The West and the World: Cultural Crisis and the New Imperialism, 1870-1914 The West CHAPTER 23 Medicine and Microbes • Development of germ theory, antiseptic surgery and anesthesia transformed Western medicine • Death rates from infectious diseases fell, and survival rates from surgery increased • Awareness of germs fostered anxiety and fueled desires for physical isolation growth of seaside resorts The Revolution in Physics • The development of x-ray, quantum physics and the theory of relativity undermined conceptions about the absolute nature of time, space and matter • Much science became incomprehensible to lay people • Unsettling prospect that objective reality was determined by subjective perception Social Thought: The Revolt Against Positivism • Emergent social sciences emphasized the role of nonrational forces in human nature • Development of social theories that criticized the development of modern nation-states - Gustave LeBon, Max Weber • Sigmund Freud proposed that the human unconscious was far deeper and more significant than conscious reality The Triumph of Evolutionary Theory • Development of evolutionary theories in geology and biology - Charles Lyell, Charles Darwin • Challenged Christian cosmology and the biblical Creation narrative • Provided scientific framework for explaining and confirming positivist thought and the European socio-economic system Social Darwinism and Racial Hierarchies • Evolution theory contributed to new social and racial theories that justified European patriarchy, hierarchy and imperialism • Argued that white European males represented the pinnacle of evolution • Cultivated fears that evolutionary regression and the decline of civilization were possible The Fin-de-Siècle • A mood of social uneasiness and despair • Fear of the degradation of Western culture, fueled by perception of rising crime, and the reality of increasing drug and alcohol abuse • Friedrich Nietzsche argued that overemphasis on rationality had weakened Western culture and that scientific reality was an illusion Tightening Gender Boundaries • Efforts to define gender boundaries more rigidly • Condemnation of feminism as physically and morally dangerous to women • Criminalization and medical condemnation of male homosexuality • Greater efforts to understand and define “normal” sexuality The Birth of Modernism • Challenged accepted standards and truths, rejected established authorities • Argued that the arts were autonomous and rejected the idea of art as a moral and emotional instrument • Emphasized discontinuity, artistic experimentation, and individual emotion and experience Popular Religion and Secularization • Religious beliefs remained powerful • Served to unify immigrant groups, support national identities and justify imperialism • Division between Christians who embraced progress and change, and those who rejected modern society and science • Growing sphere of secular entertainment undermined religious practices Understanding the New Imperialism • European dependence on raw materials from non-Western sources • Creation of new, captive markets • Global investment boom • Appeal to nationalist and conservative sentiments • National competition - the Scramble Effect The Imperial Idea • A belief system that permeated middle-class and mass culture • Based on the assumption that Europeans were morally, technologically and biologically superior - the imperial destiny of Europe • Often presented as a heavy burden and a moral duty • Critics of empire were a minority The Scramble for Africa • Shift in perception of Africa, from an empty desert to a potential treasure house • Technological developments enabled Europeans to penetrate and survive the African interior and crush resistance • Forced labor and brutal punishment were common in European-controlled Africa • Only Ethiopia successfully resisted European conquest Asian Encounters • Spread of European powers into the Pacific • Emergence of the US, Japan and Russia as imperial forces in Asia and the Pacific • Slow erosion of Chinese political and economic sovereignty, but no formal partition • Identification of Australia as Western, and white • Suppression of indigenous peoples and cultures in the US and Australia A Glimpse of Things to Come: The Boer War • Conflict in South Africa challenged the imperial idea • Utilization of terror and concentration camps against civilian populations • Aroused fierce opposition inside Britain - support for imperialism could fall, if the costs were too high • Defeat of the Boers brought only limited victory to the British Reshaping the West: Expansion and Fragmentation • Cultural, intellectual and geographical boundaries of the West transformed • Expansion of the West, in the US and Australia • Development of social theories proclaiming white superiority • Emergence of artistic and scientific ideas that fragmented and challenged Western experiences and assumptions