ABSTRACT
The chapter surveys the global history of technology and infrastructure in the interwar period. It suggests that the interwar years constitute the second half of a longer period that begins in the mid-nineteenth century, and is defined by the rise and spread of large technological systems. The chapter stresses three effects of these systems. By interconnecting the world it intensified global interdependence; the centralized nature of the systems placed control over them and the lives they touched in the hands of a small group of people; finally, technological sprawl and centralization combined to create an unprecedented level of economic and political control, and gave rise to the largest increase in global inequality in history.
