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Course: World History Project - 1750 to the Present > Unit 1
Lesson 2: History Frames | 1.1- BEFORE YOU WATCH: Frame Concept Introduction
- WATCH: Frame Concept Introduction
- BEFORE YOU WATCH: Communities Frame Introduction
- WATCH: Communities Frame Introduction
- BEFORE YOU WATCH: Networks Frame Introduction
- WATCH: Networks Frame Introduction
- BEFORE YOU WATCH: Production and Distribution Frame
- WATCH: Production and Distribution Frame Introduction
- History Frames
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WATCH: Production and Distribution Frame Introduction
We already know that humans live in communities and share things and ideas across networks. There is another important frame to help you understand human history. In this frame, we look at how we make things and share, sell, or trade them within our communities and across networks. The earth and our universe provided the raw materials. But across history, humans have become increasingly sophisticated in how we produce and distribute goods and tools. But this increasing sophistication has caused some problems that we deal with today. Exploring these changes and problems can orient us to the present and help prepare us for the future.
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/OERProject. Created by World History Project.
Want to join the conversation?
- At4:57, why does the long nineteenth century end in 1914? Wouldn't it make more sense to end this era at 1900 or 1901?(4 votes)
- Well, the people of that age weren't so kind as to start behaving completely different right on the turn of the century. 1914 marks the start of World War 1, and the shifting of power away from Europe.(12 votes)
- What is the difference between BP and BCE? I googled what BP stands for, but both Before Present and Before Common Era are in the past, so technically, they would mean the same thing, right?(5 votes)
- Yes. BC (Before Christ) is sometimes also used.(2 votes)
- At3:18does anybody notice there is a 500 year gap between the end of era 3 and the start of era 4? Why is that?(3 votes)
- There's also a 3000 year gap between eras 2 and 3. I believe the eras used here are simply qualitative constructions that help us study the past more easily. So, naturally, there could be some overlaps or gaps between eras.(3 votes)
- The cost of all of our evolution is pollution and climate, but that is the cost for more conveniencefor humans(1 vote)
- why does era 6 start in 1750?(1 vote)
Video transcript
(music playing) More than any other species,
humans make and use things. We call this process
of making things production. We also share or sell
or trade the things we make. We call this process
distribution. Both production and distribution have become increasingly
complex over time. And the ways that humans
and their communities have produced and distributed
goods and services have changed over history. Developing a brief but
big picture of major changes in the ways we produce and
distribute goods and services should help you as you begin
your study of the human past. We'll give you a frame,
or perspective, to help you fit the pieces
of human history together. When you encounter
different events or processes in the different eras
of the course, this story should help you
locate the event or processes in the larger flow
of human history. We will also look closely at specific events or people
or processes to see how well they fit
into our big picture. And sometimes, the individual
pieces won't quite fit. In those cases, we'll have
to modify the picture to create a better understanding
of the ways our systems of production
and distribution have changed over time. So, what is a big picture that shows how our systems
have changed? (music playing) Production and distribution
was not really a human concern in Era One,
before modern humans evolved. But it was in this era that the materials, elements,
and environment we use for production
formed. As you'll see, the location of the Earth's sources of energy
and natural resources will influence
both which goods and services we produce and distribute and how we do this work. We really begin the story of human production
and distribution in Era Two, hundreds
of thousands of years ago. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors used what they found
in their environment to make everything they needed, including food, simple clothing,
and items for recreation. Then they shared these with
others in small family groups. Within this era,
about 12,000 years ago, the first farming societies
developed. Farming was a new system
of production, and drove humans
to modified ways of distributing goods
and services. In addition to hunting
and gathering, early agricultural systems
of production required people to domesticate,
or control, plants and animals. Production became specialized as
we learned to create iron tools, weave or spin cloth
from animal wool or plant cotton. These skills required
knowledge and expertise, and it was nearly impossible to master more than one or two
of these crafts. Through these changes,
a division of labor developed. Some people became specialists
in certain crafts or services, such as pottery, weaving,
metalworking, and even providing protection. This process continued over time and grew even more intense
as more and more people worked in areas
outside of food production, as you will study
across Eras Three and Four. New systems of distribution
evolved to move and trade goods created
in one place to other places. These systems were often along
routes covering great distances that required many steps
and many participants. The use of money emerged to help govern trading
and taxation and investment to help make it all possible. Between at least 600 C.E.
and 1450 C.E., trade routes connected
producers and consumers across large regions
of the world, patterns of production
and distribution that we'll examine in Era Four. These systems of production
and distribution were not always growing. Sometimes, they collapsed
and became less complex, at least for a while. But recovery followed collapse, and by around 1300--
early in Era Five-- two great systems
of distribution emerged: one in the Americas and the other connecting much
of Africa, Europe, and Asia. Then, around 1500,
these two systems were connected in the Columbian Exchange,
the first global age. Now, despite these changes
in production and the growth
in distribution networks, the ways people created the
goods had changed only gradually in thousands of years. People learned
to make things better, but only bit-by-bit
and without many major changes. As they had
for thousands of years, people depended upon biology
and the environment to provide the energy needed to produce and distribute
the goods and services. Then, about 200 years ago,
in Era Six, suddenly,
everything changed again. Human use of fossil fuels
created an energy bonanza that helped create
the Industrial Revolution. This fundamentally transformed the amount of work
that could be done, who did it,
and where it was done. As a result, the very ways
we lived transformed. Work shifted from farms
to factories in cities and from goods produced directly
by human or animal labor to goods produced by machines. Fossil fuels also
helped transform our methods of distribution, creating vast global markets
for goods. Over the last hundred years
or so, events you'll study
in Era Seven, the changes prompted
by industrialism changed not only the type
of work people do, it also revolutionized
our understanding of and ability to produce goods,
including the food we eat. We have more things than
our ancestors did-- many more. We also tend to have more
physical objects in common with other people
around the world, like the same brands of
cell phones, sodas, and coffee. These changes
also altered labor, the role that laborers play,
and the type of labor needed. For example,
most of us don't know how the things in our pockets
were made or where they came from. Nor do we know how to make them
or even how to fix them. New occupations developed
to provide services to others-- service jobs,
such as repairing products or selling goods
that others produce. (music playing) This Big Story began
billions of years ago, as the Earth formed, and takes us right up
to this very moment. And I told you the story
in just a few minutes. This story framed major changes in the ways we produced
and distributed all the goods and the services
we use. How might you use
this Big Picture? Can it help you locate
individual events in time? Does it offer a way
to think about trends, or help you assess
the strength and weaknesses of our current system
of production and our global system
of distribution? Are we better or worse than when communities produced
most of what they needed for themselves? Do you think we are happier
than our ancestors were? Can we say we've made progress? And what has been the cost
of all of this innovation in production and distribution? These questions and others about
production and distribution can help us make sense
of the global past. (music playing)