Technology In The 19th Century

During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, Europe had been ruled by absolute kings who based their authority on divine right, which was the belief that kings were given the right to rule directly from the will of God. This age of absolutism came to an end in the late eighteenth century and beginnings of the next century. The nineteenth century witnessed the rise of modern industry, in which agriculture lost its preeminent role in societal reproduction and yielded to industrial manufacturing. During the second half of the nineteenth century, Europe experienced a rapid expansion in scientific knowledge and technology. Science is no more than the knowledge attained through study or practice, and in the nineteenth century much was discovered, …show more content…
They were both motive powers: steam and electricity. The development and application of steam engines and electricity to various tasks, such as transportation and the telegraph, affected human life by increasing and multiplying the mechanical power of humans, animal strength and simple tools. The people who lived through these technological changes felt them to be much more than simple innovations. To them, these powers broke chains and froze time and space. Even inventions such as the photograph and phonograph contributed to that feeling because they made the past available to the present and the present to the …show more content…
As a result, people started to believe in something that quickly developed, progressed and brought joy and comfort to their lifes. Because practical inventions provided material comforts that previous generations had not known, science became the source of hope for the future. People also believed that mankind could achieve anything if given the opportunity (humanism). The impact of science on this age greatly influenced man’s perception of himself and the world. They started to look for theories that explained where they came from and what their purpose was in life. Scientists began to view man and nature as the products of an evolutionary process. The man who laid the basis for the modern theories of biological evolution was Charles Darwin. He tried to prove that not only organisms, but also humans, developed from simple to complex structures through natural causes. People praised Darwin’s theory of evolution as scientific while dismissing the biblical account of Creation as