Part 24 (2/2)

number of barrels of wine carried by the Spanish Armada 76,000.

price paid, in modern-day dollars, for one rare tulip bulb in Holland during the period of Tulip Fever 40,000.

amount, in tons, of British imports of tea in 1699 11,000,000.

amount, in tons, of British imports of tea in 1785

30.

amount, in tons, of English imports of American tobacco in 1622 10,000.

amount, in tons, of English imports of American tobacco in 1700 1,357.

amount, in pounds, of Indian opium sold by Dutch merchants to Indonesians in 1660

80.

amount, in tons, of Indian opium sold by Dutch merchants to Indonesians in 1685

15.

amount, in tons, of British exports of Indian opium to China in 1720

75.

amount, in tons, of British exports of Indian opium to China in 1773 5,000.

number of African slaves imported by English slave traders to North America in 1685 45,000.

number of slaves imported annually a few decades later 50,00060,000 amount, in pounds, of gold and silver captured by the pirate Henry Avery from one s.h.i.+p owned by the Moghul emperor in 1695

THE AGE OF LIBERATION, FRAGMENTATION, STAGNATION, AND PLAIN OL' NATIONS

(17501900)

IN A NUTSh.e.l.l.

In the second half of the eighteenth century, a wave of revolutions changed the world forever. It began in 1776 in North America, where the colonists kicked out the Brits and established a new, democratic nation with a framework-the Const.i.tution-based on a crazy concept: simple reason.

Taking their cue from the uppity Americans, in 1789, French revolutionaries executed King Louis XVI and tried to establish a new republic on democratic principles-but instead they got a bloodbath known simply as the Terror.

It got even worse (or better, depending on your perspective). Terrified by the popular revolt, the crowned heads of Europe united against France. But the revolutionaries conquered all of continental Europe, for a time, thanks to the brilliance of an ambitious young artillery officer named Napoleon Bonaparte.

But it didn't last. After Napoleon's downfall, Europe's kings vowed to prevent revolution from ever happening again. It was time to stop fighting each other and cooperate against the real enemy: the poor ma.s.ses embracing new, revolutionary ideologies such as ”nationalism” and ”communism.” The kings formed a diplomatic club called the Concert of Europe to crush any new revolutionary movements.

They were galvanized by events in Latin America, where rebels led by Simon Bolivar threw off Spanish rule forever. And they were right to be worried: Bolivar's national revolutions in turn inspired European nationalists to create powerful new nation-states in Germany and Italy, disrupting their careful balance of power.

Meanwhile, well-established Asian empires that could have used a little revolution instead entered into steep declines. In the Middle East, the Ottoman Turks fell prey to the rising tide of nationalism, losing key territories in the Balkans and North Africa. In Persia, the Qajar Dynasty started off on the wrong foot and then discovered that the other foot wasn't much better, as Britain and Russia ganged up to kick it around. The Moghuls in India disappeared entirely, swallowed up by the British Empire, and Q'ing China saw tens of millions of its citizens addicted to opium by the clever and unscrupulous Brits. j.a.pan under the shoguns stagnated with a backward military and clueless officials until a new upstart, the United States of America, delivered a very rude wake-up call.

That's not to say there weren't moments of bada.s.s-ness. Native Africans created two great empires in this period, with the Zulu and Ashanti terrorizing their neighbors and even holding off the Brits for a while. But like everyone else, they were about to be left in the dust by one more upheaval brewing in Great Britain: the Industrial Revolution.

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN.

17551760 French and Indian War takes place in North America.

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