Chapter 28
Discussion and Review
New technologies in the latter half of the nineteenth century
revolutionized everyday life and transformed the world’s economy.
What were some of those new technologies, and how did they
affect society?
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After 1850, the industrialization that had begun in Britain spread to other parts of the world,
especially Germany and the United States.
Steel
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Electricity
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The steel industry was perhaps the most important.
The innovations of Henry Bessemer and others made steel cheap and readily available.
This led not only to more steamships and expanded railroads, but also to larger bridges, buildings, ships,
and weapons, and even to the proliferation of the humble “tin” can.
But new steel towns also created social problems. The chemical industry was responsible for many new
inventions and innovations, such as chemical dyes (which impoverished the nations that harvested
vegetable dyes), powerful explosives, which revolutionized war, and artificial fertilizers, which caused a
revolution in worldwide agriculture.
powered the next generation of factories, as well as lit homes and public ways.
Electric streetcars and subways relieved cities of congestion.
Electric motors and lamps did not pollute the air
Effects of technology
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Sanitation problems caused by horsedrawn trolleys and steam locomotives were also alleviated.
Far-flung corners of the world were brought into the global economy as a result of electricity.
Steel ships made transport quick and inexpensive, and telegraph cables made worldwide communication
almost instantaneous.
Railroads boomed after 1850, and many thousands of miles of new track were laid each year.
Along with these technologies came a revolution in business management, with conglomerates replacing
small companies.
The world was drawn into an increasingly global economy, at an unprecedented scale and rate.
Why did the populations of Euro-American cities grow so
fast between 1850 and 1914, and how did technological
transformation in those cities affect urban life?
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Population boom
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The populations of Europe and America grew faster between 1850 and 1914 than at any
other time.
Population increased primarily because of a dramatic decrease in the death rate, which
was due in large part to technological innovations in agriculture, medicine, and sanitation.
Because of the burgeoning population, between 1850 and 1900 each year 400,000
Europeans migrated overseas; between 1900 and 1914, the number exceeded 1 million
each year.
North America received many of those emigrants, resulting in a population increase from 7
million to 82 million.
Growth of cities
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Within both European and American nations, industrialization caused a population shift
from the countryside to cities.
Cities grew larger, taking up more space, and the mushrooming of suburbs adjacent to
cities added to the size of metropolitan areas.
Piped water systems and sewerage, along with electric streetcars and subways, electric
and gas lighting, and central heating, improved living conditions in cities.
Innovations such as police and fire departments, health inspection, public parks and
libraries, schools, and garbage removal all made cities safer and more desirable places to
inhabit.
Describe the origins and aims of labor movements and
socialist politics in the late nineteenth century.
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Social changes
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Socialism
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A combination of industrialization and revolutionary ideology produced both the labor
movement and socialism.
Both movements were reactions to social changes created by industrialization and
urbanization, and both sought to improve conditions for the working masses—though
primarily the male working masses.
Laws in Europe and America increasingly allowed workers to form groups of mutual
assistance, which were most often known as unions.
Workers used these labor organizations to demand better pay, conditions, and hours, as
well as vacations, pensions, and insurance against illness and disability.
began as an intellectual movement and is perhaps best illustrated by Karl Marx.
Defended workers against employers
Marx argued against the capitalist system and decried employers who extracted “surplus
value,” which was the difference between workers’ wages and the value of the goods they
produced.
Socialists believed that workers created value through their labor—labor that was exploited
by the wealthy (idle) class.
Effects
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Labor organizations and socialists both established their own political parties throughout
Europe and the United States, with varying degrees of success.
These groups, along with traditional political parties, strove to address workers’ needs,
especially after universal male suffrage became a reality in the 1870s and 1880s.
Ultimately, most workers supported the existing political system, rather than trying to
overthrow it.
Describe the lives of upper-, middle-, and working-class women in
English-speaking countries between 1850 and 1914.
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Victorian Age
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Profession for women
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Women in English-speaking countries were subjected to the rules of behavior and ideology of the
Victorian Age such as love, duty, religious values
Upper- and middle-class women were supposed to occupy a sphere separate from men.
They were supposed to refrain from wage work, improve the family’s social status, maintain the
household, and rear the children.
As household technology improved, women were held to increasingly higher standards of cleanliness.
The only education available for those women—usually music, drawing, and embroidery—was intended
to make them better prospects for marriage and to showcase their social talents.
At the end of the nineteenth century, women began to be accepted in some professions, most notably
teaching because countries passed compulsory education laws.
Working-class women
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had almost no prospects for higher education or entrance into the professions; they remained in low-paid
and menial jobs.
Furthermore, they were restricted by arcane Victorian codes to jobs that were deemed within women’s
proper sphere.
Such jobs, particularly those in domestic service and in the textile trades, also paid the least.
In addition, Victorian morality controlled married women with children, forcing them to remain home with
their families.
Yet these women still had to contribute to the family income, most often by taking in boarders or
piecework.
Piecework was often shared by children, thereby perpetuating in the home some of the worst abuses of
the factory system.
Describe the role of nationalism in the creation of Germany,
both before and after 1871. Include a summary of liberal
and conservative nationalism in your answer.
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Nationalism
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Germany
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It was particularly significant in the German case, as German-speaking peoples were spread through the
Prussian state, the Austrian Empire, France, and throughout northern Europe.
Germany reorganized itself under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck, and between 1864 and 1871
fought wars against Denmark, the Austrian Empire, and France.
Superior technology, industry and nationalism contributed to resounding German victories and unification
of most German speaking people into a single state. By 1871, German power was solidified, and the
territory of the modern German state defined.
Liberal States
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Most influential idea of the 19th century
The basic tenet of nationalist ideology was that people were not the subjects of a sovereign but citizens
of a nation, bound by a common government, territory, and culture.
Language was crucial in linking together different groups of people.
After 1871, nationalism came to be qualified as either liberal or conservative. Liberal states, which
included Britain and France, were governed by an ideology that asserted the sovereignty of the people
under a constitution and required a popularly elected representative government.
Conservative nationalist states
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such as Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia, used nationalism to maintain older and more
hierarchical forms of government.
As Europe approached World War I, nationalism proved more divisive than unifying.
If the German, British, and French peoples were
strengthened by the forces of nationalism, why did
nationalism weaken Russia and Austria-Hungary?
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Russia and Austria-Hungary
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Russia
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were far more divided socially and ethnically than the German, British, or French peoples.
there had been one ineffective attempt by Tsar Alexander II to improve conditions for the Russian
masses: the emancipation of the peasants from serfdom.
That proved to be only a gesture, however, and the Russian people remained uneducated and
subordinate.
As the Russian middle class was negligible, wealthy aristocrats continued to dominate Russian society,
economy, and politics.
Russia’s defeat in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 led to popular protest and some temporary reforms,
which destabilized the aristocratic class and forced the creation of the Duma and a new constitution
Ethnic groups that were under Russian domination rebelled; they included Poles, Estonians,
Lithuanians, as well as Muslims from Central Asia.
Russia also had the largest Jewish population in Europe, and the Russian government’s anti-Semitism
created a further impediment to national unity.
Because only 45 percent of all those within the Russian Empire spoke Russian, language could not be
used as a unifying element.
Austria- Hungary
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Language was also a problem in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
That empire’s diverse population included Czechs, Slovaks, and Poles, as well as the peoples of the
Balkans—an area referred to as the “tinderbox of Europe” for its volatility.
Ethnic differences, combined with differences in religions, made it impossible to forge unity based on a
national consciousness.
Compare and contrast the influence of Europe and the United
States on China and Japan between 1850 and 1914.
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Western influence on China and Japan was completely opposite.
China
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resisted the West and became weak and dependent, whereas Japan adopted
Western industrial and military structures, becoming independent and strong.
The Chinese government under Empress Dowager Cixi was hostile to modern
technology and encouraged the Chinese people to attack and destroy Western
influences.
By refusing to adopt Western technology and learning, China lost the opportunity
to compete with Europe and America.
The unequal treaties imposed on China kept the Chinese people in a dependent
and weak position.
Japan
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on the other hand, used Western contact to rapidly industrialize and militarize.
It established new educational institutions to teach the Japanese people how to
apply Western technological and military innovations, thus strengthening the
nation and winning independence from Western control.
As a result, Europe and the United States ended the unequal treaties with Japan.
Japan’s defeat of Russia and China at the beginning of the twentieth century
demonstrated the effects of rapid industrialization and militarization.