The economically powerful nations of the globe industrialize, beginning with Great Britain in the eighteenth century and ending with Japan in the first quarter of the twentieth century.

Cast-iron architecture, followed by steel-frame construction, transforms the urban landscape.

Although organized warfare has plagued humanity for at least five or six thousand years, the period from the American revolution through the First World War matches war to industry in unprecedented ways, and with devastating results.

The Bessemer and open-hearth processes facilitate the manufacture of steel on a large scale.

The ghettos in western Europe are permanently abolished in the course of the nineteenth century.

In this age, the world’s civilized nations abolish slavery: the British, Empire in 1833; the United States, in 1863; and Brazil, in 1888.

This is not a universal emancipation, as Leopold’s Congo Free State and the French and Portuguese colonies of central Africa employ forced labor for the collection of ivory, and later rubber, until the first decade of the twentieth century.

The feudal monarchies of the Arabian Peninsula, notably Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, do not officially abolish slavery until 1965 and 1973, respectively, and the institution persists in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.