How close was Rome to an Industrial Revolution? DOCUMENTARY

In this historical discussion we examine how close Rome was to an Industrial Revolution. Its a deeply complex subjects which I've long considered. To answer the question, we are joined by Chris who is a historian with an expertise in Roman social and economic systems. Our talk begins by debunking the concepts of linear tech trees and neatly defined historical periods. In its place is a more chaotic model for understanding history which is more akin to evolutionary theory as it applies to the ways in which civilizations seek to adapt to their environments. With this new framework in mind we introduce the general hallmarks of the Industrial Revolution from our own timeline. In the following sections we then compare the conditions of Rome to those of Britain just prior to the Industrial Revolution. This involves several key factors: political stability, agricultural productivity, water, natural resources, and world view. Finally we conclude by assessing to what extent Rome was industrialized at the height of its power. This includes their sources of power, material sciences, and means and methods of production.

Sources:
"The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World" by John Peter Oleson
"Technology In the Ancient World" by Henry Hodges
"Roman Metallurgy" by Jonathan Edmondson
"Industry and Empire: The Birth of the Industrial Revolution" by Eric Hobsbawm
"Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000-1700" by Carlo M. Cipolla
"The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective" by Robert C. Allen
"Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity" by Daron Acemoglu

Timestamps:
00:00:00 I. Intro
00:03:59 I.A) Fallacy of Tech Trees
00:08:27 I.B) Dynamic Model of History
00:16:06 1.C) The Industrial Revolution
00:20:20 II. Were the Conditions Right?
00:24:19 II.A) Poltical Stability
00:30:26 II.B) Agricultural Surplus
00:38:15 II.C) Water
00:43:05 II.D) Natural Resources
00:48:20 II.E) World Views
00:55:38 III. Roman Industrialization
00:56:23 III.A) Human/Animal Power
01:00:16 III.B) Solar Power
01:03:19 III.C) Geothermal Power
01:05:03 III.D) Hyrdo Power
01:08:57 III.E) Fire Power
01:12:03 III.F) Steam Power
01:20:19 III.G) Mettalurgy
01:24:50 III.H) Steel
01:30:28 III.I) Glass
01:34:50 III.J) Roman Concrete
01:39:03 III.K) Machinery
01:47:03 III.L) Mass Production

#history
#rome
#documentary

[MM]

Stirrups. It's always the stirrups that mess with me. People riding horses for thousands of years, working with leather, and metal. Everybody looking for the best way to bonk somebody from a horse...and they try everything BUT simply attaching a pair of looped ropes to each side of the bottom of the saddle until...what? 750 AD?
As a kid, that told me tech was not linear or inevitable.

[someguycalledChwdah]

The steam engine was way more advanced and complicated to produce than most people realize
Just the ability to produce a waterproof boiler was actually a huge feat

[whostruckjohn]

An unappreciated factor is the addition of Western Hemisphere crops. Potatoes are the most critical crop brought to the Eastern Hemisphere, and became a critical food source in the 18th century.

[johnfroehling]

The massive amount of tiny factors that need to align is staggering. The importance of screw threads, potatoes, tree types, and so many other things in helping.

[basbroekhoven]

Came here from the job search meme.

Edit December 1st: I found the job. Ladies and gentleman we got em😎.

[Fearmylogic]

something else not mentioned, that puts together both Material science and steam, Is that While steam is AMAZING, It's damn near useless on an industrial scale without PRESSURE. You need a way to not just make steam, but to contain it, and have it create a lot of pressure, so it can push things like pistons with enough force to move something heavy ( or move itself, like a train ). And to be able to contain those pressures, you need the metallurgy to make vessels that can contain that pressure. That means not just the vessel walls, but things like if it used any kind of rivets, or any other connection with another piece of metal, to form the shape. Then you also need seals that can handle the heat, and hold back the pressure. And that's just the vessel. There's more to a steam engine than just the vessel. The pipes, connection of one pipe to another, Springs to make automatic opening and closing valves

There's a chance someone could have easily tried to scale up that spinning steam toy, to do work, but the experiments would have failed, due to them not being able to build up enough pressure to do enough work, to make it all worth it.

Many of these different things that they did or did not know and use, are all intertwined, and build on each other. A true industrial revolution would have required quite a lot of different sciences all coming together, to make the entire revolution happen.

But, it's super fun to think about just how close they were, or were not, and in what ways they were more advanced than we though, and in the ways they were no where near close.

[thecashier]

I don't think I can put into words how much I love these well prepared discussion videos.
Combined with looking at the "unsexy" topics like logistics and industry is just wonderful.

[andrelegeant]

The answer is, very far away. I long thought they could have industrialized, but I've been convinced industrialization required an incredibly precise environment. Namely, a situation where it was economical to develop a steam powered water pump. That only happened because Britain needed coal after depleting its forests, and it was economical to use an inefficient pump to remove water from coal mines, using the very coal to power it.

[clayxros]

Found this video on Instagram via a procrastination meme.
I'm looking forward to it.

[Le_Mef]

Something that lives rent free in my head: The technological relationship between roman roads and the established standards of the automotive industry. To this day, we can't escape the design choices that were made centuries ago.

[mboyer]

I had a quote posted in my office it read "innovation is a conundrum, it rests when things are good, it thrives on anarchy and chaos". And I think that's valid, and it goes along with another quote "war is the mother of all invention".

[BrianJames-dy]

When you started speaking to paradigm shifts, I was brought back to my History of Science classes as an undergrad. It's amazing how apparent and subtle truly revolutionary ideas are after the fact. Being locked into a paradigm can be a significant barrier to innovation.

[robertjarman]

The medieval period too with its proto industrialization from the late 1400s on would be another good topic on the theme of industry.

[TheBrickMasterB]

The primary faction I'm writing for in my fictional setting is largely based on Rome, so this video is tremendously helpful for me figuring out a few of the nitty-gritty details I want to include in passing dialogue or exposition in my story. Thank you so much for this, this is impossibly helpful!

[harrisonlucero]

It's amazing how well put together this is for education! You and other youtubers of the same caliber are such a massive resource!

[briantarigan]

honestly man, the absolute best thing about this video is that you guys explained with absolute detail about the factors that caused Industrial revolution and debunking the "Gamingfication" of progress and technological development, because too many times, so many people doesn't understand that it takes far FAR more than just a few fancy tool to start Industrial revolution

still related to the context of the Video, although not related to the Roman empire, my country, Republic of Indonesia is part of a newly industrialized country, Indonesia is part of G20, 60% of Indonesian population now lives in urban areas, and Indonesia's manufacturing output, being the absolute largest in southeast asia and one of the top 10 largest in the world still keep increasing rapidly especially due to government's downstreaming program, linking all these factors that you guys already explained with the history of Indonesia's economic development, i can see it all far more clearly now.

[XMarkxyz]

1:18:00 Engineer here, the thing about steam bein able to take more and more heat is not about storing but about the change of pressure you get and how fast it changes, this thing is called superheating and it's used only in the more advanced stema engines like 2nd industrial revolution timeframe, not for sure on the Newcommen engine where most power don't even come from the steam expansion but it's condensation afterwards and the counterpressure from the Atmosphere and so it's sometimes called Newcommen atmospheric engine.

[FaeTheMf]

In 2000 years there will be a video labeled “how close was the United States Empire to an intergalactic revolution?”

[EthanolTailor]

I wasnt ready holy shit, an incredibly deep and well put together video, I thought about 10 mins in when we're on evolutionary history, "damn this guy should just publish this in a journal", then realised wait no! this is such a better format, why bother?

[mateuszbanaszak]

Most YTbers :
*10-30 minutes*
Invicta :
*110 MINUTES*