CHAPTER 24: AGE OF NATIONALISM
How did Napoleon seek to reconcile people and conservative forces in an authoritarian nation-state?
Napoleon I's France had already combined national feeling with authoritarian rule and it was Napoleon nephew, Luis Napoleon who revived and extended this merger
4 reasons for Louis Napoleons popularity in France's Second republic:
1. He had the great name of his uncle
2. Middle class and peasant property owners feared the socialist challenge of urban workers and wanted a tough ruler to provide protection
3. Louis had a postive 'program' fro France
4. Louis believed that the government should represent the people and that it should try hard to help them economically
Extra measures taken:
- Shared power with a conservative National Assembly, according to the constitution.
- Some shared power with the Church as he wanted the Assembly to vote funds to vote his personal debts and he wanted to change the constitution so he could run a second term.
- Assembly failed to cooperate so Napoleon seized power in a coup d'etat and called on the French people as his uncle had done to legalize this action
- They did and made him the hereditary emperor
Greatest successes of Louis Napoleon
Economic development:
- His government encouraged the new investment banks and massive railroad construction that were at the heart of the Industrial Revolution (fostering economic expansion)
Political Power:
- Remained in the hands of the emperor
- chose his ministers but restricted the Assembly
- Took elections extremely serious
Louis Napoleon and the people
- Was always sensitive to public mood and therefore responded to critics by progressively liberalizing his empire
- In a final referendum on the eve of the disastrous war with Prussia, 7.5 million Frenchmen voted in favor of new constitution and only 1.5m against
- Development on the universal male suffrage and further progress towards a democracy
France's position at the time
- Unstable with a lot of political turmoil in the 18th century
- Clash between absolutism and liberalism
- French revolution in 1789 started a period of instability
- Napoleon in the end conquered almost the entire European Continent but was defeated at Waterloo (france lost its colonies)
- 19th century instability continued
- Beginning of industrialization
- 1871 France becomes a third republic
Italy 1850
- Divided into various independent states
- Though between 1815 and 1848 the idea of a united Italian nation captured the imaginations of many Italians
Three approaches to Italy's unification
1. The radical program of patriot Giuseppe Mazzini, who preached a centralized democratic republic based on universal male suffrage and the will of the people.
2. The program of the Catholic priest Vicenzo Gilbert, who called for a federation of existing states under the presidency of a progressive pope
3. Sardinia's libera; and progressive state
Camillo Benso di Cavour
- Leader of Sardinia
- Came form a noble family and made fortune in business before turning into politics
- National goals were limited but realistic
- Program of highways and railroads, of civil liberties and opposition to clerical privilege, increased support for Sardinia throughout Italy
- Until 1859 he sought unity only for the states of northern and central Italy
- Worked to develop Sardinia as a liberal constitutional state capable of leading northern Italy
Giuseppe Garibaldi
- Super patriot, personified the romantic, revolutionary nationalism and republicanism of Mazzini
- He emerged in 1860 as an independent force in Italian politics
- His plans were to liberate the kingdoms of the two Sicilies (Cavour secretly supported this)
Consequences:
- May 1860 'Red Shirts' (guerrilla army of Garibaldi) captured the imagination of the Sicilian peasantry which rose in a bloody rebellion agains their landlords
- Cavour send Sardinian forces to occupy most of the Papal Sates and to intercept Garibaldi (succeed in controlling Garibaldi radicalism and turned popular nationalism in a conservative direction)
- New kingdom of Italy was parliamentary monarchy under Victor Emmanuel.
Austro- Prussian rivalry
- Tensions grew between Austria- Prussia after Russia and Austria blocked Frederick Williams attempt in 1850 to unify Germany
- Each power seeked to block the other from the German Confederation
- German custom union 'Zollverein': Austria only state in German confederation that hadn't joined
Prussia:
- Emerged from upheavals of 1848 with a parliament of sorts, hands of wealthy liberals middle class by 1859: these wanted the parliament to have all political power instead of the king
- Convince that war with France or Austria were possible, William I raised taxes and increased budged to double the army
- Prussian parliament rejected the military budget in 1862 and liberals won in new election
Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)
- A hero to some, villain to others, master of politics, strong desire of power
- Had the Prussian bureaucracy go right on collecting taxes
- Re-organized the army
- Believed in the balance of power (stability leads to peace, too much power is dangerous)
- Never too keen with colonization (africa) disrupt that balance
Bismarck and the Austro-Prussian War
- War lasted 7 years
- Used railroads to move troops, new breech loading needle gun for firepower
- Army overrun northern Germany and defeated Austria in Bohemia
- Bismarck offered Austria realistic peace terms (Austria paid no reparations and lost no territory)
Consequences of the war
- Austria agreed to withdraw from German affairs, Prussia conquered small states north of the Main River
- Bismarcks fundamental goal of Prussian expansion was being realized
The Taming of the Parliament
- During the attack on Prussia in 1866, Bismarck increasingly identified Prussia's fate with the 'national development of Germany'
- Aftermath of victory, he formed a federal constitution for the new North German Confederation (each state retained its own federal government
- King of Prussia became president of the confederation
- Federal government Bismarck and William I controlled the army and the foreign affairs
The Franco - Prussian War
- Bismarck realized that a patriotic war with France would get him south German States
- Issue: whether a distant relative of Prussian William I might become king of Spain
- By 1870 the French decide to start war with Prussia
- Bismarck had support from South Germany (captured and humiliated Napoleon_
- French patriots proclaimed the french republic and continued to fight
- After 5 months, starving Paris surrendered and France accepted Bismarck's harsh peace terms
- Souther german states decide to join new 'German Empire'
- William I was declared as emperor of Germany in palace of Versailles
- 1866 constitution, king of Prussia and his ministers had ultimate power in German empire
- Bismarck and german Empire imposed severe penalty on France (5 million francs + relations were tragically poisoned)
- Franco- Prussian war released enormous surge of patriotic feeling in Germany
- Germans were extremely proud and considered themselves as the 'fittest and best of the European species'
Nation building in the US
- Rise of Cotton Empire extended slave based agriculture in the South
- Key role in rapid US economic growth, southern whites developed 'we' distinct form 'they' Northern
- Souther troops fired on Union fort in South Carolina Charleston harbor thus WAR began!!
- Long civil war (1861-65), bloodies conflict ever in American history
- South was defeated and the Union preserved
- Homestead Act 1862: Western land to settlers, 13th amendment of 1865 which ended slavery reinforced concept of 'free labor'
Russia 1850s
- Poor agrarian society with rapidly growing population
- Industry was poorly developed and nearly everyone lived off the land
- Serfdom became great moral and political issue (ownership of certain areas/fields) restricted
Crimean war (1853-56) bought crisis:
- Fighting was concentrated in Crimean peninsula on black sea
- Russias weak transportation network of rivers and wagon failed to supply the distant Russian army adequately
Impact of France and Britain on Russia
- Inflicted huge military defeat on Russia
- Russia had fallen behind the rapid industrializing nations of wester Europe
- Russia needed railroads, better armaments and reorganization of the army
Russia 1850 and Reforms (move towards modernization)
Tsar Alexander II (1855-811):
- Freeing of the serfs in 1861 (human bondage abolished)
- 1864 government established a new institution of local governments, the 'zemstvo'
- 1860: government encouraged and subsidized private railroad companies (railroads enabled agricultural Russia to export grain..further economic development)
- 1881: assassination of Alexander II
- New Tsar: Alexander III
- Massive industrialization from 1890 to 1900 under leadership of Sergei Witte
Industrial leadership under Sergei Witte in the Russian empire
- Govt. but state owned railroads rapidly
- He established high protective tariff to build Russian industry
- Used Westerners to catch up to the West
- Encouraged foreigners to build factories in Russia
- Foreign capitalist and their engineers built enormous and modern steel and coal industry
- Russia was industrializing and catching up to the west
Russian Revolution 1905
- Military disaster abroad (defeat in Japan) brought political upheaval at home.
- The business and professional classes had long wanted a liberal, representative government. On a Sunday in January 1905, a massive crowd of workers and their families converged peacefully on the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to present a petition to the tsar.
- Peasants were suffering from poverty and overpopulation
- The Bloody Sunday massacre turned ordinary workers against the star and produced a wave of general indignation.
-The Revolutionary surge culminated in October 1905 in a great paralyzing general strike that forced the government to capitulate.
- The tsar then issued the October Manifesto, which granted full civil rights and promised a popularly elected Duma with real legislative power. However, the tsar still retained a lot of power.
Peasant life in Post Reform Russia
•Cautious emancipation of 1861: freed Russian peasants from their noble lords
but tied them to the villages, traditional peasant life preserved until massive industrial surge of 1890s.
•October Manifesto: result of great general strike in October 1905→granted full civil rights and promised a popularly elected Duma(parliament) with real legislative power.
•New constitution→the Fundamental Laws, tsar retained great powers
Duma: elected indirectly by universal male suffrage
Middle class liberals saw Fundamental Laws as a step back
•Efforts to cooperate with tsar broke down
Tsar dismissed the Duma
in 1914 Russia was partially modernized
Decline and Reform in the Ottoman Empire
• Ottoman Empire: highest point→under Suleiman the Magnificent in 16th century.
18th century: falling behind western Europe in science, industrial skill and military technology
• Caught up in Napoleon war and lost territory to Russia→ottomans forced in 1816 to grant Serbia local autonomy→ottoman empire losing territory and power
Rise of Muhammad Ali: another threat to empire, Ottoman governor in Egypt
Tanzimat: reforms designed to remake the empire on a western European model
→policy of tolerance, new commercial laws, free importation of foreign goods
Failed: 1.liberal reforms failed to stop the growth of nationalism among Christian subjects in the Balkans
2.The Ottoman initiative did not cut down the appetite of Western imperialism
• Young Turks: fervent patriots who seized power in the revolution of 1908 in the Ottoman Empire, forcing the conservative to implement reforms
→failed to stop the rising tide of anti-Ottoman nationalism in the Balkans
→helped prepare the way for birth of modern secular Turkey after the defeat and collapse of the Ottoman Empire in WWI.
The Responsive National State (1871-1914)
- 1871: Europe organized into strong national states
- More people could vote, ordinary man becoming 'part of the system'
- 1913: women could vote
- 1880 growth of modern anti-Semitism
The German Empire
• Reichstag: popularly elected lower house of government o the new German Empire after 1871
• German empire was a federal union of Prussia and 24 smaller states
• Kulturkampf: Bismarck's attack on the catholic church within Germany from 1870 to 1878, resulting from Pius Ix's declaration of papal infallibility
→Initiatives generally aimed at making the Catholic Church subject to government control
• 1878:Bismarck abandoned attack on church and courted the Catholic Centre Party
→high tariffs on cheap grain from U.S, Canada, Russia
• Protectionism: France puts high tariffs to protect agriculture and industry
• Socialism : Bismarck tries to stop it in Germany
• Issues in German politics: socialism and Marxian Social Democratic Party
• 1890: new Emperor→Wiliam II forced Bismarck to resign yet was no more successful than Bismarck
Republican France
• 1881: France divided again
National elections sent conservatives and monarchists to the National Assembly
France's new leaders surrendered Alsace and Lorraine to Germany
Assembly ordered French army into Paris and crushed the Commune
France formed new national unity, stability before 1914
General expansion of education in France and the world
• Dreyfus affair: Jewish captain in French army was falsely accused of treason(crime,disloyalty)→he was declared innocent
• 1898/1899: France split apart→one side the army, other side the civil libertarians and radical republicans
Salaries of bishops and priests no longer paid by government, no financial support given to catholic schools
Great Britain and Ireland
• English political parties and electoral campaigns became more modern
Liberal Party in power in 1906
people's budget: designed to increase spending on social welfare services
• David Lloyd George: major British politician present at the Treaty of Versailles and while at Versailles, Prime Minister during the First World War and immediately after. He made a greater impact on British public life than arguably any other 20th-century leader, thanks to his leadership in winning the war, his post-war role in reshaping Europe and giving independence to Ireland, and his pre-war introduction of Britain's social welfare system
• William Gladstone: liberal prime minister (1809-1898) →"my mission is to pacify Ireland", introduced bills to get self-government in Ireland but failed to pass
• Ireland: Irish Catholic majority in southern countries / Irish Protestant in northern countries
Austro Hungarian empire
• Conflicting nationalisms in Ireland
• 1849:Maygar nationalism drove Hungarian patriots to declare an independent Hungarian republic → crushed by Russian and Austrian armies
• 1850s: Hungary ruled as conquered territory
• 1866: defeat by Prussia, dual monarchy→empire divided in two, nationalistic Magyars gained virtual independence for Hungary
• 1867: Magyar nobility restored the constitution of 1848 and dominated the Magyar peasantry and minority populations until 1914
• Unlike most major countries which harnessed nationalism to strengthen the state after 1871, Austro Hungarian Empire was weakened and destroyed by it.
Jewish Emancipation and Modern anti-semitism
• Triumph of nation-state brought revolutionary changes in Jewish life in western and central Europe
• 1848: turning point → Jews formed part of revolutionary vanguard in Vienna and Berlin →Frankfurt Assembly endorsed full rights for German Jews
1871: constitution of new German Empire developed process of Jewish emancipation(liberation, freedom) in Europe →abolished restrictions on Jewish marriage, choice of occupation, place of residence, property ownership
Exclusion from government employment and discrimination remained.
• 1871: majority Jewish people improved their economic situation and entered the middle classes.
• 1873: vicious anti-Semitism reappeared, ghetto exclusion, riots and expulsions → general reaction against liberalism
• Jews as biological threat to German people
beliefs popular amongst conservatives, extremist nationalists
• Zionism: movement toward Jewish political nationhood started by Theodor Herzl
• Anti-Semites created modern political parties to attack/degrade Jews → in 1890s , Karl Leuger and his "Christian socialists" won electoral victories, inciting Herzl to turn from German nationalism and advocate Zionism and the creation of a Jewish state
• Theodor Herzl: Encountering anti-Semitism, he assumed that the solution was for Jews to totally assimilate. He believed that anti-Semitism occurred because Jews looked and acted differently. Herzl founded the Zionist political movement.
Marxism and the Socialist Movement
• 1871: growth of socialst parties
German Social Democratic Party: millions of followers, largest party in Reichstag
• Marx: "working men have no country" →urged proletarians of all nations to unite
He played an important role in founding First International of socialists → The International Working Men's association
• 1889: individual parties in different countries grew stronger
May 1: annual international one-day strike(marches/demonstrations)
Unions and Revisionism
• Socialist parties growth →steady improvement for working class
Socialists increasingly combined radical rhetoric with sober action
• Workers gained right to vote →focus on elections rather than revolution
• Workers standard of living rose
Revisionism: an effort by moderate socialists to update Marxian doctrines to reflect the realities of the time
Chapter 25: West and the World
Industrialization and the World Economy
-Industrial revolution started in Great Britain to rest of Europe (France, Germany), then North America and the rest of the world
- Expansion into other regions utilized both peaceful and forceful methods
Rise of Global Inequality
- Industrialized regions increased wealth and power
- Gap between industrialized and non-industrialized regions increase and became institutionalized
- Prior of industrialization the world was fairly equal
- Industrialization opened gaps on average wealth and well being in countries and regions
- Third world country's only made progress after 1945 through independence and decolonization and then their own industrialization
- Different schools interpretations used in West and East
- West used sciences, technology and capitalist organization and political and economic power
- Between 19th and 20th centuries there was rapid expansion and colonization
The World Market
- Commerce stimulated economic development which was led by Great Britain
- Cotton from India supplied cotton textile producers
- Tariffs protected the British textile industry while killed the Indian textile industry
-Britain was the largest imported of goods between 1846 and 1914
- International trade grew due to betters transport methods (new innovations)
- New communication systems directed the flow of trade by connecting financial centers and setting world commodity prices
Foreign Investments
- Great Britain, France and Germany were main investors
- Started around 1840
-The wealthy sent money abroad to earn interest and dividends
- Mostly the money went to US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Latin America for railroads, ports, utilities
- Natives killed or weekend due to diseases and alcohol
Opening of China
China was traditionally self sufficient
- Sent more goods and inventions to Europe than they received and trade was carefully regulated
1820s, British begun to use force in order to trade opium
- They smuggled it and illegal sold it for huge profits, though causing addiction in China
Qin emperor tried to stamp out the trade
- British responded by occupying costal cities because they wanted free unregulated trade as well as European diplomatic relations
- China have in to Britain
Between 1856 and 1860, the French and British occupied Beijing as a result of more trade disputes
- More treaties were formed and Europe gained more trading power
- Military force used to force more trade
Treaty of Nankin (1842)
- Hong kong went to Britain, China paid $100million and four large cities were opened for trade with low tariffs
- New trade led a flourishing opium trade
Japan and the US
- European missionaries arrived in Japan in the 16th century
- By 1640 Japan had reacted negatively and seated of the country in order to preserve Japan
- America saw it as their duty to force Japan to open up
- Matthew Perry used gunboat diplomacy to open Japan 1853, resulting in a treaty opening up two ports and trade
The Pressure of the Population
- European population more than doubled between 1800 and 1900
- Birth rates and death rates declined as the living standards rose
- Between 1815 and 1932 more than 60 million people left Europe for the Americas, Australia, NZ
- Growing numbers led to overpopulation and hunger
- Little land and available opportunities led to migration
- Migration increased at the end of the 1800s just before WWI
- Mainly to the US
Western Penetration of Egypt
- 1798 Napoleon Bonaporte invaded the Egyptian part of the Ottoman Empire and occupied territory for 3 years (left a power vacuum)
- 1805 Muhammad Ali appointed governor of Egypt (set out to built the state on strong militarism)
- 1848 Ali had established a strong and independent state
- Modernization policies in Egypt attracted the Europeans
o Agriculture was used to pay for the modernization plans
• Many self-sufficient peasants were forced and forced to grow cash crops
- Ismail (Muhammad Ali's grandson) continued Ali's plan
-Introduced more irrigation networks and more exports, and begun building the Suez canal with the French's help in 1869
- His projects were very expensive leading to huge debt in 1876 and a financial crisis
- The French and British appointed commissioners which gave Europeans more power over Egypt
- In 1879, the Egyptian Nationalist Part was formed under Colonel Ahmed Arabi
o They forced Ismail to abdicate and anti-European riots erupted in Alexandria in 1882
o The British occupied Egypt until 1956
- British rule did result in better conditions for peasants.
o It created a new model for European expansion based on military force, political domination, and the justification of beneficial reform which lasted until 1914
European migrants
- Migrants usually were small farmers of skilled artisans, whose way of life was treated by too little land, estate agriculture and cheap factory goods
- Around half or less returned afterwards to their lands
-Family/friendship let to migration
- Revolution led to migration
- Later on, govt started more reforms and improved social security thus reducing migration
Asian migrants
- 3 million migrated before 1920 as indentured laborers for plantations and gold mines
- Were used to replace slaves
- 1840 demands for field hands in Cuba (Spanish recruited Chinese)
- Before 1914 there were 'white only' policies which only allowed them to permanent settling which benighted to the 'core' Europeans
Western Imperialism
- Western expansion peaked between (1880 to 1914)
- Europe sent migrants, money, and manufactured goods and created political empires abroad
- Contrasted with politically independent nations
New imperialism in the 19th century
- Imperialism in the form of a rush for territory, wars and threats and mainly aimed at Africa and Asia (Scramble for Africa)
European Presence in Africa Before 1880
- Europeans controlled 10% of the continent
- French controlled Algeria in 1830
- French , Italian and Spanish were settled by 1880
- Britain had possession over the Dutch settlements in Cape Town
- DUtch, Zulu, and Xhosa fought for land in 1935 and the Boers wanted independence from the UK
- The British and Boers had most control over South Africa by 1880
- Before 1880 Africa was largely free of Europeans aside of trading ports
Scramble for Africa after 1880
- Between 1880 and 1900 Britain, France, Germany and Italy scrambled to occupy African territory
- By 1900, continent was under European rule
- Ethiopia one of the remaining free states (managed to fight of Europeans)
-Dutch settlers were conquered by the British
o South African war was between 1899 and 1902
o The Afrikaner territories were united with the rest of South Africa in 1910 and the country became self-governing under Afrikaners took political power
- British occupied Egypt in 1882
- Leopold II of Belgium took over control of the Congo
• This alarmed the French and they sent Pierre de Brazza, who signed a protection treaty with the Teke tribe in 1880 and established a protectorate on the north bank of the Congo river
- The Berlin Conference (1884-1885), arranged by Ferry and Bismarck, officially carved up Africa
o They saw Leopold's claim as wrong and established German protectorates, and the British enlarged their territory northward
- The maxim machine gun allowed European military force to gain total power
o It aided the British conquest by the Nile river and Sudan
Imperialism in Asia
- 1815 Dutch ruled Java
- 1880s France took over Indochina
- Russia conquered Muslim areas in Caucasus and central Asia reaching the Afghan border in 1885
- 1898 US took Philippines from Spain
(suppressed philippin revolt)
Causes of New imperialism
- Result of the rush for territory and empire
- Economic motives were trade and new opportunities and fear of high tariffs
- Colonies were crucial for national security and military power
- Social Darwinism (survival of the fittest)
- Stronger nations conquered weaker ones
- Technological and military superiority aided new imperialism
-Maxim machingun meant unequal battles
- Steamships and international telegraphs concentrated power
- Attention to social tension and domestic political conflicts was diverted to colonies
- Special interest groups became more involved in imperialism (missionaries, military, private companies)
Response to western imperialism
-Try and drive them away, attempts to preserve local culture while being military conquered, adapting some western ways to escape full European rule, or accepting imperial rule
-Acceptance of imperial rule was weak among the mass, and natives generally followed those who opposed Europeans and anti-imperialist leaders
-Potential leaders with western world ideologies often had ideas of self-determination
Civilizing Mission
-Colonizing was seen as a way to civilize the "primitive" non-whites by introducing a modern economy, cities, advanced medicine, and a higher living standard
-"The White Man's Burden" was an accepted ideology
-Idea of protecting natives from "tribal warfare" and cruder forms of exploitation by whites
Chapter 26: War and Revolution
Empire in India
-India was the jewel of British Empire
-India was conquered but the British East India company by 1848
-In 1857 and 1858, the Great Rebellion, a mutiny by Indians, occurred
-Britain had direct rule until its independence in 1947
o It was ruled by a parliament in London, but administered by an all-white civil service in India and practiced job discrimination and social segregation
- The British established an English education system to train subordinates in the government and army, which offered more opportunities for economic and social advancements
o This created a new elite in India influenced by western thought
- Economic development in India occurred in the form of agriculture, railroads, tea and jute plantations, which improved the economy and increase the living standard and fostered population growth
- Nationalism rose among the Indian Elites as Indians would never be equal to whites
o In 1885, they formed the Hindu Indian National Congress and demanded equality and self-government
o By 1907, radicals wanted complete Indian independence
International tensions sharpened by
- Growing competition over colonies and markets
- Arms race
- Series of diplomatic crisis
- Domestic conflicts encouraging govt. to pursue aggressive foreign policy
The Home Front
-Total war encouraged growth of state bureaucracies, changed lives of civilians, and inspired mass antiwar movements at the end
Chapter 27: Age of Anxiety (1900 -1940)
Growing International conflict
- War began bc European powers failed to resolve diplomatic problems created by Germanys rise to power
-Bismarck: Germany has no territorial ambitions in Europe and wanted peace/ Objective to isolate France (signed treaties with Russia and Austria-Hungary to achieve this) AND to lower threat to peace posed by Austria-Hungary and Russia (since decline of Ottoman Empire = power vacuum)
- William II (new German emperor): refused to renew non-aggression pact with Russia => France and Russia become allies (1894) => Europe divided into 2 blocs: Triple Alliance (Austria, Germany and Italy) against France & Russia
- G.B. only non-committed power; bitter rivalry towards Germany (Commercial Rivalry, Imperial Rivalry, Naval Expansion of Germany => Naval Rivalry);
-South African War created worldwide opposition to British Imperialism => Britain quickly makes agreements with US and Japan and becomes ally of France (Anglo-French Entente, 1904)
=> Germany is alarmed by alliance => bullies GB with First Moroccan Crisis 1905 (control over Morocco) which only brings France and GB closer together
=> Russia, GB, France, and US begin to see Germany as threat and Germany begins to feel encircled by the others
=> GB, France, and Russia enter the Triple Entente Alliance
- Germany got new big battleships => even more tension
- Basically war in-evitable: German-led Triple Alliance (Austria-Hungary) VS Triple Entente
Mood of 1914
-Widespread militarism, nationalism, international relations as test for national power
-Military institutions helped make public policy and govern people
-Universal suffrage to military, mobilization
-Europeans underestimated destructive potential of modern weapons
-Believed that war was glorious and that it would lead to national unity; antiwar sentiments considered as betrayal of country
-Statesmen promoted war to divert attention from internal problems (GB: North Ireland Civil War and Women's Rights movement; Russia: Revolution and defeat in Russo-Japanese War; Germany: success of Marxist Socialist Part; France: labor and budget problems) => ruling classes use war to postpone dealing with social problems at home
The Outbreak of WWI
- June 28: assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Francis Ferdinand by Serbian Revolutionaries- Yugoslavs want to be free from Austrian rule
- 1900-1914: Western powers force Ottomans to give up their territories in Europe; ethnic nationalism ensues, destroying Ottoman Empire and threatening Austria-Hungary
- Serbia wants to build state (hostile towards Ottomans and Austria-Hungary because they both ruled Serbian minorities) => 1908: Austria annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina to block Serbian expansion => Serbia enraged but needs help from Russia => First Balkan War (1912) Serbia + Greece + Bulgaria attack Ottoman Empire; Serbia quarrels with Bulgaria over won territory => Second Balkan War (1913) Bulgaria attacks Serbia, Austria intervenes and forces Serbia to give up Albania
- Germany pushes Austria to confront Serbia; William II and his Chancellor realize that war between Russia and Austria likely but hoped (and thought) that GB would stay neutral => Germany tells Austria that it will support it unconditionally in case of war => Austria is excited
- July 23: Austria-Hungary presents Serbia with ultimatum (against Serbian sovereignty) => Serbia replies evasively => Austria mobilizes armies and declares war on Serbia to save its empire
- Russia needed more time to mobilize armies (it's a BIG country and it has to fight at two fronts: Austria and Germany) > July 29: Russia declares war
- Schlieffen Plan: Failed German plan calling for the quick attack on France through neutral Belgium before turning to Russian front (STUPID, STUPID PLAN) => German armies invade Belgium => GB declares war on Germany
- People shocked, in panic, and super-excited; enthusiastic pro-war slogans: WOHOOOOO WAAAR
Waging Total War
- Everyone thought war would be short and painless- HAH NO!
- Total war: distinctions between soldiers on battlefield and civilians at home blurred; government controls economy to supply armies at front
- War expanded to include Middle East, Africa, East Asia, and US
Stalemate and Slaughter on the Western Front
- Russian armies immediately attack east Germany =>Germans forced to transfer troops there; At front with France (backed by GB), Germans fall back => both sides dig trenches and start trench warfare; millions of deaths over insignificant piece of land; battle impersonal, traumatic, and OBVIOUSLY fatal
- Battle of Somme (summer 1916), British offensive undertaken in northern France
The Widening War
- Eastern front no trench warfare; fighting dominated by Germany; Germany won major victories and occupied huge lands of Russian empire in Central Europe but Russia still didn't leave the war => Germans install big military bureaucracy in occupied lands and create anti-Slavic prejudice and forced labor, steal animals, and kill 1/3 of civilians - Germany wanted this land for itself
- Hopes for territorial gains brought other countries into the war: Italy joins Triple Entente in 1915 for promises of Austrian territory
- 1914- war carried into Middle East: Ottomans and Bulgaria join Austria and Germany/ 1915: Armenians welcome Russian armies as liberators => Ottomans (supported by Germans) order mass deportation of Armenians (modern ethnic cleansing, ARMENIAN GENOCIDE, a million Armenians die)
- 1915: British try to take Constantinople from Ottomans= FAIL => British incite Arabs to revolt against Ottomans; bargain with Arab leader Hussein Ibn-Ali and encourage him to fight for an independent Arab Kingdom => Hussein and UK succeed in guerilla war against Ottomans
- UK captures Iraq by 1917 and enters with other Arab into Syria; Arabs now really want an Arab-Kingdom (FAIL)
- War spread to Africa and East Asia too; Germany wanted colonial subjects of UK and France to revolt but the colonialists actually supported them + fought against German colonies; France especially made a lot of troops out of its colonial subjects
- April 1917: US declares war on Germany because of 1) War at Sea and 2) general sympathy for Triple Entente
- At begging of war, France and UK made naval blockade to strangle Central Powers => 1915: Germany retaliates with fatal submarine (kills some British and Americans) => Woodrow Wilson protests vigorously and uses this to sway public opinion against Germans => Germany halts submarine warfare for 2 years => 1917: Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare => US declares war on Germany => US helps Triple Entente win war
Characterized by:
-an attempt to build lasting peace leading to the Treaty of Versailles in 1919
-Thought of drifting in a strange, uncertain and uncontrollable world.
-Thought of living in an age of anxiety and continual crisis.
-Radical developments in the arts and sciences challenging received wisdom of all kind.
-Elusive political stability
-Rise of authoritarian and fascist governments
-A sense of gloom and misfortune between the world wars.
Mobilizing Total War
- States establish ministries that mobilize soldiers and armaments & that provide care for war widows and veterans
- Capitalism abandoned
- Government planning goals set mandatory production goals, made rationing programs, and set limits on wages and prices/ Germany went furthest: every useful material inventoried and rationed; produced substitutes; but failed to tax war profits => massive deficit and inflation => re-emergence of class conflict / Germany history's first "totalitarian" society
- All belligerent nations suspended civil liberties and ignored democratic procedures
The Social Impact
- Need for workers meant more power for labor unions/ socialist leaders enter war governments
- Role of women changed dramatically: work in industry, transportation, offices => after the war they gained the right to vote thanks to their war-efforts / after the war men also wanted their old jobs back so women returned to their old positions
- War promoted greater social equality, blurring class distinction and lessening gap between poor and rich
Growing political tensions
- Governments used crude propaganda and censorship to bolster support
- spring 1916: people begin to crack under strain of total war: protests, marches, Easter Rebellion in North Ireland/ France becomes a dictatorship under Clemenceau/ French units refuse to fight, Russian soldiers deserted in droves, Italian army collapses in despair, British armies "bled dry"
- political discontent and conflicts among nationalities grew; Czech and Yugoslav leaders demanded independent states for their people
- Germans suffered: limited food imports, poorly implemented ration plans, starved to death, social conflicts of pre-war Germany emerged; moderate socialists in Reichstag call for compromise "peace without annexations or reparations" but that was unthinkable for the conservatives => militaristic Germany begins to crack
20th century literature
-Nineteenth-century authors had written typically as all-knowing narrators describing characters and their relationships.
-In the early twentieth century, authors such as Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, and James Joyce wrote from the point of view of a single, confused individual or multiple individuals.
Movies & Radio
-Movies became a form of mass entertainment that replaced traditional arts and amusement for rural people.
-By the 1930s, movies were weekly entertainment for much of the population in Europe and North America.
-Radio became commercially viable in the 1920s.
-By the late 1930s, most households in Britain and Germany had inexpensive individual sets.
-Radio was an extremely powerful outlet for political propaganda.
Motion pictures also became powerful tools of political indoctrination.
Treaty of Versailles 1919
Wilson's aims: US
-To end war by creating a League of Nations based on his Fourteen Points.
-To ensure Germany was not destroyed.
-Not to blame Germany for the war - he hated the Guilt Clause.
Clemenceau's aims: France
-Revenge and to punish Germany.
-To return Alsace-Lorraine to France.
-No League of Nations.
-An independent Rhineland.
-Huge reparations.
-To disband the German army so that Germany would never be strong enough to attack France again.
Lloyd George: Great Britain
-A 'just' peace that would be tough enough to please the electors who wanted to 'make Germany pay', but would leave Germany strong enough to trade.
-Land for Britain's empire.
-To safeguard Britain's naval supremacy.
Modern philosophy
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) proclaimed that the optimistic Christian order of the West was obsolete, and that it stifled creativity and excellence. He called for superior individuals to recognize the emptiness of social convention and the meaninglessness of individual life.
-The Frenchman Henri Bergson (1859-1941) argued that immediate experience and intuition were at least as important as rational thinking and science.
-Georges Sorel (1847-1922) described Marxian socialism as an inspiring religion, not a scientific truth. He believed that after the workers' revolution a small revolutionary elite would have to run society.
-World War I accelerated change in philosophical thought. Change took two main directions.
In English-speaking countries, logical empiricism dominated.
-Logical empiricism: A philosophy that sees meaning in only those beliefs that can be empirically proven, and that therefore rejects most of the concerns of traditional philosophy, from the existence of God to the meaning of happiness as nonsense.
-Ludwig Wittgenstein reduced philosophy to the study of language, arguing that philosophers could not make meaningful statements about God, freedom, morality, and so on.
-Existentialism: A philosophy that stresses the meaningless of existence and the importance of the individual in searching for moral values in an uncertain world. (generally were atheist)
-Existentialism first gained popularity in Germany in the 1920s as Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers attracted followers.
-The Revival of Christianity
Loss of faith in human reason and progress led to renewed interest in Christianity.
New Physics
-The research of Marie Curie (1867-1934) and Max Planck (1858-1947) showed that the old view of atoms as stable, unbreakable building blocks of nature was inadequate.
-Albert Einstein 1879-1955) undermined Newtonian physics by postulating the equivalence of mass and energy and by demonstrating that space and time are relative to the viewpoint of the observer.
-Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) demonstrated that the atom could be split.
-Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) hypothesized that it was impossible to know precisely the position and speed of an individual electron.
-The stable, rational world of Newtonian physics dissolved into a universe of tendencies and probabilities.
-Freudian Psychology: He concluded that human behaviour is irrational, governed by the consciousness, a sort of mental reservoir that contained vital instinctual drives and powerful memories.
-Prior to Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), most professional psychologists believed that human behaviour was the result of rational calculation by the conscious mind.
-Beginning in the late 1880s, Sigmund Freud argued that unconscious and instinctual drives were important factors in determining human behaviour.
Hope in democratic government
-After 1923, democracy seemed to take root in Weimar Germany.
-After 1924, the government of France rested mainly in the hands of a coalition of moderates and business interests.
-In Britain, the rise of the Labour party and passage of welfare measures guaranteed social peace and maintained relative equality among the classes.
Architecture and design
-Modernism in architecture, art, and music meant constant experimentation and a search for new kinds of expression.
-From the 1890s onward, architects in Europe and the U.S. pioneered new building styles that stressed functionalism and efficiency of design and used cheap steel and reinforced concrete.
-In Germany, the Bauhaus school of architecture founded by Walter Gropius (1883-1969) developed this trend in the 1920s and 1930s.
Mass unemployment
-The need for large-scale government spending was tied to mass unemployment.
-Unemployment posed grave social problems.
Germany and Western Powers after WWI
-After Versailles Treaty, the British were ready for conciliation (To overcome the distrust or animosity of; appease) with Germany, while the French took a hard line.
-In April 1921, the Allied reparations commission ordered Germany to pay huge reparations. Also Germany had to except the war blame, give up all of its colonies, demilitarized, was not allowed to build an army and was not allowed to enter the League of Nations.
-In 1922, the German (Weimar) Republic refused to pay, prompting Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr (1923). As the German government printed money to pay striking Ruhr workers unemployment benefits, runaway inflation destroyed the savings of retirees and the middle class.
-The Reichstag dissolved.
-Under the leadership of Gustav Stresemann (1878-1929), Germany was able to move toward reconciliation with France.
The Scandinavian Response to the Depression
The Swedish Social Democratic party had great success dealing with the Depression by increasing social welfare benefits and using government deficit spending to finance big public works projects.
Dawes Plan 1924
-Germany's annual reparation payments would be reduced, increasing over time as its economy improved.
French and Belgian troops occupying the Ruhr -
-Germany's most productive industrial area.
First major decision was that the Ruhr was to be returned to the full control of the Germans and that
-French and Belgian troops would pull out of the region as soon as was possible.
-Reparation payments were restructured to make them more 'German friendly.
-Restructuring of Weimar's national bank, the Reichsbank, which would be supervised by the Allies.
The Great Depression 1929
-In the late 1920s, American investment in the stock market boomed as direct investment in factories, farms, equipment, and so on fell.
-Much of the stock market investment was "on margin"; that is, bought with loans. As the stock market began to fall in October 1929, investors began a mass sell-off, which caused the market to collapse.
-Recall of private loans by American banks caused the world banking system to fall apart.
-The financial crisis caused world production of goods to fall by more than one-third between 1929 and 1933
Modernism
A label given to the artistic and cultural movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which were typified by radical experimentation that challenged traditional forms of artistic expression.
US Recovery from depression
- New deal: Relief, Recovery, and Reform: relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.
- In 1933, newly elected U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began using government intervention in the economy to fight the Depression.
-Roosevelt's administration passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act that aimed to raise prices and farm income by limiting production.
-Roosevelt's National Recovery Administration was supposed to fix wages and prices for the benefit of all, but the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 1935.
-Under Roosevelt, the U.S. government hired many unemployed workers through the Works Progress Administration.
-The United States also created a national social security system and legalized collective bargaining by unions in this period.
Bauhaus
A German interdisciplinary school of fine and applied arts that brought together many leading modern architects, designers, and theatrical innovators.
Recovery and Reform in Britain and France
-British manufacturing's reorientation from international to national markets for consumer goods alleviated the worst of the Depression.
-In France, political disunity prevented effective action to deal with the economic crisis. The only attempt to do so was that of Leon Blum's Popular Front government, a coalition of communist and moderate left parties.
Totalitarian DIctatorships
• Between WWI and WWII there was a revival of dictatorship/authoritarianism in many European countries (Germany, Soviet Union, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austira, Hungary, Romania)
• Fascist or communist
Dadaism
An artistic movement of the 1920s and the 1930s that attacked all accepted standards of art and behavior and delighted in outrageous conduct.
Mussolini
• Became prime minister in 1922 and gained total power by 1926
• Slogan: "Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothign against the state"
• Signed the Lateran Agreement recognizing the Vatican as an independant state (which favoured Mussolini) but therefore never achieved totalitarianism
• Mussolini admired Hitler
Hitler
• Started out as National Socialism; lead by Hitler and ruled by nationalist and racist ideologies. Was in power in Germany from 1933-1945
• Anti-semetism already had a fairly stable base within Europe
• Hitler believed it was the Jews fault that Germnay lost WWI (they were betrayed)
• Hitler was emmensely popular, as a great speaker and a true patriot. He gave Germans hope for a brighter, more affluent future
• Once in power in 1933, he quickly created a dictatorship. The Reichstag signed the Enabling Act: giving Hitler absolute dictatorial power for 4 years (March 23, 1933)
• Once an established dictatorship, Hitler purged his existing parties to reaffirm loyalties and power
• Popular support because Hitler was for the "family", for traditional values, involved the people and made everyone feel included and important
• At first it was not clear how radical Hitler's expansionist policy was, and the West was inclined to give him what he needed to avoid a second war
• Appeasement: British policy towards Germany aiming at giving Hitler whatever he wanted (including Czechoslovakia) in order to avoid war
Stalin USSR
• 5 Year Plan: 1928 plan to modernize Soviet Union and create a new, communist society with new attitudes, new loyalties and new socialist humanity. A "revolution from above" (forced)
• Collectivization of Agriculture was a big part of these 5-year plans
• Stalin takes over from Lenin (died 1924) and became ruler between 1924-1927; gained popularity for his less violent expectations of the future: believed that Russia could rebuild without violent revolution
• Stalin's paranoia grew in the 1930's, and he began "disposing" of all political enemies or anyone who spoke out against him ("the Great Purges")
Popular front
A short-lived New Deal-inspired alliance in France led by Leon Blum that encouraged the union movement and launched a far-reaching program of social reform.
Functionalism
The principle that building's, like industrial products, should serve as well as possible the purpose for which they were made.