spread fromeasttowestacrossEurasia’s tradenetworks, tating ofall,however, was theBlackDeath,aplaguethat killed off 15percentofEurope’s population.Mostdevas- mon. The greatEuropeanfamines of1315–17mayhave the fourteenthcenturyce,andfamines becamemorecom- boom was followed byacrash.Climatesbegan tocoolin Sadly, ashadhappenedsomany timesbefore, thelong The Crisis Fourteenth-Century However, ashad happenedsomany timesbefore, ourishing frontiervillagesandbegan toabsorb CE icted bytheBlack ing shipsaround Africa intothe Atlantic ordueeastinto was there tobrave dangerousandcontrary windsbysend- north), andhugewealthwithin Chinaitself,whatincentive Ocean soclose,few dangerous opponents(except in the needed todoso.But,withtherichmarkets oftheIndian incentive ortheknowledge ofdeep-seawindsandcurrents lowed Chinatoreachthe Americas iftherehadbeenthe that madetheseexpeditions possiblewould surelyhave al- (See Figure10.3.) built, withfour decksandalengthof406feet(124meters). armed men.Hisfl Networks: Before 1500 Creating theFirst GlobalExchange drivers separately. ization thatwewillnottryinthissectiontotreatthethree in transportationtechnologiesandincreasingcommercial- change networks. Butthiswas socloselylinked tochanges portant inthiserawas theremarkableexpansion ofex- integrated intotheemerging globalexchange networks. tion was particularlystrikinginthosesocietiesmosttightly lords toseeknew ways ofmakingmoney. Commercializa- fi and expanded commercialopportunitieswithintheworld’s markets boomedasincreasingcompetitionbetweenstates tion) andcommunications(particularlyprinting).Finally, forms oftransportation(particularlyindeep-seanaviga- tion growth andbynew technologies,includingimproved exchange networks wereenergized byrenewed popula- ing thelargest networks thathadever existed. Expanding works would expand toembracetheentireworld, form- and transportation,increasedcommercialization. trade networks, improved technologiesofcommunications ers ofCollective Learningthatwehave identifi would beimportantnew developments inallthreeofthedriv- century. Duringtheexpansionary phaseofthis cycle, there Zheng He.Hisfi only in1433. They wereledby aMuslimeunuch, Admiral 1424) launchedseven overseas expeditions thatended East Africa. Beginning in1405,Emperor Yongle (r. 1403– east Asia, theIndiansubcontinent,MiddleEast,and establish diplomaticrelationswiththecountriesofSouth- began sendingouthuge fl teenth century, Chinese governments oftheMing Dynasty active roleinthisprocess. For abriefperiodintheearlyfi the world (Map10.6).Rulersandelitesoftenplayedan Black Deathstimulatedtradeandtravel inmany partsof more varied thanany that hadever existed before. were stitchedintoasinglenetwork ofexchange, larger and time, atrulyglobalspecies,associetiesinalltheworld zones tory ofhumanity. This iswhenhumansbecame,for the fi mentous expansion inexchange networks intheentirehis- witnessedthemostmo- The periodfrom1350to1700 ce rst globalmarkets encouragedmerchantsandtheirover- The organizational, fi Of thethreecrucialdrivers ofinnovation, the most im- For thefi rsttimeinhumanhistory, exchange net- Before 1500,renewed growth intheperiodafter The Early Modern Malthusian Cycle:The Malthusian EarlyModern 1350to 1700 rst fl rst agship was oneofthelargest shipsever eet included317shipsand28,000 nancial, andtechnologicalskills eets ofshipstoshow thefl CE FIRST PAGES ed: expanding ag and rst rst f- CE 04/04/13 1:04 AM 229 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

NORTH G AMERICA Lisbon ATLANTIC Seville Granada AZORES OCEAN Ceuta

SAN CANARY SALVADOR ISLANDS Tropic of Cancer SAH CUBA

HISPANIOLA

CAPE VERDE ISLANDS

Equator SOUTH AMERICA PACIFIC OCEAN

Tropic of Capricorn

ATLANTIC OCEAN

Goo Zheng He’s voyages Dias’s voyage Da Gama’s voyage Columbus’s voyage

MAP 10.6 Chinese and European voyages of exploration, 1405 to 1498. In the ﬁ fteenth century, major voyages of exploration were launched from both ends of the Afro-Eurasian world zone. All were aimed at reaching the rich trade routes of the Indian Ocean. This map shows why it made sense for some European navigators to try to reach the Indian Ocean by sailing westward across the Atlantic, and it was those attempts that led Columbus to the Americas.

230 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 230 04/04/13 1:04 AM A a Good Hope HARA Genoa Cape of Venice chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 231 EUROPE Rome AFRICA Sofala Mombasa

Mogadishu Kilwa Sea Red Persian Mecca Gulf Aden MADAGASCAR Siraf Arabian Sea

Calicut Indu INDIAN OCEAN s Delhi MALDIVE IS.

INDIA

PENINSULA n

e s CEYLON MALAY ASIA Bengal Bay of Of Melaka

Strait

g z i

CHINA

Guangzhou Ye SUMATRA llow (C

Melaka h

a (

n u Hangzhou a n

g g The Early Modern Malthusian Cycle:The Malthusian EarlyModern 1350to 1700 Quanzhou

i a

JAVA H n e

g ) China South ) Sea Yellow Sea Nanjing AUSTRALIA China East Sea PACIFIC OCEAN FIRST PAGES CE 04/04/13 1:04 AM 231 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

Zheng He’s ship Columbus’ St. Maria (c. 400 ft. long) (c. 85 ft. long)

400 300 200 100 0

FIGURE 10.3 Zheng He’s treasure ship (400 feet or 120 meters) compared to Columbus’s ship, the Santa Maria. Between 1405 and 1433, the Chinese government sent out a series of naval expeditions through the Indian Ocean. They used some of the largest and most sophisticated ships ever built. The expeditions were commanded by a Muslim eunuch, Zheng He.

the apparently empty Pacifi c? How limited the incentives to build a highly disciplined army of “Janissaries”: soldiers were became clear when, after Emperor Yongle’s death, his captured as children, mainly in the Christian Balkans, who successors, Emperors Hongxi and Xuande, abandoned the had, as a result, no ties of loyalty to anyone but the Ottoman expeditions that had cost too much and diverted resources state. In 1453 the Ottomans would capture Constantinople; and attention from China’s endangered northern frontiers. early in the sixteenth century they would conquer Egypt, In truth, China had gained little of political, economic, or Arabia, and much of Mesopotamia; and soon Ottoman military value from them, so the decision made sense. fl eets were patrolling the waters of the western Indian On large and small scales, similar forms of expansion Ocean. This gave them monopoly control over the lucrative could be found in many different parts of the world, in- trades in spices from Southeast Asia. By the early sixteenth cluding the Americas, where the mighty Aztec Empire was century, the Ottoman Empire dominated the Mediterranean built mainly in the fi fteenth century ce, at the same time as world and had become one of the world’s great powers. the far more extensive Inca Empire was being assembled Europe lay at the edge of the great trading networks of in the Andean region. In Africa, the Mali Empire expanded Afro-Eurasia, well away from the superpowers of China, its power and reach as it established trading relations with India, and the Ottoman Empire. After the Black Death, communities in the tropical lands of West Africa, but also Europe was a region of highly competitive medium-sized with Morocco and Egypt. The great Muslim traveler, Ibn states whose rulers were often suffi ciently cash-strapped Battuta, would visit Mali between 1352 and 1354, after to look benignly on commercial activities that might turn years of travel through the Islamic world, which took him a profi t. Markets and capitalism fl ourished in such an en- to Mecca, to the Golden Horde and Central Asia, to India, vironment. In the Mediterranean, the most active trad- and perhaps to China (see Map 10.3 on page 226). ers were Italian city-states, above all Genoa and Venice. In the Mediterranean, the Ottoman Empire was founded Merchants from both cities traded through the Middle East in the late thirteenth century when a ruler known as Osman and in the Black Sea region and also in the growing mar- appeared in the complex political and military cauldron of kets of northern Europe, and their commercial wealth al- Anatolia. In the decades after the Black Death, his succes- lowed them to pay for powerful armies and navies. After sors, the Ottomans, seized parts of the Balkans and began the rise of the Ottoman Empire, the Venetians managed to

232 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 232 04/04/13 1:04 AM chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 233 mid-fi the highlymaneuverable Portugueseshipsdeveloped inthe technologies borrowed fromotherregions. The resultwas gunnery, andnavigational technologies,mostlybasedon angular sailsallowing navigation closetothewind),naval modest improvements inshipdesign(suchasthe useoftri- the Atlantic anddown thecoastlineof Africa encouraged getically thanever before. The fi to explore thewaters ofthe Atlantic Ocean more ener- ers andentrepreneurstheir(often)Italianfi to theIndianOcean—encouragedwesternEuropeanrul- Ottoman blockadeofEasternMediterraneantraderoutes of Maligold,growing demandforfi ward westernEuropeandthe Atlantic. but Genoesemerchantswereforcedtolookwestward, to- continue tradingthroughouttheEasternMediterranean, the Canaries, reached the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, and the Canaries,reachedBahamas onOctober12,1492,and Genoese sailor, ChristopherColumbus. Columbus sailedvia access totheIndianOcean. The expedition was headedby a ing west,therebygettingaround theOttomanmonopolyon expedition thathopedtoreach Asia’s richmarkets bysail- In 1492,theSpanishrulersFerdinandandIsabellabacked an how tonavigate thewindpatternsandcurrentsof Atlantic. ments explains whyeventually Europeanmarinerslearned larger plantationsofthe Americas. provided modelsthatwould eventually beusedinthefar tions alsoappearedintheCanaryIslands. These plantations slave laborandsoonturnedahealthy profi began tosetupsugarplantationsonMadeira,whichused the 1450sPortuguesesettlersbacked byGenoeseinvestors weapons forgold,cotton,ivory, andslaves. Meanwhile,in verted south,asPortuguese merchantstradedtextiles and African coastandsoonmuchofMali’s tradewas beingdi- them. In1482aPortuguesefortwas establishedonthe West to the West African coast, wherePortuguesetradersmet gold caravans werediverted fromthetortuousSahararoute lowed, tradingingold,ivory, pepper, andsometimesslaves, and Senegal Rivers totheMaliEmpire. As moreshipsfol- sponsored byPrinceHenryofPortugalsaileduptheGambia Muslim intermediaries;andinthe1450s,aGenoeseship tempts toreachthesourceof West African goldtocutout westerly winds,andletthemcarryyoubackhome. to headnorthward, deepintothe Atlantic Oceaninsearchof best way backtoSpain,Portugal,ortheMediterraneanwas easy totravel southwestbeforethewindtoCanaries, that many navigators alreadyunderstoodthat,thoughitwas Madeiras andthe Azores. Discovery ofthe Azores shows navigators knew alsoofother Atlantic islandgroups,the ing the Atlantic shores.Bythe1380s,Iberianand Majorcan as dyes,wellinfi shingandsupplyingothershipsply- opportunities inslaving andthesaleoflocalproductssuch own indigenouspopulations,they foundmodestcommercial preneurs seizedtheislands.InCanaries,whichhadtheir Canary Islands,but inthefi fteenthcentury, Castilianentre- Several factors—including missionaryzeal,knowledge The modestsuccessoftheseearlycommercialexperi- From the1420s,Portuguesenavigators renewed theirat- By the1340s,Portuguesenavigators hadlandedonthe fteenth centuryandknown ascaravels. rst small-scaleforaysinto sh inEurope,andthe t. Sugarplanta- nanciers turned home. Awang, whohadactedasaninterpreterbefore beingre- world, forthey hadtaken withthemaMalayslave, Panglima mates werenotquitethefi gation oftheworld. ButitseemsthatdelCanoandhisship- of survivors, having completed thefi rstknown circumnavi- 1522 withjustoneoftheoriginalfi ve shipsandatiny group his deputy, JuanSebastiandelCano,returnedtoSeville in Pacifi ing theSpanishcrown, roundedCapeHornandcrossedthe government andofotherpotentialinvestors. vealed caughttheattentionofcash-strappedPortuguese sibilities oftradeintheIndianOceanthatthisvoyage re- at whichitwas soldinEurope. The vast commercialpos- prices; Indianpepper, forexample, cost1/20thoftheprice the OttomanEmpireandpurchasedhisgoodsatvery low da Gamahadbypassedthecommercialintermediariesof and cinnamon. The cargo was profi it stillbroughtbackaprofi it hadfew goodsthatinterestedlocalmerchantsorrulers, pedition ledby Vasco daGamareachedIndiaand,though the northeastern American coast.In1498,a Portuguese ex- would soonleadtotheexploitation oftherichfi Cabot), sailedfromBristoltoNewfoundland, atripthat an Italian,Giovanni Caboto(known inEnglishasJohn On hisreturn,heclaimedtohave reached Asia. then touredmuchoftheCaribbeanfornext few months. century inTheCommunistManifesto : “World tradeand the several centurieslater. As Karl Marxwroteinthenineteenth signifi entire geographyofglobalexchange networks. The full intellectual exchanges, ofwealthandpower, indeedofthe ernments, triggeredarearrangementoftradenetworks, of system, Europeannavigators, backed byEuropeangov- By linkingsocietiesthroughouttheworld intoasingle Exchange Network After 1500 best-connected region onEarth. exchange networks, enrichingEuropeandmakingitthe the Atlantic region atthecenterofworld’s fi the fi expanded andremarkably diverse networks would create somewhere else.Over the next few centuriesthesevastly part oftheworld, andsellingthematmuchhigherprices nities forglobalarbitrage: potential profi would give Europeanmerchantsandrulersaccesstohuge exchange networks inhumanhistory. Eventually, this the very edgeof Afro-Eurasia, hadcreatedthefi commercial andgovernmental backers, thoughsituatedat consequences oftheiractions,Europeanmarinersand to have beenthefi circumnavigate theglobeinspace,Panglima Awang seems In 1519,Portuguesenavigator FerdinandMagellan,serv- Five yearslater, anEnglish-backed expedition ledby Almost accidently, andwithlittleunderstandingofthe rst world economy. They would alsoplaceEuropeand c. Magellanwas killedinthePhilippines1521,but cance ofthesechangeswould become apparentonly The Early Modern Malthusian Cycle:The Malthusian EarlyModern 1350to 1700 1 ts. Above all,they foundmany new opportu- Justas Yuri Gagarinwas thefi CE rst humantocircumnavigate itbysea. : An Emerging Global rst humanstocircumnavigate the table cargo, mainlyofpepper buying goodscheaplyinone table because Vasco because table FIRST PAGES rst human to to human rst sheriesof rst global rst rst global rst CE 04/04/13 1:04 AM 233 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

world market date from the sixteenth century, and from leaders of their opponents, breaking all the diplomatic and then on the modern history of Capital starts to unfold.” moral rules of the societies they had entered. Finally, and perhaps most important of all, Europeans succeeded be- European governments and mer- cause they brought with them new diseases, to which the New Commercial chants soon found new ways of populations of the Americas lacked immunity. Both the Opportunities exploiting their central position Aztec and Inca Empires suffered terrible plagues during in the world’s fi rst global exchange networks. the wars of conquest, plagues brought unwittingly to the In the world’s richest trade system, that of the Indian Americas by the Spanish. Ocean, Europeans had few goods that interested local mer- From the seventeenth century, merchants and entrepre- chants. But they mostly encountered small- to medium- neurs from other European countries, above all Holland, sized trading polities or city-states, and soon found that France, and Britain, began to carve out empires of their their gunpowder weapons could sometimes make up in own in the Caribbean and in North America. force what their goods lacked in quality. Within a few decades, Portuguese fl eets had built forts at crucial points in By the middle of the sixteenth Global Arbitrage the networks of the Indian Ocean, such as at Kilwa on the century, Europeans, beginning coast of East Africa, or at Hormuz on the Persian Gulf, with the Spaniards, had begun to realize that the real ad- Goa (captured in 1510), and eventually at Malacca in the vantage of their new position at the center of global net- East Indies. From these strong points the Portuguese cut works lay not just in exploiting particular parts of those themselves a modest but valuable slice of the regional spice networks, but in the arbitrage profi ts they could make by trade, because now they could bypass the Ottoman inter- moving goods between the different world zones. They had mediaries who had monopolized control of trade from the begun to discover the huge commercial possibilities of the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. world’s fi rst global trading system. Early in the seventeenth century, the Dutch and then Two vital elements in this emerging system of global ar- the English, using equally brutal tactics but with greater bitrage were Peruvian silver and China’s rapidly expanding human and fi nancial resources, began to oust the Portu- economy. In the fi fteenth century, as Chinese populations guese from the Indian Ocean trade networks. The Dutch grew and commerce increased, Chinese governments needed East India Company was the world’s fi rst great trading more silver for coinage. At fi rst, they found the silver they corporation and it showed the many advantages of com- needed in Japan. But by the sixteenth century, as populations bining government support, military power, and commer- grew, fed in part by the introduction of American crops such cial canniness. After overthrowing their Spanish overlords as corn, sweet potatoes, and peanuts, demand began to ex- in the late sixteenth century, the Dutch would eventually ceed supply. The Chinese government began to demand that displace the Portuguese in Southeast Asia and Indonesia, taxes be paid in silver, the relative value of silver rose, and while the British would displace them in India. But until Japan could no longer satisfy Chinese demand. the eighteenth century, even these more aggressive colonial Meanwhile, across the Pacifi c the Spanish, after their empires had only a limited impact on the trade networks of conquest of the Incan Empire, had discovered a mountain the Asian region. of silver in the 1540s at Potosi, in modern Bolivia. They In the Americas, European colonizers arrived not just had already found much gold and silver in both Mexico as traders but also as conquerors. During the sixteenth and and Peru, but this was wealth on an entirely new scale. seventeenth centuries, the Spanish and Portuguese created The Spanish began exploiting the mines of Potosi using huge American empires. In short and brutal campaigns, in the forced labor of the local population (by taking over the which they often allied with the enemies of local empires traditional Inca system of forced labor known as the mita) such as the Aztecs, the Spanish seized the heartlands of the and then they began to use slave laborers from Africa. Po- old American civilizations in Mesoamerica and the Andes tosi expanded rapidly and by 1600 it was one of the biggest region, while the Portuguese began to build new colonies cities in the world. And here, at last, Europeans found a in Brazil, where there were no large state structures to re- commodity that really was in high demand in the rich mar- sist them. kets of East Asia. Why they were able to conquer these lands with such Silver was carried to Mexico where much of it was apparent ease is one of the central questions of the era. The minted into Spanish pesos. From Mexico some silver was answers all have to do with the differences that had accu- transported across the Atlantic where the Spanish gov- mulated between the major world zones. The Spanish had ernment spent it largely on military operations designed a temporary military edge through their use of horses and to control the vast empires of the Hapsburg monarchs, gunpowder technology, though indigenous troops soon ac- Charles V and Philip II. As a result, it fl owed into the hands quired both horses and guns. The Spanish had a political of Spain’s North European bankers who used much of it edge insofar as they operated under the brutal military and to fund trade with the Indian Ocean, from where much of political rules of Europe’s constantly warring states, and it ended up in China. Another portion of the silver from felt free from the moral constraints of the societies they Potosi was carried across the Pacifi c in the Manila gal- were invading. Both Hernan Cortes in Mexico and Pisarro leons, where it was traded for Chinese silks, porcelains, in Peru succeeded in part by capturing and massacring the and other goods in Spanish-controlled Manila. That silver,

234 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 234 04/04/13 1:04 AM chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 235 its generatedbyglobalarbitrageonamassive scale. European products.Herewereopportunitiesforsuperprof- cheaper (andofmuchbetterquality)thantheequivalent in Europe, whileChinesesilksandporcelainswerefar In the1540s,silver was worth twiceasmuchinChina was theworld’s fi rstglobalcurrency, theMexican peso. fi tem ofexchange andallowed thecreationofworld’s brutal ofconditions)drove theworld’s fi because itwas extracted usingslave laborunderthemost the Americas (low becausetherewas somuchofit,and between 1500and1800eventually reachedChina. estimates, 75percentofthesilver minedinthe Americas too, mostlyendedupinChina.Indeed,accordingtosome often armedwithEuropean weapons.Europeantraders regimes, slave-raidingwarlike creating throughout Africa, goods. As theslave tradeexpanded, itreshapedsocieties metal goods,weapons,textiles, wines,andotherEuropean slave traderssoldslaves toEuropeantradersinreturnfor Americas withinasingleexchange network. African the eighteenthcentury, cotton. would spreadtootherproductsincluding tobacco,and,in demand. After thesixteenth century, theplantationsystem provided thelabor, andEuropeanconsumersprovided the vestors suppliedmostofthecapital, African slave traders after theintroductionofEuropeandiseases.in- Caribbean, indigenouspopulationshadlargely diedout to supplytheneededlabor, particularlywhere,asinthe equipment. The emerging African slave tradesoonbegan cheap laboraswellconsiderableinvestment inrefi Successful sugarplantationsrequiredlarge amountsof into theCaribbeanislandsearlyinseventeenth century. Dutch, British,andFrenchinterlopersintroducedsugar sugar plantationsinBrazilworked by African slaves. Then of thesixteenthcentury, thePortuguesehadestablished sugar toSantoDomingoonhissecondtrip.Bythemiddle in-law owned asugarplantation intheCanaries,brought Americas mightbeexploited. Columbus, whosefather- tations provided brutal but effective modelsofhow the the eastern Atlantic. Worked byslaves, theseearly plan- before beingintroducedtothenewly conqueredislandsof in theMediterraneanislandsofCyprus,Crete,andSicily Americas, wheretheonlyothersweetenerwas honey. yet therewas alsohugedemandforitinEuropeandthe labor onplantationsmeantsugarcouldbeproducedcheaply, that began todrive highlyprofi elsewhere. Sugarwas thefi be producedcheaplyinoneregion andsoldathighprices come anew globaltradinghub. exchange network emerged in whatwould eventually be- rst globalfi nancialnetwork. Dominatingthatsystem System The AtlanticTrading The highpriceofsilver inChinaanditslow pricein The plantationsystemlinked Africa, Europe,andthe In thefi This systemalsodependedonfi fteenth century, sugarplantationshadappeared changes atall,anentirelynew fore 1492therehadbeennoex- In the Atlantic region, wherebe- rst inaseriesofcommodities table tradingsystems.Slave nding goodsthatcould rst globalsys- ning tion: The Americas exported indigenouscropssuchascorn, the Pacifi eventually they would appearin Australasia andpartsof These new societiesappearedfi culture, andlifeways weremodeled onthoseofEurope. “neo-Europes”: societieswhoseagriculture,governments, ers, mostlyofEuropeanorigin,tobuild awholeseriesof New cropsarrived aswell,includingwheat,rye,andsugar. lands thathadnotknown suchanimalsformany millennia. century, therewere7to10millionhooved animals grazing not usedtosuchaggressive grazers.Bytheseventeenth often displacingnative speciesanddegrading grasslands pigs, andsheepmultipliedinthewildoronhugeestates, displace thehoeagricultureofpast.Importedcattle, available forthefi and agricultureinthe Americas asdraftanimalsbecame Plains Indians. The horsealsorevolutionized transportation from horseback,creatingthehorse-ridingculturesof that hadsubsistedfromfarming orforagingtooktohunting transformative. InNorth America, indigenouscommunities soon afterthearrival ofthefi in the Americas inthePaleolithic eraonlytobewipedout Americas forthefi joined withinPangaea. lion yearsbefore,whenallthemajorcontinentshadbeen last timetheworld hadbeenlinked like thiswas 200mil- pathogens the“Columbianexchange.” As hepointsout,the has termedthisglobalexchange ofanimals,plants,and world began tobereconnectedecologically. Alfred Crosby began totravel betweenthedifferent world zones,the world ecologicallyandculturallyaswellcommercially. The comingtogetheroftheoldworld zonestransformedthe of GlobalExchange Networks Ecological andCultural Impacts made theplantationssoprofi Africans whoweretradedascargo andwhosecheaplabor made hugeprofi slave tradersinwestern,central,andsouthern Africa all and New England,plantationowners inthe Caribbean, and America (Map10.7).Merchantsandinvestors inEngland Africa, andtheEnglishcoloniesinCaribbeanNorth triangular systemoftradebetweenEurope,thecoasts ies ofEurope.Inthisway thereemerged ahighlyprofi into rumorsoldasasweetenerintherapidlygrowing cit- while sugar, theirmainproduct,wentnorthtobedistilled from EuropeortheagriculturalcoloniesofNorth America, so specializedthatthey hadtoimportfoodandclothing of the Americas, particularlythoseoftheCaribbean, were carried slaves tothe Americas. The plantationeconomies Exchange The Columbian The ecologicaltraffi calsowentintheoppositedirec- The spreadofEuropeandomesticateshelpedcoloniz- Sheep, cattle,horses,pigs,andgoatsnow reachedthe c and Africa aswell. The Early Modern Malthusian Cycle:The Malthusian EarlyModern 1350to 1700 ts. The mainvictimswere the millionsof rst time(thoughhorses hadbeenpresent rst time,andplow agriculturebegan to plants, anddiseasepathogens technologies, religions,animals, As goods,ideas,wealth,people, table. rst humans). The results were rst inthe Americas, but FIRST PAGES table CE 04/04/13 1:04 AM 235 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

CANADA NORTH London A ATLANTIC Paris OCEAN New York NORTH Lisbon S AMERICA D O O Charleston G

D AR E G R U S U T

F CUBA U N

HAITI A PUERTO RICO M A JAMAICA

R DAH

G ASANTE

U S SLA SLA GUIANAS VES VE CO S A Equator LAVES S

SLAVES BRAZIL

SOUTH Bahai AMERICA

Rio de Janeiro

Buenos PACIFIC Aires SOUTH OCEAN ATLANTIC CAP OCEAN

MAP 10.7 The Atlantic slave trade, 1500 to 1800. The trade in slaves was one part of a larger trade network linking Africa, western Europe, and the Americas, and exchanging people, manufactured goods, and agricultural produce.

236 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 236 04/04/13 1:04 AM S E Paris

CAPE OFGOODHOPE

DAHOMEY O

Amsterdam

A AFRICA

S OYO T chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 237 EUROPE KONGO ANGOLA RWANDA BUGUNDA

MOZ AM TURKANA B I M Q A U S A E I

PENINSULA ZANZIBAR ARABIAN MADAGASCAR

S L A V ES Equator INDIAN OCEAN INDIA Slave settlementareas African slaves Source areas of goods Manufactured Sugar Slaves The Early Modern Malthusian Cycle:The Malthusian EarlyModern 1350to 1700 FIRST PAGES CE 04/04/13 1:04 AM 237 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

potatoes, tobacco, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, manioc, and forests of Siberia to the Eastern Mediterranean and western squashes to Africa and Eurasia. Agrarian societies through- Europe and even into North America. out the world gained access to a greater variety of crops that Everywhere, markets expanded in response to the many could be grown in those regions best suited for them. The new opportunities created within the world’s expanding result was a global agricultural revolution that would under- trade networks. The tentacles of trade reached deep into pin population growth in the next two centuries. Stimulants Africa through the exchange of slaves for European man- such as coffee, tobacco, and sugar also became available to ufactured goods, into the Americas through the fur trade consumers throughout the world creating a diverse world of and the creation of plantation economies, and into remote recreational drugs that had never existed before. villages in Russia or Siberia or China, where government Diseases went global too, but here the traffi c was mostly taxes forced peasants and even foragers to buy and sell lo- one-way. Just as diseases had once spread through the trade cally produced goods. Expanding markets encouraged en- networks of Afro-Eurasia, decimating populations that trepreneurs to travel further and further in the search for lacked immunity to them, now they spread globally and furs (this was the engine that drove Russian expansion the results were even more catastrophic. The main killers in into Siberia and European expansion into much of North the Americas were smallpox, measles, and typhus, diseases America), fi sh, whales, silver, sugar, or tobacco. for which many European populations had developed some Such processes transformed environments throughout immunity. Their impact was devastating in all the smaller the world, leading to a sharp increase in human control of world zones, none of which had exchanged diseases and the biosphere. Colonizers settled and farmed lands never immunities on the scale of Afro-Eurasian societies. Pre- brought under the plow before, or hunted or fi shed on scales dictably, the collapse was greatest where populations were that threatened entire species, or moved species into envi- densest and diseases could spread most rapidly. In the most ronments they had never occupied before. Almost invariably, populous regions of Mesoamerica some estimate that popu- they did so with the backing of Afro-Eurasian governments lations declined by 90 to 95 percent in the sixteenth century, and entrepreneurs keen to profi t from new methods of mo- and they fell by perhaps 70 percent in the Andes region. As bilizing the resources of forests, steppes, rivers, and seas. As populations fell, established social, political, and religious John Richards has shown, the two centuries after 1500 saw structures broke down, making it that much easier for the an increasingly frenetic exploitation of the resources of the Spanish to create an empire modeled on their Iberian home- biosphere in many different parts of the world. By applying lands, crops, and culture. The same story would be repeated old methods of exploitation in previously underexploited re- many times over in the next few centuries. Afro-Eurasian gions and with a new energy, humans as a species increased diseases cleared spaces within which European colonizers their control over the Earth’s resources. could introduce their own crops, people, religions, govern- Strangely, information often traveled less well than mental structures, and farming methods. commodities or people or diseases. Particularly in the old hub regions of Afro-Eurasia, the cultural impact of a uni- The emerging global exchange fi ed world was limited for several centuries. Cultural and Political networks did not just transform But in two areas the cultural impact of the fi rst global Impacts: Toward Europe and the neo-Europes. Ev- exchanges was massive: in the Americas and in Europe. Capitalism? erywhere, the diffusion of crops, In the Americas, it was largely destructive, as cultural and of gunpowder weapons, of new organizational methods, of political traditions were undermined and sometimes oblit- improved agrarian techniques, of printing, and of com- erated in the wake of disease and conquest. Traditional re- merce enhanced the power of governments. And as their ligious traditions were largely driven underground, though power increased, governments did what they could to ex- they would resurface in the form of an Americanized pand their populations and their revenues. Above all, they Catholicism shaped in distinctive ways by older American encouraged expansion, particularly into once marginal re- religious traditions. gions, to increase their populations, their wealth, their tax Global exchange networks affected European societ- base, and ultimately their power in an increasingly com- ies mainly because Europe had became a sort of clearing- petitive world arena. The expansion encouraged by govern- house for information from all parts of the world. Because ments meant an increase in human control of the land, Europe lay at the center of these networks it was there that forests, fi shing grounds, lakes, and other species. fl ows of new information had their greatest impact. The Perhaps the most spectacular example is the expansion discovery of the Americas, the sighting of new stars, and of Muscovy. At the time of the Black Death, Muscovy was the discovery of peoples and cultures and religions and a Christian principality controlled by a Mongol state known crops never known before and not mentioned in the Bible today as the “Golden Horde.” By 1700, Muscovy was the or in the works of classical authors created an intellectual largest state in the world, controlling lands that reached from earthquake that undermined trust in traditional knowledge. Poland in the east to the Pacifi c coasts of eastern Siberia. As “New islands, new lands, new seas, new peoples; and, what Muscovy expanded, it encouraged peasant farmers and their is more, a new sky and new stars,” wrote the Portuguese masters to settle the forests and steppelands that came under mathematician Pedro Nunes in 1537.2 Among educated its control, and it also encouraged trade, above all in furs, Europeans, growing skepticism toward traditional knowl- a trade whose tentacles extended from Beijing through the edge encouraged what were at fi rst somewhat chaotic

238 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 238 04/04/13 1:04 AM chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 239 by thetraditionsofany particularregional culture. that was globalinitsreachandapplicationnotbound lution: Itsuniversalism anditscommitmenttoknowledge also explain afundamentalfeatureofthatintellectual revo- position withinthefi “scientifi rizons ofEuropetowhathastraditionallybeencalledthe be soughtinexploration linktheexpanding intellectualho- new knowledge andtheconviction thatknowledge should and fi authorities sothatknowledge couldbereestablishedonnew fi of theFrenchphilosopherReneDescartes(1596–1650),we ful studyoftherealworld (Figure 10.4). Inthephilosophy study ofancienttexts, but ratherbytheexploration andcare- model ofhow scienceitselfshouldproceed,notthroughthe truth. Baconsaw thegeographic discoveries ofhistimeasa through exploration and directobservation was thekey to (1561–1626), wefi ndasensethatnew knowledge gained provide fi attempts toassembleinformationinnew ways thatmight nd asenseoftheimportancequestioningestablished In theempiricismofEnglishscholarFrancisBacon “Many shallpassto andfro, shallincrease.” andknowledge quotation, from thebookof what pastscholarshave saidabout theworld. The asitreallydepends onstudyingtheworld is, notjust that scientiﬁ by Francis Bacon. IUE1. Frontispiece ofthe 10.4 FIGURE rmer foundations.Boththeskepticism generatedby c revolution” oftheseventeenth century. Europe’s rmer foundationsforknowledge. c discovery, like geographic discovery, c discovery,geographic discovery, like In his famous book, Bacon maintains Baconmaintains hisfamousbook, In rst global intellectualnetwork may Daniel intheBible, reads: Great Instauration

transplanting themelsewhere.” the formofobservingalientechnologiesandcrops sure effects, inwhichtechnologicalchangeprimarilytook they didso.JoelMokyr describesthisasan“ageofexpo- to region, undergoing minoradaptationsandadjustment as nizational methodstospreadmoreeffectively fromregion change networks allowed technologiesandcropsorga- what wemainlyseeinthisperiodishow expanding ex- and alongthesidesofPortuguesecaravels. fi bows, thoughthey could notmatchthecoordinatedcannon Ottoman fl Portuguese arrived, and thegalleys oftheMameluke and non was widespreadthroughouttheIndianOceanwhen equally successfullytootherenvironments. The use ofcan- and theRussianshadadaptedgunpowder technologies widely usedelsewhere. The Ottomansandthe Mughals and thecompass,hadoriginatedfar fromEuropeandwere able forsometime,andmany, suchasthetriangular sail used inthefi ping, gunnery, andnavigation thatEuropeannavigators technological innovation. Mostoftheinnovations inship- chapter seemedtohave surprisinglylittleimpactonratesof In fact, foracenturyortwo thechangesdiscussedinthis onInnovationThe Impact changes. Didthey? led tosharpincreasesininnovation andprofoundglobal much oftheworld. Inprinciple,thesechangesshouldhave and competitive markets becameever moreimportantin cant improvements incommunicationsandtransportation, chapter: exchange networks expanded, thereweresignifi the drivers ofinnovation describedatthebeginning ofthis We have seenanincreaseintheimportanceofallthree The World in1700 and exploitation oftechnologies,crops,andbusiness innovation. Globalexchange networks allowed thespread Learning, fi Printing would becomeapowerful driver ofCollective house ofknowledge withinthe Afro-Eurasian world zone. knowledge, astheMuslimworld had oncebeenastore- Printing began toturnEuropeintoastorehouseofglobal a centurylater10timesasmany bookshadbeenprinted. of Europe’s towns, and20 millionbookshadbeenprinted; of information.By1500therewereprintingpressesin236 printing stimulatedliteracy andspeededupthecirculation you neededonlyasmallnumberoftypefaces, soinEurope in regions suchasEuropewithalphabeticscripts,where Buddhist text from1377.Butthetechniquefl the oldestprintedbookusingtechniqueisaKorean ing withmovable metal typewas invented inKorea, and movable type,byJohannes Gutenberg, in1453. Print- cerns theEuropeanrediscovery ofprintingwithmetal re made possiblebymountingcannonbetweentheribs Instead ofrevolutionary technologicalinnovations, Yet inthisperiodwedonotyet seeadecisive increase in Perhaps thestrongestclaimforarealinnovation con- eetsintheIndianOceancarriedcannonattheir rst inEuropeandthenthroughout theworld. fteenth andsixteenthcenturyhadbeenavail- 3

CE The World in1700 FIRST PAGES ourished best CE - 04/04/13 1:04 AM 239 on the brink of a threshold FIRST PAGES

methods, many of which had been around for a long time reaching from the Mediterranean through the Indian Ocean in one part of the world or the other. In this way, the com- to East Asia. But the intellectual and commercial benefi ts ing together of the different world zones in the sixteenth of Europe’s position at the center of these networks would century accelerated technological diffusion. But the real slowly increase, as European governments learned to ex- explosion of new technologies would occur in the nine- ploit their central position within global trade networks, as teenth century. the volume of global trade increased, and as European in- tellectuals grappled with the unprecedented torrent of new On the Brink of Change? information that fl owed through Europe’s academies and universities and business offi ces. Sluggish innovation explains why, in 1700, much of the Although in many ways the world of 1700 seemed very world still seemed very traditional. Most people were still traditional, all the elements were gathering for an explo- peasants; most governments still thought of themselves in sion of innovation in the next two centuries. The changes traditional terms and ruled in traditional ways; and energy were perhaps easiest to see in the new Atlantic hub region. sources had changed little since classical times. Nor had In Europe, in a world of highly competitive, medium- rates of innovation increased signifi cantly. sized states, the commercial, economic, and political im- In 1700, the fastest way of sending a message was still pact of global exchange networks was obvious. Commerce by courier; most bulk goods still traveled on horse- or ox- got the attention of rulers, bankers, and governments. Arbi- drawn wagons or by boat. Peasants were probably less trage on global markets sustained the power of the Spanish self-suffi cient than they had been 2,000 years earlier. They empire in the sixteenth century and the power of its rival, probably handled money more often, sold goods more fre- the Dutch Republic, in the early seventeenth century. Here quently on local markets, or looked for wage-work more we see the roots of what would later be called capitalism. often than in the past. But most still produced most of their Commerce generated signifi cant revenues for both govern- own food and textiles. Markets were certainly increasing in ments and elites. Many nobles invested in trade, while gov- scope and importance, but they did not dominate people’s ernments found that as the markets for goods such as salt lives as they do today. The fact that most producers were or liquor or textiles or sugar expanded, these commodities peasants meant that cities and large towns, though multiply- could yield huge revenues. By 1700, most of the revenues ing everywhere, still contained a minority of the population, of the British government came from customs and excises usually no more than 10 to 20 percent. We could have said of various kinds. That helps explain why British govern- much the same of the very earliest agrarian civilizations. ments spent so much on supporting trade, by building a What had changed was the scale on which already exist- huge navy capable of protecting overseas empires and by ing ideas, goods, people, crops, and diseases were being ex- founding the Bank of England to support investment in changed and traded. This increase in the scale of exchanges new commercial ventures. and commerce prepared the way for a much more spectacu- In Britain and parts of western Europe the structure of lar burst of innovation from the late eighteenth century. This society itself was changing rapidly as more and more peo- was partly because, in region after region, societies were ple became dependent on markets and on wages. Modern beginning to encounter resource limits: less land was avail- analyses of the demographic studies of the pioneering able, wood and energy shortages became more common, English statistician Gregory King suggest that by the end furs became scarcer. By 1700, the world’s forests, arable of the seventeenth century, about half of England’s rural land, rivers, and seas were being exploited on an unprec- population did not have enough land to support them- edented scale, but still with largely traditional technologies. selves. That meant they had to sell their labor, either in Expanding markets stimulated commerce in many different the countryside, working as rural laborers for large farm- parts of the world and levels of commercialization increased, ers, or by seeking wage work in the towns. King’s fi gures drawing more and more merchants, governments, and even suggest that toward the end of the seventeenth century peasants into market exchanges. As Adam Smith (1723–90) over half of Britain’s national income was generated from understood, larger markets encourage specialization and the commerce, industrial production, or rents and services. If effi ciencies that go with it, a process that is peculiarly clear it really is true that highly commercialized societies are in the emerging plantation economies of the Atlantic. more likely to prove innovative than less commercialized We can also see in this period the beginning of a pro- societies, then this is an important omen of impending found change in the global distribution of wealth and change. By the late seventeenth century, England and its power. Before 1500, the societies of Eurasia’s Atlantic great rival the Netherlands were both looking more and Seaboard had been marginal, sitting at the edge of the vast more “capitalistic.” Not only did markets dominate their exchange networks of the Afro-Eurasian zone. After 1500, economies, but governments and elites were also deeply societies of the Atlantic region suddenly found themselves engaged in commercial activities of many different kinds. at the center of the largest and most diverse trade networks The colossal extent and variety of exchange networks that had ever existed. For two or three centuries, the vol- in this period, and the increasing importance of commerce, ume and value of goods traveling on the newly discovered were perhaps the most important elements preparing the routes remained less impressive than the volume and value way for the remarkable burst of innovation that would begin of goods traded through traditional networks, such as those in the eighteenth century during the Industrial Revolution.

240 Chapter 10 Toward the Modern Revolution

chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 240 04/04/13 1:04 AM chr85611_ch10_214-241.indd 241 . J.H.Elliott,TheOld World andtheNew 1492–1650 2. Luke Clossey, “Merchants,Migrants, Missionaries,andGlobalization 1. University Press,1999. Man, John. Oxford University Press,2009. Headrick, Daniel. Exploration. New York: Norton,2007. Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. University Press,1986. Expansion ofEurope, 900–1900 Crosby,W. Alfred Press, 1972. Cultural Consequencesof1492. Crosby,W. Alfred History Globalization intheEarly-ModernPacifi Clossey, Luke. “Merchants,Migrants,Missionaries,and Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Encounters: A GlobalPerspective onthePast. 2vols. 2nd ed. Bentley, JerryH.,andHerbertF. Ziegler. Traditions and capitalist societies Anthropocene arbitrage 2. 1. theworld ing two greatMalthusiancycles. By1700 ce, commercialization—became increasinglyimportantdur- of communicationsandtransportation,increased innovation—expanding tradenetworks, improved forms This chapterdescribedhow threekey drivers of ENDNOTES FURTHER READING KEY TERMS CHAPTER QUESTIONS SUMMARY UK: CambridgeUniversity Press,1970),39–40. in theEarly-ModernPacifi century? sixteenth the unifi What was themostimportantconsequenceof Learning andinnovation? commercialization—tend toencourageCollective and transportationtechnologies,increasing exchange networks, improved communications Why didthethreegreatdrivers ofgrowth— expanding 1(2006):41–58. Atlas ofthe Year 1000 cation ofthemajorworld zonesfromthe Technology: A WorldHistory. Oxford,UK: Ecological Imperialism: The Biological The ColumbianExchange: Biological and c.” Pathfi nders: AGlobalHistoryof Journal ofGlobalHistory1(2006):58. . Cambridge,UK:Cambridge Westport, CT: Greenwood . Cambridge,MA:Harvard exchange networks drivers ofinnovation communications c.” Journal ofGlobal (Cambridge, modern revolution incentives toinnovate globalization 3 Joel 3. Mokyr, Vol. 1.New York: Norton,2008. Tignor, Robert,etal.Worlds Together: Worlds Apart.2nd ed., University Press,2005. Humans Took Control ofClimate.Princeton,NJ:Princeton Ruddiman, William. New York: Longman,2001. Ringrose, David. California Press,2003. History oftheEarlyModern World. Berkeley: University of Richards, John. Present. 2nded. Armonk, ME:Sharpe,2006. Created: Society, Culture, andthe World Economy:1400tothe Pomeranz, Kenneth, andSteven Topik. Journal of World History16,no.3(September2005):249–67. Northrup, David. “GlobalizationandtheGreatConvergence.” Century.2nded.Lanham,MD:Rowman &Littlefi and Ecological Narrative from theFifteenth tothe Twenty-fi rst Marks, Robert. 6. 5. 4. 3. scribed inthenext chapter. eighteenth andnineteenthcenturies;thesechangesarede- The realbreakthroughtomodernitywould occurinthe Yet inmany ways, theworld remainedquitetraditional. was linked withinasingle,globalexchange network. Economic Progress (New York: OxfordUniversity Press,1990),70. the verge offundamentaltransformations? What signsweretherein1700thattheworld was on world as“traditional”intheearlyeighteenthcentury? Why isitstillappropriatetodescribemostofthe fi rstglobalmarkets inthesixteenthcentury? societies begin toincreaseafterthecreationof Why didthewealthandinfl resources bytheeighteenthcentury? In whatsensewas theworld beginning torunoutof The OriginsoftheModern World: A Global The UnendingFrontier: An Environmental The Lever ofRiches: Technological Creativity and Expansion andGlobalInteraction, 1200–1700 Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum: How transportation monopoly uence ofEuropean The World ThatTrade FIRST PAGES eld, 2007. Endnotes . 04/04/13 1:04 AM 241 on the brink of a threshold