Climate Justice Timeline

Time Machine Passport

Section 3

1884 – 1914

Colonial Empires Expand – Global Economic and Human Exploitation as Fossil Fuel Extraction Intensifies Worldwide

Timeline Cards & Resources


The Berlin Conference (1884 – 1885)
Video: The Berlin Conference Explained (BBC Teach)
Interactive Map: Africa Before and After the Berlin Conference
Primary Source: General Act of the Berlin Conference (1885)
Book: The Scramble for Africa by M. Keith Booker

The Scramble for Africa (1885 – 1914)
Video: Scramble for Africa (Crash Course World History #35)
Interactive Map: Colonial Africa 1880 – 1914
Primary Source: Congo Reform Association Reports
Book: Africa for the Africans by Edwin S. Redkey

Gas-Powered Cars (1885)
Video: The First Cars: Benz, Daimler, and Ford (PBS NOVA)
Primary Source: Karl Benz Patent (1886)
Website: Smithsonian – How Cars Changed the World

First Electricity-Generating Wind Turbines (1887 – 1888)
Video: The History of Wind Power (National Geographic)
Article: James Blyth and Wind Energy (BBC Future)
Website: U.S. Department of Energy – Wind Energy History

Labor Strikes & Worker Power (1880s – 1890s)
Video: The Industrial Workers’ Movement (Khan Academy)
Primary Source: German Miners’ Petition (1891)
Book: The Condition of the Working Class in England – Friedrich Engels

First Commercial Oil Well in the Middle East (1908)
Video: The Birth of the Oil Industry in the Middle East (BBC)
Primary Source: Anglo-Persian Oil Agreement (1901)
Book: Carbon Democracy by Timothy Mitchell
Article Links

Coal Burning and Global Temperatures (1912)
Primary Source: Popular Mechanics (1912)
Video: Early Climate Science (NASA)
Book: The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer Weart