Are the 1800s more like the 21st century or the middle ages? (50s, invention)

[tyCable]

Can not be. There were no airplanes in the 1800s. Airplanes came about some time in the 1946s. Long distance traveling from California to Hawai'i took 10 hours. It only takes 5 hours today, using a jetliner with jet engines.

[Ethereal]

Originally Posted by tyCable

Can not be. There were no airplanes in the 1800s. Airplanes came about some time in the 1946s. Long distance traveling from California to Hawai'i took 10 hours. It only takes 5 hours today, using a jetliner with jet engines.

You can say that the 1800s has both 21st century and middle ages elements. It's a "mishmash" century. I'd confidently say that the early 1800s were definitely more like the dark ages, whereas the latter years had more similarities with the 21st century.

Still though, many (poorer) people still lived in rural areas and would have dressed up like those in the medieval times with their rags. As far as fashion, medicine, technology (for the most part), human rights and living conditions went (for the average person), the 19th century was still more like, say, the 1200s than now in my point of view. So I find it a bit odd and naïve that people have mostly chosen 21st century on the poll. The only similarities between today and the 19th century was the industrial revolution. Other than, the era is still more akin to the former centuries. But I digress...

[LO28SWM]

Originally Posted by Ethereal

You can say that the 1800s has both 21st century and middle ages elements. It's a "mishmash" century. I'd confidently say that the early 1800s were definitely more like the dark ages, whereas the latter years had more similarities with the 21st century.

Still though, many (poorer) people still lived in rural areas and would have dressed up like those in the medieval times with their rags. As far as fashion, medicine, technology (for the most part), human rights and living conditions went (for the average person), the 19th century was still more like, say, the 1200s than now in my point of view. So I find it a bit odd and naïve that people have mostly chosen 21st century on the poll. The only similarities between today and the 19th century was the industrial revolution. Other than, the era is still more akin to the former centuries. But I digress...

It seems a bit odd to call people you asked the opinion of "odd" and "naive" or answering you However, thats not really true. I mean there are super rural people all over the world who live like medieval times, a pretty significant portion who do not benefit from airplanes or vaccines or cancer treatment. But that doesnt change the fact that the world keeps moving forward.

The industrial revolution and the explosion of industry gave rise to people moving far from their rural homes and taking up residence in cities where there was more work and more money and more hope for improving their livelihood.

The discovery, acceptance and understanding of Germ Theory medicine forever and ushered in what we consider to be modern medicine.

The first vaccine law was created in 1813.

So yes while isolated people didnt get all the benefit of modern conveniences, they did exist and were widely used in populated areas. Think of the impact just the stethoscope made?

[MinivanDriver]

Originally Posted by tyCable

Can not be. There were no airplanes in the 1800s. Airplanes came about some time in the 1946s. Long distance traveling from California to Hawai'i took 10 hours. It only takes 5 hours today, using a jetliner with jet engines.

However, with the advent of steam engines and telegraph, travel and communication times compressed incredibly. In 1800, communication took place no more quickly than a dispatch rider on horseback or a fast sailing vessel. A trip to Australia from England took in the early 19th Century could make the trip in 100 days if everything was going well, with 120 days being more the norm. By 1900, that was compressed to 50 days. Telegraph? By the 1870s, most populous parts of the world were in a form of instantaneous communication.

[Ethereal]

Originally Posted by LO28SWM

It seems a bit odd to call people you asked the opinion of "odd" and "naive" or answering you However, thats not really true. I mean there are super rural people all over the world who live like medieval times, a pretty significant portion who do not benefit from airplanes or vaccines or cancer treatment. But that doesnt change the fact that the world keeps moving forward.

The industrial revolution and the explosion of industry gave rise to people moving far from their rural homes and taking up residence in cities where there was more work and more money and more hope for improving their livelihood.

The discovery, acceptance and understanding of Germ Theory medicine forever and ushered in what we consider to be modern medicine.

The first vaccine law was created in 1813.

So yes while isolated people didnt get all the benefit of modern conveniences, they did exist and were widely used in populated areas. Think of the impact just the stethoscope made?

Well, I find it odd, that you find it odd, that I think some people can be a bit odd and naïve. Surely you must understand where I'm coming from. And besides, nobody said they have no rights to their opinions. Let's not take things personally.

My point was, and still remains, that a vast number of people lived in rural areas, and many in very dire conditions, in the 1800s. So their way of life was still more comparable to those living in the middle ages (compared to present's) - I'm not saying that the lifestyle of the 1800s was virtually homogenous to the medieval times. I just think life in 21st century is still far advanced and distinct, and that the average person even in, say, Africa, still lives like the other 'modern man' where you would them in cities or towns with TVs, smartphones, computers, 'regular' jobs, etc.

Nobody's saying that the 1800s was a nomadic, undeveloped era that lacked medicine and basic technology. They were somewhat advanced (as you explained). But still, the richer folks had more easier access to such technologies and luxuries. Heck, the life expectancy of a middle class man in the UK at that time was 45.

[nancy thereader]

Don't know if this is an actual quote , but :

In 1889, Charles H. Duell was the Commissioner of US patent office. He is widely quoted as having stated that the patent office would soon shrink in size, and eventually close, because… "Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

Wish he could just come back , if for even a day to 2021.

[The Grandeur]

Originally Posted by tyCable

Can not be. There were no airplanes in the 1800s. Airplanes came about some time in the 1946s. Long distance traveling from California to Hawai'i took 10 hours. It only takes 5 hours today, using a jetliner with jet engines.

Airplains came in very early 1900s. In World War 1, there were airplanes.

19th century brought trains and big steam power ships which hadn't existed in previous centuries.

Both steam power trains and electiric trains came in use in 19th century, by the way.

First electric train came in use in the year 1880 in England but in the year 1955 in Turkey, 75 years later.

[The Grandeur]

Originally Posted by nancy thereader

Don't know if this is an actual quote , but :

In 1889, Charles H. Duell was the Commissioner of US patent office. He is widely quoted as having stated that the patent office would soon shrink in size, and eventually close, because… "Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

Wish he could just come back , if for even a day to 2021.

It was in 1899.

I think most things were invented in 19th century. Later, they got developed.

Cars with both gasoline and electricity were made in late 19th century. First hybrid car was also made in late 19th century.

Diesel engine was invented in late 19th century as well but it seems they did not use it on cars till 1930s.

[itshim]

It really depends on when in the 1800s, but I went with the Middle Ages and not necessarily to be contrarian, but primarily because when I look at the previous millenium I tend to think of the major provocative change being industrialization. There just seems to be a major innovative jump from say the mid-1800s to where we are today....I think we've accelerated at a much faster rate over the past 150 years than we have in the first 800 years or so.

There are of course technological differences from one century to the next, and of course what we have today is based on the accumulation of knowledge in the previous centuries--but I find it hard to imagine a farmer in say the 1100s is really all that different from someone who raised cabbage in the early 1800s...; populations were largely located on agrarian farmlands, and lived life accordingly to those lifestyles of the time, and government was largely restricted to hereditary monarchs.


i'd imagine that if I were magically dropped in both the 1100s, and in the early 1800 centuries and had to identify each one--it wouldn't be all that easy to make the distinction, however if i had to be dropped in the year 1850 and say 2021...it would be night and day

[dcfas]

The Machine in the Garden, by Leo Marx, is a great book on the advances of technology during the 19th and early twentieth centuries and the tension created between the “old world” of pastoral ideal and the “new world” of technology. It’s focus, however, is on literature rather than history.

There are so many great minds of the mid to late 19th century that explored the shift to the (later) “modern era.” Nietzsche, for one, comes to mind (“God is dead”). I’d have to go with the 19th century being a doppelgänger of sorts to the 21st; both centuries seem overwhelmed by their technological developments and the consequences of adaptation to them.