preview

The Era Of The 19th Century

Decent Essays

Europe faced an era of revolutions at the wake of the nineteenth century. Long-standing empires, which had traditionally controlled most of the world –including the Spanish, Chinese, French, and Holy Roman Empires –, collapsed at the beginning of the century, allowing the British Empire to rise to power and establish dominance over a fifth of the Earth’s surface. This political revolution was coupled with the industrial revolution. New manufacturing processes called for large industrial factories to replace domestic production. Technological gains were made in textile manufacturing, steam power, and iron making. The standard of living and literacy rates increased due to new advances in technology and industrial printing. The nineteenth century, with the invention of the microscope, became a period of scientific discoveries and debate. This era of scientific upheaval was fueled by the challenges to Genesis and the Scala Naturae and the emergence of secularism. Naturalists focused on macrobiological concepts, such as Lamarck and Cuvier who debated the fixity (or lack there of) of species, as well as microbiological concepts, such as Schleiden and Schwann and the development of the Cell Theory.
One such naturalist was Louis Pasteur. Pasteur was able to take advantage of the microscope and formulate the Germ Theory of Disease in 1861, which states that microorganisms are the cause of disease. As all theories at the time, Pasteur’s work faced significant contention from his

Get Access