Page 97 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

this fleeting world / our world: the modern era tfw-37

Key Features and Trends
of the Modern Era

Rapid Population Growth
lifeways, cultural and religious traditions, patterns of
Technological Innovation
health and aging, and social and political relationships.
Large Increase in Productivity
For world historians the modern era poses distinc-
tive challenges. We are too close to see it clearly and Harnessing of Fossil and other Forms of Energy
objectively; we have so much information that we have Large Communities
difficulty distinguishing trends from details; and
Bureaucracy
change has occurred faster than ever before and
Nationalism
embraced all parts of the world. What follows is one
attempt to construct a coherent overview, based on Longer Life Expectancy
generalizations that have achieved broad acceptance Broader Role for Women
among world historians.
Commercialization
Global Networks
Major Features and Trends
of the Modern Era Destruction of Foraging and Agrarian Lifeways
The modern era is the first to have generated a large body
of statistical evidence; thus, it is also the first in which we
can quantify many of the larger changes. of about 0.8 percent per annum and represents a
doubling time of about eighty-five years. (Compare
Increases in Population this with estimated doubling times of fourteen hun-
and Productivity dred years during the agrarian era and eight thousand
Human populations have increased faster than ever to nine thousand years during the era of foragers.) An
before during the modern era, although growth rates eightfold increase in human numbers was possible
slowed during the late twentieth century. Between only because productivity rose even faster. The esti-
1750 and 2000 the number of men and women in the mates of the economist Angus Maddison suggest that
world rose from approximately 770 million to almost global gross domestic product rose more than ninety-
6 billion, close to an eightfold increase in just 250 fold during three hundred years, whereas production
years. This increase is the equivalent of a growth rate per person rose ninefold.

Modern Era
■ <1% of human history
■ 68% of population

Agrarian Era
■ 4% of human history
Modern humans in Eurasia Modern humans in Australia Modern humans in Americas
■ 20% of population

100,000 bce 40,000 bce 10,000 bce 0 1750 ce
12,000 bce