Under Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany sought a political and imperial role consonant with its industrial strength, challenging Britain's world supremacy and threatening France, which still resented the loss in 1871 of Alsace-Lorraine. Austria wanted to curb an expanding Serbia (after 1912) and the threat it posed to its own Slavic lands. Russia feared Austrian and German political and economic aims in the Balkans and Turkey. An accelerated arms race resulted. The German standing army rose to more than 2 million men by 1914. The Russian and the French armies numbered more than a million, while the Austrian and the British armies were close to a million. Dozens of enormous battleships were built by the powers after 1906. The assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand by a Serbian on June 28, 1914 was the pretext for war. The system of alliances made the conflict Europe-wide; Germany's invasion of Belgium to outflank France forced Britain to enter the war. Patriotic fervor spread to all classes in virtually all countries. German forces were stopped in France in one month. The rival armies dug trench networks. Artillery and improved machine guns prevented either side from making any lasting advance, despite repeated assaults (600,000 died at Verdun between February to July 1916). The poison gas used by Germany in 1915 proved ineffective. The entrance of more than one million American troops tipped the balance after mid-1917, forcing German to sue for peace in 1918. The formal armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. In the East, Russian armies were thrown back at the battle of Tannenberg on August 20, 1914. Thereafter, the war grew increasingly unpopular in Russia. An allied attempt to relieve Russia through Turkey failed. The Russian Revolution of 1917 abolished the czarist regime and the new Bolshevik government signed the capitulatory Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. Italy entered the war on the allied side in May 1915, but was pushed back by October 1917. A renewed offensive in October and November 1918 forced Austria to surrender. The British Navy successfully blockaded Germany, which responded with submarine U-boat attacks. Unrestricted submarine warfare against neutrals after January 1917 helped bring the United States into the war. Other battlefields included Palestine and Mesopotamia, both of which Britain wrested from the Turkish Empire in 1917. Most of the colonies Germany held in Africa and the Pacific fell to Britain, France, Australia, Japan, and South Africa. From 1916 on, the civilian populations and economies of both sides were mobilized to an unprecedented degree. Hardships especially intensified among fighting nations in 1917. More than 10 million soldiers died in the war. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, concluded by the Treaty of Versailles, and in subsequent negotiations and local conflicts, the map of Europe was redrawn with a nod to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's principle of self-determination. The Austro-Hung ...

1. Under Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany sought a political and
imperial role consonant with its industrial strength, challenging
Britain's world supremacy and threatening France, which still
resented the loss in 1871 of Alsace-Lorraine. Austria wanted to
curb an expanding Serbia (after 1912) and the threat it posed to
its own Slavic lands. Russia feared Austrian and German
political and economic aims in the Balkans and Turkey. An
accelerated arms race resulted. The German standing army rose
to more than 2 million men by 1914. The Russian and the
French armies numbered more than a million, while the Austrian
and the British armies were close to a million. Dozens of
enormous battleships were built by the powers after 1906.
The assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand by a Serbian
on June 28, 1914 was the pretext for war. The system of
alliances made the conflict Europe-wide; Germany's invasion of
Belgium to outflank France forced Britain to enter the war.
Patriotic fervor spread to all classes in virtually all countries.
German forces were stopped in France in one month. The rival
armies dug trench networks. Artillery and improved machine
guns prevented either side from making any lasting advance,
despite repeated assaults (600,000 died at Verdun between
February to July 1916). The poison gas used by Germany in
1915 proved ineffective. The entrance of more than one million
American troops tipped the balance after mid-1917, forcing
German to sue for peace in 1918. The formal armistice was
signed on November 11, 1918.
In the East, Russian armies were thrown back at the battle of
Tannenberg on August 20, 1914. Thereafter, the war grew
increasingly unpopular in Russia. An allied attempt to relieve
Russia through Turkey failed. The Russian Revolution of 1917
abolished the czarist regime and the new Bolshevik government
signed the capitulatory Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918.

2. Italy entered the war on the allied side in May 1915, but was
pushed back by October 1917. A renewed offensive in October
and November 1918 forced Austria to surrender.
The British Navy successfully blockaded Germany, which
responded with submarine U-boat attacks. Unrestricted
submarine warfare against neutrals after January 1917 helped
bring the United States into the war. Other battlefields included
Palestine and Mesopotamia, both of which Britain wrested from
the Turkish Empire in 1917. Most of the colonies Germany held
in Africa and the Pacific fell to Britain, France, Australia,
Japan, and South Africa.
From 1916 on, the civilian populations and economies of both
sides were mobilized to an unprecedented degree. Hardships
especially intensified among fighting nations in 1917. More
than 10 million soldiers died in the war.
At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, concluded by the Treaty
of Versailles, and in subsequent negotiations and local
conflicts, the map of Europe was redrawn with a nod to U.S.
President Woodrow Wilson's principle of self-determination.
The Austro-Hungarian empire was split up, and much of its
territory was given to Yugoslavia (formerly Serbia), Romania,
Italy, and the newly independent states of Poland, and
Czechoslovakia. Germany lost territory in the West and East,
while Finland and the Baltic States were detached from Russia.
Turkey lost nearly all of its Arab land to British sponsored Arab
States or to direct French and British rule. Belgium's
sovereignty was recognized.
A huge burden of reparations and partial demilitarization were
imposed on Germany. President Wilson obtained approval for a
League of Nations, but the U.S. Senate refused to allow the U.S.
to join.

3. As a result of the cumulative scientific, economic, and political
changes of the preceding years, the idea took hold among
literate people in the West that continuing growth and
improvement was the usual state of human and natural life.
Darwin's theory of evolution and survival of the fittest (1859),
defended by intellectual and scientists against theological
objections, was taken as confirmation that progress was the
natural course of life. The controversy helped give rise to the
popular image of the dedicated scientist and the belief that
human knowledge of and control over the world would continue
to grow (as illustrated by Foucault's demonstration of earth's
rotation in 1851 and Pasteur's germ theory in 1861).
The technological processes and managerial innovation of the
English industrial revolution spread to Europe (especially
Germany) and the United States, causing an explosion of
industrial production, demand for raw material, and competition
for markets. In fact, by the end of the century, industrial and
technological proficiency characterized two new great powers in
the world—Germany and the U.S. Coal and iron deposits
enabled Germany to reach 2nd or 3rd place status in iron, steel,
and shipbuilding by 1900. And Germany's electrical and
chemical industries were world leaders. (Have you ever heard of
Siemens?)
Inventions such as Bessemer steel (1856) and the sewing
machine (1846) seemed to roll into people's lives at an
quickening rate. The Kodak camera (1888), linoleum (1860), the
motorcycle (1885), and the telephone (1876) are a few of the
modern conveniences that entered the lives of people in the 19th
century and are still with us today. Life as we know it in the
present was born during the latter portion of the 19th century.
Developments in transportation and communication, as well as
mass population movements, helped create an awareness of an
interdependent world. The birth of the automobile, the airplane,
phonographs, and motion pictures forever connected the nations
of the world, for better or worse.

4. A growing awareness and social consciousness developed
worldwide, with a desire for reform across the board.
Significant developments included the abolition of slavery
(Great Britain in 1833, United States in 1865, and Brazil in
1888), improved social conditions for women, the mentally ill
and prisoners, and the extension of the vote to the middle and
lower classes, Catholics Jews and women (New Zealand - 1893,
Australia - 1901, Finland - 1906, Norway - 1913,
Denmark/Iceland - 1915, Russia - 1917,
U.K./Austria/Canada/Ireland - 1918,
Netherlands/Luxembourg/Germany - 1919, and lastly the U.S. -
1920). This consciousness spilled over into Utopian social
thought, the desire for anarchy, and the growing Marxist belief
in the inevitable triumph of socialism.
Like everything else, art and literature changed to showcase
new (or rediscovered) ideas. The Statue of Liberty, the
Brooklyn Bridge, and the Vienna Opera were built.
Impressionists such as Monet, Pissaro, and Renoir rejected
formalism in art; in turn, post-impressionists like Cézanne and
Gauguin moved into uncharted artistic waters. Where they left
off, unprecedented experimentation in art occurred. Just look at
Matisse and Picasso. Realist novelists such as Dickens, Eliot,
and Tolstoy gave way to Freud, Wilde, Nietzsche, Gorky, and
Sinclair. As universal education and global literacy increased,
the previously denied masses found information at every
juncture.
While the United States struggled with the aftermath of the
Civil War and the abolition of slavery, anti-Semitism, peppered
with a new racist rationale, became a significant political force
in Germany, Austria, and France. Much of this burgeoning
racism was brought about by mass emigration from crowded
European centers. Some 70 million Europeans emigrated in the
century prior to 1914, with 9 million migrating to the United
States and millions more going to Siberia, Canada, Argentina,
Australia, South Africa, and Algeria. Several million Chinese,
Indians, and Japanese migrated into Southeast Asia, where their

5. urban skills often enabled them to take a predominant economic
role.
Such was the world as it stood on the threshold of World War I.
In a mere 100 years, humanity saw more changes and
advancements than in the previous 500. Social conditions,
religion, and day-to-day living had evolved into a pattern of life
that we in the 21st century can recognize and appreciate.
By now, you have learned about the revolutionary changes that
occurred in the 17th and 18th century. By the end of this week,
you will be introduced to the industrialization and
mechanization in 19th century.
During the latter half of the 19th century, industrialization and
mechanization brought about greater changes than the industries
they encompassed. Industrialization forever altered the social
structure from rural, agrarian societies to ones with lifestyles
familiar to us today.
However, Europe continued to struggle with its borders. The
mid 19th century saw a substantial number of revolutions
throughout Europe, but by the end of the century Germany and
Italy were each unified under constitutional monarchies. France
had become a republic again and the Russian czars emancipated
the serfs.
Worldwide, the changes from farm to factory affected every
aspect of life from the division of domestic labour to the
recreational activities pursued in free time. In the United States,
as with other nations, the shift from farm to factory involved

6. the creation of an entire social structure to include grocery
shopping, ready made clothing, need for urbanization and urban
infrastructure, universal education, health care, etc. It heralded
the birth of department stores and the Sears and Roebuck
catalogue that sold EVERYTHING from corsets to house kits.
From the early 19th century to the late 19th century, society
moved from a relatively simple division of labour within the
household to the development of a middle class with a primary
breadwinner. People went from working long hours for survival
to working long hours for pay. There was the birth of new
recreational activities, including professional sports, amusement
parks, vaudeville, and art museums.
Yet, inequalities increased. Indeed, they were as much a part of
the new order as the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge or the
appearance of advertising. During the latter half of the 19th
century, optimists believed that unfair treatment based on
region, class, and even race and gender might ease with time.
By World War I, these hopes had worn thin.
Popular Forms of Entertainment Between
1870–1920