HIST 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: The Surplus, Wage War, North West Trading Company
Document Summary
Vaclav smil: believed human history could be divided up in time periods/regimes, where each of which would be categorized by different fuels + different prime mover. In history, biomass (in the form of wood) was the dominant fuel. Prime mover: things that convert the natural energy in these fuels into work (e. g. muscles are prime movers of humans, generators) In the early ages, the majority of prime movers were muscles (specifically in people and animals) 19th century: the rise of the steam engines as prime movers. From the early 20th century, this changed as internal combustion engines began to be the dominant prime mover. Both prime movers and fuels changed over time (the notable shift in time was at the 19th century) Shifts in energy regimes: from a period where it was dominated by people, animal power + biomass fuels to one dominated by steam and combustion engines + carbon based fuels (coal and oil)
