Neil MacGregor uses five objects to highlight the shifts in the balance of economic, political and imperial power in the C19th - and the enormous consequences across the rest of the world.
Suffragette-defaced penny
Listen now (18 minutes)
Available since Fri, 15 Oct 2010.
5/5. Neil MacGregor with a penny coin defaced by suffragettes with the words "Votes for women".
Sudanese slit drum
Listen now (15 minutes)
Available since Thu, 14 Oct 2010.
4/5. Neil MacGregor with a wooden drum from Sudan that Kitchener presented to Queen Victoria.
Hokusai's The Great Wave
Listen now (15 minutes)
Available since Wed, 13 Oct 2010.
3/5. Neil MacGregor with a familiar image - Hokusai's The Great Wave.
Early Victorian tea set
Listen now (15 minutes)
Available since Tue, 12 Oct 2010.
2/5. Neil MacGregor tells the story of the global trade in tea - with a Victorian tea set.
Ship's chronometer from HMS Beagle
Listen now (15 minutes)
Available since Mon, 11 Oct 2010.
1/5. Neil MacGregor with the chronometer that accompanied Darwin to South America.
91 Ship's chronometer from HMS Beagle
92 Early Victorian tea set
93 Hokusai's 'The Great Wave'
94 Sudanese slit drum
95 Suffragette defaced penny
Between the French Revolution and the First World War the countries of Europe and the USA were transformed from agricultural to industrial economies. At the same time, their empires around the world grew. Technological innovation led to the mass production of goods and growing international trade. Previously luxuries, like tea and Wedgewood pottery, became affordable to the masses. In many countries, movements pressed for political and social reforms, including the right for all men and women to be able to vote. The industrial revolutions of the West were partly funded by resources from Europe’s expanding colonial empires. Only one non-western country, Japan, successfully embraced modernisation and emerged as an imperial power in its own right.
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