Ch. 26 - "The New Power Balance"

The New Power Balance
(1850-1900)

Chapter 26

 From the 17th century to mid 19th century Europeans
had come to regard their continent as the only great
powers and the center of the universe. The rest of the
world was either ignored or used.
 The world economy, international politics, even
cultural and social issues revolved around a handful of
countries, the “great powers” that believed they
controlled the destiny of the world…and they did just
that.
 However, in defense of Western imperialism and the
force of nationalism, some countries began to not
only strengthen, but go on the offensive and join the
ranks of the great powers.

Intro

The Second Industrial
Revolution

 While the first Industrial Revolution gave
rise to textiles, railroads, iron, and coal,
the second Industrial Revolution
introduced steel, electricity, chemicals,
and petroleum.
Why would each be important?
 These new technologies revolutionized
everyday life and transformed the world
economy.
 By 1890, Germany and the U.S. surpass
Britain as the worlds leading industrial
powers.
The Second Industrial Revolution

 Steel
 Both strong and malleable – cheap.
 Electricity
Light bulbs, electric motors, street cars.
 Petroleum
Internal combustion engine
 Chemicals
Dynamite, chlorine, and synthetic dyes

New Technologies

 The technological and economic changes of
the late 19th century sparked major social
changes in the industrialized nations.
◦ Huge population booms and urbanization.
 The population of Europe doubled from
1850-1914. Faster growth than any other
period.
 During that same time, population in the U.S.
grew from 25 million to almost 100 million.
 Push-pull factors of migration (Irish potato
famine)

Population

 During this time, cities grew to
unprecedented size.
◦ London: 2.7 million to 6.6 million
◦ New York: 64,000 to 3.4 million
 This mass migration to the cities from
rural areas is called urbanization.
 Why the sudden movement to the cities?
1.Convenience
2.Improved living conditions
3.Improved working conditions

Urbanization

1. Convenience
 Jobs - factories were in the cities
2. Improved living conditions
 Improved sanitation. Before, streets were full of
garbage and sewage.
 Less disease, low death rates.
 Electricity. (Cleaner, less pollution)
 Safer: police and fire protection
3. Improved working conditions
 Labor unions - insurance

Why the sudden movement to the
cities?

 Typical male vs. female relationship
◦ Males: working outside the home, relaxing in
men’s clubs
◦ Females: raise children, run household

 Second I.R. opened the door to new jobs
for women.
◦ Shortage of male workers
◦ Demand for low paying jobs (secretaries,
teachers)

Women and Victorian Age

• The transition to an industrialized society was
hard on the workers, who often worked
dangerous jobs for poor wages and lived in
crowded slums.
• Some reformers of the capitalist society
wanted a better environment for the working
class. More radical reformers wanted to
abolish capitalism in favor of socialism.
• Many socialist ideas were based on the
theory of the German Karl Marx.

The Working Class

 The Communist Manifesto outlined Karl
Marx’s beliefs that industrial capitalism
was to blame for the problems besetting
society.
 Marx believed that there has always been
two classes in the world. The oppressed
(working class) he called the proletariat
and the oppressor (property owner) or
bourgeoisie. Marx believed that it was
only a matter of time before the
oppressed rose up against the oppressor.
Karl Marx

 The most influential idea of the 19th century
was nationalism, a feeling of national
identity.
 Language was usually the critical element
in creating this feeling, but could be
anything that political rulers could use to
unite the people of a nation. (Imperialism)
 Propaganda became more popular as
leaders used nationalism to justify changes.

Nationalism

In the Second Industrial Revolution there
was greater use of steel, chemicals,
petroleum, and electricity.
• Electricity was a new form of energy that
gave way to many new inventions.
• In the created the light bulb, and homes,
businesses, and factories used the
affordable resource for convenience and
productivity.


 First, substitution of steel for iron.
 2nd, building lighter, smaller and faster
machines and engines, as well as
railways, ships and weapons (because of
steel)
 3rd, electricity was now a major new form
of energy – converting into other forms of
energy such as heat, light and motion

Changes

 Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the
telephone, and radio pioneer Guglielmo
Marconi sparked a revolution in
communications.
 The internal-combustion engine
revolutionized transportation with the
automobile, while the airplane made its
appearance as well.

The Revolution of communication

• Prices for produced goods decreased as a
result of lower production and transportation
costs. The assembly line allowed for more
efficient mass production of goods.
• In Europe, nations in the north and west had
a higher standard of living for their citizens,
while the southeastern regions of Europe
remained largely agricultural and rural, with
lower standards of living.


 By 1900, a true world economy was
occurring. Europe dominated this global
economy by the beginning of the
twentieth century.


 Industrialization gave some a higher
standard of living, but struggling
workers turned to trade unions or
socialism to improve their lives.

The Working Class

• In many European nations, working-class
leaders formed socialist parties based on
Marx’s ideas, but were divided on their goals.
• Pure Marxists wanted revolution to defeat
capitalism, while revisionists argued that
political gains were the key to change.
• To improve their conditions, workers
organized into unions for better working
conditions and used strikes as their
bargaining tool.

The Working Class

The New Urban
Environment or The
Emergency of Mass
Society
20.2

 As workers migrated to cities, local
governments had to solve urgent
public health problems; and their
solutions allowed cities to grow even
more.

The New Urban Environment

• As more people moved to cities in search
of economic opportunities, European
society became more urban.
• Reformers were able to urge local
governments to improve conditions in
cities.
• Improved housing, water, and sewage
systems led to a safer living environment.


 Improved living conditions enabled people
to live in close quarters, and cities such as
London and Frankfurt were able to
accommodate large populations.


 European society comprised three
broad social classes—upper, middle,
and lower.

Social Structure

 The Elite Class:
- Made up of wealthy bankers,
industrialists, and merchants, this
minority became leaders in the
government and military.

Social Structure

• The Middle Class:
– The middle class consisted of a variety
of groups.
– A lower-middle class consisted of small shopkeepers,
traders, and prosperous farmers.
– White-collar workers, including traveling salespeople,
bookkeepers, and secretaries, were between the
lower-middle class and the lower class.
– Although incomes varied, the goals, values, and
lifestyle opportunities were similar among middle-
class Europeans.

Social Structure

• The Working Class:
– The majority of Europeans were
considered the working class of society
and included landholding peasants,
laborers, and domestic servants.
– Improved working environments
facilitated more buying power and better
social conditions.

Social Structure

 Attitudes toward women changed as
they moved into white-collar jobs,
received more education, and began
campaigning for the right to vote.

Women’s Experiences

• During the Second Industrial Revolution,
women began to enter the labor force
because of a lack of male workers. These
positions were generally filled by lower-class
women.
• In the 1800s, marriage was the only career
available to most women, although advances
in economic conditions led to a decline in
birthrates.
• For women in middle-class families, activities
centered on the family became common
by 1850.


• Besides raising their families, lower-class
women worked to earn additional money.
• Modern feminism began during the
Enlightenment, and, during the nineteenth
century, women argued for the rights to
divorce and to own property.
• In the medical field, women such as Amalie
Sieveking, Florence Nightingale, and
Clara Barton transformed nursing into a
professional occupation.


 In the 1840s and 1850s, women began to
demand political rights and believed that
suffrage was key to improving their
overall position.
 In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst founded
the Women’s Social and Political Union in
Britain and used unusual publicity stunts
to draw attention to her cause.


As a result of industrialization, the levels of education
rose. People’s lives became more clearly divided into
periods of work and leisure

Education and Leisure

• Between 1870 and 1914, Western nations
began to finance a system of primary
education for children ages 6 to 12.
• Education was considered important for a
viable labor force and better-educated
voters.
• The immediate result of public education
was a jump in literacy.


 Higher literacy rates led to the
development of mass media. Newspapers
were both informative and entertaining,
and a literate populace purchased millions
of copies per day.
 New types of leisure were available to
Europeans and Americans. People went to
amusement parks, and dance halls, and
organized team sports.


 Leisure time was now clearly defined as
separate from work. Leisure time was also
more passive in nature, and people paid
to attend leisure activities.


Western Europe and
Political Democracy

20.3

Western Europe & Democracy
• By the late 19th century (late 1800s),
progress had been made toward
establishing constitutions, parliaments,
and individual liberties in the major
European states.
 Political democracy was spreading in
Western Europe and the United States, as
universal male suffrage laws were passed.

The United States
 Aftermath of the Civil War

◦ In the United States, the Civil War had
destroyed the Southern way of life.
◦ One-fifth of the adult male population had
been killed and 4 million slaves were freed
by the passing of the 13th Amendment to
the Constitution in 1865.

U.S. Economy
 Between 1860 and 1914, the United
States switched from an agrarian (farm-
based) economy to an industrial economy
 Massive migrations to U.S. influenced
economy.
◦ 11 million Europeans migrated to the United
States between 1870-1900.
 Push-Pull factors of migration
◦ Some came to escape conditions of Europe (Push)
◦ Others came for job opportunities (Pull)

International Rivalries
 Germany emerged as the most powerful state in
Europe and threatened the balance of power.
 France was determined to re-balance power and
threatened an anti-German alliance.
 However, Germany acted first and created a
defensive alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy
known as the Triple Alliance.
 France would later form an alliance with Great
Britain and Russia known as the Triple Entente.

 These aggressive foreign policies divided Europe
into two hostile alliance systems.

• Great Britain:
– A two-party parliamentary system
emerged as the Liberal and Conservative
parties vied for political power.
– The Liberals voted for social reforms, such
as unemployment benefits and pensions.

Western Europe and Political
Democracy

• France:
– In 1875 the Third Republic in France
gained a republican constitution.
– The new government was established with
a president and a legislature made up of
two houses.

Democracy

 Italy:
- Italy had emerged by 1870 as a united
national state, but the disparity of wealth
and widespread government corruption
led to a weak, centralized political system.

Democracy

 Although Germany, Austria-Hungary,
and later Russia instituted elections
and parliaments, real power
remained in the hands of emperors
and elites.

Central and Eastern Europe: The
Old Order

 In Germany, the government established
by Otto von Bismarck set up a two-
house legislature.
 Although the Reichstag was elected by
male voters, the emperor still maintained
political power by controlling the military
and foreign policy.

Old Order

• By the reign of William II (1888 to
1918), Germany was the strongest
military and industrial power in Europe.
Conservative forces thwarted the rise of
democracy in Germany.
• In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the
emperor Francis Joseph largely ignored
the Austrian parliament and governed by
imperial decree. Ethnic problems
threatened the stability of Austria.

Old Order

 In Hungary, the parliamentary system
worked, although it was dominated by the
nation’s landholding class.
 Nicholas II became the czar of Russia in
1894, and was committed to autocratic
rule of the large nation.

Old Order

• Russia was becoming an industrialized
nation, and the rising working class
demanded more political power. In 1905 the
bloody breakup of a peaceful demonstration
in St. Petersburg left hundreds dead.
• Czar Nicholas relented and permitted the
establishment of the Duma, although he had
limited the power of the legislative body
by 1907.

Old Order

 In the United States, the Second
Industrial Revolution produced
wealth that was more concentrated
than it was in Europe.

The United States

• The populations of urban centers soared, and
by 1900, three American cities had over 1
million inhabitants.
• Around the turn of the century, America
became imperialistic and acquired territories
abroad.
• American forces deposed Queen
Liliuokalani in Hawaii and acquired
territories from the vanquished Spanish in
the Spanish-American War.

The United States

• To prevent France from limiting its power,
Germany entered into a defensive alliance
with Austria-Hungary and Italy by 1882. This
coalition was known as the Triple Alliance.
• In 1890 Emperor William II fired Bismarck
and took control of Germany’s foreign policy.
In 1894 William II ended the treaty Germany
had with Russia.
• By 1907, France, Great Britain, and Russia
had drawn into an alliance known as the
Triple Entente.


• The two opposing alliances of the Triple
Alliance and the Triple Entente had become
more divided and less willing to compromise
at the beginning of the twentieth century.
• As the Ottoman Empire began to lose power,
the provinces of Greece, Serbia, Romania,
and Montenegro in the Balkans began to
gain their freedom. Austria and Russia vied
for influence in the region.


• In 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed the Slavic
territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This
outraged Serbia, which wanted to establish a
Slavic kingdom.
• Serbia and its ally Russia prepared for war
against Austria-Hungary. Germany
demanded that Russia accept the Austrian
annexation or face war; Russia, weakened by
war with Japan, backed down.
• By the beginning of 1914, the crisis in the
Balkans threatened the security of Europe.


The Culture of
Modernity
20.4

Toward the Modern Consciousness
 People continued to believe in the values
that had been put forth by the Scientific
Revolution and Enlightenment.
 Reason, science, and progress continued
to be important words to Europeans.

 A couple of new theories developed:

New Theories
 Albert Einstein – Theory of relativity
eventually led to a new Atomic Age.
 Sigmund Freud – psychoanalysis –
coined the terms unconscious and
repressed.
◦ Freud believed some feeling were repressed
from a person’s conscious awareness, but
these hidden feelings continued to influence
behavior, however, because they were a part of
the unconscious.

Social Darwinism and Racism
 In the early 20th century, some scientific
theories were applied inappropriately to
achieve desired results. For example,
Darwin’s theories were applied to human
society in a racial way. These ideas are
known as Social Dawinism.

 In their pursuit of national greatness,
extreme nationalists often insisted that
nations too are engaged in a “struggle for
existence” where only the strongest
survive.

Anti-Semitism and Zionism
 Anti-Semitism - hostility toward Jews.
 During the late 19th century, Germany and
Austria-Hungary’s new political parties
used anti-Semitism to win votes of people
who felt threatened by the changes of the
times.
 Persecutions and pogroms (organized
mass acres) were widespread.
 Many Jews decided to leave and migrated
to the U.S. and Palestine in a Jewish
national movement known as Zionism.

The Culture of Modernity
 In the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
many writers and artists rebelled against
the traditional literary and artistic styles
that had dominated European cultural life
since the Renaissance.
 This movement became known as
Modernism.

Painting - Impressionism
 By the late 19th century, artists were
seeking new forms of expression to reflect
their changing views of the world.
 By the beginning of the 20th century, the
belief that the goal of art was to represent
reality had lost much of its meaning.
 Impressionism
◦ Monet
◦ Van Gogh

• Between 1870 and 1914, many writers
and artists produced works known as
modernism.
• The naturalist writers addressed social
problems such as alcoholism, women in
society, and urban slums.
• Symbolist writers produced work that
functioned for its own sake, and did not
attempt to criticize or understand society.


• In France, artists such as Claude Monet
embraced a painting style known as
impressionism. Impressionists rejected
indoor studios and went into nature, where
they captured the interplay of light, sky,
and water.
• Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cezanne used
color and structure to express mood in a
form known as postimpressionism. These
artists wanted to represent reality, not mirror
it, as did the camera, which had been
invented in 1888.


 The Spaniard Pablo Picasso painted in a
new style, using geometric designs to re-
create reality. This modern style of art is
called cubism.
 Modernism influenced architecture as well,
and skilled builders Louis H. Sullivan and
Frank Lloyd Wright created buildings
that were clean-lined and functional.


 In music, the ‘modern’ sounds of
Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring caused a
near-riot by Parisians, who were upset by
the new sounds and rhythms of the
performance.


 Scientific discoveries in this period
had a profound impact on how people
saw themselves and their world.

Uncertainty Grows

• At the end of the nineteenth century, Marie
Curie challenged the accepted view that the
universe existed independent of its
observers, with her discovery that the
element radium gave off energy.
• The German-born scientist Albert Einstein
provided a new view of the universe with his
theory of relativity, which stated that space
and time are not absolute, but are relative to
the observer.

Uncertainty Grows

 A doctor from Vienna named Sigmund
Freud asserted that human behavior was
strongly determined by past experiences
and internal urges.
 Freud used a method known as
psychoanalysis, in which he and a
patient probed deeply into the patient’s
memory for healing purposes.

Uncertainty Grows

 In the late 1800s, extreme
nationalism was reflected in the
movements of Social Darwinism and
anti-Semitism.

Extreme Nationalism

 In the 1800s, many Europeans became
fiercely nationalistic. They used Social
Darwinism to justify the strength and
wealth of nations.
 In Europe, anti-Semitism had been
around for centuries, but became more
intense during the late 1800s. So as to
win voters, political groups blamed Jews
for many problems.

Extreme Nationalism

 The worst treatment of Jews occurred in
Russia, where persecutions and pogroms
were widespread.
 A Jewish nationalist movement called
Zionism helped many Jews to emigrate
from Europe to the United States and
Palestine.

Extreme Nationalism

 Quiz
 In the 2nd Industrial Revolution, _____,
_____, _____, and _____ le the way to
new industrial frontiers.
 h

Ch. 26 - "The New Power Balance"

More Related Content

What's hot

Similar to Ch. 26 - "The New Power Balance"

Recently uploaded

Ch. 26 - "The New Power Balance"