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HY 1020, Western Civilization II 1

UNIT IV STUDY GUIDE

Mass Politics, Industrialization, Cultural Crisis,

and the New Imperialism, 1870-1914

Learning Objectives Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Explain how the economic and social transformation of Europe after 1870 shaped the encounters between established political elites and those new to the political process.

2. Describe the response of the ruling classes to the challenges of mass political participation.

3. Identify the forms that mass politics assumed during this time of industrial expansion and how that affected the spread of nationalism.

4. Discuss the ways that the emergence of feminism in this period illustrates both the potential and the limits of political change.

5. Discuss how the scientific developments during this period led to greater intellectual and cultural optimism and greater anxiety.

6. Explain the factors that led many Europeans in this period to believe there was a cultural crisis.

7. Describe the causes and consequences of the new imperialist ideology for both the West and the non-Western world.

Unit Lesson Europe’s political life in the period from 1870 to 1914 was transformed by several economic developments. Among these economic developments were the economic depression beginning in 1873, the industrialization of new regions, new patterns of production and consumption of industrial goods, and rapid urbanization and immigration. The 1870s also witnessed the introduction of new techniques and technologies that historians label the “Second Industrial Revolution.” More mechanization replaced handcraft production, and innovations in steel technology ensured that inexpensive, high-quality steel was widely available. In construction, the introduction of steel, cement, plate glass, and the mechanical crane permitted the building of the first skyscrapers. As depression hit agricultural regions hard, it increased immigration from the village to the industrialized city. The rapid economic changes, combined with rising immigration and urbanization, increased social tensions and destabilized political structures. As business owners attempted to protect their profits by cutting labor costs, the workers became increasingly hostile. In this new environment, political leaders sought to overcome social discontent and ensure loyalty. The emergence of mass politics transformed political culture. Creating a sense of national identity and fostering national unity were both crucially important and very complex. Despite the efforts of liberal and conservative politicians to ensure support through nation-making, socialist and racist-nationalist parties challenged traditional elites. Class hostilities escalated with the rise of working-class socialist parties and more radical forms of trade- unionism; workers sought to define their own political vision and influence the political nation.

Reading Assignment Chapter 23: The Coming of Mass Politics: Industrialization, Emancipation, and Instability, 1870-1914, pp. 725-741 Chapter 24: The West and the World: Cultural Crisis and the New Imperialism, 1870- 1914, pp. 753, 756, 765, 773-774, 782

Supplemental Reading See information below.

Key Terms 1. Anarchism 2. Anticlericalism 3. Berlin Conference 4. Darwinian theory of

evolution 5. Dreyfus Affair 6. Expressionism 7. Feminist movement 8. Fin-de-siècle 9. General strike

10. Jim Crow 11. Mass politics 12. Modernism 13. New imperialism 14. Pogrom 15. Positivist 16. Scramble for Africa 17. Second Industrial

Revolution 18. Social Darwinism

HY 1020, Western Civilization II 2

Socialism had little appeal for peasants and members of the lower-middle class; both groups had often turned to the right-wing ideas offered by nationalist, racist, and anti-Semitic parties. In the new mass politics, nationalist politicians relied on visual imagery, symbolism, and emotional appeals rather than reasoned debate, and they defined the nation by identifying who was not included in it. The extension of voting rights to working-class men led middle-class women to demand voting rights. The feminist movement rejected the separate spheres ideology and sought a radical change in the role of women, demanding not only access to the public sphere, but a reconfiguring of political and social life. The feminist movement remained mostly middle-class, as working-class women tended to be drawn to the socialist position that class, not gender, was the real obstacle to overcome. The period from 1870 to 1914 saw many encounters, often violent, between those who desired access to political power and those who wanted to limit that access. There were other encounters caused by changing patterns of industrialization and accelerated urbanization, and all of these led to key questions about the definition of “the West.” In the last third of the 19th century, scientific transformation improved Westerners’ health and hygiene but also brought changes in attitudes to both the human body and the wider world. Although some people believed these changes were proof of the West’s superiority, others found them very unsettling. In the 1860s, scientists began to develop germ theory, as Louis Pasteur discovered that bacteria were the source of contagion in epidemic diseases, and Robert Koch isolated the tuberculosis bacillus and the cholera bacteria. The result was a drop in the number of people who died from infectious diseases, and the development of antiseptics and anesthetics improved the survival rate after surgery. The development of evolutionary theory gave Europeans a scientific framework to justify their superior social and economic positions, but it challenged basic religious beliefs and presented a new unsettling view of the natural world. When Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution in 1859, geology had already provided a challenge to the Biblical account of creation. Darwin proposed that a variety of plant and animal species could be explained by the two basic ideas of variation: 1) that there occur small but crucial biological advantages that assist in survival and 2) that those with such advantages survive while those without perish (natural selection). Herbert Spencer tied evolution to social progress, arguing that human society reflected the same trends as plant and animal life. The theory of Social Darwinism maintained that the nonwhite races and all women had not evolved as far as white European males. The fin-de-siècle cultural crisis was rooted in a sense of degeneration and decline, which produced a sense of cultural pessimism and a conviction that the old answers were no longer sufficient. The search for new answers produced modernism, or a series of revolutions in thought, literature, and art. Modernism in art and literature centered on the notion of rejecting established authority and questioning all accepted standards and truths, in particular middle-class liberal ones. Modernists rejected the notion that art should be an instrument of moral uplift and, instead, argued that it should be a value in itself. Modernists also insisted history was irrelevant and rejected faith in the power of human reason and observation, emphasizing individual emotion and experience. Religious beliefs remained a powerful force in the late 19th century and were reinforced by the large numbers of immigrants using religion as a tie to their homeland, and imperialism was interwoven with missionary efforts.

19. Socialist revisionism 20. Suffragists 21. Syndicalism 22. Theory of relativity 23. Zionism

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However, Christianity in late 19th century Europe was challenged from several sources. Imperialist domination reassured Europeans of the superiority of Western civilization. Moreover, the conquest of other peoples was justified by Social Darwinism. The Western cultural and intellectual landscape, as well as colonial political boundaries, underwent tremendous, disturbing change between 1870 and 1914. Science and medicine undermined established assumptions, as did modernism and the redefining of sexual boundaries. Thus, this was an era of fragmentation as well as expansion.

Supplemental Reading Supplemental Readings are provided in the below links:

 Class Distinctions http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1899veblen.asp

 Salt Mines http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/1850Wieliczka.asp

 Titanic Documents http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/titanic.html

 Second Industrial Revolution Overview http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~jmokyr/castronovo.pdf