An Industrialized World

Question 5: Of those plants we have so far studied, which in your opinion has had the greatest impact on world history. Justify and explain your answer.

It is nearly impossible to decide which plant has impacted world history the most. However, within the constraints of our class and my own knowledge, I have to choose cotton. Why, you might ask? 

American History of Cotton
Well, perhaps I'm biased as a native of the Southeastern United States, home grown in a place where cotton changed history forever: Atlanta, Georgia. Cotton built Georgia's robust economy while simultaneously demanding the mass importation of slaves from Western Africa. This morally reprehensible practice ultimately led to the American Civil War, where Atlanta was burned to the ground at the hands of General Sherman. Later, after the challenging reconstruction era and the horrors of racism, the Civil Rights Movement finally occurred making Atlanta a stronghold for black American culture and racial integration. That's just a short version of the story. Needless to say, cotton had a colossal effect on The United States. However, rather than focusing on the history of America, I will instead discuss another impact that cotton had on the world: the advent of the Industrial Revolution. 

Picking cotton was a grueling task

A New Age
The Industrial Revolution began in the late 1700s and marks a huge turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily life was affected in Britain and it spread to the rest of the world. Indeed, as a student of Environmental Studies I have learned over and over again that the Industrial Revolution changed the world as we know it. Not only did it it increase carbon emissions, it led to unprecedented population growth. On the positive side, people's standard of living generally improved (although I'm not sure the factory workers would agree). Why did this all happen? Well, based on the topic of my post I'm sure you can guess....

Cotton. 

An image of Manchester during the Industrial Revolution,
textile manufacturing hub and the world's first industrial city. 

New Inventions
Textile manufacturing in Britain marked the initiation of the Industrial Revolution. Early inventions and innovations include the rolling spinner machine and the spinning jenny. These new machines were produced for the sole purpose of producing cotton as quickly as possible. Indeed, "Mechanized cotton spinning powered by steam or water increased the output of a work by a factor of about 1000." Later on, American Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin which was equipped to remove the seeds from cotton, exponentially speeding up the process and reducing human labor needs. Years later, the Industrial Revolution would continue to lead to urbanization, the development of better transportation, and more. It changed the world permanently and globally, all because cotton led to the invention of new machines and labor practices. One small plant changed the world in a huge way, for better or for worse I can not be sure.  

The spinning jenny, invented by James Hargreaves in 1764. 

You can watch a video about the spinning mule (a similar invention) here.

Photo sources:
Photo 1: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/Cotton1943_cropped.jpg
Photo 2: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/books/raised-by-dissent-forging-the-industrial-revolution-1-2943870
Photo 3: http://kids.britannica.com/elementary/art-183939/The-spinning-jenny-was-used-for-spinning-wool-and-cotton

The Company That Owned Nations

Question 4: Draw together and explain the roles of cotton, tea and opium in the business and success of the British East India Company.

The idea of a company ruling country (or a few) is somewhat ridiculous in the modern world. Sure, Apple has the world at it's beck and call every time a new product is released but they certainly can't claim ownership of China or the United States. But The British East India Company actually acted as an agent of British imperialism in India. That's right, they were the governing body for India and held a monopoly on trade in most of Southeast Asia. They first ventured into the eastern part of the world for spices and ultimately ended up controlling the cotton, tea, and opium trade. In fact, The British East India accounted for more than 50% of global trade at one point during its powerful reign. 

Cotton and Tea: British Necessities The British East India Company (which I will now refer to as EIC) took control of India, taking advantage of their cheap labor and good soil for cotton cultivation and importing the cotton back to the English cotton mills. Additionally, EIC attempted to penetrate China's trade barriers in search of tea and other unique goods. At this time, China barred westerners from trading in their country. However, England was addicted to tea so they made it work. When EIC finally managed to set up trade for tea, China only accepted silver and gold as payment which was rather inconvenient. As a result, EIC had a significant trade deficit with China. What was their solution?

Tea Clippers were extremely fast ships designed to carry tea from India and China to England.

Opium: A Substitute for Silver 
Well as history has proved time and time again, addictive substances are the most lucrative goods to trade. It was certainly true for tobacco and so England got China hooked on opium. It all began when Warren Hastings - an EIC leader in India - established a colonial monopoly over Bengalese opium. Because it was questionable for EIC to trade opium directly, they sold copious amounts of the addictive drug to "legitimate merchants" in order to wash their hands of the illegal activity. Not so mysteriously the opium ended up in China and EIC ended up with silver coins in their pockets once again to exchange for tea. In some ways, it was a brilliant trading scheme but overall it was entirely immoral and resulted in mass drug addiction for China. By 1906, 13.1 million people or 27% of the Chinese population was addicted to opium. 

To get a feel for the British East India Company's tea and opium trade, try playing this computer game. You can actually be an opium trader on a tea clipper! Talk about getting engaged with history! (Credit goes to Olivia for the recommendation). 

Photo links:
Photo 1: http://az-teas.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/tea-cup1.jpg
Photo 2: http://www.bathandwells.org.uk/assets/images/communications/Connect/Poppies%20(2).jpg
Photo 3: http://www.bathandwells.org.uk/assets/images/communications/Connect/Poppies%20(2).jpg