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From a materialist perspective, why did the the global north, the western global north in particular, become so powerful it could loot the rest of the world with borderline impunity? (hexbear.net)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've recently read"The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World" and want to hear what all of you think the answer is, because I feel like the book was missing something in its thesis and I am not very sure what that is.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Steam power is insane outside of boating. Before all the work in your society must come from potential energy stored in food. After steam you could get free work out of rocks.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

i hate to be a pedant but wind and water were also good power sources prior to steam

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

True but they couldn't scale on-demand as steam can. Still can't, but energy storage is the solution now.