Ch.8 Becoming Modern
Rails, Zones, and Bulbs
- The human invention of the railroad had conquered space; now, it didn‘t matter if a company was hundreds of miles away from the people who bought its goods.
- [On November 18th, 1883. a Canadian railroad engineer Sir Sandford Fleming’s idea] The human invention of time zones seemed to have conquered the challenge of time; now, people set their clocks according to time zones, not according to the sun.
- [In 1879. Thomas Edison] And electric lights had conquered the dark. Dusk was no longer the end of the working day. Now, men could go on laboring, long after sunset!
Japan’s Meiji Restoration
- By 1889, Japan had a new constitution. It had been written by a Japanese statesman who admired Bismarck so much that he had travelled to the new German state to see how it was run. The constitution that he wrote made Japan‘s government much like the German government. Japan‘s emperor was the “head of state” in Japan, just as Wilhelm II was the king of the German state, but a “cabinet” (a group of advisors, such as a prime minister) actually made policies for the country. Japan would also have two assemblies, made up of educated and intelligent Japanese representatives. These assemblies would pass laws for Japan.
