CHAPTER 3 - CLASSICAL AND HELLENISTIC GREECE



CHAPTER 23 - THE BUILDING OF EUROPEAN SUPREMACY:

SOCIETY AND POLITICS TO WORLD WAR I

CHAPTER SUMMARY

This chapter discusses the half century from 1860 to 1914, during which Europe's political, social, and economic institutions took on many of their current characteristics. Nation-states with large electorates, political parties, centralized bureaucracies, and universal military service took shape. Business organized itself into large-scale corporations and labor into trade unions. White-collar workers emerged in significant numbers, and urbanism grew in importance. Socialism became a major force in political life, and the beginnings of the welfare state were seen. That trend and the establishment of vast military structures caused an increase in taxes. The period also saw the spread of industrialism, which gave Europe an unparalleled productive capacity. Through trade, the continent's economy became intermeshed with that of the rest of the world.

Europe's population increased greatly during this period, from about 226 million in 1850 to about 401 million in 1900. A desire to enjoy the new prosperity and a spread in the use of contraception, however, led to smaller families and a decline in the population growth. Another notable population trend was migration, both in Europe from countryside to city and abroad to the Americas, Australia, or South Africa. The first trend increased European social unrest; the second relieved it somewhat.

Economically, the period from 1850 to 1873 has been characterized as the Second Industrial Revolution, which was marked by two important trends. The European continent caught up with Great Britain, which had led the world industrially before 1850. Germany in particular emerged as a leading industrial nation. Another major change was the emergence of wholly new industries: steel, chemicals, electricity, and oil replaced textiles, steam, and iron as the most modern forms of enterprise. After 1873, Europe's economic growth slowed down. Bad weather and foreign competition led to hard times for agriculture. After the bank failures of 1873, several industries stagnated. Europe was able to recover from depression because of improved marketing techniques, the stabilizing effects of cartels, trade associations, and government imposition of tariffs. Finally, imperialistic ventures in Africa and Asia also helped.

In social terms, 1860–1914 was the age of the middle class. No longer a revolutionary group, the bourgeoisie had become the arbiter of taste and the defender of the status quo. It was no homogeneous unit, however, but one divided among a few industrial and banking magnates, larger numbers of small businessmen and professional people, shopkeepers, school teachers, and the new element of white-collar workers. There was considerable tension among these groups. After a section that details the emancipation of European Jews from ghetto life into a world of nearly equal citizenship, the chapter then focuses on late nineteenth century urban life. The authors note the rise in urban populations, the redesign of cities such as Paris, Manchester, and Vienna, and the emphasis upon urban sanitation and improvement of housing conditions among the poor—especially through philanthropy and public housing. An extended section on the varieties of women's experience in the late century follows.

The working classes grew in numbers and in importance. Although its living standard improved constantly, the urban proletariat was still faced with impersonal work, poverty, poor housing and working conditions, and high medical costs. Workers voiced their discontent in new institutions, among them trade unions, which flourished after 1870. The adoption of the democratic franchise in most of Europe led to its first mass political parties, in which workers played key roles.

Unions and political parties presented new opportunities for Europe's socialists, who generally sought change within the existing political framework rather than through violent revolution. In the First International, founded in 1864, Karl Marx himself made considerable accommodation to the revolutionary movement. Marxism emerged as Europe's single most important strand of socialism. The text then details the socialist movements within Great Britain, France, and Germany.

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the czars industrialized Russia. Popular discontent and socialist parties followed behind. The more radical Social Democratic Party had to function in exile due to czarist repression. After 1900, Lenin became one of its leaders. He contributed two important ideas to European socialist doctrine: the leadership of a small elite party of professional revolutionaries and an alliance of workers and peasants.

The Revolution of 1905 forced the czar to establish a parliament (Duma), but he was soon able to blunt its effect. A promising agricultural reform program was mired by 1911. The regime began to consider war as a means of winning support.

OUTLINE

I. Population Trends and Migration

II. The Second Industrial Revolution

A. New Industries

B. Economic Difficulties

III. The Middle Classes in Ascendancy

A. Social Distinction Within the Middle Class

IV. Late-Nineteenth-Century Urban Life

A. The Redesign of Cities

B. Urban Sanitation

C. Housing Reform and Middle-Class Values

V. Varieties of Late-Nineteenth-Century Women’s Experiences

A. Women’s Social Disabilities

B. New Employment Patterns for Women

C. Working-Class Women

D. Poverty and Prostitution

E. Women of the Middle Class

F. The Rise of Political Feminism

VI. Jewish Emancipation

A. Differing Degrees of Citizenship

B. Broadened Opportunities

VII. Labor, Socialism, and Politics to World War I

A. Trade Unionism

B. Democracy and Political Parties

C. Karl Marx and the First International

D. Great Britain: Fabianism and Early Welfare Programs

E. France: “Opportunism” Rejected

F. Germany: Social Democrats and Revisionism

G. Russia: Industrial Development and the Birth of Bolshevism

VIII. In Perspective

KEY TOPICS

The transformation of European life by the Second Industrial Revolution

Urban sanitation, housing reform, and the redesign of cities

The condition of women in late-nineteenth-century Europe and the rise of political feminism

The emancipation of the Jews

The development of labor politics and socialism in Europe to the outbreak of World War I

Industrialization and political unrest in Russia

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. How did the Second Industrial Revolution transform European society? What new industries developed, and which do you think had the greatest impact in the twentieth century?

2. Why were European cities redesigned during the late nineteenth century? Why were housing and health key issues for urban reform?

3. What was the status of European women in the second half of the nineteenth century? Why did they grow discontented with their lot? What factors led to change? To what extent had they improved their position by 1914? What tactics did they use to effect change? Was the emancipation of women inevitable? How did women approach their situation differently from country to country?

4. What were the major characteristics of Jewish emancipation in the nineteenth century?

5. What was the status of the European working classes in 1860? Had it improved by 1914? Why did trade unions and organized mass political parties grow? Why were the debates over “opportunism” and “revisionism” important to the Western European socialist parties?

6. What were the benefits and drawbacks of industrialization for Russia? Were the tsars wise to attempt to modernize their country, or should they have left it as it was? How did Lenin’s view of socialism differ from that of the socialists in Western Europe?

LECTURE TOPICS

1. The Second Industrial Revolution: One of the main causes of the emergence of new industries was the application of scientific research to the problems of industry, a process in which the Germans excelled. Other factors also had a role in the new economic boom, among them the spread of railways, treaties lowering tariffs, legal reforms favoring joint-stock companies, and the policy of currency nationalization pursued by Europe's new nations. The emergence of large banks that channeled funds into capital investment rather than commerce was of great importance.

2. Social Position of Women: Within each social rank, the experience of women was distinct from men. Most women in the work force were young and unmarried and were paid reduced wages. This exploitation was especially prevalent among working-class women whose employment status was precarious at best. Prostitutes from among this class usually plied their trade for only a few years before moving back into the regular work force or getting married. There was a vast gap between the experience of working-class and middle-class women. The latter did not work if at all possible and their roles became limited to that of wife and mother; their lives were very regulated by social constraints. During this period, feminist agitation for political equality challenged gender roles, and liberals were apprehensive about giving women the vote. Still, John Stuart Mill used classical liberal arguments of utility and efficiency in favor of women's rights. The British women's suffrage movement, led by Emmeline Pankhurst, became violent in its insistence for equality; only in 1918 did some British women receive the right to vote. In Germany, women were forbidden by law to participate in political activity until 1918.

3. Labor and Socialist Organizations: In Britain, the growing trade union movement organized the Labor Party (1901), a rather militant movement not much interested in socialism, which in Britain remained the preserve for intellectuals. In 1884, a number of them had formed the Fabian Society, which advocated a peaceful, gradual, and democratic move to socialism. France's socialists were popular, but generally divided between advocates of cooperation with the middle class and those who held out for party purity. The labor movement avoided political participation, preferring the doctrine of syndicalism, which advocated the general strike as a means of generating worker unity and power. Germany's Marxist Democratic Party (SPD) was Europe's strongest. In theory, the party rejected peaceful democratic reform, favoring a Marxist revolution. In practice, however, the party was a responsible participant in German electoral politics.

SUGGESTED FILMS

Europe the Mighty Continent: Social Classes, 1900 — A World to Win. Time-Life. 26 min.

Marxism and the Communist Manifesto. National Educational Television. 29 min.

Karl Marx—the Massive Dissent. BBC. 60 min.

Marxism: The Theory That Split the World. Learning Corporation of America. 25 min.

Paris, 1900. Macmillan. 72 min.

The Gay Metropolis. Radim Films, Inc. 15 min.

ATLAS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION

None in this chapter

ASSET DIRECTORY

Images

Women only gradually gained access to secondary and university education during the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. Young women on their way to school, the subject of this 1880 English painting, would thus have been a new sight when it was painted. Sir George Clausen (RA) (1852–1944), “Schoolgirls, Haverstock Hill,” signed and dated 1880, oil on canvas, 20 X 30 in. (52 X 77.2 cm), Yale Center for British Art/Paul Mellon Collection, USA/Bridgeman Art Library (B1985.10.1). Courtesy of the Estate of Sir George Clausen

The invention and commercialization of automobiles soon led to auto races in Europe and North America. Here Henri Fournier, the winner of the l901 Paris to Berlin Motor Car Race, sits in his winning racing car manufactured by the Paris-based auto firm of Emile and Louis Mors. Getty Images Inc.– Hulton Archive Photos

The bicycle helped liberate women’s lives, but as this poster suggests, it also was associated with glamour and fashion. © Archivo Iconografico, S.A./CORBIS

The Eiffel Tower, shown under construction in this painting, was to become a symbol of the newly redesigned Paris and its steel structure a symbol of French industrial strength. Getty Images, Inc.—Liaison

A major feature of the reconstruction of mid-nineteenth-century Paris under the Emperor Napoleon II was a vast new sewer system to provide for drainage in the city. Sewer workmen could travel the length of the structure on small rail cars. Even today tourists still may visit parts of the mid-city Paris sewer system. Nadar/Getty Images

Women working in the London Central Telephone Exchange. The invention of the telephone opened new employment opportunities for women. Image Works/Mary Evans Picture Library Ltd.

Department stores, such as Bon Marche in Paris, sold wide selections of consumer goods under one roof. These modern stores increased the economic pressure on small traditional merchants who specialized in selling only one kind of good. (See “Paris Department Stores Expand their Business,” page 766.) Image Works/Mary Evans Picture Library Ltd.

Emmeline Pankhurst (1857–1928) was frequently arrested for forcibly advocating votes for British women. Hulton Archive Photos/Getty Images Inc.

Because many major financial institutions of nineteenth-century Europe were owned by wealthy Jewish families, antisemitic political figures often blamed them for economic hard times. The most famous such family was the Rothschilds who controlled banks in several countries. The head of the London branch was Lionel Rothschild (l808–l879). He was elected to Parliament several times, but was not seated because he would not take the required Christian oath. After the requirement of that oath was abolished in l858, he sat in Parliament from l858 to l874. Getty Images Inc.– Hulton Archive Photos

Trade unions continued to grow in late-nineteenth-century Great Britain. The effort to curb the unions eventually led to the formation of the Labour Party. The British unions often had quite elaborate membership certificates, such as this one for the National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers of Great Britain and Ireland. The Granger Collection

Beatrice and Sidney Webb. These most influential British Fabian Socialists, shown in a photograph from the late 1920s, wrote many books on governmental and economic matters, served on special parliamentary commissions, and agitated for the enactment of socialist policies. CORBIS/Bettmann

In this photograph taken in 1895, Lenin sits at the table among a group of other young Russian radicals from Saint Petersburg. CORBIS/Bettmann

Bloody Sunday, St. Petersburg 1905

On Bloody Sunday, January 22, 1905, troops of Tsar Nicholas II fired on a peaceful procession of workers at the Winter Palace who sought to present a petition for better working and living conditions. The scene portrayed here depicts one of the enduring images of events leading to the subsequent Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917. It figured in at least two movies: the 1925 anti-tsarist Soviet silent film called “The Ninth of January,” and “Nicholas and Alexandra,” the lavish 1971 movie that was sympathetic to the tsar and blamed Bloody Sunday on frightened and incompetent officials. While Nicholas had not ordered the troops to fire and was not even in St. Petersburg on Bloody Sunday, the event all but destroyed any chance of reconciliation between the tsarist government and the Russian working class.

Map

Map 23–1 PATTERNS OF GLOBAL MIGRATION, 1840–1900 Emigration was a global process by the late 19th century. But more immigrants went to the United States than to every other nation combined.

Interactive Map

Map 23–2 EUROPEAN INDUSTRIALIZATION, 1860–1913 In 1860 Britain was far more industrialized than other European countries. But in the following half century, industrial output rose significantly, if unevenly, across much of Western Europe, especially in the new German Empire. The Balkan states and the Ottoman Empire, however, remained economically backward.

Timelines

MAJOR DATES OF THE SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

MAJOR DATES RELATING TO SANITATION REFORM

MAJOR DATES IN LATE-NINETEENTH-CENTURY AND EARLY-TWENTIETH-CENTURY WOMEN’S HISTORY

MAJOR DATES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIALISM

MAJOR DATES IN TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY RUSSIAN HISTORY

Documents

PARIS DEPARTMENT STORES EXPAND THEIR BUSINESS

A FRENCH PHYSICIAN DESCRIBES A SLUM IN LILLE

AN ENGLISH FEMINIST DEFENDS THE FEMALE FRANCHISE

EDUARD BERNSTEIN CRITICIZES ORTHODOX MARXISM

LENIN ARGUES FOR THE NECESSITY OF A SECRET AND ELITE PARTY OF PROFESSIONAL REVOLUTIONARIES

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