The advancement of

science
Scientific Revolution
Causes
Middle Ages Natural philosophers. Did not
make observations on the natural world.
Relied on ancient authors. (Aristotle)
Mastering of Greek and Latin.
Archimedes and Plato.
Technical problem solving.
New instruments telescope, microscope
and printing press.
Mathematicians. Promoted by the discoveries of works of ancient mathematicians. Applied to
geography, navigation, military, science.
Math became the way to understand the universe.
◦ Nicolaus Copernicus
◦ Johannes Kepler
They became the
◦ Galileo Galilei
foundation of the
◦ Isaac Newton Scientific Revolution.
Ptolemaic System
Ptolomeo Ptolemy, 100’s A.D.
Astronomy Model of the universe
It’s a geocentric model, since it places Earth as the center of the
universe.
Series of concentric spheres, one inside the other. Earth is fixed,
motionless at the center.
Heavenly bodies are pure orbs of lights.
10th sphere is the “prime mover”. It moves itself and gives motion to
the other spheres.
Beyond the 10th sphere is Heaven, where God resides.
Nicolaus
Copernicus
Polish.
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.
Heliocentric a sun centered conception of
the universe.
Planets revolve around the sun the Moon
revolves around the Earth.
According to him, the apparent movement of
the sun around Earth was caused by the
rotation of Earth on its axis and its journey
around the sun.
Johannes Kepler
German mathematician.
Laws of planetary motion.
His calculations confirmed that the sun was the center of the
universe, and added new information.
Kepler’s first Law: planet’s orbits were not circular, as
Copernicus had thought.
The orbits were elliptical (egg-shaped) with the sun towards
the end of the ellipse, instead of at the center.
Galileo Galilei
Italian Mathematician
First European to make observations of the skies using a
telescope.
◦ Mountains on Earth’s Moon
◦ Four moons orbiting Jupiter
◦ Sunspots

Planets were not composed of light, but made of material

substance, just like Earth.
The Starry Messenger in 1610.
Galilei fell under scrutiny of the Catholic Church.
The Church ordered him to abandon
the Copernican idea, which
threatened the Church’s entire way of
viewing the universe.

God was no longer found in a specific

place.

Between 1630’s and 1640’s most

astronomers accepted Galileo’s
model.
Isaac Newton
Mathematician.
Mathematical Principal of Natural Philosophy or Principia.
He defined the three laws of motion that govern planetary
bodies, as well as objects on Earth.
Universal Law of Gravitation  explains the reason why
planetary bodies continue their elliptical orbits around the
sun.
Every object in the universe is attracted to every other
object by a force  gravity.
Medicine
Previously, the teachings of Galen, a Greek physician in the A.D. 100s dominated
in the Late Middle Ages.
◦ Animal dissection. (The physician)
◦ A lot of mistakes.

16th Century.

Andreas Vesalius

Dissected human bodies at the

University of Padua.

Described individual organs.

Discovered the heart and circulatory system.

Chemistry: Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal
French scientist
How liquids behaved under pressure.
Pascal’s Law.
Thanks to this principle, instruments
such as the syringe and the hydraulic press.
Chemistry:
Robert Boyle
One of the first to conduct controlled
experiments on chemistry.

Properties of gases

Boyle’s Law “The volume of a

gas varies with the pressure

exerted upon it.

Margaret
Cavendish
English Philosopher
Observations Upon Experimental Philosophy.
Critical of the growing belief that humans, through science,
were the masters of nature:
◦ “We have no power at all over natural causes and effects…for a
man is but a small part, his powers are articular actions of
Nature, and he cannot have a supreme and absolute power.”

She published under her own name at a time many female

authors had to publish anonymously.
She wasn’t taken seriously.
Maria Winkelman
German Astronomer
Received training in astronomy from a self-taught astronomer.
She married Gottfried Kirch, Prussia’s foremost astronomer.
She was his assistant.
She discovered a comet.
Applied for a position as assistant astronomer at the Berlin
Academy after her husband’s death.
She was denied the post. The Academy feared that they would
set a bad example by hiring a woman.
Caroline Hershell
German-British Astronomer.
Discovered 8 comets
Catalogue of Stars. Published on 1798.
Catalogue of nebulae. Awarded the Royal Astronomical
Society’s Gold Medal.
A woman would not earn it again until Vera Rubin in 1996.
Asteroid 281 Lucretia Named after
her.
Crater C. Hershel on the Moon.
Philosophy
Rene Descartes
French philosopher
Ideology
◦ Uncertainty seemed to be everywhere
◦ “I think, therefore I am”

Philosophy dominated Western thought.

◦ Until the 20th Century.

Rationalism
◦ Reason in the chief Source of knowledge.
Scientific method
Francis Bacon
◦ English philosopher
◦ Few scientific credentials Not a scientist
◦ “The true and lawful goal of the sciences is none other than this:
that human life be endowed with new discoveries and power.”

Scientific Method
◦ Systematic procedure for collecting and analyzing evidence.
◦ Major element of modern science.

Inductive reasoning
◦ Particular  General thinking.
 Observe some natural
event

Form a hypothesis, or
possible explanation, of the
observed event.

Perform experiments to test

the hypothesis

Analyze and draw conclusions from

Repeat until
the results. Do the results support hypothesis is
the hypothesis? strongly
supported by the
results.

Yes No

Revise the
Publish results for other hypothesis based on
scientists to view. the results.
Industrial Revolution
FIRST PHASE 1780-1850

SECOND PHASE 1850-1895

Great Britain. 1780’s

Big changes.

Agricultural Revolution (XVIII)

◦ Expansion of farmland
◦ Good weather More people could be fed
◦ Improved transportation at a lower price, with less
◦ New crops labor.
Diversification of technology.

Transition from production created by single individuals or small groups, to production by big groups organized in factories and
by the steam machine.

Gradual process.
Causes
Climate conditions. Humid and cold.
Commerce and agricultural development.
Political stability.
Demographic Increase.
Science development.
Natural resources available (coal, iron ore, and rivers)
Supply of markets
◦ Colonial empire
◦ Domestic markets
Charateristics
Technological progress

Industry consolidation.

New English society. (social classes

bourgeoisie)

Business Mentality

Banking Legislation
Technological advances
James Hargreaves Spinning
jenny
Edmund Cartwright  water
powered loom
James Watt  Steam machine
Cotton
Factory vs. cottage industry industry
◦ Cottage industry is a method of
production in which tasks are
done by individuals in their rural
homes.

British cotton industry increased

drastically. Cotton’s cloth became
Britain’s most valuable product.
Factory owners wanted to use their new machines without
stopping.
Workers were forced to in shifts to keep the machines
working at a steady pace.
Child and woman labor.
Iron industry
Steam engine need for coal.
Apparently it was unlimited in quantity.
Iron industry puddling. Coke is used to
Burn impurities from crude iron.
Production became greater than the
One in all the countries of the world
Combined.
High quality iron used to build new machines.
Railroads
Cheapened land transport.
Lower costs = lower prices.
More sales = mores demand More factories and more
machinery.
Industrial
Revolution extended
to other countries
Belgium

France

Germany
◦ Governments encouraged industry
development (funds)

USA
◦ Steamboat
◦ Railroads.

Holland

Switzerland

Some regions of Italy and Russia.

Consequences
Development of capitalism.

New relations of production.

Urban zones transformation

Pollution.

Migration.

Creation of social classes (Bourgeoisie)

◦ Middle class
◦ Working class

Workers explotation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhL5DCizj5c
Capitalism
Adam Smith (1725-1790)

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. 1776

According to Adam Smith, human conduct is guided by 6 motivations:

◦ Egoism
◦ Commiseration
◦ Wish to be free
◦ Sense of property
◦ Habit of work
◦ Tendency to change one object for another.
The natural laws which rule a capitalist economy
according to Adam Smith are:
◦ Selfish interest (harmonizes collective interests)
◦ Competition (naturally arrives to a reasonable
prize)
◦ Supply and demand law
◦ Relationships between capital and work (related to
law of supply and demand)
◦ Laws about population and accumulation. (more
capital, more production, increases salaries,
increases quality of life, increases population).
According to Adam Smith, the government
should not intervene in economy, restricting
businessmen liberties to produce and
commercialize.
The only thing the State should do, is watch over
economic activity, so that private property is
respected, and the natural order of things may
work on its own.
Early socialism
Pitiful conditions.
Society the government, owns some
means of production,
Intellectuals
Karl Marx
Utopian Socialists
◦ Robert Owen
◦ Natural goodness.
References
Delgado de Cantú, G. (2006) Historia Universal. De la era de las revoluciones al mundo
globalizado. 2ª Edición. Pearson Prentice Hall. Estado de México.
J. Spielvogel, J. (2012) World history & geography: modern times McGraw Hill.