and telephone (invented in 1876) revolutionized communications. In 1901,
Guglielmo Marconi sent the ¿ rst wireless signal across the Atlantic.
A fourth wave of innovation dominated the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Industrialization took off in Russia and Japan, and spread westward within
the United States. The oil age launched a second phase of the fossil fuels
revolution, with the invention of the
internal combustion engine. The Wright
brothers À ew the ¿ rst powered heavier-
than-air plane in 1903. In 1913, Henry Ford
produced the ¿ rst Model T Ford in 1913,
pioneering mass production for a new mass
consumer market.
Increasing productivity transformed the role
and power of governments. Governments
acquired new forms of power but also faced
new and more complex challenges.
War was a major driver of change. With
increasing production, states had to
become more effective at mobilizing
national resources of both manpower and
materials. The armies of revolutionary
France pioneered in the challenge of
raising large citizen armies using the appeal of nationalism. But nationalism
meant giving citizens a greater sense of ownership of society: a change
achieved, in part, through democratic processes such as elections. To
mobilize support from populations that were becoming more mobile, more
urbanized, and better educated, governments had to provide new services
such as policing, health services, and mass education, which few Agrarian-
era states had offered. The power of modern governments depended
more and more on economic growth, so they increasingly became economic
managers, concerned with creating environments in which commerce
could À ourish.
Marchese Guglielmo Marconi
sent the ¿ rst wireless
transmission across
the Atlantic in 1901.Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-77563.