1465 | Introduction to Modern and

Contemporary History

LUCIANO AMARAL
LISBETH RODRIGUES
Second half of the nineteenth century – beginning of the twentieth century: more wealth
and higher life expectancy in the western countries

But not in the rest of the world

Second half of the twentieth century – twenty-first century

Differences persist
In the end of the nineteenth century most people on earth lived in houses without
electricity, running water, toilet, sewage or central heating, refrigerator or washing
machines, and had poor feeding. They had no car, could not imagine that there could be
airplanes, there was no radio, television or computers, and the number of phones was
very small

In very little time everyhting changed

The number of houses in the USA with running water passed from 24% in 1890 to 70%
in 1940, those with internal toilet passed from 12% to 60%, the number of houses with
electricity was 80% in 1940, that of families with a car was 60%, with a refrigerator was
45%, and with washing machine was 40%. The US could be ahead, but other countries
followed them

This was accompanied by an enormus expansion of wealth. Material wellbeing gave an

enormous contribution, but also the development of science: treatment of infections,
appearence of antibiotics and of vaccines
We can say that the most important of what happened in the last 200 years was the
passage from a world in which most people were illeterate and poor farmers, who
worked without rest, ate miserably and had a lot of children, half of which died before
reaching adult age, to a world in which most people have children who will survive
them, are well fed, have access to a great number of cultural goods, work in safe
environments, have high incomes and long lives
The second half of the twentieth century and the beginnings of the twenty-first century
are the period of spreading of these changes from the West to the rest of the world

The methods that had allowed the West to get rich started to be adopted in the other
countries, meaning that they were associated with the growth of human capital, as well
as with the demographic transition
But there are things to take into consideration in this picture: one, the diffusion of these
benefits was not exactly the same around the world, and large differences in wealth
between countries, with a big exception to everything: Sub-Saharan Africa

In the second part of the course, we will study the origin of these inequalities

Another thing to take into consideration is the possibility that this growth has reached
the limit the natural environment can withstand: the danger of global warming looms
over the prosperous society – will it be because of it that this adventure will come to an
end?