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Hum 104, Lecture notes 2014, class V

Chapter 20, Age of Early Modernism 1871-1914

Peace and prosperity in Europe hid rampant nationalism, aggressive imperialism, and growing militarism.

This was the 40+ year beginning of the Age of Modernism. Modernism itself would last for 100 years. Middle classes drove change, and their political power grew every day.

The first industrial revolution of the early 19th century was mostly England, but the emerging second industrial revolution saw Germany and the United States challenge her position. Science and research improved processes and products. The internal combustion engine came into being as did the wide spread use of electricity. Telephone and radio also appeared.

Public education became secular and nearly universal. Its role was to better prepare youth to enter the manufacturing economy’s work force. Women began to move into careers outside the home that included teaching, nursing, sales, and clerical work. Some college programs opened to women as well. Suffrage movements grew throughout the period. After this time, women got the vote in England in 1918 and in 1920 in the United States. Unified Germany’s government was paramilitary. France waffled as its republicans and monarchists failed to reach compromise to move forward. Great Britain’s upper and middle class ruled, but they did pass some social legislation to help the poorest citizens.

In the US, immigration was in full bloom, and though many immigrants were not accepted at first, most eventually entered the mainstream and contributed to the economy and to the culture in general.

Imperialism saw European nations fight for colonies as sources of raw materials and as new markets for manufactured goods. France and Britain got the best of the colonies, especially on the African continent, as Germany and Italy got the leftovers. Colonial governments were established, trading companies founded, and raw materials exploited. Most of Africa was under colonial rule until the second half of the 20th century. The United States, European nations, and Japan got south Pacific possessions and trading rights to China.

Secret alliances were the norm and were thought to help maintain peace. Primary alliances were the Triple Entente that included France, Great Britain, and Russia, while the Triple Alliance was made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

Meanwhile, after 1830 the Ottoman Empire continued to decline. As a result, Europe expanded its influence more deeply into the Islamic world through trade and conflict. This incursion into North Africa was mostly by Britain and France, while Russia and Austria were the big players in the Balkans. Unfortunately, greater involvement did not lead to greater understanding. The Muslim world continued to be misunderstood. In the minds of Europeans and Americans, it was thought to be an exotic, forbidden area filled with squalor and crime. This view is known as Orientalism. From 1839-1914 three consecutive sultans tried to westernize North Africa, but they were constantly thwarted by conservatives who wanted to return to the old ways, and by nationalists who sought independence from Istanbul. The colonial powers, led by England and the Dutch, took control of the East Indies. England tried and failed to control Afghanistan but did add India to the empire. Russia and Great Britain squabbled over Persia and eventually partitioned it. Russia proved to be the Ottoman Empire’s major threat to the north against whom two wars were fought in Crimea, and those wars showed the weakness of counting on England and France for help. Hence, the Ottomans moved toward alliance with Germany. When war broke out, Turkey sided with the Germans.

The peace ended in 1914 with the outbreak of World War. In Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary (Bosnia); Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, and his wife, Sophia, were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Serb who was part of a movement to split the southern Slav portion of the nation away to form a greater Serbia, later Yugoslavia. Austrians blamed the Russian state of Serbia. Serbia’s response didn’t suit Austria, so World War was game on.

Early modernists thought that the golden era was dawning. Self government, good science and technology equaled a better standard of living for many, but a mood of uncertainty was beginning to creep in. Artists and thinkers questioned traditional western ethics, values, and religion in general. Artists came to believe that the creative art process was more important than the completed work.

In psychology, Sigmund Freud challenged the Enlightenment idea that man was fully rational. He thought that self (psyche) was composed of the id (primitive instinctual drives and desires, such as sex and aggression); super ego (the will of society, i.e., conscience); and ego (the public face of the battle between id and super ego, a balancing component). Carl Jung, a contemporary of Freud, saw a collective universal unconscious shared by all humans, and an individual personal unconscious. Both Freud and Jung agreed that the conscious mind is a very small part an individual’s personality. That belief is the cornerstone of Modernism.

Religious groups began to work for social justice. They supported settlement houses and soup kitchens. Some evangelicals felt betrayed by the liberalization of US Christianity, and became fundamentalists. They held to the infallibility of the Bible, the need to be born again, the truth of miracles, and belief in the resurrection. The movement led to the founding of the Church of God, the Pentecostal Church, the Assemblies of God, etc. They shared the belief that speaking in tongues was a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit.

In Germany, Bismarck tried to keep Catholics from being part of government. When he didn’t manage that, he made peace with the new pope. Still, his government maintained oversight of priests and continued to expel Jesuits until 1917.

Literature was all over the place. French writer Emile Zola and Russian writer Anton Chekov championed naturalism. They wrote detailed stories about real life situations. Henrik Ibsen of Norway wrote about middleclass life in his country and of problems common to those people. A decadent movement in writing was led by Oscar Wilde who wrote with a relaxed view of moral requirements.

In science Mendel’s 1865 genetic theories were substantiated by others. Madam Marie Curie, a Polish and naturalized French physicist and chemist discovered the radioactive elements polonium and radium. Nels Bohr solved for the structure of the atom.

In engineering and architecture, carbon steel allowed taller buildings to be constructed. Frank Lloyd Wright championed the organic design for homes. The structure needed to fit with its location. He designed the famous “Falling Waters” in Pennsylvania that fit into a hillside and stream environment. A home outside Phoenix was comfortable in its desert setting.

In art, Impressionism challenged the norms and France’s Academy. Like the Realists it saw beauty in the everyday world and often painted outdoors. From the Romantics, Impressionists learned to break colors into component hues. The title, Impressionists, started as a put down for their slapdash, messy, non-traditional images. Monet was the most famous and committed of the school. Manet, Georges Seurat, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent Van Gogh were Impressionists, but some were also transitional to Post-Impressionism. Cezanne moved toward abstraction and cubism. Later, Pablo Picasso moved painting even closer to abstraction.

In music, Claude Debussy, was the Impressionist equivalent with music that seemed to show color and mood. In the US, jazz, blues, and ragtime appeared and were this country’s musical contribution.