MODERN ERA
1750 - 1914
CULTURAL
TRANSFORMATIONS
WESTERN CONSUMERISM
AND LEISURE
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Countries
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Increased production created demand
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United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand
France, Germany, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Italy
Popular consumption increases
What was once luxury is now necessity
Increased advertisements by industry
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Increased demand
Increased expenditure on luxuries
Product crazes arise
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Mass Leisure Culture
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Increased recreation time allows for rise of mass culture
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Bicycle
Sewing Machine
Mass produced clothing
Shortened work weeks
Weekends now off
Yearly vacations become popular including popular recreation spots
Newspapers become widely spread
Popular theatre started up; public music competitions
Rise of team sports
All classes shared many of the same pursuits, interests
All point to a growing secularization of society
REIGN OF WESTERN SCIENCE
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Enlightenment
– Scientific knowledge became widespread
– Intellectual community expanded greatly
Industrial Revolutions
– Inventions become common
– Entrepreneurs rewarded
Reign of Science, Belief in Progress
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Positivism of Auguste Comte quite popular
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1859: Descent of the Species: animals evolve, adapt (not humans)
Only the fittest survive to reproduce, random selection
Produced a very complex picture of nature
Albert Einstein
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Agricultural Revolution was often fueled by scientific discoveries
Science challenged, replaced religion, faith as explanation of world
Charles Darwin
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Observation, scientific approaches to problems
Apply science to society in useful, rational ways
Newtonian universe was far too simplistic to explain reality
Revolved around discoveries in science and math
Theory of Relativity added time as a factor to physics
Sigmund Freund
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Applied new learning to social sciences: humans were a product of their environment
Workings of the human subconscious: id, ego, superego produce the person
Behavior determined by impulses
Emotional problems can be relieved if brought into the light of rational discussion
ARTISTIC EXPRESSIONS
• Science, knowledge of optics, color influence the arts
– Art becomes a mass appreciation
– Concert halls, galleries become common and open to the public
– Constant change and great debate also common amongst arts
• Art represents and mirrors the period
– Classicism
• Return to Greco-Roman art, the good old past
• Common during the French Revolution, Napoleon
• Favored by English, Americans too
– Romanticism
• Saw the world in rosy images of myth, history, ideals, emotion
• Emphasis on the uniqueness of our ethnic heritage, nature
• Corresponded to the rise of nationalism
– Realism
• An outgrowth of the Industrial Revolution, science
• Paint the world as it really is not as it appears
• Attention to realistic detail: strongly favored in France, United States
– Impression to Cubism to Expressionism
• How do I imagine the world becomes I do I feel when I see the world
• Related to science including evolution of social sciences, psychology
• Music, Literature Have Similar Periods
IMAGES OF WESTERN AGES:
CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM, REALISM, IMPRESSIONISM, CUBISM,
EXPRESSIONISM
DELACROIX:
LADY LIBERTY
MILLET:
GLEANERS
MONET:
TRAINS
DAVID:
SABINE
WOMEN
MUNCH:
SCREAM
SARGENT:
GROUP WITH
PARASOLS
PICASSO:
THE LADIES
AND THE REST?
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Non-European World
– Responds more than acts
– Copies more than creates
– Often rejects new influence, emphasis on old
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No Mass Cultural Such as Arose in the West
– Elite culture often patterned after Western tastes
– Newly educated colonials joined with old elites
– Masses often retain old cultures, suspicions of outside influences
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Syncretism
– Many Western ideas, thoughts co-opted
– Some non-Western ideas borrowed by Westerners
• True of art: Gauguin, Van Gogh, Picasso borrowed Asian, African motifs
• Japonisme was a Western graze for all things Japanese
– Changed to blend with local ideas
– Tai-Ping rebellion in China is a good example
• Christianity blends with Confucianism, Buddhism
• Leader of Taiping is brother of Jesus Christ
• Attempt to free the poor, peasant from West, Chinese elite
– Russia and Japan
• Both borrowed heavily from Western knowledge
• Sometimes adapted it for local use, often times improved
• Began to develop their own distinctive styles
IMAGES OF THE REST
LAI SUNG
(CHINA)
THE SHIP
OROZCO
(MEXICO):
ZAPATA
COSTA
(BRAZIL)
WOMEN
IN GREEN
HAMDI
(TURKEY)
MERCHANT
OF ARMS
De CASTRO
(PERU)
JOSE DE
SAN MARTIN
GOYO
(JAPAN)
WOMEN
COMBING
HAIR
IMPACT OF THE WEST ON THE REST
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Europeans, Americans permeated many societies
– Traders, missionaries, settlers, investors immigrated
– Experts, teachers trained non-Westerners
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Missionaries often had the greatest impact
– They sought
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To change society fundamentally and not just religiously
Missionaries often equated God and progress
Changed educational systems
Revolutionized medicine, hospitals, health
Introduced Christianity to virgin territory
– Schools
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Most colonizers left education to missionaries
Taught western ideas, methods, thought patterns
Taught in western, non-Western languages (often first time written down)
Often developed a region’s first literary tradition
Often taught self-sufficiency
Westerners were very anti-traditional, individualistic
– Educated often preferred to become bureaucrats, missionaries, businessmen
– Biggest impact was in Africa, India, Vietnam
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Even in societies independent of western control, missionaries had impact
– Missionaries in China had tremendous impact
– Many future leaders were Christian, Christian educated
WESTERN EDUCATION AND THE RISE OF
AFRICAN AND ASIAN MIDDLE CLASSES
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Western schools in the colonies
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Provide a pool of people to support colonizers
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British education
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Taught value of capitalism, Christianity, democracy;
Often most numerous mission schools in China
Asians often came to American universities especially in Hawaii
Results
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Ended up educating a new middle class
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Often this group was mercantile
Many staffed lower ranks of colonial civil service
Created a common intellectual, professional elite as many became doctors, teachers, lawyers, writers
Created a common sense of belonging to a group
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Create a sense of nationalism
Emphasis on speaking French, dress, etiquette, cuisine
Actually accorded many colonials equal citizen status with French whites
American education
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Western literature and manners;
Western sense of morality
French education
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Educate the people to become good little westerners
Often the education was open only to existing elites, upper classes
Tendency to discourage universities for elite
Gave natives a common language often for first time (even if it was a European one)
Common attitudes, values which spread across ethnic groups, traditions
Many of these people would later challenge colonial rule using their colonial learning
Mohandas K. Gandhi is a great example
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Indian of the Vaisaya caste living in South Africa
Learned to be British barrister (lawyer), used knowledge to challenge British racial laws