Under this "dimension reduction attack", other countries will be forced to keep up with its development progress and gradually enter the modern order in some way. At this time, the international order will develop rapidly under such impetus, thus entering a brand-new order system.
Let's look at how the two different revolutions in Britain and France have subverted the international order.
Former site of industrial revolution
The outbreak of two revolutions As mentioned above, two different revolutions broke out in Britain and France, namely 1760 British industrial revolution and 1789 French political revolution. Although the two revolutions were in different ways, they were both conceived in the era of great navigation. It's just that the new resources brought by the great voyage and the new order formed by it are in different forms in Britain and France. But it must be said that the emergence of these two revolutions has greatly affected the internal order of Britain and France and the order system of Europe and even the world.
Then the question is, why did different revolutions break out between Britain and France?
the Industrial Revolution
First of all, as far as Britain is concerned, the merchant class and the aristocratic class who did business benefited the most in the era of great navigation. In contrast, this is not the case in France. The king's government benefited the most in the era of great navigation. Therefore, the difference of beneficiary groups is an important reason for the two different revolutions in the two countries.
But the question is, why are interest groups so different?
Generally speaking, this is actually directly related to the aristocratic ability of the two countries. We know that before modern times, the strength of British aristocrats was very weak, while the strength of French aristocrats was relatively stronger. Of course, there are complicated historical reasons behind this gap. In fact, Britain originally had big noble, but after the Hundred Years' War and wars of the roses, Britain's so-called big noble was basically eliminated, and there were no more nobles who could challenge and threaten the monarch. As a result, some small and medium-sized nobles joined hands to play games with the monarch and finally reached a balanced relationship with the king. This is well reflected in the "glorious revolution" of 1688.
Glorious Revolution
So in this way, the power of the British monarch is not enough to suppress the society, which makes the social power very strong and the British economic activities very dynamic. Coupled with the stimulation of new economic resources brought by maritime navigation and various historical opportunities, Britain was able to take the lead in the industrial revolution.
But France is different! There are many French "big noble" and their strength is also very strong. So for a long time, the relationship between the monarch and the nobility was very tense, and the monarch often could do nothing about them. For example, in the hands of medieval French kings, there were only two places directly under their control-Paris and Orleans (about 120 miles south of Paris). However, the two places are not connected, so the king dare not go from Paris to Orleans, or from Orleans to Paris, because it is likely that he will be kidnapped by those big noble on the way, so he will have to pay a huge ransom.
Maybe you will ask, in that case, why didn't the king attack these big noble?
Actually, it's not that I don't want to, but that I don't have the strength. As far as territorial area is concerned, the territory that a king can own is even smaller than that in big noble. How can he fight without money and soldiers?
Map of France
However, the great geographical discovery and ocean trade brought a brand-new wealth situation, and businessmen could accumulate huge wealth without occupying an inch of land. This wealth happened to be noticed by the king, so they borrowed money from businessmen and recruited some mercenaries to help them fight against big noble.
Of course, this struggle also lasted for a long time, and it took nearly a hundred years. It was not until the late17th century that the French king defeated big noble that France was gradually unified from the separatist state.
In this process, a powerful army was forged for the French monarch, and the king's government gained a strong suppression force on society. Therefore, French social elites have been suppressed by the king's government for a long time, so they have a strong desire to resist. It is this desire and historical opportunity that finally inspired the "political revolution" in France.
So generally speaking, although the paths of British industrial revolution and French political revolution are different, the root cause is the new distribution of interests and the imbalance of order brought about by the era of great navigation.
So, what impact did these two revolutions bring?
The appearance of the steam engine is the product of the industrial revolution.
Although the paths of the two revolutions are different, the influence of the two revolutions is particularly great. This not only affects the internal order structure of the two countries, but also seriously affects the changes in Europe and even the world order. Of course, Britain and France have also embarked on the road of modernization, thus forming what we call a "dimensionality reduction blow" to other countries from the very beginning. To put it bluntly-modernity versus tradition.
So, how exactly is it expressed?
The foundation of modern politics is the emergence of mass politics and mass society. For example, in the traditional era before mass politics, the government did not consider and pay attention to the employment and unemployment of the people at all, because it did not affect the votes after all, so naturally it did not need to pay attention. However, in the era of mass politics, the government must consider the issues of employment and unemployment, so at this time, various domestic and foreign policies will be very different.
Of course, there is another reason why the government in traditional society doesn't care about unemployment, and that is that traditional society has its own stability. However, the emergence of industrial revolution and political revolution has destroyed this so-called stability. At this time, if we can't find a new way to establish internal order, the original order will collapse completely. So we must find a new order to maintain it. The new order in the era of mass politics brought about by the industrial revolution and the political revolution is fully qualified for this arduous task. We can use three words to summarize this form of mass political era-rationalization.
French Revolution
However, it should be noted that the specific development paths of "rationalization" brought about by these two revolutions are different.
Under the whole routine of British industrial revolution, rationalization is mainly carried out at the level of factory management structure, and the government level is relatively passive.
We know that in the past, the industry was mainly manual workshops and did not pursue large-scale reproducible development. However, after the industrial revolution, the first thing to pursue is large-scale reproducibility, and workers need to repeat a mechanical action in a specific process.
As a result, the management rules of the factory have all changed. All the rules are mainly efficiency-oriented, and they are iteratively optimized. Therefore, don't think that the industrial revolution is only the application of the steam engine, and it is equally important that a brand-new factory system appears. If there is no new system, the steam engine will be useless.
Therefore, the rational factory system is completely beyond the competition of traditional manual workshops.
The industrial revolution has multiplied Britain's wealth, and the financial ability to support the war and the technology to carry out the war have made a qualitative leap. So this also makes its world hegemony more stable. Therefore, we can also carry out so-called "dimension reduction attacks" on countries that have not kept up with the pace.
French Revolution
Looking back at France, under the whole routine of political revolution, France's "rationalization" is mainly carried out at the bureaucratic level.
In fact, the bureaucracy began to be established as early as after the reunification of France. But as we also said, the original French king could only rule a few areas, and was often restricted by big noble. But after the king defeated big noble, everything in the country had to be taken care of by the king himself. But how can a king manage such a big country and so many things? As a result, bureaucracy has emerged.
However, under the monarchy, the efficiency of bureaucracy can not be fully reflected in many fields. It was not until after the Great Revolution that the efficiency of "rational" bureaucrats was greatly improved. As a result, the French government's ability to control society became higher after the Great Revolution.
Of course, in addition to these changes, many fields have been greatly impacted. However, like the British industrial revolution, the emergence of the French political revolution also pushed it into a new era, further widening the gap with other countries, thus reducing the dimension that other countries failed to keep up with the pace.
To sum up, Britain and France, which went through the process of rationalization, took the lead in entering a brand-new era, and their industrial productivity, social governance and political and military organizational forms far surpassed those of other countries. This also forces those countries that have not kept up with the pace to try their best to change themselves, thus narrowing the gap between themselves and Britain and France.
This is why we say that the two different revolutions that broke out in Britain and France not only subverted the internal order structure of the two countries, but also subverted the entire international order!