Ch 13. European Society in the Age of the Renaissance
Wealth and Power in Renaissance Italy
• New art/ways of thinking in REN rest on economic and political developments in city states of
northern Italy
• Economic growth laid material basis for Italian REN, and ambitious merchants gained political
power to match their economic power
o Used $ to buy luxuries and hire talent through patronage: cities/groups/individs
commissioned writers and artists to produce specific works
• Political leaders in Italian cities admired ancient Rome and commission Romanesque art
• Economics, politics, and culture were interconnected
• Northern Italian cities led way in great commercial revival of 11th c
o Venice, Genoa, Milan: Enormously rich through merchant marine and sea trade,
Shipbuilding, carrying merchandise
o Florence: commercial leader, favorable location, commercial hub, city grew wealthy
buying/selling all sorts of goods
• Florentine merchants loaned/invested money
o Acquired control of papal banking
o Florentine mercantile families began to dominate European banking
o Profits pumped back into urban industries
o Profits contributed to city’s economic vitality and allowed banking families to control the
city’s politics and culture
• By 14th c, economic foundations of Florence were so strong that even severe crises couldn’t
destroy city
o Bankruptcy
o Black Death
o Labor unrest shook political establishment
• Florentine economic structure remained stable
• Wealth allowed many ppl greater material pleasures, a more comfortable life, and leisure time to
appreciate/patronize the arts
o Commissioned buildings, hired sculptors and painters
• Rich, social climbing residents saw life more as an opportunity to be enjoyed than as a painful
pilgrimage to the City of God
Communes and republics of Northern Italy
• Northern Italian cities: communes: sworn associations of free men who began to seek political/
economic independence from local nobles
• Merchant guilds that formed built and maintained city walls, regulated trade, collected taxes, kept
civil order
• Local nobles frequently moved into cities, marrying into rich commercial families and starting
their own businesses
• Merger of feudal nobility and commercial elite created a powerful oligarchy
• Rivalries among diff powerful families within oligarchy ! communes politically unstable
• Unrest coming from below made instability worse
o Merchant elites made citizenship in communes dependent on property qualification, years
of residence, social connections
o Only tiny percentage of male had these qualifications and could hold office
o Popolo: disenfranchised common ppl in Italian cities, were heavily taxed and bitterly
resented their exclusion from power
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Popolo used armed force and violence to take over the city govs
o Repub govs established
o Victory of popolo was temporary – could not establish civil order within their cities
Merchant oligarchies sometimes used powerful military leaders to establish order
o Military leaders called condottieri had own armies, and in many cities took over political
power as well
Many cities in Italy became signori: one man ruled and handed down right to rule his son
o Some signori kept communal gov in place, but these had no actual power
o Oligarchic regimes possessed constitutions and boasted how much more democratic their
gov was
o Oligarchies maintained a façade of republican gov, but judicial, executive, and legislative
functions of gov were restricted to a small class of wealthy merchants
15th 16th c: signori in many cities and most powerful merchant oligarchs in others transformed
their households into courts
o Opportunity to display and assert their wealth and power
o Magnificent palaces
o Required all political business to be done there
Rulers of Florence, Milan, and other northern Italian cities became patrons of the arts,
o Hired architects, artists, musicians
o Supported writers and philosophers
o Elaborate rituals
City-States and the Balance of Power
• REN Italians had a passionate attachment to individual city states: political loyalty and feeling
centered on the local city
• Intensity fo local feeling perpetuated dozens fo small states and hindered development of one
unified state
• 5 powers
o Venice
▪ International power
▪ Republic in name, really oligarchy of merchant-aristocrats
o Milan
▪ Republic in name
▪ Sforza family dominated
o Florence
▪ Republican with authority in several councils of state
▪ Medici had power for centuries
▪ Cosimo and Lorenzo de Medici ruled from behind the scenes
▪ Medici produced 3 popes
▪ Most REN popes were members of powerful Italian families, selected for
political skills
▪ Pope Alexander VI: most ruthless, had illegitimate son Cesare Borgia who
reasserted papal authority in papal lands
o Kingdom of Naples
▪ Under control of king of Aragon
• Major Italian city states controlled smaller ones and competed furiously among themselves for
territory
o Used spies, paid informers, and any means to get info that could be used to advance their
ambitions
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Italian politics resembled a jungle where the powerful dominated the weak
Whenever one Italian state looked like it gained a predominant position, other states combined to
establish a balance of power against the major threat
REN Italians invented machinery of modern diplomacy
End of 15th c: Venice, Florence, Milan, and papacy possessed great wealth and represented high
cultural achievement
o Wealthy and divided
o Inviting target for invasion
When Florence and Naples agreed to take Milanese territories, Milan called on France for support
and French king Charles VIII invaded Italy
In Florence, French invasion was the fulfillment of a prophecy by Dominican friar Savonarola
o Predicted God would punish Italy for its moral vice and corrupt leadership
o Medici dynasty fell after French invasion
o Savonarola became political and religious leader
o Reorganized gov
o Called on ppl to destroy anything that led them to sin
Ppl tired of Savonarola’s moral denunciations
o Was excommunicated, tortured, burned
o Medici returned as rulers of Florence
Savonarola represents internal instability of Italian cities, an instability that invited foreign
invasion
French invasion inaugurated new period in Italian and European power politics
o Italy became focus of international ambitions
o Battleground for foreign armies: those of France and HRE
Habsburg-Valois wars: France vs HRE
o Italian cities suffered from warfare
o Sack of Rome 1527 under Charles V
Failure of city states to form a federal system, consolidate, or create foreign policy led to
centuries of subjection by outside invaders
Intellectual Change
• REN was characterized by self-conscious awareness among educated Italians that they were
living in a new era
• Deep interest in ancient Latin and Greek literature and philosophy
• Developed new notions of human nature, new plans for education, new concepts of political rule
• Advent of printing press accelerated spread of ideas throughout Europe
Humanism
• Francesco Petrarch
o Spent long hours searching for classical Latin manuscripts in monastery libraries
o Wandered around ruins of many Roman Empire ruins
o Obsessed with classical past
Felt writers and artists of ancient Rome had reached a level of perfection in their work
that had never since been duplicated
o Writers of his own day should follow these ancient models and ignore “dark ages”
afterwards
o Believed that recovery of classical texts would bring about a new golden age of
intellectual achievement
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Petrarch thought he was witnessing the dawning of a new era in which writers and artists would
recapture glory of Roman republic
o Proposed a new kind of education
o Young men: study works of ancient Latin and Greek authors, using them as models
o Study of Latin classics became “liberal arts”
People who advocated liberal arts were called humanists, and they followed humanism
Humanism: human nature and achievement, evident in the classics, were worthy of contemplation
o Glory of Rome had been brightest, humans thought, in works of Roman author/statesman
Cicero
▪ Supported return to republican gov
▪ Admired Cicero’s use of language, literary style, and political ideas
▪ Decline of Latin language after death of Cicero and decline of Roman republic
▪ Divided history into 3 eras: ancient, medieval, modern
o Became increasingly interested in Greek philosophy as well as Roman literature,
especially in the ideas of Plato
▪ Marsilio Ficino began to lecture an informal group of Florence’s cultural elite !
Platonic Academy
• Regarded Plato as divinely inspired precursor to Christ
• Translated Plato’s dialogues into Latin
• Attempted to synthesize Christian and Platonic teachings
▪ Plato’s emphasis on spiritual and eternal over material and transient fit well with
Christian teachings of the immortality of soul, love, the highest form of love was
spiritual desire for pure, perfect beauty uncorrupted by bodily desires – easily fits
with Christian desire for the perfection of God
o Pico de la Mirandola: both Christian and classical texts taught that the universe was a
hierarchy of beings with God at top and humans the crucial link in middle
▪ On the dignity of Man
▪ Man possesses great dignity because he was made as Adam in the image of God
▪ Man is the one part of the created world that has no fixed place, but can freely
choose whether to rise to realm of angels or descend to realm of animals
▪ Humans are truly miraculous creatures
o Man’s miraculous nature means there are no limits to what he can accomplish
▪ Viewed groups as springboards to higher individual achievement
▪ Especially individuals who had risen above their background to become brilliant,
powerful, or unique, and had virtu: ability to shape the world around them
according to their will
▪ Not excellent, reached pinnacle of excellent
o REN thinkers did not exclude themselves when they searched for models of talent and
achievement
▪ Leon Alberti: Exalts himself in his book saying he’s talented, is a “Renaissance
man”
o Plato taught best way to learn something was to think about its perfect, ideal form
Education
• Humanists thought their recommended course of study in the classics would provide essential
skills for future diplomats, lawyers, military leaders, businessmen, politicians, writers, artists
• Provided a much broader and more practical type of training than offered at universities that
focused on theology and philosophy
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Taught a life active in the world should be the aim of all educated individuals and that education
was not simply for private or religious purposes, but benefited the public good
Humanists opened schools/academies with Latin grammar and rhetoric, Roman history, Greek to
study Greek lit
Gradually, humanist education became the basis for intermediate and advanced education for well
to do urban boys and men
Humanists disagreed about education for women
o Saw value in showing women classical models, but wondered whether it was proper for
women, whose spheres were generally domestic and private
o Alberti stresses wife’s role should be restricted to orderliness of the household, food and
serving of meals, the education of children, supervision of servants
o Thought tutors/self study, a few women became educated in classics
o Argued that reason was not limited to men and that learning was compatible with virtue
for women as well
Baldassare Castiglione: The Courtier
o Sought to train, discipline, and fashion the young man into the courtly/ideal gentleman
o Man should have broad background academically, and spiritual and physical training,
compose a sonnet, wrestle, sing a song, ride, speak/write eloquently
o Perfect court lady should be well educated, paint, dance, physical beauty, delicacy
The Courtier influenced social mores and patterns of elite groups in REN and early modern
Europe and became a how to manual for people seeking to improve themselves and rise in the
social hierarchy
Political Thought
• Ideal courtiers should serve a n ideal ruler
• Humanist described rulers who were just, wise, pious, learned, kind, and sometimes got positions
or money
• Ideal rulers were hard to find in Italy
• Humanists looked to classical past for models
o Some argued republicanism was best form
o Plato’s philosopher king
o Both argued that educated men should be active in the political affairs of their city, “civic
humanism”
• Most famous civic humanist: Niccolo Machiavelli: Held a gov position, was fired and tortured,
then imprisoned
o Released but had no gov position
o Spend rest of life writing and making fruitless attempts to regain employment
o The Prince: the function of a rulers is too preserve order and security
o Weakness leads to disorder, which might end in civil war or foreign conquest
o To preserve the state a ruler should use whatever means he needs
o Should not do anything that would make the populace turn against him
o Popular support needed a strong, stable realm
o It is much safer to be feared than loved
o Knew effective rulers exhibited virtu
▪ Cesare Borgia who went from illegit son to consolidating papal power
▪ Said inescapable fate was the only thing that brought him down
o Seen as first modern guide to politics
o Argued gov’s should be judged by how well they provided security, order, and safety to
their populace, not by principles of God
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Ideals needed to be measured in the cold light of the real world
Unacceptable to many
Scholars debate whether Machiavelli actually meant what he wrote
Christian Humanism
• Low Countries, France, Germany, England flocked to Italy to absorb the “new learning” and
carried it back to their own countries
• Northern humanists shared ideas of Ficino and Pico on the wisdom f ancient texts, but went
beyond Italian efforts to synthesize Christina and classical traditions to see humanist learning as a
way to bring about a reform of the church and deepen people’s spiritual lives
• Christian humanists thought that the best elements of classical and Christian cultures should be
combined
• Thomas More
o Utopia: community where all children get good classical education, and adults do manual
labor and intellectual activities
o No problems, they have been solved by beneficial gov
o No private property that promotes greed
o Religious tolerance
o Order and reason
o Dissent/disagreement not acceptable
o Critique of society? Call for even firmer hierarchy? Satire?
o Written in vernacular
• Erasmus
o Exceptional knowledge of Greek and Bible
o Formation of a ruler’s character through careful study of Plutarch, Aristotle, Cicero, and
Plato
o Praise of Folly: satire of worldly wisdom and plea for simple and spontaneous Christian
faith of children
o Critical edition of New Testament – wants all to be able to read it, translated into all
languages
• Erasmus’s general ideas
o Education is means to reform, key to moral and intellectual improvement
o Core of education should be study of Bible and classics
o Philosophy of Christ meant Christianity is an inner attitude of heart or spirit, not special
ceremonies, Christianity is Christ – his life, what he said and did
The Printed Word
• Printing press w/ movable metal type
• Ideas of Petrarch were spread slowly by hand copy
• Ideas of Erasmus were spread quickly through print
• Johann Gutenberg: movable type printing press
• Printing enabled by ready availability of paper
• Increase in urban literacy, development of primary schools, and opening of more universities
created an expanding market for reading materials
• Other craftsmen built their own presses and built a business
• Effects of printing press were not felt overnight
• Movable type brought about radical changes, transforming private and public lives of European
by 16th c
o Printers had connection to politics/art/scholarship that other crafts did not have
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Gave hundreds of ppl identical books so they could discuss books and form ideas or even
causes
Gov and church leaders used and worried about printing
o Printed themselves, but attempted to censor books and authors whose ideas they thought
were wrong
o Prohibited books authors, confiscated books, arrested printers
o None of this was effective, and books were printed secretly and smuggled
Printing stimulated literacy of lay people and eventually had a deep effect on their private lives
o Though mostly religious, printers produced anything that would sell
o Pornography, history, illustrations
o Print bridged the gap between the written and oral cultures
Art and the Artist
• Dazzling creativity
• Florence led the way
• Florence was not only artistic center, Rome and Venice also became important
• Northern Europeans had their own styles
Patronage and Power
• Powerful urban groups often flaunted their wealth by commissioning 3 works fo art in early REN
Italy
o Brunelleschi’s dome
o Ghiberti’s bronze door
• More and more in the 15th c, wealthy individuals and rulers, rather than corporate groups
sponsored works of art
• Glorify themselves and their families
• Patrons varied in levels of involvement as work progressed
o Some super involved, some not so much
o Julius II commissioned Michelangelo and ordered him
• Art reveals changing patterns of consumption among nobility and wealthy merchants in REN
Italy
o Before, spent on military gear
o Cities hired mercenaries
o Grand urban palace represented cash,
o Spent money on art, building, dishes, tablecloths, paintings, sculptures, to adorn their
homes
o Increasingly elaborate house
• Private chapel within the palace symbolized the largest expenditure for the wealthy of 16th c
o Center of household’s religious life and its cult of remembrance of the dead
Changing Artistic Styles
• Content and style of REN art were diff from Middle Ages
o Religious topics remained popular
o Frequently patron and family portrayed in scene
o Classical themes and motifs were increasingly shown
o Individual portrait emerged as distinct artistic genre
• Individual
o Not a spiritual ideal, showed human ideals
o More realistic style
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o Imitating nature and an orderly sequence of design and proportion
Giotto: Led the way in realism
Linear perspective
Donatello: Revived classical figure
Brunelleschi: Looked to classical past for inspiration
Northern European art was more religious than that produced in Italy
o Artistic equals of Italian painters, admired in Italy
o Oil based paints, realism, human personality
16th c: Center of new art shifted from Florence to Rome
o Wealthy cardinals and popes
o Enormous enthusiasm, huge sums of money to beautify city
Venice: another artistic center
o Titian: mannerism
▪ Distorted figures, exaggerated musculature, heightened colors to express emotion
and drama more intently
The Renaissance Artist
• Adulation of the artist
• Many historians saw REN as beginning of concept of artist as having special talent
o In Middle Ages, ppl believed that only God created and no particular value in artistic
originality
• REN artists and humanists came to think work of art was deliberate creation of a unique
personality who transcended traditions, rules, theories
• A genius had a peculiar gift, which laws should not inhibit
• Don’t overemphasize REN notion of genius
o Came to assert their won artistic styles and pay less attention to wishes of patrons
o Even major artists worked according to wishes of patrons
• Most REN artists trained in workshops of older artists
• Artists were still expected to be well trained in proper artistic techniques and stylistic conventions
• Beginning artists spend years copying and drawing paintings, learning
• Artistic academies emerged
• Most famous and most prolific REN artists were male, no females
• Women were active in women arts, “minor” decorative arts
o Yet embroidery also became more classical, visually complex
o Not trained to view work as products of indiv genius
• Several women became well known as painters
o Careers show similarities
o Daughters of painters/minor noblemen
o Many were eldest child, with no sons
• Women inhibited from
o Painting male nude
o Not learn fresco technique
o Couldn’t join group of male artists
o Artistic academies banned women
▪ Male only, men of diff ages came to train
• Most scholars and artists came from families with at least some money
• REN culture did not influence lives of most ppl in cities, and did not affect life in villages as well
• Small, highly educated minority of literary humanists and artists created culture for an exclusive
elite
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REN maintained or advanced gulf between learned minority and uneducated multitude
Social Hierarchies
• Division of learned minority and uneducated masses represents one of many social hierarchies
• Social hierarchies were built on orders of Middle Ages – those who fight, ray, work
• New features: race, class, gender
Race and Slavery
• Made distinctions based on skin color
• Distinctions were interwoven with other characteristics when ppl thought about human
differences
• Small number of black Africans came along with white slaves as spoils of war
• Local authorities offered no protection
• Long tradition sanctioned practice of slavery
• Black population increased and sometimes intermingled
• There were some blacks in Northern Europe, not as much as Iberian peninsula
o Black servants were sought after
o Curiosities, exotic, marvelous
o Indicated wealth
o Source of entertainment
• Africans were not simply amusements at court
o Supplemented labor force in virtually all occupations
• Europeans had little concrete knowledge of Africans and their cultures
• Perceived Africa as a remote place, home of strange people isolated from superior Europe
• Africans’ contact with Christian Europe could only “improve” them and reinforced negative
preconceptions about the inferiority of black Africans
Wealth and the Nobility
• Class was not used in REN, but the idea of a hierarchy based on wealth was emerging alongside
the medieval concept of orders
• Most residents of towns were “third order”: “those who work”
• Group now included wealthy merchants who oversaw vast trading empires
• Hierarchy of wealth was more changeable than hierarchy of orders, allowing individuals and
families to rise and fall
• Development of hierarchy of wealth did not mean an end of hierarchy of orders
o Even poor nobility had higher status than wealthy commoners
o Nobility maintained status
• Social status was linked with considerations of honor
o Certain weapons/battle tactics
• Among urban dwellers, certain occupations might be well paid but were “dishonorable” and of
low status
o Sumptuary laws reflected both wealth and honor
▪ Merchants had fur
▪ Prostitutes had to wear yellow bands
Gender Roles
• Learned men began the debate about women, a debate about women’s character and nature,
women’s proper role in society
• Misogynist: critiques of woman denounced females as devious, domineering, demanding
• Women supporters compiled long lists of noteworthy women
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Printing press fomented interest in debate about women
o Shared across Europe
o Dichotomous arguments
Debate about female rulers
o Vigorously/viciously disputed
o Could a woman’s being born into a royal family and educated to rule allow her to
overcome the limitations of her sex?
o Which was stronger determinant of character and social role: gender or rank?
o No successful rebellions against rulers because they were women
o In part because female rulers were strong and had masculine qualities
Ideas of women’s and men’s proper roles determined actions of ordinary men and women more
forcefully
o “True” man was married head of household
o Unmarried men not as high as married men
o Women were “married” or “not married”
o Women’s work was not supporting families, and was valued less than men’s
o Earned 2/3 of what men did
Men on top served as a symbol of the proper functioning of society as a whole
Gender ranking was regarded as most “natural” and most important to defend, linked with social
upheaval and viewed as threatening
Politics and the State in Western Europe, ca 1450-1521
• High Middle ages failed to create effective leadership
• Centralization was weakened by feudal nobilities
• 15th c: rulers did aggressive rebuilding of gov
• Italy, France, England, Spain
• How
o Reduce violence
o Curb unruly nobles
o Establish domestic order
• Attempted to
o Secure borders
o Raise revenue
• Emphasized royal majesty and sovereignty instead of respect of all subjects
• HRE attempted, but couldn’t create a unified state
France
• Black Death and 100YW left France depopulated, commercially ruined, agriculturally weak
• Charles VII revived monarchy and France
• Began France’s long recovery
o Reconciled Burgundians and Armagnacs who’d been waging civil war
o Expelled English from French soil except in Calais
o Reorganized royal council, giving increased influence to lawyers and bankers
o Strengthened royal finances through taxes
▪ Chief sources of income
o Established regular companies of cavalry and archers recruited/paid by state
o First permanent royal army
• Louis XI “Spider King”, son
o Improved army
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o Used army to control nobles’ separate militias and to curb urban independence
o Conquered Burgundy
o Got Anjou, Bar, Maine, Provence
Marriage of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany added duchy of Brittany to state
Francis I and Pope Leo X reached mutually satisfactory agreement about church and state
powers
o Concordat of Bologna: approved pope’s right to receive first year’s income of new
bishops and abbots
o Leo X recognized French ruler’s right to select French bishops and abbots
o French kings controlled appointment and policies of church officials in kingdom
England
• Suffered from disorders of 15th c
• Problems
o Aristocracy dominated gov of Henry IV and indulged in disruptive violence at local
level
o Population continued to decline
o Dual houses of York and Lancaster waged civil war called Wars of the Roses
▪ Hurt trade, agriculture, and domestic industry
• Henry VI: under him, the authority of monarchy sank lower
• Edward IV: began to establish domestic tranquility
o Defeated Lancastrian forces
o Began to reconstruct monarchy
• Edward IV, Richard III, and Henry VII of Tudor began to restore royal prestige, crush power
of nobility, and establish order and law at local level
o Conducted foreign policy on basis of diplomacy, avoiding expensive wars
o Did not depend on PLMT for money
o Undercut source of aristocratic influence of PLMT
• Henry VII
o Summoned several meetings of PLMT, but center of royal authority was royal council,
governed at national level
o Few great lords were the king’s closest advisors, he chose men among the smaller
landowners and urban residents trained in law (distrusted nobles)
o Council conducted negotiations with foreign governments and secured international
recognition with marriage of son Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon
o Council dealt with real or potential aristocratic threats through Court of Star Chamber
▪ Secretive sessions, torture, no juries
▪ Effectively reduced aristocratic troublemaking
• When Henry VII died, he left a country at peace both domestically and internationally, a
substantially augmented treasury, an expanding wool trade, and dignity of royal majesty much
enhanced
Spain
• Spain remained a conglomerate of independent kingdoms
• By 15th c, kingdoms of Castile and Aragon dominated the weaker kingdoms
• Wedding of 1469 of Isabelle of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon did not bring administrative
unity
o Marriage constituted a dynastic union of two royal houses, not political union of two
people
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Ferd and Isabella
o Common foreign policy
Until later on, Spain existed as a loose confederation of separate kingdoms, each maintaining its
own cortes: laws, courts, systems of coinage, taxation
Ferd and Isabella were able to exert their authorities similar to rulers of England and France
o Curbed aristocratic power by excluding high hobbles from royal council, appointed lesser
landowners
o Recruited men trained in Roman law, which exalted power of Crown
o Secured right to appoint bishops in Spain and territories in America, establishing a
national church
o Expanded territories to include remaining land help by Arabs in southern Spain
▪ Conquest of Granada
o France and England expelled Jews, they were potentially dangerous – they sought refuge
in Spain. Jewish money supported royal power and Christians borrowed from Jewish
money lenders
o Strong undercurrent of resentment of Jewish influence and wealth festered
o Looked for scapegoat during Black Death, anti-Jewish preaching ! Anti-Semitism
o Anti-Semitism pogroms
o Killed or forced to convert
o Conversos: New Christians
▪ Often well educated, held good positions in church, medicine, law, business
▪ Exercised power disproportionate to their numbers
Jewish success bred resentment
o Resented their financial dependence
o Hated conversos tax collectors
o Churchmen doubted their sincerity
Inquisition to “search out and punish convert from Judaism who had transgressed against
Christianity by secretly adhering to Jewish beliefs and performing Jewish rites
o Investigations and trails
o Anyone who showed any sign of incomplete conversion
Most conversos were sincere and had been convsersos for generations
A person’s status as a Jew could not be changed by religious conversion, a person’s blood was
heritable, so Jews could never be full Christians
Having pure Christina blood became required for noble status
Isabella and Ferd issued an edict expelling all practicing Jews from Spain
Muslims became another type of New Christian
Absolute religious orthodoxy and purity of blood served as the theoretical foundation of the
Spanish national state
Spanish national state rested on marital politics as well as military victories and religious courts
F + I’s son married off
Their son: Charles V
Ch. 14: Reformations and Religious Wars
The Early Reformation
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Early 16th c: wide range of ppl had grievances with the church
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Educated laypeople, Christian humanists, urban residents called for reform
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Even more radical concepts of the Christian message were being developed and linked to calls for
social change
The Christian Church in the Early 16th Century
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Early 16th c: Europeans were externally very religious
o Processions, pilgrimages, altars,
o Ppl of all social groups devoted an enormous amount of their time and income to religious causes and
foundations
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People also very critical of the Roman Catholic Church and its clergy
o Badly damaged prestige of church leaders
o Concentration on artistic patronage and building up family power did not help maters
o Criticized papacy as an institution
§ Great wealthy and powerful courts
o Some thought some doctrines were incorrect
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Suggested measures to reform institutions, improve clerical education and behavior, and alter basic
doctrines
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Reforms had some success, in at least one area: Bohemia
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Led to formation of a church independent of Rome
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Early 16th c: widespread anticlericalism: opposition to the clergy
o Clerical immorality: drunk, no celibacy, gambled, fancy dress
o Clerical ignorance: barely literate priests, did not understand Latin text
o Clerical pluralism: holding many church offices/benefices for money; rarely visited offices, paid poor
priest to work office
§ Some Italian church officers held foreign benefices, creating national resentment
o Absenteeism: being absent at a job because they had multiple offices (pluralism)
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There were some pious church leaders, but lecherous monks, lustful monks, and greedy priests were
also known of
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As well as national, there was local resentment of clerical privileges and immunities
o Priests, monks, nuns exempt from civic responsibilities: defending city, paying taxes
o Religious orders frequently held large amounts of urban property
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City gov’s tried to integrate clergy into public life by reducing their privileges and giving them some
public responsibilities
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Urban leaders wanted some say in who would be appointed to high church officials
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Brought city leaders into opposition with bishops and papacy, which had stressed independence of
church from lay control and distinction between members of clergy and laypeople
Martin Luther
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Widespread criticism of church did not lead to changes of 16th c
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Changes resulted from Martin Luther:
o Father sent him to school to be lawyer, decided instead to join Augustinian friars, who assisted and
taught the poor
o Ordained a priest and earned a doctorate in theology
o Served as professor of Scriptures
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Luther’s observance of religious routine, frequent confessions, and fasting gave him only temporary
relief from anxieties about sin and his abilities to meet God’s demands
o Studied Saint Paul’s letters
o Faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone
o Salvation and justification came through faith
o Faith is a free gift of God’s grace, not the result of human effort
o God’s word is revealed only in Scripture, not in the traditions of the church
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Pope Leo X authorized sale of special Saint Peter’s indulgence to finance his building plans in
Rome
o Albert of Mainz: promoter of indulgence sale, received share of profits
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Indulgence: earthly penance (repaying for sins) and time in purgatory could be shortened by virtuous
acts, indulgence was a piece of paper signed by pope that substituted for a virtuous act
o Believed to bring forgiveness of all sins, lessened penance and time in purgatory
·
Johann Tetzel: Hawked indulgences, phenomena success, ppl traveled from miles to buy
indulgences
·
Luther was troubled that ppl thought they had no further need for repentance after buying
indulgences
o “Ninety-Five Theses”: Thought indulgences undermined serious sacrament of penance, competed with
preaching of Gospel, and downplayed the importance of charity in the Christian life
§ Was quickly printed in Latin then German
·
Luther was ordered to come to Rome
·
Engaged in a scholarly debate with Johann Eck
·
Refused to take back his ideas and continued to develop his calls for reform, publicizing them in a
series of pamphlets which he moved further and further away from Catholic theology
·
Luther’s ideas
o Both popes and church councils could err, and secular leaders should reform the church if the pope and
clerical hierarchy did not
o There was no distinction between clergy and laypeople
o Requiring clergy to be celibate was a fruitless attempt to control a natural human drive
·
Authorized publication of his works
·
Papacy responded with a letter condemning some of Luther’s propositions, ordering that his books
be burned, and asking him to recant or be excommunicated
o Luther burned the letter
·
Luther’s theological issues had become interwoven with public controversies about the church’s
wealth, power, and basic structure
·
Charles V had his first died (assembly of nobility, clergy, and cities of HRE) in German city of
Worms and summoned Luther to appear
o Luther refused to recant and take back ideas
§ “Neither safe nor right to go against conscience”
o His appearance at the Diet of Worms created an even broader audience for his ideas
·
Throughout Europe other individs began to preach and publish against the existing doctrines and
practices of the church, drawing on the long tradition of calls for change as well as Luther
Protestant Thought
·
Swiss humanist, priest, admirer of Erasmus, Ulrich Zwingli read from Erasmus’s New Testament
instead of prescribed church readings
o Was convinced that Christian life rested on the Scriptures, which were the pure words of God
o Sole basis of religious truth
o Attacked indulgences, Mass, the institution of monasticism, and clerical celibacy
o Reform in Zurich, had the strong support of city authorities who’d long resented privileges of the
clergy
·
Followers of Luther, Zwingli, and others who called for a break with Rome were called Protestants
o “protest”ing the decisions of the Catholic majority
·
Luther, Zwingli, and other early Prots agreed on many things
o How is a person to be saved: not by faith AND good works, faith ALONE
§ God, not people, initiate salvation
o Where does religious authority reside: not in Bible and traditional church teachings, Bible ALONE
§ For a doctrine to be valid, it had to have a Scriptural basis
o Church is a spiritual priesthood of all believers, an invisible fellowship not fixed in any place or
person, which differed markedly from the Roman Catholic practice of a hierarchical clerical institution
headed by the pope in Rome
o What is the highest form of Christianity: not monastic and religious life over secular, every person
should serve God in his or her individual calling
·
Prots did not agree on everything
o Communion: Luther: Christ is really present, Zwingli: Christ is symbolically present
·
Colloquy of Marburg failed to unite Prots, thought Prots agreed on virtually everything else
The Appeal of Prot Ideas
·
Printing presses spread Prot message all over Germany, and by middle of 16th c, ppl of all social
classes rejected Catholic teachings and had become Prot
·
Appeal of Prot ideas
o Educated ppl and humanist
§ Simpler personal religion based on faith, a return to the spirit of the early church, the centrality of the
Scriptures in liturgy, and in Christian life, and the abolition of the elaborate ceremonies – just what the
humanists had been calling for
o Literate/thoughtful city residents and priests/monks who left Catholic church
§ Everyone should read/reflect on Scriptures
o Townspeople
§ Notion that clergy should also pay taxes and should not have special legal privileges
·
Luther’s fame and success
o Invention of printing press that spread and reproduced his Luther’s ideas
§ Woodcuts/illustrations so illiterate could understand
o Luther’s eloquence
·
Both Luther and Zwingli recognized that for reforms to be permanent, political authorities as well as
concerned individs and religious leaders would have to accept them
o Zwingli worked closely w/ city council of Zurich
o City councils spread to other cities and appointed good pastors with Prot ideas, and oversaw their
teachings
o Luther lived in a territory ruled by a noble: the elector of Saxony, and worked closely with political
authorities, viewing them as justified in asserting control over church in territories
o Demanded that German rulers reform papacy and its institutions, and instructed all Christians to obey
their secular rulers, whom he saw as divinely ordained to maintain order
o Territory became Prot when its ruler brought in a reformer or two to reeducate the clergy, sponsored
public sermons, and confiscated church property
§ Happened in many of the states of the HRE in the 1520s
The Radical Reformation and the German Peasant’s War
·
Some individs and groups rejected idea that church and state needed to be united
·
Sought to create a voluntary community of believers separate from the state
o Groups varied widely
o Called “radicals”
o Some adopted baptism of believers: called “Anabaptists”
o Others saw external sacraments as misguided
o Many views
·
Religious radicals were often pacifists and refused to hold office or swear oaths, which made them
social pariahs who were hated
·
Both Prots and Catholics agreed on one thing: they had to stamp out the radicals threatened by
social, political, and economic implications of their religious ideas, and by their rejection of a state church
(they thought it was key to maintaining order)
·
Radicals banished or cruelly executed
·
Martyrdom fomented their religion
·
Radical reformers sometimes called for social as well as religious change, a message that German
peasants heard
·
16th c: crop failures made economic condition worse than it had been in 15th c, and nobles seized
village common lands, imposed new rents, required additional services, and taking peasants’ best horses
or cows
·
Peasants found demands they believed were confirmed in the Scripture, and cited Luther as proof
·
Luther wanted to prevent rebellion
·
Initially he sided with peasants, blasting lords, but when rebellion broke out Luther’s support was
weak
o Freedom for Luther meant indep from authority of the Roman church, not opposition to legally
established secular power
o Scripture had nothing to do with earthly justice or material gain
o Thought rebellion would hasten the end of civilized society
·
Nobles furiously crushed revolt
·
German Peasant’s War greatly strengthened authority of lay rulers
·
Reformation lost popular appeal after 1525
·
Peasants found a place with radical groups
·
Peasants’ economic conditions did moderately improve
Marriage and Sexuality
·
Luther and Zwingli believed that a priests/nun’s vows of celibacy was against human nature and
God’s commandments, and that marriage brought spiritual advantages and was the ideal state for nearly
all human beings
o Luther/Zwingli married
·
Wives were living demonstrations of their husband’s convictions of marriage over celibacy, and
were expected to be models of wifely obedience and Christian charity
·
Denied that marriage was a sacrament, said it was ordained by Adam and Eve
·
“Remedy” for the unavoidable sin of lust, and a site for rearing the next generation of God fearing
Christians, and offered husbands and wives companionship and consolation
·
Proper marriage was one that reflect spiritual equality of men and women and the proper social
hierarchy of husbandly authority and wifely obedience
·
Prots did not break with medieval thinking that women were subject to men
o Women advised to be cheerful not grudging, for in doing so they were showing willingness to follow
God’s plan
o Men were urged to treat wives kindly and considerately, but to enforce authority through physical
coercion if necessary
·
A few women took Luther’s idea of priesthood of all believers to heart
·
16th c Prots didn’t allow women to be members of clergy
·
Prots saw marriage as a contract in which each partner promised the other support, companionship,
and sharing of mutual goods
·
Marriage was created by God as a remedy for human weakness, so marriages without support
endangered their own souls and community’s souls
·
Only solution was divorce and remarriage
o Catholics disagreed, thinking marriage was a holy sacrament that couldn’t be dissolved
·
Divorce did not have a dramatic impact on newly Prot areas
·
Marriage was a cornerstone of society socially and economically, divorce was a desperate last resort
·
Prots and Catholics condemned prostitution
o Brothels closed
o Harsh punishments for prostitution
o Selling sex was immoral “whoredom”
·
Prostitution didn’t go away, illegal brothels were established
·
Prot Ref had positive impact on marriage, but its impact on women was mixed
o Nuns in convents didn’t have a strong sense of religious calling
o Convents provided upper class women with a scope for literary, artistic, medical, or administrative
talents if they didn’t want to marry
o Prot Ref closed convents and marriage became virtually only option for upper class Prot women
·
Some women fought Prot Ref
o Argued they could still be pious within convent walls
o Most nuns left and disappeared…forever
·
Prot emphasis on marriage made unmarried women suspect, for the didn’t belong to the type of
household regarded as the cornerstone of a proper, godly society
The Reformation and German Politics
·
Reform movements could be easily squelched among strong central governments that evolved in
Spain and France, England also (but Henry VIII broke for other reasons)
·
HRE included hundreds of largely indep states
·
With the HRE in fragments, Luther could easily gain support to “reform the church” that would not
be quelled
·
Two years after Luther published “Ninety Five Theses,” electors of HRE chose Charles V as
emperor, which shaped the course of the Prot Ref
The Rise of the Habsburg Dynasty
·
In 16th century, Habsburgs increased power through marriage
·
Frederick III, ruler of most of Austria, married Princess Eleonore of Portugal and arranged for his
son Maximilian to marry Mary of Burgundy who inherited Netherlands, Luxembourg, and County of
Burgundy
·
Union of duchy of Burgundy and Austrian house of Habsburg became an international power
·
Max and Mary’s marriage angered the French who thought Burgundy theirs
·
Austrian house of Habsburg vs. France – start of a rivalry? I think yes
·
Max married his son to children of Ferd and Isa, and their son was Charles V
o Fell heir to a vast and incredibly diverse collection of states and peoples, each government by a
different manner and held together only by the person of the emperor
·
Charles V not only believed it was his duty from God’s calling to maintain the political and religious
unity of Western Christendom
Religious Wars in Switzerland and Germany
·
16th c: religion remained a public matter
·
Ruler determined official form of religious practice
·
Almost everyone believed the presence of a faith diff from the majority was a political threat to the
security of the state
·
Luther’s ideas appealed to German rulers because
o People had an understanding of “being German” because of language and traditions, and Luther’s
frequent use of “we Germans” appealed to their national feeling influenced many people
o Some German rulers were sincerely pious
o Material considerations swayed others to Prot side: Rejection of Roman Catholicism and adoption of
Prot would mean legal confiscation of lush farmlands, monasteries, and shrines – Prot helped political
authorities extend financial and political authority and enhance their independence from the emperor
·
Charles V was a vigorous defender of Catholicism, so the Ref led to religious wars
o First battleground: Switzerland (officially part of HRE, but really was a loose confederation of
autonomous states called “cantons”)
o Some cantons remained Catholic and some became Prot, and in the 1520s, the two sides went to war
o Zwingli killed and two sides thought a treaty was better than continued fighting
o Treaty allowed each canton to determine its own religion and ordered each side to give up foreign
alliances, a neutrality that still exists today
·
Trying to halt the spread of religious division, Charles V called Imperial Diet in 1530, to meet at
Augsburg
o Lutherans developed a statement of faith, called the Augsburg Confession, bu Charles refused to
accept it and ordered all Prots to return to Catholic Church and give up any confiscated church property
Demand backfired, and Prot territories in empire (mostly German) formed a military alliance
o Empire couldn’t respond militarily because it was busy in the Habsburg-Valois wars (fighting over
Italy), and Ottoman Turks had taken over Hungary and were attacking Vienna
·
1530s and 1540s: complicated political maneuvering among many powers of Europe
o Attempts to heal religious split with church council, but it was clear this would not happen and that
war was inevitable
o Charles V knew he was fighting for religious unity and a unified state, against territorial rulers who
wanted their own indep state
o Defending church and empire
·
Fighting began in 1546 and initially the emperor was very successful
o Success alarmed France and pope who didn’t want Charles to become more powerful
o Pop withdrew papal troops and Catholic king of France sent money and troops to Lutheran princes
·
1555 Charles agreed to Peace of Augsburg which officially recognized Lutheranism
o Political authority in each state was permitted to decide whether the territory would be Catholic or
Lutheran and was ordered to let other territories do the same
§ Most of n. German became Prot, while most of s. Germany became Roman Cath
§ Still princes/political leaders cose religion, no religious freedom
§ Dissidents had to convert or leave
§ Religious refugees became common
·
Peace of Augsburg ended religious war in Germany for many decades
·
Hopes of uniting his empire under a single church dashed, Charles V abdicated and transferred over
holdings in Spain and Netherlands to his brother Ferdinand
The Spread of Protestant Ideas
·
By 1520s, religious change came to Denmark-Norway, Sweden, England, France, and e. Europe
·
In most areas, second gen reformers built on Luther and Zwingli’s ideas to develop their own
theology and plans for institutional change
·
Most important was John Calvin
Scandinavia
·
1st area outside of empire to officially accept Reformation was Denmark-Norway Christian III
broke with Catholic church, clergy followed, smooth change
·
Norway and Iceland: violent reaction, gradually imposed
·
Sweden: at first didn’t accept, then did
Henry VIII and the Reformation in England
·
Henry VIII wanted a son but couldn’t have one with Catherine of Aragon
o Thought God was showing his displeasure with the marriage by denying him a son, appealed to pope
to have marriage annulled
o In love with Anne Boleyn so divorce was great for him
o Charles V, whose aunt was Catherine, opposed annulment
·
Henry VIII decided to remove English church from papal jurisdiction
·
Used PLMT to end authority of pope and make himself supreme head of church in England
·
Some opposed king and were beheaded
·
Eventually Anne was beheaded
·
Henry VIII eventually had a son, Edward VI with Jane Seymour, and had 3 more wives
·
English church retained traditional Catholic practices and doctrines
·
Under the influence of his chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, Henry decided to dissolve English
monasteries to get their wealth
o Through PLMT, Kind dispersed monks and nuns and confiscated their lands
o Proceeds enriched royal treasury, and hundreds of properties were sold to middle/upper classes
o Redistribution of land strengthened the upper classes and tied them to the Tudor dynasty and the new
Prot church
·
Nationalization of church and dissolution of monasteries led to important changes in gov
administration
o Formerly monastic land came under Crown’s jurisdiction, and a new bureaucratic machinery had to be
developed to manage those properties
o Cromwell reformed and centralized the king’s household, the council, the secretariats, and the
Exchequer
o New departments of state were set surplus fund went into a liquid fund to be applied to areas with
deficits
o Balancing led to greater efficiency and economy
o Henry VIII’s reign saw the growth of the modern centralized bureaucratic state
·
Catholicism still stuck with the ppl, but most clergy accepted Henry VIII’s moves, though they did
not quietly acquiesce
o Popular opposition in north to religious changes led to Pilgrimage of Grace, a massive rebellion
o “Pilgrims” accepted a truce, but their leaders were arrested, tried, and executed
·
People responded with a combination of resistance, acceptance, and collaboration
·
Loyalty to Catholic Church was strong in Ireland
o Claimed by English kings
o English had control of area around Dublin, Pale
·
Irish PLMT, representing only English landlords and ppl of Pale, approved English laws severing
church of Rome
·
Church of Ireland was established on English pattern, and English ruling class adopted new
reformed faith
most of the Irish ppl remained Roman Catholic, adding religious antagonism to ethnic hostility
·
Irish armed opposition to Ref led to harsh repression by English
Catholic property was confiscated and sold, and the profits were shipped to England
·
Roman church was essentially driven underground and Catholic clergy acted as national and
religious leaders
Upholding Protestantism in England
·
Edward VI’s reign included Prot ideas significantly influencing life
·
Thomas Cranmer invited Prot theologians to England and prepared a book of common prayer
·
Mary Tudor moved back to Catholicism
o Devout Catholic, she restored Roman Catholicism
o Marriage to Philip II of Spain was highly unpopular; furthermore, her execution of Prots further
alienated her subjects
o Prots fled to the continent during her reign
·
Henry VIII’s daughter, Elizabeth, saw the beginnings of religious stability
·
Elizabeth’s reign started off with sharp differences in England
o Catholics wanted a Roman Catholic ruler
o Exiles wanted all Catholic elements in Church of England eliminated; these are Puritans
·
Elizabeth chose a middle course between Catholic and Puritan extremes
o Referred to herself as “governor” instead of “head” of Church of England à allowed her Catholics to
remain loyal to her w/o denying pope
o Required subjects to attend service to pope of England, but did not interfere with privately held beliefs
·
Anglican Church: moved in a moderately Prot direction
o Services in English, monasteries not reestablished, clergymen allowed to marry
o Church remained hierarchical: archbishops, bishops
o Elaborate services
·
End of 16th c: Eliz’s reign threatened by European powers attempting to reestablish Catholicism
·
Phillip II of Spain hoped his marriage to Mary Tudor would reunite England with catholic Europe,
but Mary’s death ended the plans
·
Mary Queen of Scots was next in line to English throne, and Elizabeth imprisoned her because she
worried Mary would become center of Catholic plots to overthrow her
o Became implicated in a plot to assassinate Elizabeth
·
English executed Mary, Catholic pope urged Phillip to retaliate
·
Philip prepared a vast fleet to sail from Lisbon to Flanders, where a large army of Spanish troops
was stationed; Spanish troops were to attack England
·
Spanish Armada met English fleet before it reached Flanders
·
English ships were smaller, faster, and more maneuverable, and many had greater firing power
·
English got victory due to combination of factors: weather, inadequate ammunition, etc.
·
Mixed consequences
o Spain rebuilt navy; quality of Spanish fleet improved
o War between England and Spain dragged on for years
o Defeat of Spanish Armada prevented Phillip II from reimposing Catholicism on England by force
o English got enhanced national sentiment by victory
Calvinism
·
John Calvin
o Experienced religious crisis, converted to Prot
o Believed God specifically selected him to reform the church
o Accepted invitation to assist in reformation of city of Geneva
o Worked hard to establish a Christian society ruled by God through civil magistrates and reformed
ministers
o Geneva became model of a Christian community for Prot reformers
·
Calvin’s ideas
o Belief in absolute sovereignty and omnipotence of God and total weakness of humanity
o Men were as insignificant as gains of sand
o Did not ascribe free will to humans, that would detract from power of God
o God decided in beginning of time who’d be damned and saved: predestination
·
Predestination did not lead to a pessimistic view of the nature of God
o Did not lead to pessimism or fatalism
o Calvinists believed in the redemptive work of Christ and were confident God had elected (saved) them
o Energizing dynamic, giving a person strength to undergo hardships in the constant struggle against evil
·
Calvin had remarkable assets
o Mastery of Scriptures
o Eloquence
o Established Genevan Consistory: body of laymen who kept watch over every man’s life and
admonished those who led a disorderly live to turn them to the Lord
§ Severely punished for playing cards, dancing, not attending service
§ Serious crimes and heresy were handled by civil authorities, which sometimes ended in torture to
extract confessions
·
Religious refugees came
·
Church of Calvin served as model for Presbyterian church in Scotland, Huguenots in France, Puritan
churches in England
·
Calvinism became the compelling force in international Prot
o Calvinist ethic of “calling” dignified all work with a religious aspect
o Hard work was pleasing to God
o Encouraged vigorous activism
·
Calvinism spread to continent of Europe
o Found audience in Scotland
o Political authority was decisive: weak monarchy, factions of nobles competed for power
·
John Knox: dominated reform movement, which led to establishment of state church
o Structured Scottish church after model of Geneva
o Persuaded Scottish PLMT to end papal authority by bishops, substituting governance by presbyters,
councils of ministers
·
Presbyterian Church of Scotland was strictly Calvinist in doctrine
The Reformation in Eastern Europe
·
Ethnic factors determined course of Ref in e. Europe where ppl of diverse backgrounds settled
·
Bohemia
o Czechs adopted idea of Jan Hus, state recognized a state church
o Lutheranism appealed to Germans in Bohemia
o Nobility embraced Lutheranism in opposition to Catholic Habsburgs
o Catholic spiritual revival, some reconverted
·
Poland and Great Duchy of Lithuania
o Jointly governed by king, senate, diet but two territories were separate essentially
o Very diverse
o Came as merchants invited by rulers
o Each group spoke its native language
o Luther’s ideas took root in Germanized towns, but opposed by Sigismund I, nobility, and Poles, who
wanted Calvinism: it originated in Germany, not France
o No united opposition to Catholicism, Counter Reformation gained momentum
o Poland was Roman Catholic again
·
Hungary
o Lutheranism spread and accepted by king
o “German heresy”,
o Battle of Mohacs, Suleiman the Magnificent defeated Hungarians
o Kingdom divided into 3 parts: Ottoman Turks, Habsburgs, Janos Zapolya
o Turks indifferent to religious conflicts, thought Christians were infidels
o Christians paid sultan but kept faith
o Many Magyar nobles accepted Lutheranism
o Lutheran schools multiplied
o Hungarian nobles recognized Habsburg Catholic rule and Ottoman Turk withdrawal led to Catholic
restoration
The Catholic Reformation
·
Roman Cath Church made a significant comeback
·
After 1540, no new large areas of Europe other than the Netherlands accepted Prot
·
Prot Ref and Counter Ref are interrelated
o One a drive for internal reform
o Other a Counter-Reformation that opposed Prots intellectually, politically, militarily, and institutionally
Papal Reform and the Council of Trent
·
REN popes and advisors were not blind to need for church reform but resisted calls for any
transformation that would mean a los of power, revenue, or prestige
·
Change began with Pope Paul III: papal court became center of reform movement, rather than its
opponent
o Lives of his reform minded popes/cardinals/abbots/bishops were models of decorum and piety in
contrast to worldly REN popes
o Supported improvements in education for the clergy, end of simony, and a stricter control of clerical
life
o Established Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition called Holy Office
§ Jurisdiction over Roman Inquisition
§ Powerful instrument of Catholic Reformation
§ Committee of sex cardinals with judicial authority over al Catholics and power to arrest, imprison, and
execute suspected heretics
§ Index of Prohibited Books: forbidden reading
§ Within Papal States, Inquisition destroyed heresy, but outside papal territories, influence was slight
o Called a general council which met intermittently at Trent
§ Reform Catholic church
§ Secure reconciliation with Prots
§ Lutherans and Calvinists invited, but reconciliation was impossible
§ Political objectives of Charles V and France both worked against reconciliation
·
Charles V wanted to to avoid alienating Lutheran nobility
·
France wanted Catholics and Lutherans to remain divided to keep Germany centralized
·
Council of Trent laid solid basis for spiritual renewal of Catholic Church
o Equal validity to Scriptures and tradition as sources of religious truth and authority
o Reaffirmed seven sacraments
o Tackled disciplinary matters that had disillusioned faithful
§ Suppressing simony/pluralism, forbidding indulgences, training of clergy
o Great emphasis was laid on preaching and instructing laity, especially uneducated
o Marriage vows had to be made publicly before a priest and witness
§ Ended widespread private marriages and ending conflicts
·
Did not achieve all its goals, but Council of Trent composed decrees that laid a solid basis for
spiritual renewal of church
o Basis for Roman Catholic faith, organization, and practice
New Religious Orders
·
New religious orders: central feature in Cath Ref
o Developed in response to need to raise moral and intellectual level of clergy and people
o Education was a major goal
·
Ursuline order of nuns
o Education of women
o First women’s religious order concentration exclusively on teaching young girls, with the goal of reChristianizing society by training future wives and mothers
o Spread rapidly to France and New World
·
Society of Jesuits
o Strengthened Catholicism in Europe
o Spread faith around the world
o Ignatius Loyola
§ Gave up military career to be a soldier of Christ
§ Spiritual Exercises
·
Training program of structured meditation designed to develop spiritual discipline and allow one to
meld one’s will with that of God
·
Daily exercises that build in intensity
§ With a group of 6 companions, he secured papal approval of new Society of Jesus
o First Jesuits were recruited primarily from wealthy merchant and professional families
§ Saw Ref as pastoral problem, caused by people’s spiritual condition
§ Reform played no role in future the Jesuits planned for themselves
§ Goal was “to help souls”
o Became a highly centralized, tightly knit organization
§ Vowed special obedience to the pope
§ Flexibility and willingness to respond to needs of time and circumstance
§ Attractive to young men
§ Achieved phenomenal success for papacy and reformed Cath Church
o Carried Christianity to India, Japan, Brazil, N. Am, Congo, s. Germany, e. Europe
o Adopted modern humanist curricula and methods
§ Educating sons of nobility as well as poor
o Exercised great political influence
Religious Violence
·
1559, France and Spain signed Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, which ended Habsburg-Valois Wars
o Spain was victor
o France had to acknowledge Spanish dominance in Italy
·
True peace was elusive, over next century religious diff led to riot, international conflicts
·
Prots and Caths used violent actions as well as preaching against each other
·
Each side viewed the other as poison
·
Catholics believed Calvs and Luths could be reconverted
·
Prots thought Caths should be destroyed
·
Caths and Prots feared people of other faiths, whom they thought were agents of Satan
·
Fears those who were ID’d with Satan: witches
·
Most virulent witch persecutions
French Religious Wars
·
Cost of Habsburg-Valois wars forced French to increase taxes and borrow heavily
·
King Francis I sold public offices and had a treaty with papacy
o Selling pub offices was temporary source of money – a man who bought an office was exempt from
taxation
o Concordat of Bologna gave French crown right to appoint all French bishops and abbots, rich
supplement of money and offices
·
French rulers had no need to revolt against Rome: French rulers had vested financial interests in
Catholicism
·
Some rulers were attracted to Calvinism
o Initially, it drew reform minded members of Cath clergy, industrious city dwellers, and artisan groups
o Most French Calvinists (Huguenots) lived in major cities
·
Feebleness of French monarchy was seed for civil violence
o Three weak sons of Henry II didn’t provide necessary leadership
o Dominated by mother Catherine de Medici
o French nobility took advantage of monarchial weakness
o French nobles adopted Prot as a religious cloak for independence
·
Armed clashes between Cath royalists lords and Calv antimonarchical lords occurred in many parts
of France
o Thought each other was pollution
·
Calvinist teachings called power of sacred images into question, mobs smashed sacred images and
church decoration to purify the church
o Ordinary men and women carrying out Reformation
·
Catholic mobs responded by defending images and killing opponents
·
Saint Bartholomew’s Day: Catholic attack on Calvs
o Marriage of Henry Navarre to reconcile Caths and Hugs
o Hug wedding guess were massacred, other Prots slaughtered
·
Religious violence spread to provinces
·
St. Bartholomew’s Day led to civil war for 15 years
·
Agriculture and commercial life declined; starvation and death haunted land
·
Politiques: believed only the restoration of a strong monarchy could reverse the trend toward
collapse
o Favored accepting Hug as officially recognized and organized group
·
Henry of Navarre, politique who became Henry IV
o Moderates of both faiths
o Willingness to sacrifice religious principles to political necessity saved franc
o Edict of Nantes: Granted liberty of conscience and liberty of public worship to Huguenots in 150
fortified town
§ Presented the way for French absolutism by restoring internal peace
The Netherlands Under Charles V
·
Struggle for Dutch independence
·
Charles V inherited the 17 provinces
·
Each was self governing and enjoyed right to make its own laws and collect taxes
·
Provinces were united politically only in recognition of a common ruler, the emperor
·
Cities of Netherlands made living by trade and industry
·
Low Countries, corruption in Roman church provoked pressure for Reform, Lutheran ideas took root
·
Charles V wanted to limit its impact
·
Charles V abdicated, transferred power over to son Philip II
·
Prot ideas spread
·
Prots in Netherlands were primarily Calvinists
o Seriousness, moral gravity, emphasis on labor appealed to merchants, artisans
o Lutherans taught respect for powers, Calvinism encouraged opposition
·
Spanish authorities tried to suppress Calv worship and raised taxes, rioting ensued
o Sacked Cath churches, destroyed religious images
·
Philip II sent Spanish troops under Duke of Alva to pacify Low Countries
o Ruthless extermination of religious and political dissidents
·
Opened “Council of Blood” 1,500 men executed
·
Clear sign to Calvs that Spanish rule was ungodly and needed to be overthrown
·
Civil war between Caths and Prots in Netherlands and between 17 provinces of Spain
o North Prot, South Cath
o Southern provinces: Spanish Netherlands came under control of Spanish Habsburg forces
o Seven northern provinces led by Holland formed Union of Utrecht declaring their indep from Pain
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Philip did not accept this, war continued
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England supplied money and troops to northern United Provinces, Spain tried to retaliate (Spain lost
in Spanish armada)
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Spain agreed to a truck that recognized the indep of the United Provinces
The Great European Witch Hunt
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Increasing persecution happened before Ref
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Extreme notions of devil’s powers and insecurity by religious wars
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Tried/executed witches by secular and nonsecular peoples
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Witches: ppl who used magical forces, then they were thought of as making a pact with the Devil,
people who were used by the Devil to do what he wanted
o Organized in conspiracy to overthrow Christianity
o Witches became ultimate heretics, enemies of God
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Trials became less when Prots and Caths were fighting each other, picked up again
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Mostly witches were women
o Ideas about women and womanly roles
§ Misogynists
§ Weaker women easier to give into Devil
§ Women associated with disorder, body, linked with the demonic
o Women’s lack of power meant they were more likely to curse instead of beating ppl up or going to
court
o Women had contact with areas in life with unexpected maladies
§ Preparing food, newborn children
o Legal changes
§ Inquisitorial procedure
§ Legal authorities brought the case – ppl much more willing to accuse each other, never had personal
responsibility or never had to face relatives
§ Intense questioning, torture
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Spain, Portugal, Italy lenient on witches
o Inquisitors believed in power of Devil and were misogynist, but doubted whether ppl accused actually
made pacts with the Devil
o Superstitious, ignorant peasants
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Woman sphere included witchy things and women who accused others got security
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Questioning, confession, execution
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Witch panic: hunt for implicated suspects
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Divided territories used witch hunts to demonstrate piety and concern for order
Panics ended when ppl realized they were being silly and this was impossible
Doubts of validity of witches, less common, gradually outlawed
Ch 15. European Exploration and Conquest
World Contacts Before Columbus
• Afro-Eurasian trade world linked products and people of Europe, Asia, and Africa in the
15th c
• West was not a dominant player before Columbus, and European voyages derived from
desire to share in control the wealth coming from the Indian Ocean
The Trade World of the Indian Ocean
• Indian Ocean was center of Afro-Eurasian trade world
o Crossroads for commercial and cultural exchange
• Merchants congregated in a series of multicultural, cosmopolitan port cities strung around
the Indian Ocean
o Most were autonomous
o Most developed area of this commercial web was in the South China Sea
▪ Malacca: great commercial entrepot, a trading post to which goods were
shipped for storage while awaiting redistribution to other places
• Mongol emperor opened doors of China to the West, encouraging Europeans to do
business there
o Marco Polo’s tales fueled Western fantasies about the Orient
• After Mongols fell to Ming Dynasty, China entered a period of agricultural and
commercial expansion, population growth, and urbanization
o By end of dynasty, population had tripled
o Nanjing: 1,000,000 inhabitants, largest city in world
o China had most advanced economy in the world
• China took lead in exploration
o Zheng He: hundreds of ships voyaged
• Court conflicts and need to defend against renewed Mongol encroachment led to
abandonment of expeditions after deaths of Zheng He and the emperors
o China turned away from external trade, opening opportunities for European states
to claim a decisive role in world trade
• India was another center of trade in Indian ocean
o Link between Persian Gulf and Southeast Asian and East Asian trade networks
o Calicut and Quinon were established as thriving commercial centers
o India was an important contributor of goods to the world trading system: textiles
and spices
The Trading States of Africa
• Africa was an important role in world trade
o Had a few large and developed empires with smaller states
o Mamluk Egyptian empire was one of the most powerful on the continent
▪ Capital city, Cairo, was center of Islamic learning and religious authority,
and a hub for Indian Ocean trade goods
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▪ Ethiopia was prosperous as well
▪ East coast of Africa participated in trade: Mogadishu and Mombasa
Important African contribution: gold
o Sudan in West Africa and from Akan
o Transported across Sahara, sold in ports of N. Africa
o Alexandria and Cairo sold gold, Venetians had commercial privileges with Cairo
o Inland nations grew wealthy from transporting gold
o Mali: important player on overland trade route
▪ Mansa Musa discussed sending vessels to explore the Atlantic Ocean, not
only Europeans envisaged western naval exploration
Slaves were important objects of trade
o Practiced in virtually everywhere in the world
o Took w. African slaves to be sold in European, Egyptian, Middle Eastern markets,
and brought e. Europeans to W. Africa as slaves
Legends about Africa played a role in Europeans’ imagination of the outside world
o Believed Christian nation in Africa ruled by a mythical king, Prester John, was
there
The Ottoman and Persian Empires
• Middle East was an intermediary for trade between Europe, Africa, and Asia, and was
also an important supplier of goods for foreign exchange, silk and cotton
• Two rival empires: Persian Safavids and Turkish Ottomans dominated the region
o Persian Shiites vs. Ottomans’ Sunnism
o Two competed for western trade routes to the East
• Sultan Mohammed II: Ottomans captured Europe’s largest city, Constantinople in 1453
o Renamed Istanbul
o Became capital of Ottoman empire
o By mid 16th c, Ottomans controlled sea trade in eastern Mediterranean, Syria,
Palestine, Egypt, and rest of N. Africa, as far west as Vienna
• Ottoman expansion frightened Europeans
o Armies seemed invincible, desire for expansion limitless
o Strength of Ottomans helps explain some of the missionary fervor Christians
brought to new territories
o Also raised economic concerns: Europeans needed to find trade routes around
Ottomans’
Genoese and Venetian Middlemen
• Europe constituted a minor outpost in the world trading system
• Craftsmen produced little desired goods
• Venice established formal relations with sultan of Mamluk Egypt, opening operations in
Cairo, the gateway to Asian trade
• Venetian merchants specialized in luxury goods which they obtained from middlemen
• Most important spice was pepper from India and Indonesia
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Venetians exchanged Eastern luxury goods for European products they could trade
abroad
Demand for such was low, Venetians earned currency in shipping industry and through
trade in firearms and slaves
Form of precious metal
Venice’s ancient rival was Genoa
o Genoa dominated route to Asia through Back sea
o Roots of Genoese interest in Atlantic exploration
Venice claimed victory in spice trade, Genoese shifted focus from trade to finance
Genoese merchants, navigators, etc. provided their skills to Iberian monarchs
Major element of Venetian and Genoese trade was slavery
o Merchants purchased slaves, in Balkans
o After loss of Black Sea to the ottomans, source of slaves was gone
o Genoese sought new supplies of slaves in the West
o Genoese and Venetians became important in the Atlantic slave trade
Italian experience in colonial administration served as a model for the Iberian states as
they pushed European expansion to new heights
Mariners, merchants, and financers from Genoa played a role in bringing fruits of
experience to Iberian Peninsula and to the New World
The European Voyages of Discovery
• Because thy did not produce many products desired by Easter elites, Europeans were
modest players in the Indian Ocean trading world
• New technology, missionaries, desire to undo dominance of Italian and Ottomans
• Iberian explorers began overseas voyages that helped create the modern world
Cases of European Expansion
• By middle of 15th c, Europe was experiencing a revival of population and economic
activity after Black Death
• Created demands for luxury goods, especially spices from the East
• Fall of Constantinople and Ottoman control created obstacles to fulfilling these demands
• Europeans needed new sources of precious metals to trade with Ottomans or trade routes
that bypassed Ottomans
• Why were spices so desirable?
o Added flavor, marvel, and mystery, used a medicines, perfumes, dyes
• Religious fervor was another catalyst for expansion
o Christian reconquista encouraged Portuguese and Spanish to continue Christian
crusade
o Overseas expansion was a transfer of religious zeal, enthusiasm for conquest, and
certainty of God’s blessing to new non-Christian territories
o Since remaining Muslim states were too strong to defeat, Iberians turned attention
elsewhere
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Combined with eagerness for profits and Christianity, was desire for glory and the urge to
chart new waters
o Curiosity about physical universe
o Desire to know more about the geography and peoples of the world
Christopher Columbus
o Devout Christian
o Goals were to serve God and grow rich
Spanish conquistadors wanted fame and gold
Eagerness for expansion was heightened by lack of opportunity at home
o Young men of Spanish upper classes found economic and political opportunities
limited
o Turned to sea to seek fortunes
Voyages made possible by growth of gov power
o Spanish monarchy was in position to support foreign ventures
o Portugal
▪ Prince Henry the Navigator gave financial support and encouragement
Monarchs had mixed motivations
o Desire to please God
o Desire to win glory and profit from trade
Competition among European monarchs encouraged steady stream of expeditions in the
15th c
Ordinary sailors were ill paid, and life at sea meant danger, overcrowding, unbearable
stench, and hunger
o Shared living with animals, uncomfortable, lice, disease
Men chose to join miserable crews to escape poverty at home, continue a family trade, to
win a few crumbs of the great riches of empire, r to find better lives as illegal immigrants
in the colonies
o Many orphans/poor boys were placed on board
Women paid a prices for exploration
o Left alone for months, frequently widowed, struggled to support fam
Ppl who stayed at home had a powerful impact on the process
o Royal ministers and factions influenced monarchs to provide/deny support
o Literate ppl read fantastic tales – enormous interest among educated ppl
Technology and the Rise of Exploration
• Tech developments in shipbuilding, weaponry, and navigation provided another impetus
for European expansion
o Middle ages had galleys propelled by slaves, could not withstand rough winds of
Atlantic
o Need for sturdier craft and deaths from Black Death forced development of new
style of ship that did not require much manpower
• Portuguese developed caravel: small, light ship that held more cargo, triangular lateen
sails, sternpost rudder, much more maneuverable vessel
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Great strides in cartography and navigational aids
o Ptolemy’s Geography: synthesized geographical knowledge of classical world
▪ Improved from medieval cartography, added longitude and latitude
▪ Had errors: smaller than it is
o Cartographers fashioned new maps based on this work that combined latest
information
Magnetic compass
o Determine direction and position at sea
o Astrolabe
▪ Determine altitude of sun and other celestial bodies, plot latitude
Much of new technology that Europeans used on their voyages was borrowed from East
o Gunpowder, sternpost ruder, lateen sail
o Advances in cartography form Judeo-Arabic mathematical and astronomical
learning in Iberia
o Sometimes used knowledge from actual ppl
The Portuguese Overseas Empire
• For centuries, Portugal was small and poor subsistence farming and fishing
• Phenomenal success overseas after 1450
• Portugal had long history of seafaring and navigation
• Blocked from access to western Europe by Spain, Portuguese turned to Atlantic and
North Africa
• Nature favored them: winds
• Prince Henry the Navigator: support for study of geography and navigation, annual
expeditions he sponsored; made sure Portugal did not abandon efforts
• Objectives of Portuguese exploration was desire for military glory, crusades to
Christianize Muslims, to locate mythical Christian king, quest to find gold, slaves, and an
overseas route to spice markets of India
• Portuguese established trading posts and fort on penetrated African continent
• Controlled flow of African gold to Europe
• Bartholomew Diaz: rounded tip of Africa, Cape of Good hope, but storms and
threatened mutiny forced him to turn back
• Vasco de Gama: rounded Cape
o Reached Calicut in India
o Failed to forge any trading alliances with local powers
o Arrogance ensured future hostility
o Proved possibility of lucrative trade with east via Cape route
• Portuguese now dominated the rich spice trade of Indian Ocean; port for Asian goods into
Europe
o Ottomans not happy, but lost to a fight
The Problem of Christopher Columbus
• Glorified by some, vilified by others
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Embodied a long standing Genoese ambition to circumvent Venetian domination of
eastward trade, which was now being dominated by the Portuguese
Columbus
o Knowledgeable about the sea; experienced seaman
o Acquired theoretical and practical experience
o Deeply religious: viewed Christianity as a missionary religion that should be
carried to places where it did not exist
o Viewed himself as a divine agent
Object of Columbus’s Voyage: “The Enterprise of the Indies”
o Direct ocean trading route to Asia
o Ferd and Isa subsidized his voyage
o Got 1/10 of material rewards he found
o Dreamed of reaching Mongol Khan
o Landed in Bahamas, believed he found islands off of Japan
Believed he was in the Indies; was in Hispaniola
o Thought they’d be good slaves, and could quickly be converted to Christianity
o Found out there was gold and a great leader nearby
Columbus sailed southward, landed in Cuba
o Thought he was in China
Found small villages; Columbus gave up on meeting Khan; focused on trying to find gold
or other valuables among the ppl
o Saw gold was available
Headed back to Spain to report his discovery
Spanish would follow policy of conquest and colonization
Columbus’s second voyage
o Forcibly subjugated island of Hispaniola
Brought with him settlers for new Spanish territories, along with agricultural seed and
livestock
Revolt in Hispaniola
Columbus sent back in chains; soon was cleared of charges; territories came under royal
control
Columbus was a man of his times
o Believed he found islands off coast of Asia
o Newer realized what he’d actually done
Later Explorers
• Amerigo Vespucci: Realized what Columbus did not; continent was named after him
• To settle competing claims to Atlantic discoveries, Spain and Portugal turned to Pope
Alexander VI, resulting in the Treaty of Tordesillas
o Gave Spain everything to west of imaginary line, Portugal everything to east
o Portugal got favorable end of trade: Cabral sailed to Brazil and claimed it for
Portugal
• Search for profits led Spanish to search for western passage to Asia
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Ferdinand Magellan: to find a sea route to southeast Asia spices
Located treacherous traits, calm Pacific, and
Took Philippines for Spain
First voyage to circumnavigate the globe
Demonstrated vastness of Pacific
Westward passage to Indies was too long and dangerous for commercial purposes
Abandoned attempt to oust Portugal from Eastern spice trade and concentrated on
New World territories
English
o John Cabot: discovered Newfoundland, English got no permanent colonies
o Frobisher: Canada
French
o Jacques Cartier: made several voyages to Canada, searching for India
o New source of profit within Canada: beavers, fishing, trading,
Spanish Conquest in the New World
• Spanish sent Hernan Cortes to explore mainland
o Led to conquest of Mexica Empire (Aztec)
• Mexica empire ruled by Montezuma II, capital at Tenochtitlan
o Heart of sophisticated civilization with advanced mathematics, economy,
engineering
• Cortes was visited by delegations of unarmed Mexica leaders
• Cortes saw the richness of the empire cut ties with Spain: founded Vera Cruz and burned
ships
• Tried to exploit internal dissension within the empire to his own advantage
o Constant need for religious sacrifices and laborers made warfare constant
o Conquered ppl had to pay tribute
o Cortes forged alliances with Tlaxcalas and other subject kingdoms
• Spanish-Tlaxcalan forces occupied city of Cholula, second largest in empire and
massacred inhabitants
• Cortes made alliances with other native kingdoms
• Cortes marched on Tenochtitlan
• Montezuma didn’t attack Spaniards, welcomed them in
o Montezuma relied on advice from divided state council
• Montezuma’s hesitation was disastrous
o Cortes took Montezuma and the emperor’s influence over his ppl crumbled
• During ensuing attacks and counterattacks, Montezuma was killed
• Spaniards and allies escaped from city and forced new alliances against Mexica
• Cortes led second assault on Tenochtitlan
• Spanish victory was hard won and aided by smallpox
• After defeat of Tenochtitlan, Cortes and conquistadors began conquest of Mexico
• Over time, indigenous kingdoms gradually fell under Spanish domination
• Fall of Inca Empire
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o Incas isolated from other cultures
o Had a complicated civilization
o Built roads, postal service, taxing gov
Incas were weakened by civil war and disease
Francisco Pizarro: landed in Peru the day Atahualpa won control over empire
Atahualpa was aware of Spanish conquest: planned to lure them in and keep their ablest
men, and kill the rest
With loyal army of 40,000 he had little to fear
Spaniards ambushed and captured him, collected a ransom, ten executed him
Spanish marched on capital
Formed alliances with local peoples
Cuzco fell; Spanish gained immense riches
Decades of violence/resistance ensued
Early French and English Settlement in the New World
• Coast of New England used for religious freedom
• English crown grew more interested in colonial expansion
• Champlain: first permanent French settlement in Quebec
• Acquired Cayenne, Martinique, Guadeloupe
• Originally bases for plundering Spanish shipping, centers of tobacco and sugar
• European involvement in the Americas led to profound transformation of preexisting
indigenous societies and the rise of a transatlantic slave trade
• Acceleration of a global trade and cultural exchange
• Over time, the combination of indigenous, European, and African cultures gave birth to
new societies in the New World
• In turn, profits ad impact of cultural exchange influenced European society
The Impact of Conquest
• European presence in New World transformed its land and peoples forever
• Violence/disease caused death
• Surviving ppl encountered new political, social, economic organizations
• New crops
Colonial Administration
• Crown divided its New World territories into four viceroyalties, or administrative
division
o New Spain, Peru were some
• Within each territory, the viceroy, or imperial governor exercised broad military and civil
authority as the direct rep of Spain
o Viceroy presided over the audiencia, a board of 12-15 judges who served as his
advisory council and highest judicial body
• Introduced intendants
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o Possessed broad military, administrative, and financial authority within their
intendanies and were responsible not to the viceroy, but to the monarchy in
Madrid
Portugal did similar tactics, with corregidores who held judicial and military powers
o Royal policies placed severe restrictions on Brazilian industries that might
compete with those of Portugal and Spain
Impact of European Settlement on the Lives of Indigenous People
• Before Columbus, Americas were inhabited by many diff peoples
• Lives radically changed by arrival of Europeans
o Men carved out vast estates called haciendas and imported Spanish livestock
o Huge plantations to supply sugar to European market
o Silver was discovered: used indigenous ppl to work the mines
• Encomienda system: Crown granted conquerors right to employ groups of Native
Americans as laborers or demand tribute from them in exchange for providing shelter
o Legalized form of slavery
• New conditions for natives resulted in enormous native population losses
o Diseases: little or no resistance to new diseases
o Unaccustomed to forced labor in blazing heat
• Died in staggering numbers
• Forced labor diverted local ppl from agricultural work, leading to malnutrition, less
fertility, and starvation
• Women separated from infants
• Malnutrition ! lower resistance ! disease
• Warfare killed many
• Las Casas: Critic of Spanish brutality against indigenous peoples
o Asserted that Indians had human rights
o Charles V abolished worst abuses of encomienda system
• Missionaries provided important role in converting natives to Christianity, teaching them
European ways of agriculture, and instilling loyalty
o Phenomenal success, thought were the natives really pious?
• Pattern of destruction/devastation was repeated everywhere the Europeans went
• Natives did survive by blending in with European incomers
• Problem of settlers: loss of work force
Life in the Colonies
• Europeanized settlements were hedged by immense borderlands of European and nonEuropean contact
• Women
o Formed unions with explorers
o Helped as translators and guides to form alliances
o Character of each colony was influenced by presence of absence of European
women
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▪ Where women were, settlements became European, where women were
not, settlements kept old culture
English vs French on roles of women
o English didn’t like natives, French tolerated natives
o English didn’t free their mixed children, French did
Mixing with Europeans created a new population
o Mestizo, mulatto
The Columbian Exchange
• Migration to New World led to exchange of animals, plants, disease: Columbian
Exchange
• European immigrants wanted their European diet, searched for climatic zones favorable
to planting home crops
• Not all plants arrived intentionally: shoes, mud
• Native Am’s didn’t domesticate animals
o Columbus introduced horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, pigs, chickens, goats
o Enabled Spanish conquerors and natives to travel faster and farther and to
transport heavy loads
o Europeans turned home with new food crops
• Disease
o Wave of epidemic disease was extension of Black Death
• World after Columbus was united by disease as well as trade and colonization
Europe and the World After Columbus
• Afro-Eurasian trade world was forever changed by European voyages of discovery
• Truly global economy that linked far flung peoples, cultures, and societies
• Cultural exchange and renewal
Sugar and Slavery
• Slavery in middle ages was not based on race
• 1453: Ottoman capture of Constantinople halted flow of white slaves from Mediterranean
o Supply of Muslim captives diminished
o Turned to sub-Saharan Africa
• While first slaves were simply seized by small raiding parties, Portuguese merchants
found it was easier to trade with local leaders who got slaves through warfare
• Slavery became intertwined with sugar
o Originally expensive luxury
o Population increases and monetary expansion led to increasing demand
• Sugar was a difficult and demanding crop
o Planted by hand
o Harvested quickly to avoid spoiling
o Work hard for a long time with little rest
o Growing season virtually constant, no fallow time for rest
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o Increased efficiency led to more work force
Sugar gave New World slavery its distinctive shape
Dutch West India Company started transatlantic slave trade
Slaves had lethal conditions
o Dysentery, crowding
o Packed hundreds on ship
On plantations, death rates were very high
Slaves worked as miners, soldiers, sailors, servants, artisans in cotton, run, indigo,
tobacco, wheat, corn, sugar
Spanish Silver and Its Economic Effects
• Silver mined in colonies gave Spain incredible wealth
• Shipped silver back to Spain
• 16th c: Spain experienced population increase, rise in demand for food and goods
• Spanish colonies demanded consumer goods not produced in colonies
• Spain expelled its best farmers and businessmen (Muslims and Jews), Spanish economy
was suffering and couldn’t meet demands
• Excess of demand led to inflation
• Result was a rise in production costs and a further decline in Spain’s productive capacity
• Silver did not cause inflation, it exacerbated situation
o With rise in population, influx of silver contributed to upward spiral of prices
• Inflation strained gov budgets
• Philip II wrote off state debts, but this undermined confidence in gov and left economy in
shambles
• When population declined, prices stabilized after 1600
• Spanish inflation spread to rest of Europe
• Chinese demanded silver: main buyer of silver getting half the world’s production
• Showed global economy
The Birth of the Global Economy
• Entire world was linked for first time by seaborne trade
• 3 successive commercial empires: Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch
• Portuguese were first worldwide traders
o Controlled sea route to India and fortified bases
o Traded goods and slaves
• Spanish
o Wanted to claim place in world trade
o Basically a land empire, but had a seaborne empire based on Philippines
o Bridge between Spanish America and China
o Competition from Dutch imports
• Dutch challenged Spanish and Portuguese Empires
o Commercial wealth and long experience in European trade
o Most powerful worldwide seaborne trading power
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Built on spices
Amsterdam
Dutch East India Company, intent on capturing spice trade from the Portuguese
Set sights on gaining direct access and control of Indonesian sources of Spices
Won broad commercial concessions with Indonesians
Gained control of w. Indonesia
Expelled Portuguese and other islands, gaining control of the lucrative spice trade
Dutch also aspired to a role in America
▪ Sought to open trade with North and South America and capture Spanish
territories there
▪ Captured/destroyed hundreds of Spanish ships, seized silver fleet, captured
portions of Brazil and Caribbean
o Interceded in transatlantic slave trade, bringing much of w. Africa under Dutch
control
o Dutch efforts to colonize N. Am were less successful
▪ New Netherland was weak and easily captured
Changing Attitudes and Beliefs
• Overseas expansion heightened Europeans’ contact with rest of world
• Gave birth to new ideas about inherent superiority or inferiority
• Cultural encounters inspired positive views
New Ideas about Race
• Beginning of transatlantic slave trade: thought Africans were savages
o Grouped Africans into despised categories of pagan heathens and Muslim infidels
• As Europeans turned to Africa as new source of slavery, used ideas of Africans’
primitiveness and barbarity to defend slavery and argue they were benefitting Africans by
bringing Christianity
• Slavery fostered new level of racial inequality
o Africans distinct and inferior from Europeans
o From assumptions and lack of civilization, ERPNS developed rigid ideas of racial
superiority and inferiority to safeguard slavery
o Black skin equated with slavery
o Thought blacks were destined for slavery
• Support for blacks destined to serve ERPNS
o Aristotle: some ppl are destined for slavery
o Biblical associations between darkness and sin
• Use of science to define race
o “Race”: biologically distinct groups of ppl whose physical differences produced
differences in culture, character, and intelligence
Michel de Montaigne and Cultural Curiosity
• Caths and Prots doubted any one faith contained absolute truth
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o Diff ways of life of natives added to this thought
Skepticism: school of thought that founded on doubt that total certainty of definitive
knowledge is ever attainable
Culture relativism: one culture is not necessarily superior to another, just different
Michel de Montaigne: New literary genre, the essay; wrote short personal reflections,
rejected notion that one culture is superior than another
Few would have agreed w/ Montaigne
Shift in attitudes
Inaugurated an era of doubt
Wonder is foundation of all philosophy, research is means of learning, ignorance is end
William Shakespeare and his Influence
• England experienced literary expression
• Master of period was William Shakespeare
o Original character, diverse plots, understanding of human psychology, gift for
language
o Deep appreciation for classical culture, individualism, humanism
• Shakespeare explores an enormous range of human problems
o His work reveals the impact of the new discoveries and contacts of his day
o Othello: vilified by his race, but glorified as a warrior
▪ Complex human
▪ Demonstrated intolerance of contemporary society and possibility for
some individuals to look beyond racial stereotypes
o Caliban: native to island who looks horrible
▪ Realities of imperial conquest
▪ Monstrous, dark skinned island native who was best suited for slavery
▪ Maybe criticizing racial tolerance
Ch 16. Absolutism and Constitutionalism
Peasant Life in the Midst of Economic Crisis
• 17th Century: Most Europeans lived in the countryside
• Hub of rural world: Small peasant village centered on a church and manor
• Life circumscribed by the village
• Western Europe
o Independent Farmers: Small number of peasants in each village owned enough land to
feed themselves and had the livestock and ploughs necessary to work their land, leaders
of the peasant village, employed landless poor, rented out livestock and tools, served as
agents to the noble landlord
o Small landowners and tenant farmers: Did not have enough land to be self sufficient, sold
their best produce on the market to earn cash for taxes, rent, food
o Rural workers: dependent laborers and servants
• Eastern Europe
o Vast majority of peasants were serfs
▪ Did not own land in their own right
• Bread was primary element of diet
o Richest ate white bread, brown bread was for those who couldn’t afford better
o Peasants paid stiff fees to the local miller to grind grain and to the lord to bake bread
o Bread accompanies by soup and maybe salt pork
• European rural society lived on the edge of sustenance
o Crude technology and low crop yield
o Constantly threatened by scarcity and famine
o “Little ice age” occurred
▪ Shorter farming season
▪ Lower yield
▪ Bad harvest -> food shortages
▪ Series of bad harvests -> famine
▪ Recurring famines reduced population
▪ Most died of diseases brought on by malnutrition and exhaustion
▪ Bubonic plague continued in Europe
• Industry suffered
o Output of woolen textiles declined sharply
• Food prices were high
• Wages stagnated
• Unemployment soared
• Economic prices struck different regions at different times and degrees
• Urban poor and peasants were hardest hit
o Price of bread rose beyond their ability to pay they rioted
o Invaded bakers’ shops to seize bread and resell it at a just price
o Attacked convoys taking grain to city
o Women led these actions: sometimes got impunity in authorities’ eyes
• Moral economy: Community needs a predominate over competition and profit
Return of Serfdom in the East
• Economic and social hardship throughout Europe
• Differences between East and West
o West
▪ Population losses from Black Death allowed peasants to escape serfdom as they
got enough land to feed themselves and the livestock and ploughs necessary to
work their land
o East
▪ Peasants lost ability to own land independently
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Eastern lords dealt with labor shortages from Black Death by restricting right of
peasants to move to take advantages of better opportunities elsewhere
• Lords took more and more of their peasants’ land
• Arbitrarily imposed heavier and heavier labor obligations
• Lords in many eastern territories could command peasants to work for
them without pay for 6 days a week
Local lord also local prosecutor, judge, jailor
• No independent royal officials to provide justice and uphold common
law
Freedom of movement restricted
• Required permission to marry and could be married off at random
• Lord could make serfs work at random places or could sell them apart
from their family
More serfs -> growth of commercial agriculture (Poland and E. Germany)
• Economic expansion and population growth
Eastern lords increased production of estates by squeezing surpluses out of
peasants
• Sold surpluses to foreign merchants to exported them to wealthier
Western Europe
o Netherlands and England benefited from cheap grain
Landlords undermined medieval privileges of town and power of urban classes
• Landlords sold directly to foreigners, bypassing local towns
• Eastern towns lost medieval right of refuge and had to return peasants to
their lords
Population of towns and urban middle class declined greatly
Supremacy of noble landlords in 16th c.
The Thirty Years’ War
• First half of 17th C.: Balance of life violently upturned by 30YW
• HRE was confederation of hundreds of principalities, independent cities loosely tied under an
elected emperor
• Uneasy truce between Catholics and Protestants by Peace of Augsburg deteriorated as faiths of
various areas shifted
• Lutheran princes felt compelled to create Protestant Union (1608)
• Catholics retaliated with Catholic League (1609)
• Each alliance was determined that the other should make no religious or territorial advance
• Spanish Habsburgs supported goals of their Austrian relatives: Unity of empire and preservation
of Catholicism within it
• 30 Years War
o Bohemian Phase
▪ Civil war in Bohemia between Catholic League and Protestant Union
▪ 1620: Catholic forces defeated Protestants at Battle of White Mountain
o Danish Phase
▪ Leadership of Protestant king Christian IV of Denmark
▪ Catholic victories
▪ Catholic army of Albert of Wallenstein swept through Silesia, north to Baltic,
east to Pomerania
▪ Habsburg Power peaked in 1629
▪ Edict of Restitution: All Catholic property lost to Protestants since 1552 were
restored and only Catholicism and Protestantism could be worshipped
o Swedish
▪ Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus: ablest administrator and devout Lutheran
▪ Support Protestants
▪ Richelieu subsidized Swedes to weaken Habsburg power in Europe
▪ Gustavus won some battles but was wounded in combat
French Phase
▪ Richelieu’s concern that Habsburgs would rebound after death of Gustavus
Adolphus.
▪ Declared war on Spain and sent military and financial assistance
▪ October 1648: Peace of Westphalia
• Ended 30YW
• Conflicts over religious faith receded
• Treaties recognized independent authority of more than 300 German
princes
• Reconfirmed emperor’s severely limited authority
• Augsburg agreement of 1555 became permanent, adding Calvinism to
Catholicism and Lutheranism as legally permissible creeds
o N. Germany Protestant, S. Germany Catholic
Results of 30YW
o Most destructive event for central European economy and society
o 1/3 of urban residents, 2/5 of rural population died
▪ Entire areas depopulated
o Trade in Southern German cities virtually destroyed
o Agriculture suffered catastrophically
o Many small farmers lost land, allowing nobles to enlarge their estates and consolidate
control
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Achievements in State Building
• In economic and demographic depression, monarchs began to make new demands on people
• Absolutist: France, Spain, central Europe, Russia
o Gathered all power under personal control
• Constitutionalist: England, Dutch Republic
o Obliged to respect laws passed by representative institutions
• Similarities
o Common projects of protecting and expanding their frontiers
o Raising new taxes
o Consolidating central control
o Competition for new colonies opening up in New and Old Worlds
• Rulers who wished to increase authority had obstacles
o No paved roads, telephones, or modern technology
▪ Took weeks to convey orders from central gov to provinces
o Lack of info from realms
▪ Impossible to police and tax population effectively
o Local power
▪ Nobles, church, provincial and national assembles, other bodies had legal
privileges which could not easily be rescinded
o People spoke a different language than the Crown’s in some kingdoms
• Absolutist and Constitutional gov achieved new levels of central control
• Increased authority focused in four areas: greater taxation, growth in armed forces, larger and
more efficient bureaucracies, increase ability to compel obedience from subjects
• Got close to sovereignty
• Sovereign states: possesses a monopoly over instruments of justice and use of force within clearly
defined boundaries, no system of courts competes with state courts, private armies are no threat to
central authority
• 17th century monarchies got close to sovereignty
Warfare and Growth of Army Size
• Driving force of 17 c state building was warfare – dramatic changes in size and styles of armies
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Medieval armies were owned by feudal lords for particular wars/campaigns and were disbanded
after
Monarchs took command of recruiting and maintaining armies in peacetime and wartime
Kings deployed troops inside and outside the country in interests of the monarchy
Army offices were required to be loyal and obedient to monarchs who commanded them
New techniques for training and deploying soldiers -> rise in professional standards of army
Explosive growth in army size
o French took lead
o Caused in part by changes in style of armies
o Mustering royal army took longer than hiring a mercenary band, giving enemies time to
form coalitions
Death toll for noble officers who personally led men into battle was high
o Noble value of honor outshone concerns for safety or material benefit
o Had to purchase their own positions and supply horses, food, uniforms, weapons for them
and their troops
o Widow of noble officer got debt that noble officer left her
European powers were quick to follow French example
o Rise of absolution in central and eastern European led to vast expansion in size of armies
o Great Britain built up naval forces and built the biggest navy in the world
Popular Political Action
• 17 c: increased pressures of taxation and warfare turned neighborhood riots over the cost of bread
into armed uprisings
• Spain
o 1640: Philip IV of Spain faced revolt in Catalonia, economic center of his realm, and
struggled to put down uprisings in Portugal and northern Netherlands
o 1647: Palermo: Spanish occupied Sicily, protest over food shortages caused by bad
harvests
o City gov. subsidized price of bread, attracting more starving peasants
o Madrid ordered end to subsidies, municipal leaders decided to keep price same, but sell
less bread for the same price
o Riots turned into armed revolt, insurgency spread to rest of Italy
o Rebels demanded affordable food and suppression of extraordinary taxes and
participation in municipal gov
o Some dreamed of republic where noble tax exemptions were abolished
o Initial success, but revolt lacked unity and strong leadership and couldn’t withstand
forces of the state
• France
o Urban uprisings frequent
o Dijon, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Lyons, Amiens
o Deep popular anger and violence directed at official tax collectors
▪ Sometimes seized, beaten, or hacked to death
o Louis XIV’s imposition of new taxes provoked Bordeaux uprising
• Municipal and royal authorities struggled to overcome popular revolt
o Stern repressive measures (troops) would create martyrs and inflame the situation
o Full scale military occupation of country would be expensive
• Limitations of royals gave leverage to rebels
o To quell riots, some edicts were suspended, prisoners released, discussions initiated
• Beginning of 18th c: Leverage disappeared
o Municipal gov more integrated into national structure
o Local authorities had prompt military support from central gov
o People who publicly opposed royal policies/taxes got swift/severe punishment
Absolutism in France and Spain
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Middle ages: Monarchs were appointed “by the grace of God”
Law was given by God and kings found and acknowledged that they had to follow these laws
Kings in absolutist states said they were chosen by God and were responsible to God alone
Had exclusive power to make and enforce laws, denying any other institution or group to check
their power
Henry IV established foundations which Louis VIII and Louis XIV built on for a stronger, more
centralized state
Louis XIV is the epitome of absolute monarch
o Endless wars, increased taxes, economic regulation, Versailles
o Relied on collaboration with nobles
Achievements and compromises of absolutist rule
French power rose in 17c, while glory of Spain faded
o Revenue from American silver declined
o Economic stagnation could no longer be disguised
o Country faltered under weak leadership
Foundations of Absolutism
• Henry IV laid foundation for Henry XIV’s absolutist rule
• Henry IV: Founder of Bourbon dynasty
o Acquired devastated country
o Civil war between Protestant and Catholics wrecked France
o Poor harvests -> starving peasants
o Commercial activity declined drastically
o Promised “a chicken in every pot”
o Inaugurated recovery
o Kept France at peace with his middle ground between Catholicism and Protestantism (he
was Catholic)
o Issued Edict of Nantes: Gave Protestants the right to worship in the 150 traditionally
Protestant towns in France
o Lowered taxes
o Charged royal officials an annual fee to guarantee right to pass their positions down to
their heirs
o Improved infrastructure of the country: built new roads, canals, repaired ravages of civil
war
o Murdered by Catholic zealot
• Wife, Marie de’ Medici
o Headed gov. for young Louis ZIII
• Cardinal Richelieu: became first minster of French crown
o Allowed monarchy to maintain power within Europe and within its own borders despite
turmoil of 30YW
• Richelieu was a political genius
o Administrative system
▪ Strengthen royal control
▪ Intendants: 32 districts of France
• Appointed by monarchy
• Solely responsible to monarchy
• Recruited men for army
• Supervised tax collection
• Presided over local law
• Checked on local nobility
• Regulated economic activities
o Intendants’ power increased, so did Richelieu and France’s centralized power
o Repress Protestantism
▪ Siege of La Rochelle: October 1628
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• Major commercial center with ties to Protestant Holland and England
• Municipal gov was suppressed
• Protestants retained right to public worship
• Catholic liturgy was restored
o Wanted to destroy Catholic Habsburgs’ grip on territories that surrounded France
o Supported Habsburg enemies
o 1631: Signed treaty with Lutheran Gustavus Adolphus promising French support against
Habsburgs in 30YW
o Interests of state outweighed religious considerations
Successor to Richelieu: Cardinal Jules Mazarin with regent Queen Mother Anne of Austria over
Louis XIV
o Continued Richelieu’s centralizing policies
o Increased royal revenue to meet cost of war
o Led to uprisings: Fronde
▪ Many individ’s and groups who opposed policies of gov
▪ Parliament of Paris (most important court of the nation) opposed Crown’s
measures
▪ Robe nobles encouraged violent protest from people
▪ Queen mother fled Paris with Louis XIV from riots
▪ Rebellion spread outside Paris and sword nobles (warrior nobility) helped civil
order break down
o Anne’s regency ended and rebellion died as leaders came to terms with gov
Fronde results
o People wished for peace and a strong monarch to impose order
Louis XIV inherited France wishing for peace
Largest and most populous country in W. Europe
Determined to avoid any recurrence of rebellion because he was humiliated by his flight from
Paris
Louis XIV and Absolutism Look for similarities to Henry II
• Reign of Louis XIV – longest in European history
• French monarch reached peak of absolutist development
• Development of court and brilliance of culture
• Louis dominated his age
• Louis was taught the doctrine of divine right of kings: God established kings as rulers on earth
and were answerable to him alone
• Kings had to obey God’s laws, could not simply do as they pleased, had to do so for the good of
the people
• Louis worked hard at governing
o Ruled realm through several councils of state and took personal role in councils’
decision
o Selected councilors from recently ennobled or middle class to show he was on top and to
make them feel indebted to him
• Increasing financial problems
• Louis never called Estates General
• Nobility had no means of united expression/action
• Louis did not have a first minister – kept another Richelieu from happening
• Louis hated division within realm
• Insisted on religious unity to secure royal dignity and security of state
• 1685: Evoked Edict of Nantes
o Destroyed Huguenot churches
o Closing of schools
o Catholic baptism of Huguenots
o Exile of Huguenot pastors
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o Departure of some of his most loyal and industrially skilled subjects
Constraints on Louis’s powers
o Obliged to rule in a way that was consistent with virtue and benevolent to the people
Had to uphold laws passed by previous royal predecessors
o Relied on collaboration of nobles, who still had tremendous prestige and authority in
their ancestral lands
o W/o nobles’ cooperation, it would’ve been impossible to extend his power throughout
France or wage foreign wars
o To elicit noble cooperation, Louis built Versailles
Life at Versailles
• Most of 17c: French court had no fixed home, followed monarch to his many palaces
• 1682: Louis moved court and gov to Versailles
o Became center of political, social, cultural life
o King required all great nobles to spend part of the year in attendance on him there to keep
an eye on their activities
• Louis controlled distribution of state power and wealth
o Nobles had no choice but to obey Louis and compete with each other for his favor at
Versailles
• Versailles was mirror to world of French glory – absolutist monarchs copied it later on
o Gov. offices for royal bureaucrats
o Living quarters for royal family and nobles
o Work place for hundreds of servants
• Louis had etiquette rituals
o Nobles served him in these rituals and fought for his favor
o King controlled resources and privileges – access to him meant favored treatment for gov
offices, military, and religious posts, state pensions, honorary titles, and other benefits
• Courtiers sought rewards for themselves and their family members and followers
• Patronage: Higher ranked indiv protected a lower ranked on in return for loyalty and service
• Louis gained cooperation from powerful nobles
• Women: denied public offices and posts, but were central in the patronage system
o King’s wife, mistresses, other relatives recommended individs for honors
o Advocated policy decisions
o Brokered alliances
• Noblewomen
o Brought family connections to marriage to form powerful social networks
• Louis was an enthusiastic patron of the arts
o Commissioned sculptures and paintings for Versailles
o Performances of dance and music
• Art and literature: French classicism
o Artists and authors of late 17c imitated classical antiquity, resembled Renaissance Italy
• Plays – finest achievements in history of French theater
• Versailles: center of European politics caused French culture to get international prestige
• French: language of polite society and international diplomacy (replaced Latin as language of
scholarship and learning)
• France inspired cosmopolitan European culture that looked to Versailles as its center
French Financial Management Under Colbert
• Controller general of Louis: Jean-Baptiste Colbert helped France’s economy to allow France to
build armies and fight wars
o Financial genius
o Wealth and economy of France should serve the state
o Applied mercantilist policies to France
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Mercantilism: collection of gov policies for the regulation of economic activities by and for the
state
o Nation’s international power is based on its wealth, supply of gold and silver
o To get wealth, country must sell more goods than it bought
o Decrease purchase of goods outside France: French industry should produce everything
needed by French people
o Increase exports: Supported old industries, created new ones, focusing on textiles
o New production regulations
o Created guilds to boost quality standards
o Encouraged foreign craftsmen to immigrate to France
o Encourage purchase of French goods: Abolished domestic tariffs and raised tariffs on
foreign products] 1664: Colbert founded Company of the East Indies with hopes of
competing with Dutch for Asian trade
Canada
o Hoped to made Canada part of French empire
o Had rich minerals and agricultural land
o Sent colonists to Quebec
Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet sailed down Mississippi River which they named Colbert
o Claimed possession of land on both sides of the river
o 1684: Claimed Louisiana for Louis XIV
Louis was able to pursue goals without massive tax increases or without created new stream of
offices
Pressure of warfare undid many of Colbert’s economic achievements
Louis XIV’s Wars
• Thought conqueror was noblest and highest of titles
• Francois le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, Louis’s secretary of state for war equaled Colbert in
economic achievements
• Louvois created a professional army where the French state employed soldiers
• Uniforms and weapons were standardized
• Rational system of training and promotion was devised
• Model was followed across Europe
• Louis’s goal: Expand France to what he considered its natural borders
o Got Spanish Netherlands, Flanders, Franche-Comté, Strasbourg, Lorraine
o King seemed invincible
• Louis reached limit of expansion
• 1680-1690: No additional territories
• Placed strains on French resources
• Colbert’s successors did desperate measures to finance wars:
o Devaluation of currency
o New Taxes
• During Louis’s last war, the French people were suffering high taxes, crop failure, malnutrition,
death
• 1700: Spanish Charles II died
o Struggle for control of Spain and colonies
o Bequeathed Spanish crown and empire to Philip of Anjou, Louis XIV’s grandson
o Will violated treaty that European powers agreed to divide Spanish possessions between
King of France and Holy Roman Emperor
o Louis broke with treaty and accepted the will, claiming hew as following both French and
Spanish interests
o Triggered War of Spanish Succession (1701-1713)
• 1701: English, Dutch, Austrians, Prussians formed Grand Alliance against Louis
• 1713: Peace of Utrecht: ended war
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Philip of Anjou remained king of Spain and there was an understanding that French and Spanish
crowns would never be united
France surrendered Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Hudson Bay to England
England gained Gibraltar, Minorca, control of Spain’s African slave trade
Peace of Utrecht
o Balance of power principle
o Limits on extent of one power to expand
o End of French expansion
French gained Alsace and some commercial centers to north
France hovered on bankruptcy
Subjects felt relief and sorrow when Louis XIV died
The Decline of Absolutist Spain in the Seventeenth Century
• Beginning of 17c: France was weak
o Struggling from religious wars
o Did not dare compete with Spain’s European and overseas empire or military
• End of 17c: positions were reversed: Spain down, France up to European dominance
• Early 17c: It becomes evident Spain is about to come to disaster
• 1610 to 1650: Trade with colonies in New World Fell due to competition from local industries
from Dutch and English
• Indian and African slaves suffered diseases and died
• Mines started to run dry
• Madrid: Royal expenditures exceeded income
• Mountainous state debt
• Crown devalued coinage and declared bankruptcy
o Collapse of national credit
• Manufacturing and commerce shrank
• Spain had tiny middle class
o Elite condemned moneymaking as vulgar/undignified
o People entered economically unproductive professions
• Crown expelled Moriscos, former Muslims and reduced pool of skilled workers and merchants
• 9,000 monasteries in Castile alone (Spain is still Catholic)
• Textile industry forced out of business by inflation
• Spanish aristocrats wanted to maintain extravagant lifestyle they couldn’t afford
o Increased rents
• High rents and heavy taxes drove peasants from land
o Decline in agriculture productivity
• Wages and production stagnated
• Spain ignored new methods of agricultural and manufacturing techniques because they came
from Holland/England
• Spanish crown had no solution to situation
o Philip III handed gov to duke of Lerma who used it to gain personal and familial wealth
o Philip IV left management to Count Duke of Olivares, who was an able administrator,
and devised new sources of revenue, but looked back to 16th century imperial tradition for
solutions
o Imperial tradition demanded revival of war with Dutch at expiration of truce and a long
waf with France over Mantua
o Spain became embroiled in 30YW which brought disaster
• Situation worsened with internal conflicts and military defeats for the rest of the 17c
o Revolts in Catalonia and Portugal
o French bat Spanish at Rocroi (Belgium)
o Treaty of Pyreenes ended French-Spanish conflict
o Spain surrendered much territories to France
• Crown reluctantly recognized independence off Portugal
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Era of Spanish dominance in Europe ended
Absolutism in Austria and Prussia
• Rulers of E. Europe labored to build strong absolutist states in the 17c
• Built on social and economic foundations different than w. Europe
o Serfdom and strong nobility
o Endless wars allowed monarchs to increase power by building large armies, increasing
tax, suppressing representative institutions
o Monarchs allowed nobles to remain unchallenged rulers over their peasants in exchange
for growing political authority
▪ Appeased king and nobility
▪ Serfs still at mercy of lords
• Austria and Prussia: most successful states
• Witnessed rise of Absolutism between 1620 – 1740
The Austrian Habsburgs
• Habsburgs emerged from 30YW impoverished and exhausted
• Efforts to destroy Protestantism in Germand lands and to turn HRE into unified state failed
• Habsburgs were hereditary emperors, real power was in hands of separate political jurisdictions
• Defeat in c Europe led Habsburgs to focus inward and eastward to unify their diverse holdings
• If they couldn’t impose Catholicism, they could at least do so in their own domains
• Habsburg victory over Bohemia
o Ferdinand II reduced power of Bohemian Estates, who were largely Protestant
representatives
o Confiscated landholdings of Protestant nobles and gave them to loyal Catholic nobles and
foreign mercenaries who held his army
o Large portion of Bohemian nobility owed success to Habsburgs
• Habsburgs established direct rule over bohemia
o Condition of enserfed peasantry worsened
▪ Unpaid labor
o Protestantism was stamped out
o Changes important in created Absolutist rule in Bohemia
• Ferdinand III continued to build state power
o Centralized gov in empire’s German speaking provinces which was the core of Habsburg
holdings
o Permanent standing army was ready to put down any internal opposition
• Habsburg monarchy turned east towards Hungary
o Was divided between Ottomans and Habsburgs
o Habsburgs pushed Ottomans from most of Hungary and Transylvania
o 1718: Recovery of former kingdom of Hungary
• Hungarian nobility thwarted full development of Habsburg absolutism
o Hungarian nobles rose in revolt against imposed absolutist rule
o Never triumphed, but they weren’t crushed
o Hungarians rose under Prince Francis Rakoczy while Habsburgs were down in War of
Spanish Succession
• Rakoczy and his forces were eventually defeated
• Habsburgs agreed to restore many of traditional privileges of aristocracy in return for Hungarian
acceptance of Habsburg rule
• Hungary was never fully integrated into a centralized, absolute Hungarian state
• Habsburgs made significant achievements in state building by forging consensus with church and
nobility
o Sense of common identity and loyalty to monarchy grew among elites
o German became language of state
o Zealous Catholics helped fuse collective identity
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Vienna became political and cultural center of empire
▪ By 1700: Thriving city with population of 100,000 and its own version of
Versailles
Prussia in the Seventeenth Century
• Hohenzollern family ruled parts of e. Germany as imperial electors of Brandenburg and dukes of
Prussia
• “Elector” privilege of being one of the few entitled to elect Holy Roman emperor, but had little
real power
• Frederick William
o “Great Elector”
o Determined to unify his 3 provinces and enlarge them by diplomacy and war
o Brandenberg, Prussia, scattered holdings along the Rhine
▪ Inhabited by German speakers, but each had its own estates
▪ Taxes could not be levied without their consent
• Brandenberg and Prussia were dominated by nobility and landowning class, called Junkers
• Frederick William
o Argued need of army
o Persuaded Junkers to accept taxation without consent to fund army
o They agreed in exchange for reconfirmation of their own privileges, including authority
over serfs
o Frederick William crushed potential opposition to his power from the towns
o Prussian cities were eliminated from the estates and subjected to new goods and services
• Estates’ power declined: Great Elector had financial independence and superior force
• State revenue tripled
• Army expanded drastically
• 1701: Son of Frederick William, Frederick I, received title of King of Prussia (not elector) as a
reward for aiding HRE in War of Spanish Succession
The Consolidation of Prussian Absolutism
• Frederick William I: “The Soliders’ King: Completed his grandfather’s work
o Eliminated traces of parliamentary estates and local self-gov
o Truly established absolutist Prussia and transformed Prussia into a military state
• Frederick William I was attached to military life
o Wore army uniform
o Lived disciplined life of professional soldier
o Penny pinching and hard working
• Results of Frederick William I
o Honest and conscientious bureaucracy to administer country and foster economic
development
o 4th largest army in Europe
▪ Precision, skill, discipline
• Prussia paid heavy and lasting price for obsessions of Frederick William I
o Army expansion was gained through forced conscriptions
▪ Lifelong service
o Draftees fled country or injured themselves to avoid service
• Frederick I ordered all Prussian men to undergo military training and serve as reservists in the
army
o Preserved agricultural production and army size
• King enlisted Junkers to lead his growing army
• Nobility commanded peasantry in army as well as estates
The Development of Russia and The Ottoman Empire
• Europeans thought Ottomans were outsiders
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o Absolutist rulers disdained Ottoman sultans as cruel and tyrannical despots
Ottoman Empire was in many ways more tolerant than Western counterparts
o Protection and security to other religions
o Maintaining Muslim faith
Ottoman state combined Byzantine heritage of the territory it conquered with Persian and Arab
tradition
Flexibility ad openness to other ideas were sources of strength
The Mongol Yoke and the Rise of Moscow
• Rule by Mongol khan ruled Russia for 200 years
• Mongols, group of nomadic tribes from Mongolia established an empire that at its height
stretched from Korea to eastern Europe
• Mongols forced Slavic princes to submit to their rule and pay tribute of money, goods, slaves
• Princes of Moscow were adept at serving the Mongols and were awarded the title of “great
Prince”
• Ivan III: Ivan the Great
o Expanded principality of Moscow to Baltic Sea
o Felt strong enough to stop acknowledging khan as his supreme ruler and cease paying
tribute
o Princes of Moscow modeled themselves on Mongol khans to show their new autonomy
o Declared themselves autocrats, they were the sole source of power
o Muscovite state forced weaker Slavic principalities to render tribute
o Borrowed Mongol institutions such as tax system, postal routes, census
o Boyars: loyalty from the highest ranking nobles helped Muscovite princes consolidate
power
• Moscow’s claim to the political and religious inheritance of the Byzantine Empire
o Fall of Constantinople to the Turks, princes of Moscow saw themselves as heirs of
Caesarss (emperors) and Orthodox Christianity
o Title tsar, is contraction of Caesar
▪ Tsars considered themselves rightful and holy rulers
o Marriage of Ivan III to daughter of the last Byzantine emperor enhanced Moscow’s claim
to inherit imperial authority
The Tsar and His People
• Ivan IV “Ivan the terrible” ascended the throne
o At 16, he crowned himself tsar
• Ivan IV defeated remnants of Mongol power
• Added vast new territories to the realm
• Laid foundations for huge, multiethnic Russian empire
• Sudden death of Anastasia Romanov
• Ivan began campaign of persecution against those he suspected of opposing him
o Inmates of the court from leading boyar families he killed
• To further crush power of boyars, Ivan created new service nobility, whose loyalty was
guaranteed by their dependence on the state for noble titles and estates
• Ivan portioned out the large estates seized from boyars to this new nobility, taking some land for
himself
• Ivan IV moved toward making all commoners servants of the tsar
o Landlords demanded more from serfs who survived persecution, more and more peasants
fled toward wild, recently conquered territories to east and south
o Joined free group and warrior bands called Cossacks
o Peasants were tied even more firmly to the land and to noble landholders, who served tsar
• Ivan bound urban traders and artisans to their towns and jobs so he could tax them more heavily
• Urban classes had no security in their work or property
• Nobles to merchants to peasants, Russian people were brought into tsar’s service
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Ivan IV used Cossack armies in forays to southeast, forging new alliance between Moscow and
Cossacks
Death of Ivan IV and his successors
Russia entered chaotic period “Time of Troubles”
Ivan’s relatives struggled for power, ordinary people suffered drought, crop failure, plague ->
suffering and death
Cossack and peasants rebelled against nobles and officials, demanding fairer treatment
Social explosions from below brought nobles together
They crushed Cossack rebellion and elected Ivan’s grandnephew, Michael Romanov the new
hereditary tsar
Michael’s election was a restoration of tsarist autocracy
Michael Romanov
o Successfully reconsolidated central authority
o He and his successors did not improve the common people
▪ Extended serfdom to all peasants in the realm
▪ Gave lords unrestricted rights over serfs
▪ Established penalties for harboring runaways
o Social and religious uprisings continued through the 17c
▪ Cossack Stenka Razin attracted a great army of urban poor and peasants to kill
landlords and gov officials and proclaimed freedom from oppression
• Rebellion defeated
Romanov tsars, despite turbulence, made several important achievements during second half of
17c (like western counterparts)
After a long war, Russia gained Ukraine from Poland and completed the conquest of Siberia
Territorial expansion was accompanied by growth of bureaucracy and army
Foreign experts were employed to help build and reform Russian army
o Cossack warriors were enlisted to fight Siberian campaigns
Profits from Siberia’s natural resources (furs) funded Romanov’s bid for Great Power status
Russian imperialist expansion to the east paralleled Western powers’ exploration and conquest of
the Atlantic world
The Reforms of Peter the Great
• Heir to Romanov efforts at state building: Peter the Great
o Campaign to accelerate and complete process
o Enormous energy/willpower
o Determined to build and improve the army and continue the tsarist tradition of territorial
expansion
o Tumultuous reign
• Fascinated by weapons and foreign technology
o Led a group of 250 Russian officials and young nobles on a tour of w. Europe
o Traveled unofficially to avoid lengthy diplomatic ceremonies
o Peter worked at various crafts and met with foreign kings
o Impressed by Dutch and English
▪ Considered how Russia could profit from their example
• Returned to Russia
• Entered into a secret alliance with Denmark and Poland to wage sudden war against Sweden to
secure access to the Baltic Sea for westward expansion opportunities
• Believed combined forces could overpower Sweden with a new king
o Charles XII of Sweden defeated Denmark and turned on Russia
o In a snowstorm, Charles defeated Peter’s army
o Peter and his army fled to Moscow
▪ Beginning to Great Northern War from 1700-1721
• Peter took measures to increase state power, strengthen armies, and gain victory
o Required all nobles to serve in the army or civil administration for life
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Created schools and universities to produce them
Established an interlocking, military-civilian bureaucracy with 14 ranks
▪ All had to start at the bottom and work toward the top
▪ Allowed some ppl of non noble origin to rise to high positions
o Drew on experience abroad to get talented foreigners to place in his service
▪ Combined army and government to become more powerful and efficient
o Increased service requirements of commoners
▪ Established a regular standing army of peasants soldiers commanded by noble
officers
▪ Cossacks and foreign mercenaries were brought into Russian army
o Taxes on peasants increased 3x to fund army
o Serfs were arbitrarily assigned to work in the growing number of factories and mines that
supplied the military
Peter’s new war machine crushed the small army of Sweden in Ukraine
Estonia and Latvia came under Russian rule
Warfare consumed 80-85% of all revenues
Russia became dominant power in the Baltic and a European Great power
Channeled resources into building a new Western style capital on Baltic to rival great cities of
Europe
St. Petersburg designed to reflect modern planning with straight avenues, large parks
Peter the Great wanted all to see his goals
o Drafted people to work on St. Petersburg without pay
o Peasant construction workers died from hunger, sickness, accidents
o Nobles were ordered to build costly houses and palaces in St. Petersburg to live for most
of the year
o Merchants and artisans were commanded to settle and build the new capital
▪ Required to pay for the city’s infrastructure
o St. Petersburg was a huge tax levied on the wealthy, with the peasants forced to do
manual labor
Modernization meant westernization
o Westerners and western ideas flowed into Russia
▪ Required nobles to shave their beards and wear western clothing
o New elite class of Western oriented Russians began to emerge
Peter’s reforms were unpopular with many Russians
o Nobles detested imposition of unigenture: inheritance of land by one son, cutting
daughters and other sons from gaining property
o Peasants hated increased bonds of serfdom and gulf between enserfed peasantry and
educated nobility increased
Peter’s reforms were a continuation of Russia’s distinctive history
o Built on service obligations of Ivan the Terrible and his successors
o Monarchial absolutism is seen as culmination of long development of a unique Russian
civilization
Creation of a more modern army and state introduced much that was new and Western to Russia
o Development paved way for Russia to move somewhat closer to European mainstream in
thought and institutions
The Growth of the Ottoman Empire
• Most Christians and European perceived Ottomans as antithesis of their own values and traditions
o Viewed the empire as driven by insatiable lust for war and conquest
o Fall of Constantinople was catastrophe and taking of Balkans a form of despotic
imprisonment
• Ottomans saw world very differently
o Siege of Constantinople liberated a glorious city from its long decline under Byzantines
o Balkans became a heaven for refugees fleeing intolerance of Western Christian power
Provided Jews, Muslims, and some Christians safety from Inquisition and
religious war
Ottomans came out of Central Asia as conquering warriors and settled in Anatolia (Turkey)
Ruled one of the most powerful empires in the world at their peak
Possessions stretched from western Persia across North Africa and into Central Europe
Ottoman Empire originally built on a unique model of state and society
o Complete absence of private landed property
o Agricultural land was personal property of sultan
o Peasants paid taxes to use the land
o There was therefore no security of landholding and no hereditary nobility
Ottomans employed distinctive form of gov administration
o Top ranks of bureaucracy were staffed by sultan’s slave corps
▪ Agents purchased slaves from borders of empire
Sultan levied tax of male children on conquered Christian populations in Balkans every year
o Young slaves were raised in Turkey as Muslims
o Trained to fight and administer
o Most talented Ottoman slaves rose to the top of bureaucracy, where they might get wealth
and power
o Less fortunate would join sultan’s army: Janissary corps
o Highly organized and efficient troops gave Ottomans advantage in war with western
Europeans
o Service in janissary corps had become so prestigious that sultan ceased recruitment by
force, and it became a volunteer for Christians and Muslims
Ottomans divided subjects into religious communities, each millet/nation
o Enjoyed autonomous self-government under its religious leaders
o Religiously tolerant, but was an explicitly Islamic state
o Millet system created powerful bond between Ottoman ruling class and religious leaders,
who supported sultans rule for authority over their community
o Each millet collected taxes for state, regulated group behavior, maintained law courts,
schools, houses of worship, hospitals
Istanbul was capital of empire
o Old palace for sultan’s female family who lived in isolation
o Topkapi palace for officials to work and where young slaves trained for future
administrative or military careers
Sultans married women of highest social standing, while keeping many concubines of lower rank
To prevent elite families who married into the sultan from getting influence over gov, he had
children with only the concubines, not official wife
o Policy for each concubine to produce only one male heir
o Each son went to govern a province of the empire accompanied by his mother
o Stabilized power and prevented a recurrence of civil wars
Sultan Suleiman married concubine, Hurrem, and had several children with her
o Established a wing in the Topkapi palace for Hurrem, his female family, and his brothers’
families
o Imperial wives began to take on more power after Suleiman
Marriages were arranged between sultans’ daughters and high ranking servants, to create
powerful new members of the imperial household
Sultan’s exclusive authority waned in favor of a more bureaucratic administration
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Alternatives to Absolutism in England and the Dutch Republic
• England and Holland evolved towards constitutionalism
o Limitation of gov by law
o Balance between authority and power of gov, and rights and liberties of the subjects
o All constitutionalist gov have a constitution, written or unwritten
▪ In one document amended occasionally
Partly formalized, include parliamentary statutes, judicial decisions, body of
traditional procedures and practices – English and Dutch
English and Dutch Republic represented different alternatives to absolute rule
English
o After decades of war, and trying out republicanism, English opted for constitutional
monarchy
o Retained monarch as titular head of gov, but vested sovereignty in an elected parliament
Dutch
o Gained independence from Spain
o Rejected monarchial rule, opted for a republican form of gov, which elected estates held
supreme power
Neither was democratic, but other Europeans thought of them as restraint of arbitrary power and
the rule of law
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Absolutist Claims in England
• Queen Elizabeth had much personal power
o But English monarchy was severely circumscribed
o Elizabeth was able to maintain control over her realm partially by refusing to marry/
submit to a husband
o Hugely popular with her people
o No heir
• James Stuart: Elizabeth I’s Scottish cousin
o Well educated
o Had 35 years of experience as King of Scotland
o Not interested in displaying majesty of monarchy as Elizabeth had been
o Had absolutist beliefs that monarch was divinely appointed and responsible to God
▪ Counter to long-standing English idea that a person’s property could not be taken
away without process of law
• James’s son Charles I considered constraints intolerable and a threat to their divine right
• Bitter squabbles at every Parliament erupted between the Crown and Commons
• Charles I’s attempt to govern without Parliament and to finance his gov by emergency taxes led
country into a crisis
Religious Divides and the English Civil War
• Religious issues embittered relations between king and House and Commons
• English ppl felt dissatisfied with Church of England
• Puritans wanted to “purify” the Anglican Church of Roman Catholic elements
• James I responded with a no
o Bishops were some of the chief supporters of the throne
• Charles I, successor, antagonized religious sentiments
o Married Catholic Princess
o Supported policies of Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud
▪ Attempted to impose new prayer book modeled on Anglican Book of Common
Prayer
▪ Attempted to impose bishoprics
• Presbyterian Scots rejected these elements and revolted
• To finance an army, King Charles I had to summon Parliament
• Charles had ruled without Parliament, financing gov through stopgap levies considered illegal to
many English
o Levied “ship money” on inland and coastal countries
• Most in Parliament thought taxation without consent was despotism
• Not willing to trust king with an army
• Supported Scots’ resistance to Charles
• Long Parliament (sat from 1640-1660)
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Enacted legislation that limited power of the monarch and made gov without Parliament
impossible
▪ Triennial Act
• King had to summon Parliament every 3 years
▪ Impeached Laud
▪ Threatened to abolish bishops
Charles I reluctantly accepted these measures
Rebellion in Ireland, where English had exploited people
Catholic gentry of Ireland led an uprising in response to feared invasion by anti-Catholic forces of
Long Parliament
Without army, Charles I left London for north England
Recruited an army drawn from nobility, rural gentry, and mercenaries
Parliament created its own New Model Army composed of the militia of the city of London and
country squires with business connections
Both sides prepared for war
Skirmish between royal and parliamentary forces in Manchester
English Civil war (1642-1649)
o Pitted power of king against Parliament’s power
o Parliament’s New Model army defeated the king’s armies at the Battles of Naseby and
Langport in Summer 1645
Charles refused to concede defeat
Both sides jockeyed for position, waiting for a decisive event
Under Oliver Cromwell, a member of the House of Commons and a devout Puritan, the army
forces captured the king and dismissed members of Parliament who opposed him
Rump Parliament put Charles on for high treason
Charles found guilty and beheaded in January 1649
Shock waves sent around Europe
Cromwell and Puritanical Absolutism in England
• Kingship was abolished after Charles I’s execution
• How would the country be governed?
• Thomas Hobbes
o Pessimistic view of human nature
o Humans would compete violently for power and wealth naturally
o Only solution, in Leviathan (his book), was a gov where members of society placed
themselves under the absolute rule of a monarch, who’d maintain peace and order
o Society as a human body which the monarch is a head and individual subjects made up
the body
o Body cannot sever its own head
o Society couldn’t, after accepting the contract, rise against its king
o Denied right of rebellion
• His ideas not shared in England
• Republican gov was proclaimed
o Legislative power rested in surviving members of Parliament
o Executive power was in council of state
o Actually, army that defeated king controlled government, and Oliver Cromwell controlled
the army
o Protectorate: Rule of Cromwell – military dictatorship
• Army prepared a constitution: Instrument of Government
o Executive power in lord protector (Cromwell) and council of state
o Triennial parliaments
o Gave Parliament power to raise taxes
o Cromwell dismissed Parliament after disputes
• Cromwell continued the standing army and proclaimed quasi-martial law
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Divided England into 12 military districts, each governed by a major general
Cromwell favored some degree of religious toleration
o Instrument of Government gave all Christians except Roman Catholics the right to
practice their faith
Led army to reconquer Ireland (thought it was associated with sedition and heresy)
o Forces crushed rebellion at Drogheda and massacred the garrison
English banned Catholicism in Ireland, executed priests, confiscated land for English and Scottish
Fueled Irish hatred for England
Cromwell adopted mercantilist policies similar to France’s
o Enforced Navigation Act
▪ Requires English goods be transported on English ships
▪ Boost to development of English merchant marine and brought successful war
with Dutch
Welcomed immigration of Jews because of their skills and they began to return
Protectorate collapsed when Cromwell died in 1658 and his ineffectual son succeeded him
English fed up with military rule
Longed for a return to civilian government and common law and social stability
Wanted to restore monarchy
Restoration of the English Monarchy
• Charles II, eldest son of Charles I assumed the throne
• Both houses of Parliament were restored with Anglican church
• Test Act
o Those outside the Church of England were denied right to vote, hold public office,
preach, teach, attend universities, assemble for meetings
o Restrictions couldn’t be enforced
• Charles II was determined to work with Parliament to avoid exile
o Found Parliament didn’t give him enough income, Charles entered secret agreement with
Louis XIV
▪ Louis XIV would give Charles 200,000 pounds annuals if Charles would relax
laws against Catholics, and gradually re-Catholicize England and convert to
Catholicism himself
o Details of treaty broke out and anti-Catholicism swept country
• James II succeeded his brother
• Violated Test Act
o Appointed Roman Catholics to positions in the army, universities, local gov
o Actions challenged in courts
o Judges, who James appointed, decided to agree with king
o King was suspending law at will and appeared to be reviving absolutist of Charles I and
James I
o James granted religious freedom
• Eminent persons in Parliament and Church of England offered English throne to James II’s
Protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, Prince William of Orange
• James II fled to France and became pensioners of Louis XIV
• William and Mary were crowned King and Queen of England
Constitutional Monarchy and Cabinet Government
• Glorious Revolution
o Replaced one king with another with minimum blodsheed
o Destruction of ideas of divine right monarchy
▪ William and Mary accepted English throne from Parliament, and recognized
supremacy of Parliament
• Sovereignity was divided between king and Parliament, and king ruled with the consent of the
governed
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Men framed intentions in the Bill of Rights
o Direct response to Stuart Absolutism
o Law was to be made in Parliament, once made it couldn’t be suspended by the Crown
o Parliament had to be called at least once eveyry 3 years
o Independence of judiciary was established, there was to be no standing army in peacetime
o Protestants could possess arms, but the Catholic minority could not
o No Catholic could ever inherit the throne
Glorious Revolution and representative government found its best defense in Locke’s Second
Treatise of Civil Government
o Government that oversteps protecting natural rights of life, liberty, and property becomes
a tyranny
o Natural rights basic to all men
o People have right to rebel under tyranny
o Justified limiting vote to property owners
Glorious Revolution did not constitute a democratic revolution
o Revolution placed sovereignty in Parliament
o Parliament represented upper class
o Age of aristocratic government lasted
18th c: Cabinet system of gov evolved
o Small private room where English rulers consulted their chief ministers
o Leading ministers: House of Commons create common policy and conduct business of
the country
Sir Robert Walpole developed idea that cabinet was responsible to the House of Commons
King George I presided at cabinet meetings, but George II discontinued the practice
Influence of Crown in decision making declined
Walpole had favor of monarchy and House of Commons became the king’s prime minister
Legislative and executive power are help by leading ministers who form government
England’s experience with republicanism under Cromwell convinced its people the advantages of
a monarchy with strong checks of royal authority
David Hume: philosopher declared that he would prefer England to be peaceful under and
absolute monarch than in constant civil was as a republic
The Dutch Republic in the Seventeenth Century
• Independence of Republic of United Provinces of the Netherlands was recognized in 1648 in the
treaty that ended the 30YW
• This period is often called the “golden age of the Netherlands”
• Dutch ideas and attitudes played a profound role in shaping a new and modern worldview
• United Provinces developed its own distinctive model of constitutionalist state
• Dutch rejected rule of monarch
• Established a republic
o Power vested in hands of people through elected representatives
• Oligarchy of wealthy businessmen called “regents” handled domestic affairs in each province’s
Estates (assemblies)
• Provincial Estates held virtually all the power
• Federal assembly, or States General handled foreign affairs and war, but did not possess sovereign
authority
• All issues had to be referred back tot eh local Estates for approval, each of the 7 estates could
veto any proposed legislation
• Holland, which had largest navy and most wealth, usually dominated the republic and States
General
• In each province, the Estates appointed an executive officer, the stadholder, who carried out
ceremonial functions and was responsible for military defense
• The reigning price of Orange usually held the office of stadholder in several provinces of the
Republic
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Tensions always lingred between supporters of the House of Orange and those of republican
Estates, who suspected princes of trying to be a monarch
William III took English throne with wife Mary, republic continued without stadholders
Political success of Dutch rested on phenomenal commercial prosperity
o Thrift, frugality, religious toleration
o Jews were allowed level of acceptance and assimilation in Dutch business
o Toleration paid off: attracted great deal of foreign capital and investment
Dutch came to dominate shipping business by putting profits from their original industry –
herring fishing – into shipbuilding
o Lowest shipping rates
o Largest merchant marine in Europe
o Undersell foreign competitors
Trade and commerce gave Dutch highest standard of living in Europe
o Salaries high, all classes of society ate well
o Very few food riots
Baroque Art and Music
• Baroque: From Portuguese “odd shaped, imperfect pearls”, expression of scorn for unbalanced
style
• Rome and revitalized Catholic Church of later 16th century was important role in development of
Baroque
• Papacy and Jesuits encouraged growth of emotional, exuberant art
• Patrons wanted artist to go beyond REN on a provincial art, wanted to appeal to sense and touch
souls of ordinary churchgoers while proclaiming power of reformed Catholic Church
• Drama, motion, ceaseless striving from Catholic Reformation
• Baroque style developed with exceptional vigor in Catholic countries – Spain, Latin America,
Austria, southern Germany, Poland
• More than just a Catholic Art
o Protestants had examples of fine art and music
• Baroque style spread because it spoke to an agitated age of controversy in politics and religion
• Baroque style reached maturity early on
• Peter Paul Rubens
o Most outstanding and representative of barosque painters
o Studied in Flanders and influenced by High REN artists
o Developed his own rich, colorful style characterized by animated figures, contrast,
monumental size
o Glorified monarchs
o Devout Catholic
o Fleshy, sensual nudes
• Johann Sebastian Bach
o Could write secular and religious music
o Invention, tension, emotion of baroque spirit
o Striving towards infinite
o Not fully appreciated in his lifetime
Ch. 17: Toward a New View
The SR
• Emergence of modern science has long term significance
• SR was “the real origin of both the modern world and the modern mentality”
• SR 1540-1690: Western society began to acquire its most distinctive traits
Scientific Thought in 1500
• “Science” came into use in the 19th century
• Before the SR, different scholars and practitioners were involved in aspects that came together to
form science
• Natural philosophy: focused on fundamental questions about the nature of the universe, its
purpose, and how it functioned
• Early 1500s: Natural philosophy based primarily on the ideas of Aristotle, Greek philosopher
• Medieval theologians: Thomas Aquinas brought Aristotelian philosophy into harmony with
Christian doctrines
• Revised Aristotelian view: motionless earth was fixed at the center of universe and was
encompassed by 10 separate concentric crystal spheres that revolved around it
o First 8 spheres were embedded
o Moon, sun, five known planets, the fixed stars
o 2 spheres added in the Middle Ages
o Beyond tenth sphere was Heaven, where the throne of God was and where souls were
saved
o Angels kept spheres moving in a perfect circle
• Aristotle’s cosmology made sense, but did not account for observed motions of the srats and
planets, and had no explanation for the backward motion of planets
• Ptolemy: Greek scholar, had a solution
o Planets moved in small circles called epicycles
o Each epicycle moved in turn along a larger circle, or a deferent
o Less elegant than Aristotle’s neat circles
o Surprisingly accurate planetary motion model
• Aristotle’s revised views dominated thinking about physics and motion on earth
o Distinguished between world of the celestial spheres and that of the earth – the sublunar
world
o Spheres were made of perfect, incorruptible “quintessence”, or fifth substance
o Sublunar world was made of four imperfect, changeable elements
▪ Light elements (air, fire) moved upwards
▪ Heavy elements (water, earth) moved downwards
o Natural directions of motion didn’t always prevail
▪ Elements were often mixed together
▪ Elements could be affected by outside force
o Uniform force moved an object at a constant speed and the object would stop as soon as
the force was removed
• Aristotle’s ideas were accepted with revision for 2,000 years
o Offered an understandable, commonsense explanation for what the eye saw
o Aristotle’s science fit with Christian doctrines
▪ Home for God and a place for Christian souls
▪ Put humans at the center of the universe and made them the critical link in the
“great chain of being” that stretched from God to the lowest insect
• Aristotle’s approach to the natural world was a branch of theology, reinforced by religious
thought
Origins of the SR
• SR drew on long term European culture developments and borrowings from Arab scholars
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Medieval University: By 13c, Permanent universities had been established in western
Europe to train the lawyers, doctors, and church leaders society required
▪ Philosophy took place alongside law, medicine, and theology
▪ Medieval philosophers developed a limited but real independence from
theologians and a sense of free inquiry
▪ Pursued a body of knowledge and tried to arrange it meaningfully with abstract
theories
Medieval Universities established new professorships for mathematics, astronomy, and
physics within their faculties
▪ Prestige was low, but critical thinking was now applied to scientific problems by
a permanent community of scholars
REN stimulated scientific progress
▪ Ancient works were recovered, a lot through Arabic translations of Greek/Latin
▪ Some fields had learned Arabic commentaries too
▪ REN patrons played role in funding scientific investigations
▪ REN artists’ turn toward realism and geometry encouraged scholars to practice
close observation and use math to describe natural world
▪ Printing helped circulate knowledge across Europe quickly
Navigational problems
▪ Commission of mathematicians to perfect tables to help seamen find their
latitude
▪ Development of new scientific instruments
▪ Better instruments allowed for more accurate observations, and new knowledge
Interest in astronomy inspired by belief that changing relationships between planets and
stars influenced events on earth
▪ A lot of astronomers were also astrologers who spent time devising horoscopes
Magic and Alchemy
▪ Little to distinguish magic tricks from experiments of scientists
▪ Objects possessed hidden or “occult” qualities that allowed them to affect other
objects
▪ Belief in occult qualities was not antithetical to belief in God Adherents believed
that only a diving creator could infuse the universe with such meaningful mystery
The Copernican Hypothesis
• Desire to explain and glorify God’s handiwork was Copernicus’s impetus
• Copernicus
o Drawn to intellectual/cultural vitality of Italian REN
o Departed for Italy, where he studied astronomy, medicine, church law
o Noted how professional astronomers still depended on work of Ptolemy
o Felt Ptolemy’s cumbersome and sometimes inaccurate rules detracted from the majesty of
the perfect creator
o Preferred ancient Greek idea of a heliocentric universe
o Worked on his hypothesis
o Was not a professional astronomer or university professor
o Had limited instruments and free time for research
o Without questioning Aristotle’s beliefs or that circular motion was divine, Copernicus
theorized that the stars and planets, including the earth, revolved around a fixed sun
o Fearing ridicule, he did not publish his work until the year he died
• Copernican hypothesis had enormous scientific and religious implications
o Put stars at rest
▪ Nightly movement was a result of earth’s rotation
▪ Destroyed main reason for believing in crystal spheres capable of moving the
stars
o Suggested a universe of staggering size
If the earth moved around the sun and the stars seemed to stay still, the the
universe was impossibly large
o Destroyed basic idea of Aristotelian physics that the earthly world was different from the
heavenly one
▪ Where’s Heaven and God?
Copernican hypothesis got sharp attacks from religious leaders, especially Protestants
o Objected idea that earth moved but sun did not
o Calvin and Luther condemned Copernicus
▪ “Joshua bid the sun stand still”
o Catholics were milder at first
▪ Not literal interpretations
Other events created doubts about traditional ideas
o New star appeared which contradicted idea that heavenly spheres were unchanging and
perfect
o New comet shot across sky, cutting across supposedly impenetrable crystal spheres
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Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo: Proving Copernicus Right
• Brahe agreed with Copernicus
• Brahe
o Born into a Danish noble family
o Passionately interested in astronomy and spent nights gazing at the sky
o Established himself as Europe’s leading astronomer with his detailed observations of the
new star
o Got generous grants from the king of Denmark
o Built the most sophisticated observatory of his day
o Brahe got new patron, HRE Rudolph II
o Built new observatory in Prague
o For emperor’s support, he pledged to create new and improved tables of planetary
motions, Rudolphine Tables
o For 20 years, Brahe meticulously observed the stars and planets with the naked eye and
compiling a lot of data
o Limited understanding and sudden death prevented him from making much sense of his
mass of data
o Believed all planets except earth revolved around the sun and the entire group of sun and
planets revolved around the earth
• Kepler
o Minor German noble family
o Damaged hands and eyesight
o Brilliant mathematician
o Inspired by belief that the universe was built on mystical mathematical relationships and
a musical harmony of the heavenly bodies
o Examinations from Brahe’s data made Kepler conclude that they couldn’t be explained
by Ptolemy’s astronomy
o Abandoned notion of epicycles and deferents Kepler developed three new laws of
planetary motion
▪ Through observation of Mars, he found orbits of planets around sun are elliptical,
not circular
▪ When planet is close to sun, it moves more rapidly, and it slows as it moves
farther away
▪ The time a planet takes to make its complete orbit is precisely related to its
distance from the sun
• Whereas Copernicus speculated, Kepler had mathematic proof
• United theoretical cosmology of natural philosophy with mathematics
• Work demolished old system of Aristotle and Ptolemy
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Third law came close to formulating idea of universal gravitation
Completed Rudolphine tables
Pioneer in optics
o Explained refractions
o Invented telescope
Great mathematicians
Kepler was not perfect, he cast horoscopes
Kepler accepted unorthodox Lutheranism which led to his rejection by Lutherans and Catholics
Complex interweaving of ideas and beliefs in emerging science
Galileo
o Challenging old ideas about motion
o Poor nobleman
o Fascinated with mathematics
o Experimental method
▪ Rather than speculate about what might or should happen, conduct controlled
experiments to find out what actually did happen
o Law of inertia
▪ Object continues in motion forever unless stopped by some external force
▪ Disproved Aristotelian physics
o Applied experimental method to astronomy
▪ Made a telescope
▪ Discovered moons of Jupiter
• Jupiter isn’t a crystal sphere
▪ New evidence for Copernican theory
No longer should one rely on established authority
New method of learning and investigating was being developed, for all fields of inquiry
Holy Office put works of Copernicus and his supporters on a list of banned Catholic books
Thought heliocentric world was foolish and absurd
Galileo was a devout Catholic who believed his theories did not detract from the perfection of
God
Silenced his beliefs until he was hope in Pope Urban VIII
Galileo’s work lampooned traditional view of Aristotle and Ptolemy and defended those of
Copernicus
Galileo was tried for heresy and imprisoned
Both Kepler and Galileo went through personal hardship by religious persecution
Newton’s Synthesis
• By 1640 the works of Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo had been largely accepted by the scientific
community
• Old Aristotelian astronomy and physics were in ruins
• Breakthroughs were made
• New findings failed to explain what forces controlled the movement of the planets and objects on
earth
• Newton
o Lower English gentry
o United experimental and theoretical-mathematical sides of modern science
o Fascinated by alchemy
o Intensely religious
o Far from being the perfect rationalist (like Kepler)
o Claimed to have discovered universal gravitation as well as centripetal force and
acceleration
o Did not publish his findings
o Took up study of optics
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diligently and experiment, then hypothesize
o Wrote 2 books
o Law of universal gravitation: Everybody in the universe attracts every other body in the
universe in a precise mathematical relationship, whereby the force of attraction is
proportional to the quantity of matter of the objects and inversely proportional to the
square of the distance between them
▪ Whole universe unified in one coherent system
o Von Leibniz was outraged by Newton’s claim that gravity affected other things far away
o Newton’s religion helped him dismiss criticism
Newton’s synthesis of math with physics and astronomy prevailed
Bacon, Descartes, and the Scientific Method
• Creation of new science included scholars in many fields who sought answers
• Development of better ways of obtaining knowledge
• Bacon
o Greatest early propagandist for new experimental method
o Rejected Aristotelian and medieval method of using speculative reasoning to build
general theories
o New knowledge had to by pursued through empirical research
▪ If you want to learn more about leaves, go out and research leaves, don’t
speculate
▪ Collect a multitude of objects and compare them to get general principles
▪ Formalized empirical method (already used by Brahe and Galileo)
▪ Empiricism: Widespread adoption of “experimental philosophy”
• Descartes
o First great discovery in mathematics
o Solder in 30YW
o Saw there was a perfect correspondence between geometry and algebra and geometric
spatial figures could be expressed as algebraic equations and vice versa
o Used math to elaborate vision of workings of cosmos
o Investigate basic nature of matter
o Developed idea that matter was made up of identical “corpuscules” that collided together
in an endless series of motions
o All occurrences in nature could be analyzed as matter in motion
o Total “quantity of motion” in the universe was constant
o Mechanistic view of the universe
o Thought vacuum was impossible, so every action had an equal reaction, continuing in an
eternal chain reaction
o Notion of mechanistic universe intelligible through the physics of motion was influential
o Newton rejected Descartes’s idea of a full universe and several of his other ideas, but
retained notion of mechanistic universe
o Greatest achievement: Developed initial vision into a whole philosophy of knowledge
and science
o Necessary to doubt the senses and everything that could be reasonably doubted
o Use deductive reasoning to ascertain scientific laws
o Reduced all substances to “matter” and “mind” or physical and spiritual
o Devout – believed God had endowed man with reason for a purpose and that rational
speculation could prove a path to the truths of creation
o Cartesian dualism: the world has 2 fundamental entities
o Highly influential in France and Netherlands, but not in England where experimental
philosophy prevailed
• Bacon’s inductive experimentalism and Descartes’s deductive mathematical reasoning had their
faults
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Bacon’s inability to appreciate importance of math
Obsession with practical results
Descartes’s thought it was sometimes possible to deduce the whole science of medicine
from first principles
Bacon and Descartes’s extreme approaches are combined into the modern scientific method
Science and Society
• Rise of modern science consequences
o Hand in hand with rise of new and expanding social group: the international scientific
community
o Members were linked together by common interests and shared values
o Journals and learned scientific societies
o Science became competitive to find new discoveries
• Governments intervened to support and direct research, and new scientific community became
closely tied to the state
o National academies of science
o Scientists developed a critical attitude towards established authority ! inspired thinkers
to question traditions in other domains
• Some things did not change
o Representations of femininity and masculinity in SR
▪ Nature was often depicted as female whose veil needed to be stripped off by male
experts
▪ New “rational” methods for approaching nature did not question traditional
inequalities between the sexes, may have worsened them
▪ Rise of professional scientific community raised barriers for women because new
academies didn’t accept women
• Exceptions, and what women could do
o In Italy, some universities offered posts to women
o Women across Europe could work as makers of wax anatomical models and botanical
and zoological illustrators
o Involved in informal scientific communities, attending salons, participating in
experiments, writing treatises
• Some female intellectuals were recognized as members of philosophical dialogue
o Margaret Cavendish
▪ Contributed to debates about mind body dualism and other issues
o Descartes talked with a woman intellectually – puts her opinions above doctors’ opinions
• Consequences for economic life and living standards of the masses
o Improvements in techniques of navigation facilitated overseas trade and helped enrich
states/merchant companies
o Science had relatively few practical economic applications
o SR was first and foremost an intellectual revolution
o Greatest impact was how people thought and believed
• Role of religion
o Protestantism was a fundamental factor in the rise of modern science
o Particularly Calvinism, made scientific inquiry a question of individual conscience, not
religious doctrine
o Catholic Church supposedly suppressed scientific theories that conflicted with teachings
and discouraged scientific progress
o Truth: all Western religious authorities opposed the Copernican system to a greater or
lesser extent until about 1630
o Catholic church was initially less hostile – Italian scientists
o Counter-Reformation church was more hostile – decline of science in Italy
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Protestant counties became “pro-science,” especially those that lacked strong religious
authority
Protestant England
o English religious conflicts became so intense that authorities could not impose religious
unity on anything, including science
o Bacon’s many follower’s work helped solidify independence of science
o Bacon advocated experimental approach because it was open minded and independent of
preconceived religious and philosophical ideas
o Neutral and useful, science became an accepted part of life and developed rapidly in
England
Medicine, the Body, and Chemistry
• SR revolving around cosmos, inspired study of microcosm of human body
• Galen
o Greek physician
o Had same authority of Aristotle’s account of the universe
o Body contained four humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile
o Illness came from imbalance of humors
• Paracelsus
o Early proponent of experimental method in medicine
o Pioneered use of chemicals and drugs to address what he saw as chemical imbalances
• Vesalius
o Experimentalists
o Studied human bodies by dissecting them
o Issued his book of drawings of human anatomy
• William Harvey
o Circulation of blood through veins and arteries
o Explained heart worked like a pump
o Function of muscles and valves
• Robert Boyle
o Founded modern science of chemistry
o Under took experiments to discover basic elements of nature
▪ Composed of infinitely small atoms
o First to create a vacuum, disproved Descartes
o Discovered Boyle’s law
▪ Pressure inversely related with volume
The ENLT
• SR caused new worldview called ENLT
o Grew out of a rich mix of diverse and often conflicting ideas
o The writers who advocates these ideas competed for attention of a growing public of well
educated, fickle readers (minority)
• Three central concepts of ENLT thinking
o Methods of natural science could and should be used to examine and understand all
aspects of life
▪ Reason
▪ Nothing accepted on faith
▪ Everything submitted to rationalism
o The scientific method was capable of discovering the laws of human society as well as
nature
▪ Social science
o Progress
▪ Armed with proper method of learning human laws of existence, it was possible
for human beings to create better societies and better people
The Emergence of the ENLT
• Loosely united by certain key ideas
• Broad intellectual and cultural movement that gradually gained strength
• Came to age between Principia in 1687 to Louis XIV’s death 1715 tied knot between SR and new
outlook on life
• Writers popularized hard to understand scientific achievements for the educated elite
• New generation believed human mind is capable of making great progress
o Medieval/Reformation focused on abstract sin and salvation
o REN humanists believed their era went beyond antiquity
o ENLT thinkers thought their era had gone far beyond antiquity and intellectual progress
was very possible
• Scientific Rev led to doubt and uncertainty and a crisis
o People asked whether ideological conformity in religious matters was really necessary
o Asked f religious truth was always absolute
o Concluded it was not absolute
o New development, Catholic and Protestant scientists believed their work exalted God and
helped explain creation
• Pierre Bayle
o Despised Louis XIV
o Found refuge in Netherlands
o Critically examined religious beliefs and persecutions of the past
o Human beliefs had been extremely varied and often mistaken
o Nothing can ever be known beyond all doubt: skepticism
• Early ENLT philosophers became interested in Judaism
o Jews ! defined what true religion should be like
• Baruch Spinoza
o Excommunicated by Jewish community for controversial religious ideas
o Believed that mind and body are united in one substance
o God and nature were two names for the same thing
o Deterministic universe where good and evil were merely relative values
o Among the most original thinkers of early ENLT
• Rapidly growing travel literature outside of Europe caused questioning among thinkers
o Learning that peoples of other countries had their own beliefs and customs
o Changed perspective of educated Europeans
o Began to look at truth and morality in relative, rather than absolute terms
o Anything is possible, who can say what is right or wrong?
• John Locke
o First major text of the ENLT
o New theory about how human beings learn and form ideas
o Locke insisted that all ideas are derived from experience
o Human mind at birth is like a blank tablet, tabula rasa, which environment writes the
individual’s understanding and beliefs
o Human development is determined by education and social institutions for good or evil
o Sensationalism: All human ideas and thoughts are produced as a result of sensory
impressions
o Systematic justification of Bacon’s emphasis on the importance of observation and
experimentation
o One of the many dominant intellectual inspirations of the ENLT
The Influence of the Philosophes
• Christian Europe still strongly attached to its established political and social structures and
traditional spiritual beliefs
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By 1775: Large portion of w Europe’s educated elite had embraced many of the new
ideas
Acceptance was due to philosophes
Philosophes: Group of influential intellectuals who proudly proclaimed that they were bringing
the light of knowledge to their ignorant fellow creatures
In France, ENLT reached apogee
Reasons
o French was international language of educated classes
o France was still wealthiest and most populous country in Europe
o Intellectuals were not as strongly restrained as other intellectuals in other e European
states
o French philosophes made it their goal to reach a larger audience of elites, many of whom
were joined together in “republic of letters”
▪ Transnational realm of the well-educated
Circulated most radical works in manuscript form to not anger the church
To appeal to public and get around censors, they wrote novels and plays, etc. filled with satire and
double meanings to spread message
Baron de Montesquieu
o Plays with social satire
▪ Amusing letters written by Usbek and Rica
▪ Outsiders who have a diff perspective on European customs
▪ Able to criticize existing practices and beliefs
▪ Used wit as a weapon against cruelty and superstition
o Saw relations between men and women highly representative of overall social and
political system
▪ Oppression of women: Eastern tyranny
▪ Cruel eunuchs: Despotism must fail
▪ Female power behind throne: Women gain indirect power by influencing
absolutist kings/men
o Disturbed by growth in royal absolutism under Louis XIV
▪ Inspired by physical sciences – set out to apply critical method to problem of
governments
▪ Comparative study of republics, monarchies, despotisms
▪ Forms of gov were shaped by history, geography, and customs
▪ Focused on conditions that would promote liberty and prevent tyranny
o Separation of powers
▪ Political power divided and shared by variety of classes and legal estates holding
unequal rights/privileges
▪ Believed French and 13 high courts (parlements) were frontline defenders of
liberty against royal despotism
o Apprehensive about uneducated poor
▪ No democrat
Voltaire
o Wrote witty volumes
o Good at business
o Early career was turbulent – arrested for insulting noblemen
o Moved to England to avoid longer prison term in France
o Shared enthusiasm for English liberties and institutions
o Met Madame du Chatalet
▪ Gifted woman from high aristocracy with passion for science
▪ Invited Voltaire to live in her house
▪ Studied physics and mathematics
▪ Published scientific articles and translations (Newton’s Principia)
▪ Excluded from Royal Academy of Sciences because she was a woman
▪ Thought women’s limited role in science was due to unequal education
Praised England and popularized English scientific progress
Thought Newton was history’s greatest man
▪ Used his genius for the benefit of humanity
o Mixed glorification of science and reason with an appeal for better individuals and
institutions
o Reformer, not revolutionary
o Concluded best of governments was a good monarch because humans are rarely worthy
to govern themselves
▪ Praised Louis XIV
▪ Correspondence with Frederick the Great
o Thought servants should be under masters
o Only equality was when citizens depend on laws to protect freedom
o Challenged Catholic church and Christian theology
▪ Believed in God, but a distant, deistic God
▪ Envisioned a mechanistic universe in which God acted like a great clockmaker
who built an orderly system and stepped aside to let it run
▪ Hated all forms of religious intolerance
▪ Simple piety and kindness was enough
Ultimate strength of philosophes lay in their number, dedication, and organization
o Thought they were engaged in a common undertaking that transcended individuals
Their greatest intellectual achievement was a group effort: the Encyclopedia
o Denis Diderot and jean le Rond d’Alembert
o Set out to find coauthors who would examine the rapidly expanding whole of human
knowledge
o Teach people how to think critically and objectively
Encyclopedia
o Encyclopedia survived initial resistance from French gov. and Catholic Church
o 72,000 articles by leading scientists, writers, skilled workers, and progressive priests
o Treated every aspect of life and knowledge
o Overall effect was little short of revolutionary
o Science and industrial arts were exalted
o Religion and immorality questioned
o Intolerance, legal injustice, out of date social institutions were openly criticized
o Convinced that greater knowledge would result in greater human happiness
o Knowledge was useful and made possible economic, social, political progress
o Summed up worldview of ENLT
o Widely read
o Extremely influential
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The Enlightenment Outside of France
• Different areas developed diff forms of ENLT thinking
o England and Germany – more conservative, tried to integrate SCIREV with religious
faith
o Scotland free from political crisis to experience vigorous period of intellectual growth
▪ Scottish ENLT marked by emphasis on pragmatic and scientific reasoning
▪ Intellectual revival stimulated by creation of first public educational system in
Europe
• David Hume
o Argued religious skepticism
o Powerful impact at home (Scotland)
o Built on Locke’s teachings on learning
o Argued human mind is really nothing but a bundle of impressions
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Impressions originate only in sense experiences and our habits of joining these
experiences together
Reason can’t tell us anything about questions that can’t be verified by sense experience
because our ideas reflect our sense experiments, such as origin of universe or existence of
God
Rationalistic inquiry undermined ENLT’s faith in power of reason
Urban Culture and Life in the Public Sphere
• New institutions and practices encouraged spread of ENLT ideas
o European production and consumption of books grew significantly
o Types of books people read changed dramatically
▪ More art and science books
• Educated public in France and throughout Europe approached reading in a new way
o Reading revolution: Transition in Europe from a society where literacy was mostly
patriarchal and communal reading of religious texts to a society where literacy was
commonplace and reading was more broad
o Old style of reading was centered on sacred texts read by patriarch and communal with
father reading text aloud to audience
o Reading was a broader field of books
o Reading became individual and silent
o Texts could be questioned
o Ushered in new ways of relating to written word
• Conversation, discussion, and debate played a critical role
o Paris set example, other cities followed
o Talented, wealthy women presided over regular social gatherings in salons
o Encouraged exchange of witty, uncensored observations on literature, science, and
philosophy with aristocrats, wealthy middle class, high ranking officials, noteworthy
foreigners
o Hostesses, or salonnieres, mediated public’s freewheeling examination of ENLT thought
• Salons created cultural realm free from religious dogma and political censorship
o Diverse but educated public could debate on issues and form new ideas
o Brought together members of intellectual, economic, and social elites
o Philosophes, French nobility, prosperous middle class intermingled and influenced one
another
o Thought critically about almost any question
o Hopes for human progress through greater knowledge and enlightened public opinions
• Elite women exercised great influence on aristocratic taste
o Soft pastels, ornate interiors, sentimental portraits, starry eyed lovers: Rococo
▪ Popular throughout Europe
• Feminine influence in the drawing room went together with emergence of polite society and
general attempt to civilize a rough military nobility
o Some philosophes championed greater rights and expanded education for women,
claiming that the position and treatment of women were the best indication of a society’s
level of civilization
o Greater rights did not mean equal rights
▪ Women remained legally subordinate to men
o Elite women still lacked many rights
• Number of institutions emerged for rest of society (besides those at salons)
o Lending libraries: people who could not afford their won books
o Coffeehouses: meccas of philosophical discussion
o Book clubs, Masonic, lodges, journals
• New public sphere: celebrated open debate informed by critical reason
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Public sphere: Idealized intellectual space that emerged in Europe during the
Enlightenment, where the public came together to discuss important issues relating to
society, economics, and politics
o Idealized space where members of society came together as individuals to discuss issues
relevant to society, economics, and politics of the day
Common people
o ENLT philosophes did not direct their message to peasants or urban laborers
o Masses had no time or talent for philosophical speculation
o Elevating masses would be long, slow, and potentially dangerous
o They thought people were like little children in need of firm parental guidance
People were not immune to words of philosophes
o Book prices were dropping and many ideas were popularized in cheap pamphlets
o Illiterate people learned through public reading
o Barred from salons and academies, not immune to new circulation
Race and the Enlightenment
• ENLT and SCIREV crucial turning point in European ideas about race
o Urge to classify nature unleashed by SCIREV’s insistence on empirical observation
• Carl von Linne
o Nature organized into God-given hierarchy
o Elaborate taxonomies
o Classify humans into hierarchically ordered “races”
o Investigated origins of race
• Compte de Buffon
o Humans originated with one species that developed into distinct races due to climactic
conditions
• David Hume and Immanuel Kant
o Popularized these ideas
o Hume thought negroes were naturally inferior to whites – thought nature made it that way
o Kant claimed there were 4 human races, each which derived from original race of “white
brunette” people
▪ Closest descendents of originals race were white inhabitants of N. Germany
▪ Other races degenerated both culturally and physically from this origin
• Using word “race” for biologically distinct group of humans was new
o Europeans grouped other peoples into nations based on historical, political, cultural
affiliations, not innate physical differences
• Europeans’ races put on top
o Thought they were culturally, and now biologically superior
• Scientific racism helped legitimate and justify tremendous growth of slavery
o If one race of humans was different and inferior, its members could be seen as fit for
enslavement
• Racist ideas did not go unchallenged
o Diderot had a scathing critique of European arrogance and exploitation
o James Beattie: pointed out that Europeans had started out as savage as nonwhites, and
many non-European societies were highly civilized
o Gottfried von Herder: Criticized Kant, saying humans couldn’t be classified based on
skin color and each cultue was as worthy as any other
• Challenges to ideas of racial inequality were the minority, many ENLT ppl agreed with Kant and
Hume
• Clear parallels between use of science to propagate racial hierarchies and its use to defend social
inequalities between men and women
• Rousseau
o Women’s natural passivity meant they were naturally inferior
• Science and reason were combined to create traditional stereotypes with force of natural law
Late Enlightenment
• Thinkers and writers began to attack ENLT’s faith in reason, progress, and moderation
• Rousseau
o Son of poor watchmaker who made his way through brilliant intellect
o Believed his philosophe friends and women of Parisian salons were plotting against him
▪ Broke with them and lived with an uneducated common-law wife and went in his
own direction
o Committed to individual ffreedom
o Attacked rationalism and civilization as destroying
o Warm, spontaneous feeling complemented and corrected cold intellect
o Basic goodness of individual had to be protected from cruel refinements of civilization
o Called for rigid division of gender roles
▪ Wom men were radically different
▪ Destined by nature to assume a passive role in sexual relations, women should
also be passive in social life
▪ Women loved displaying themselves, attending salons, and pulling strings of
power – this was unnatural and corrupted politics and society
▪ Rejected life of elite Parisian women
▪ Wanted privileged women to renounce their frivolous ways and stay at home to
care for children
o General Will and popular sovereignty
▪ General will
• Sacred and absolute, reflected common interests of all people, who have
made the monarch their sovereign leader
• Not necessarily will of majority
• Long term needs of people as interpreted by farseeing minority
o One of the most influential ENLT thinkers
o Harbinger for ENLT rejection
• Reading public joined forces with philosophes to call for autonomy of printed word
• Kant
o Professor
o Posed question of age – what is Enlightenment?
o Have courage to use your own understanding
o If serious thinkers were granted freedom to exercise reason publicly in print, ENLT
would surely follow
o Insisted that in private lives, indivduals must obey all laws, no matter how unreasonable
o Should be punished for impertinent criticism
o Tried to reconcile absolute monarchial authority with critical public sphere
▪ Enlightened absolutism
Enlightened Absolutism
• Most ENLT Thinkers outside of England and the Netherlands thought political change could best
come from above (the ruler) rather than below
• Royal absolutism was a fact of life, and the kings and queens of Europe had no intention of
giving up their great power
• Philosophes and their sympathizers realistically concluded that a benevolent absolutism offered
the best opportunities for improving society
• Many government officials were interested in philosophical ideas
o Among best educated members of society
o Daily involvement of affairs of the state
o Attracted to ideas for improving human society
• Monarchs were encouraged and instructed by these officials
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Because monarchs were influenced by these officials, some absolutist rulers tried to reform their
governments in accordance with ENLT ideals – Enlightened Absolutism
o Rule of 18th century monarchs who adopted ENLT ideals of rationalism, progress, and
tolerance without renouncing their own absolute authority
Most influential of new style monarchs were in Prussia, Russia, and Austria
Achievements and limitations of enlightened absolutism
Frederick the Great of Prussia
• Frederick II or Frederick the Great built on his the work of his father, Frederick William I
• Though he embraced culture and literature as a youth, he was determined to use the splendid
army that his father left him
• Frederick pounced when young Maria Theresa of Austria inherited the Habsburg dominions when
Charles VI died
• Invaded her rich, mainly German province of Silesia, defying Prussian promises to respect the
Pragmatic Sanction, a diplomatic agreement that guaranteed Maria Theresa’s succession
• Other powers vied for her lands in European War of the Austrian Succession
• Maria Theresa was forced to cede almost all of Silesia to Prussia
• Prussia doubled its population
• Prussia unquestionably towered above all the other German states and stood as a European Great
Power
• Frederick had to fight against odds to save Prussia from total destruction after the competition
between Britain and France for colonial empire brought another great conflict
• Maria Theresa sought to regain Silesia and formed an alliance with leaders of France and Russia
• Aim of alliance during 7 years war was to conquer Prussia and divide up its territory
• Frederick, despite invasions from all sides fought on with stoic courage
• Frederick was saved by Peter III who came to the Russian throne and called off the attack against
Frederick, whom he greatly admired
• 7YW tempered Frederick’s interest in territorial expansion and brought him to consider how more
humane policies for his subjects might strengthen his state
o Allowed his subjects to believe as they wished in religious and philosophical matters
o Promoted advancement of knowledge, improving his country’s schools and permitting
scholars to publish their findings
o Tried to improve the lives of his subjects more directly
• Legal system and bureaucracy were Frederick’s primary tools
o Prussia’s laws simplified
o Torture abolished
o Judges decided cases quickly and impartially
o Prussian officials became famous for hard work and honesty
o Frederick’s government energetically promoted the reconstruction of agriculture and
industry
o Frederick worked hard and lived modestly – a good model
o Justified monarchy in terms of practical results and said nothing of the divine right of
kings
• Condemned serfdom in the abstract, accepted it in practice and did not free serfs in his own
estates
• Accepted and extended the privileges of the nobility who were the backbone of the army and
entire Prussian state
• To reform Prussia’s bureaucracy, Frederick drew on the principal of cameralism, the German
science of public administration that emerged after 30YW
o Monarchy was the best of all forms of government
o All elements of society should be placed at the service of the state, in turn the state
should make use of its resources and authority to improve society
o Before the ENLT, Usually inspired by the needs of war
o Cameralism shared with ENLT an emphasis on rationality, progress, and utilitarianism
Catherine the Great of Russia
• German princess from Anhalt-Zerbst, a principality between Prussia and Saxony
• Father commanded regiment of Prussian army, mother was related to the Romanovs of Russia
• Bride to heir of Russian throne made possible by her blood relation
• Mismatch from the beginning
o I did not care about Peter, but I did care about the crown
• Husband Peter III decided to withdraw Russian troops which alienated the army
• Catherine used his unpopularity formed a conspiracy to kill her husband with her lover Gregory
Orlov
• Catherine became empress of Russia
o Never questioned that absolute monarchy was the best form of government
o Set out to rule in an enlightened manner – was hugely influenced by the ENLT thinking
o 3 main goals
▪ Continue Peter the Great’s effort to bring he culture of Western Europe to Russia
• Imported Western architects, sculptors, musicians, intellectuals
• Masterpieces of Western art and patronized the philosophes
• Praised Voltaire
• Didn’t ban Encyclopedia when French gov did
• Sent money to Diderot
• Won good press in the West for herself and for her country
• Set the tone for Russian nobility
• Catherine westernized the imagination of the Russian nobility
▪ Domestic reform
• Sincere and ambitious projects
• Appointed special legislative commission to prepare a new law code
• Never completed
• Restricted torture
• Allowed limited religious toleration
• Tried to improve education and strengthen local government
• Philosophes applauded these measures
• Cossack Emelian Pugachev sparked gigantic uprising of serfs
o Proclaimed himself true tsar
o Issued orders abolishing serfdom, taxes, and army service
o Thousands joined his cause, slaughtering landlords and officials over a vast area of
southwestern Russia
o No match for Catherine’s noble-led army
o Pugachev was betrayed, caught, and executed
• Pugachev’s rebellion put an end to any intentions Catherine might have had about reforming the
system
o Peasants were clearly dangerous
o Her empire rested on support of the nobility
o Gave nobles absolute control of their serfs
o Extended serfdom into new areas, such as Ukraine
o Formalized the nobility’s privileged position, freeing nobles from taxes and state service
o Russian nobility attained its most exalted position, and serfdom entered its most
oppressive phase
• Territorial expansion
o Armies subjugated last descendants of Mongols and Crimean Tartars
o Began conquest of Caucasus
o Partition of Poland
o Victory against Turks and thereby threatened to disturb the balance of power between
Russian and Austria in e. Europe
o Frederick of Prussia came up with a deal
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Proposed that Turkey be let off easily and that Prussia, Austria, and Russia each
compensate itself by taking a gigantic slice of weakly ruled Poland
Catherine jumped at the chance
Poland vanished from map
The Austrian Habsburgs
• Maria Theresa set out to reform her nation, although traditional power politics was a more
important motivation than ENLT teachers
• Devout mother and wife inherited power from her father, Charles VI
• Remarkable, old fashioned absolutist
• Radical son, Joseph II drew on ENLT ideals, earning title “revolutionary emperor”
• Emerged from long War of the Austrian Succession with loss of Silesia, Maria Theresa was
determined to introduce reform that would make the state stronger and more efficient
• Limited papacy’s political influence
• Administrative reforms
o Strengthened central bureaucracy
o Smoothed out provincial differences
o Revamped tax system
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o Took lands of nobles, previously exempt from taxation
Gov sought to improve lot of agricultural population, reducing power of lord over their hereditary
serfs and partially free peasant tenants
Coregent with his mother and a strong supporter of change
Joseph II moved forward rapidly when he came to the throne
Abolished serfdom
Decreed that peasants could pay landlords in cash rather than through compulsory labor
Violently rejected by nobles and peasants, who lacked cash
Joseph died prematurely
Entire Habsburg empire was in turmoil
Brother Leopold II canceled Joseph’s radical edicts to reestablish order
o Peasants were required to do forced lab
Joseph II and the other eastern European absolutists of the later 18th century combined old
fashioned state building with the culture and critical thinking of the ENLT
Succeeded in expanding the role of the state in the life of society
Perfected bureaucratic machines that were to prove surprisingly adaptive and capable of enduring
into the 20th century
Failure to implement policies (abolishing serfdom) may reveal inherent limitations of the ENLT
thinking about equality and social justice, rather than in their execution of ENLT programs
Leading philosophes supported rather than criticized eastern rulers’ policies suggests some of the
blinders of the era
Jewish Life and the Limits of Enlightened Absolutism
• Europe’s small Jewish population lived under highly discriminatory laws
• Confined to tiny, overcrowded ghettos
• Excluded from most professions, activities, could be ordered out of kingdom
• Some did succeed to obtain right of permanent settlement
o Performed special service to state
• Many rulers relied on Jewish bankers for loans to raise armies and Jewish merchants and traders
were prominent in international trade
• 18th c: ENLT movement emerged: Haskalah within European Jewish community led by Prussian
philosopher Moses Mendelssohn
• Christian and Jewish began to advocate for freedom and civil rights for European Jews
• Reason, tolerance, universality
• Argued restrictions on religious grounds could not stand
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Accompanied with controversial social change within Jewish communities, where rabbinic
controls loosened and heightened interaction with Christians took place
British Parliament passed law allowing naturalization of Jews
o Later repealed from public outrage
Joseph II
o Integrate Jews more fully into society
o Eligibility for military service, removal of special emblems making them stand out
o Reforms welcomed by many Jews, raised fears among traditionalists of assimilation into
general population
Monarchs refused to accept idea of emancipation
o Frederick the Great opposed emancipation for Jews and serfs, but permitted freedom of
religion to his Christian subjects
o Catherine the Great refused to emancipate Jews from the territory she gained from Poland
▪ Pale of Settlement, where Jews were required to live
First to remove all restrictions of Jews was France under French Revolution
Jews gradually won full legal and civil rights throughout the rest of western Europe
Emancipation in Eastern Europe took longer and aroused more conflict and violence
Ch 18: The Expansion of Europe
Working the Land
• At end of 17th c., economy of Europe was agrarian
• 80% of people of all western European countries drew their livelihoods from agriculture
• In eastern Europe, percentage was higher
o Tied to land
• Output was low
• Climatic conditions produced poor or disastrous harvests every eight or nine years
• Unbalanced and inadequate food in famine years made people susceptible to illness
• Eating material unfit for human consumption during famines (bark, dirt) caused intestinal
ailments
• Flus and smallpox hit malnutritioned populations
• Deaths were high during famine year
• New developments in agricultural tech and methods brought an end to ravages of hunger in w.
Europe
The Legacy of the Open-Field System
• From middle ages to 17th century Europe used open field system
o Land cultivated was divided into several large fields which were cut up into long, narrow
strips
o Fields were open, strips were not enclosed into small plots by fences or hedges
o Whole peasant village followed traditional pattern of plowing, sowing, and harvesting
• Soil exhaustion
o Field will deplete nitrogen in soil
o Supply of manure was limited, only way for land to recover was to lie fallow for some
time
o Clover restored nutrients and was food for livestock
o Year of fallow was alternated by a year of cropping
• 3 year rotations were introduced
o 2 years of growing, 1 year of lying fallow
o Staggered rotation of crops, so one crop was always available
o Cash crops could grow 2 years out of 3, instead of 1 year out of 2
• Traditional village rights reinforced communal patterns of farming
o Maintained open meadows for hay and natural pasture
o Villagers pastured their animals on wheat or rye stubble
o Pasturing followed a brief period for gleaning of grain
▪ Poor women went through fields picking up few single grains that fell to the
ground
o Firewood, building material, and nutritional roots and berries in woodlands
• State and landlords continued to levy heavy taxes and high rents
o Stripped peasants of their meager earnings
o Generally, peasants of e Europe were worst off
▪ Serfs bound to lords
▪ Worked w/o pay
• Social conditions better in w Europe
o Peasants generally free from serfdom
o Owned land to pass onto children
o Life was still hard and poverty was permissive
o Owned a portion of the land they worked
o Forced to seek wages in variety of jobs to get a living
• Privileges of Europe’s ruling elites weighted heavily on people of the land
The Agricultural Revolution
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One way for peasants to improve their conditions was to revolt and take land from those who
owned it but did no labor
o Social and political conditions were ancient and deeply rooted
o Powerful forces stood ready to crush protest
Technological progress
o If peasants and their noble landlords could replace the fallow time with crops, they could
increase the land under cultivation
Agricultural revolution: Period in Europe from mid 17c to mid 19th c where great agricultural
progress was made and the fallow was gradually eliminated
o Great milestone in human development
Secret to eliminating fallow was to alternate grain with nitrogen storing crops
o Peas and beans
o Root crops: turnips potatoes
o Clovers and grasses
Number of crops that rotated grew
o New patterns of organization allowed some farmers to develop sophisticated patterns of
crop rotation to suit different kinds of soils
o Continual experimentation fueled by SCIREV led to more methodical farming
Improvements in farming had multiple effects
o New crops made ideal feed for animals ! peasants and larger farmers could build up
their herds of cattle and sheep
o More animals ! more meat and better diets
o More animals ! more manure for fertilizer and more grain for bread and porridge
Advocates (emerging experimental scientists, government officials, big landowners) of new crop
rotation believed new methods were scarcely possible within traditional framework of open fields
and common rights
o Farmer who wanted to experiment would have to get all landholders to agree
o Thought innovating agriculturalists needed to enclose and consolidate their scattered
holdings into compact, fenced in fields in order to farm more effectively
o Innovators needed to enclose their individual shares of a village’s natural pastureland, the
common
o Enclosure: Movement to fence in fields in order to farm more effectively, at the expense
of poor peasants who relied on common fields for farming and pasture
▪ Revolution in village life and organization was necessary for technological
progress
Enclosure price was too high for many poor rural people
o Had small, inadequate holdings or little land
o Depended on traditional rights to use commonly held pastureland to graze livestock, and
marshlands or forest for foraged goods
o Opposed enclosure of open fields
o Found allies with noble landowners who were wary of enclosure because it required large
investments in purchasing and fencing
Old system of unenclosed open fields and new system of continuous rotation coexisted in Europe
o Some peasants successfully opposed efforts to introduce new techniques
o End of 18th c, new system of enclosure was extensively adopted only in England and Low
Countries
The Leadership of the Low Countries and England
• New methods of agricultural revolution originated in Low Countries
• Holland led the way
o Was most advanced country in Europe in 17c
• Reasons for Dutch leadership in farming
o Area was one of most densely populated in Europe
In order to feed themselves and provide employment, Dutch were forced to seek
maximum yields from their land and increase cultivated area through steady
draining of marshes and swamps
o Growth of towns and cities
▪ Grew in population
▪ Urban population growth provided Dutch peasants with markets for all they
could produce and allowed each region to specialize in what it did best
▪ Dutch could develop their potential
▪ Low Countries became the mecca of foreign agricultural experts
English were best learners
o They learned about drainage and water control
o Large parts of Holland had once been sea and marsh, so Dutch became world’s leaders in
drainage
Dutch made huge contribution in draining extensive marshes, fens, of wet and rainy England
o Cornelius Vermuyden: Directed large drainage project in Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire
▪ Got some of best land that was farmed intensely in Dutch manner
Improvements in agriculture techniques
Jehro Tull: English innovator
o Adopted critical attitude toward accepted ideas about farming
o Tried to develop better methods through empirical research
o Using horses rather than slow oxen for plowing
o Sowing seed with drilling equipment rather than scattering it by hand
▪ Distributed seed in even manner and at proper depth
Improvements in livestock
o Selective breeding
English agriculture went through a radical transformation
o Output increased
o Provided food for England’s rapidly growing urban population
o Growth in production achieved by land enclosures
o PLMT enclosed a lot of common land
By eliminating common rights and greatly reducing access of poor men and women to the land,
the enclosure movement marked the completion of two major historical developments in England
o Rise of market oriented estate agriculture
o Emergence of a landless rural proletariat
o Soon, tiny minority of wealthy English and Scottish landowners held most of the land
and pursued profits aggressively, leased land to farmers who relied on landless laborers
Landless laborers worked long hours
o Few laborers were needed to work large farms, so unemployment spread throughout the
countryside
Proletarianization: Transformation of large numbers of small peasant farmers into landless rural
wage earners
English village poor found the change heavy and unjust
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The Beginning of the Population Explosion
• 18th c.: beginning of population explosion
o Affected existing order of life and forced economic changes
Long-standing Obstacles to Population Growth
• Cyclical pattern of population groth until 1700
o Ravages of Black Death caused drop in population and food prices and labor shortage
o Great surge of population growth outstripped growth of agriculatural production
▪ Less food per person, food prices rose faster than wages
▪ Decline in European living standards
▪ Widespread poverty
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Population growth slowed and stopped in 17th c
▪ Birth/death/fertility/mortality
Gigantic increases in population over time did not happen
o Certain abnormal years and tragic periods happened, many more died than were born
o Total population fell sharply
o Long time to make up for loss
o Increases in death occurred periodically in 17th c
Famine, disease, war were main causes of demographic crisis
o Famine:
▪ Low yields and periodic crop failures, accompanied by disease
▪ Stunned and weakened a population
▪ Disease finished it off
o Disease:
▪ Could ravage population
o War
▪ Soldiers in camps passed contagious diseases through countryside
▪ Armies requisitioned scarce food
▪ Battles destroyed crops and farmlands
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The New Pattern of the Eighteenth Century
• 18th c: population of all regions Europe began to grow markedly
• Reasons for explosive growth
o Women had more babies than before because of new opportunities for employment in
rural industry allowed them to marry younger
o Fewer deaths
• Fewer deaths
o Disappearance of bubonic plague
▪ Plagues remained constant following Black Death
▪ Stricter measures of quarantine in Mediterranean ports
▪ Chance and good luck
o Advances in medical knowledge did not contribute to reducing death rate
▪ Advance in preventative medicine
• Inoculation against smallpox only in England
o Improvements in water supply and sewage
▪ Promoted by strong absolutist monarchies
▪ Better public health
▪ Reduce diseases
▪ Reduced Europe’s large insect population (who spread diseases)
• People became better at efforts to safeguard food
o Canal and road building
▪ Lessened impact of local crop failure and famine
▪ Emergency supplies could be brought in
▪ Localized starvation became less frequent
o Wars became less destructive and spread less diseases
o Nutritious new foods
▪ Potato
• Renewed population growth intensified imbalance between number of people and economic
opportunities available
o Improvements in agricultural efficiency lessened need for rural laborers
o Rural poor forced to look for new ways to make a living
The Growth of Rural Industry
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Population growth ! increased number of rural workers with little or no land ! development of
industry in rural areas
Poor in countryside needed to supplement their agricultural earnings with other types of work
Urban workers were eager to hire them for lower than urban workers
Cottage industry: A stage of industrial development in which rural workers used hand tools in
their homes to manufacture goods on a large scale for sale in a market
o Manufacturing with hand tools in peasant cottages and work sheds
o Became a crucial feature of 18th c European economy
Now peasants manufactured goods on a large scale for sale in market
Pressures of rural poverty led many poor villagers to seek additional work
The Putting-Out System
• Cottage industry organized through putting out system: system of rural industry in which a
merchant loaned raw materials to cottage workers, who processed them and returned the finished
products to the merchant
• Merchant capitalist and rural worker worked
o Merchant loaned “put out”/raw materials to cottage workers
o Cottage workers processed raw materials in their own homes and returned finished
products to merchant
• Variations in basic merchant/rural worker relationship
o Sometimes rural workers bought their won raw materials and worked as independent
producers before they sold to the merchant
o Sometimes whole families were involved
o Other times certain genders were associated with some tasks
o Sometimes several workers worked together to finish complicated process outside of
home
• Wages from land varied from wages made from this new system, but industrial wages usually was
more lucrative with time
• Industries grew in scale and complexity ! production was often broken down into many stages
o For example: wool ! thread ! dyeing ! weaving
o People paid by the piece completed
o Sold finished product to regional, national, or international markets
• Putting out system grew because it had competitive advantages
o Underemployed labor was abundant, and poor peasants and landless laborers would work
for low wages
o Workers and merchants could change procedures and experiment if they saw fit
o Workers did not need to meet rigid guild standards, cottage industry became capable of
producing many kinds of goods of everyday articles
▪ Except luxury goods for rich
• Rural manufacturing did not spread across Europe at an even rate
o Developed most successfully in England
o Industry was generally more rural than urban
o Most continental countries developed rural industry more slowly
The Lives of Rural Textile Workers
• Industry that employed most people in Europe was textiles
• Rural worker lived in small cottage with tiny windows and little space
o Often a single room for a workshop, kitchen, and bedroom
o Few pieces of furniture
o Weaver’s loom took up most space
o John Kay improved loom, though loom did stay the same for a long time
• Handloom weaving was a family enterprise
o All members of family helped in work
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o Operating loom was considered a man’s job reserved for male head of family
o Women and children worked at auxiliary tasks
Work of four or five spinners was needed to keep one weaver steadily employed
o Weaver’s family couldn’t produce enough thread
o Alternate sources of labor were needed
o Merchant turned to wives and daughters of agricultural workers were used
o In England, widows became “spinsters”
Industry expanded and merchants covered ever greater distances in search of workers –
sometimes turned to local shopkeepers to manage spinsters
Relations between workers and employers were often conflicted
o Disputes over weights of materials and quality of finished work
o Merchants accused workers of stealing raw material
o Weavers complained merchants delivered underweight bales
o Suspicion abounded
Conditions hard for female workers
o Men could earn decent wages, women couldn’t
o Single/widowed spinner was in a bad situation
▪ Period of illness or unemployment was disaster
Merchant capitalists problems
o Problem wasn’t low wages, but control of rural labor
o Workers were difficult to supervise and direct
o Pace of their work depended on agricultural calendar
▪ Occupied people
o Bitterly resented lack of control over rural labor
o Accused workers of laziness, drunkenness, immorality
o If workers failed to make enough thread, it was because their wages were too high, and
they had little incentive to work
Merchants insisted on maintaining lowest possible wages to force “idle” poor to productive labor
Got new powers over workers
o Imprisonment and public whipping for stealing yarn/cloth
Right to hold onto extra product was akin to peasant right to glean in common lands
With progress came loss of traditional safeguards for poor
The Industrious Revolution
• Industrious Revolution summarizes social and economic changes taking place in Europe in late
17th to early 18th century
o The shift that occurred as families focused on earning wages instead of producing goods
for household consumption… this reduced their economic self-sufficiency but increased
their ability to purchase consumer goods
o Reduced leisure, faster pace of work, redirected labor of women and children away from
production of goods for household consumption and toward wage work
• Spread of cottage industry could be seen as one manifestation of industrious revolution
• Rise in female city employment outside home
• Rural and urban households could purchase more goods even at failing wages by working harder
and increasing number of wageworkers
• Effect of changes
o Lament encroachment of longer work hours and stricter discipline
o Poor families made decisions based on self interest
o More finished goods available at lower prices
o Households sought cash income to participate in an emerging consumer economy
• Role of women and girls
o Women almost always worked at menial, tedious jobs for low wages
o When they earned their own wages, they took on a greater role in household decision
making
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o Scant earnings went for household necessities they no longer produced
o Sometimes extra shillings for extra stuff
o Women’s surplus income helped spur rapid growth of textile industries
New sources and patterns of labor established important foundations for Industrious revolution
o Created households where all members worked for wages rather than a united family
business
o Consumption relied on marked produced rather than homemade goods
New model of male “breadwinner” did not appear til later
The Debate over Urban Guilds
• Growth of rural industry ! undermining of traditional guild system that protected artisans
• Guilds dominated production in towns and cities, and provided masters economic privileges as
well as a proud social identity
• Struggled against competition from rural workers
• Those excluded from guild membership worked on margins of urban economy
• Later 18th c
o Critics attacked guilds as outmoded that obstructed technical progress and innovation
o Resentment to guilds emphasizes peoples’ ability to adapt to changing economic
circumstances
Urban Guilds
• Guild system reached peak in 17th and 18th century
o Grew dramatically in number in cities and towns across Europe
o Colbert revived urban guilds to encourage high quality production and to collect taxes
• Guild masters in Europe occupied the summit of the world of work
o Each guild had detailed privileges given by crown
▪ Exclusive rights to produce and sell certain goods
▪ Access to restricted markets in raw materials
▪ Rights to train apprentices, hire workers, open shops
o Any individuals who violated monopolies could be prosecuted
• Served social and religious functions
o Locus of sociability and group identity to middling classes of European cities
• Guilds jealously restricted membership
o Good Christians, experienced, paid fees
o Family connections
▪ Masters’ sons got into guilds easily
• Most urban men and women worked in non guild trades as domestic servants, manual laborers,
vendors of food and more
• Guilds’ ability to enforce their rigid barriers varied a great deal across Europe
o England regulated guilds
o France took ambiguous attitude
▪ Relied on guilds to make high quality and taxes
▪ Allowed non guild production in countryside
▪ Some places for “false-workers” who’d been denounced by masters
o German guilds had most power in Europe and were most conservative
• New Enlightenment ideals called into question the very existence of the guild system
o Critics said they were outmoded and exclusionary that obstructed technical innovation
and progress
o Reform minister Turgot’s law abolished French guild
▪ Thinking of enlightened gov officials
• Some flexibility and adaptability of guild system and its vitality
o Guild masters adopted new technologies
o Found creative ways to circumvent impractical rules
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o Some masters made partnerships with non guild workers
Economic regulation did not hinder commerce but fostered the confidence necessary to stimulate
it
Guilds were trusted with good quality
Some guilds were accessible to women in Paris and other cities
o Most involved needlework and textiles
▪ Appropriate for women
o Seamstresses got a new all female guild
o Vocational training programs for poor girls
o Male masters began to hire more female workers
Urban and rural women entered the paid labor market in great numbers
Some attempts to redress discrimination they faced
Turgot’s law was repealed, and new laws opened all guilds to women
Never saw how it turned out
Adam Smith and Economic Liberalism
• New patterns of labor caused comment and controversy
• Adam Smith
o Critic of gov regulation in trade/industry
o Scottish Enlightenment
o Freedom of enterprise and established basis for modern economics in Wealth of Nations
o Criticized guilds for stifling and outmoded restriction – criticized all gov run monopolies/
privileged companies
o Free competition was better and it would protect consumers from price gouging and give
citizens a fair and equal right to do what they did best
o Argued gov should have only 3 duties
▪ Defense against foreign invasion
▪ Maintain civil order with courts/police
▪ Sponsor certain indispensable public works and institutions that couldn’t profit
private investors
o Pursuit of self interest would be sufficient to improve living conditions of citizens:
Economic liberalism
• Many artisans welcomed economic liberalization
• Some continued to uphold ideals of guilds
o German guilds
o Associations in France
o Artisans across Europe adopted values of hand craftsmanship and limited competition in
contrast to proletarianization and loss of skills
• Most European govs adopted economic deregulation
• Smith was seen as advocate of unbridled capitalism
• Ideas more complex
• Smith spoke for truth, not special interests
• Applauded modest rise in real wages of British workers
• Realistically concluded that employers were never raising wages to fair rate, even wanting to sink
wages
• Deplored deadening effects of division of labor
• Called for gov intervention to raise workers’ living standards
• Great international impact
• Inspired domestic reform and independent merchants around globe called for free trade
Building the Global Economy
• Expansion of Europe in 18th century was characterized by increase of world trade
• Spain and Portugal revitalized their empires and began drawing more wealth from renewed
colonial development
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Countries of northwestern Europe (Netherlands, France, above Great Britain) benefitted most
Atlantic economy proved crucial to building a global economy
Great Britain became leading maritime power
Brits played critical role in building a unified Atlantic economy with opportunities for them and
their colonists
Competed ruthlessly with France and Netherlands for trade and territory in Asia
Mercantilism and Colonial Wars
• Britain’s commercial leadership had its origins in 17th c mercantilism
• European mercantilism was a system of economic regulations aimed at increasing the power of
the state
o Colbert
o Creating a favorable balance of foreign trade in order to increase a country’s stock of
gold
o Country’s gold holdings served as a treasure chest that could be opened periodically to
pay for war in a violent age
• England: desire to increase both military power and private wealth ! mercantile system of
Navigation Acts
o Most goods imported from Europe into England and Scotland has to be carried on British
owned ships with British crews or on ships of the country producing the article
o Gave Brit merchants and ship-owners a virtual monopoly on trade with Brit colonies
▪ Colonists required to ship products on Brit/Am ships
▪ Had to buy almost all European goods from Britain
o Believed these economic regulations would eliminate foreign competition and help Brit
merchants and workers as well as colonial plantation owners and farmers
o Hoped that emerging Brit Empire would develop a shipping industry with a large number
of experienced seamen who could serve when necessary in Navy
• Navigation Acts were a form of economic warfare
o Initial target was Dutch: far ahead in shipping and foreign trade
o Anglo-Dutch wars and Navigation Acts seriously damaged Dutch shipping and
commerce
o Seized thriving Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and renamed it New York
o Netherlands began to fall behind England in shipping, trade, and colonies
o France now stood as England’s most serious rival in competition for overseas empire
▪ Rich in natural resources
▪ Population 3x bigger
▪ Allied with Spain
▪ Building a powerful fleet and a worldwide system of rigidly monopolized
colonial trade
o Brit and France locked in a series of wars to decide which nation would become leading
maritime power and claim profits of Europe’s overseas expansion
• Round 1: War of Spanish Succession
o Upset continental balance of power
o Union of France and Spain threatened to destroy Brit colonies
o Louis XIV had to cede North Am holdings
o (Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Hudson Bay) to England
o Spain had to give Brit control of W. African slave trade (asiento) and let Brit send one
ship of merchandise to Spanish colonies annually
• Conflict continued among European powers over domestic and colonial affairs
o War of Austrian Succession
▪ Fred The Great seized Silesia from Maria Theresa
▪ World war that included Anglo-French
▪ Ended with no change in territorial situation in N. America
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7 Years War
▪ Maria Theresa wanted Silesia back: Almost won
▪ Decisive round in Franco-Brit competition for colonial empire
▪ British victory
▪ Destroyed French fleet and choked off French commerce around the world
▪ Treaty of Paris: France lost its remaining possessions on mainland north America
• Louisiana lost to Spain to compensate for FL taken by Brit
• France gave up holdings in India and opened way to Brit dominance
Brit naval power triumphed
Brit monopolized a vast trading and colonial empire
Eighteenth-Century Colonial Trade
• 18th c: London grew to West’s largest and richest city
o Rapidly growing and increasingly wealthy agricultural populations of the mainland
colonies provided an expanding market for Eng. Manufactured goods
o Good because Eng was losing many of its traditional European markets
• Eng exports of manufactured goods to Atlantic economy came to rescue
o Sales to mainland colonies of N. Am and W. Indian sugar islands
o Exports to England’s other colonies in Ireland and India
o Eng exports became more balanced and diversified
o Foreign trade became bread and butter of some industries
o Mercantilist system achieved remarkable success for England in the 18th c.
o Eng. Stood on the threshold of Industrial Rev
• French still profited enormously from colonial trade
o Saint-Domingue and Martinique and Guadeloupe
o Immense fortunes in plantation agriculture and slave trading
o Wealth generated from colonial trade fostered confidence of merchant classes in Paris,
other large cities and merchants joined elite groups to clamor for more political power
• Third major player in Atlantic economy: Spain
o Colonial fortunes improved in 18th c
o Gained Louisiana
o Influence expanded westward all the way to n. Cal through Spanish missionaries and
ranchers
o Mercantilist goals boosted by recovery in silver production
• Silver mining stimulated food production for mining camps
• Wealthy Spanish landowners developed system of debt peonage to keep indigenous workers on
their estates
o Planter or rancher would keep workers in perpetual debt bondage by advancing them
food, shelter, and a little money (like serfdom)
The Atlantic Slave Trade
• Four continents bordering the ocean were increasingly drawn into an integrated economic system
• Core: Misery and profit on Atlantic slave trade
o Forced migration of millions of Africans was key to the Atlantic system w. European
expansion throughout 18th c
• Rise of plantation agriculture was tremendous growth of the slave trade
o Plantations of Portuguese Brazil received the most of slave trade
o Others divided among Caribbean colonies
o N. Am took little slaves
• Intensification of slave trade ! fundamental changes in its organization
o Brit became undisputed leader in shipping slaves across Atlantic
o Other European governments and ship captains cut back on fighting among themselves
and concentrated on commerce
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Generally adopted shore method of trading, which was less expensive than maintaining
fortified trading posts
▪ European ship sent boast ashore or invited African dealers to bring traders and
slaves out to their ships
▪ Ships could move more easily along coast from market to market and depart
quicker
Some African merchants and rulers who controlled exports profited from greater demand from
slaves
o Wealthier ! Gained access to European and colonial gods (firearms, etc.)
o Generally such economic returns did not spread very far, and negative consequences of
expanding slave trade predominated
o Wars among African states to obtain salable captives increased, and leaders used slave
profits to purchase more arms than textiles and consumer goods
o Population of Africa declined
Most Europeans did not personally witness the horrors of slave trade and they considered African
slave trade a legit business
Details of plight of slaves became known ! campaign in Brit to abolish slavery
o 1780’s: Abolition grew into a mass movement of public opinion
o Brit women enounced immorality of human bondage and stressed cruel and sadistic
treatment of female slaves and slave families
o PLMT abolished Brit slave trade, although slavery continued in Brit colonies and
Americas for decades
Identities and Communities of the Atlantic World
• Free people and ideas circulated through 18th c. Atlantic world
• Contacts among Atlantic coasts (Americas, Africa, Europe) became more frequent and European
settlements grew into well established colonies ! new identities occurred
• Creole: People of Spanish ancestry born in the Americas
o Wealthy Creoles and their counterparts throughout Atlantic colonies prided in following
European ways of life
o Had lavish plantation estates and townhouses in colonial cities
o Purchased luxury goods
o Over time colonial elite came to feel that their circumstances gave them diff interests and
characteristics from those of their home population
o Creole traders and planters resented regulations and taxes imposed by colonial
bureaucrats
• Not all Europeans in colonies were rich
o Poor or middling whites as clerks, shopkeepers, craftsmen
o White Europeans usually made up small portion of population
o Mostly men descended came to colonies ! much of population came from unions of
European men and indigenous/African women
• Mixed race populations sometimes rose to colonial elite
o Spanish conquistadors often consolidated power through marriage to daughters of local
rules, their descendents were among most powerful of Spanish America
o Brazil: Many masters acknowledged and freed their mixed race children, leading to
sizable populations of free people of color
o Some became wealthy and slave traders
o Prosperity of free people of color brought backlash from white population Saint
Domingue in form of new race laws prohibiting them to adopt distinctive attire
o In Brit colonies, mixed children were still slaves
▪ Forbade mixing of races
• Confusing mixing of races culturally
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Colonial elites became “Americanized” by adopting native foods, and sought relief from
tropical disease in native remedies
o Some mixed race people sought to enter Creole society and get its privileges by passing
as white
o Free ppl of color established their own proud social hierarchies based on wealth, family
connections, occupation, and skin color
Converting indigenous ppl to Christianity was a key ambition for all European powers in New
World
o Catholics were pushed by Protestant Reformation and perceived need to protect/spread
Catholicism
o Catholic powers sponsored missionary efforts
o Missionaries throughout colonies
o Conversion was a complicated task of cultural exchange
▪ Catholic friars tried to understand natives to help convert them
o Christianity in New World had a distinct characters, not exactly like European
Christianity
Missionary success in New World varied over time and space
o Central and South America: large scale conversion left a big impact
o N. Am: Less effective, scattered settlement, lesser integration of native ppl into colonial
community
Protestants were less active as missionaries, thought some Quakers and Methodists sought
converts among native ppl
Slavery ! important limitations on efforts to spread Christianity
o Slave owners refused to baptize slaves so the slaves wouldn’t get more rights
o Elements of African religious belief and practice endured
Jews were eager participants in new Atlantic economy though restricted from owning land and
holding occupations
o Established network of mercantile communities along its trade routes
o Faced discriminations in colonies
o Jews were considered white Europeans, but did not enjoy equal status with Christians
o Status of Jews adds more complexity to Atlantic identities
Trade and Empire in Asia and the Pacific
• Europeans continued to vie for dominance in Asian trade
• Portugal became major player in Indian Ocean trade, eliminated Venice as Europe’s chief supplier
of spices and other Asian luxury goods
• Did not radically change age-old pattern of Indian Ocean trade
• Dutch East India Company had taken Portuguese spice trade with port of Batvia
o Expelled Portuguese from Indian islands
• Dutch transformed Indian Ocean trading world
o Dutch established outright control and reduced them to dependents, whereas Portuguese
didn’t
• Dutch hold in Asia faltered in 18th c due to company’s failure to diversify to meet changing
consumption patterns
o Spices were major in shipping, though it was declining in desire in Europe
o Fierce competition from English East India Company undercut English trade
• Brit initially struggled for foothold in Asia
o Brit returned to India, with silks, textiles, pepper
o EEIC relied on trade concessions from powerful Mughal emperor, who granted limited
access to subcontinent
• Mughals conceded empire wide trading privileges
• BEEI agents intervened in local affairs or waged war to further economic interests
• Britain’s great rival for influence in India was France
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o War of Austrian Succession: Brit and French forces rivaled
o Treaty of Paris gave all of France’s possessions in India to Brit except one city
With elimination of French rival, Brits accelerated
Company forces defeated Mughal emperor, leaving him on the throne as title only
Robert Clive: became first Brit governor general of Bengal, NE India with direct authority
Brits had overcome vigorous Indian resistance to gain economic and political dominance of much
of subcontinent
India was lauded as “jewel”
Late 18th c: Beginning of Brit settlement in Australia
o Captain James Cook: claimed e. coast of Australia for England
o First colony established with help of prisoners from Brit
o Settlement on western portion continued after
o First colonies struggled for survival and soon aroused hostility and resistance of
aboriginal ppl
o Cook killed by islanders
Rising economic and political power of Europeans in this period drew on connections they
established between the Asian and Atlantic trade worlds
o Trade in cowry shells
▪ Seashells from Indian Ocean
▪ Taken to be used as currency in w. Africa for slaves
o Indian textiles
▪ Prized in Africa
Trade of Atlantic was inseparable from Asian commerce, and Europeans were increasingly found
dominating commerce in both worlds
Ch 19: The Changing Life of the People
Marriage and the Family
• 18th c: witnessed such an evolution in family – patterns of marriage shifted and individuals
adapted and conformed to the new and changing realities of the family unit
Late Marriage and the Nuclear families
• 3 generation extended family was a rarity In w and c Europe by 1700
• When young European couples married, they normally established their own households and
lived apart from their parents
• 3 gen household would only occur if a widowed parent moved into the home of a married child
• Most ppl did not marry young in the 17th and 18th c
o Many years after reaching adulthood
o Many years after beginning to work
o 25-27 y/o
o 10-20% never married at all
• Delayed marriage reasons
o Couples did not marry until they could start an independent household and support
themselves and their future children
o Peasants needed to wait until their father’s death to inherit land and marry
o In towns, men and women worked to accumulate enough savings to start a small business
and establish a home
o Laws and tradition stemmed tide of early marriage
o In some areas, couples needed legal permission or approval of local lord to marry
▪ Poor couples had difficulty securing approval of local officials, who didn’t want
to propagate the peasants (more abandoned children, etc.)
• Custom of late marriage with nuclear family households distinguished European society from
other areas
• This marriage pattern caused economic advantage in early modern Europe
o Late marriage = mature man and mature women who had already accumulated social and
economic capital and could transmit self-reliance to the next generation
o Greater degree of equality between husband and wife
Work Away from Home
• Many young ppl worked within their families until they could start their own households
• Others left home to work elsewhere
o Enter apprenticeship at 16, end at 20s
o Couldn’t marry
o Apprentice from rural village would typically move to a city or town to learn a trade,
earning little and working hard
o If he was lucky he’d be admitted to a guild and establish economic independence
• Many poor families couldn’t afford apprenticeships
o Without craft skills, these youths drifted from one tough job to another
▪ Hired hand for small farmer, wage laborer on new road, etc
o They were always subject to economic fluctuations and unemployment
• Many adolescent girls also left families to work
o Range of opportunities open was more limited
o Apprenticeship was sometimes available for female occupations
▪ Seamstress, midwife
o With growth in production of finished goods for emerging consumer economy, demand
rose for skilled female labor ! more opportunities for women
o Some male guildsmen hired women against guild restrictions
• Service in another family’s household was the most common job for girls, even for middle class
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▪ Employer gave $ to parents sometimes
o Constantly under the eye of her mistress
o Had many tasks (cleaning, shopping, cooking)
o Often work was endless, there were no limitation laws
o Servant girls often complained of physical mistreatment by mistresses
Male apprentices had similar tales of abuse, but were far less vulnerable than female servants
Domestic service should have offered a young girl protection and security in a new family
o She was often easy prey to master or his sons or his friends
o If girl became pregnant, she could be fired and thrown out
o Many families would not accept a girl back into the home
o Had to go to prostitution or petty thievery
Premarital Sex and Community Controls
• Long time to for sexually mature people to wait for sex
• Many unmarried couples satisfied sexual desires with fondling and petting
• Others engaged in premarital sex
• Those who did risked pregnancy and stigma of illegitimate birth
• Birth control was known before 19th c, but it was primitive and unreliable
o Condoms from sheep intestine
o Expensive, mainly for aristocrats
• Most common method of contraception was withdrawal before ejaculation
o French used it most
• Did sex, unreliable contraception, mean late marriage caused illegitimate children?
o No, there are low rates of illegitimacy, they were a rarity
• Community pressure to marry often prevailed to control sex drive of youths
o Couples were engaged or in a relationship before going to intimate relations
o Pregnancy set relationship once and for all
• Combo of low rates of illegitimate birth with large numbers of pregnant brides reflects
community controls of traditional village
o Cooperation and common action
o Spirit of common action was mobilized by prospect of an unwed mother with an
illegitimate child, viewed as a grave threat to the economic, social, and moral stability of
the community
o Mad parents, anxious village elders, mad priests, all combined to pressure young people
who wavered about marriage in the face of unexpected pregnancies
• In countryside, controls meant premarital sex was not ok, but only if you’re contemplating
marriage
• Concerns of village and family weighed heavily on couples’ lives after marriage
o People in peasant communities gave such affairs loud publicity
o Young men would gang up on the bad youngster and force him to shame himself
o Parade around spouse beater or adulterous couple
o Rotten vegetables on doorstep
o Insulting midnight serenades
• These epitomize community’s effort to police personal behavior and maintain moral standards
New Patterns of Marriage and Illegitimacy
• Second half of 18th c: long standing patterns of marriage and illegitimacy shifted dramatically
o Rise in young people’s ability to choose partners for themselves, rather than following
economic/social interests of families
▪ Social and economic transformations made it harder for families and
communities to supervise their behavior
▪ More youths worked in countryside for wages, rather than family farm
▪ Economic autonomy translated into increased freedom of action
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o Many youths joined flood of migrants to cities to search for work
Urban life provided young people with more social contacts and less social control
Illegitimacy explosion came from loosening social control
o The sharp increase in out of wedlock births that occurred in Europe between 1750 and
1850, caused by low wages and the breakdown of community controls
o Births out of wedlock rose
o People still disparaged single mothers, so the mothers were in desperate situations
Why did number of illegitimate births skyrocket?
o Rise in sexual activity among young people
▪ Loosened social controls
▪ Young ppl had more choice in marriage
▪ More opportunities to yield to attraction of opposite sex
Some women had sex because they were promised marriage afterwards, but were left pregnant
and unmarried
Problem for young women who became pregnant: fewer men followed through on their promises
o Rising prices for food, homes, other necessities
o Wages rose, but not enough to cover the cost of price increases
o A lot of men were sincere but their new economic situations caused insecurities, and they
couldn’t take on a wife and child
Other men profited from eased social controls to make false promises
o For seduced women, there was little recourse against a deceitful suitor because she had to
explain all of her sexual deeds
Some happy couples benefitted from matches of love rather than convenience, but many did not
Romantic, yet practical dreams and aspirations were frustrated by low wages, inequality, and
changing economic and social conditions
Old patterns in marriage and family were breaking down
Sex on the Margins of Society
• Prostitution offered single and married men an outlet for sexual desire
• After a long period of tolerance, prostitutes encountered harsh/repressive laws as officials across
Europe began to close brothels and declare prostitution illegal
• Despite repression, prostitution continued to flourish in 18th c
• Most prostitutes were working women who turned to sex trade when confronted with
unemployment or seasonal shortages of work
• These women did not become social pariahs, but retained ties with communities of laboring poor
to which they belonged
• Drawbacks of Prostitution
o If caught by police, they were subject to imprisonment/banishment
o Venereal disease was a constant threat
o Humiliating police examinations for disease
• Some courtesans/prostitutes had wealthy protectors who provided apartments, servants, cash
o If their protectors lost her client, she’d be forced back on the streets
• Protected by status, nobles and royals sometimes openly indulged in same sex passions, which
was accepted as long as they had heirs
o King James I
o King William of Orleans
• Late 17th c: homosexual subcultures began to emerge in Paris, Amsterdam, London, with own
slang, meeting places, styles of dress
o Groups included men exclusively gay
o In London, they were “mollies”
o Some began to dress like women and act feminine
o New self-identity began to form among gays: their gay desire made them fundamentally
diff from other men
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Gay relations existed among women too, but attracted less anxiety and condemnation that that
among men
o Some were prosecuted for “unnatural” relations
o Others attempted to escape by dressing like men
Beginnings of distinctive lesbian subculture appeared in London at end of 18th c
Traditional tolerance for sexual activities among heterosexual marriage (prostitutes or gay) began
to fade
ENLT critics attacked court immortality and preached virtue and morality for middle class men
who should prove their worthiness to take over the reigns of power
Children and Education
• European women married late, but began producing children rapidly
• Infant mortality was extremely high, and many women died in childbirth
• For surviving children, new ENLT ideals in the latter half of the century stressed the importance
of parental nurturing
• New worldviews led to increase in elementary schools, but formal education played only a
modest role in lives of ordinary children
Child Care and Nursing
• Newborns were vulnerable to disease, and many died of diarrhea from dehydration
• Those who survived sometimes died in childhood
• Childbirth was also dangerous
o Blood loss, shock, unsanitary infections
• Creation of life was also accompanied by suffering and death
• Women of lower classes in countryside generally breast fed infants for 2 years or more
o Breast feeding was decreased likelihood of pregnancy
o Nursing saved lives: breast fed infants received precious immunity producing substances
and were more likely to survive on that than on other food
• Women of aristocracy and upper middle class seldom nursed their own children
o Breast feeding was undignified and interfered with social responsibilities
o Hired a live in wet nurse to suckle her child: wet nursing
▪ a widespread and flourishing business in the 18th c in which women were paid to
breast feed other women’s babies
• Working women in the cities
o Used wet nurses because they needed a living
o Unable to afford live in wet nurses, turned to cheaper rural wet nursing
o Conducted within frame of putting out system
• Wet nursing was particularly common in northern France
o Paris and other northern cities
o Half go to government distribution network of rural wet nurses
o 25% went to Parisian nurses
o 25% abandoned to foundling hospitals
o 10% nursed at home by mothers or live in nurses
• Reliance on wet nurses ! high levels of infant mortality
o Dangers of travel, lack of supervision of conditions in wet nurses’ homes, need to share
milk between babies
• Those in England had actual mothers sucks their babies, so less deaths than in France
• Why did French women send their babies to wet nurses, despite high mortality rates?
o Parental indifference to child’s survival
o More likely: combination of cultural, socioeconomic, and biological factors
▪ Wet nursing was an old tradition to France
Migration to cities, high prices, and stagnant wages pushed more women into
workforce, often into jobs outside of the home and it was impossible to nurse
their own babies
▪ Few alternatives to breast milk existed, ppl thought they were doing the more
affordable and safer thing for their babies
• Artificial feeding methods were seen as dangerous
2nd half of 18th c: critics had harsh attacks against wet nursing
o ENLT thinkers: wet nursing was robbing European society of reaching its full potentials
▪ Thought population was declining (not) and blamed this decline on women’s
failure to nurture children properly
o Inveighed against practices of contraception and masturbation – robbing nations of
potential children
Many women had no choice but to rely on wet nurses until cow’s milk and artificial nipples came
into play
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Foundlings and Infanticide
• Young woman who couldn’t provide for an unwanted child had few choices
o Abortions illegal, dangerous, rare
o Some women hid unwanted pregnancies, delivered in secret, smothered infants
o If discovered, infanticide was punishable by death
• Women in cities had more choice of disposal
o Foundling homes, first found in Italy, Spain, Portugal and spread
▪ 18th c England: gov acted on petition calling for founding hospital to prevent
murders or poor babies and leaving children on streets
• As more foundling hospitals occurred, number of foundlings being cared for surged
o Admitting 100,000 across Europe a year, almost all infants
• Foundling homes were favorite charity of rich and powerful
o Good example of Christian charity and social concern in poverty and inequality
• Foundling home was not a panacea
o 1770s: 1/3 of all babies in Paris were being immediately abandoned
▪ Many were single babies
▪ Product of illegitimacy explosion
▪ Others were foundlings of married poor couples
• Great numbers of babies entered foundling homes, but few left
o 50% normally died in a year
o Succumbed to long journeys over rough roads, neglect, illness
o Foundling hospitals: legalized infanticide
Attitudes Toward Children
• Some scholars claim parents did not risk forming emotional attachments with young children
because of high mortality rates – attitude of indifference or negligence
o Edward Gibbon: said death of children before parent was common
• Emotional prudence could lead to emotional distance
o Michel de Montaigne: lost 5 of 6 children says he has to have forbearance with his
obsession of caressing newborns because he know they might die
• Historians have gained evidence that parents did cherish their children and suffered when they
died
• In society characterized by violence and brutality, discipline of children was often severe
o “Spare the rod and spoil the child”
o Susannah Wesley
▪ Mother of John Wesley, thought parenting was about “conquering the will and
bring them to an obedient temper”
• ENLT produced enthusiastic new discourse about childhood and child rearing
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Called for greater tenderness toward children and proposed imaginative new teaching
methods
o Supported foundling hospitals
o Urged women to nurse babies
o Ridiculed swaddling babies in rigid whale bone corsets to mold children’s bones –
wanted freedom of movement with comfortable clothes
▪ Celebration of nature and natural laws that should guide human behavior
▪ Best hopes of creating a new society untrammeled by prejudices of past lay in
radical reform of child rearing techniques
Rousseau
o Fervently advocated breast feeding and natural dress
o Boys’ education should include plenty of fresh air and exercise and should be taught
practical craft skills in addition to book learning
o Insisted girls’ education should focus on their future domestic responsibilities
o Women’s “nature” destined them to a life of marriage and child rearing
Ideas of Rousseau and other reformers were enthusiastically adopted by elite women, who did not
adopt universal nursing but began to supervise wet nurses closer
Rousseau also reveals occasional hypocrisy of ENLT thinkers
o He believes child rearing techniques would create a better society, but he himself
abandoned all of his children to foundling hospitals
o Idea of creating a natural man was more important than raising real children
The Spread of Elementary Schools
• Availability of education outside home gradually increased over early modern period
• Wealthy led way with special colleges, often run by Jesuits in Catholic areas
• Schools charged specifically with educating children of common people began to appear
o Specialized in teaching 6-12 y/o basic literacy, religion, arithmetic for boys, and needle
work for girls
• Number of such schools expanded in 18th c although they were never sufficient to educate the
mass
• Religious faith was important in spread of education
o Presbyterian Scotland was convinced that path to salvation was established in effective
network of parish schools for rich and poor
o Church of England and its sects within established “charity schools” to instruct poor
children
o Prussia: first proponents of universal education inspired by Protestant idea that every
believer should be able to read the Bible
▪ Made education compulsory for boys and girls
o Protestant German states followed suit
• Catholic states pursued their own programs of popular education
o France: charity schools to teach poor children their catechism, prayer, reading/writing
o Run by parish priests or by new teaching orders
o Most famous order: Jean Baptiste de la Salle’s Brothers of the Christian Schools
• Enthusiasm for popular education was greater in Habsburg empire, inspired by expansion of
schools in rival German states
o Maria Theresa issued compulsory education edict
• Across Europe, some elementary education was becoming a reality, and schools were growing
significance in the life of the child
Popular Culture and Consumerism
• New efforts in education, literacy was growing among popular classes, whose reading habits
centered primarily on religious material, also began to incorporate more practical and entertaining
literature
• Also, they enjoyed range of leisure activities including storytelling, fairs, festivals, and sports
•
One of most important developments in European society in 18th c: emergence of a fledgling
consumer culture
o Much of expansion took place among upper and upper-middle classes
o Boom in cheap reproductions of luxury items allowed people of modest means to
participate
o Material worlds of city dwellers grew richer and more diverse
o “Consumer revolution” created new expectations for comfort, hygiene, and self
expression in daily life
o Dramatically changed European life in 18th c
Popular Literature
• Surge in childhood education ! growth in basic literacy
o 1600: 1/6 in France and Scotland barely literate
o 1600: ¼ in England barely literate
o 1800: 9/10 Scottish males and 2/3 French males
• Bulk of jump occurred in 18th c
• Women were increasingly literate, but lagged behind men
• Growth in literacy promoted growth in reading: common people
o Bible remained overwhelming favorite, especially in Protestant countries
o Short pamphlets: chapbooks were staple of popular literature
▪ Printed on cheap paper
▪ Featured Bible stories, prayers, devotions, lives of good Christians
▪ Gave believers moral teachings and a confidence in God that helped them endure
struggles in everyday life
o Entertainment, often humorous stories, formed second element of popular literature
▪ Fairy tales, medieval romances, crime stories, adventures
▪ Presented a world of danger/magic that provided temporary flight from harsh
everyday reality
▪ Had nuggets of ancient folk wisdom, counseling prudence
o Practical popular literature
▪ Rural crafts, household repairs, plants
▪ Almanacs
• Secular/religious/astrological
• Arcane (little known) facts and jokes
• Universal, not controversial
• Highly appreciated
• Elites still appreciated elements of common culture with masses
• Vast majority of ordinary people (peasants in isolated villages) did not read great works of ENLT,
they were not immune to ideas
o Urban working ppl were exposed to new ideas through rumors/gossip/cafes/ taverns
o Cheap pamphlets that had ENLT ideas
o Servants traveled from rural!city with new ideas from city
• Some ordinary ppl did assimilate ENLT ideals
o Thomas Paine: Common Sense, the pamphlet attacked evils of gov
o Proof of working people’s ability to receive ENLT ideas
Leisure and Recreation
• Despite spread of literacy, culture of village remained largely oral rather than written
o Peasant families gathered to talk, sing, tell stories around fireplace during winter
o Women gathered in cottages to talk, sew, laugh
o Sometimes men would be invited as potential suitors
o Drinking at taverns to socialize
▪ Cheap/potent liquor
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Towns and cities offered wider range of amusements
o Pleasure gardens, theaters, lending libraries
o Urban fairs with foods, acrobats, freak shows
o Form of consumption marked by growing commercialization
▪ Spectator spots to gain profit
• Horse races, boxing matches, bullfights
• Brain bashing, heavyweight champions
o Blood sports: Popular with 18th c European masses, events such as bull baiting and
cockfighting that involved inflicting violence and bloodshed on animals
▪ Bull-baiting, cockfighting – people bet on winner
Popular recreation merged with religious celebration
o Festivals/processions
o Carnival: few days of revelry in Catholic countries preceding Lent that included drinking,
masquerading, dancing, and rowdy spectacles that turned the established order upside
down
▪ Peasants dressed as nobles and vice versa
▪ Allowed ppl to release frustrations before life returned to usual pattern
Vibrant popular culture of common people criticized by educated elites in second half of 18th c
o Previously shared enthusiasm for religious festivals, carnival, drinking, blood sports, etc,
now saw superstition, sin, disorder, vulgarity
o Attacks on popular culture was tied to clergy’s effort to eliminate paganism and
superstition, which was intensified as educated public embraced critical worldview of
ENLT
New Foods and Appetites
• Beginning of 18th c: Ordinary men and women depended on grain as fully as they had in the past
o Staff of life
o Washed down with water, wine, or beer
o Dark bread made from roughly ground wheat and rye
o Peasants normally needed to buy grain for food, and believed in moral economy and just
price: the idea that prices should be fair, protecting both consumers and producers, and
that they should be imposed by the gov decree if necessary
o When prices rose above this level, they often took action in form of bread riots
• Rural poor ate fair quantity of vegetables
o Peas and beans
o Grown as field crops
o Dried vegetables for soup
o On tables of poor in season: cabbages, carrots, wild greens
o Fruits for summer
o Milk used for cheese and butter, which was sold in market to earn cash for taxes and land
rents
• Common ppl of Europe ate little meat
o Expensive
o Harsh laws reserved right to hunt and eat game for nobles and large landowners
o Bitterly resented, often broken
• Diet of small traders and artisans – people of towns and cities had a more varied meal
o Bustling markets with variety of meats, vegetables, and fruits
o Bread and beans still formed bulk
• Diet of rich diff than diet of poor in towns/cities
o Upper class was carnivorous who complemented meat with fish and sauces and nuts
• Patterns of food consumption changed as century progressed
• Growth of market gardening ! greater variety of vegetables appeared in towns and cities
o Low Countries and England pioneered new methods of farming
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Potatoes, along with tomatoes, squash, and corn came from Americas with many nutrients
o Became important dietary supplement in much of Europe by end of 18th c
Large towns/cities of maritime Europe began to receive semi tropical fruits (oranges, lemons) but
they were expensive
Most remarkable dietary change in 18th c: consumption of sugar and tea
o No other commodities grew so quickly in popularity
o Previously expensive and rare luxury items
o Became dietary staples for people of all social classes
o Steady drop in prices created by expansion of colonial slave trade
Other colonial goods became goods of daily consumption: coffee, tobacco, chocolate
Why were colonial products so popular?
o Desire to emulate luxurious lifestyles of elite
o Sought to experience pleasures for themselves
o Quickened pace of work in 18th c ! needs for stimulants (coffee, tea)
▪ Gentry used tea for luxury, lower classes used it to fight fatigue of work
Working people in Europe became increasingly dependent on far away colonial economies and
slave labor
Understanding of daily necessities and how to procure them shifted, and linked them to global
trade networks
Toward a Consumer Society
• All manner of other goods increased in variety and number in 18th c
• Led to growth in consumption and new attitudes toward consumer goods
• Consumer revolution: wide ranging growth in consumption and new attitudes toward consumer
goods that emerged in the cities of NW Europe in 2nd half of 18th c
• New society where ppl derived self identity as much from their consuming practices as from their
working lives and place in production process
• Ppl were provided with opportunity to pick and choose among new variety of consumer goods
• New notions of individuality and self-expression developed
• Full consumer society didn’t emerge till later, but roots are in 18th c
• Increased demand for consumer goods wasn’t just response to increased supply
o Merchants cleverly advertised to incite demand
o Marketing campaigns, boutiques with windows, patronage of royal princes
o Seized reigns of fashion from courtiers who controlled it
o Merchants dictated what was in fashion
• Fashion extended to diff social groups
• Clothing was one chief indicator of growth in consumerism
o Entrepreneurs made fashionable clothing more desirable
o Women entering textile business made it cheaper
o 18th c western Europe witnessed a dramatic rise in consumption of clothing
o Colonial economies lowered cost of materials due to unpaid slaves
o Cheaper copies of elite styles made it possible for working ppl to aspire to follow fashion
for first time
• Spread of fashion was mostly a female phenomenon
o Women gained lots of clothing
• New gender distinctions in dress
o Noblemen vied with noblemen for magnificence/ostentatious dress
o Men renounced brilliant colors/voluptuous fabrics for plain dark suits
• Changes in outward appearances were reflected in new spaces and new ideas of privacy and
intimate life
o Families began attributing specific functions to specific rooms
o Erected inner barriers for privacy
• New levels of comfort and convenience accompanied trend of more individualized ways of life
•
o Common dish ! each person has his own plate
o More books decorated the walls
o Transparent windows to allow sunlight to enter room
o More efficient and cleaner stoves
o Rooms were warmer, better lit, more comfortable, and more personalized
Developments were concentrated in large cities in NW Europe and in colonial cities of N. Am
o Elite benefitted most from new modes of life
o Not yet society of mass consumption
o Laid foundations for one of distinctive features of Western life: societies based on
consumption of goods/services obtained through market in which individuals form self
identities/worth from what they consume
Religious Authority and Beliefs
• Majority of ordinary men and women remained committed Christians
• Religious faith promised salvation, and gave comfort in the face of sorrow and death
• Religion remained strong because it was embedded in local traditions and everyday social
experience
• Popular religion of village Europe was enmeshed in a larger world of church hierarchies and state
power
• Powerful outside forces sought to regulate religious life at the local level
• Efforts created tensions that helped set the scene for vigorous religious revivals in Protestant
Germany, England, and Catholic France
• Tensions arose between authorities and people as powerful elites began to criticize many popular
religious practices that their increasingly rationalistic minds deemed foolish and superstitious
Church Hierarchy
• Local parish church remained focal point of religious devotion and community cohesion
o Congregants gossiped and swapped stories after services, and neighbors came together
for special events
o Priests/parsons kept community records, and provided primary education
o Parish church was women into fabric of community life
• Parish church was also subject to greater control from state
o Prot areas: princes/monarchs headed official church and regulated their “territorial
churches” strictly
o Radical ideas of Reformation had resulted in another version of church bureaucracy
• Catholic monarchs also took greater control of religious matters in their kingdoms and weakened
papal authority
o Spain, deeply Catholic, took firm control of church appointments
o Papal proclamations couldn’t be read w/o prior approval from gov
o Spain asserted control over Spanish Inquisition
• Fare of Society of Jesus, Jesuits
o Well educated, extraordinary teachers, missionaries, agents of papacy
o Exercised tremendous political influence, holding high gov positions, educating nobility
o Eventually elicited a broad coalition of enemies by having too much political power
▪ Louis XV ordered Jesuits out of France and confiscate their property
▪ France/Spain pressured Rome to dissolve Jesuits
• Some Catholic rulers also believed the clergy in monasteries and convents should make it a more
practical contribution to social and religious life
o Maria Theresa began sharply restricting entry into “unproductive orders”
o Joseph II abolished contemplative orders, permitting only orders engaged in teacher,
nursing, or other practical worth
o State expropriated dissolved monasteries and used their wealth for charitable purposes
and higher salaries for ordinary priests
o
Issued edicts of religious tolerance
Protestant Revival
• By 17th c Protestant Reformation reforms were complete and were widely adopted in most Prot
churches
• Idolatry, veneration of saints all come
• Many official Prot churches had settled into smug complacency
• This, with growth of state power and bureaucracy in local parishes threatened to eclipse
Reformation’s main goal: to bring all believers closer to God
• People thought ppl needed to go back to original inspiration
• Powerful Prot revival that succeeded because it answered intense but unsatisfied needs of
common ppl
• Revival began in Germany in late 17th c
• Called Pietism: A Protestant revival movement in early 18th c Germany and Scandinavia that
emphasized a warm and emotional religion, the priesthood of all believers, and the power of
Christian rebirth in everyday affairs
o Reasons for acceptance
▪ Warm, emotional religion that everyone could experience
• Enthusiasm was key concept
• The heart must burn
▪ Reasserted earlier radical stress on priesthood of all believers, reducing gulf
between official clergy and Lutheran laity
• Bible reading extended to all classes
• Spur for popular literacy and individ religious development
• Did many educational reforms in Prussia
▪ Practical power of Christian rebirth in everyday affairs
• Reborn Christians were expected to lead good, moral lives and to come
from all social classes
• Pietism spread through German speaking lands in Scandinavia
• Had major impact on John Wesley
o Catalyst for popular religious revival in England
o Mapped “scheme of religion”
o Organized a Holy club for similarly minded students: Methodists: Members of a
Protestant revival movement started by John Wesley, so called because they were so
methodical in their devotion
o Remained intensely troubled about his salvation
• Wesley’s anxieties related to grave problems in faith in England
o Gov shamelessly used Church of England to provide favorites with high paying jobs
o Church and state officials failed to respond to needs of ppl
▪ Ignored construction of church with growing population
▪ Ignored need of more pews
o Services and sermons were an uninspiring routine
o Separation of religion from local customs and social life
o ENLT skepticism was making inroads among educated classes – deism (belief in God,
but not organized religion) was becoming popular
▪ Bishops thought virgin Mary was a superstition
• Wesley had a conversion: He was reading Luther’s preface and felt heart strangely warmed, and
thanked God for his grace
• Wesley was convinced that any person might have a similarly heartfelt conversion and gain same
blessed conversion
• Took good news to ppl
• Wesley preached in open fields because churches were often crowded
o Ppl came in large numbers
• Wesley rejected Calvinist predestination
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o Preached all men and women who earnestly sought salvation might be saved
o Message of hope and joy, free will, and universal salvation
Wesley’s ministry won converts, formed Methodist cells, and resulted in a new denomination
o Evangelicals in Church of England and old dissenting groups now followed Wesley’s
example of preaching to all ppl, giving an impetus to even broader awakening among
lower classes
In Protestant countries, religion continued to be a vital force in the lives of ppl
Catholic Piety
• Catholic religion flourished, but diff from Prot practice
o Visual contrast striking: Catholics like art and emotionally exhilarating figures
o Participated more actively in formal worship
• Tremendous popular strength in Catholic religion due to church’s integral role in community life
and popular culture
o Enthusiastically joined together in religious festivals
o Reenactment of Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem
o Processions – escape from work, form of recreation
• Catholicism had its own version of Pietist revivals – Jansenism: “illegitimate offspring of Prot
Reformation and Catholic Counter Reformation”
o Originated with Cornelius Jansen
▪ Called for return to austere early Christianity of Saint Augustine
▪ Not worldly Jesuits
▪ Emphasized heavy weight of original sin and accepted predestination
▪ Outlawed by papal/royal edicts as Calvinist heresy
▪ Attracted Catholic followers eager for religious renewal, particularly French
• Members of French urban elite
▪ Stern religious values encouraged judiciary’s increasing opposition to French
monarchy in 2nd half of 18th c
• Diff strain of Jansenism among urban poor
o Prayer meetings brought men/women together in ecstatic worship
o Convulsions, speaking in tongues
o Police of Paris conducted mass raids
Marginal Beliefs and Practices
• In countryside, peasants continued to hold religious beliefs marginal to Christina faith altogether,
often even of pagan origin
o Bless salt/bread for farm animals to protect them from disease
o Healing springs
o Buried live bull to ward off disease
• Ordinary person combined strong Christina faith with wealth of time-honored superstition
• Inspired by fervor of Reformation era, then by rationalism of ENLT, religious and secular
authorities sought increasingly to “purify” popular spirituality
o French priests denounced remnants of paganism found in bonfire ceremonies where men
jumped over fire to try to protect themselves from disease
o Saw regressing into paganism “triumph of Hell and the shame of Christianity”
• Severity of attack on popular belief varied by country and region
o Where authorities pursued purification (Austria) pious peasants drew back in anger
o Reaction dramatized growing tension between educated elite/common ppl
• Growing intellectual disdain for popular beliefs
• Persecution of witches came to end
o Elite dismissed such fears and refused to prosecute witches
Medical Practice
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ENLT’s growing focus on discovering laws of nature and on human problems gave rise to great
deal fo research and experimentation
Medical practitioners greatly increased in number, though techniques did not change
Care of sick was domain of competing groups
o Faith healers
o Apothecaries
o Physicians
o Surgeons
o Midwives
Both men and women were medical practitioners
Since women were generally denied admission to medical colleges and lacked diplomas
necessary to practice, the rage of medical activities open to them was restricted
18th c: Women’s traditional roles as midwives and healers was eroded even further
Faith healing and General Practice
• Faith healers remained active
o Thought evil spirits caused illness by lodging in ppl
o Proper treatment was exorcism
o View most common in countryside, where popular belief emphasized healing power of
relics, prayer, etc
• Larger towns and cities: apothecaries
o Sold herbs, drugs, medicines
o Some worked
▪ Laxatives
o Advertised their wares, high class customers, miraculous cures in newspapers
o Medicine joined era’s new commercial culture
• Physicians
o Invariably men
o Apprenticed in their teens to practicing physicians
o Training rounded with hospital work/university courses
o Prolonged training was expensive ! physicians came from prosperous families, and
concentrated on urban patients from similar backgrounds
o Little contact with urban workers and less with peasants
• Physicians in 18th c were increasingly willing to experiment with new methods, but time honored
practices lay heavily on them
o Laid great stress on purging and bloodletting (thought as a panacea)
▪ “Bad blood” caused illness
▪ Balance of humors was necessary for good health
Hospitals and Surgery
• Surgery was long thought of as a craft comparable to butchers and barbers
• 18th c: Surgeons began to study anatomy seriously and improved their art
• Endless opportunities to practice – army surgeons
o Learned that a soldier with a big would could be saved if cauterized
• 18th c surgeon labored in face of incredible difficulties
o Almost all operations performed without painkillers (anesthetics were hard to control/
dangerous)
▪ Patients died from agony/shock
o Surgery was performed in unsanitary conditions
▪ No knowledge of bacteria and infection
▪ Simplest would could be fatal
Midwifery
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Midwives continued to deliver the majority of babies in 18th c
Trained by another woman practitioner and regulated by guild
Treated female problems: breast feeding, irregular periods, etc, and ministered to small children
Midwife orchestrated labor and birth, where relatives assisted pregnant woman in familiar
surroundings of her own home
Male surgeon rarely entered female world, because births were now normal
After invention of foreceps (tweezer things) surgeon-physicians used their monopoly over this
and other instruments to seek lucrative new business
Attacked midwives as ignorant and dangerous, they sought to undermine faith in midwives and
persuaded wealthy women of their superiority to midwives
Women practitioners successfully defended much but not all of their practice in 18th c
Madame du Coudray
o Wrote widely used textbook
o Manual on the Art of Childbirth
o Secured royal financing for her campaign to teach better birthing techniques to village
midwives
o Traveled all over France with life-size model of female parts to teach illiterate women
Midwives generally lost no more babies than did male doctors, who were still summoned to treat
non-elite women in life threatening situations only
The Conquest of Smallpox
• Experimentation and the intensified search for solutions to human problems ! real advances in
medicine after 1750
• Greatest medical triumph: eradication of smallpox
• After decline of bubonic plague, smallpox became most terrible disease
• First step in conquest of smallpox was by English aristocrat Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
o Learned about smallpox inoculation in Muslim lands of western Asia
o She had her son inoculated and spread the practice in England
o Inoculation was risky and widely condemned because 1/50 ppl were infectious and
spread disease
• Practice of inoculation was refined over the century
• Edward Jenner
o Countryside belief that maids who got cowpox didn’t get smallpox
o Practiced Baconian science, collecting data
o Formed first vaccination on young boy using matter from a milkmaid with cowpox
o New method of treatment spread rapidly, and smallpox soon declined to disappearance in
Europe
Ch 20: The Revolution in Politics
Background to Revolution
• Numerous factors account for revolution
o Deep social changes, long term political crisis that eroded monarchial legitimacy, impact
of new political ideas from ENLT, financial crisis by France’s wars
Legal Orders and Social Reality
• 3 Estates: The three legal categories, or orders, of France’s inhabitants: the clergy, the nobility,
and everyone else
o 1st estate: Clergy
▪ 100,000
▪ Had important privileges
▪ Owned 10% of land
▪ Paid a voluntary gift rather than regular taxes
▪ Levied a property tax (tithe) on landowners
o 2nd Estate: Nobles
▪ 400,000
▪ Descendents of those who fought in Middle Ages
▪ Owned 25% of land
▪ Lightly taxed
▪ Enjoyed certain manorial rights/privileges of lordship
• Rights to hunt and fish, monopolies on baking bread, etc.
▪ Honorific privileges
• Wear swords
• Proclaimed nobility’s legal superiority and exalted social position
o 3rd Estate: Everyone else
▪ 98% of population
▪ Legally members, not socially
▪ A few commoners were well educated and rich, and might purchase manorial
rights (merchants, lawyers)
▪ Vast majority of 3rd estate consisted of peasants, rural agricultural workers, urban
artisans, and unskilled day laborers
▪ Conglomeration of very different social groups united only by their shared legal
status
• Historians focused on growing tensions between nobility and comfortable members of 3rd class,
bourgeoisie (upper-middle class)
o Bourgeoisie increasing in size, wealth, culture, and self confidence
o Exasperated by feudal laws restraining economy and pretensions of a nobility that was
closing ranks against middle class aspirations
o Bourgeoisie rose up to lead entire 3rd estate into great social revolution that destroyed
feudal privileges and established a capitalist order based on individualism and a market
economy
• New view: questioned existence of growing social conflict between bourgeoisie and reactionary
feudal nobility
• See both bourgeoisie and nobility as highly fragmented, riddled with internal rivalries
o 2nd estate: nobility
▪ Sword nobility: descended from oldest noble families, separated by differences in
wealth, education, and worldview\
▪ Robe nobility: people who acquired noble titles through service in the royal
administration and judiciary
o 3rd Estate: Bourgeoisie
▪ Wealthy financers
▪ Local lawyers
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Nobility and bourgeoisie formed two parallel social ladders increasingly linked together at the top
by wealth, marriage, and ENLT culture
o Nobility and Bourgeoisie were not at odds in the economic sphere
▪ Investment in land and government service were preferred activities of both
groups
▪ Ideal of merchant capitalist was to gain enough wealth to retire from trade,
purchase an estate, and live nobly as a large landowner
o Wealthy members of 3rd estate could move into 2nd estate by serving gov or purchasing
noble positions
o Wealthy nobles often acted as aggressive capitalists, investing especially in mining,
metallurgy, foreign trade
o Key sections of nobility were liberal and generally joined bourgeoisie in opposition to
government
Bourgeoisie and nobility were not locked in growing conflict
Old Regime ceased to correspond with social reality
o Legally, society was still based on rigid orders inherited from Middle Ages, but in reality
those distinctions were often blurred
Upper echelon (level) of aristocratic and bourgeois notables saw itself as an educated elite that
stood well above the common masses
o Society’s upper crust was frustrated by a bureaucratic monarchy that continued to claim
the right to absolute power
France’s laboring poor were still struggling
The Crisis of Political Legitimacy
• Overlying social changes was a structural deadlock in France’s tax system and century long
political and fiscal (economic) struggle between the monarchy and its opponents sparked by
expenses of foreign wars
• Louis XIV was succeeded by Louis XV and system of absolutist rule was questioned
o Duke of Orleans: Number of institutions retrieved powers they had lost under Louis XIV
o High courts of France, parlements, regained ancient right to evaluate royal decrees
publicly in writing before being passed
o Restoration of right was a fateful step: magistrates of parlements were leaders of the robe
nobility who passed their judicial offices from father to son
▪ Well entrenched/highly articulate branch to evaluate king’s decrees was a
counterweight to absolute power
• Heavy expenses of war proved unbearable for the state treasury
o Many privileged groups escaped direct taxes
o Revenue from taxes could not meet expense of war
o War of Austrian Succession ! Plunged France into financial crisis and pushed state to
attempt a reform of tax system
▪ Louis XV’s finance minister decreed a 5% income tax on every individual
regardless of social status
▪ Vigorous protest from those previously exempt from taxes
• Clergy, nobility, towns, wealthy bourgeoisie, led by PLMT of Paris
▪ New tax was dropped
o 7YW ! gov tried to maintain emergency taxes after the war ended
▪ PLMT of Paris protested and challenged royal authority, claiming king’s power
had to be limited to protect liberty
▪ Gov withdrew taxes
▪ Judicial opposition asserted that the king could not levy taxes without the consent
of the PLMT of Paris
• After years of attempted compromise, Louis XV roused himself to defend his absolutist
inheritance
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“In my person only does the sovereign power rest”
Appointed Rene de Maupeou, tough career official, as chancellor and ordered him to
crush the judicial opposition
▪ Abolished existing parlements
▪ Exiled vociferous members of PLMT of Paris to provinces
▪ Created new and docile parlements of royal officials, known as Maupeou
parlements, and began to tax privileged groups
o Public opinion sided with old parlements
o Widespread criticism of “Royal despotism”
King found people turning against him for moral reasons as well
o Louis XV broke tradition by choosing mistress not from court nobility -- took Madame
de Pompadour, daughter of disgraced bourgeois financer
▪ She exercised tremendous influence (literature, art), and used patronage to
support Voltaire
▪ Exercised considerable influence over king
▪ Her low birth and hidden political influence generated a stream of resentful and
illegal pamphleteering
King sunk lower in immorality
o Stream of scandalmongers depicted pornographic pictures of court
o Ate away at foundations of royal authority, especially among common people
o King was being stripped of sacred aura of God’s anointed on earth and was being
reinvented as a degenerate
Power of monarchy was still strong enough to overcome opposition
o Louis XV died, so we don’t know what if he would’ve succeeded
Louis XVI succeeded
o Wanted to do things that would make him loved, eager to please
o Yielded in face of vehement opposition from France’s educated elite
o Dismissed Maupeou and repudiated strong willed minster’s work
o Dismissed Turgot when his attempts to liberalize economy drew fire
o Weakened but unreformed monarchy faced judicial opposition that claimed to speak for
entire French nation
Financial Crisis
• French had imminent origins from king’s financial difficulties
• Thwarted by PLMT of Paris to raise revenues by reforming tax system, gov was forced to finance
all of its enormous expenditures during Am. War with borrowed money
• National debt and annual budget deficit soared
• 50% of annual budget went to paying debt, 25% to military, 6% absorbed by king, less than 20%
for productive functions of state
• Impossible financial situation
• King was too weak to declare partial bankruptcy and forcing his creditors to accept reduced
payments
• King and ministers could not print money and create inflation to cover deficits
• France had no central bank, paper currency,, or means of creating credit
• Royal gov had no choice but to try to increase taxes
o France’s tax system was unfair and out of date, so only reform would allow for increased
revenues
• Louis XVI’s minister of finance revived old proposals to impose a general tax on all land property
as well as to form provincial assemblies to help administer the tax
• Convinced king to call Assembly of Notables to gain support for the idea
o Notables were mainly important noblemen and high ranking clergy
o Insisted that a sweeping tax required approval of Estates General
▪ Representative body of all 3 estates, which had not met since 1614
A legislative body in prerevolutionary France made up of representatives of each
of the three estates
Attempting to reassert authority, king dismissed notables and established new taxes by decree
Judges of PLMT of Paris declared royal initiative null
King tried to exile judges, tremendous protest swept country
Investors refused to advance more loans to state
Louis XVI bowed to public opinion and called Estates General
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Politics and the People
• Calling Estates General caused a Pandora’s box of social and political demands to open
o French was politicized like never before
▪ Electing delegates, forming grievances
• Delegates struggled over who truly represented France, and common people took matters into
their own hands – they rose above noble lords and reached out to royal families to demand for
change
• Complex slave society of Saint-Domingue was rocked by political aspirations inspired by events
in Paris
The Formation of the National Assembly
• Once Louis XVI called Estates General, the 3 estates separately elected delegates in each district
and prepared their own lists of grievances
• Drafting complaints unleashed a flood of debate and discussion across France, helping galvanize
public opinion and demands for reform
• Results of elections reveal political loyalties
o Local assemblies of clergy elected mostly parish priests, rather than church leaders !
clergy was dissatisfied with church hierarchy
o Nobility voted for conservatives from provinces where nobles were less wealthy and
more numerous
o 3rd Estate experienced great popular participation in elections, almost all male
commoners over 24 had the right to vote, and they elected primarily lawyers and gov
officials to represent them, with few delegates representing business or poor
• Though elected reps had differing political viewpoints, petitions were change were surprisingly
similar
o Agreement that royal absolutism should give way to constitutional monarchy in which
laws and taxes would require consent of Estates General in regular meetings
o All agreed that individual liberties would have to be guaranteed by law, and that
economic regulations should be loosened
• Delegates paraded through streets of Versailles, hopes were high for reform in cooperation with
king
• Estates General was deadlocked due to arguments about voting procedures
o Gov confirmed that each estate should meet and vote separately
o Critics denounced situation and demanded a single assembly dominated by 3rd state to
ensure reforms
▪ Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes: What is the Third Estate? Argued that nobility was a
tiny overprivileged minority, and the neglected 3rd estate was true strength of
French nation
• Gov conceded that 3rd estate could have as many delegates as clergy and nobility combined, but
rendered this act meaningless by upholding voting by separate order
• Delegates of 3rd estate refused to transact any business until king ordered clergy and nobility to sit
with them in a single body
• After 6 weeks, parish priests began to go over to 3rd estate, which called itself the National
Assembly
• Delegates of 3rd estate went to Tennis Court to sweat Oath of Tennis Court
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National Assembly has been called to establish constitution of realm, bring about
regeneration of public order, and to maintain true principles of monarchy
o Nothing may prevent it from continuing its deliberations in any place
o National Assembly exists wherever its members are gathered
Members of National Assembly pledged not to disband until they had written a new constitution
King’s response was disastrously ambivalent
o Made a conciliatory speech to a joint session where he urged reforms, and 4 days later, he
ordered 3 estates to meet together
o At same time, he followed advice of relatives and court nobles who urged him to dissolve
National Assembly by force
o Asserted his divine right to rule, and called an army of 18,000 troops toward the capital
o Dismissed financial minister and other liberal ministers
o Appeared that the monarchy was prepared to renege on its promises for reform and use
violence to restore control
The Storming of the Bastille
• Economic hardship gripped common people
o Poor grain harvests caused prices to soar
▪ Economic depression
o Demand for manufactured goods collapsed
▪ Artisans and small traders were thrown out of work
o Bread riots broke out
• People believed they should have steady work and enough bread at fair prices to survive
• Feared dismissal of moderate finance minister would put them at mercy of aristocratic
landowners and grain speculators
• Massing of troops near Paris ! it seemed royal gov was prepared to use violence to impose order
• Angry crowds formed, passionate voices urged action
• Several hundred people marched to Bastille to search for weapons and gunpowder
• Bastille: royal prison guarded by soldiers
• Governor of fortress refused to hand over weapons/gunpowder, out of panic he ordered his men
to fight back
• Prison surrendered, killed governor
• Marquis de Lafayette: citizen appointed commander of city’s armed forces
• Bastille forestalled king’s attempt to reassert authority
• Louis announced reinstatement of liberal finance minister and withdrawal of troops from Paris
• National Assembly was not free to continue its work without threat of military intervention
Peasant Revolt and the Rights of Man
• Struggling French peasantry reached boiling point as well as laboring poor of Paris
• Countryside sent delegates at Versailles a message
o Peasants began to rise in insurrection against lords, ransacking manor houses and burning
feudal documents that recorded their obligations
o Reinstated traditional village practices, undoing recent things
• Great Fear: The fear of noble reprisals against peasant uprisings that seized the French
countryside and led to further revolt
o Peasants were afraid of retaliations from nobles
• Nobles were faced with chaos, but unable to call king to restore order
• Liberal nobles and middle class delegates did a surprise maneuver
o Duke of Aiguillon: Powerful noble landowner, urged equality in taxation and elimination
of feudal dues
o Old noble privileges were abolished along with tithes paid to church
o French peasantry achieved an unprecedented victory
o Sought to protect and consolidate their triumph
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After granting peasants new rights, National Assemly moved on to reform
o Issued Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
▪ Men are born and remain equal in rights
▪ Mankind’s natural rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance to
oppression
▪ Every man is innocent until proven guilty
▪ All citizens have right to have a say
▪ Free expression – freedom of speech, press, writing
▪ Equality before law, a representative gov for a sovereign people, and individual
freedom
▪ Disseminated throughout France and Europe
Parisian Women March on Versailles
• National Assembly’s declaration had little practical affect for poor and hungry of paris
• Revolutionary spirit continued to smolder
• Economic crisis in city worsened after fall of Bastille because aristocrats fled country and luxury
market collapsed
• Foreign markets shrank and unemployment for urban working class grew
• Women couldn’t look to church (stripped of tithes) for help
• 7,000 desperate women marched from Paris to Versailles to demand action
o Armed with scythes, sticks, pikes, invaded National Assembly
o Invaded Versailles and searched for Marie Antoinette to kill her
o Intervention of Lafayette and Royal Guard saved royal family
o Forced king to live closer to his people in Paris
A Constitutional Monarchy and Its Challenges
• National Assembly followed king to Paris
• Saw consolidation of liberal revolution
• Under middle-class leadership, National Assembly abolished French nobility as legal order and
pushed for a constitutional monarchy, which Louis XVI reluctantly agreed to accept
• King remained head of state, but all lawmaking power now resided in National Assembly, elected
by wealthiest half of French males
• New laws broadened women’s rights to seek divorce, inherit property, and obtain financial
support for illegitimate children from fathers, but women couldn’t hold office or vote
• Some believed rights of man should be extended to all French citizens
o Marquis de Condorcet: Accused legislators of violating principle of equality by
depriving half of mankind to participate in law
o Olympe de Gouges: Protested slavery and injustices to women in her writing,
Declaration of the Rights of Woman, and challenged revolutionaries to respect ideals of
Rights of Man. Demanded both sexes be equally admissible to all public offices, jobs,
just according to ability
• Arguments for women’s equality found little sympathy among leaders of the Revolution
o One rev journal editor said women should be allowed to speak in assemblies, but not vote
or serve as reps because the house should never be deserted. A mother can’t abandon her
domestic duties
o Represented opinions of vast majority of legislators and ordinary Frenchmen
• National Assembly replaced complicated patchwork of provinces with 83 departments of approx
equal size
o Monopolies, gilds, workers’ associations prohibited
o Barriers to trade within France in the name of economic liberty
• National Assembly applied spirit of ENLT in a reform of France’s laws and institutions
• National Assembly imposed radical reorganization of country’s religious life
o Religious freedom of French Jews and Prots
o Nationalized Catholic Church’s property and abolished monasteries as useless relics
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Gov used all former church property in attempt to put state’s finances on solid footing
▪ Used all former church property as collateral to guarantee a new paper currency,
assignats
▪ Peasants eventually purchased much when it was subdivided
▪ Purchases strengthened their attachment to new rev order in countryside
Delegates distrusted popular piety and superstitious religion from ENTL influence
o Established a national church with priests chosen by voters
o National Assembly forced Catholic clergy to take loyalty oath to the new gov
o Pope formally condemned attempt to subdue church, and only half the priests swore the
oath
o Many pious Christians were upset
o Sharpened conflict between educated classes and common people
Revolutionary Aspirations in Saint-Domingue
• Saint-Domingue: most profitable of French colonies
• Had social tensions
o Variety of social groups who resented and mistrusted one another
o European population: French colonial officials, wealthy plantation owners, merchants,
poor immigrants
o Greatly outnumbering whites, were slaves, and some free people of mixed descent (free
coloreds)
• Code Noir
o Set parameters of slavery
o Granted free people of color same legal status of whites
• Colonial administrators began rescinding these rights, and soon free coloreds were ruled by
discriminatory laws
• White planters eagerly welcomed laws, strict color line defended practice of slavery
• French rev ideals of equality, fraternity, liberty raised new possibilities for each gropu
o Slaves: Hopes that mother country would grant them freedom
o Free coloreds: To regain political and legal rights, getting suffrage, or reasserting equal
status with whites
o White elite: Infuriated by talk of abolition, determined to keep their way of life, saw rep
gov as way to gain control of their own affairs like Am colonies
• National Assembly frustrates hopes of all the groups
o Cowed by colonial reps who claimed support of free coloreds would result in slave
insurrection
o Refused to extend French constitutional safeguards to colonies
o Ruled that each colony would draft its own constitution, with free rein over decisions on
slavery and suffrage
o Also reaffirmed French monopolies over colonial trade, and angered planters
• Vincent Oge: Free coloreds who wanted to redress issues, raised army and sent letters to
Provincial Assembly of Saint-Domingue demanding political rights for all free citizens
o Army defeated
o Tortured and executed
• National Assembly granted political rights to free coloreds born to 2 free parents with property to
respond to what they thought was partially justified grievances
• White elite was furious, and colonial gov refused to enact it
• Violence erupted between whites and free coloreds
• Liberal revolution failed to satisfy contradictory ambitions of colony
World War and Republican France, 1791-1799
• Louis XVI accepted final version of National Assembly’s constitution
• Maximilien Robespierre concluded that Rev is over
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Most constructive and lasting reforms were in place, but a much more radical stage lay
ahead
New heroes and ideologies
Foreign Reactions to the Revolution
• Great Britain
o Hoped French example would lead to a fundamental reordering of PLMT, in hands of
aristocracy
▪ Mary Wollstonecraft: Wanted to be indep in a society that expected her to be an
obedient wife, struggled to earn living as governess, Wrote Vindication of the
Rights of Man, and Rights of Woman.
o Conservatives, Edmund Burke, were troubled by spirit of reform
▪ Defended inherited privileges of people and English monarchy
▪ Glorified unrepresentative PLMT
▪ Said reform like France’s would lead to despotism
o Mary Wollstonecraft: Wanted to be indep in a society that expected her to be an
obedient wife, struggled to earn living as governess, Wrote Vindication of the Rights of
Man, and Rights of Woman.
▪ Equal rights for women
▪ Coeducation would make women better (economically indep, better citizens,
wives, mothers)
▪ Women could do things if men gave them the chance (manage business, enter
politics)
▪ Inspired by French Rev
• Kings and Nobles of continental Europe first saw Rev as weakening a competing power, now felt
threatened
• Louis XVI tried to flee, failed
o Proof king’s supposed acceptance of constitution was a sham, and he was a traitor intent
on procuring foreign support for an invasion of France
• Monarchs of Austria and Prussia issued Declaration of Pillnitz: Rulers’ willingness to intervene in
France to restore Louis XVI’s monarchial rule if necessary
o Wanted to sober France w/o causing war
• New rep body, Legislative Assembly had new delegates/character
o Majority of delegates were still well-educated middle class men
o Younger, less cautious
o Many belonged to Jacobin club: where ppl used to debate on politics
The Outbreak of War
• New reps were angry over Pillnitz
• Wanted to retaliate and make monarchs tremble on their thrones
• Robespierre and very few others argued that ppl would not welcome liberation at point of a gun
• They were pushed aside
• France declared war on Francis II, Habsburg monarch
• Went badly at first
o Prussians joined Austrians in the First Coalition, which made French flee
o Road to Paris lay open
• Assembly declared country in danger, volunteers rallied to capital
• Rumors of treason from king and queen spread
o Crowd attacked palace and fled to Legislative Assembly
• Assembly suspended king from all functions, imprisoned him, and called for a new National
Convention to be elected by male suffrage
• Monarchy in France was on its deathbed
The Second Revolution
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Fall of monarchy marked rapid radicalization of Rev: Second Revolution
o Second phase of French Rev, where fall of French monarchy introduced a rapid
radicalization of politics
After Louis XVI was imprisoned, September Massacres occurred
Stories of imprisoned counter-rev aristocrats and priests were plotting w/ allied invaders seized
city
o Angry crowds invaded prisons of Paris and slaughtered half the men
New popularly elected National Convention proclaimed France a republic, a nation where the
people hold sovereign power
All members of National Convention were republicans
o Almost all belonged to Jacobin club at first
o Divided into Girondists, and Mountain, led by Robespierre and Georges Jacques
Danton
o People floated between rival factions
o Division occurred after Louis XVI was convicted of treason
▪ Girondists: don’t want to kill him, but he is guilty, moderate
▪ Mountain: Led by RP, Want to kill Louis XVI, and did, seized legislative power
Girondists and Mountain were determined to carry on war against tyranny
Prussians stopped at Battle of Valmy
French armies invaded Savoy and captured Nice, and occupied entire Austrian Netherlands
French armies chased princes, abolished feudalism, found support among peasants and middle
class
Lived off land, requisitioned food and supplies, and plundered local treasures
o Looked like foreign invaders
o International tensions mounted
National Convention at war with Austria Prussia, and declared war on Britain, Holland, and Spain
Republican France was not at war with almost all of Europe
Groups within France added to turmoil
o Peasants in w. France revolted against being drafted to army
o Vendee region was epicenter
o Devout Catholics, royalists, and foreign agents encouraged rebellion
o Counter revolutionaries recruited armies to fight for their cause
National Convention was locked in a life and death political struggle between Mountain and
Girondists
o Radicals accused Girondists of inciting sedition
o Laboring poor of Paris was decisive factor: sans culottes, military radicals
▪ Demanded radical political action to guarantee daily bread
o Mountain joined with sans-culottes and engineered a popular uprising
o Armed sans-culottes invaded Convention and forced deputies to arrest Girondists for
treason
o All power passed to Mountain
Convention formed Committee of Public Safety to deal with threats in and out of France
o Led by Robespierre
o Given dictatorial power to deal with national emergency
o Moderates in provinces revolted against committee’s power and demanded a
decentralized gov
o Counter-rev forces in Vendee won significant victories, and republic’s armies were driven
back
o Only areas around Paris and eastern frontier were firmly held by central gov
Total War and the Terror
• Central gov reasserted power on provinces
• Austrian Netherlands and Rhineland were in hands of French armies, and First Coalition was
falling apart
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Due to success of French gov in harnessing forces of planned economy, revolutionary terror, and
modern nationalism in a total war effort
CPS and Robespierre claimed to speak “general will” for all people, and sought to impose
republican unity across nation, on pain of death
o Collaborated with patriotic/democratic sans-culottes
o They wanted fair prices and moral economic order, and distrusted wealthy capitalists and
aristocrats
o Robespierre established planned economy with egalitarian social overtones
▪ Gov set maximum allowable prices for key products
▪ Fixed price of bread in Paris at levels ppl could afford
▪ Rationing introduced
▪ Make only “bread of equality”
People worked to produce arms and munitions for war effort
o Gov told craftsmen what to produce
o Took raw material and grain
Embryonic (new) Socialism frightened Europe’s propertied classes
Reign of Terror helped republican unity
o Period where RP and CS tried and executed thousands suspected of treason and a new
revolutionary culture was imposed
o Courts tied to CPS tried enemies of nation and killed them
o Political weapon against those supposed of opposing rev gov
o Robespierre thought it was a necessary measure to save republic France
o Most thought it was a perversion to generous ideals of 1789
o France had replaced weak king with bloody dictatorship
Jacobins took actions to suppress women’s participation in political debate
o Unusual, women should be at home
o Prohibited clubs of women
o Banned women against counter rev – bad idea
o Executed Olympe de Gouges
Imposing political unity by force
Wanted to transform French citizens into true republican patriots by bringing Rev into all aspects
of everyday life
o Sponsored rev art/songs/holidays/festivals to celebrate republican virtue and love of
nation
o New calendar
o New system of weights and measures
o Dechristianization: aimed to eliminate Catholic symbols and beliefs
▪ Campaign to eliminate Christian faith and practice in France undertaken by the
revolutionary government
▪ Churches sold, clerics humiliated, statues destroyed
▪ RP halted dechristianization fearing hostility
Drew on patriotic dedication to a national state and mission to win over First Coalition
o Common language and common tradition new to France
o Large number of people stirred by a common loyalty
o Saw it as a struggle between life and death
o Everyone participated in national struggle
All out mobilization of French resources under Terror and fervor of modern nationalism created
an awesome fighting machine
All unmarried men subject to draft, and 800,000 soldiers active in 14 armies – outnumbered
enemies, never seen before in European history
Rev gov used this army to combat internal and external force
Resistance from Vendee rebels couldn’t withstand forces of republic
Well trained, equipped, and indoctrinated, army republic was led by impetuous generals
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Risen from ranks and personified opportunities Revolution offered gifted sons of the
people
o Used mass assaults to overwhelm enemy
French republican army was victorious on all fronts
Revolution in Saint-Domingue
• 2nd stage of rev in Saint Domingue resulted from decisive action from below
• Slaves took events into their own hands
o Series of nighttime meetings to plan mass insurrection
o Religious ceremonies where participants made ritual offerings and swore a sacred oath of
secrecy and revenge
o African culture and ENLT ideals played role in Saint Domingue rev
• Revolts began on plantations
o Swept to northern plain
o 2,000 slave army
o Destroyed hundreds of plantations
• National Assembly issued a decree enfranchising all free blacks and free people of color
o Hoped it would win loyalty of free blacks and aid in defeating slave rebellion
• Eruopean warfare spread to Saint Domingue
• Spanish neighboring Saint Domingue supported rebel slaves and began to bring slave leaders and
their soldiers into the Spanish army
• Toussaint L’Ouverture: freed slave who joined revolt, was named Spanish officer
• British navy blockaded colony, and captured French territory
• For French and Spanish, rev chaos was an opportunity to capture a profitable colony
• Commissioners sent by newly elected National Convention promised freedom to slaves who
fought for France
• Abolished slavery
• Convention ratified abolition of slavery and extended it to all French territories
• L’Ouverture switched sides
• French gradually regained control of colony
• Named commander of Saint-Domingue
The Thermidorian Reaction and the Directory
• Success of French armies led RP and CPS to relax emergency economic controls
• Extended political Reign of Terror
o Wiped out his critics
o Group of radicals and moderates, fearing for their lives, organized conspiracy
▪ Howled down RP and killed him
▪ Thermidorian Reaction: Reaction to violence of Reign of Terror, resulting in
execution of RP, and loosening of economic controls
• Recalled early days of Rev
o Middle lass lawyers and professionals reasserted authority, drawing support from their
own class, provinces, and well off peasants
• National Convention abolished many economic controls, let prices rise sharply, and severely
restricted local political organizations in which sans-culottes had strength
• Collapse of economic controls and inflation hit working poor hard
• Convention used army to suppress sans-culottes’ protests
• Urban poor lost revolutionary fervor
• Excluded, disillusioned – had little influence on politics until later
• Poor of countryside turned towards religion as relief from earthly cares
• Rural women brought back Catholic church and open worship of God as gov began to soften
antireligion stance
• Middle Class of National Convention wrote another constitution
o Believed it would guarantee their economic position and political supremacy
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o Mass of populations voted for electors
o Electors elected members of legislative assembly and key officials of France
New Assembly chose 5 man executive Directory
o Continued to support French military expansion abroad
o War was a means to meet economic problems
▪ French armies could live off territories they conquered rather than be
unemployed
o French people disgusted with war and food rationing, grew weary of unprincipled actions
of Directory
o General elections proved dissatisfaction returned conservative people who favored peace
o Members of Directory used army to nullify elections and began to govern dictatorially
Napoleon Bonaparte ended Directory in coup d’état and substituted a strong dictatorship for a
weak one
Efforts to reestablish a stable representative government had failed
The Napoleonic Era 1799-1815
• Napoleon Bonaparte: Realized the need to put an end to civil strife in France to create unity and
consolidate his rule, glory of war and dream of universal empire proved irresistible, he spiraled
from victory to victory, then ended by a mighty coalition
Napoleon’s Rule of France
• Born in Corsica to impoverished noble family
• Became lieutenant, became a dedicated revolutionary
• Rose rapidly in new army, placed in command of French forces in Italy
• Won victories, but lost in Egypt
o Returned to France before fiasco was known and reputation remained intact
• Napoleon learned ppl were plotting against Directory
o Dissatisfaction from Directory as a weak dictatorship
o Years of uncertainty and upheaval made firm rule more appealing than liberty or popular
politics
o Sieyes changed from wanting universal suffrage to: Confidence from below, authority
from above
• Sieyes wanted a strong military ruler, like others in his group
o Napoleon was ideal
• Conspirators and Napoleon organized a take over
o Ousted Directors, disbanded legislature at bayonet point
• Napoleon named first consul of republic, and a new constitution consolidating his position was
overwhelmingly approved by plebs (lowerish classes)
• Republican façade was maintained, but in reality Napoleon was ruler of France
• NAP used popularity and charisma to maintain order
o Unwritten agreements w/ powerful groups in France where groups got favors for loyal
service
o Napoleonic Code: Written bargain with middle class, reasserted 2 fundamental principles
of Rev
▪ Equality of all male citizens before the law
▪ Absolute security of wealth and private property
• Established privately owned Bank of France, which loyally served interests of state and financial
oligarchy
• Peasants appeased when Napoleon defended gains in land and status they gained in Rev
• Built on bureaucracy inherited from the Revolution and Old Regime to create a centralized state
• Consolidated rule by recruiting disillusioned revolutionaries for ministers, prefects, and mayors
that depended on him
• Only former revolutionaries who leaned too far to left/right were pushed away
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NAP granted amnesty to 100,000 émigrés (fleeing old nobility) on the condition that they return
to France and take a loyalty oath
Many old nobility were granted high posts
New imperial nobility to reward his most talented generals and officials
Tried to heal Catholic Church so it could serve as bulwark (defense) for social stability
o Concordat of 1801
▪ Pope gained right for French Catholics to practice religion freely, NAP
nominated bishops, paid the clergy, and exerted great influence over church in
France
Domestic reforms were NAP’s greatest achievement
o Legal and administrative reorganization still used in France
o Gave great majority of French ppl a welcome sense of stability and national unity
Order and unity had a price: authoritarian rule
o Women lost many gains concerning political
o Under NAP code, they were subject and dependent to father or husband
o NAP aimed at reestablishing family monarchy where power of father or husband was
over wife and children
Freedom of speech and press were violated
o 4 newspapers left, and they were used as propaganda for gov
Occasional elections were farce
Penalties for political offenses
People watched carefully under spy system (Like RP)
o People doing suspected subversive activities were detained/house arrest/insane asylums
Napoleon’s Expansion in Europe
• Above all, NAP was a great military man
• Sent peace feelers to Austria and Great Britain, remaining members of 2nd Coalition
• These peace offers were rejected ! NAP led French armies to defeat Austrians
• Treaty of Luneville: Austria accepted loss of almost all Italian possessions, German territory and
Rhine was included
• Treaty of Amines: Great Brit allowed France to control Holland, Austrian Netherlands, and west
bank of Rhine, and most of Italian peninsula
o Diplomatic triumph for Napoleon
o Peace, honor, and profit increased his popularity at home
• NAP wanted to expand power
• Redrew German map to weaken Austria and encourage SW Germans to side w/ France
• Tried to restrict Brit trade w/ all of Europe
o Plotted to attack Great Brit, but Lord Nelson beat his fleet at Battle of Trafalgar
o Invasion of England was impossible
• NAP proclaimed emperor
• Austria, Russia, Sweden joined Brit to form 3rd Coalition against France after Trafalgar
o Alexander I of Russia and Francis II of Austria that Napoleon was threat to their
interests and to European balance of power once NAP took the crown
o No match for NAP, who won at Austerlitz
o Alex I decided to pull back and accepted large territorial loss for peace
o 3rd Coalition collapsed
• NAP reorganized German states to his liking
o Abolished tiny German states and ancient HRE as established by German Confederation
of Rhine
o Named himself “protector” of confederation
o Controlled western Germany
• NAP’s intervention in German affairs alarmed Prussians, who mobilized armies
o NAP won at Jena and Auerstadt
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Prussia and Austria came together and war continued
NAP won again
Alex was ready to negotiate
▪ Treaty of Tilsit
• Prussia lost ½ of population
• Russia accepted NAP’s reorganization of western and central Europe,
and promised to enforce NAP’s economic blockade against Brit goods
The War of Haitian Independence
• NAP was forced to accept defeat overseas
• Toussaint L’Ouverture acted independent ruler of Saint Domingue
• Andre Rigaud: set up his own gov in southern peninsula
• L’Ouverture and Rigaud maintained policies of requiring former slaves to continue work
o Thought reconstructing plantation economy was crucial to maintaining their military and
political victories, and suppressed resistance
• Tensions between L’Ouverture and Rigaud
o L’Ouverture was freed slave, Ringaud was free colored elite
o Free colored elite resented growing power of former slaves
o Former slaves accused free coloreds of adopting racism of white settlers
o Civil war between two sides
• L’Ouverture’s side led by Jean Jacques “Jean Jacket” Dessalines
o Victory over Ringaud
o L’Ouverture got control of entire colony
• Victory challenged by NAP, who wanted to use profits from colony plantations for expanding
French power
• NAP’s New constitution opened way for reestablishment of slavery
• In response, Saint Domingue colonial assembly drafted its own constitution and reaffirmed
abolition of slavery and granted L’Ouverture governorship for life
• NAP viewed this as a seditious act
o Sent brother in law General Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc to lead expedition to
crush new regime
o L’Ouverture cooperated with French and turned army over to him, but was arrested, and
deported to France
• Jean Jacket united resistance under command and led a crushing victory over French
• Jean Jacket formally declared independence of Saint Domingue and creation of sovereign Haiti
• ThomJeff refused to recognize – rev ideals of equality and freedom are below economic stability
The Grand Empire and Its End
• NAP resigned to loss of Saint Domingue but maintained imperial ambitions
• Saw himself as emperor of Europe, not just France
• Grand Empire: Empire over which Napoleon and his allies rules, encompassing virtually all of
Europe except Great Brit and Russia, had 3 parts
o 1st part: Core: ever expanding France
o 2nd part: number of dependent satellite kingdoms on throne which NAP placed members
of his family
o 3rd part: Independent but allied states of Austria, Prussia, and Russia
• Satellites and allies were expected to support NAP’s Continental System: a blockade in which no
ship coming from Brit or her colonies was allowed to dock at any port controlled by the French
o Intended to halt all trade between Brit and continental Europe, destroying Brit economy
and military force
• Impact of Grand Empire on peoples of Europe was huge
o In places incorporated into France and satellites, NAP abolished feudal dues and serfdom
▪ Some peasants and middle class benefitted
• Nap put prosperity and special interests of France first to safeguard his power base
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Levied heavy takes in money and men for his armies
Regarded as a conquering tyrant
French rule sparked patriotic upheavals
Encouraged growth of reactive nationalism, for diff ppl in diff lands learned to identify
emotionally with their embattled national families
First great revolt in Spain
o Coalition of Catholics, monarchists, patriots rebelled against NAP’s attempts to make
Spain a French satellite
o French armies occupied Madrid, but foes fled to hills and waged guerrilla warfare (hit
and run)
o Spain was a clear warning: resistance to French imperialism was growing
NAP pushed on, determined to hold huge empire together
Brit was at war with French, helping Spanish and Portuguese
Continental System was a failure
It was France that suffered from Brit’s counter blockade, which created hard times for French
artisans and middle class
NAP turned on Alexander I who repudiated NAP’s war of blocking Brit gods
NAP invaded Russia
o 1/3 of army was French, draftees were there
o Planned to winter in Smolensk, Russia if Alexander I didn’t sue for peace
o Reached Smolensk and recklessly pushed on to Moscow
o Battle of Borodino was a draw and Russians retreated
o Alex ordered evacuation of Moscow, Russians burned, refused to negotiate
o NAP ordered retreat
o Greatest military disasters in history
▪ Frozen, hungry, being shot at
NAP raced to Paris to raise another army
o Couldn’t accept having France restored to historical size
o Austria’s foreign minister Prince Klemens von Metternich proposed
o Austria and Prussia deserted NAP and joined Russia and Great Brit in Treaty of
Chaumont
o Four powers pledged to defeat NAP
Patriots called for war of liberation against NAP’s oppression
NAP abdicated
Allies granted NAP island of Elba off coast of Italy as his own tiny state
NAP was allowed to keep his imperial title, and France was required to pay him a yearly income
of 2 million francs
Restoration of Bourbon dynasty under Louis XVIII
Promised to treat France w/ leniency in a peace settlement
New monarch tried to consolidate support among people by issuing Constitutional Charter:
Accepted France’s revolutionary changes and guaranteed civil liberties
Louis XVIII
o Old, ugly, crippled, lacked magnetism of NAP
Hearing of political unrest in France, NAP escaped Elba
o Gained some support, marched on Paris with small band of followers
o Louis XVIII fled, NAP took command
o Allies were united, and during Hundred days, they crushed his forces at Waterloo and
incarcerated him
o Louis XVIII returned to throne, and allies dealt more harshly with the apparently
incorrigible French
NAP took revenge by writing memoirs, nurturing myth that he’d been Europe’s revolutionary
liberator, whose work had been undone by oppressive reactionaries
Ch 21: The Revolution in Energy and Industry
The Industrial Revolution in Britain
• Industrial Rev (IDR) began in Great Brit
o Wealthiest and dominant part of the country
• Transformation in industry was unplanned and new
o No models to copy from
• Brit had to pioneer industrial technology, social relations and urban living
• These tasks were complicated by war with France
• Brit was leader in economic development
Eighteenth-Century Origins
• Generally agreed that industrial changes grew out of a long process of development
• Expanding Atlantic economy served mercantilist Brit will
o Colonial empire and a strong position in African slave trade provided a growing market
for Brit manufactured goods
• Agriculture played a central role in bringing about the IDR
o English farmers were second only to Dutch in productivity
o Adopting new methods of farming
o Period of bountiful crops and low food prices
▪ Ordinary family didn’t have to spend everything it earned just to buy bread
▪ Could spend more on manufactured goods
▪ Average Brit family was redirecting its labor away from unpaid work for
household consumption to work for wages that they could spend on goods
• Manufacturing expanded to supply both foreign and British customers, and domestic market for
raw materials was well positioned to meet growing demands of manufacturers
o Cheaper to ship goods by water than by land
o No part of England was 50 miles away from navigable waters
o Canal building enhanced natural advantage
▪ Easy movement of England and Wale’s iron and coal – critical materials for IDR
o No tariffs within country to hinder trade
• Brit had a lot of other assets that helped give rise to IDR
o Effective central bank and well-developed credit marketers
o Monarchy and aristocratic oligarchy spend lavishly on stylish luxuries and provided
stable and predictable gov
o Gov let domestic economy operate with few controls, encouraging personal initiative,
technical change, and free market
o Large class of hired agricultural laborers, rural proletarians whose numbers increased
after 2nd round of enclosures
o Rural wage earners were relatively mobile
▪ Rural wage earners formed a potential industrial labor force for capitalist
entrepreneurs
• All factors combined to initiate IDR: the burst of major inventions and technical changes
witnessed in certain industries
o Hand in hand with quickening in annual rate of industrial growth in Brit
▪ Industry grew more than ever (3% in 30 yrs, rather than .7% in 60 yrs)
▪ Quickening probably came after American Revolution, just before French
Revolution
• Great economic and political revolutions occurred simultaneously in diff countries
• IDR was a longer process than political upheavals (not complete until 1850, had little impact on
continental countries until after 1815)
The First Factories
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Pressure to produce more goods for growing market was directly related to first decisive
breakthrough of IDR: Creation of world’s first large factories in Brit cotton textile industry
Tech innovations in manufacturing of cotton cloth led to a new system of production and social
relationships
No other industry experiences such a rapid/complete transformation before 1830
Under pressure of huge demand, putting out system’s limitations started to outweigh its
advantages
Constant shortage of thread in textile industry focused attention on ways of improving spinning
o Workers knew better spinning wheels promised rich rewards
o Hard to spin traditional raw materials with traditional raw materials (wool and flax) with
improved machines, but cotton worked
o Cotton textiles first imported to Brit from India by East India Company as a rare and
delicate luxury for upper classes
o Tiny domestic cotton industry emerged in n England
James Hargreaves: Invented spinning cotton jenny
Richard Arkwright: Invented water frame
Breakthrough products produced an explosion in infant cotton textile industry
o Increasing value of output
o New machines were making 10x as much cotton as made in 1770
Hargreaves’s spinning jenny was simple, inexpensive, and powered by hand
Arkwright’s water frame quickly acquired a capacity of several hundred spindles and demanded
much more power – water power
Water frame required large specialized mills, factories that employed as many as 1,000 workers
Water frame could spin only a coarse, strong threat, which was then put out for hand respinning
on cotton jennies
Samuel Crompton: Alternative technique, began to require more power than the human arm
could supply
Over time, all cotton spinning was gradually concentrated in factories
First consequences of revolutionary developments in textile industry were more beneficial than
believed
o Cotton goods became cheaper, and were increasingly bought and treasured by all classes
▪ In past, only wealthy could afford comfort/cleanliness of underwear (body linen)
▪ Now millions if poor people could afford to wear underwear
o Families using cotton in cottage industry were freed from constant search for adequate
yarn from scattered part time spinners
o Wages of weavers rose, as they were hard pressed to keep up with spinners
▪ Weavers became among best paid workers in England
▪ Large numbers of agricultural laborers came hand loom weavers
Edmund Cartwright: Invented a power loom to save on labor costs, worked poorly at first
Working conditions in early cotton factories were less satisfactory than those of cottage weavers
and spinners
o Adult workers reluctant to work in them
o Factory owners often turned to young children who’d been abandoned by parents to put
in care of local parishes
o Parish officers “apprenticed’ foundlings to factory owners
o Parish saved money, and factory gained workers over whom they exercised slave like
control
Children apprenticed at 5 or 6
o Boy and girl workers were forced by law to labor for their masters for as many as 14
years
o Housed, fed, and locked up nightly in factory dormitories
o Received little or no pay
o Hours were long – 13 or 14 hours a day, 6 days a week
o Harsh physical punishment for discipline
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Poor children typically worked long hours and frequently outside the home for brutal
masters, but coercion of orphans as factory apprentices constituted exploitation on a truly
unprecedented scale
▪ Piqued conscience of reformers, who called for more humanitarian attitudes
toward children and their
▪ Got 2 laws to protect young workers
Creation of world’s first modern factories in Brit cotton textile industry grew out of putting out
system of cottage production
o Major historical development
New cotton mills marked beginning of IDR in Brit
Largely mechanized cotton textile industry towered above all others, accounting for fully 22% of
country’s entire industrial production
The Problem of Energy
• Epoch (era) making solution was found to age old problem of energy and power
• Converting energy into another for benefit was long used
o People began to develop water mills to grind grain, and wind mills to pump water and
drain swamps
o More efficient use of water and wind – intercontinental sailing ships
• Society continued to rely mainly on wood for energy and power
• No matter how hard ppl worked, they couldn’t produce very much
• Shortage of energy became severe in Brit by 18th c
o Wood was in shortage, but remained important
o Primary source of heat for all homes and industries and as raw material
o Processed wood (charcoal) was fuel that was mixed with iron ore in blast furnace to
produce pig iron
o Iron industry’s appetite for wood was enormous
o Iron industry was stagnating
The Steam Engine Breakthrough
• As energy crisis grew worse, Brit looked toward abundant and widely scattered reserves of coal
as alternative to its vanishing wood
• Coal first used for heat
o Heat for homes
o Heat for making beer, glass, soap, other products
• Industrialists began to use coal to produce mechanical energy and to power machinery
• As more coal was produced, mines were dug deeper and were being filled with water
• Mechanical pumps powered by animals walking in a circle had to be installed
o This was expensive and bothersome
• Thomas Savery and Thomas Newcomen invented first steam engines: burned coal to produce
steam, which was used to operate a pump
o Both engines were inefficient
o But, Savery and Newcomen engines were widely used in English and Scottish mines
• James Watt: Did critical study of steam engine
o Employed as a skilled craftsman making scientific instruments
o Called to repair Newcomen engine
o Saw Newcomen’s waste of energy could be reduced by adding a separate condenser
o Greatly increased efficiency of the steam engine
• Watt needed skilled workers, precision parts, and capital, and advanced nature of Brit economy
proved essential
o Matthew Boulton: wealthy English industrialist, provided Watt adequate capital and
skills in salesmanship that equaled those of Josiah Wedgwood
o Found skilled mechanics who could install, regulate, and repair the sophisticated engines,
o Manufacturers such as John Wilkinson allowed Watt to purchase precision parts
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Watt’s support allowed him to create an effective vacuum and regulate a complex engine
Watt made further improvements
Firm of Boulton and Watt made the steam engine a practical and commercial success in Brit
Steam engine of Watt and followers was the IDR’s most fundamental advance in technology
o For the first time in history humanity had almost unlimited power at its disposal
o For the first time, inventors and engineers could devise and implement all kinds of power
equipment to aid people in their work
o For the first time, abundance was a possibility for ordinary men and women
Steam engine was quickly put to use in several industries in Brit
o Drained mines, and made possible production of even more coal to feed steam engines
o Steam power began to replace water power in cotton spinning mills during 1780s,
contributed to that industry’s phenomenal rise
o Steam took place of water power in flour mills, mal mills, flint mills, and supplied pottery
industry
Steam power promoted important breakthroughs in other industries
o Brit iron industry was radically transformed
▪ Powerful steam driven bellows in blast furnaces helped ironmakers switch from
limited charcoal to unlimited coke (made from coal) in smelting of pig iron
o Henry Cort: developed puddling furnace, which allowed pig iron to be refined in turn
with coke
▪ Strong, skilled ironworkers (puddlers) “cooked’ molten pig iron in a great vat,
raking off globs of refined iron for further processing
▪ Cort developed open heavy duty steam powered rolling mills, capable of spewing
out finished iron in every shape and form
o Economic consequence of these technical innovations was a great boom in Brit iron
industry
▪ 1740: Annual Brit iron production was only 17,000 tons
▪ With spread of coke smelting and Cort’s inventions, production reached 260,000
tons by 1806
▪ 1844: Brit produced 3 million tons of iron
▪ Truly amazing expansion
▪ Once scarce and expensive, iron became cheap, basic, indispensable building
block of economy
The Coming of the Railroads
• 2nd half of 18th c: Extensive construction of hard and relatively smooth roads, particularly in
France before the Rev
• Passenger traffic benefitted most from construction
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Overland shipment of freight, relying solely on horsepower, was still quite limited and frightfully
expensive
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Shippers used rivers and canals for heavy freight whenever possible
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1800: Am’s drove a steamer on wheels
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Other experiments followed
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1820s: English engineers created steam cars capable of carrying fourteen passengers at 10 mph
o Noisy, heavy steam automobiles frightened passing horses and damaged themselves and
the roads with vibrations
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For the rest of the century, horses continued to reign on highways and city streets
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Coal industry had long been using plank roads and rails to move coal wagons within mines and at
the surface
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Rails reduced friction and allowed a horse or human to pull a heavier load
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Once a rail capable of supporting a heavy locomotive was developed in 1816, all sorts of
experiments with steam engines on rails went forth
1825: George Stevenson built an effective locomotive
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1830: Rocket sped down the track from Liverpool ! Manchester at 16 mph
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World’s first important railroad, in the heart of industrial England
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Line from Liverpool ! Manchester was a financial and technical success, many private
companies were quickly organized to build more rail lines
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Within 20 years, they’d completed the main trunk lines of Great Brit
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Other countries were quick to follow
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Tremendous significance of railroad
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Dramatically reduced cost and uncertainty of shipping freight over land
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Economic consequences
• Markets no longer small and local
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Transportation costs were lowered, markets became larger and
nationwide
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Larger markets encouraged larger factories with more sophisticated
machinery in a growing number of industries
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Made costs more cheaply and gradually subjected most cottage
workers and many urban artisans to severe competitive pressures
In all countries, construction of RRs created a strong demand for unskilled labor and contributed
to growth of a class of urban workers
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Hard work on construction gangs was done in open air with animals and hand tools
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Landless farm laborers and poor peasants, accustomed to leaving their villages for
temporary employment, went to built RRs
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By the time they were finished, they didn’t want to return home (life looked dull and
unappealing)
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Many men drifted to towns in search of work
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By the time they sent for their wives and sweethearts to join them, they’d already become
urban workers
RR, last and culminating invention of IDR, changed outlook and values of entire society
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Dramatically revealed the power and increased speed of the new age
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Raced down track at 16!50 mph
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Great painters Joseph MW Turner and Claude Monet expressed the sense of power and
awe
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Massive new train stations, like cathedrals, expressed power and awe
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Leading railway engineers who created railroad track areas, like Isambard Kingdom
Brunel and Thomas Brassey became public idols
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Everyday speech was centered around images of RRs (“Full head of steam” and “toot
your own whistle)
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RR fired imagination
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Industry and Population
• 1851: London hosted industrial fair called Great Exhibition in newly built Crystal Palace, an
architectural masterpiece that helped draw millions of visitors
o Built entirely of glass and iron
• Now the little island of Brit was the “workshop of the world”
o Produced 2/3 of world’s coal
o Produced over ½ of world’s iron and cotton cloth
o 1860: Produced 20% of world’s output of industrial goods
• Experiencing revolutionary industrial change, Brit became the first industrial nation
• As Brit economy significantly increased production of manufactured goods, gross national
product (GNP) rose 4x at constant prices between 1780-1851
o Brit ppl as a whole increased their wealth and their national income dramatically
• Population of Brit boomed at same time, from 9 mill to 21 mill
o Growing numbers consumed much of the increase in total production
• Average consumption per person increased by only 75%, as growth in total population ate up a
large part of the 4x increase of GNP
• Many economic historians now believe that rapid population growth in Brit was not harmful
because it facilitated industrial expansion
o More people ! more mobile labor force, with a wealth of young workers in need of
employment and ready to go where the jobs were
• Contemporaries were less optimistic
o Thomas Malthus: Essay on the principle of Population, thought population would
always tend to grow faster than the food supply
▪ Concluded the only hope of warding off “positive checks” to population growth,
such as war, famine, and disease, was “prudential restraint”
▪ Young men and women had to limit the growth of population by marrying late in
life
▪ Malthus was not optimistic – the powerful attraction of the sexes, he thought,
would cause most ppl to marry early and have many children
o David Ricardo: Leading economist and wealthy stockbroker
▪ Spelled out pessimistic implications of Malthus’s thought
▪ Iron law of wages: Because of the pressure of population growth, wages would
always sink to subsistence level
• Theory proposed by Ricardo suggesting that the pressure of population
growth prevents wages from rising above the subsistence level
▪ Wages would just be high enough to keep workers from starving
o With Malthus and Ricardo setting the tone, economics was dubbed the “dismal science”
• Malthus, Ricardo, and their many followers were proven wrong in the long run
o But until 1820s or 1840s, contemporary observers might reasonably have concluded that
the economy and total population were racing neck and neck, with the outcome in doubt
o Closeness of race added to difficulties inherent in the journey toward industrial
civilization
o Another problem: Perhaps workers, farmers, and ordinary ppl did not get their rightful
share of the new wealth
o Perhaps only the rich got richer, and poor got poorer, or made no progress
Industrialization in Continental Europe
• New tech developed in the Brit IDR were adopted rather slowly by businesses in continental
Europe
• By end of 19th c, several European countries as well as the US also industrialized their economies
to a considerable but variable degree
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Process of Western industrialization proceeded gradually, with uneven jerks and national and
regional variations
Scholars are still struggling to explain these variations, especially since good answers may offer
valuable lessons for poor countries seeding to improve their condition through industrialization
and economic development
Latest findings: There were alternative paths to industrial world in 19th c that there was no need to
follow a rigid, predetermined Brit model
National Variations
• Comparative data on industrial production over time gives an overview of what happened
• Level of industrialization per capita: comparison of how much industrial product was produced in
average for each person in a given country in a given year
• Reflect basic trends
o 1750: All countries were fairly close together, and Brit was only slightly ahead of its
archenemy, France
o 1800: Brit took a noticeable lead over all continental countries
▪ Gap widened as Brit IDR accelerated to 1830 and reach full maturity by 1860
▪ Brit level of per capita industrialization was twice French level in 1830, and more
than 3x in 1860
o Variations in timing and in extent of industrialization in continental powers and US are
apparent
▪ Belgium got independence from Netherlands in 1830 and experienced a
revolutionary surge between 1830 and 1860
▪ France developed factory production more gradually, no large bursts
▪ In general, eastern and southern Europe began process of modern
industrialization later than northwestern and central Europe
▪ Regions made real progress in late 19th c
o Substantial industrialization in eastern and southern Europe meant that all European
states managed to raise per capita industrial levels in 19th c
▪ Continent wide increases stood in stark contrast to large and tragic decreases that
occurred at same time in many non western countries (China and India)
▪ European countries industrialized to a greater or lesser extent even as most of the
non-Western world deindustrialized
▪ Differential rates of wealth and power creating industrial development, which
heightened disparities within Europe, also greatly magnified existing inequalities
between Europe and the rest of the world
The Challenge of Industrialization
• Diff patterns of industrial development suggests that the process of industrialization was far from
automatic
o Building modern industry was a huge challenge
• Throughout Europe, the 18th c was an era of agricultural improvement, population increase,
expanding foreign trade, and growing cottage industry
• When the pace of Brit industry began to accelerate in the 1780s, continental businesses began to
adopt the new methods as they proved their profitability
• Brit industry enjoyed clear superiority, but at the continent was close behind
• By 1815, situation was quite diff
o No wars had been fought on Brit soil, so Brit did not experience nearly as much physical
destruction or economic dislocation as the continent did
o Brit industry maintained momentum and continued to grow and improve
o On the continent, upheavals that began with French Rev disrupted trade, created runaway
inflation, and fostered social anxiety
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War severed normal communications between Brit and the continent, severely
handicapping continental efforts to use new Brit machinery and tech
o France and the rest of Europe were farther behind Britain in 1815 than 1789
▪ Time of “national catastrophe”
Widening gap made it more difficult for other countries to follow Brit pattern in energy and
industry after peace was restored in 1815
o In newly mechanized industries Brit goods were being produced very economically, and
had come to dominate world markets completely while the continental states were
absorbed in war between 1792-1815
o Brit tech had become so advanced and complicated that very few engineers or skilled
technicians outside England understood it
o Tech of steam power had grown much more expensive – involved large investments in
the iron and coal industries and required existence of RRs, which were very costly
o Continental business ppl had great difficulty finding large sums of money the new
methods demanded, and there was a shortage of laborers accustomed to working in
factories
o Slowed spread of modern industry
After 1815, when continental countries began to face up to Brit challenge, they had 3 important
advantages
o Most continental countries had a rich tradition of putting out enterprise, merchant
capitalists, and skilled urban artisans
▪ Gave continental firms the ability to adapt and survive in the face of new market
conditions
o Continental capitalists did not need to develop their own advanced tech
▪ Borrowed new methods from Brit, as well as engineers and some of financial
resources they lacked
o European countries such as France and Russia had strong independent gov that did not
fall under foreign political control (Many non-Western areas lacked)
▪ Could fashion economic policies to serve their own interests, as they proceeded
to do.
▪ Eventually used power of state to promote industry and catch up to Brit
Agents of Industrialization
• Brit realized great value of their technical discoveries and tried to keep their secretes to
themselves
o Illegal for artisans and skilled mechanics to leave Brit
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Export of textile machinery and other equipment was forbidden
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Many talented, ambitious workers slipped out of country illegally and introduced new methods
abroad
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William Cockerill: Began building a cotton spinning equipment in Belgium
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Johns Cockerill: Son, Purchased old summer palace in Belgium and converted palace into a
large industrial enterprise, which produced machinery, steam engines, and then railway
locomotives; Established modern ironworks and coal mines
o His plants became an industrial nerve center, continually gathering new information and
transmitting it across Europe
o Many skilled Brit workers came illegally to work for Cockerill, and some went on to
found their own companies throughout Europe
o Newcomers brought the latest plans and secrets, so Cockerill knew 10 days after an
industrial advance in Brit
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Brit technicians and skilled workers were a powerful force in the spread of early industrialization
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Talented entrepreneurs, like Fritz Harkort: Business pioneer in German machinery industry
o Served in England in as Prussian army officer, enchanted by what he saw
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Concluded Germany had to match all these English achievements as quickly as possible
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Set up shop in abandoned castle
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Had a calling to build steam engines
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Became “Watt of Germany”
Harkort’s idea was simple, but tough to carry out
o Lacking skilled laborers to do the job, Harkort turned to England for experienced and
expensive mechanics
o Getting materials was a problem
▪ Had to import thick iron boilers that were expensive
Harkort, despite problems, build and sold engines, winning fame and praise
o His ambition efforts resulted in large financial losses for him and his patterns, and was
forced out of his company by financial backers, who cut back operations to reduce losses
o Career illustrates great efforts of a few important business leaders to duplicated Brit
achievement and difficulty of task
Entrepreneurs like Harkort were exceptional
o Most continental business adopted factory technology slowly, and handicraft methods
lived on
o Continental industrialization usually brought substantial but uneven expansion of
handicraft industry in both rural and urban areas for a time
o Artisan production of luxury items grew in France as the rising income of the
international middle class created foreign demand for silk scarves, perfumes, fine wines
Government Support and Corporate Banking
• Another major force in continental industrialization was gov, which often helped business people
in continental countries to overcome some of their difficulties
• Tariff protection proved quite important: A gov’s way of supporting and aiding its own economy
by laying high taxes on imported goods from other countries
o After 1815 wars, France was flooded by cheaper and better Brit goods
o French gov responded by laying high tariffs on many Brit imports to protect French
economy
• After 1815, continental govs bore cost of building roads and canals to improve transportation
o Bore significant extent to cost of building RRS
o Belgium led the way
o In effort to tie newly indep nation together, Belgian gov decided to construct a state
owned system
o Built rapidly as a unified network, Belgium’s state owned RRs stimulated development of
heavy industry and made the country an early industrial leader
o Several of the smaller German states also built state systems
• Prussian gov provided another kind of invaluable support
o Guaranteed that state treasury would pay the interest and principal on RR bonds if the
closely regulated private companies in Prussia were unable to do so
o RR investors in Prussia ran little risk, and capital was quickly raised
• In France, the state shouldered all the expense of acquiring the laying roadbed, including bridges
and tunnels
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Finished roadbed was leased to a carefully supervised private company, which usually
benefited from a state guarantee of its debts
Govs helped pay for RRs, the all important leading sector in continental industrialization
Fredrich List: List’s career of German journalist reflects gov’s greater role in industrialization on
the continent than in England
o Considered the growth of modern industry of utmost importance because manufacturing
was a primary means of increasing people’s well being and relieving their poverty
o Was a dedicated nationalist
o Wrote that the “wider the gap between the backward and advanced nations becomes, the
more dangerous it is to remain behind”
o Backward, agricultural nation was not only poor but also weak, increasingly unable to
defend itself and maintain its political independence
o To promote industry was to defend the nation
Practical policies that List focused on in articles and his influential book were RR building and
the tariff
o Supported formation of customs union, or Zollverein, among the separate German states
o Such a tariff union came into being in 1834, allowing goods to move between the
German member states without tariffs, while erecting a single uniform tariff against other
nations
o List wanted a high protective tariff, which would encourage infant industries, allowing
them to develop and eventually hold their own against their more advanced Brit
counterparts
o Denounced the Brit doctrine of free trade as part of Brit’s attempt to dominate the whole
world
By 1840’s, List’s economic nationalism, policies designed to protect and develop the national
economy, had become increasingly popular in Germany and elsewhere
Banks, like gov’s, played a larger and more creative role on the continent than in Brit
o Previously, almost all banks in Europe were privately owned, organized as secretive
partnerships
▪ Because of possibility of unlimited financial loss, the partners of private banks
tended to be quite conservative and were content to deal with few rich clients and
few big merchants
▪ Generally avoided industrial investment as being to risky
o 1830s: 2 Belgian banks pioneered in a new direction
▪ Received permission from gov to establish themselves as corporations enjoying
limited liability: stockholders could now lose only their original investments in
the bank’s common stock, and they could not be forced by the courts to pay for
any additional losses out of other property they owned if the bank went bankrupt
▪ Publicizing risk reducing advantages of limited liability to investors, Belgian
banks were able to attract many shareholders
▪ Mobilized impressive resources for investment in big companies, became
industrial banks, and successfully promoted industrial development
o Similar corporate banks became important in France and Germany in 1850s and 1860s
▪ Usually working in collaboration with gov’s
▪ Established and developed many RRs and many companies working in heavy
industry, which were also increasingly organized as limited liability corporations
▪ Credit Mobilier of Paris, founded by Isaac and Emile Pereire: Used savings of
thousands of small investors as well as resources of big ones; built RRs all over
France and Europe
Combined efforts of skilled workers, entrepreneurs, govs, and industrial banks meshed
successfully between 1850-1873 (financial crash)
Period of unprecedented, rapid economic growth on the continent
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In Belgium, Germany, and France, key indicators of modern industrial development
(railway mileage, iron and coal production, steam engine capacity) increased at average
annual rate of 5%-10%
o Rail networks were completed in western and much of central Europe, and the leading
continental countries mastered the industrial technologies that had first been developed in
Brit
1870s: Brit was still Europe’s most industrial nation, but a select handful of countries were
closing the gap that had been opened up by IDR
Relations Between Capital and Labor
• Industrial development brought new social relations and intensified long standing problems
between capital and labor in both urban workshops and cottage industry
• New group of factory owners and industrial capitalists arose
o Men, women, and their families strengthened wealth and size of the middle class, which
had previously been made up of mainly merchants and professional ppl
o 19th c became golden age of middle class
• Modern industry created a much larger group, factory workers
o For the first time, large numbers of men, women, and children came together under one
roof to work with machinery for a single owner or a few partners in a large companies
• Growth of new occupational groups in industry stimulated new thinking about social relations
o Often combined with reflections on French Rev, thinking led to development of a new
overarching interpretation, a new paradigm, regarding social relationships
▪ Briefly argued that individs were members of economically determined classes
that had conflicting interests
▪ The comfortable, well educated “public” of 18th c came increasingly to see itself
as the backbone of middle class(es), and the “people” gradually transformed
themselves into the modern working class(es)
▪ Even if the new class interpretation was more of a deceptive simplification than a
fundamental truth, it appealed because it seemed to explain what was happening
▪ Conflicting classes existed because many individuals came to believe they
existed and developed a sense of class feeling – class consciousness: An
individual’s sense of class differentiation
The New Class of Factory Owners
• Early industrialists operated in a highly competitive economic system
o There were countless production problems, and success and large profits were not certain
o Manufacturers waged a constant battle to cut their production costs and stay afloat
o Much of profit had to go back into machinery
o Struggling manufacturer had “no time for niceties”
o “Conquer or die, make a fortune or drown himself”
• Most early industrialists drew upon their families and friends for labor and capital, but came from
a variety of backgrounds
o Many were from well established merchant families with a rich network of contacts and
support (Harkort)
o Others were of modest means, especially in the early days (Watt, Wedgwood, Cockerill)
• Artisans and skilled workers of exceptional ability had unparalleled opportunities
• Members of ethnic and religious groups who’d been discriminated against in traditional
occupations controlled by landed aristocracy jumped at new chances and often helped each other
o Scots, Quakers, and other Prot dissenters were tremendously important in Brit
o Prots and Jews dominated baking in Catholic France
o Many of the industrialists were newly rich, and were proud and self satisfied
• As factories and firms grew larger, opportunities declined in well developed industries
o Became harder for a gifted but poor young mechanic to start a small enterprise and end
up as a wealthy manufacturers
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Formal education became more important as a means of success and advancement, and
formal education at the advanced level was expensive
Leading industrialists were more likely to have inherited their well established enterprises, and
were financially much more secure than their struggling fathers and mothers had been
o Had a greater sense of class consciousness, were fully aware that ongoing industrial
development had widened the gap between themselves and their workers
Wives and daughters of successful businessmen found fewer opportunities for active participation
in Europe’s increasingly complex business world. Rather than contributing as vital partners in a
family owned enterprise, they were increasingly valued for being ladylike
Some influential women writers and most businessmen assumed that idle class wives and
daughters should steer clear of undignified work in offices and factories
Middle class lady should protect and enhance her femininity
She should concentrate on her proper role as a wife and mother, preferably far away from ruthless
commerce and the volatile working class
The new Factory Workers
• Almost everyone agrees that the economic conditions of European workers improved after 1850
(Brit was the first to industrialize and their social consequences seemed harshest there)
• Experience of Brit workers after 1850
• From the beginning, the IDR had its critics – first, romantic poets
o William Blake: Called early factories “Satanic mills” and protested against the hard life
of the London poor
o William Wordsworth: Lamented destruction of rural way of life and the pollution of th
eland and water
o Luddites: Attacked whole factories in n England in 1812 and after, and smashed new
machines, which they believed were putting them out of work
o Doctors and reformers wrote of problems in the factories and new towns
o Malthus and Ricardo concluded workers would earn only enough to stay alive
o Fredrich Engels: Indictment of middle class, “mass murder, wholesale robbery, and all
the other crimes”; New poverty of industrial workers was worse than the old poverty of
cottage workers and agricultural laborers, culprit was industrial capitalism with its
relentless competition and constant technical change
• Observers believed that conditions were improving for the working people
o Andrew Ure: Conditions in most factories were not harsh and even quite good
o Edwin Chadwick: Concluded that the “whole mass of the laboring community” was
increasingly able to buy more of the necessities and luxuries of life
• Those who thought conditions were getting worse for working people were in the majority
• Scholarly studies weakened the idea that the condition of working class got much worse with
industrialization
• Most recent scholarship confirms view that early years of IDR were hard ones for Brit workers
o Little or no increase in purchasing power of average Brit worker
o 1792-1815: constant warfare with France, life was difficult
▪ Food prices rose faster than wages
▪ Living conditions of laboring poor declined
• Only after 1820 and especially after 1840 did real wages rise substantially, so that the average
worker earned and consumed roughly 50% more in real terms in 1850 than 1770
• There was considerable economic improvement for workers throughout Brit by 1850, but that
improvement was had won and slow in coming
• Hours in average workweek increased
o Workers earned more simply because they were working more
▪ 300 days vs 265 days
▪ 11 hr days
▪ Leisure days like “Saint Monday” were taken away
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Wartime decline in average worker’s real wages and standard of living from 1972-1815 had a
powerful negative impact on workers
o Difficult war years with more unemployment and sharply higher prices for bread, were
formative years for the new factory labor force, and colored experience of modern and
industrial life in somber tones
Look at gods workers purchased to determine their standard of living – info somewhat
contradictory
o Workers ate more food of higher nutritional quality as IDR progressed, except during
wartime
o Diets became more varied: ppl ate more potatoes, diary products, fruits, and vegetables
o Clothing improved
o Housing for working ppl probably deteriorated somewhat
o Per capita use of specific goods supports the position that the standard of living of the
working classes rose, at least moderately after the long wars with France
Work in Early Factories
• First factories were cotton mills, which began functioning near fast running rivers and areas
• Cottage workers accustomed to putting out system were reluctant to work in the new factories
even when they received relatively good wages because factory work was unappealing
o Workers had to keep up with machine and follow its relentless tempo
o Had to show up everyday on time, and work long, monotonous hours under constant
supervision of demanding overseers
o Punished if they broke work rules
▪ Late or spoiled material or nodded off ! fines deducted from weekly pay
o Children and adolescents beaten for infractions
• Cottage workers not used to that stringent life or discipline
o All members of the family worked hard and long, but in spurts and working at their won
pace
o Could interrupt work when they wanted to
o Women and children could break up their long hours with other tasks
o On Sat, head of family delivered week’s work to merchant manufacturer and got paid
o Sat night, they relaxed and drank
• Factories resembled English poorhouses, where indigent people went to live at public expense
o Some poorhouses were industrial prisons where inmates worked to receive food and
lodging
o Similarity between large brick factories and large stone poorhouses increased cottage
workers’ fear of factories and their hatred of factory discipline
• Cottage workers’ reluctance to work in factories prompted early cotton mill owners to turn to
abandoned and pauper children for labor
o Owners contracted with local officials to employ large number of children who had no
say
o Pauper children were often badly treated and overworked
o 18th c: semi-forced child labor seemed necessary and was socially accepted
Working Families and Children
• By 1790s early pattern was rapidly changing
• Use of pauper apprentices was in decline, in 1802 it was forbidden by PLMT
• More textile factories were being built, mainly in urban areas, where they could use steam power
rather than waterpower and attract a workforce more easily
• Need for workers was great
o People came from near and far to work in cities, as factory workers and laborers,
builders, and domestic servants
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As they took new jobs, working ppl did not simply give in and accept highly disciplined system
of labor that formerly repelled them
o Helped modify system by carrying old, familiar working traditions
▪ Workers came to mills and mines as family units like on farms/putting out system
▪ Mill or mine owner bargained with head of family and paid him for work of
entire family
▪ In cotton mills, children worked for mothers or fathers, collecting scarps and
piecing broken threads together
▪ In mines, children sorted coal and worked ventilation equipment
▪ Mothers hauled coal in tunnels below surface, fathers hewed with pick and
shovel
Preservation of family as economic unit in factories of 1790s made new surroundings more
tolerable, both in Brit and other countries during early stages of industrialization
o Parents disciplined their children, making firm measures socially acceptable, and directed
their upbringing
o Presence of whole family meant that children and adults worked same long hours (for
cotton mills, 12 hours)
o In early years, some very young children were employed solely to keep family together
Jediah Strutt: Believed children should be at least 10 to work in his textile mills, but reluctantly
employed 7yo’s to satisfy their parents
Adult workers were not particularly interested in limiting minimum working age or hours of their
children as long as family members worked side by side
When technical changes threatened to place control and discipline in the hands of impersonal
managers and overseers, adults then protested against inhuman conditions in the name of their
children
Some enlightened employers and social reformers in PLMT felt otherwise
o Argued more humane standards were necessary, and used widely circulated reports to
publicize and influence public opinion
o Robert Owen: Successfully manufacturer in Scotland, testified that employing children
under 10 was harmful for children
o Workers also provided graphic testimony at hearings
o Scored some successes
Most significant early accomplishment was Factory Act of 1833
o Limited factory workday for children between 9 and 13 to 8 hours, and those 14 to 18 12
hours
o Act made no effort to regulate hours
o Children under 9 were required to be enrolled in elementary schools that factory owners
were required to establish
o Employment of children declined rapidly
o Factory Act broke pattern of whole families working together in factory because
efficiency required standardized shifts for all workers
Ties of blood and kinship were important in other ways in Brit in formative years between
1790-1840
o Many manufacturers and builders hired workers through subcontractors
o Paid subcontractors on basis of what subcontractors and crews produced
o Subcontractors in turn hired and fired their own workers, many of whom were friends
and relations
o Subcontractor might be as harsh as greediest capitalist, but relationship between
subcontactor and work crew was close and person
o Personal relationship traditionally existed in cottage industry and in urban crafts, and was
more acceptable to many workers than impersonal factory discipline
o System provided ppl with an easy way to find a job – friends get friends jobs
Ties of kinship were particularly important for newcomers who often traveled great distances to
find work
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Many urban workers in Brit were from Ireland
Forced out of rural Ireland by population growth and deteriorating economic conditions
Irish searched for jobs and took what they could get
Irish worked together, formed own neighborhoods, and thrived
The Sexual Division of Labor
• Era of IDR witness major changes in sexual division of labor
o Pre IDR Europe had ppl working in family units
o By tradition, certain jobs were for certain genders
o Many tasks might go to either sex
o Family employment carried over into early factories
o By 1830s, it was collapsing as child labor was restricted and new attitudes emerges
o Diff sexual division of labor arose
o By 1850, man was taking place as family’s breadwinner and primary wage earners, while
married woman found limited job opportunities
o Women denied good jobs and good wages in growing urban economy
o Women expected to concentrate on housework, raising children, and some craftwork
• New pattern of separate spheres: A gender division of labor with the wife at home as mother and
homemaker and husband as wage earner, had several aspects
o Married woman from working class were much less likely to work full time for wages
outside house after 1st child arrived
▪ Did small jobs for putting out handicrafts
o When married women did work for wages outside of house, they usually came from poor
families, where husbands were poorly paid sick, unemployed, or missing
o Poor married or widowed woman were joined by legions of young unmarried women
who worked full time but only in certain jobs, of which textile factory work, laundering,
and domestic services
o All women were generally confined to low paying, dead end jobs
▪ Virtually no occupation open to women paid a wage sufficient for a person to live
indep
▪ Men predominated better paying, more promising jobs
▪ Evolving gradually, new sexual division of labor in Brit was a major
development in history of woman in the family
• Reorganization of paid labor along gender lines is debated
o Some see little connection with industrialization, and comes from deeply ingrained sexist
attitudes of “patriarchal tradition” which predated the IDR
▪ Stress role of male dominated craft unions in denying working women access to
good jobs and relegating them to unpaid housework
o Others stress that gender roles of women and men can vary enormously with time and
culture, and look to a combination of economic and biological factors in order to explain
emergence of a sex-segregated division of labor
• 3 ideas stand out in new interpretation
o New and unfamiliar discipline of the clock and machine was hard on married women of
laboring classes
▪ Relentless factory discipline conflicted with child care
▪ Women operating machinery could mind a toddler near her, but couldn’t work
while pregnant or breast feeding
▪ Working class woman had strong incentives to concentrate on child care within
home
o Running a household in conditions of primitive urban poverty was an extremely
demanding job in its own right
▪ No supermarkets or public transportation
▪ Everything done on foot
▪ Shopping and feeding family was so hard
Another brutal job outside house, “second shift”, had limited appeal for average
working woman
▪ Women might have well accepted the division of labor as the best available
strategy for family survival in industrializing society
o Young, generally unmarried women who worked for wages outside home were
segregated and confined to certain “women’s jobs”
▪ Desire of males to monopolize the best opportunities and hold women down
▪ Some scholars argue sex segregated employment was a collective response to the
new industrial system
• Previously, youth were under a watchful parental eye
• Factories and mines produced opportunities for girls and boys to mix on
the jobs, free of supervision from family
• Continued to mix after work and were more likely to form bonds
• Intimacy led to unplanned pregnancies and fueled illegitimacy explosion
• Segregation of jobs was an effort to control sexuality of working class
youth
Middle class men who expected their daughters to pursue ladylike activities failed to appreciate
the physical effort of the girls and women who dragged with belt and chain the heavy carts of
coal underground
Yet professed horror at sight of women working without shirts, which was a common practice
because of heat
They quickly assumed the prevalence of sex with male miners who wore little too
Most girls and married women worked for related males in a family unit that provided
considerable protection and restraint
Yet many witnesses from the working class believed that “blackguardism and debauchery” were
common and that the lasses were best out of the pit
Some miners stressed the danger of sexual aggression for girls working past puberty
Mines Act of 1842: English law that prohibited underground work for all women and girls as well
as boys under 10
Some women who had to support themselves protested against being excluded from coal mining,
which paid higher wages than most other jobs open to working class women
Others were part of families who could manage economically, and were pleased with the law
o Had to pay for nanny
o Was so tired
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The Early Labor movement in Britain
• Many kinds of employment changed slowly during and after IDR in Brit
• In 1850: Most ppl still worked on farms than in any other occupation
o Second largest occupation was domestic service, 90% were women
o Many old, familiar jobs outside industry lived on and provided alternatives for individual
workers
o Helped ease transition to industrial civilization
• With industry itself, the pattern of artisans working with hand tools in small shops remained
unchanged by tech change
o Brit iron industry was dominated by large scale capitalist firms
o Many large ironworks had more than 1000 ppl on their payrolls
o Firms that fashioned iron into small metal goods (tools, tableware) employed fewer than
10 wage workers who used handicraft skills
o After 1850 some owners found ways to reorganize some handicraft industries with new
machines and patterns of work
o Survival of small workshops gave many workers an alternative to factory employment
• Working class solidarity and class consciousness developed in small workshops as well as in
large factories
o Anticapitalist sentiments were frequent by 1820s
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o There were thousands of workers and a little owners and managers
o Modern tech and factory organization created few versus the many
Transformation of some traditional trades by organizational changes, rather than tech innovations
could create ill will and class feeling
o Economic freedom and laissez faire emerged in late 18th c and continued to gather
strength in early 19th c
o Brit gov attacked monopolies, guilds, and worker combinations in the name of individual
liberty
▪ 1799: PLMT passed Combination Acts, which outlawed unions and strikes,
favored capitalist business people over skilled artisans
▪ 1814: repealed old and disregarded law regulating wages of artisans and
conditions of apprenticeship
▪ Certain skilled workers found aggressive capitalists ignoring traditional work
rules and trying to flood their trades with unorganized women workers and
children to beat down wages
Capitalist attack on artisan guilds and work rules was bitterly resented by many craftworkers,
who subsequently played an important part in Brit and other countries in gradually building a
modern labor movement to improve working conditions and serve worker needs
o Combination Acts disregarded by workers and craft guilds
o Printers, papermakers, carpenters, tailors, continued to take collective action
o Societies of skilled workers also organized unions
o Unions sought to control the number of skilled workers, limit apprenticeship to members’
own children, and bargain with owners over wages
They were not afraid to strike
o In face of union activity, PLMT repealed Combination Acts in 1824
o Unions were tolerated, though not fully accepted after 1825
Next stage in development of Brit trade union movement was attempt to create a single large
national union
o Led by social reformers such as Robert Owen
▪ Self made cotton manufacturer
▪ Pioneered in industrial relations by combining firm discipline with concern for
the health, safety, and hours of his workers
▪ Experimented with cooperative and socialists communities
▪ Organized one of the largest and most visionary of the early national unions, the
Grand National Consolidated Trades Union
Owen’s and other grandiose schemes collapsed
Brit labor movement moved in the direction of craft unions
o Most famous was the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, which represented skilled
machinists
Unions won benefits for members by fairly conservative means and thus became an accepted part
of the industrial scene
Brit workers engaged in direct political activity in defense of their own interests
o After collapse of Owen’s national trade union, any working ppl went into the Chartist
movement, which sought political democracy
o The key Chartist demand: That all men be given the right to vote
o Became the great hope of millions of aroused ppl
Workers active in campaigns to limit workday in factories to 10 hours an to permit duty free
importation of wheat into Brit to secure cheap bread
Working ppl developed a sense of their own identity and played an active role in shaping the new
industrial system
Were neither helpless victims nor passive beneficiaries
Ch 22. Ideologies and Upheavals
The Aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars
• The eventual triumph of revolutionary economic and political forces was not certain as
Napoleonic era ended
• Conservative, aristocratic monarchies of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Great Britain –
known as the Quadruple Alliance defeated France and reaffirmed their determination to
hold France in line
• Many other international questions were outstanding, and the allies agreed to meet at
Congress of Vienna to fashion a general peace settlement
• Most ppl felt a profound longing for peace
• Challenge for political leaders in 1814: Construct a settlement that would last and snot
sow seeds of another war
• Efforts were largely successful and contributed to a century w/o destructive generalized
war
The European Balance of Power
• Allied powers were concerned with defeated enemy, France
• Agreed to restore Bourbon dynasty
• Lenient toward France after NAP’s abdication
o First Peace of Paris gave France the boundaries it had in 1792, larger than those of
1789
o France did not have to pay any war reparations
• Victorious powers did not foment a spirit of injustice and revenge
• When Quadruple Alliance, a representative of restored French monarchy, and delegates
from small European states met together at Congress of Vienna, they agreed to raise a
number of barriers against renewed French aggression
o Low Counties – Belgium and Holland were united under an enlarged Dutch
monarchy capable of opposing France more effectively
o Prussia received more territory on France’s eastern border to stand as the “sentinel
on the Rhine” against France
• Combined leniency toward France with strong defensive measures
• In moderation toward France, allies were motivated by self-interest and traditional ideas
about balance of power
o Klemens von Metternich and Robert Castlereagh and Charles Talleyrand:
Foreign ministers of Austria and Brit and France
▪ Thought balance of power meant international equilibrium of political and
military forces that would discourage aggression by any combination of
states, or domination of Europe by a single state
• Great Powers: Austria, Brit, Prussia, Russia, and France used balance of power to settle
dangerous disputes at Congress of Vienna
o General agreement among victors that each of them should receive compensation
in form of territory for successful struggle against French
▪ Brit already won colonies and outposts
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▪ Austria gave up territories in Belgium and southern Germany, but
expanded greatly elsewhere, taking Venetia and Lombardy in n. Italy and
former Polish possessions and new land on east of Adriatic
▪ More contentious (argument inducing) was the push fo greater territory by
Russia and Prussia
▪ When France, Austria, and Brit allied against these powers, Russia
accepted a small Polish kingdom and Prussia took a part of Saxony
▪ Compromise was within the framework of balance of power ideology
Unfortunately for France, NAP suddenly escaped from island Elba and ignited his wars
of expansion for a brief time
2nd Peace of Paris concluded after NAP’s final defeat at Waterloo was relatively moderate
toward France
o Louis XVIII was restored to throne for 2nd time
o France lost only a little territory
o France had to pay an indemnity of 700 mill francs
o France had to support a large army of occupation for five years
o Rest of settlement already concluded at Congress of Vienna was left intact
Members of Quadruple Alliance did agree to meet periodically to discuss their common
interests and to consider appropriate measures for the maintenance of peace in Europe
Agreement marked beginning of European “congress system” which lasted long into the
10th c and settled many international crises through international conferences and balance
of power diplomacy
Repressing the Revolutionary Spirit
• There was a domestic political side to reestablishment of peace
• Within their own countries, the leaders of victorious states were much less flexible
• 1815: under Metternich’s leadership, Austria Prussia, and Russia embarked on a crusade
against the ideas and politics of the dual revolution: Economic and political changes that
tended to fuse and reinforce each other after 1815
o Crusade lasted until 1848
o First step was Holy Alliance
▪ Formed by Austria, Prussia, and Russia in September 1815
▪ First proposed by Russia’s Alexander I, the alliance soon became a
symbol of the repression of liberal and revolutionary movements all over
Europe
• 1820: Revolutionaries succeeded in forcing the monarchs of Spain and southern Italian
kingdom of the Two Sicilies to grant liberal constitutions against their wills
o Metternich was horrified: revolution was rising once again
o Calling a conference at Troppau in Austria under provisions of Quadruple
Alliance, he and Alexander I proclaimed the principle of active intervention to
maintain all autocratic regimes whenever they were threatened
o Austrian forces marched into Naples in 1821 and restored Ferdinand to the
throne of the Two Sicilies, while French armiesin 1823 restored the Spanish
regime
• In following years, Metternich continued to battle against liberal political change
• Sometimes he could do little to repress liberal political change
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o New Latin Am republics that broke away from Spain
o He couldn’t undo dynastic change of 1830 in France or Belgium’s achieving
independence from Netherlands in 1831
Nonetheless, until 1848, Metternich’s system proved quite effective in central Europe,
where his power was the greatest
Metternich’s policies dominated not only Austria and Italian peninsula but also the entire
German Confederation, which the peace settlement of Vienna had called into being
o German Confed: 38 independent German states, including Prussia and Austria
o Met in complicated assemblies dominated by Austria, with Prussia a willing
junior partner in the execution of repressive measures
Through German Confed, Metternich had infamous Carlsbad Decrees: Decrees designed
to uphold Metternich’s conservatism, requiring German states to root out subversive ideas
and squelch any liberal organizations, issued in 1819
o Required 38 German member states to root out subversive ideas in their
universities and newspapers
o Established a permanent committee with spies and informers to investigate and
punish any liberal or radical organizations
Metternich and Conservatism
• Metternich’s determined defense of status quo made him a villain in eyes of most
progressive, optimistic historians of 19th c
• We should look at his background before repudiating his ways of general conservatism
• Prince Klemens von Metternich
o Born into middle ranks of landed nobility of Rhineland
o Internationally oriented aristocrat who made a brilliant diplomatic career in
Austria
o Austrian foreign minister from 1809-1848
o Cosmopolitan and conservative
o Pessimistic view of human nature, which he believed was ever prone to error,
excess, and self serving behavior
o Concluded that strong gov’s were necessary as a bulwark to protect society from
the baser elements of human behavior
o Defended his class and its rights and privileges with a clear conscience
▪ Nobility was one of Europe’s most ancient institutions, and conservatives
regarded tradition as the basic source of human institutions
o Firmly believed that liberalism, as embodied in revolutionary America and
France, had been responsible for a generation of war with untold bloodshed and
suffering
o Blamed liberal middle class revolutionaries for stirring up lower classes, which he
believed desired nothing more than peace and quiet
o Threat of liberalism was doubly dangerous because it generally went with
national aspirations
▪ Liberals believed that each people, each national group, had a right to
establish its own independent government and seek to fulfill its own
destiny
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o Idea of self determination was repellent because it threatened to destroy Austrian
Empire and revolutionize central Europe
Vast Austrian Empire of Habsburgs was a great dynastic state
o Formed over centuries by war, marriage, and luck, was made up of many peoples
o Quite multiethnic
▪ Germans long dominated empire, yet they accounted for only ¼ of
population
▪ Magyars (Hungarians) were a substantially smaller group, dominated
kingdom of Hungary though they did not account for a majority of
population in that part of Austrian Empire
▪ Czechs were concentrated in Bohemia and Moravia
▪ Large numbers of Italians, Poles, and Ukrainians as well as smaller groups
of Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, and Romanians
▪ Various Slavic peoples, together with Italians and Romanians represented
a widely scattered and completely divided majority in an empire
politically dominated by Germans and Hungarians
▪ Diff ethnic groups often lived in the same provinces and even in same
villages
▪ Different parts and provinces of empire differed in languages, customs,
and institutions
Multiethnic state Metternich served was strong and weak at same time
o Strong: Large population and vast territories
o Weak: Many and potentially dissatisfied nationalities
Metternich virtually had to oppose liberalism and nationalism, for Austria was simply
unable to accommodate these ideologies of the dual revolution
In his efforts to hold back liberalism and nationalism, Metternich was supported by
Russia and, to a lesser extent, the Ottoman Empire
o Bitter enemies, these far flung empires were both absolutist states with powerful
armies and long traditions of expansion and conquest
o Both were multinational empires made up of many peoples, languages, and
religions, but in each case most of the ruling elite came from the dominant ethnic
group – the Orthodox Christian Russians centered in central and northern Russia,
and the Muslim Ottoman Turks of Anatolia
o After 1815, both of these multinational absolutist states worked to preserve their
respective traditional conservative orders
o Only after 1850 did each in turn experience a profound crisis and embark on a
program of fundamental reform and modernization
The Spread of Radical Ideas
• In years following peace settlement of 1815 intellectuals and social observers sought to
understand the revolutionary changes that had occurred and were still taking place
• Almost all of these basic ideas were radical
• New ideas rejected conservatism, with its stress on tradition, a hereditary monarchy, a
strong and privileged landowning aristocracy, and an official church
• Radical thinkers developed and refined alternative visions/ideologies and tried to
convince society to act on them
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In contrast to Metternich and conservatism, these new philosophies of liberalism,
nationalism, and socialism started with an optimistic premise about human nature
Although they reached very diff conclusions about how best to achieve progress, of how
far progress should extend, with time, each of the movements was very successful
Liberalism and the Middle Class
• Liberalism first realized in American Rev and then achieved in part in French Rev
• Liberalism
o Principle ideas of liberalism: Liberty and Equality were not defeated in 1815
o Liberalism demanded representative gov as opposed to autocratic monarchy, and
equality before the law as opposed to legally separate classes
o Idea of liberty meant specific individual freedoms: press, speech, assembly,
arbitrary arrest
• In Europe, only France with Louis XVIII’s Constitutional Charter and Great Brit with its
PLMT and historic rights of Englishmen and women had realized much of liberal
program in 1815
o Even in those countries, liberalism had not fully succeeded
• Liberalism retained its cutting edge, but was seen by many as being somewhat duller than
it had been
o Liberalism faced more radical ideological competitors in the early 19th c
o Opponents of liberalism especially criticized its economic principles, which called
for unrestricted private enterprise and no gov interference in economy
▪ Philosophy known as laissez faire
▪ Classic liberalism vs. modern American liberalism w/ more gov programs
• Early 19th c liberal political ideals became more closely associated with narrow class
interests
o Early 10th c liberals favored representative govs, but generally wanted property
qualifications attached to the right to vote
o This meant limiting the vote to the well to do
o Workers and peasants, as well as lower middle class of shopkeepers, clerks, and
artisans, did not own the necessary property and thus could not vote
• As liberalism became increasingly identified with middle class after 1815, some
intellectuals and foes of conservatism felt that liberalism did not go nearly far enough
o Inspired by memories of French Rev and young Am Repub, they called for
universal voting rights, at least for males, and democracy
o Democrats and republicans were more radical that the liberals, and were more
willing than most liberals to endorse violent upheaval to achieve goals
• All of this meant that liberals that radical democratic republicans could join forces
against conservatives up to a point
The Growing Appeal of Nationalism
• Nationalism was a second radical idea in the years after 1815, an idea destined to have an
enormous influence in the modern world
• Nationalism: The idea that each people had its own genius and its own specific unity,
which manifested itself especially in common language and history, and often led to the
desire for an independent political state
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Origins in French Rev and NAP wars, and there were already hints of its ability to spread
and develop
Early advocates of the “national idea” or nationalism were strongly influenced by Johann
Gottfried von Herder: 18th c philosopher and historian who argued that each pl had its
own genius and cultural unity
o For nationalists coming after Herder, this cultural unity was basically self evident,
manifesting itself especially in a common language, history, and territory
o Actually, in early 19th c, cultural unity was more a dream than a reality as far as
most nationalities were concerned
▪ Local dialects abounded, and peasants from nearby villages often couldn’t
understand each other
▪ Historic memory divided inhabitants of diff German or Italian states as
much as it unified them
▪ Variety of ethnic groups shared the territory of most states
Despite basic realities, sooner or later European nationalists usually sought to turn the
cultural unity that they perceived into political reality
Sought to make territory of each people coincide with well defined boundaries in an
indep nation states
This political goal made nationalism so explosive in central and e. Europe after 1815,
where there were either too few states (Austria, Russia, and Ottoman Empire) or too
many (Italian peninsula and German Confed) and when diff peoples overlapped and
intermingled
Why was nationalism that fit so poorly with existing conditions and promised upheaval
so successful?
o Development of complex industrial and urban society, which required much better
communication between individs and groups
▪ Communication needs promoted use of standardized national language
within many countries, created at least a superficial cultural unity as a
standard tongue spread through mass education
▪ When a minority population was large and concentrated, the nationalist
campaign for standardized language often led minority group to push for a
separate nation state
Many scholars argue that nations are recent creations, the product of new, self conscious
nationalist ideology
Thus nation states emerged in 19th c as “imagined communities” that sought to binds
millions of strangers together around the abstract concept of an all embracing national
identity
o This meant bringing citizens together with emotionally charged symbols and
ceremonies, such as indep holidays and patriotic parades
o On these occasions the imagined nation of spiritual equals might celebrate its
most hallowed traditions, which were often recent inventions
Historians stress dynamic, ever changing character of nationalism
o Industrialism and mass education played only a minor role before 1850
In those years the faith in nationhood was fresh, idealistic, and progressive
Between 1815 and 1850 most ppl who believed in nationalism also believed in either
liberalism or radical democratic republicanism
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A common faith in the creativity and nobility of the ppl was perhaps the single most
important reason for the linking of these two concepts
o Liberals and especially democrats saw the ppl as the ultimate source of all gov
o Yet liberals and nationalists agreed that the benefits of self gov would be possible
only if the ppl were united by common traditions that transcended local interests
and even class differences
Early nationalists believed that every nation, like every citizen, had the right to exist in
freedom and to develop its character and spirit
They were confident that a “symphony of nations” would promote that harmony and
unity of all peoples
Jules Michelet: Each citizen learns to recognize his country as a note in the grand
concert
Guiseppe Mazzini: Italian patriot, laboring for principles of our country, laboring for
humanity
Liberty of individual and love of a free nation overlapped greatly in early 19th c
Early nationalists stressed differences among peoples
o Strong sense of “we” and “they”
o Sense of national mission and sense of national superiority
Michelet stressed “superiority of France”
Russian and German nationalists had very diff opinion on France
o Thought French were oppressive, and “they” were the enemy
French Utopian Socialism
• Socialism: New radical doctrine after 1815, began in France, even though France lagged
behind Brit in developing modern industry
• Early socialist thinkers were aware that the political revolution in France, rise of laissez
faire, and emergence of modern industry in Brit were transforming society
• Disturbed because they saw these developments as fomenting selfish individualism and
splitting community into isolated fragments
• They believed there was a urgent need for a further reorganization of society to establish
cooperation and a new sense of community
• Early Socialist beliefs
o Economic planning
▪ Inspired by emergency measures of early France, they argued that gov
should rationally organize the economy and not depend on destructive
competition to do the job
o Believed in desire to help the poor
▪ Preached that the rich and poor should be more nearly equal economically
o Believed private property should be strictly regulated by the gov or that it should
be abolished and replaced by state or community ownership
• Planning, greater economic equality, and state regulation of property – key ideas of early
French socialism and of all socialism since
• Count Henri de Saint-Simon: One of most influential early socialist thinkers,
optimistically proclaimed the tremendous possibilities of industrial development: “the
age of gold is before us”
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o The key to progress was property social organization that required the parasites
(court, aristocracy, lawyers, churchmen) to give way, to the “doers (scientists,
engineers, industrialists)
o Doers would plan economy and guide it forward by undertaking public works
projects and establishing investment banks
o Saint Simon stressed highly moralistic terms that every social institution ought to
have its main goal improved conditions for the poor
After 1830, socialist critique of capitalism became sharper
Charles Fourier: Lonely, saintly man, envisaged a socialist utopia of mathematically
precise, self sufficient communities, each made up of 1,620 ppl
o Proponent of total emancipation of women
o Young single women were shamelessly “sold” to their future husbands for
dowries and other financial considerations
o Called for abolition of marriage, free unions based only on love, and sexual
freedom
o Many middle class men and women found these ideas shocking and immoral
Louis Blanc: sharp eyed, intelligent journalist, focused on practical improvements
o Organization of Work: urged workers to agitate for universal voting rights and to
take control of the state peacefully
o Believed that the state should set up gov backed workshops and factories to
guarantee full employment
o Right to work had become as sacred as any right
Pierre Joseph Proudhon: self educated printer who wrote a pamphlet
o Answer was that it was nothing but theft
o Property was profit that was stolen from the worker, who was the source of all
wealth
Message of French utopian socialists interacted with experiences of French urban
workers
Workers cherished memory of the radical phase of the French Rev and became violently
opposed to laissez faire laws that denied workers the right to organize in guilds and
unions
Developing a sense of class in the process, workers favored collective action and gov
intervention in economic life
Aspirations of workers and utopian theorists reinforced each other, and a genuine
socialist movement emerged in Paris in 1830s and 1840s
To Karl Marx was left the task of establishing firm foundations for modern socialism
The Birth of Marxian Socialism
• 1848: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto which
became the bible of socialism
• Karl Marx
o Son of a Jewish lawyer who had converted to Christianity
o Atheistic Marx studied philosophy at UBerlin before turning to journalism and
economics
o Read in French socialist thought, and looked forward to emancipation of women
and abolition of the family
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o Was developing his own socialist ideas
Early French socialists often appealed to the middle class and the state to help the poor
Marx ridiculed such appeals as naïve
o Argued that interests of the middle class and those of industrial working class
were inevitably opposed to each other
o One class always exploited the other and with the advent of modern industry,
society was split more clearly than ever before: between middle class bourgeoisie
and modern working class proletariat
Just as bourgeoisie had triumphed over feudal aristocracy, Marx predicted that the
proletariat would conquer the bourgeoisie in a violent revolution
While a tiny minority owned the means of production and grew richer, the ever poorer
proletariat was constantly growing in size and in class consciousness
In this process, the prol was aided by a portion of the bourgeoisie who had gone over to
the proles and who had raised themselves to the level of comprehending, thought Marx
The critical moment, Marx thought, was very near
Marx’s ideas united sociology, economics, and all human history in a vast and imposing
edifice
Synthesized in his socialism not only French utopian schemes but also English classical
economics and German philosophy
Following David Ricardo, who thought labor was source of all value, Marx argue
Proudhon’s case that profits were really wages stolen from the workers
Marx incorporated Engels’s charge of terrible oppression of the new class of factory
workers in England
Marx’s doctrines seemed to be based on hard fact
Marx’s theory of historical evolution was built on philosophy of German Georg hegel
o Hegel believed each age is characterized by dominant ideas that produce opposing
ideas and eventually a new synthesis
o The idea of being had been dominant initially, and it had produced its antithesis,
nonbeing
o This idea turned into a synthesis of becoming
o Thus history had pattern and purpose
Marx retained Hegel’s view of history as a dialectic process of change but made
economic relationships between classes the driving force
o This dialectic explained the decline of agrarian feudalism and the rise of industrial
capitalism
o Marx stressed repeatedly that the “bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most
revolutionary part”, it has created more massive and more colossal productive
forces that have all preceding generations together
Marx’s next idea, that it was now the bourgeoisie’s turn to give way to the socialism of
revolutionary workers appeared to many the irrefutable capstone of a brilliant
interpretation of humanity’s long development
Marx pulled together powerful ideas and insights to create one of the great secular
religions out of the intellectual ferment of the early 19th c
The Romantic Movement
• Early 19th c was a time of change in literature and other arts as well as politics
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Known as romantic movement
Part of a revolt against emphasis on rationality, order, and restraint that characterized the
ENLT and controlled style of classicism
Forerunners of RMT mvmt appeared from 1750 on
o Rousseau: advocate of feeling, freedom, and natural goodness, was most
influential
Crystallized fully in 1790s, primarily in England and Germany
FR kindled belief that radical reconstruction was possible in cultural and artistic life
Romanticism gained strength until 1840s when it gradually gave way to realism
Romanticism’s Tenets
• Characterized by belief in emotional exuberance, unrestrained imagination, and
spontaneity in both art and personal life
• In Germany early RMTCS of 1170-80s called themselves Sturm and Drang (storm and
stress) and many RMTC artists of early 19th c lived lives of tremendous emotional
intensity
• Artists typically led bohemian lives, wearing hair long and uncombed instead of wigs,
and rejecting materialism of refined society
• Great individualists, the romantics believed in full development of one’s unique human
potential to be the supreme purpose in life
• Nowhere was the break with classicism more apparent than in romanticism’s general
conception of nature
o Classicism was not particularly interested in nature
o RMTCS were enchanted by nature
▪ Was awesome and tempestuous
▪ Source of spiritual inspiration
• Great English landscape artist: John Constable declared “Nature is Spirit visible”
• Most RMTCS saw growth of modern industry as an ugly, brutal attack on their beloved
nature and on human personality
• Sought to escape in unspoiled Lake District of n. England, in exotic N. Africa, in an
imaginary idealized Middle Ages
• Diverse, exciting, and important, study of history became a romantic passion
o Key to a universe that was now perceived as organic and dynamic, not mechanical
and static as ELNT thinkers thought it was
• Was not restricted to biographies of great men or work of divine providence
• Jules Michelet: Historian, focused on development of societies and human institutions,
promoted growth of national aspirations, fanning embers of memory and encouraging
peoples to seek in the past their special destinies
Literature
• RMTCS found distinctive voice in poetry, as ENLT had in prose
• First great poets were Brit
o Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Scott followed by Byron, Shelley, and Keats
• Towering leader of English RMTCM William Wordsworth was deeply influenced by
Rousseau and spirit of early FR
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o Settled in rural Lake District of England with sister Dorothy and Samuel
Coleridge
o Wordsworth and Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads which abandoned flowery
classical conventions for language of ordinary speech and endowed simple
subjects with the loftiest majesty
o Simplicity and love of nature in commonplace forms that could be appreciated by
everyone
o Poetry is “spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling recollected in tranquility”
Classicism remained strong in France under NAP and inhibited growth of RMTCM
1813: Germaine de Stael, a Franco Swiss writer living in exile, urged French to throw
out worn out classical models
o Her study extolled spontaneity and enthusiasm of German writers/thinkers and it
had a powerful impact on post 1815 generation in France
Between 1820 and 1850, RMTC impulse broke through in poetry and prose of
Lamartine, de Vigny, Hugo, Dumas, and Sand
Victor Hugo: most well known in poetry and prose
o Son of Napoleonic general
o Achieved amazing range of rhythm, language, and image in his lyric poetry
o Powerful novels exemplified RMTC fascination with fantastic characters, exotic
historical settings, and human emotions
o Renounced early conservatism, equated freedom in literature with liberty in
politics and society
o Hugo’s political evolution was opposite of Wordsworth’s, in whom youthful
radicalism gave way to middle aged caution
o As contrast between two artists suggests, RMTCM was a cultural movement
compatible with many political beliefs
Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin or George Sand: defied narrow conventions of her time
in a n unending search for self fulfillment
o After 8 yrs of unhappy marriage, she abandoned her husband and took her 2
children to Paris to pursue a career as a writer
o Achieved fame and wealth, writing over 80 novels on a variety of RMTC and
social themes
o Her individualism went far beyond her flamboyant preference for men’s clothing
and notorious affairs
o Semi-autobiographical novel Leila was shockingly modern, delving deeply into
her tortuous quest for sexual and personal freedom
In central and eastern Europe, literary RMTCM often reinforced each other
o Seeking a unique greatness in every ppl, well educated RMTCS plumed their own
histories and cultures
o Like modern anthropologists, they turned their attention to peasant life and
transcribed the folk songs, tales, and proverbs that the cosmopolitan ELNT had
disdained
Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were successful at rescuing German fairy tales
from oblivion
IN Slavic lands, RMTCS played a decisive role in converting spoken peasant languages
to modern written languages
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Most influential of Russian poets, Aleksander Pushkin rejecting 18th c attempts to force
Russian poetry into a classical straitjacket, used his lyrical genius to mold the modern
literary language
Art and Music
• One of greatest and most moving RMTC painters in France was Eugene Delacroix,
probs illegit son of Talleyrand
o Master of dramatic, colorful scenes that stirred emotions
o Fascinated with remote and exotic subjects
o Passionate spokesman for freedom
• In England, the most notable RMTC painters were Joseph M. W. Turner and John
Constable
o Both were fascinated by nature, but their interpretations of it contrasted sharply,
symbolizing the tremendous emotional range of the romantic mvmt
o Turner depicted nature’s power and terror, wild storms and sinking ships
o Constable painted gentle landscapes in which humans were at open with their
environment, the comforting countryside of unspoiled rural England
• It was in music that RMTCM realized most fully and permanently its goals of free
expression and emotional intensity
o Abandoning well defined structures, the great romantic composers used a wide
range of forms to create a thousand musical landscapes and evoke a host of
powerful emotions
o Composers transformed small classical orchestra by tripling it an adding wind,
percussion, and more brass and strings
o Crashing chords, bottomless despair
o Modern orchestra’s musical paintings that plumbed depths of human feeling
• Range and intensity gave music and musicians much greater prestige than in the past
• Music no longer simply complemented church or helped a nobleman digest, it became a
sublime end in itself, most perfectly realizing the endless yearning of the soul
• Franz Liszt: Became a hero, the greatest pianist of his age
• Ludwig van Beethoven: used contrasting themes and tones to produce dramatic conflict
and inspiring resolutions
o Music sets in motion level of fear, awe, horror, and suffering that awakens infinite
longing which is essence of RMTCM
o Beethoven’s range and output were tremendous
o Began to lose hearing, considered suicide, overcame despair
o Continued to pour out music
Reforms and Revolutions before 1848
• While RMTC mvmt was developing, liberal, national, and socialist forces battered
against the conservatism of 1815
• In some countries, change occurred gradually and peacefully, while elsewhere, pressure
built up and caused an explosion in 1848
• 3 important countries: Greece, Brit, and France, experienced variations on the basic
theme between 1815 and 1848
National Liberation in Greece
• Nationalism, liberal rev, frustrated in Italy and Spain by conservative statesmen,
succeeded first after 1815 in Greece
• Since 15th c, the Greeks had been living under domination of Ottoman Turks
• In spite of centuries of foreign rule, Greek shad survived as a ppl, united by language and
Orthodox religion
• Was natural that general growth of national aspirations and a desire fo independence
would inspire some Greeks in early 19th c
• Rising national mvmt led to formation of secret societies and then to reolt in 1821 led by
Alexander Ypsilanti, a Greek patriot and general in Russian army
• At first, Great powers, particularly Metternich, were opposed to all revolution, even rev
against Turks
• Refused to back Ypsilanti and supported Ottoman Empire
• Yet for many Europeans, Greek cause became a holy one
o Educated Am’s and Europeans were in love with culture of classical Greece
o Russians were stirred by piety of Orthodox brethren
o Writers and artists were moved by the RMTC impulse and responded
enthusiastically to the Greek national struggle
o Famous English RMTC Lord Byron joined Greeks to fight “that Greece may yet
be free”
• Greeks, though often quarreling among themselves, battled on against Turks and hoped
for eventual support of European gov’s
• 1827: Brit, France, Russia yielded to popular demands at home and directed Turkey to
accept an armistice
• Turks refused, navies of these 3 powers trapped Turkish fleet at Navarino and destroyed it
• Russia declared another of its periodic wars of expansion against Turks
• Led to establishment of Russian protectorate over much of present day Romania, which
had also been under Turkish rule
• Brit, France, Russia finally declared Greece indep in 1830 and installed German prince as
king of new country in 1832
• Greeks won: small nation gained indep in a heroic war of liberation against a foreign
empire
Liberal Reform in Brit
• 18th c Brit society had been flexible and stable
o Dominated by landowning aristocracy, but that class was neither closed nor
rigidly defined
o Successful business and professional ppl could buy land and become gentlefolk,
while common ppl had more than the usual opportunities of preindustry world
o Basic civil rights for all were balanced by tradition of deference to one’s social
superiors
o PLMT was manipulated by king and thoroughly undemocratic, with only 8% of
population allowed to vote for reps
• By 1780s, there was a growing interest in some kind of political reform
o FR threw Brit aristocracy into a panic for a generation, making it hostile to
change of status quo
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o Conflicts between ruling class and laborers were sparked in 1815 with revision of
Corn laws
▪ Brit unable to import cheap grain from e. Europe during war years, leading
to high prices and large profits for landed aristocracy
▪ With war over, grain could be imported again, allowing price of wheat and
bread to go down and benefit everyone except aristocracy
o Aristocracy changed corn laws through PLMT
▪ New regulation prohibited importation of foreign grain unless price at
home rose to improbable levels
▪ Seldom has a class legislated more selfishly for its own narrow economic
advantage or done more to promote a class based view of political action
o Change in corn laws at a time of unemployment and postwar economic distressed
triggered protests and demonstrations by urban laborers who were supported by
radical intellectuals
1817: Tory gov, which was completely controlled by landed aristocracy, responded by
temporarily suspending traditional rights of peaceable assembly and habeas corpus
2 yrs later PLMT passed Six Acts, which placed controls on a heavily taxed press and
practically eliminated all mass meetings
Acts followed an enormous but orderly protest at Saint peter’s Fields in Manchester, that
had been savagely broken up by armed cavalry
Nicknamed Battle of Peterloo, in scornful reference to the British victory at Waterloo
o Showed gov’s determination to repress dissenters
Strengthened by ongoing industrial development, the new manufacturing and commercial
groups insisted on a place for their new wealth alongside the landed wealth of the
aristocracy in the framework of political power and social prestige
Called for many kinds of liberal reform: reform of town gov, organization of a new police
force, more rights for Catholics and dissenters, and reform of the Poor Laws that
provided aid to some low paid workers
1820s: less frightened Tory gov moved in direction of better urban administration, greater
economic liberalism, civil equality for Catholics, and limited imports of foreign grain
Actions encouraged middle classes to press on for reform of PLMT so they could have a
larger say in gov
Whig Party, though led like Tories by great aristocrats, had by tradition been more
responsive to middle class commercial and manufacturing interests
o 1830: Whig ministry introduced an “act to amend the representation of the people
of England and Wales”
o After series of setbacks, Whigs’ Reform Bill of 1832 was propelled into law by
mighty surge of popular support
o Bill moved Brit politics in a democratic direction and allowed House of
Commons to emerge as all important legislative body
o New industrial areas of country gained representation in Commons and many old
electoral districts that had very few votes and aristocracy bought and sold were
eliminated
o Number of voters increased by about 50%, giving about 12% of adult men in Brit
and Ireland the right to vote
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o Comfortable middle class groups in the urban population, as well as some
substantial farmers who leased their land, received the vote
o Pressures building in Brit were successfully, though temporarily released
o Major reform had been achieved peacefully
o Continued fundamental reform within the system appeared difficult but not
impossible
Principle radical program for continued reform was embodied in “People’s Charter” of
1838
Partly inspired by economic distress of working class in 1830s-40s
Chartists’ core demand was universal male (but not female) suffrage
Saw complete political democracy and rule by the common people (majority) as the
means to a good and just society
Hundreds of thousands of ppl signed gigantic petitions calling on PLMT to grant all men
the right to vote in 1839, 1842, and in 1848
PLMT rejected all 3 petitions
Working poor failed with their Chartist demands, but learned a valuable lesson in mass
politics
While calling for male suffrage, many working class ppl joined with middle class
manufacturers in Anti-Corn Law League
Mass participation made possible a popular crusade led by fighting liberals, who argued
that lower food prices and more jobs in industry depended on repeal of Corn Laws
Much of working class agreed
When Ireland’s potato crop failed in 1845 and famine prices for food seemed likely in
England, Tory prime minister Robert Peel joined with Whigs and a minority of his own
party to repeal Corn Laws and allow free imports of grain
England escaped famine
Thereafter the liberal doctrine of free trade became almost sacred dogma in Brit
Following year, Tories passed a bill designed to help working classes, but in a diff way
o Ten Hours Act of 1847 limited workday for women and young ppl in factories to
10 hrs
o Tory aristocrats continued to champion legislation regulating factory conditions
o Were competing vigorously with middle class for support of the working class
o This healthy competition between a still vigorous aristocracy and a strong middle
class was a crucial factor in Brit’s peaceful evolution
o Working classes could make temporary alliances with either competitor to better
their own conditions
Ireland and the Great Famine
• Ppl of Ireland did not benefit from political competition in Brit
• Great mass of population were Irish Catholics who rented land from tiny minority of
Church of England Protestants
o These landlords were content to use their power to grab as much as possible
• Result was condition of Irish peasants around 1800 was abominable
o Typical peasant lived in a wretched cottage and could afford neither shoes nor
stockings
o Hundreds of shocking accounts describe hopeless poverty
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o Novelist Sir Walter Scott wrote about the poverty
o French traveler wrote Ireland was “pure misery, naked and hungry”
In spite of terrible conditions, population growth sped onward
Ireland’s population explosion, part of Europe’s population explosion, was caused in part
by the extensive cultivation of potato
o Single acre of land spaded and planted with potatoes could feed an Irish family of
6 for a year, and potato could thrive on boggy wastelands
o Needing only a big potato patch to survive, Irish men and women married early
o Young couple was embracing life of extreme poverty
o They would live on potatoes
Decision to marry early and have large families made sense
o Landlords leased land for short periods only
o Peasants had no incentive to make permanent improvements because anything
beyond what was needed for survival would quickly be taken by higher rent
o Rural poverty was inescapable and better shared with a spouse, while a dutiful
son/daughter was an old person’s best hope of escaping destitution
As population and potato dependency grew, conditions became more precarious
o 1820 onward, deficiencies and diseases in potato crop became more common
o Potato failed repeatedly 1845, 1846, 1848, 1851
o Great Famine was result
▪ Blight of plants, and tubers rotted
▪ Widespread starvation
▪ Mass fever epidemics
Brit gov, committed to strict laissez faire, was slow to act
o When it did, it was tragically inadequate
o Gov continued to collect taxes, landlords demanded rents, and tenants who
couldn’t pay were evicted and their homes destroyed
Ireland remained conquered jewel of foreign landowners
Great Famine shattered pattern of Irish population growth
o 1 mill fled
o 1.5 mill died or went unborn
o Declining population in 2nd half of 19th c
o Land of continuous out migration, late marriage, early death, and widespread
celibacy
Great Famine intensified anti-Brit feeling and promoted Irish nationalism
o Bitter memory of starvation, exile, and Brit inaction was burned deeply into
popular consciousness
o Patriots had campaigns for land reform, home rule, and eventually Irish
independence
The Revolution of 1830 in France
• Louis XVIII’s Constitutional Charter of 1814 was not a gift, but actually a response to
political pressures, basically a liberal constitution
• Economic and social gains made by sections of middle class and peasantry in FR were
fully protected, great intellectual and artistic freedom was permitted, and a PLMT with
upper and lower house was created
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Immediately after NAP’s 100 days, moderate, worldly king refused to bow to wishes of
die hard aristocrats who wanted to sweep away all revolutionary changes
Instead, Louis appointed as his ministers moderate royalists, who sought and obtained
the support of a majority of the representatives elected to the lower Chamber of Deputies
between 1816 and Louis’s death in 1824
Louis XVIII’s charter was anything but democratic
o Only 100,000 out of 30 mill of wealthiest males could vote for deputies who
made laws of nation
o “Notable ppl” who did vote cam from very diff backgrounds
▪ Wealthy businessmen, war profiteers, successfully professionals, ex
revolutionaries, large landowners from the old aristocracy, and middle
class, Bourbons, and Bonapartists
o The old aristocracy, with its pre 1789 mentality, was a minority within the voting
population
o It was this solution that Charles X could not abide
Charles X was a true reactionary, wanted to reestablish the old order in France
o Increasingly blocked by opposition of deputies, turned in 1830 to military
adventure in an effort to rally French nationalism and gain popular support
o A long standing economic and diplomatic dispute with Muslim Algeria, a vassal
state of the Ottoman empire, provided the opportunity
June 1830, French force of 37,000 crossed Mediterranean and landed to west of Algiers,
and took capital city in 3 weeks
Victory seemed complete, but in 1831, the tribes in interior revolted and waged a
fearsome war until 1847, when French armies finally subdued country
Bringing French, Spanish, and Italian settlers to Algeria and leading to the expropriation
of the large tracts of Muslim land, the conquest of Algeria marked the rebirth of French
colonial expansion
Emboldened by good news from Algeria, Charles repudiated Constitutional Charter in an
attempted coup in July 1830
o Issued decrees stripping much of the wealthy middle class of its voting rights, and
censored the press
o Immediate reaction, encouraged by journalists/lawyers, was an insurrection in the
capital by printers, other artisans, and small traders
o In “three glorious days”, the gov collapsed
o Paris boiled w/ rev excitement, Charles fled
o Upper middle class, who’d fomented the rev, skillfully seated Charles’s cousin,
Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans on the vacant throne
Louis Philippe accepted Constitutional Charter of 1814, adopted the red/white/blue flag
of FR and admitted that he was merely the “king of the French ppl”
o In spite of such symbolic actions, the situation in France remained fundamentally
unchanged
o Vote was extended only from 100,000 to170,000 citizens
o For upper middle class, there had been a change in dynasty in order to protect the
status quo and the narrowly liberal institutions of 1815
o Republicans, democrats, social reformers, and the poor of Paris were bitterly
disappointed
o Had made a revolution, but it seemed for naught
The Revolutions of 1848
• The late 1840s in Europe were hard economically and tense politically
• Potato famine had many echoes on continent
• Bad harvests jacked up food prices and caused misery and unemployment in the cities
and countryside
• Profound economic crisis, caused in final analysis by a combination of rapid population
growth and industrialization efforts that were only beginning to provide more jobs and
income, gripped continental Europe
• Political and social response to economic crisis was unrest and protest
o Pre-rev outbreaks occurred all across Europe
▪ Northern part of Austria,
▪ Civil war in Switzerland
▪ Uprising in Naples
• Only most advanced and most backward major countries: Brit, Russia escaped untouched
• Gov’s toppled, monarchs and ministers bowed or fled
• National independence, liberal democratic constitutions, and social reform: the lofty
aspirations of a generation seemed at hand
• In the end, the revs failed
A Democratic Republic in France
• By late 184s, rev in Europe was almost universally expected, but it took rev in Paris to
turn expectations into realities
• For 18 years Louis Philippe’s “bourgeois monarchy” had been characterized by stubborn
inaction and complacency
• There was a glaring lack of social legislation, and politics was dominated by corruption
and selfish interests
• With only the rich voting for deputies, many of the deputies were docile gov bureaucrats
• Gov’s refusal to consider electoral reform heightened a sense of class injustice among
middle class shopkeepers, skilled artisans, and unskilled working ppl, and eventually
touched off a popular revolt in Paris
o Workers joined by students tore up cobblestones and built barricades in narrow
streets
o Armed w/ guns
o Workers and students demanded a new gov
o National guard broke ranks and joined revolutionaries
o Louis Philippe refused to order full scale attack by regular army
o Abdicated in favor of his grandson
o Common ppl in arms would tolerate no more monarchy
o Refusal led to proclamation of a provisional republic, headed by a ten man
executive committee and certified by cries of approval from rev crowd
• Revolutionaries immediately set about drafting a constitution for France’s 2nd Republic
o Wanted a truly popular and democratic republic so the common ppl (peasants,
artisans, unskilled workers) could participate in reforming society
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o Building such a repub meant giving right to vote to every adult male, and this was
quickly done
o Rev compassion and sympathy for freedom were expressed in freeing all slaves in
French colonies, abolition of death penalty, and establishment of 10 hour weekday
in Paris
Profound differences within rev coalition in Paris
o There were moderate liberal repubs of middle class
o Viewed universal male suffrage as ultimate concession to be made to popular
forces, and they strongly opposed any further radical social measures
o On the other hand, there were radical repubs and hard pressed artisans
o Influenced by a generation of utopian socialists and appalled by poverty and
misery of urban poor, the radical republicans were committed to some kind of
socialism
o So were many artisans, who hated the unrestrained a combination of strong craft
unions and worker owned businesses
Worsening depression and rising unemployment brought these conflicting goals to the
fore in 1848
Louis Blanc with a worker named Albert represented the repub socialists in the
provisional gov, pressed for recognition of a socialist right to work
Blanc asserted that permanent gov sponsored cooperative workshops should be
established for workers
Such workshops would be an alternative to capitalist employment and a decisive step
toward a new, noncompetitive social order
The moderate repubs wanted no such thing
o Were willing to provide only temporary relief
o Resulting compromise set up national workshops – soon to become little more
than a vast program of pick and shovel public works and established a special
commission under Blanc to “study the question”
o This satisfied no one
o National workshops were better than nothing
o Army of desperate poor from French provinces and from foreign countries
streamed into Paris to sign up
o As economic crisis worsened, the number enrolled in workshops increased 10,000
to 120,000 and 80,000 were trying unsuccessfully to get in
While workshops in Paris grew, French masses went to election polls in late April
o Voting in most cases for the first time, ppl of France elected to new Constituent
Assembly about 500 moderate repubs, 300 monarchists, and 100 radicals who
professed various brands of socialism
o One of the moderate repubs was the author Alexis de Tocqueville who predicted
the overthrow of Louis Philippe’s gov
Tocqueville observed that the socialist movement in Paris aroused fierce hostility of
France’s peasants as well as the middle and upper classes
The French peasants owned land, and according to Tocqueville, “private property had
become with all those who owned it a sort of bond fraternity”
Returning from Normandy to take his new seat in new Constituent Assembly
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Tocqueville saw that a majority of the members were firmly committed to the repub and
strongly opposed to the socialists and their artisan allies, and he shared their sentiments
This clash of ideologies (liberal capitalism and socialism) became a clash of classes and
arms after the electrons
New gov’s executive committee dropped Blanc and included no representative of
Parisian working class after
Fearing their socialist hopes were about to be dashed, artisans and unskilled workers
invaded Constituent Assembly on May 15 and tried to proclaim a new revolutionary state
Gov was ready and used the middle class National Guard to squelch uprising
As workshops continued to fill and grow more radical, the fearful but powerful propertied
classes in the Assembly took the offensive
o June 22, gov dissolved national workshops in Paris, giving workers choice of
joining army or going to workshops in provinces
Result was spontaneous and violent uprising
o Frustrated in attempts to create a socialist society, masses of desperate ppl were
not losing even their life sustaining relief
o Famous astronomer Francois Arago counseled patience
o Barricades sprung up in narrow streets of Paris, and a terrible class war began
o Working ppl fought w courage of desperation, but this time the gov had the army
and support of peasant France
o After 3 “June Days” of street fighting and death/injury of more than 10,000 ppl,
the republican army under General Louis Cavaignac stood triumphant w/ deaths
of working class
Revolution in France ended in spectacular failure
o February coalition of middle/working class had in 4 short months become locked
in mortal combat
o In place of generous democratic republic, the Constituent Assembly completed a
constitution featuring a strong executive
o Allowed Louis Napoleon, nephew of NAP to win a landslide victory in
December 1848 election
o Appeal of his great name and desire of propertied class for order had produced a
semi authoritarian regime
The Austrian Empire in 1848
• Throughout c. Europe, the first news of the upheaval in France evoked feverish
excitement and eventually revolution
• Liberals demanded written constitutions, rep govs, and greater civil liberties from
authoritarian regimes
• When gov’s hesitated, popular revolts followed
• Urban workers and students served as shock troops, but were allied w/ middle class
liberals and peasants
• In the face of this united front, monarchs collapsed and granted almost everything
• The popular revolutionary coalition, having secured great and easy victories, then broke
down as it had in France
• The traditional forces, monarchy, aristocracy, regular army, recovered their nerve,
reasserted their authority, and took back many, though not all, concessions
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Reaction was everywhere victorious
Rev in Austrian Empire began in Hungary 1848, where nationalistic Hungarians
demanded national autonomy, full civil liberties, and universal suffrage
o Monarchy in Vienna hesitated
o Viennese students and workers took to the streets and raised barricades in defiance
of gov, while peasant disorders broke out in part of empire
o Habsburg emperor Ferdinand I capitulated and promised reforms and a liberal
constitution
o Metternich fled to London
o Old absolutist order seemed to be collapsing with unbelievable rapidity
Coalition of revs was not stable
o When monarchy abolished serfdom, wits its degrading forced labor and feudal
services, newly free peasants lost interest in political and social questions
agitating the cities
o Meanwhile, coalition of urban revs also broke down along class lines over the
issue of socialist workshops and universal voting rights for men
Rev coalition was also weakened, and ultimately destroyed by conflicting national
aspirations
o March: Hungarian rev leaders pushed through extremely liberal, almost
democratic constitution
o Hungarian revs sought to transform mosaic of provinces and peoples that was the
kingdom of Hungary into a unified, centralized Hungarian nation
o To the minority groups that formed ½ of the population (Croats, Serbs,
Romanians) such unifications was completely unacceptable
o Each felt entitled to political autonomy and cultural indep
o In a somewhat similar way, Czech nationalists based in Bohemia and city of
Prague came into conflict w/ German nationalists
o Conflicting national aspirations within the Austrian Empire enabled the monarchy
to play off one ethnic group against the other
Conservative aristocratic forces regained nerve under rallying call of Sophia, a Bavarian
princess married to the emperor’s brother
o Deeply ashamed of the emperor’s collapse before a “mess of students”, she
insisted that Ferdinand abdicate in favor of her son, Francis Joseph
o Powerful nobles organized around Sophia in a secret conspiracy to reverse and
crush the revolution
The first breakthrough came when the army bombarded Prague and savagely crushed a
working class revolt on June 17
Other Austrian officials and nobles began to lead the minority nationalities of Hungary
against the rev gov
o At end of Oct, well equipped, mostly peasant troops of regular Austrian army
used heavy cannon to attack student and working class radicals in barricades of
Vienna and retook city at cost of more than 4,000 casualties
o Determination of Austrian aristocracy and loyalty of its army were the final
ingredients in triumph of reaction and defeat of revolution
When Francis Joseph was crowned emperor at 18 y/o of Austria, only Hungary had yet to
be brought under control
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Nicholas I, another determined conservative, obligingly lent his iron hand
o June 6, 1849, 130,000 Russian troops poured into Hungary and subdued the
country after bitter fighting
o For a number of years, Habsburgs ruled Hungary as a conquered territory
Prussia and the Frankfurt Assembly
• After Austria, Prussia was the largest and most influential German Kingdom
• Prior to 1848, the goal of middle class Prussian liberal had been to transform absolutist
Prussia into a liberal constitutional monarchy, which would lead the 38 states of German
Confed into liberal, unified nation desired by liberals throughout the German states
• Agitation following fall of Louis Philippe encouraged Prussian liberals to press their
demands
• When artisans and factory workers in Berlin exploded in March 1848 and joined
temporarily w/ middle class liberals in struggle against monarchy, autocratic yet
compassionate Frederick William IV vacillated and caved in
o March 21, promised to grant Prussia a liberal constitution and to merge Prussia
into a new national German state that was to be created
• But urban workers wanted much more and Prussian aristocracy wanted much less than
the moderate constitutional liberalism the kind conceded
• Workers issued a series of democratic and vaguely socialist demands that troubled their
middle class allies and the conservative clique gathered around the king to urge counter
revolution
• As an elected Prussian Constituent Assembly met in Berlin to write a constitution or the
Prussian state, a self appointed committee of liberals from various German states began
organizing for the creation of a unified German state
o Met in Frankfurt in May
o National Assembly composed of lawyers, professors, doctors, officials, and
businessmen convened to write a German federal constitution
o Instead attention drifted to deciding how to respond to Denmark’s claims on the
provinces of Schleswig and Holstein, which were inhabited primarily by Germans
o Debating ponderously, the National Assembly at Frankfurt finally called on
Prussian army to oppose Denmark in the name of the German nation
o Prussia responded and began war w/ Denmark
o As Schleswig-Holstein issue demonstrated, the national ideal was a crucial factor
motivating the German middle classes in 1848
• March 1849, National Assembly finally completed its drafting of a liberal constitution
and elected King Frederick William of Prussia emperor of new German national state
(minus Austria and Schleswig-Holstein)
• By early 1840, reaction had been successful almost everywhere
• Frederick William had reasserted royal authority, disbanded Prussian Constituent
Assembly, and granted his subjects a limited, essentially conservative constitution
Reasserting that he ruled by divine right, Fred Will contemptuously refused to “accept the
crown from the gutter”
• Bogged down by preoccupation w/ nationalist issues, the reluctant revs in Frankfurt had
waited too long and acted too timidly
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When Fred Will who really wanted to be emperor but only under his own authoritarian
terms, tried to get the small monarchs of Germany to elect him emperor, Austria balked
Supported by Russia, Austria forced Prussia to renounce all its schemes of unification in
late 1850
German Confed was reestablished Attempts to unite the Germans – first in liberal
national state and then in conservative Prussian empire – had failed completely
Ch 23: Life in The Emerging Urban Society in the 19th Century
Taming the City
• ERPN cities centers of gov, culture, and large scale commerce
• Congested, dirty, unhealthy
• Beginning early 19th c, IR took these realities to unprecedented levels
• Rapid urban growth worsened long standing overcrowding and unhealthy living
conditions and posed a challenge for society
• Would require full scale efforts of gov leaders, city planners, reformers, scientists, and
reform-minded citizens to tame the savage traditional city
Industry and the Growth of Cities
• Main causes of poor quality of urban life: pervasive poverty, lack of medical knowledge,
and deadly overcrowding
o This had existed for many centuries
• No public transportation ! ppl needed to live closely to shops and markets, dense
housing conditions ! more likely to die from spread of infectious disease than in the
rural areas
• More ppl died than were born in larger towns, population was maintained only by steady
stream of newcomers from rural areas
• IR did not create bad conditions, but did reveal those conditions more than before
o Steam engine: freed industrialists from dependence on streams and rivers !
moved towards urban areas
▪ Had better shipping facilities and better supplies of coal and raw material
▪ Many hands wanting work in the cities
▪ Advantage for a manufacturer to have other factories nearby to supply
business’s needs and buy its products
• IR brought expansion into already overcrowded and unhealthy cities
• Challenge of urban environment was felt first in Brit
o 1820s-1830s populations of some cities were increasing 40-70% each decade
• Early 19th c cities in Brit: using every scrap of land to the fullest
o No parks/open areas
o Building erected on smallest possible lots to pack in max number of ppl
o Narrow houses wall to wall w/o front or back and separated by only a small alley
o 6-10 ppl per room
• Highly concentrated urban populations lived in very unsanitary and unhealthy conditions
o Open drains and sewers
o Primitive toilet facilities
o 200 ppl shared outhouse
o Overflowed and seeped into cellar dwellings
o “Millions of English men, women, and children were living in shit” LOLOL
• Who/what was responsible for these awful conditions
o Tremendous pressure of more ppl and total absence of public transportation
▪ Ppl had to jam themselves together if they wanted to walk to shops and
factories
o Gov in Brit both local and national was slow to provide sanitary facilities and
establish building codes
▪ Slow pace due to a need to explore and ID what precisely should be done
than to rigid middle class opposition to gov action
▪ Continental cities were just as bad
o Legacy of rural housing conditions in preindustrial society combined with
ignorance
▪ Housing was low on newcomer’s list of priorities, and many ppl carried
filth of mud floor and dung of barnyard with them to the city
▪ Ordinary ppl generally took dirt for granted and didn’t wash
The Advent of the Public Health Movement
• Middle of 19th c, ppl’s fatalistic acceptance of their overcrowded, unsanitary conditions
began to give way to a growing interest in reform and improvement
• Edwin Chadwick: early reformer, one of commissioners charged with administration of
relief to paupers under Britain’s revised Poor Law of 1834
o Follower of philosopher Jeremy Benthan whose approach to social issues, called
utilitarianism, had taught that public problems ought to be dealt with on a rational,
scientific basis and according to the “greatest good for the greatest number”
o Became convinced that disease and death actually caused poverty
▪ Sick worker was an unemployed workers and an orphaned child was a
poor child
o Believed disease could be prevented by cleaning up the urban environment, his
“sanitary idea”
• Chadwick collected detailed reports form local Poor Law officials on the “sanitary
conditions of the laboring population” and published is findings in 1842
o This widely publicized evidence proved that disease was related to filthy
environmental conditions, which were in turn caused largely by lack of drainage,
sewers, and garbage collection
• Chadwick believed that the stinking poop/pee masses of communal outhouses could be
dependably carried off by water through sewers at less than 1/20 the cost of removing it
by hand
o Cheap iron pipes and tile drains of industrial age would provide running water
and sewage for all sections of town, not just the wealthy ones
• 1848: Cause strengthened by epidemic of cholera in 1836, Chadwick’s report became the
basis of Brit’s first public health law, which created a national health board and gave
cities broad authority to build modern sanitary systems
• Public health movement won dedicated supporters in the US, France, and Germany from
the 1840s on
o Govs accepted at least limited responsibility for the health of all citizens and their
programs broke decisively with age old fatalism
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By 1860-70s, ERPN cities were making real progress toward adequate water supplies and
sewerage systems, city dwellers were beginning to reap the reward of better health, and
death rates began to decline
The Bacterial Revolution
• Improved sanitation in cities promoted a better quality of life and some improvements in
health care, but effective control of communicable disease required a great leap forward
in medical knowledge and biological theory
• Early reformers were handicapped by the miasmatic theory of disease that ppl contract
disease when they breathe bad odors of decay and putrefying excretement
• 1840-50s, doctors and public health officials pinpointed role of bad drinking water in
transmission of disease and suggested that contagion was spread through filth and not
caused by it, thus weakening the miasmatic idea
• Breakthrough was through the development of the germ theory of disease by Louis
Pasteur, a French chemist who studied fermentation
o Using his microscope to develop a test that brewers could use to monitor
fermentation processes to avoid spoilage, Pasteur found that fermentation
depended on the growth of organisms and that the activity of these organisms
could be suppressed by heating the beverage, by pasteurization
o Implication was that specific diseases were caused by specific living organisms,
germs, and that those organisms could be controlled in ppl as well as in drinks
• By 1870 the work of Pasteur and others had demonstrated the general connection
between germs and disease
o German country doctor Robert Koch and his coworkers developed cure cultures
of harmful bacteria and described their life cycles
o Over the next 20 yrs, researchers ID’d the organisms responsible for disease after
disease
o Discoveries led to development of effective vaccines
• Acceptance of germ theory brought about dramatic improvements in the deadly
environment of hospitals and surgery
o Surgeon Joseph Lister grasped the connection between aerial bacteria and the
problem of wound infection
▪ Reasoned that a chemical disinfectant applied to a wound dressing would
“destroy the life of the floating particles”
▪ Antiseptic principle worked wonders
o 1880s, German surgeons developed the more sophisticated practice of sterilizing
not only the would but also hands, instruments, clothing, and anything that
entered the operating room
• Achievements of the bacterial revolution coupled with the public health movement saved
millions of lives, particularly after about 1880
o Mortality rates began to decline dramatically in ERPN countries
o Diseases vanished
• City dwellers benefited especially from these developments
o By 1910 a silent revolution had occurred: death rates for ppl of all ages in urban
areas were generally no greater than those for ppl in rural areas, and sometimes
were lower
Improvements in Urban Planning
• In addition to public health improvements in 19th c cities, more effective urban planning
was a major key to a better quality of life
o France took lead during rule of Napoleon III who sought to promote welfare of
all his subjects through gov action
o Believed that rebuilding much of Paris would provide employment, improve
living conditions, and testify to the power and glory of his empire
o Placed Baron Georges Haussmann, an aggressive, impatient Alsatian in charge
of Paris who bulldozed buildings and opposition
o In 20 yrs, Paris was completely transformed
• Paris of 1850 was a labyrinth of narrow, dark streets resulting from overcrowding and a
lack of effective planning
o In a small place, more than 1/3 of the inhabitants lived
o Terrible slum conditions and high death rates were the facts of life
o Few open spaces and only two public parks for the entire metropolis
• For 2 decades, Haussmann and his planners preceded on many interrelated fronts
o Razed old buildings to cut broad, straight, tree-lined boulevards through the
center of the city as well as in new quarters on the outskirts
▪ These boulevards permitted traffic to flow freely and afforded impressive
vistas; also prevented barricades from being easily built
▪ Demolished some of the worst slums
o New streets stimulated the construction of better housing, especially for the
middle class
o Small neighborhood parks and open spaces were created
o Improved sewers and built a system of aqueducts
• Rebuilding Paris was a new model for urban planning and stimulated modern urbanism
throughout ERP, particularly after 1870
• In city after city, public authorities mounted a coordinated attack on many of the
interrelated problems of the urban environment
• Improvements in public health through better water supply and waste disposal often went
hand in hand with new blvd construction
Cities such as Vienna and Cologne followed the Parisian example of tearing down and
replacing with broad, circular blvds on which new buildings could be built
• These ring roads and new blvds that radiated outward eased movement and encouraged
urban expansion
• Zoning expropriation laws, which allowed the city to impose major street or sanitation
improvements on a reluctant minority, were an important mechanism of the new
urbanism
Public Transportation
• Development of mass public transportation often accompanied urban planning, greatly
enhancing urban living conditions toward the end of the 19th c
o 1870s: many ERPN cities authorized private companies to operate horse-drawn
streetcars to carry riders along the growing number of major thoroughfares (from
Am’s)
o 1890s: Real revolution: ERPN adopted a streetcar that ran on newly harnessed
electricity (from Am’s)
• Electric streetcars were cheaper, faster, more dependable, cleaner, and more comfortable
than horse drawn streetcars
• Millions of ERPNS (workers, children) hopped on board during the workweek
• On weekends and holidays, streetcars carried millions on outings
• Each man, woman, and child was using public transportation four times as often in 1910
as in 1886
• Good mass transit helped greatly in the struggle for decent housing
o New blvds and horse drawn streetcars had facilitated a middle class move to
better and more spacious housing in the 1860-70s
o After 1890, electric streetcars meant ppl of even modest means could access new,
improved housing
• Though still congested, the city was able to expand and become less crowded
o 1901: Only 9% was living with over 2 ppl per room
• Many city gov’s in the early 20th c were building electric streetcar systems that provided
transportation to new public and private housing developments for the working classes
beyond the city limits
• Suburban commuting was born
Rich and Poor and Those in Between
• As quality of life was improving across ERP, class structure was becoming more complex
and diverse
• Urban society featured many distinct social groups, all of which existed in a state of
constant flux and competition
Gap between rich and poor remained enormous and quite traditional, but there were
countless graduations between the extremes
The Distribution of Income
• By 1850 working conditions were improving and so were real wages for the mass of the
population and continued to do so until 1914
o As industrial development quickened after 1850
o Similar increases in continental states
• Ordinary ppl took a major step forward in the centuries old battle against poverty,
reinforcing efforts to improve many aspects of the human existence
• Another side to the income coin
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o Greater economic rewards did not eliminate hardship and poverty, nor did they
make the wealth and income of the rich and poor significantly more equal
o Around 1900, richest 5% received about a third of all national income, and riches
20% received 50-60% of national income, bottom 80% got 40-50% of all income,
bottom 30% got 10% of all income
Middle classes were smaller than they are today
o Less than 20% of population
o Upper and middle classes alone received more than half of all income, while the
poorest 80% (working class, agricultural laborers) received less altogether than
the two richest classes
o In 19th c, income taxes on wealthy were light or nonexistent
o Gap between rich and poor remained enormous at beginning of 20th c, almost as
great as it had been in the late 18th c
Great gap between rich and poor endured in part because the industrial and urban
development made society more diverse and less unified
o Economic specialization enabled society to produce more effectively and in the
process created more social groups than it destroyed
o Almost unlimited range of jobs, skills, and earnings
o Subclasses blended
o The tiny elite of the very rich and sizeable mass of dreadfully poor were separated
by many subclasses, each filled with individs trying to maintain their own or rise
o Competition and hierarchy
o Neither middle classes nor working classes acted as a unified force
o Social and occupational hierarchy developed enormous variations, but the age old
pattern of great economic inequality remained firmly intact
The People and Occupations of the Middle Class
• By beginning of 20th c, diversity and range of middle class was huge
• Not a single middle class, but a confederation of middle cases whose members engaged
in occupations requiring mental, rather than physical, skill
• At top of middle class stood upper middle class
o Most successful business families from banking, industry, and large scale
commerce
o As they gained income and lost all traces of radicalism after 1848, they were
almost irresistibly drawn toward aristocratic lifestyle
o Although hereditary aristocracy was a tiny minority, it remained wealth, unrivaled
social prestige, and substantial political influence
o In c. and e. ERP, monarchs still continued to hold great power
• Topmost reaches of upper middle class tended to merge with old aristocracy to form a
new upper class at most 5% of population
• Much of aristocracy welcomed this development
o After experiencing a sharp decline in its relative income in the course of
industrialization, the landed aristocracy had met big business coming up the
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staircase and was often delighted to trade titles, country homes, and elegance for
cash
o Some of the best bargains were made through marriages to Am heiresses
Correspondingly, wealthy aristocrats tended increasingly to exploit their agricultural and
mineral resources as if they were business ppl
Below wealthy upper middle class were much larger, much less wealthy, and increasingly
diversified middle class groups
o Middle-middle class: Moderately successful industrialists and merchants as well
as professionals in law and medicine
▪ Solid and quite comfortable but lacking great wealth
o Lower middle class: Independent shopkeepers, small traders, and tiny
manufacturers
Both of these traditional elements of the middle class grew modestly with economic
development
As industry and tech expanded in the 19th c, a growing demand developed for experts
with specialized knowledge, and advanced education soared in importance among the
middle classes
o Engineering emerged from the world of skilled labor as a full-fledged profession
with considerable prestige and many branches
o Architects, chemists, accountants, and surveyors first achieved professional
standing in this period
o Established criteria for advanced training and certification and banded together in
organizations to promote and defend their interests
Management of large public and private institutions also emerged as a kind of profession
as gov’s provided more services and as very large corporations such as RRs came into
being
o Gov officials and many private executives were not capitalists in the sense that
they owned business enterprises, but public and private managers did have
specialized knowledge and the capacity to earn a good living
o And they shared most of the values of the business owning entrepreneurs and the
older professionals
Industrialization also expanded and diversified in the lower middle class
o Number of indep, property owning shopkeepers and small business ppl grew, and
so did the number of white collar employees: a mixed group of traveling
salesmen, bookkeepers, store managers, and clerks who staffed the offices and
branch stores of large corporations
o White collar employees were propertyless and often earned no more than the
better paid skilled/semiskilled worker did
o White collar workers were fiercely committed to the middle class and to the ideal
of upward nobility
o In the Balkans, clerks let their fingernails grow long to distinguish themselves
from ppl who worked with their hands
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Relatively well educated but without complex technical skills, many white collar groups
aimed at achieving professional standing and the accompanying middle class status
o Elementary school teachers largely succeeded
▪ From being miserably paid to respectable middle class status and income
o Nurses rose from lower ranks of unskilled labor to precarious middle class
standing
o Dentistry was put in hands of highly trained middle class professionals instead of
working class barbers
Middle-Class Culture and Values
• In spite of growing occupational diversity and conflicting interests, the middle classes
were loosely united by a certain style of life and culture
• Food was the largest item in the household budget, middle class ppl liked to eat well
o ERPN middle classes consumed meat in abundance, and a well off family might
spend 10% of its earnings on meat and 25% on food and drink
• Spending on food was also great because the dinner party was this class’s favored social
occasion
• Wealthy family might give a party almost every week; modest once a month
• Middle class wife could cope with the endless procession of meals, courses, and dishes
because she had servants and money
o Employment of at least one full time maid to cook and clean was the clearest sign
that a family had crossed the divide separating the working classes from the
“servant keeping classes”
o Greater a family’s income, the greater the number of servants it employed
o Food/servants together absorbed 50% of income
• Well fed and well served, the middle classes were also well housed by 1900
o Many prosperous families rented, rather than owned heir homes
Apartment living with tiny rooms for servants was commonplace
o Upper middle class purchased country places or built beach houses for weekend
and summer use
• By 1900, the middle classes were also quite clothes conscious
o Factory, sewing machine, and department store had all helped reduce the cost and
expand the variety of clothing
o Middle class women were attentive to the dictates of fashion
o Private coaches and carriages, expensive items, were additional signs of social
status
• Rich businessmen devoted less time to business and more time to “culture” and easy
living than was the case in less wealthy or well-established families
o Keystones of culture and leisure were books, music, and travel
o The long realistic novel, the heroics of composers Wagner and Verdi, the striving
of the dutiful daughter at the piano, and the packaged tour to a foreign country
were all sources of middle class pleasure
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In addition to material tastes, the middle classes generally agreed upon a strict code of
behavior and morality
o Laid great stress on hard work, self discipline, and personal achievement
o Men and women who fell into crime or poverty were generally assumed to be
responsible for their own circumstance
o Christian morality was reaffirmed by this code and was preached tirelessly by
middle class ppl
o Drunkenness and gambling were denounced as vices; sexual purity and fidelity
were celebrates as virtues
o Middle class person was supposed to know right from wrong and was expected to
act accordingly
The People and Occupations of the Working Classes
• About four out of five ppl belonged to the working classes at the beginning of the 20th c
• Many members of the working classes, people whose livelihoods depended primarily on
physical labor and who did not employ domestic servants, were still small landowning
peasants and hired farm hands
o Especially true in e. Europe
o In w. and c. Europe, the typical worker had left the land
▪ Brit, less than 8% worked agriculture
▪ Germany, only 25%
▪ France, less than 50% depended on the land
• Urban working classes were even less unified and homogenous than the middle classes
o Economic development and increased specialization expanded traditional range of
working class skills, earnings, and experiences
o Old sharp distinction between highly skilled artisans and unskilled manual
workers broke down
o Highly skilled printers and masons well as unskilled dock workers and common
laborers continued to exist
o But between the extremes were ever more semi skilled groups, many of which
were factory workers and machine tenders
o Skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled workers developed widely divergent lifestyles
and cultural values and their differences contributed to a keen sense of social
status and hierarchy within the working classes
o Great variety and limited class unity
• Highly skilled workers, 15% of the working class became known as the labor aristocracy
o Earned twice as much as the unskilled worker
o The most “aristocratic” of the highly skilled workers were construction bosses
and factory foremen, men who’d risen from the ranks are were fiercely proud of
their achievement
o Labor aristocracy also included members of the traditional highly skilled
handicraft trades that had not been mechanized or placed in factories, like
cabinetmakers, jewelers, and printers
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Labor aristocracy as a whole was under constant long term pressure
o Gradually, factory methods were being extended to more crafts, and many skilled
artisans were replaced by lower paid semiskilled factory workers
o Traditional woodcarvers/watchmakers virtually disappeared, as the making of
furniture and timepieces took place in factories
o Labor aristocracy was consistently being enlarged by new kinds of skilled
workers such as shipbuilders and railway locomotive engineers
o Labor elite remained in a state of flux as individs and whole crafts moved in and
out of it
To maintain precarious standing, upper working class adopted distinctive values and
straitlaced, almost puritanical behavior
o Like the middle classes, the labor aristocracy was strongly committed to the
family and to economic improvement
o Saved money regularly, worried about children’s education, valued good housing
o Wives seldom sought employment outside the home
o Despite the similarities, skilled workers viewed themselves not as aspirants to the
middle class, but pacesetters and natural leaders of the working classes
o Aware of degradation below them, they practiced self-discipline and stern
morality
o Generally frowned on heavy drinking and sexual permissiveness
Below labor aristocracy was an enormously complex sector of the labor world, both
semiskilled and unskilled urban workers
o Workers in established crafts: carpenters, brick layers, pipe fitters, were near the
top of the semiskilled hierarchy, flirting with the labor aristocracy
o Large number of the semiskilled were factory workers, including substantial
numbers of unmarried women who earned relatively good wages and whose
relative importance in the labor force was increasing
o Below semiskilled workers was a larger group of unskilled workers that included
day laborers such as longshoremen, wagon driving teamsters, teenagers, and
every kind of “helper”
▪ Many had real skills and performed valuable services, but were
unorganized and divided, united only by the common fate of meager
earnings
o Same lack of unity characterized street vendors and market people: self employed
workers who competed savagely with each other and with the established
shopkeepers of the lower middle class
One of largest components of unskilled group was domestic servants, whose number
grew steadily in the 19th c
o Great majority were women
o Throughout ERP and Am, many female domestics in the cities were recent
migrants from rural areas
o Domestic service was hard work at low pay with limited personal indep and
danger of sexual exploitation
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o In low middle classes: Unending routine of babysitting, shopping, cooking, and
cleaning
o In high middle classes: girl was at bottom of rigid hierarchy of status conscious
butlers and housekeepers
Domestic servants had real attractions for “rough country girls” with strong hands and
few specialized skills
o Marriage prospects were better or more varied in the city
o Wages higher than agricultural work
o Young girls and other migrants were drawn to the city by the masses going
towards the city, the bright lights, the sense of something going on
Many young domestics from the countryside made successful transitions to working class
wife and mother
o With an unskilled or unemployed husband, a growing family, and limited
household income, many working class wives had to join the broad ranks of
working women in the sweated industries
▪ Flowered after 1850 and resembled the old putting out and cottage
industries of earlier times
o Women normally worked at home and were paid by the piece
o They and their children earned paltry wages and lacked any job security
o Some women decorated dishes or embroidered linens, or took in laundry
o Majority made clothing, especially after advent of sewing machine
o An army of poor women, usually working at home, accounted for much of the
inexpensive and ready made clothes in dept stores and tiny shops
Working-Class Leisure and Religion
• In spite of the hard physical labor and lack of wealth, the urban working classes sought
fun and recreation
o Drinking was the fave activity
▪ For middle class moralists, drinking seemed to be the curse of modern age
– a sign of social dislocation and popular suffering
▪ Drinking did have destructive effects, causing dispute and misery
▪ Heavy drinking problems declined in the late 19th c as it became less
socially acceptable
▪ Decline reflected in part the moral leadership of the upper working class
▪ But drinking also became more publically acceptable
• Cafes and pubs were bright and friendly
• Working class polit activities were in pubs/taverns
• Social drinking in public places by married couples or sweethearts
became an accepted and widespread practice for the first time
• Greater participation by women helped civilize the world of
drinking
o Sports and music halls
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▪ Decline in “cruel sports” such as bullbaiting and cockfighting occurred by
late 19th c
▪ Instead filled with modern, commercialized spectator sports, racing and
soccer were the most popular
▪ Great deal of gambling on sports events
▪ Deciphering racing forms was a great incentive for literacy
▪ Music halls and vaudeville theaters (working class operas) were
enormously popular in ERP
Religion continued to provide working ppl with solace and meaning
o 18th c vitality of popular religion exemplified by Pietism and Methodism carried
over into the 19th c
o Many historians see the early 19th c as an age of religious revival
o But they also recognize that by the last few decades of the 19th c, a considerable
decline in both church attendance and church donations was occurring in most
ERPN countries
o Seems clear this decline was greater for the urban working classes than for their
rural counterparts or for the middle classes
Why did working class attendance decline?
o Construction of churches failed to keep up with the rapid growth of urban
population, especially in the new working class neighborhoods
o Equally important, was the fact that throughout the 19th c, both Cath and Prot
churches were normally seen as them saw themselves – conservative institutions
defending social order and custom
o Thus as ERPN working classes became more politically conscious, they tended to
see the established “territorial church” as allied with their political opponents
o Especially the men of the urban working classes developed vaguely anti church
attitudes, though they remained neutral or positive toward religion
o Tended to regard regular church as attendance as not part of urban working class
culture
Pattern was diff in the US
o Most churches preached social conservatism in the 19th c
o But because church and state had always been separate and because there was
also a host of competing denominations and even diff religions, working ppl ID’d
churches much less with the polit and social status quo
o Individ churches in the US were often closely ID’d with an ethnic group, rater
than with a social class, and churches thrived in part as a means of asserting
ethnic ID
o Same process did occur in ERP if the church wasn’t linked with the state and was
a focus of ethnic cohesion
▪ Irish Cath churches in Brit and Jewish synagogues in Russ
The Changing Family
• Urban life brought changes to the family
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By 2nd half of 19th c, the fam had stabilized considerably after the disruption of the late
18th and early 19th c
Home became more important for both men and women
Role of women and attitudes toward children underwent substantial change, and
adolescence emerged as a distinct stage of life
Affected all social classes in varying degrees
Premarital Sex and Marriage
• By 1850 lengthy courtship and mercenary marriage was dead among working classes
• In its place the ideal of romantic love triumphed
• Couples were more likely to come from diff, distant towns and to be nearly the same age,
indicating romantic sentiment was replacing tradition and financial considerations
• Economic considerations in marriage began to decline among middle classes after 1850
but did not disappear altogether
o In France, dowries and elaborate marriages were common among midd classes
o Remained for many fams life’s most crucial financial transaction
o Led midd class men in France to marry late to establish economic success and
choose younger women
o Age differences between husband and life became a source of tension in many
midd class marriages
• Young midd class woman’s romantic life was carefully supervised by her mother, who
guarded virginity and hunted for proper marriage
• After marriage, midd class morality sternly demanded fidelity
• Midd class boys were watched too, but not as vigilantly
• By the time they reached late adolescence, they had usually attained considerable sexual
experience with maids or prostitutes
• In early 19th c, sexual experimentation before marriage triumphed for society as a whole,
as did illegitimacy
o 1750-1850: illegitimacy explosion
o 1/3 births in many large ERPN cities were out of wedlock
o Rising rate of illegitimacy was reversed in 2nd half of 19th c in w.,n., and c. ERP
• Some observers argued that the shift reflected the growth of Puritanism and a lessening of
sexual permissiveness among the married
o Unconvincing because the percentage of working class brides who were pregnant
continued to be high and showed no tendency to decline after 1850
• In many part of urban ERP around 1900, as many as 1 woman in 3 was going to the altar
an expectant mother
• Moreover, unmarried ppl almost certainly used the affordable condoms and diaphragms
the IR had made available to prevent pregnancy
• Unmarried young ppl were probs engaging in just as much sex as their parents and
grandparents who’d created the illegitimacy explosion
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But in the later 19th c, pregnancy for a young single woman (viewed by the couple as the
natural consequence of a serious relationship) led increasingly to marriage and the
establishment of a 2 parent household
Reflected growing respectability of the working classes as well as their gradual economic
improvement
Skipping out was less acceptable and marriage was less of an economic challenge
Urban working class of the late 19th c became more stable, and that stability strengthened
the family as an institution
Prostitution
• Sexual activity existed outside of committed relationships in the 19th c as it always had
o 155,000 women in Paris as prostitutes, 750,000 others suspected
• Men of all classes visited prostitutes but the middle and upper classes supplied much of
the motivating cash
• Thought many middle class men abided by the code of stern puritanical morality, others
indulged in prostitutes
• My Secret Life: the anonymous bio of an English sexual adventurer from the servant
keeping classes
o Devotes his life to living his sexual fantasies
o Buys his pleasure
o Reveals dark side of sex and class in urban society
o Often purchased sex and affection from young girls before and after marriage
o The huge gap between rich and poor made for every kind of debauchery and
sexual exploitation
▪ Upper working class shielded daughters
▪ For many poor young women, prostitution was a stage of life and not a
permanent employment
▪ Went on to marry men of their own class and establish homes and families
Kinship Ties
• Within working class homes, ties to relatives after marriage, kinship ties, were generally
very strong
• Most newlyweds tried to live near their parents, though not in the same house
• In later 19th c, ties to mothers, fathers, uncles, and aunts, were more important than ties to
unrelated ppl
• Ppl turned to families for help coping with sickness, unemployment, death, and old age
• Gov’s provided more welfare service by 1900, but the average couple and their children
faced crises
o Funerals brought sudden demands: clothes, carriages, services
• Unexpected death or desertion could leave the bereaved or abandoned (widows and
orphans) in need of financial aid or a foster home
• Relatives responded hastily to such crises, knowing that their own time of need and
repayment could come anytime
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Relatives were valuable at less tragic moments
o Aged relation often moved In to cook and mind the children so the wife could
work outside the home
o Members of a large fam often lived in the same neighborhood and frequently
shared dinners, clothing, and information
Gender Roles and Early Feminism
• Industrialization and the growth of modern cities brought great changes to the lives of
ERP women of all classes
• Particularly consequential for married women, and most women did marry in the 19th c
• After 1850, work of most wives became increasingly distinct and separate from that of
their husbands
o Husbands became wage earners in factories and offices
o Wives tended to stay at home and manage households and care for children
• Preindustrial pattern among both peasants and cottage workers, in which husbands and
wives worked together and divided up household duties and child rearing, declined
• Instead, as economic conditions improved, most men expected only married women in
poor families to work outside the home
• Many historians stressed that the societal ideal in 19th c ERP became a strict division of
labor by gender and rigidly constructed separate spheres: the wife as the mother and
homemaker, the husband as the wage earner and breadwinner
• This rigid gender division of labor meant that married women faced great obstacles when
they needed/wanted to move into the man’s world of paid employment outside the home
o Husbands were unsympathetic or hostile
o Well paying jobs were off limits to women
o A woman’s wages was always less than a man’s, even for the same work
• Married women were subordinated to their husbands by law and lacked many basic legal
rights
o Eng: wife had no legal ID and hence no right to own property in her own name
o Wages she might earn went to her husband
o France: Napoleonic Code enshrined the principle of female subordination and
gave the wife few legal rights regarding property, divorce, and custody of the
children
• With all women facing discrimination in education and employment and with middle
class women suffering from a lack of legal rights, there is little wonder that some women
rebelled and began the fight for equality and the rights of women
• Their struggle proceeded on two main fronts
o FIRST: Following women such as Mary Wollstonecraft, organizations founded
by middle class feminists campaigned for equal legal rights for women as well as
access to higher education and professional employment
▪ Argued that unmarried women and middle class widows with inadequate
incomes simply had to have more opportunities to support themselves
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▪ Recognized that paid work could relieve the monotony that some women
found in their sheltered middle class existence and put greater meaning
into their lives
Women’s organizations won some victories in the later 19th c
o 1882 law giving Eng married women full property rights
o More women gradually found professional and white collar employment,
especially after 1880
Progress was slow and hard won
o Germany before 1900: Women were not admitted as fully registered students at a
single university
o Determined pioneers had to fight with fortitude to break through sexist barriers to
advanced education and professional employment
o In the years before 1914, middle class feminists increasingly focused their
attention on political action and fought for the right for women to vote
SECOND: Women inspired by utopian and Marxian socialism blazed a second path
o Scorned programs of middle class feminists
o Socialist women leaders argued that the liberation of working class women would
come only with the liberation of the entire working class through revolution
o Championed the cause of working women and won some practical improvements,
especially in Germany, where socialist movement as most effectively organized
o In a general way, these different approaches to women’s issues reflected the
diversity of classes in urban society
The Importance of Homemaking
• In recent years some scholars have been rethinking gender roles within the long term
development of consumer behavior and household economies
• ID’d an 18th c “industrious revolution” that saw many wives turning from work for
household consumption (making their own clothes and stuff) to working for cash income
to buy manufactured goods
o In the Industrial era, these scholars have reinterpreted the gender roles associated
with separate spheres as rational consumer behavior
o Argue that the breadwinner homemaker household developed from 1850 onward
in order to improve the lives of all family members, especially in the working
classes
• Thus husbands specialized in earning an adequate cash income and wives specialized in
managing the home
• In doing so, the wife was able to produce desirable goods that couldn’t be bought in a
market, such as improved health, better eating habits, and better behavior
o Higher wages from the breadwinner could buy more raw food, but only the
homemaker’s careful selection, processing, and cooking would allow the fam to
benefit
• Homemaker’s managerial skills enabled the couple to maximize household well-being
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Although the reinterpretation of late 19th c gender roles in terms of a breadwinner
homemaker partnership is a matter of debate, it fits well with some key aspects of family
life after 1850
o As women’s horizons narrowed, and as home and children became typical wife’s
mainc oncers, her control and influence became increasingly strong throughout
ERP
o Among English working classes, the wife determined how the fam’s money was
spent
o In many fams, the husband gave all his earnings to the wife to manage, and
received a small allowance
o All major domestic decisions, from schooling to selecting furniture, was the
decision of a wife
o In France women had even greater power in their assigned domain; constituted
the superior sex
Women ruled at home partly because running the urban household was a complicated,
demanding, and valuable task
o 2x a day food shopping, penny pinching, etc. was a full time job
Working another job for wages had limited appeal to most married women unless the
earnings were essential for family survival
Still, many married women in working classes did make a monetary contribution to
family income by taking in a boarder or doing piecework a home in the sweated
industries
Wife also guided home because a good deal of her effort was directed toward pampering
her husband
o He had meat while she had bread
o He relaxed by fire while she washed dishes
Woman’s guidance of household went hand in hand with increased pride and emotional
importance of home and family
o Home she ran was a warm shelter in a hard urban world
o Home and fam was what life was all about by 1900
Married couples developed stronger emotional ties to each other
o Even in comfortable classes, marriages in the late 19th c were based more on
sentiment and sexual attraction than they had been earlier in the c, as money and
financial calculation declined in importance
o Affection and eroticism became more central to the couple after marriage
Gustave Droz, whose bestselling Mr., Mrs., and Baby saw love within a marriage as the
key to human happiness
o Condemned men who made marriage sound dull and practical or men who were
exhausted by prostitutes and who wanted their young wives to be little angels
o Urged women to follow their hearts and marry men more nearly their won age
Many French manuals of the late 1800s stressed that women had legit sexual needs, such
as the “right to orgasm”
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o Perhaps the French were a bit more enlightened in these matters than other
nationalities
But the rise of public socializing by couples in cafes and music halls suggests a more
erotic, pleasurable intimate life for women throughout Western society
Helped make the woman’s role as a mother and homemaker acceptable and even
satisfying
Ch 24. The Age of Nationalism
1850-1914
Napoleon III in France
• Early nationalism was generally liberal and idealistic and often democratic and radical as
well
• In 19th c, ideas of nationhood and popular sovereignty posed a revolutionary threat to
conservatives like Metternich
• Yet from the vantage point of the 21st c, it is clear that nationalism wears many masks
o May be narrowly liberal or democratic and radical
o Can also flourish in dictatorial states, which may be conservative, fascist, or
communist, and which many impose social and economic changes from above
• NAP’s France had already combined national feeling with authoritarian rule
• Significantly, it was NAP’s nephew, Louis NAP who revived and extended this merger
France’s Second Republic
• Louis NAP played no role in French politics before 1848, but universal male suffrage and
widespread popular support gave him three times as many votes as the four other
candidates combined in French election of Dec 1848
• Why did Louis NAP win by a landslide
o Louis Nap had the great name of his uncle; romantics made NAP a demigod
o As Karl Marx stressed, middle class and peasant property owners feared the
socialist challenge of urban workers, and they wanted a tough ruler to provide
protection
o Late in 1848, Louis NAP had a positive “program” for France, which had been
elaborated in widely circulated pamphlets before the election and which guided
him through his reign
• Above all, Louis Nap believed that the gov should represent the ppl and that it should try
hard to help them economically
o NOT Through PLMTs and political parties
▪ French politicians represented special interest groups, particularly the
middle class
o The answer was a strong, even authoritarian, national leader, like NAP who would
serve all the people, rich and poor
o This leader would be linked to each citizen by direct democracy, his sovereignty
uncorrupted by politicians and legislative bodies
▪ These political ideas meshed well with Louis NAP’s vision of national
unity and social progress
o The states and its leader had a sacred duty to provide jobs and stimulate the
economy, which would benefit all classes
• Louis NAP’s political and social ideas were at least vaguely understood by large numbers
of French peasants and workers in Dec 1848
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To the many common ppl who voted for him, he appeared to be a strong man and a
forward looking champion of their interests
Elected to a four year term by an overwhelming majority, Pres. Louis NAP had to share
power with a conservative National Assembly, according to the constitution
o With some misgivings, he signed a bill to increase greatly the role of the Catholic
Church in primary and secondary education, and approved a law depriving many
poor ppl the right to vote – in accordance with conservative means?
Took these conservatives measures for two reasons
o Wanted Assembly to vote funds to pay his personal debts
o Wanted to change the constitution so he could run for a 2nd term
But in 1851, after the Assembly failed to cooperate, Louis NAP began to conspire with
key army officers
o December 2, 1851, he illegally dismissed the Assembly and seized power in a
coup d’état
o There was some armed resistance in Paris and widespread insurrection in
countryside in s. France, but these protests were crushed by the army
Restoring universal male suffrage and claiming to stand above the bickering and divisive
political, Louis HNAP called on the French ppl, as NAP had done, to legalize his actions
They did: 92% voted to make him Pres. For 10 yrs
A Year later 97% in a plebiscite made him hereditary emperor
Napoleon III’s Second Empire
• Louis NAP, who was proclaimed Emperor NAP III, experienced both success and failure
between 1852-1870
• His greatest success was with the economy, particularly in the 1850s
o His gov encouraged the new investment banks and massive RR construction that
were at the heart of the IR on the continent
o Gov fostered general economic expansion through an ambitious program of
public works, which included rebuilding Paris to improve the urban environment
o The profits of business soared with prosperity, the wages of workers more than
kept up with inflation, and unemployment declined greatly
• Louis NAP always hoped that economic progress would reduce social and political
tensions
o This hope was partially realized
o Until mid 1860s there was considerable support from France’s most dissatisfied
group, the urban workers
o NAP III’s regulation of pawnshops and his support of credit unions and better
housing for the working classes were 3evidence of helpful reform and positive
concern in the 1850s
o In the 1860s, eh granted workers the right to from unions and strike – important
economic rights denied by earlier govs
• At first, political power remained in the hands of the emperor
o He alone chose ministers, and they had great freedom of action
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o At the same time, NAP III restricted but did not abolish the Assembly
o Members were elected by universal male suffrage every six years, and Louis NAP
and his gov took parliamentary elections very seriously
o Tried to entice notable ppl, even those who had opposed the regime, to stand as
gov candidates in order to expand the base of support
o Moreover, the gov used its officials and appointed mayors to spread the word that
the election of the gov’s candidates, and the defeat of the opposition, was the key
to roads, tax rebates, and thousands of other local concerns
In 1857 and again in 1863, Louis NAP’s system worked brilliantly and produced
overwhelming electoral victories
In 1860s, NAP III’s electoral system gradually disintegrated
A sincere nationalist, NAP had wanted to reorganize ERP on the principle of nationality
and gain influence and territory for France and himself
Instead, problems in Italy and the rising power of Prussia led to increasing criticism at
home from his Catholic and nationalist supporters
With increasing effectiveness, the middle class liberal who had always wanted a less
authoritarian regime continued to denounce his rule
NAP III was always sensitive to the public mood
o Public opinion always wins the last victory
o In 1860, he responded to critics by progressively liberalizing his empire
o Gave the Assembly greater powers and the opposition candidates greater freedom,
which they used to good advantage
o In 1869, the opposition, consisting of republicans, monarchists, and liberals,
polled almost 45% of the vote
The next year, a sick and weary Louis NAP again granted France to a new constitution,
which combined a basically parliamentary regime with a hereditary emperor as chief of
states
In a final great plebiscite on the eve of disastrous war with Prussia, 7.5 mill French men
voted in favor of the new constitution, and only 1.5 million opposed it
NAP III’s attempt to reconcile a strong national state with universal male suffrage was
still evolving and was doing so in a democratic direction
Nation Building in Italy and Germany
• Louis NAP’s triumph in 1848 and his authoritarian rule in the1850s provided the old
ruling classes of ERP w/ a new model in politics
• How would urban middle classes and working classes rally to a strong conservative
national state that promoted change?
Italy to 1850
• Italy had never been united prior to 1850
o Divided up in Middle Ages into city states
o Battleground for great powers after 1494
o Reorganized in 1815 at congress of Vienna
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Lombardy and Venetia taken by Metternich
Sardinia and Piedmont: Italian monarch
Tuscany and n-c Italy ruled
Central Italy and Rome: papacy, an indep political existence necessary to fulfill its
spiritual mission
o Naples and Sicily: Branch of the Bourbons
Italy was a “geographical expression”
1815-1848: goal of unified Italian nation captured imaginations of many Italians
Three approaches
o Giuseppe Mazzini: centralized democratic republic based on universal male
suffrage and the will of the ppl
o Vinzo Gioberti: Catholic priest who called for a federation of states under
presidency of progressive pope
o Those who looked to leadership to autocratic kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont
▪ Strengthened by failures of 1848, when Austria smashed Mazzini’s
republicanism
Sardinia’s new monarch: Victor Emmanuel retained the liberal constitution granted by
his father in 1848
o Combined a strong monarchy with a fair degree of civil liberties and
parliamentary gov, with deputies elected by a limited franchise based on income
o To some of the midd classes, Sardinia appeared to be a liberal, progressive state
ideally suited to drive Austria out of n. Italy and lead a free Italy of indep states
o Mazzini’s democratic republic seemed quixotic and too radical
As for papacy, initial cautious support for unification by Pius IX had given way to fear
and hostility after he was temporarily driven from Rome during the upheavals of 1848
o Papacy would stand resolutely opposed to national unification but also to most
modern trends
o 1864: Syllabus of Errors, Pius IX denounced rationalism, socialism, separation of
church and state, and religious liberty, denying that the “Roman pontiff can and
ought to reconcile and align himself with progress, liberalism, and modern
civilization”
Cavour and Garibaldi in Italy
• Sardinia was led by brilliant statesman: Cavour
o Dominant figure in Sardinian gov from 1850-1861
o Came from a noble fam, made a fortune before politics
o His national goals were limited and realistic
o Until 1859, he sought unity only for the states of northern and perhaps central
Italy in a greatly expanded kingdom of Sardinia
• 1850s: Cavour worked to consolidate Sardinia as a liberal constitutional state capable for
leading n Italy
o Program of highways and railroads, civil liberties and opposition to clerical
privilege, increased support for Sardinia throughout n. Italy
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o Realized he could not drive Austria out of n. Italy w/o help of a powerful ally
o Worked for a secret diplomatic alliance with NAPIII
June 1858: Cavour goaded Austria into attacking Sardinia in 1859
o NAPIII came to Sardinia’s defense
After victory, NAP III, worried about criticism from French Caths for supporting the
declared enemy, abandoned Cavour
o Made a compromise peace with Austria in July 1859
Sardinia received only Lombardy, rest of map remained virtually unchanged
Cavour resigned in a rage
Cavour’s plans were salvaged by the maneuvers of his allies in the moderate nationalist
movement
o Pro-Sardinian nationalists in Tuscany and other small states of c Italy fanned
popular revolts and toppled their ruling princes
o Using and controlling the popular enthusiasm, the middle class nationalist
leaders in c Italy called for fusion with Sardinia
o This was not what France and other Great Powers wanted, but the nationalists
held firm
Cavour returned to power in 1860 and gained NAPIII’s support by ceding Savoy and
Nice to France
PPl of c Italy then voted to join a greatly enlarged kingdom of Sardinia under Victor
Emmanuel
Cavour achieved his original goal of a northern Italian state
For superpatriots such as Garibaldi, unification was only half done
o Romantic, revolutionary nationalism and republicanism of Mazzini
o Emerged as an indep force in Italian politics
Partly to use him, partly to rid of him, Cavour secretly supported Garibaldi’s bold plan to
“liberate” the kingdom of the Two Sicilies
o May 1860, landed on shores of Siciliy, Garibaldi’s guerrilla band of 1,000 Red
Shirts captured the imagination of the Sicilian peasantry, which rose in bloody
rebellion against their landlords
o Outwitting the royal army, Garibaldi won battles, gained volunteers, and took
Palermo
o Crossed to the mainland, marched toward Naples, and prepared to attack Rome
Cavour sent Sardinian forces to occupy Papal states (not Rome) to intercept Garibaldi
o Realized that an attack on Rome would bring a war on France
o Feared Garibaldi’s radicalism and popular appeal
o Organized a plebiscite in the conquered territories
o Garibaldi did not oppose Cavour
o The ppl of the south voted to join the kingdom of Sardinia
o Sealed union of north and south, of monarch and nation state
Cavour succeeded
o Controlled Garibaldi and turned popular nationalism in a conservative
direction
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New kingdom of Italy was a parliamentary monarchy under Victory Emmanuel, neither
radical nor democratic
Politically unified, but only some had the right to vote
Propertied classes and common ppl remained divided
A great and growing social and cultural gap separated progressive, industrializing north
from stagnant, agrarian south
New Italy was united on paper, but profound divisions remained
The Growing Austro-Prussian Rivalry
• In aftermath of 1848, German states were locked in political stalemate
• After Austria and Russia blocked FredWill’s attempt to unify Germany, tension grew
between Austria and Prussia as each power sought to block the other within the German
confederation
• Powerful economic forces contributed to Austro-Prussian Rivalry
o Austria was not included in German customs union, Zollverein
o By 1853, Austria was the only state in the German Confederation that had not
joined
o Middle class and business groups in the Zollverein were finding solid economic
reasons to bolster their idealistic support of national unification
o Prussia’s leading role within the Zollverein gave it a valuable advantage in its
struggle against Austria’s supremacy in German political affairs
• Prussia emerged from upheavals of 1848 with a PLMT of sorts, which was in hands of
wealthy liberal middle class by 1859
o Middle class reps wanted to establish once and for all the PLMT, not the king, had
ultimate political power and that the army was responsible to Prussia’s elected
reps
• National uprising in 1859 of Italy caused William I to be convinced that great political
change and war (with Austria or France) would be possible
• William I and his top military advisors pushed to raise taxes and increase the defense
budget in order to double the size of the army
• The Prussian PLMT reflecting the middle class’s desire for a less militaristic society,
rejected the military budget in 1862 and the liberals triumphed completely in new
elections
• King William I called on Otto von Bismarck to head a new ministry and defy the PLTM
Bismarck and the Austro-Prussian War
• Bismarck is the most important figure in German history from Martin Luther to Hitler
• Hero and villain, Bismarck was a master of politics
• Born into Prussian landowning aristocracy
• Strong personality and desire for power
• Flexible and pragmatic
• Kept options open
• Moved with skill and cunning toward his goal
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First honed his political skills as a high ranking diplomat for Prussian gov
Took office as chief minister, made a strong impression
o Speeches were a sensation and scandal
o Declared that gov’t would rule without PLMT’s consent
o Lashed out at middle class opposition
Denounced for his view that “might makes right”, Bismarck had the Prussian
bureaucracy go on collecting taxes, thought PLMT refused to approve the budget
Reorganized army with continued opposition from liberal majorities
Opposition at home spurred the search for success abroad
o Question of Schleswig-Holstein, provinces that belonged to Demark but were part
of the German Confed, was a welcome opportunity
o 1864 when S-H tried to consolidate against German Confed, Prussia joined
Austria n a short and successful war against Denmark
Bismarck was convinced that Prussia had to control completely the northern,
predominately Prot part of the German Confed, which meant expelling Austria from
German affairs
After victory over Denmark, Bismarck’s skillful maneuvering would have to be a
localized one that would not provoke a mighty alliance against Prussia
By neutralizing France and Russia, he was in a position to engage in a war of his own
making
Austro-Prussian War of 1866 lasted 7 weeks
o Using RRs and mass troops and new needle gun, the reorganized Prussian army
proved itself
o Overran n. Germany and defeated Austria at Battle of Sadowa
Anticipating future Prussian needs, Bismarck offered Austria realistic, even generous
peace terms
o Austria paid no reparation and lost no territory, though Venetia was ceded to Italy
Existing German Confederation was dissolved, and Austria agreed to withdraw from
German affairs
Prussia conquered and annexed several small states north of the Main River and
dominated the remaining principalities of the newly formed North German Confederation
The mainly Catholic states of the south remained independent while forming alliances
with Prussia
Bismarck’s fundamental goal of Prussian expansion was being realized
The Taming of the Parliament
• Bismarck had long been convinced that the old order he defended should have peace with
the liberal middle class and the nationalist movement
• Realized that nationalism was not necessarily hostile to conservative, authoritarian gov
• Believed that because of the events of 1848, German middle class could be led to prefer a
national unity under conservative leadership rather than a long, uncertain battle for truly
liberal institutions
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During attack on Austria in 1866, he identified Prussia’s fate with the national
development of Germany
In the aftermath of victory, Bismarck fashioned a federal constitution for the new North
German Confed: Each state retained its own local gov, but the king of Prussia became
president of the confederation, and the chancellor, Bismarck, was responsible only to the
president
The federal gov controlled the army and foreign affairs
There was also a legislature with members of the lower house elected by universal, single
class male suffrage
With this radical innovation, Bismarck opened the door to popular participation and the
possibility of going over the head of the middle class directly to the ppl, much as NAPIII
had done
Ultimate power rested in the hands of the dominant state of Prussia and its king and army
Bismarck held out an olive branch to PLMT opposition
o Asked PLMT to pass a special indemnity bill to approve after the fact all the
gov’s spending
o Most liberally jumped at the chance to cooperate
o With German unity in sight, they repented their “sins”
Constitutional struggle in Prussia was over, and German middle class was accepting
respectfully the monarchial authority and the aristocratic superiority that Bismarck
represented
Values of aristocratic Prussian army officers replaced middle class liberal in esteem and
set the social standard
The Franco-Prussian War
• Final act of German unification
• Bismarck realized that a patriotic war wit France would drive south German states into
his arms
• The issue of whether William I’s relative would become king of Spain was a pretext
• Goaded by Bismarck and alarmed by their new neighbor on the Rhine, France decided to
teach Prussia a lesson
• As soon as war began in 1870, Bismarck had the wholehearted support of the south
German states
• With other gov’s maintaining their neutrality, Bismarck’s neutrality aid off: German
forces under Prussian leadership decisively defeated the main French army at Sedan
• Louis NAP was captured and humiliated
• French patriots in Paris proclaimed another French republic and vowed to continue
fighting
• Starving Paris surrendered, France accepted Bismarck’s harsh peace terms
• S. German state had agreed to join a new German Empire
• Victorious William I was proclaimed emperor of Germany in Versailles
• King of Prussia and his ministers had ultimate power in the new German Empire and the
lower house of the legislature was elected by universal male suffrage
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Bismarck and the German Empire imposed a severe penalty on France
o Indemnity of 5 billion francs
o Cede Alsace and Lorraine
French men and women of all classes viewed the seizure of Alsace and Lorraine as a
terrible crime; could never forget nor forgive; relations between France and Germany
after 1871 were tragically poisoned
Franco-Prussian War released an enormous surge of patriotic feeling in Germany
Bismarck’s genius, the invincible Prussian army, the solidarity of king and ppl in a
unified nation were trumpeted endlessly during and after the war
The weakest of the greatest powers in 1862, Prussia had become, in less than a decade,
the most powerful state in ERP
Most Germans were enormously proud, seeing themselves as the fittest and best ERPNs
Semi-authoritarian nationalism and a “new conservatism” based on an alliance of
propertied classes and support of working classes, triumphed in Germany
The Modernization of Russia and the Ottoman Empire
• Russian and Ottoman Empires experienced profound political crises in mid 19th c
• Either Russia nor Ottoman Empire aspired to build a single powerful state out of a jumble
of principalities
• Aspired to build a single powerful state out of a jumble of principalities
• Vast multinational states built on long traditions of military conquest and absolutist rule
by elites by dominant ethnic groups – Russians and Ottoman Turks
• Early 19th c, governing elites were strongly opposed to rep govs and national self
determination, and continued to concentrate on absolutist rule and competition with other
Great powers
• Relentless power led to great troubles
• It became clear that leaders of both empires had to modernize: the changes that enable a
country to compete effectively with the leading countries at a given time
The “Great Reforms” of Russia
• 1850s: Russia was a poor agrarian society with a rapidly growing population
Industry was little developed, 90% of population lived off land
• Peasant serf was basically a slave, and serfdom was the great moral and political issue of
the 1840s
• Crimean War of 1853056 brought crises
o Fighting was concentrated in Crimean peninsular on Black sea, Russia’s weak
transportation network of rivers and wagons failed to supply the distant Russian
armies adequately
• France, GB, Sardinia, and Ottoman Empire inflicted a humiliating defeat on Russia
o Demonstrated that Russia had fallen behind the rapidly industrializing nations of
western ERP in many ways
o At least Russia needed RRs, armaments, and reorganization of the army to
maintain an international position
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Disastrous war caused hardship and raised the specter of massive peasant rebellion
Reform of serfdom was imperative
Military defeat forced Tsar Alexander II and his ministers along the path to rapid social
change and general modernization
Freeing of serfs in 1861
o Human bondage abolished forever
o Freed serfs received half of the land
o Had to pay high prices for land and peach peasant village was jointly responsible
for payments of all families in village
o Collective ownership and responsibility made it very difficult for individual
peasants to improve agricultural methods or leave their villages
o Old patterns of behavior predominated, and the effects of reform were limited
Most of later reforms were halfway measures
o 1864: go established new institution of local gov, the zemstvo
o Members of this local assembly were elected
o Zemstvo executive council dealt with local problems
o Russian liberals hoped this reform would lead to an elected national PLMT, but
they were disappointed
o Local zemstvo remained subordinate to traditional bureaucracy and local nobility
Reform of legal system
o Indep courts and equality before the law
Education and policies towards Russian Jews were relaxed
Until 20th c, Russia’s greatest strides toward modernization were economic
o Transportation and industry were transformed in 2 industrial surges
o After 1860: govs encouraged and subsidized private RR companies
▪ Enabled agricultural Russia to export grain and earn money for economic
development
▪ Industrial suburbs grew and a modern factory class grew
Strengthened by industrial development, Russia’s military forces began seizing territory
to the south an east, greatly exciting ardent Russian nationalists and superpatriots, who
enthusiastically supported the gov
Industrial dev and the growing prol class aided to spread of Marxian thought and the
transformation of the Russian revolutionary movement after 1911
1881: Alexander II assassinated
Era of reform ended
Alexander III was a determined reactionary
o Economic modernization sped forward again
o Massive industrialization surge from 1890-1900
Key leader was Sergei Witte: tough, competent minister of finance
o Inspired by writings of Freidrich List, believed that the industrial backwardness
was threatening Russia’s power and greatness
o Gov built state owned RRs, doubling the network
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o Established high protective tariffs to build Russian industry and put the country
on the gold standard of the “civilized world” to strengthen Russia’s finances
o Used Westerners to catch up with the West
▪ Encouraged foreigners to build factories in Russia, believing that the
inflow of foreign capital was the only way to supply Russia with abundant
and cheap products
▪ Westerners located their factories in Russia
▪ Foreign capitalists and their engineers built an enormous and modern steel
and coal industry
Russia was industrializing and catching up with the advanced nations of the West
The Russian Revolution of 1905
• Catching up meant vigorous territorial expansion
o By 1903 Russia had established a sphere of influence in Chinese Manchuria and
was eyeing Korea
o When diplomatic protests of equally imperialistic Japan were ignored, Japan
launched a surprise attack in February 1904
o Japan scored repeated victories, Russia was force in Sept 1905 to accept a
humiliating defeat
• Military disaster abroad brought political upheaval at home
o Business and professional classes had long wanted a liberal, rep gov
o Urban factory workers had grievances together in a labor movement
o Peasants gained little from reforms and were suffering from poverty and
overpopulation
o Nationalist sentiment was emerging among the empire’s minorities, and subject
nationalities, such as Poles, Ukranians, Latvians, were calling for sef rule
o With army in Manchuria, all these currents of discontent converged in the
revolution of 1905
• January 1905: massive crowd of workers and their families converged peacefully on the
Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to present a petition to the tsar
o Troops opened fire, killing/wounding hundreds
o Bloody Sunday massacre turned ordinary workers against the tsar and produced a
wave of general indignation
• Outlawed political parties came out into the open, and by 1905 summer, strikes, peasant
uprisings, revolts among minority nationalities and troop mutinies were sweeping the
country
• October 1905: revolutionary surge culminated in a strike that forced gov to capitulate
• Tsar issued October Manifesto: granted full civil rights and promised a popularly elected
Duma with real legislative power
o Split the opposition
▪ Middle class leaders helped gov repress uprising and survive as a
constitutional monarchy
• Before opening the Duma, the gov issued a new constitution, the Fundamental Laws
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o Tsar retained great powers
o The Duma, elected indirectly by UMS and a largely appointive upper house could
debate and pass laws, but the tsar had an absolute veto
o The tsar appointed his ministers who did not need to command a majority in the
Duma
Disappointed middle class liberals, the largest class in the Duma saw the Fundamental
Laws as a step backward
Efforts to cooperate with the tsar’s ministers soon broke down and after months of
deadlock, the tsar dismissed the Duma
He and his advisers unilaterally rewrote the electoral law so as to increase the weight of
the propertied classes
When elections were held, the tsar could count on a loyal majority in the Duma
His ministers pushed agrarian reforms to break down collective village ownership and
encourage more enterprising peasants
In 1914, Russia was a partially modernized, conservative constitutional monarchy with a
peasant based but industrializing economy
Decline and reform in the Ottoman Empire
• High point was under Suleiman the Magnificent in 16th c
• By 18th c it was falling behind western ERP in science, industrial skill, and military tech
• Russia’s westernized army was able to occupy Ottoman provinces on the Danube
• Ottomans forced to grant Serbia local autonomy
• 1830: Greeks won indep
• French under Charles X took Algeria
• Rise of Muhammad Ali, Ottoman governor in Egypt
o Occupied Ottoman provinces of Syria and Iraq and appeared ready to depose the
Ottoman sultan Mahmud II
• Sultan survived because ERPN powers forced Muhammad Ali to withdraw
o ERPN powers, minus France, preferred a weak and dependent Ottoman state to a
strong and revitalized Muslim entity under Muhammad Ali
• Realizing their position, liberal Ottoman statesman launched in 1839 an era of radical
reforms, which lasted till 1876
o Culminated in a constitution and short lived PLMT
o Tanzimat: reforms designed to remake the empire on a w. ERPN model
o High point of reform in Imperial Rescript of 1857
▪ Equality before law, modern administration and military, religious
freedom for Muslims, Christians, and Jews
▪ New commercial laws allowed free importation of foreign goods
▪ Embraced western educated and accepted secular values to some extent
• Intended to bring revolutionary modernization, the Tanzimat permitted partial recovery
but fell short of its goals
o Liberal reforms failed to halt growth of nationalism among Christian subjects,
which resulted in crises and defeats that undermined all reform efforts
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o Ottoman initiatives did not curtail the appetite of Western imperialism, which
secured a stranglehold on Ottoman economy
o Equality before law for all citizens and religious communities increased religious
disputes, which were exacerbated by interference of ERPN power
▪ Embittered relations between religious communities, distracted gov from
reform mission, split Muslims into secularists and religious conservatives
▪ Many conservative Muslims detested the religious reforms which they
viewed as an impious departure from Islamic tradition and holy law
▪ Became the most dependable support of Sultan who abandoned model of
ERPN liberalism in his long reign
Combination of declining international power and conservative tyranny led to a powerful
resurgence of the modernizing impulse among idealistic Turkish exiles in ERP and young
army officers in Istanbul
These fervent patriots, Young Turks, seized power in the rev of 1908 and forced sultan to
implement reforms
Failed to stop rising tide of anti-Ottoman nationalism in Balkans, Young Turks helped
prepare way for birth of modern secular Turkey after Ottoman defeat in WWI
The Responsive, National State, 1871-1914
• For central and w. ERP, the unification of Italy and Germany by “blood and iron” marked
the end of a dramatic period of nation building
• After 1871 the heartland of ERP was organized into strong, national states
• Only on the borders of ERP, Ireland, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, did
subject ppl strive for national unity/polit indep
General Trends
• Domestic policies after 1871 had a common framework
o Firmly established national
o Mass politics
o Growing mass loyalty toward the national state
• Ordinary ppl felt increasing loyalty to their govs
o More ppl could vote
o By 1914 UMS was the rule
o Lots of psychological and political significance
▪ Ordinary men felt they counted and could influence the gov in some way
▪ They were “part of the system”
o Women’s suffrage movement made some gains
▪ 1914 Norway gave vote to most women
▪ Elsewhere, like in GB, heckled politicians and held public demonstrations
▪ Generally failed before 1914 but paved the way for triumph after WWI
• As right to vote spread, politicians and parties in national PLMTS represented the ppl
more responsively
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o Multiparty system prevailed meaning that the PLMTy majorities were built on
shifting coalitions of diff parties, and this gave individual parties leverage to
obtain benefits for their supporters
o Govs passed laws to alleviate genera problems, gaining greater legitimacy and
appearing more worthy of support
Less positive side to building popular support for strong nation states after 1871
o Govs found they could manipulate national feeling to create a sense of unity
and to divert attention away from underlying class conflicts
o Conservative and moderate leaders found that workers who voted socialist would
rally around the flat in a diplomatic crisis or cheer when territory was seized in
Africa/Asia
▪ Govs used antiliberal and militaristic policies to help manage domestic
conflicts, at the expense of increasing international tensions
Some fanatics and demagogic polit leaders sought to build extreme nationalist
movements by whipping up popular animosity toward imaginary enemies, especially the
Jews
o Growth of anti-Semitism
The German Empire
• New German Empire was a federal union of Prussia and 24 smaller states
• Much of everyday business of gov was conducted by separate states, but there was a
strong national gov with a chancellor and a popularly elected lower house called the
Reichstag
• Bismarck refused to be bound by a PLMT majority, but he tried to maintain one
o Gave polit parties opportunities
o Bismarck relied on National Liberals who rallied to him after 1866 (olive branch)
o They supported legislation useful for further economic and legal unification of the
country
• They also backed Bismarck’s attack on the Catholic Church
o Kulturkampf: “struggle for civilization”
o Middle class National Liberals were alarmed by Pius IX
o Seemed to ask German Catholics to put loyalty to their church above their nation
o Kulturkampf generally aimed at making the Catholic Church subject to gov
control
o But only in Prot Prussia did this have even limited success, because Caths
throughout the country generally voted for the Center Party, which blocked
passage of national laws hostile to the church
• 1878: Bismarck abandoned his attack on the church and courted the Catholic Center
Party (Catholic small farmers)
o Enacting high tariffs on cheap grain, won over Catholic Center and Prot Junkers
o With tariffs, Bismarck won Catholic and conservative support
• Many other gov’s followed Bismarck’s lead
o 1880-90s: widespread return to protectionism in ERP
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o France: high tariffs to protect agriculture, industry, peasants, and manufacturers
from foreign competition
o ERPN govs were responding effectively to a major economic problem and
winning greater loyalty
o Rise of protectionism was an example of the dangers of self centered nationalism:
new tariffs led to international name calling and wars
BMK tried to stop Socialism’s growth in Germany cuz he feared its revolutionary
language and allegiance to a movement transcending the nation state
o Orchestrated a national outcry to ram through the Reichstag a law that controlled
socialist meetings and publications and outlawed the Social Democratic Party,
which was driven underground
o German socialists continued to hold influence, and BMK tried again
To win the support of the working class, BMK urged the Reichstag to take action and
enact state supported social measures
o Big businesses and conservatives accused BMK of creating “State socialism” but
BMK pressed his program through speeches
BMK and his supporters carried the day and his essentially conservative nation state
pioneered in the provision of social welfare programs
o Help wage earners, national sickness/accident insurance, old age pensions and
retirement benefits
o Sick, injured, retired workers could look forward to some regular benefits from
the state
o National social security system, paid for through compulsory wage contributions
by wage earners and grants from the state was the first of its kind
BMK’s social security system did not stop workers from voting socialist, but it did give
them a small stake in the system and protect them from some uncertainties
Enormously significant development was a product of polit competition and gov efforts
to win popular support
Great issues in German domestic politics were socialism and the Marxian Social
Democratic Party
o New emperor, William II opposed BMK’s attempt to renew the law outlawing
Social Democratic Party
o Eager to rule in his own right and earn support of workers, William II forced
BMK to resign
o German foreign policy changed profoundly and most for the worst
William was no more successful than BMK in getting workers to renounce socialism
o Social Democrats won more and more seats in the Reichstag
o Became German’s largest single party in 1912
o Shocked aristocrats and their conservative middle class allies, heightening fears of
a socialist upheaval
o “Revolutionary socialists” broadened its base by adopting a more patriotic tone,
allowing for greater military spending and imperialistic expansion
o German socialist concentrated on gradual social and political reform
Republican France
• War w/ Prussia undid efforts to reduce class antagonisms
• In 1871 France seemed hopelessly divided once again
• Patriotic republicans who proclaimed the Third Republic in Paris after Sedan refused to
admit defeat
• Were starved into submission in 1871
• National elections sent a large majority of conservatives and monarchs to National
Assembly, France’s leaders decided they had no choice but to surrender Alsace and
Lorraine
• Traumatized Parisians exploded and proclaimed Paris Commune in March 1871
• Vaguely radical, leaders of Commune wanted to govern Paris without interference from
the conservative French countryside
• National Assembly, led by Adolphe Theirs would hear none of it
o Assembly ordered French Army into Paris and crushed Commune
o French against French
• French slowly formed a new national unity, getting considerable stability before 1914
o Luck: Monarchists in the “republican” national assembly could not agree on who
should be king. The compromise Bourbon candidate wanted absolute power,
unacceptable to supporters of moderate, constitutional monarchy
o Their’s destruction of the Commune showed the fearful provinces and middle
class that the 3rd Repub might be moderate and socially conservative
• France retained the republic, though reluctantly
o “The government which divides us least”
• Skill and determination of the moderate repub leader sin the year years
o Leon Gambetta
• Moderate repubs sought to preserve their creation by winning the hearts and minds of the
next generation
o Trade unions legalized
o France acquired a colonial empire
o Series of laws between 1879-1886 established free compulsory elementary
education for both girls and boys
o Expanded state system of public tax supported schools
• In France and throughout the Western world, the general expansion of public education
served as a critical nation building tool in the late 19th c
o In France most elementary and much secondary education had traditionally been
in the hands of the Cath, who were hostile to repubs and much of secular life
o Free compulsory elementary education in France became secular republican
education
• Though the educations reforms of the 1880s disturbed French Caths, many rallied to the
republic in 1890
o Limited acceptance by more liberal Pope Leo XIII eased tensions between
church and state
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Dreyfus affair changed all that
o Alfred Dreyfus: Jewish captain in French army, falsely convicted of treason
o Dreyfus gained support of Emile Zola and republicans
o Case split France apart
▪ Army with anti-Semites and Catholic establishment vs libertarians and
most of the more radical republicans
Dreyfus declared innocent, but revived republican feeling against the church
o Gov severed all ties with Cath Church from 1901-1905
o Salaries of priests and bishops were no longer paid by gov and all churches were
given to local committees of lay Caths
o Cath schools were put on their own financially and lost 1/3 of their students
o State school system’s power of indoctrination was greatly strengthened
Only the growing socialist movement stood in opposition to patriotic, republican
nationalism
Great Britain and Ireland
• Brit in late 19th c was not a peaceful transition that the 2 party PLMT went from classical
liberalism to democracy
• Right to vote was granted to males of the solid middle class in 1832
• Benjamin Disraeli: Extended vote to middle class males and best paid workers to
broaden the Conservative Party’s traditional base of aristocratic and landed support
• The “lower orders” seemed to be able to vote as responsible as their “betters”
• Third Reform Bill of 1884 gave the vote to almost ever adult male
• House of commons was drifting toward democracy
• The House of lords tried to reassert itself in 1901-1910
o Acting as supreme court of the land, it ruled against labor unions
o In 1906 After liberal party came to power, the Lords vetoed several measures
passed by the Commons, including the People’s Budget, designed to increasing
spending on social welfare services
o Lords capitulated when the king threatened to create enough new peers to pass the
bill, and aristocratic conservatism yielded to popular democracy once and for all
• The extensive social welfare, slow to come to GB were passed in a rush between 1906
and 1914
o During these years, the Liberal party, inspired by Welshman David Lloyd
George raised taxes on the rich as part of the People’s Budget
o This income helped gov pay for national health insurance, unemployment
benefits, old age pensions, and other social measures
o The state was integrating the urban masses socially as well as politically
• Eve of WWI, question of Ireland brought GB to brink of civil war
• After famine, English slowly brought concessions
• William Gladstone: wanted to pacify Ireland, passed bills to give Ireland self gov
o Failed to pass, but In 1913 Irish nationalists in the Brit PLMT gained a home rule
bill for Ireland
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Ireland was on the brink of self gov
Ireland composed of 2 ppl
o Irish Catholic in south wanted home rule
o Prots in Ulster (the north) didn’t
▪ Refused to submerge themselves in Cath Ireland
Ulsterites vowed to resist home rule in northern Ireland
o Army volunteers
o Supported by much of English public opinion
1914: Liberals in House of Lords introduced a bill that gave south home rule
o Betrayed promises made to Irish nationalists, was rejected
September: original home rule bill was passed but suspended by WWI
Irish developments illustrated the power of national feeling and national movements in
the 19th c
Proof that gov’s couldn’t elicit greater loyalty unless they could capture and control
the elemental current of national feeling
GB had lots going for it but none of this availed in the face of the conflicting
nationalisms created by Caths and Prots in n Ireland
Similar to Ottomans
The Austro-Hungarian Empire
• 1849: Magyar nationalism had driven Hungarian patriots to declare an indep Hungarian
republic, which was savagely crushed by Russian and Austrian armies
• 1850s: Hungary was ruled as a conquered territory while Emp. Francis Joseph and his
bureaucracy tried to centralize the state and Germanize the language and culture of the
diff nationalities
• Weakened Austria was forced to strike a compromise and establish a dual monarchy
• Empire divided into two and nationalistic Magyars gained virtual indep for Hungary
• Two states were only joined by a shared monarch and common ministries for finance,
defense, and foreign affairs
• In Austria and ethnic Germans were only 1/3 of the population, and in 1895 Germans saw
their traditional dominance threatened by Czechs, Poles, and Slavs
o Wanted their language in gov and education
• PLMT was so divided that they used decree rather than majority
• Efforts by conservatives and socialists to defuse national antagonisms by stressing
economic issues that cut across ethnic lines was unsuccessful
• Magyar nobility resorted constitution of 1848 and used it to dominate both peasantry and
minority populations
o Wealthiest ¼ of adults had right to vote
o PLMT was creature of Magyar elite
• Laws promoted Magyar language in schools and gov, and were resented by minority
populations
• Magyar extremists campaigned for separation from Austria, radical leaders of subject
nationalities dreamed for indep from Hungary
•
Unlike most major countries that harnessed nationalism to strengthen the state after
1871, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was progressively weakened and destroyed by
it
Jewish Emancipation and Anti-Semitism
• Changes in Jewish Life in western and central ERP
• 1848: Jews formed regiment for Germany and Austria; Frankfurt Assembly endorsed full
rights for German Jews
• Abolished restrictions of Jewish marriage, choice of occupation etc
• Exclusion from gov and discrimination socially remained
• Widely accepted that disappearance of anti Jewish prejudice was inevitable
• Jews thrived in new opportunities and were successful
• By 1871 a majority had improved their economic situation and entered middle class
• Most Jewish pl ID’d with their nation states and saw themselves as patriotic citizens
• Vicious anti-Semitism reappeared after the stock market crash of 1873 in c ERP
o Drawing on long traditions, this anti-Semitism was also a modern development,
building on the reaction against liberalism
o Whipped up resentment against Jewish achievement and Jewish financial control
while fanatics claimed the Jewish race was a biological threat to the German ppl
o Anti Semites: conservatives, extreme nationalists, business ppl threatened by Jews
• Anti-Semites created modern political parties to attack and degrade Jews
o Karl Leuger: “Christian Socialists”
▪ Mayor of Vienna
▪ Combined fierce anti-Semitic rhetoric with municipal ownership of basic
services
▪ Appealed to German speaking lower middle class
• Theodore Herzl: Created Zionism and the creation of a Jewish state
• Anti-Semitism was most oppressive in e. ERP where Jews suffered from poverty
• Russia: officials used anti-Semitism to channel popular discontent away from the gov and
onto the Jewish minority; Jews seen as foreign exploiters who corrupted national
traditions
o Violent pogroms
o Police stood by as peasants looted and destroyed Jewish property
o Some Jews turned towards Zionsts and a settlement in Palestine
o Lots immigrated
Marxism and the Socialist Movement
• Nationalism was the new unifying principle
• Socialism grew rapidly in these years; dedicated to an international proletarian revolution
• Prosperous/conservative citizens were troubled by socialist movement
• Conflict between revolutionary socialism vs nationalist alliance and the conservative
aristocracy an prosperous middle class
The Socialist International
• Growth of socialist parties after 1871 was phenomenal
o BMK couldn’t check the growth of the German Social Democratic Party
o By 1912 it had millions of followers mostly from the working class and was the
largest party in the Reichstag
• Socialist parties also grew in other countries but not with as much success
• Russian exiles founded Social Democratic Party; French; Belgium; Austria-Hungary
• Marxian socialist parties were linked together in an international organization
o Marx believed “working men have no country” and urged proles of all countries
to unite
• International working Men’s Association
o Annual meetings spread his realistic, “scientific” doctrines of inevitable socialist
revolution
o Embrace radical Paris Commune as step toward socialist revolution, which
frightened early supporters (Brit labor leaders)
o First International collapsed
• International Prol solidarity remained an important objective for Marxists
o Socialist leaders came together to form the Second International, which lasted
until 1914
o Federation of national socialist parties, but had great psychological impact
o Delegates from diff parties met to interpret Marxian doctrines and plan
coordinated action
o May 1 was annual one day strike day of marches and demonstrations
o Permanent executive for the International was established
o Many feared the rejoiced in power of socialism in the Second International
Unions and Revisionism
• Was socialism radical and revolutionary? NO
• Looked toward gradual change and steady improvement for the working class and less
towards revolution
• Became militantly moderate: combined radical rhetoric with sober action
• Workers were less inclined to follow radical programs
o Workers gained right to vote and participate politically, so they focused their
attention more on elections than on revolutions
o As workers won real, tangible benefits, this furthered the process
o Responded positively to parades and loyally voted for socialists (more nationalist)
o Workers were not a unified social group
o Standard of living rose gradually but substantially
• More militantly moderate: demanded gains, but were less likely to take to the barricades
in pursuit of them
• Growth of labor unions reinforced this trend
o Modern unions were generally prohibited by law
o Other countries had similar laws
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o Unions considered subversive bodies to be hounded and crushed
o GB led way in 1824-25 when unions won right to exist but not the right to strike
▪ New, more practical unions appeared
▪ Highly skilled workers
▪ New “model unions” concentrated on wining better wages and hours
through collective bargaining and compromise
▪ Paved way to full acceptance and unions for unskilled workers
o Germany: anti-socialist laws removed in 1890, unions granted rights in 1869,
harassed by gov; almost all legal harassment eliminated, union membership
skyrocketed
Changing character of German unions
o Focused on bread and butter issues: wages, hours, working conditions, rather than
the dissemination of socialist doctrine
o Collective bargaining recognized by German Trade Union Congress in 1899
o Strikes made resolute employers change their minds
German trade unions and their leaders were thoroughgoing revisionists
o Revionism: most awful of sins in the eyes of militant Marxists, effort to update
Marxian doctrines to reflect realities of the time
o Eduard Bernstein: Socialists should reform their doctrines and tactics and should
combine with other progressive forces to win continued evolutionary gains for
workers through legislation, unions, and further economic development
o Denounced as heresy by the German Social Democratic Party and the entire
Social International
Revisionist approach continued to gain acceptance of many German socialists,
particularly in trade unions
France: Jean Jaures repudiated revisionist doctrines to make a unified socialist party
Split Russian Marxists
Socialist 1914: Russians and Austria-Hungarians MOST RADICAL; Germans with trade
unions practice reformism and talked revolution; French talked revolution unrestrained
by trade union weak and radical; England: Socialist, non Marxian Labour Party gradual
reform: Spain and Italy: Anarchy dominated
Socialist policies and doctrines varied from country to country
Socialism was “nationalized” behind the imposing façade of international unity
Ch. 25 The West and the World: 1815-1914
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The IR created a tremendously dynamic economic system in Brit, ERP, then N.Am
In the course of the 19th c, the system was extended across the face of the earth to non-Western
areas
o Some of the extension was peaceful and beneficial for all concerned, for the West had
many products and techniques the rest of the world desired
o If peaceful methods failed, ERPNs used their superior military power to force nonWestern nations to open their doors to Western economic interests
IN general, Westerners fashioned the global economic system so that the largest share of the
increasing gains from trade, technology, and migration flowed to the West and its propertied
classes
The Rise of Global Inequality
• The IR in ERP marked a momentous turning point in human history
• The regions of the world that industrialized in the 19th c (ERP and N.Am) increased their wealth
and power enormously in comparison to those that did not.
• A gap between the industrializing regions and the nonindustrializing Third World regions (Africa,
Asia, and Latin Am) opened up and grew steadily throughout the 19th c
• This pattern of uneven global development became institutionalized, or built into the structure of
the world economy
• We evolved a “lopsided world,” a world of rich lands and poor
• Recent studies
o In 1750, the average standard of living was no higher in ERP as a whole than in the rest
of the world
o It was industrialization that opened the gaps in average wealth and well being among
countries and regions
o Income per person stagnated in the Third World before 1913, in striking contrast to the
industrializing regions
▪ Only after 1945, did Third World Countries finally make some economic
progress beginning in their turn the critical process of industrialization
• The rise of enormous income disparities, and indicators of equal disparities in food and clothing,
health and education, life expectancy and general material well-being has generated a deal of
debate
o One side tresses that the West used science, technology, capitalist organization, and even
its critical world view to create its wealth and greater physical well-being
o Another side argues the West used its political and economic power to steal much o its
riches, continuing in the 19th and 20th c’s the colonialism born of the era of expansion
The World Market
• Commerce between nation stimulates economic development; so in the 19th c, ERP directed an
enormous increase in international commerce
o Brit took the lead in cultivating export markets for its booming industrial output, as Brit
manufacturers looked first to ERP and then around the world
• Brit dominated in the export market
o Textiles: By 1820 Brit was exporting 50% of its production
o ERP bought 50% of these cotton textile exports, while India bought only 6%
o As ERPN nations and the US erected protective tariff barriers and promoted domestic
industry, Brit cotton textile manufacturers aggressively sought and found other foreign
markets in non-Western Areas
o By 1850 India was buying 25% of Brit’s textiles and ERP only 16%
o As a Brit colony, India couldn’t raise tariffs to protects its ancient cotton textile industry,
and thousand of Indian weavers lost their livelihoods
• Brit was also the world’s largest importer of goods
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From repeal of Corn laws in 1846 to beginning of WWI in 1914, Brit remained the
world’s emporium, where agricultural products and raw materials and manufactured
goods entered freely
o Free access to Brit’s market stimulated the development of mines and plantations in many
non-Western areas
International trade also grew as transportation systems improved
o Wherever RRs were built, they drastically reduced transportation costs, opened new
economic opportunities, and called forth new skills and attitudes
o Much of the RR construction in Latin Am, Asia, and Africa connected seaports with
inland cities and regions, as opposed to linking developing cities and regions within the
country
o Should RRs dovetailed with Western economic interests, facilitating the inflow and sale
of Western manufactured goods and the export and development of local raw materials
The power of steam revolutionized transportation by sea as well as by land
o Steam power began to supplant sails on the oceans of the world in the late 1860s
o Passenger and foreign rates tumbled as ship design became more sophisticated, and the
intercontinental shipment of low-priced raw materials became feasible
o The opening of the Suez and Panama Canals shortened global transport time considerably
o In addition, port facilities were modernized to make loading and unloading cheaper,
faster, and more dependable
Revolution in land and sea transportation encouraged EPRN entrepreneurs to open up vast new
territories around the world and develop agricultural products and raw materials for sale in ERP
o Improved transportation enabled Asia, Africa, and Latin Am to ship traditional tropical
products (spices, tea, sugar coffee) as well as new raw materials for industry (jute, rubber,
cotton, and coconut oil)
New communications systems directed the flow of goods across global networks
o Transoceanic telegraph cables inaugurated rapid communications among the financial
centers of the world
o Communications network conveyed world commodity prices instantaneously
As their economies grew, ERPN began to make massive foreign investments beginning about
1840
o By the first outbreak of WWI in 1914, ERPNS had invested more than $40 billion abroad
o Brit, France, and Germany were the principal investing countries
o The great gap between rich and poor within ERP meant that the wealthy and moderately
well-to-do could and did send great sums abroad in search of interest in dividends
Much of capital exported did not go to ERPN colonies or protectorates in Asia and Africa
o ¾ of total ERPN investment went to other ERPN countries, the US, and Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand, and Latin Am
o ERP found its most profitable opportunities for investments in construction of RRs, ports,
and utilities that were necessary to settle and develop lands
o By lending money for a foreign RR, ERPNs also enabled white settlers to buy ERPN rails
and locomotives and to develop sources of cheap food and raw materials
o Much of this investment was peaceful and mutually beneficial for lenders and borrowers
o Victims were Native Am’s and Australian aborigines who were decimated by diseases,
liquor, and weapons of an aggressively expanding Western society
The Opening of China
• ERP’s relatively peaceful development of robust offshoots in N Am, Australia, and Latin Am
absorbed huge quantities of goods, investments, and migrants
o Yet ERP’s economic and cultural penetration of old, densely populated civilizations was
also profoundly significant
o With such civilizations, ERP increased their trade and profit, and were prepared to use
force if necessary to attain their desires
o Happened in China – a pattern of intrusion into non-Western lands
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Traditional Chinese civilization was self sufficient
o For centuries, China had sent more goods and inventions to ERP than its received, and
this was still the case in 19th c
o Trade w/ ERP was carefully regulated by Chinese imperial government (Qing/Manchu
Dynasty) which required all foreign merchants to live in the southern port of Guangzhou/
Canton and to buy and sell only to licensed Chinese merchants
o Practices considered harmful to Chinese interests were strictly forbidden
For years the little community of foreign merchants in Canton had to accept the Chinese system
o By 1820s, the dominant group, The Brit fought back
o In the smoking of opium denounced by Chinese decrees, Brit merchants found something
the Chinese really wanted
o Grown legally in Brit-occupied India, opium was smuggled into China where its use and
sale were illegal
o Huge profits and growing addiction led to a rapid increase in sales
o By 1836 the goal of Brit merchants in Canton was an indep Brit colony in China and
“safe and unrestricted liberty” in their Chinese trade
o Spurred by economic motives, they pressured Brit gov to take decisive action and
enlisted support of other Brit manufacturers with visions of Chinese markets opening
At same time, Qing gov decided that the opium trade had to be stamped out
o Was ruining the ppl and stripping the empire of silver that was going to Brit merchants to
pay for opium
o Gov began to prosecute Chinese drug dealers vigorously
o In 1839, sent envoy Lin Zexu to Canton to deal with the crisis
▪ Dealt harshly w/ Chinese who bought opium and seized opium stores of Brit
merchants, who then withdrew to barren island of Hong Kong
▪ Sent a letter justifying his actions to Queen Victoria
• “Responsible for the habits and morals of its subjects and cannot rest
content to see any of them become victims of a deadly poison”
Wealthy, well-connected Brit merchants appealed to their allies in London for support, and Brit
gov responded
o Wanted free, unregulated trade with China as well as establishment of diplomatic
relations on ERPN model, with ambassadors, embassies, and published treaties
o Using troops from India and being in control of the seas, Brit occupied several coastal
cities and forced China to give into Brit demands
o 1842: Treaty of Nanking, the imperial gov was required to cede the island of Hong Kong
to Brit forever, and to pay an indemnity of $100 million, and open up four large cities to
unlimited foreign trade with low tariffs
With Brit’s new power over Chinese commerce, the opium trade flourished, and Honk Kong
developed rapidly as an Anglo-Chinese enclave
o China continued to accept foreign diplomats in Beijing, the capital, but disputes over
trade between China and Western powers continued
o Second round of foreign attack between 1856-1860, culminating in the occupation of
Beijing by 17,000 Brit and French troops and the international burning of the emperor’s
summer palace
o Another round of harsh treaties gave ERPN merchants and missionaries greater privileges
and protection and forced the Chinese to accept trade and investment on unfavorable
terms for several more cities
ERPNs used military aggression to bow a hole in the wall of Chinese seclusion and open the
country to foreign trade and ideas
Japan and the United States
• Japan had its own highly distinctive civilization and even less use for Westerners
• ERPN traders and missionaries first arrived in Japan in the 16th c
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By 1640 Japan had reacted negatively to their presence – gov decided to seal off the country from
all ERPN influences in order to preserve traditional Jap culture and society
When Am and Brit whaling ships began to appear off Jap coasts 200 yrs later, the policy of
exclusion was still in effect
An order of 1825 commanded Jap officials to “drive away foreign vessels without second
thought”
Jap’s unbending isolation seemed hostile and barbaric to the West, especially the US
o Complicated the practical problems of shipwrecked Am sailors and provisioning of
whaling ships and China traders sailing in eastern Pacific
o Thwarted hope of trade and profit
o Am’s shared the self-confidence and dynamism of expanding Western society, and felt
destined to play a great role in the Pacific
o To Am’s it seemed the duty of the US to force the Japs to share their ports and behave as
a “civilized nation”
After unsuccessful Am attempts to establish commercial relations w/ Japan, Commodore
Matthew Perry steamed into Edo (now Tokyo) bay in 1853
o Relied in gunboat diplomacy: use or threat of military force to coerce a gov into
economic or political agreements, and threatening to attack, Perry demanded diplomatic
negotiations with the emperor
Japan entered a crisis
o Some Japs warriors urged resistance
o Senior officials realized how defenseless their cities were against naval bombardment
Shocked and humiliated, the Japs reluctantly signed a treaty with the US that opened two ports
and permitted trade
Over the next 5 years, more treaties spelled out the rights and privileges of the Western nations
and their merchants in Japan
Japan was “opened”
What the Brits did in China with war, the Am’s did in Japan with the threat of war
Western Penetration of Egypt
• Egypt’s experience illustrates the explosive power of the expanding ERPN economy an society as
well as their seductive appeal
o ERPN involvement in Egypt led to a new model of formal political control, which EPRN
powers applied widely in Africa and Asia after 1882
• Of great importance in African and Middle Eastern history, Egpyt had been ruled by a succession
of foreigners, most recently by the Ottoman Turks
o 1798: French armies under NAP invaded the Egyptian part of the Ottoman Empire and
occupied the territory for 3 years
o The power vacuum left by the French withdrawal stepped an extraordinary Turkish
general, Muhammad Ali
• Muhammad Ali
o First appointed gov of Egypt in 1805 by the Turkish sultan, MALI set out to build his
own state on the strength of a large, powerful army organized along ERPN lines
o Drafted for the first time the illiterate, despised peasant masses of Egypt and hired French
and Italian army officers to train these raw recruits and their Turkish officers
o Gov was reformed: new lands cultivated, communications improved
o By the end of his reign in 1848, MALI had established a strong and virtually indep
Egyptian state, to be ruled by his family on a hereditary basis within the Turkish Empire
• MALI’s policies of modernization attracted large numbers of ERPN to the banks of the Nile
o Port city of Alexandria had more than 50,000 ERPNs by 1864
o ERPNS served as army officers as well as engineers, doctors, gov officials, and police
officers
o Other ERPNs turned to trade, finance, and shipping
• To pay for his ambitious plans, MALI encouraged development of commercial agriculture
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This development had profound implications
Egyptian peasants were poor but largely self-sufficient, growing food for their own
consumption on state owned lands allotted to them by tradition
o Faced with possibility of export agriculture, high ranking officials and members of
MALI’s fam began carving out large private landholding out of the state domain
o New landlords made peasants their tenants and forced them to grow cash cps (cotton,
rice) which were geared towards ERPN markets
o Egyptian landowners “modernized” agriculture to the detriment of the peasant well being
Trends continued under MALI’s grandson Ismail
o 1863: Began 16 year rule as Egypt’s khedive (prince)
o Educated at France’s leading military academy, Ismail was a westernizing autocrat
o Large irrigation networks he promoted caused cotton production and exports to ERP to
boom
o Suez Canal was completed by a French company in 1869
o Arabic of the Turkish masses replaced the Turkish of the foreign conquerors as the
official language
o Young Egyptians educated in ERP spread new skills
o Cairo acquired modern blvds and Western hotels
o Ismail: “My country is no longer in Africa, we now form part of Europe”
Ismail was too impatient and reckless
o Projects enormously expensive
▪ By 1876, Egypt owed foreign bondholders a colossal debt that it could not pay
▪ France and Brit intervened and forced Ismail to appoint French and Brit
commissioners to oversee Egyptian finances so that the Egyptian debt would be
paid in full
▪ Marked a sharp break with past: Throughout the 19th c, ERPNs used military
might and political force to make sure that non-Western lands would accept
ERPN trade and investment -- Now ERPNs were going to determine the state
budget and effectively rule Egypt
Foreign financial control evoked a violent nationalistic reaction among Egyptian religious
leaders, young intellectuals, and army officers
o 1879: Under leadership of Colonel Ahmed Arabi, they formed the Egyptian Nationalist
Party
▪ Continuing diplomatic pressure, which forced Ismail to abdicate in favor of his
weak son Tewfiq, resulted in bloody anti-ERPN riots in 1882
▪ Number of ERPNs were killed, and Tewfiq and his court had to flee to Brit ships
for safety
▪ Brit fleet bombarded Alexandria, more riots swept the country, and Colonel Arabi
led a revolt
▪ But a Brit expeditionary force put down the rebellion and occupied all of Egypt
The Brits said their occupation was temporary, but Brits remained in Egypt until 1956
o Maintained the facade of the khedive’s gov as an autonomous province of the Ottoman
Empire, but the khedive was a puppet to Brits
o Brit rule did result in tax reforms and somewhat better conditions for peasants, while
foreign bondholders received their interest and Egyptian nationalist nursed their injured
pride
Brit rule in Egypt provided a new model for ERPN expansion in densely populated lands
o Such expansion as based on military force, political domination, and a self justifying
ideology of beneficial reform
o Model was predominating until 1914
So ERP’s IR lead to tremendous political and economic expansion after 1880
The Great Migration
• Millions of ppl left ancestral lands in history’s greatest migrations
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Opening of China and Egyptian debt had no significance for the millions of ordinary people
Great migration movement was the central experience in saga of Western expansion
Because of this great migration: the mass movement of ppl from ERP in the 19th c, the West’s
impact on the world in the 19th c was so powerful and many sided
The Pressure of Population
• In early 18th c, the growth of ERPN population entered its 3rd and decisive state, which continued
unabated until the 20th c
• Birthrates declined in the 19th c as well as death rates due to
o Rising living standard
o Revolution in medicine
• Population of ERP more than doubled, from 188 million in 1800 to 432 mill in 1900
• Figures underestimate ERP’s population explosion, between 1815-1932, more than 60 mill ppl
left ERP
o Migrants went to the areas of ERPN settlement – N and S America, Australia, New
Zealand, and Siberia – where they contributed to a rapid growth in numbers
o Since population grew more slowly in Africa and Asia than in ERP and Americas, ERPNs
and ppl of predominately ERPN origin jumped from 24% of world’s population in 1800
to 38% in 1914
• The growing number of ERPNs provided further impetus for Western expansion, and was a
driving force behind emigration
o Rapid increase in numbers put pressure on the land and led to land hunger and relative
overpopulation in many areas
o In most countries, migration increased 20 years after rapid growth in population
▪ Many children of baby boom grew up and saw little available land/opportunities,
thus migrated
o Pattern was prevalent when rapid population increase predated extensive industrial
development, which offered the best long term hope of creating jobs within the country
and reducing poverty
o Millions of country foil went abroad as well as to nearby cities in search of work/
economic opportunity
• 3 facts
o Number of men and women who left ERP increased rapidly at end of 19th c leading up to
WWI
▪ More than 11 mill left in first decade of 20th c, 5x as much as in 1850
▪ Outflow of migrants was a clear defining characteristic of ERPN society for an
entire period
o Diff countries had very diff patterns of movement
▪ Ppl left Brit and Ireland in large numbers from 1840s on
• Reflected rural poverty and movement of skilled industrial technicians
and preferences shown to Brit migrants in Brit Empire
• 1/3 of all ERPN migrants between 1840-1920 came from Brit Iles
▪ German migration was diff
• Grew irregularly after 1830; peaks in early 1850s and early 1880s
• After, declined rapidly
• Industrialization was providing adequate jobs at home
▪ Italy
• More and more Italians left the country up to 1914, reflecting severe
problems in Italian villages and relatively slow industrial growth
▪ Migration patterns mirrored social and economic conditions in the various ERPN
countries and provinces
o US did absorb the largest overall number of ERPN migrants, fewer than half of all
migrants went to the US
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▪
Asiatic Russia, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand also
attracted large numbers
Migrants accounted for a larger proportion of Argentina, Brazil, and Canada than
it did in the US
Common Am assumption that ERPN migration meant to the US is inaccurate
European Migrants
• The ERPN migrant was generally an energetic small farmer or skilled artisan trying hard to stay
ahead of poverty
o Not a desperately poor landless peasants or urban proletarian
o These small peasant landowners and village craftsmen typically left ERP because their
traditional way of life was threatened by too little land, estate agriculture, and cheap
factory made goods
• Determined to maintain or improve their status, migrants were a great asset to the countries that
received them
o Doubly so because the vast majority were young and often unmarried
o Came in the prime of life and were ready to work hard in the new land
• Many ERPNs moved but remained within EPR, settling temporarily or permanently in another
EPRN country
o Jews from e. ERP and peasants from Ireland migrated to Brit
o Russians and Poles sought work in Germany
o Latin ppl from Spain, Portugal, an Italy entered France
• Many ERPNs were truly migrants as opposed to immigrants
o Returned home after some time abroad
o ½ in Argentina; 1/3 in US eventually returned to their native land
• Likelihood of repatriation varied greatly by nationality
o Migrants from Balkans were much more likely to return to their countries than ppl from
Ireland and eastern ERPN Jews
o Possibility of buying land in the old counry was of central importance
▪ Ireland/England/Scotland: land was tightly held by large, often absentee
landowners, and little land was available for purchase
▪ Russia: Jews were forced to live in Pale of Settlement and most Russian land was
held by non Jews
▪ For Irish farmers and Russian Jews, migration was a once and for all departure
• Mass movement of Italians
o As late as 1880s, ¾ Italians depended on agriculture
o With influx of cheap N. Am wheat, many small landowning peasants whose standard of
living was falling began to leave their country
o Many went to the US, but before 1900, more went to Argentina and Brazil
• Many Italians had no intention of settling abroad permanently
o Some called themselves “swallows”: After harvesting their own wheat and flax in Italy,
they flew to Argentina to harvest wheat between Dec-April
o Returning to Italy for the spring planting, they repeated this exhausting process
o Hard life, but frugal workers could save $250-$350, where Italian agricultural workers
earned less than $1 a day
• Ties of family and friendship played a crucial role in movement of ppls
o Many ppl from given province or village settled together in rural enclaves or tightly knit
urban neighborhoods
o Very often a strong individ (businessman, religious leader) would blaze the way and
others would follow, forming a “migration chain”
• Many landless young EPRN men and women were spurred to leave by a spirit of revolt and indep
o Sweden and Norway, Jewish Russia and Italy, these young ppl felt frustrated by the small
privileged classes, which often controlled church and gov and resisted demands for
change and greater opportunity
o
•
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Many young Norwegian seconded the passionate cry of Norway’s national poet
Martinius Bjornson: “I will be crushed and consumed if I stay”
o Many young Jews agreed with spokesman of Kiev’s Jewish community in1882, who
summed up his congregations defiance of discrimination
For many, migration was a radical way to “get out from under”
Migration slowed down when the ppl won basic polit and social reforms, such as right to vote,
equality before the law, and social security
Asian Migrants
• Not all migration was from ERP
• Substantial number of Chinese, Japanese, Indians, and Filipinos responded to rural hardship with
temporary or permanent migration
• At least 3 mill Asians moved abroad before 1920
o Most went s indentured laborers to work under difficult conditions on plantations or in
gold mines of Latin Am, southern Asia, Africa, California, Hawaii, and Australia
o White estate owners used Asians to replace or supplement blacks after the suppression of
the slave trade
▪ In 1840s: strong demand for field hands in Cuba, and Spanish gov actively
recruited Chinese laborers
▪ 1853-1873: more than 130,000 Chinese laborers went to Cuba
▪ Maj spent their lives as virtual slaves
▪ Great landlords of Peru brought more than 100,000 Chinese workers in the 19th c
▪ Similar movements of Asians elsewhere
• Migration from Asia would have been bigger if planters and mine owners in search of cheap labor
had been able to hire as many Asian workers as they had wished
o Could not
o Asians fled plantations and gold mines as soon as possible, seeking greater opportunities
in trade and towns
o Came into conflict w/ local populations (Malaya, E. Africa, areas settled by ERPNs)
o ERPN settlers demanded a halt to Asian migrants
• By 1880s, Am’s and Australians were building great white walls: discriminatory laws designed to
keep Asians out
• Crucial factor in migrations before 1914: general policy of “whites only” in the open lands of
possible permanent settlement
• This was part of Western dominance in increasingly lopsided world
• Largely successful in monopolizing the best overseas opportunities, ERPNs and pl of ERPN
ancestry reaped the main benefits from the great migration
• By 1913 ppl in Australia, Canada, and the US all had higher average incomes than ppl in Brit,
still ERP’s wealthiest nation
Western Imperialism, 1880-1914
• Expansion of Western society reached its apex between 1880 and 1914
• The leading ERPN nations continued to send massive streams of migrants, money, and
manufactured goods around the world, and also rushed to create/enlarge political empires abroad
• Polit empire building contrasted with economic penetration of Non-Western territories between
1816-1880
o Left China and Japan “opened”, but politically indep
o By contrast, the empires of the late 19th c recalled the old ERPN colonial empires of the
18th and 18th c and led the contemporaries to speak of new imperialism: The late 19th
century drive by ERPN countries to create vast political empires abroad
The European Presence in Africa Before 1880
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Prior to 1880, ERPN nations controlled only 10% of the African continent and their possessions
were hardly increasing
o French began conquering Algeria in 1830
o By 1880 substantial numbers of French/Spanish/Italian colonists settled among the Arab
majority
o The overall effect on Africa was minor
At southern tip of Africa, Brit had taken possession of the Dutch settlements at Cape Town during
wars with NAP
o Brit takeover of Cape Colony led Dutch cattle ranchers and farmers of 1835 to make their
Great Trek into the interior, where they fought the Zulu and Xhosa ppl for land
o After 1853, while Brit colonies such as Canada and Australia were evolving towards selfgovernment, the Boers/Afrikaners (descendants of the Dutch settlers in the Cape Colony
in Southern Africa), proclaimed their political indep and defended it against Brit armies
o By 1880 Afrikaner and Brit settlers, who detested each other, had wrested control of
much of Southern Africa from the Zulu, Xhosa, and other African ppl
Other than French presence in north and Brit and Afrikaners in south, Africa was largely free of
Westerners
o ERPN trading posts/forts back to Age of Discovery and slave trade dotted coast of W.
Africa
o Portuguese had a loose hold on old possessions in Angola and Mozambique
o Elsewhere, ERPNs did not rule
After 1880, the situation changed drastically
o In a manifestation of imperialism, ERPN countries jockeyed for territory in Africa,
breaking with previous patterns of colonization and diplomacy
The Scramble for Africa After 1880
• Between 1880-1900 Brit, France, Germany, and Italy scrambled for African possessions
o By 1900 nearly the whole continent had been carved up under ERPN rule
o Only Ethiopia in NE Africa (able to fight of Italian invaders) and Liberia on West African
coast (settled by free slaves from the US) remained indep
o In all other African territories, the EPRN powers tightened their control and established
colonial governments in the years before 1914
• Dutch settler repubs succumbed to imperialism, but final outcome was diff
o Brit, led by Cecil Rhodes in the Cape Colony, leapfrogged over the 2 Afrikaner states
(Orange Free State and the Transvaal) in the early 1890s and established protectorates
over Bechuanaland (Botswana) and Rhodesia (Zimbabwe and Zambia)
o Although unable to undermine stubborn Afrikaners in Transvaal, English speaking
capitalists such as Rhodes developed rich gold mines there, and Brit eventually
conquered their white rivals in the bloody South African War (1899-1902)
• In 1910 the old Afrikaner territories were united w/ the old Cape Colony and the eastern province
of Natal in a new Union of South Africa, established as a largely “self-governing colony” (unlike
any other territory in Africa)
o Enabled defeated Afrikaners to use their numerical superiority over Brit settlers to
gradually take polit power, as even most educated nonwhites lost right to vote outside
Cape Colony
• Certain events/individs stand out
o Brit occupation of Egypt in 1882, which established the new model of formal political
control
o Role of Leopold II of Belgium, an energetic/strong-willed monarch of a tiny country
with a lust for distant territory
▪ 1861: lad out vision of expansion
▪ Steam and electricity annihilated distance, and the not yet taken lands are fields
of operations/success
▪ 1876: Leopold was focusing on Central Africa
Formed financial syndicate under his personal control to send Henry M.
Stanley, a sensation seeking journalist and part time explorer, to Congo basin
• Was able to establish trading stations, sign “treaties” with African chiefs,
and plant Leopold’s flag
▪ Leopold’s actions alarmed the French who sent out an expedition under Pierre
de Brazza
• 1880: De Brazza signed a treaty of protection with the chief of the large
Teke tribe and began to establish a French protectorate on the north bank
of the Congo river
Leopold’s buccaneering intrusion into the Congo area raised he question o political fate of Africa
o By 1882 ERP caught “African fever”
o There was a gold rush mentality; the race for territory was on
o To lay down dome basic rules for this new dangerous game of imperialist competition in
sub-Saharan Africa, Jules Ferry of France and Bismarck of Germany arranged an
international conference on African in Berlin in 1884 and 18854
The Berlin Conference established the principle that ERPN claims to African territory had to rest
on “effective occupation” in order to be recognized by other states
o ERPNs would push relentlessly into the interior regions from all sides and that no single
ERPN power would be able to claim the entire continent
o Recognized Leopold’s personal rule over a neutral Congo free state and greed to work to
stop slavery and slave trade in Africa
Berlin conference coincided with Germany’s sudden emergence as an imperial power
o Meeting of EPRN leaders held in 1884 and 1885 to lay down basic rules for imperialist
competition in sub-Saharan Africa
o Prior to 1880, Bismarck saw little value in colonies
o 1884 and 1885, as political agitation of expansion increased, Bismarck did an abrupt
about-face and Germany established protectorates over a number of small African
kingdoms and tribes in Togo, the Cameroons region, SW Africa, and later E Africa
o In acquiring colonies, Bismarck cooperated against Brit with France’s Jules Ferry (ardent
repub who embraced imperialism)
o With Bismarck’s tacit approval, the French pressed southwards from Algeria, eastward
from their old forts on the Senegal coast, and northwards from their protectorate on the
Congo river
Meanwhile, the Brit began enlarging their W African enclaves and impatiently pushed northward
from the Cape Colony and westward from Zanzibar
o Thrust southwards from Egypt was blocked in Sudan by indep Muslims who massacred
Brit forces at Khartoum in 1885
Decade later, another Brit force, under General Horatio H. Kitchener moved cautiously and
more successfully up the Nile River, building a RR to supply arms and reinforcements as it went
o 1898, Brit troops met their foe at Omdurman where Muslim tribesmen armed w/ spears
charged again and again only to be cut down by recently invented Maxim machine gun
o “Not a battle, but execution”
o 11,000 brave Muslim tribesmen lay dead, while 28 Brits were killed
Continued up Nile after Battle of Omdurman, Kitchener’s armies found that a small French force
already occupied the village of Fashoda
o Locked in imperial competition with Brit ever since Brit occupation of Egypt, France
tried to beat Brit to one of Africa’s last unclaimed areas – upper reaches of the Nile
o Result was serious diplomatic crisis and threat of war
o Wracked by Dreyfus affair and unwilling to fight, France backed down and withdrew
forces, allowing Brit to take over
Brit conquest of Sudan exemplifies the general process of empire building in Africa
o Muslim force at Omdurman was inflicted on all natives ppls who resisted ERPN rule:
blown away by superior military force
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However much the EPR powers squabbled for territory and privilege, they always had the
sense to stop short of fighting each other
Imperial ambitions were not worth a great ERPN war
Imperialism in Asia
• ERPNs also extended their political control in Asia
o 1815 Dutch ruled little more than island of java in East Indies
o Gradually brought almost all of the archipelago under their political authority, though
they shared some of the spoils with Brit and Germany (imperialist fashion)
o In decade of 1880s, French under leadership of Ferry took Indochina
o India, China, Japan experienced a profound imperialist impact
• Russia and US also acquired rich territories in Asia
o Russia moved forward on two fronts
▪ Conquered Muslim areas in south in Caucasus and in Central Asia in 1885
▪ Nibbled on China’s outlying provinces in Far East in 1890
o Great conquest by US was Philippines, taken from Spain in 1898 after Spanish-American
War
▪ US did not grant indep, so Philippine patriots rose in revolt and were suppressed
after long, bitter fighting
▪ Some Am’s protested taking of Philippines, but to no avail
▪ Another great Western power joined the imperialist ranks in Asia
Causes of the New Imperialism
• Many factors contributed to the late 19th c rush for territory and empire, n aspect of Western
society’s generalized expansions in the age of industry and nationalisms
• Economic motives
o Especially Brit Empire
▪ By late 1870s, France, Germany, and US were industrializing rapidly behind
tariff barriers
▪ Brit was losing early lead and facing tough competition in foreign markets
▪ Brit came to value old possessions, especially India, which it had exploited for
more than a century
▪ When continental powers began to grab Asian and African territories in the
1880s, the Brits followed
▪ Feared that France and Germany would seal off their empires with high tariffs
and that future economic opportunities would be lost forever
• Overall economic gains of new imperialism were limited before 1914
o New colonies were simply too poor to buy much and offered few immediately profitable
investments
o Nonetheless, even poorest, more barren desert was jealously prized, no territory
abandoned
o Because colonies became important for political and diplomatic reasons
o Each leading country saw colonies as crucial to national security and military power
▪ Safeguarding Suez Canal was key role in Brit occupation of Egypt
▪ Protecting Egypt led to bloody conquest of Sudan
o Far flung possessions guaranteed growing navies safe havens and dependable coaling
stations they needed in time of crisis or war
• Many ppl were convinced that colonies were essential to great nations
o “There has never been a great power without great colonies
o National historian of Germany Heinrich von Treitschke wrote: Every virile ppl has
established colonial power…all great nations in the fullness of strength have desired to
set their mark upon barbarian lands…those who fail to participate will play a pitiable role
in time to come
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Treitschke’s harsh statement reflects increasing aggressiveness of ERPN nationalism after
Bismarck’s German unification wars, but also Social Darwinian theories of brutal competition
among races
o The strongest nation conquers the weak
o ERPN nations were seen as radically distinct parts of the dominant white race
o Had to seize colonies to show they were strong and virile
o Since racial struggle was nature’s inescapable law, the conquest of “inferior” peoples was
just
▪ Stepping stones on which mankind has risen
▪ Harsh and radical doctrines fostered imperialistic expansion
Industrial world’s unprecedented technological and military superiority
o Rapidly firing Maxim Machine gun was ultimate weapon in many unequal battles
o Newly discovered quinine proved no less effective in controlling attacks of malaria,
which had decimated whites in tropics
o Combination of steamship and international telegraph permitted Western powers to
quickly concentrate their firepower in a given area
Never before/again would technological gap between the West and non-West be so great
Social tensions and domestic political conflicts contributed to overseas expansion
o Germany, Russia, other counties to a lesser extent: contemp critics of imperialism
charged conservative polit leaders with manipulating colonial issues to divert popular
attention from class struggle at home and to create a false sense of national unity
o Imperial propagandists stressed that colonies benefited workers and capitalists, providing
jobs and cheap raw materials that raised workers’ standard of living
o Gov leaders and their allies in tabloid press successfully encouraged masses to savor
foreign triumphs/glory to increase national prestige
o Conservative leaders defined imperialist development as a national necessity, which they
used to justify the status quo and their hold on power
Certain special interest groups in each country were powerful agents of expansion
o Shipping companies wanted subsidies
o White settlers wanted more land/protection
o Missionaries/humanitarians wanted to spread religion and stop slave trade within Africa
o Military men/colonial officials wanted highly paid positions
o Actions of these groups pushed course of empire forward
A “Civilizing Mission”
• Imperialists developed additional arguments to satisfy their consciences and answer critics – not
just need for naval bases on every ocean/Darwinian racial struggle
• Idea that ERPNs could “civilize” more primitive nonwhite ppls
o Nonwhites would eventually receive the benefits of modern economies, cities, advanced
medicine, higher standards of living
o In time they might be ready for self-gov and Western democracy
• French spoke of “civilizing mission”
• 1899 Rudyard Kipling (influential Brit writer of 1890s) exhorted ERPNS/Am’s to unselfish
service in distant lands in his poem “The White Man’s Burden”
• Many Am’s accepted ideology of white man’s burden: idea that ERPNs could and should civilize
more primitive nonwhites and that imperialism would eventually provide nonwhites with modern
achievements and higher standards of living
o Important factor in decision to rule, rather than liberate, Philippines after SpanishAmerican War
• Like their ERPN counterparts, Am’s believed their civilization had reached unprecedented heights
and they had unique benefits to bestow on all “less advanced” ppls
• Argument that imperial gov protected natives from tribal warfare as well as from cruder forms of
exploitation by white settlers/business ppl
• Peace and stability under EPRN control facilitated spread of CHR
o
•
In Africa, Cath and Prot missionaries competed w/ Islam south of Sahara seeking
converts and building schools
o Some ppls became highly CHR (Ibo in Nigeria)
Successes in black Africa contrasted with failed missionary efforts in India, China, and Islamic
world
o CHR often preached to ppl with ancient, deep rooted religious beliefs
Yet number of CHR around the world did increase substantially in the 19th c and
missionary groups kept trying
Critics of Imperialism
• Expansion of empire aroused sharp/bitter criticism
o 1902, after unpopular South African War, radical English economist J.A. Hobson in
Imperialism
▪ Contended that rush to acquire colonies was due to economic needs of
unregulated capitalism, particularly need of rich to find outlets for their surplus
capital
▪ Yet imperial possessions did not pay off economically for the country as a whole
– only unscrupulous special interest groups profited at expense of ERPN
taxpayer and natives
▪ Argued that quest for empire diverted popular attention away from domestic
reform and need to reduce gap between rich and poor
• These and similar arguments were not very persuasive
o Most ppl were sold on the idea that imperialism was economically profitable for the
homeland, and a broad and genuine enthusiasm for the empire developed among the
masses
• Hobson and many other critics struck home with moral condemnations of whites ruling
nonwhites
o Rebelled against Social Darwinian Thought
▪ “O Evolution, what crimes are committed in thy name!”
▪ “Blessed are the strong, for they shall prey on the weak”
• Kipling and his king were lampooned as racial bullies whose rule rested on brutality, racial
contempt, and the Maxim machine gun
• Henry Labouchere, member of PLMT and prominent spokesman for this position, mocked
Kipling’s poem
• 1902, Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad castigated “pure selfishness” of ERPNS in “civilizing”
Africa
• Critics charged ERPNS with applying degrading double standard and failing to live up to their
own noble ideals
o At home ERPNS won or were winning rep gov, indiv liberties, and some equality of
opportunity
o In their empires, EPRNS imposed military dictatorship on Africans and Asian, put them
to work involuntarily, and discriminated against them
o Only by renouncing imperialism, its critics said, and giving captive ppls freedom Western
societies had, would ERPNS be worthy of their traditions
• ERPNs who denounced imperialist tide provided colonial ppls with a Western ideology of
liberation
Responding to Western Imperialism
• To ppl in Africa/Asia Western expansion was a disruptive assault
o Threatened traditional ruling classes, local economies, exiting ways of life
o CHR missionaries challenged established beliefs and values
• Experienced crisis of identity exacerbated by the power and arrogance of white intruders
The Pattern of Response
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Initial response of Africans/Asians was to drive unwelcome foreigners away
o China/Japan/upper Sudan
o Violent anti-foreign reactions exploded again and again but superior military tech of
industrialized West almost always prevailed
Beaten in battle, they concentrated on preserving cultural traditions at all costs
Others found themselves forced to reconsider initial hostility
Some concluded the West was indeed superior and was necessary to reform their societies and
copy EPRN achievements, esp if they wished to escape Western polit rule
Traditionalists vs westerners and modernizers
o Struggle among groups was intense
o Modernizers tended to gain upper hand
When power of traditionalists and modernizers was shattered by superior force, maj of Asians and
Africans accepted imperial rule
o Polit participation in non-Western lands was limited to small elites, masses were used to
doing what rulers told them to do
o ERPNs governed smoothly and effectively because of so
o Received support from traditionalists and modernizers
Imperial rule was in many ways an edifice built on sand
o Support from EPRN rule among conquered masses was shallow/weak
o Native ppl followed with greater or lesser enthusiasm a few determined personalities who
came to oppose the ERPNS
o These leaders always arose, when ERPNS ruled directly and when they manipulated
native govs because
▪ Nonconformists developed burning desire for human dignity
• Felt dignity was incompatible with foreign rule
▪ Potential leaders found in the Western world the ideologies and justification for
their protest
• Discovered liberalism, with civil liberties and political self-determination
• Echoed demands of anti-imperialism in EPR and Am that the West live
up to its own ideals
• Attracted to modern nationalism (every ppl had the right to control its
own destiny)
After 1917, anti-imperialist revolt found another weapon In Lenin’s version of Marxian socialism
o Anti-imperialist search for dignity drew strength from Western thought/culture
o India/Japan/China
Empire in China
• India was jewel of Brit Empire; no colonial area had a more profound Brit impact
o Unlike Japan and China which maintained real/precarious indep
o Unlike African territories which were annexed by ERPNs
o Ruled absolutely by Brit for a very long time
• Arrived in India in 17th c, Brit East India Company conquered the last indep native state by 1848
o Last traditional response was broken in India in 1857 and 1858
o Great Rebellion: when an insurrection by Muslim and Hindu mercenaries in Brit army
spread throughout northern and central India before it was finally crushed, primarily by
loyal native troops from southern India
o Brit ruled India directly until indep in 1947
• After 1858 India was ruled by Brit PLMT in London and administered by a tiny, all white civil
service in India
o In 1900 this elite consisted of fewer than 3,500 top officials for a population of 300
million
o Brit white elite, backed by white officers/native troops was competent and well disposed
toward welfare of Indian peasant masses
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Practiced strict job discrimination and social segregation and most of its members
considered the jumble of Indian ppls and castes to be racially inferior
Brit women played important part in imperial enterprise, esp after opening of Suez Canal made it
easier for civil servants to bring their wives and children with them to India
o Brit families tended to live in their own separate communities, where they occupied large
houses with well shaded porches, lawns, servants
o Wife managed household
o Wife relished in authority and was as confident and authoritarian as Brits in India were
Small minority of Brit women sought to go further and shoulder the “white women’s burden” in
India; many were social reformers/feminist/missionaries
o Tried to improve lives of Indian women (Hindu/Muslim) and move them closer through
education and legislation to the better conditions they believed western women had
attained
o Educated some elite Hindu women
Brit acted energetically and introduced many desirable changes to India as they had a sense of
mission and racial/cultural superiority
o Realized they needed well educated Indians to serve as skilled subordinates in gov/army,
Brit established modern system of progressive secondary education in English
o Through ed and gov service, Brits offered some Indians excellent opportunities for both
economic and social advancement
o High cast Hindus emerged as skillful intermediaries between Brit rulers and Indian ppl
and formed a new elite profoundly influenced by Western thought and culture
New bureaucratic elite played curcal role in modern economic development
o Irrigation projects for agriculture, 3rd largest RR network, large tep/jute plantations were
developed
o The lot of Indian masses improved little; increase in production was eaten up by
population increase
With well-educate English speaking Indian bureaucracy and modern communications, Brit
created a unified, powerful state
o Placed Hindus and Muslims of entire subcontinent under same system of law/admin
o As if ERP had been conquered and united in a single empire
Decisive reaction to ERPN rule was rise of nationalism among Indian elite
o He could never be white ruler’s equal
o Top jobs/hotels/clubs/RR compartments sealed off to brown-skinned Indians
o Peasant masses could accept inequality as same old oppression, but well educated elite
could not
o For the elite, racial discrimination meant injured pride and injustice
o Contradicted cherished Western concepts of human rights and equality
o Based on dictatorship
By 1885 educated Indians came together to found predominately Hindu Indian National Congress
o Demands were increasing for equality and self-gov that Brit had already granted whitesettler colonies (Canada/Australia)
o By 1907, emboldened by Japan’s success, radicals in Indian National Congress were
calling for complete indep
o Sharp divisions between Hindu/Muslims but Indians were finding answer to foreign
challenge
o Common heritage of Brit rule and Western ideals, along with reform and revitalization of
Hindu religion, created genuine movement for national indep
The Example of Japan
• When Matthew Perry arrived in japan in 1853 w/ gunboat diplomacy, japan was a feudal society
o Figurehead emperor, real power in hands of hereditary military governor – shogun
o Warrior nobility: samurai
o Shogun governed country of hard-working productive peasants/city dwellers
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Poor/restless, intensely proud samurai were humiliated by sudden American intrusion and
unequal treaties with Western countries
When foreign diplomats and merchants began to settle in Yokohama, radical samurai reacted w/
wave of antiforeign terrorism and antigovernment assassinations from 1858-1863
Imperialist response was swift: allied fleet of Am, Brit, Dutch, French warships demolished key
forts, weakening power/prestige of shogun’s gov
1867: coalition by patriotic samurai seized control of gov w/ hardly any bloodshed and restored
political power of the emperor: Meiji Restoration – turning point
Goal of new gov was to meet foreign threat
o “Enrich the state, strengthen armed forces”
o Young but well trained, idealistic but flexible leaders of Meiji Japan dropped antiforeign
attacks
o Convinced that western civilization was superior in its military/industrial aspects, they
initiated from above a series of measures to reform Japan along modern lines
o Meiji leaders tried to harness power inherent in ERP’s dual revolution in order to protect
their country and catch up with the West
1871: new leaders abolished old feudal structure of aristocratic/decentralized gov and formed
strong unified state
o Followed example of French Rev
o Declared social equality
o Decreed freedom of movement in a country
o Free, competitive, gov stimulated economy
o Began to build RRs and modern factories
o New generation adopted many principles of a free, liberal society
o Freedom resulted in a creative release of human energy
Overriding concern of Japan’s political leadership was powerful state and strong military
o Powerful modern navy was created
o Army completely reorganized along ErpN lines
▪ 3 yr military service required for all males
▪ Put down disturbances in countryside
▪ 1877 used to crush major rebellion by feudal elements protesting loss of
priveleges
o Borrowed West’s science and modern tech
▪ Industry, medicine, education
▪ Encouraged to study abroad
▪ Paid large salaries to attract foreign experts
• Replaced by Japs ASAP
By 1890, when new state was firmly established, borrowing from West led to emphasis on
keeping with Jap tradition
o Following model of German Empire, Jap established authoritarian constitution and
rejected democracy
o Power of emperor and his ministers was large, legislature limited
Japan successfully copied imperialism of Western society
o Proved Japan was strong and cemented the nation together
o 1876: Japan defeated China in war over Korea
o 1894-95: took Formosa (Taiwan)
o Japan competed aggressively with leading EPRN powers for influence and territory in
China, particularly in Manchuria
o 1904: Japan attacked Russia without warning, Japan emerged with valuable foothold in
China, Russia’s former protectorate over Port Arthur
o By 1910, with annexation of Korea, Japan had become a major imperialist power
Japan became first non-western country to use ancient love of country to transform itself and
meet challenge of Western expansion
Demonstrated that a modern Asian nation could defeat/humble a great Western power
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Many Chinese and Viet nationalists were fascinated by Japan’s achievement
Provided patriots throughout Asia and Africa with an inspiring example of national recovery and
liberation
Towards Revolution in China
• By 1860 the 200 y/o Qing Dynast in China appeared on the verge of collapse
o Efforts to repel foreigners failed
o Rebellion and chaos wracked the country
o Gov drew on its traditional strengths and made a comeback that lasted over 30 yrs
• Factors crucial in reversal
o Traditional ruling groups temp produced new and effective leadership
▪ Loyal scholar-statesmen and generals quelled disturbances such as great Tia Ping
rebellion
▪ Empress dowager Tzu Hsi governed in name of her young son, combining
insight with action to revitalize the bureaucracy
o Destructive foreign aggression lessened, ERPNs had obtained primary goal of
commercial and diplomatic relations
o Some EPRNS contributed to dynasty’s recovery
o Irishman reorganized China’s customs office, increasing gov tax receipts
o Am diplomat represented China in foreign lands, helping strengthen central gov
o Efforts dovetailed with dynasty’s efforts to adopt Western gov and tech while maintaining
traditional Chinese values/beliefs
• Parallel movement toward domestic reform and limited cooperation with West collapsed under
blows of Jap imperialism
o Sino-Jap war of 1894-1895 and subsequent harsh peace treaty revealed China’s
helplessness in face of aggression, triggering rush fr foreign concessions and
protectorates in China
o High point of rush in 1898, appeared that the EPRN powers might actually divide China
among themselves, as they’d recently divided Africa
o Jealousy each nation felt toward imperialist competitors saved China from partition
o Tempo of foreign encroachment accelerated after 1894
• China’s precarious position after war with Japan led to renewed drive for fundamental reforms
o Some modernizers saw salvation in Western institutions
o 1898: Convinced young emperor to launch hundred days of reform: Series of Western
style reforms in an attempt to meet foreign challenge
o More radical reformers such as Sun Yat Sen sought to overthrow dynasty and establish a
republic
• Efforts at radical reform by young emp and allies threatened Qing establishment and empress
dowager Tzu Hsi who’d dominated court for past 25 yrs
o Pulled palace coup
o Imprisoned emperor, rejected reform movement, put reactionary officials in charge
o Hope for reform was crushed
• Violent rxn swepth country encouraged by Qing court and led by secret society foreigners called
the Boxers
o Boxers blamed China’s ills on foreigners, esp missionaries who they accused of traveling
through China and telling Chinese that their customs were primitive and beliefs were
wong
o Conservative/patriotic/antiforeign Boxers charged foreign missionaries with undermining
Chinese reverence for their ancestors and threatening the Chinese family and entire
society
o In agony of defeat and unwanted reforms, Boxers and other secret societies struck out at
their enemies
▪ NE China, more than 200 foreign missionaries/Chinese Christians were killed
▪ Threats/demands from Western govs
Empress answered by declaring war, hoping Boxers might relieve their foreign
pressure on Qing Dynasty
Imperialist response was swift harsh
o Boxers besieged embassy quarter in Beijing, foreign govs organized international force of
20,000 to rescue diplomats and punish China
o Beijing occupied and plundered by Western armies
o 1901 China was forced to accept long list of penalties, including heavy financial
indemnity payable over 40 yrs
Years after defeat were more troubled
o Anarchy/foreign influence spread as power/prestige of Qing Dynasty declined further
o Antiforeign/antigov rev groups agitated/plotted
o 1912 spontaneous uprising toppled Qing Dynasty
o After thousands of years of emperors/empires, loose coalition of revolutionaries
proclaimed Western-style repub and called for an elected PLMT
o Transformation of China under impact of expanding Western society entered a new
phase, end was not in sight
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Ch 26. War and Revolution 1914-1919
The Road to War
• No single cause for WWI, some things helped pave way to war
o Growing competition over colonies and world markets
o Belligerent arms race
o Series of diplomatic crises
o New forms of populist nationalism, “my country right or wrong”
o Domestic conflicts encouraged govs to pursue aggressive foreign policies to
bolster national unity
Growing International Conflict
• WWI began in part because EPRN statesmen failed to resolve diplomatic probs created
by Germany’s rise to Great Power status
o Franco-Prussian War and unification of Germany opened a new era in
international relations
o By end in 1871, France was defeated and Prussia-Germany was the most
powerful ERPN nation
o Bismarck said Germany was a “satisfied” power – Germany had no territorial
ambitions and wanted peace
• How was peace to be preserved
o Keep France diplomatically isolated w/o military allies
o Threat to peace from multinational empires of Austria-Hungary and Russia\
▪ Conflicting interests, particularly where the waning Ottoman Empire had
created a power vacuum in disputed borders of Balkans
• Bismarck’s accomplishments in foreign policy were great, but temporary
o 1871 to 1880s, maintained German leadership in international affairs
o Signed series of defensive alliances with Austria-Hungary to isolate hostile France
• In 1890, new Emperor William II dismissed Bismarck, in part because he agreed with
friendly policy towards Russia
o Under William II, Bismarck’s planned alliance system began to unravel
o Germany refused to renew non-aggression pact with Russia though Russians still
wanted to
o Prompted long isolated repub France to court absolutist Russia: offering loans,
arms, support
o Early 1894, France and Russia became military allies
▪ Continental ERP was divided into two rival blocks
• Triple Alliance: Austria, Germany, Italy; Italy left alliance when war broke out in 1914 on
grounds that Austria had launched a war of aggression
• Dual Alliance: Russia and France
o German general staff began secret preparations for war
• Brit’s foreign policy became crucial
o Long content with its “splendid geographical isolation” and without alliances
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o Brit after 1891 was the only uncommitted Great Power
o Many Germs and some Brits felt the advanced, and racially related Germanic/
Anglo-Saxon ppls were natural allies
o Good relations between Prussia and Brit gave way to bitter Anglo-German rivalry
Several reasons for this tension
o Commercial rivalry increased in 18902s as Germany became great industrial
power
o Germany’s pursuit of colonies threatened Brit’s interest
o Germany’s decision in 1900 to expand greatly its battle fleet challenged Brit’s
long standing naval supremacy
Anglo-German tensions coincided with South African War between Brit and Dutch in S.
Africa
o Encouraged worldwide opposition to Brit imperialism
o Brit leaders set out shoring up exposed positions with alliances and agreements
o Improved relations with US, concluded alliance with Japan in 1902, allied with
France in Anglo-French Entente of 1904 (settled all colonial disputes between
Brit/France)
Alarmed by Brit’s closer ties to France, Germany’s leaders decided to test strength of
their allies
o 1905 William II declared Morocco was an indep, sovereign state and demanded
that Germany receive the same trading rights as France
▪ the First Moroccan Crisis clearly violated long standing French colonial
interests in the region
o William II insisted on an international conference in hopes of settling the
Moroccan question to Germany’s benefit
o But William’s bullying only brought France and Brit closer together
o Germany left conference empty handed
Result of First Moroccan Crisis in 1905 was a diplomatic revolution
o Brit, France, Russia, and US began to see Germany as potential threat that might
seek to dominate all ERP
o German leaders began to see plots to encircle Germany and block its development
as a world power
1907 Russia, battered with Russo-Japanese war and revolution of 1905, agreed to settle
quarrels with Brit in Persia and Central Asia and signed the Anglo-Russian Agreement
o Laid foundation of Triple Entente: Alliance between Britain, Russia, and France
Germany’s decision to add a large, enormously expensive fleet of big gun battleships to
its already expanding navy increased tensions
o German patriots saw large navy as the legit right of a great world power and a
source of national pride
o Brit leaders saw German buildup as military challenge that forced them to spend
“People’s Budget on battleships rather than social welfare
▪ “Germany is deliberately preparing to destroy the British Empire”
▪ By then, Brit had sided psychologically with France and Russia’
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Leading nations of ERP were divided into two hostile camps, both unready for the
worsening situation in the Balkans
o Brit/France/Russia were allied in direct opposition to the German-led Triple
Alliance
o Confirmed failure of all ERPN leaders to incorporate Bismarck’s mighty empire
permanently and peacefully into the international system
o By 1914, many believed that war was inevitable
The Mood of 1914
• Diplomatic rivalries and international crisis were key roles in the rush to war
• Attitudes/convictions of ERPNs around 1914
o Widespread militarism (the popular approval of military institutions and their
values
o Nationalism
o These things encouraged leaders/citizens to see international relations as an arena
for the testing of national power, with war if necessary
• Germany was esp famous for its powerful/aggressive army; military institutions played a
prominent role in affairs of state and lives of ordinary ppl across ERP
o Politicians relied on generals and military experts to shape public policy
o All Great Powers built up their armed forces and designed mobilization plans to
rush men and weapons to the field of battle
o Universal conscription in Germany, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia –
only Brit still had volunteer army
▪ Thousands of young men were exposed to military culture/discipline
• Continent hadn’t experienced a major conflict since the Franco-Prussian War and ERPNs
vastly underestimated the destructive potential of modern weapons
o Encouraged by patriotic national press, many believed war was glorious, many,
and heroic
o Expected another conflict, if it happened, would be over quickly
o Leading politicians and intellectuals portrayed war as test of strength that would
lead to national unity and renewal
o Ideas permeated EPRN society
• Support for military values was closely linked to growing sense of popular nationalism
o Since 1850 spread of idea that members of an ethnic group should live together in
a homogenous, united national state provoked international conflicts over borders
and citizenship rights
o Drove arms race and struggle over colonies
o Popular commitment tot national interests weakened groups that thought in terms
of international communities and consequences
o Expressions of antiwar sentiment by socialists/women’s groups were seen as
betrayal to country in time of need
o Much of population was ready for war
• Statesmen had practical reasons for promoting militarism and nationalism
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o Long used foreign adventurism and diplomatic posturing to distract ppl from
domestic conflicts
▪ Brit, leaders faced civil war in N. Ireland and a radical women’s
movement
▪ Russia, rev of 1905 and defeat in Russo-Japanese war weakened support
for tsarist regime
▪ Germany, victory of Marxist Social Democratic Party led gov authorities
to believe the country was falling apart
▪ French faced difficult labor and budget probs
Determined to hold onto power and frightened by rising popular movements, ruling
classes across EPR were willing to gamble on diplomatic brinksmanship and war to
postpone dealing with intractable social probs
o Victory meant preserving privileged positions of elite and rally masses behind
national cause
Patriotic Nationalism did bring unity in the short run, but wealthy governing classes
underestimated risk of war
o Forgotten great wars and social revolutions go hand in hand
The Outbreak of War
• June 28, 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the A-H throne, was assassinated
by Serbian revolutionaries during a state visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo
o Gavril Princep, member of radical group Young Bosnia, shot archduke and wife
Sophie as they passed
o Was captured, remained unrepentant
o “I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, and I do
not care what form of state, but it must be free from Austria”
• Princip’s deed, in territories of Balkans between weakened Ottoman Empire and AustroHungarian Empires, led ERP into world war
o War in the Balkans, the “tinderbox of ERP” seemed inevitable
o Between 1900-1914, Western powers successfully forced Ottoman rulers to give
up ERPN territories
o Ethnic nationalism was destroying Ottoman Empire and threatening A-H
o Only questions were what kinds of wars would result and where they would lead
• By early 20th c, nationalism in SE ERP was on rise
o Indep Serbia was eager to build state that would include all ethnic Serbs
o Openly hostile to A-H and Ottoman Empire, since both included substantial
Serbian minorities within their borders
• To block Serbian expansion, A in 1908 formally annexed the territories of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
o Southern part of A-H Empire now included even larger Serbian population as
well as Croats and Muslims
o Serbians expressed rage but couldn’t do anything without support from Russia,
traditional ally
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Tensions in Balkans erupted into regional war
o First Balkan war of 1902: Serbia joined and then quarreled with Bulgaria over
spoils of victory
o Second Balkan War of 1903: Bulgaria attacked its former allies
▪ Austria intervened and forced Serbia to give up Albania
After centuries, nationalism had finally destroyed the Ottoman Empire in ERP
o Encouraged by their success against ottoman Empire, Balkan nationalists
increased demands for freedom from Austrian control, dismaying leaders of A-H
Empire
o Former hoped and latter feared that Austria might next be broken apart
Within this context, assassination of Archduke FF instigated a five week period of
intense diplomatic activity that culminated in world
o Leaders of A-H concluded that Serbia was implicated in assassination and
deserved severe punishment
o July 23, 1914 A-H presented Serbia with an unconditional ultimatum, including
demands that would violate Serbian sovereignty
o Serbia replied moderately but evasively
o Austria mobilized armies and declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914
o Desperate multinational A-H deliberately chose war to stem the rising tide of
hostile nationalism within its borders in a last-ditch attempt to save its existing
empire
From beginning, Germany pushed A-H to confront Serbia and bore much responsibility
in turning a little war into a world war
o William II and chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg realized that war
between Austria and Russia was likely, for Russia would not stand by, as it had in
Balkan wars, and watch Austrians crush Serbs
o Bethmann-Hollweg hoped although Russia (and ally France) would go to war,
Brit would remain neutral, unwilling to fight a war for Russia in the distant
Balkans
To take advantage of these conditions, German chancellor sent telegram to A-H that
promised Germany’s unconditional support in case of war
o Germany’s actions encouraged prowar faction in Vienna to take a line against
Serbs at a time when moderation might have limited the crisis
Diplomatic situation spiraled out of control
o Military plans and timetables began to dictate policy
o Russia required much more time to mobilize armies than Germany and A-H did
o Complicated mobilization plans of Russian general staff assumed a two front war
with both Austrian and Germany, Russia could not mobilize against one without
mobilizing against the other
o On July 29, Tsar Nicholas II ordered full mobilization and in effect declared war
o German general staff thought in terms of a two-front war
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▪ Misguided Schlieffen Plan: called for a quick victory over France after a
lightning attack through neutral Belgium (quickest way to reach Paris)
before turning on Russia
o August 3, German armies invaded Belgium
o Brit declared war on Germany the following day
Speed of July crisis created shock, panic, and excitement
o Final days of July and first days of August, massive crowds thronged streets of
Paris, London, St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna
o Shouted enthusiastic prowar slogans and pushed politicians and military leaders
toward the inevitable confrontation
Events proceeded rapidly
o Those who didn’t want war could do little to prevent it now
o In a little over a month, a limited Austrian-Serbian war had become a ERPN wide
conflict, and the First World War had begun
Waging Total War
• When Germs invaded Belgium in 1914, everyone thought the war would be short and
relatively painless
o In western front in France and eastern front in Russia, the armies bogged down in
a new and extremely costly war termed total war: war in which distinctions
between the soldiers on the battlefield and civilians at home are blurred, and
where the gov plans and controls economic social life in order to supply the
armies at the front with supplies and weapons, termed by Erich Ludendorff
• Total war meant new roles for soldiers and civilians alike
o Lengthy, violent, and deadly battles fought with all the weapons of a highly
industrialized society
o At home, national economies were geared toward the war effort
o Govs revoked civil liberties, and many civilians lost lives/livelihoods as
occupying armies moved through their towns and cities
• Struggle expanded to include nations and ppls outside of ERP
o Middle East, Africa, E. Asia, and US
Stalemate and Slaughter on the Western Front
• Belgian army heroically defended homeland and fell back to join Brit army near FrancoBelgian border
• Russian armies immediately attacked e. Germany, forcing Germans to transfer troops to
east
• Instead of quickly capturing Paris, by August the dead tired German soldiers were
advancing slowly along an enormous front in the scorching summer heat
• Sept 6, French attacked gap in German line at the Battle of Marne
o For 3 days, French threw everything into the attack
o French gov requisitioned taxis to rush reserves to troops
o Germans fell back – France saved
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Armies stalled, both sides began to dig trenches to protect themselves from machine gun
fire
o By Nov 1914, unbroken line of 400 miles of trenches
o Rows of trenches, mines, and barbed wire defenses: Trench warfare: cost many
lives
▪ Conditions in trenches were horrendous
Recently invented weapons, the products of an industrial age, made battle impersonal,
traumatic, and extremely deadly
o Machine gun, hand grenades, poison gas, flame throwers, long range artillery,
airplane, tank
o Favored defense, increased casualties, revolutionized practice of war
High commands of combatant nations, who’d learned military tactics and strategy in the
19th c, hardly understood trench warfare
o Repeated same mistakes, ordering massive offensive attacks for breakthroughs
o Attacking soldiers rarely captured any substantial territory
French and Brit offensive of 1915 never gained more than 3 miles of territory from the
enemy
1916: Verdun cost 700,000 lives on both sides and ended on a draw
o Failed German attack
1917: Hard fought battles on all fronts, millions wounded/died for no real gain
Battle of the Somme: Brit offensive in summer of 1916 in n France, exemplified horrors
of trench warfare
o Bombardment of German line intended to cut barbed wire defenses, decimate
enemy trenches and prevent Germans from making a defense
o Fired nonstop
o Brits went “over the top”
o Climbed out of trenches and moved into no-man’s land into direction of the
German lines
o Germans fled into dugouts underground where they suffered w/ little food/water/
food/sleep
o As Brits neared German lines, Germans emerged from bunkers, set up machine
guns, and mowed down approaching troops
o Wire had not been cut, so struggling attackers weighed down by heavy packs,
were easy targets
o 20,000 Brits died, 40,000 wounded on first day
o Shook troop morale and public opinion
o Brit did push Germans back 7 miles
o Defending insignificant land
The Widening War
• ON eastern front, slaughter didn’t degenerate into trench warfare, and fighting was
dominated by Germany
o Germans won major victories in Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes
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o Russia put pressure on relatively weak A-H army, but by 1915 the eastern front
stabilized in Germany’s favor
o German armies occupied huge swaths of the Russian empire in central ERP,
including Polish, Belorussian, and Baltic territories
o Russia was not knocked out of the war, marking another failure of the Schlieffen
Plan
To govern the occupied territories in c. ERP, the Germans installed a vast military
bureaucracy with 15,000 army administrators and professional specialists
o Anti-Slavic prejudice dominated mindset of occupiers
o Local Slavs seen as savages and ethnic “mongrels” unable to work like other
races
o Used prisoners of war and refugees as forced labor and stole animals and crops
from local farmers to supply army
o 1/3 of civilian population was killed or became refugees
o German state hoped to turn these territories into German possessions
Changing tides of victory and hopes for territorial gains brought neutral countries into the
war
o Italy, member of Triple Alliance declared neutrality in 1914 on grounds that
Austria had launched a war of aggression
o May 1915, Italy joined the Triple Entente of Brit, France, and Russia in return for
promises of Austrian territory
o War along Italian-Austrian front was bitter/dead
October 1914: Ottoman Empire joined Austria and Germany, known as Central Powers
September 1915: Bulgaria decided to follow Ottoman’s footsteps to settle old scores w/
Serbia
Balkans, with exception of Greece, were occupied by the Central Powers
Entry of Ottoman Turks carried war into Middle East
o Ottomans vs. Russians enveloped the Armenians who lived on both sides of the
borer and experienced brutal repression by the Turks
o Armenians welcomed Russian armies as liberators
o Ottoman gov ordered mass deportation of its Armenians citizens from their
homeland
o Armenian genocide: million innocent civilians died from murder/starvation/
disease
1915: Battle of Gallipoli: Brit forces tried and failed to take Dardanelles and
Constantinople from the Ottomans
o Brits failed
Brits were more successful at inciting Arabs to revolt against Turkish rulers
o Bargained with foremost Arab leader, Hussein ibn-Ali, direct descendent of
Muhammad and chief magistrate of Mecca, holiest city
o Controlling much of Ottoman Empire’s territory along the Red Sea, Hussein
managed to win vague Brit commitments of an indep Arab kingdom
o 1916: Hussein revolted against Turks, proclaiming himself king of Arabs
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o Joined forces with Brit under T.E. Lawrence, who helped lead Arab soldiers in a
successful guerrilla war against Turks on Arabian peninsula
Similar victories in Iraq
o Brit occupied southern Iraqi city of Basra and captured Baghdad
o Brit armies under Arab allies rolled into Syria
o Triumphal entry of Hussein’s son Faisal into Damascus
o Arab patriots in Syria and Iraq now expected a large, unified Arab nation-state to
rise from the dust of the Ottoman collapse, though they were disappointed by the
Western Powers
War spread to colonial Africa and East Asia as well
o Instead of revolting as Germans hoped, the colonial subjects of Brit and French
supported Allied powers
o Colonized ppl helped local Brit and French commanders seize Germany’s
colonies around the globe
o Over 1 million Africans and Asians served in the various armies of the warring
powers; served as porters to carry equipment
o French, facing shortage of young men, used colonial troops
April 1917, US declared war on Germany
o Am intervention grew out of war at sea and sympathy for Triple entente
o At beginning of war, Brit and France established naval blockade to strangle
Central Powers
o NO neutral cargo ship could sail to Germany
o 1915: Germany retaliated with submarine, new weapon that violated traditional
niceties of fair warning under international law
o May 1915: German submarine sank Brit passenger liner Lusitania, claiming 139
US citizens
o Woodrow Wilson: US president at the time, protested vigorously, using tragedy
to incite Am public opinion against Germans
o Germany halted submarine warfare for 2 years or else face war with US
Early 1917: German military command – confident that improved submarines could
starve Brit into submission before US could come to its rescue, resumed unrestricted
submarine warfare
o Reckless gamble, and US declared war on Germany
o US tipped the balance in favor of the Triple Entente and its allies
The Home Front
• War’s impact on civilians was no less massive than it was on soldiers
• Total war encouraged state bureaucracies, changed life of ordinary men/women, and
inspired mass antiwar protest movements at the end
Mobilizing for Total War
• August 1914: Many saw outbreak of hostilities enthusiastically
o Ordinary folk saw their nation as right to defend itself from foreign aggression
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o Even socialists supported the war
o By mid-October general and politicians began to realize that victory would
require more than patriotism
o Each combatant country experienced a desperate need for men and weapons
o TO keep war machine from stopping, national leaders aggressively intervened in
society and economy
By late 19th c, the responsive national state had already shown an eagerness to manage
the welfare to its citizens
o The state intruded further into the daily lives of citizens
o Each combatant state established new gov ministries to mobilize soldiers and
armaments to provide care for war widows and wounded veterans
o Censorship offices controlled news about war
o Free market capitalism was abandoned for the duration
o Gov planning boards set mandatory production goals, established rationing
programs, and set limits on wages and prices
o Based on tremendously productive industrial economies controlled form above,
gov management was effective and destructive
Germany went furthest in developing a planned economy to wage total war
o As soon as war began, Walter Rathenau, talented Jewish industrialist in charge o
Germany’s largest electric company, convinced gov to set up War Raw Materials
Board to ration and distribute raw materials
o Every useful material was inventoried and rations
o Launched successful attempts to produce substitutes, such as synthetic rubber/
nitrates to make explosives and aid the German war machine
o Food was rationed according to physical need
o Germany failed to tax war profits of private firms heavily enough
o Contributed to massive deficit financing, inflation, the growth of a black market,
and the re-emergence of class conflict
Following Verdun and Some, German military leaders forced Reichstag to accept
Auxiliary Service Law, which required all males between 17-60 to work only at jobs
considered critical to the war effort
o Women worked in war factories, mines, and steel mills, where they labored like
men
o Many more women followed
o Ppl lived on littler more than 1,000 calories a day
o War production increased, while some Germans starved to death
After 1917, Germany’s leaders ruled by dictatorial decree
o Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff drove Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg
from office
o With support of newly formed, ultra conservative and prowar Fatherland Party,
generals established a military dictatorship
o Hindenburg called for ultimate mobilization for total war
o Germany could not win unless everything was used towards War
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o First “totalitarian” society
Only Germany was directly ruled by a military gov, but leaders in all belligerent nations
took power from PLMTs, suspended civil liberties, and ignored democratic procedure
o British Ministry of Munitions organized private industry to produce for the war,
allocated labor, set wage and price rates, and settled labor disputes
o France: weakened PLMT met in secret, courts jailed pacifists who criticized the
state
o Once US entered war, new federal agencies such as the War Labor Board and War
Industries Board regulated industry, labor relations, and agricultural production
War was good for growth of bureaucratic nation-state
Social Impact
• Social impact was as profound as economic impact
• National conscription sent millions of men to the front
• Insatiable needs of military created tremendous demand for workers, and jobs were
readily available
• Need for workers meant greater power and prestige for labor unions
o Cooperated with war govs on workplace, rules, wages, and production schedules
in return for real participation in important decision
o Entry of labor leaders and unions into policymaking councils paralleled entry of
socialist leaders into war govs
o Reflected new gov openness to needs of those at bottom
• Role of women changed dramatically in every country
o Large numbers of women let home and domestic service to work
o Production of vast amounts of arms/ammunition required huge numbers of
laborers, and women moved into skilled industrial jobs long considered men’s
work only
o Some women thought war promised to permanently break down barrier between
men and women’s work
o Women became highly visible in public
▪ Bank tellers/mailmen/police officers
▪ Nurses/auxiliaries at front
• War expanded ranges of women’s activities and helped change attitudes about gender, but
long term results were mixed
o Women across ERP gained experience in jobs previously reserved for men
o Granted women the right to vote immediately after war
o With war’s end, however, millions of demobilized soldiers demanded their jobs
back, and govs forced women out of workplace
▪ Employment gains were mostly temporary, except in nursing and social
work, already considered “women’s work”
o War loosened sexual morality, some women bobbed hair, shortened skirts, and
smoked in public
▪ Were criticized for betraying their soldier husbands away at front
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o Women’s rights faded because feminist leaders found it difficult to regain
momentum after the crisis of war
TO some extent, the war promoted greater social equality
o Blurred class distinctions and lessened gap between rich and poor
o Most apparent in Brit, where bottom third generally lived better than they ever
had, for the poorest gained most from shortage of labor
o Elsewhere, greater equality was reflected in full employment, rationing according
to physical needs, and sharing of hardships
o In general, ERPN society became more uniform and egalitarian, in spite of some
war profiteering
Death had no respect for social distinctions
o Decimated aristocracy, fell on drafted peasants and unskilled workers
o Spared highly skilled workers and foremen who were too valuable to squander at
the front
▪ Needed to train newly recruited women and older unskilled men laboring
in war plants at home
Growing Political Tensions
• During first 2 years of war, many soldiers and civilians supported their govs
o Belief in a just cause and patriotic nationalism united ppl behind their national
leaders
o Each gov used censorship and propaganda to bolster popular support
▪ Germans used black soldiers from France’s Africa
▪ French and Brit recounted and exaggerated German atrocities
o Patriotic posters and slogans, slanted news, and biased editorials inflamed
national hatreds and helped control public opinion, encouraging soldiers to
continue fighting
• Despite efforts, by spring of 1916, ppl were beginning to crack under total war
o Several thousand demonstrators in Berlin heard the radical socialist leader Karl
Liebknecht attacked the cost of the war effort
▪ Arrested and imprisoned
▪ Electrified ERP’s far left
▪ Strikes/protest marches flared up
o Irish nationalists in Dublin took advantage and revolted against Brit in Easter
Rebellion
▪ Rebels were crushed
o IN France, Georges Clemenceau established virtual dictatorship, pouncing on
strikers and jailing without trial journalists and politicians who dared to suggest
compromise with Germany
• ON all sides, soldiers’ morale began to decline
o French units refused to fight after disaster in May 1917
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o Only tough military justice for mutiny leaders and a tacit agreement with the
troops that there would be no more grand offences enabled new general in chief
Henri-Philippe Petain to restore order
o Facing defeat, wretched conditions at front, and growing hopelessness, Russian
soldiers deserted in droves, providing fuel for the Russ Rev
o Italian army collapsed in despair
o Brit armies had been “bled dry”
o Only promised arrival of fresh troops from the US stiffened resolves of allies
Strains were worse on Central Powers
o Young socialist assassinated the chief minister of Austria
o When Emperor Francis Joseph died, symbol of unity disappeared
o IN spite of censorship, political dissatisfaction and conflicts among nationalities
grew
o Czech and Yugoslav leaders demanded indep states
o Another winter of war would bring revolution and disintegration
Germans on home front suffered immensely from burden of total war
o Brit naval blockade limited food imports, and poorly implemented rationing plans
killed many
o Heavy rationing of basic goods undermined morale
o National political unity of the first year of the war collapsed as social conflicts of
prewar Germany reemerged
o Growing minority of moderate socialists in the Reichstag called for a compromise
peace without annexations or reparations
Such a peace was unthinkable for the conservatives and military leaders of the Fatherland
Party
o SO was the surge in revolutionary agitation and strikes by war wary workers
o When bread ration was further reduced, more than 200,000 workers and women
struck and demonstrated for a week in Berlin, returning to work under threat
o Radicals left Social Democratic Party of form Independent Social Democratic
Party
▪ Founded German Communist Party in 1918
Militaristic Germany like A-H was beginning to crack in 1917
Russia that collapsed first and saved the Central Powers some time
The Russian Revolution
• RussRev of 1917 was one of modern history’s most momentous events
o Related to tensions of WWI
o For some, this was Marx’s socialist revolution vision coming true
o For others, it was the triumph of dictatorship
o To all, it presented a radically new prototype of state and society
The Fall of Imperial Russia
• In 1914, Russia embraced war with patriotic enthusiasm
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Vowed never to make peace as long as the enemy stood on Russian soil
Duma, lower house of PLMT, voted to support the war
Conservatives anticipated expansion in the Balkans, while liberals and most socialists
believed that alliance with Brit and France would bring democratic reform
o For a moment, Russia was united
Enthusiasm waned as German armies inflicted terrible losses
o By 1915, substantial numbers of Russian soldiers were sent to front w/o rifles;
told to find arms among the dead
o Battered peasant army continued to fight, and Russia moved toward full
mobilization on the home front
o Duma and local organs of gov set up special committees to coordinate defense,
industry, transportation, and agriculture
o Improved the military situation, but overall Russia mobilized less effectively than
other combatants
One prob was weak leadership
o Under constitution from revolution of 1905, tsar had retained complete control
over bureaucracy and army
o Nicholas II was kindly but narrow minded: failed to form close partnership with
his citizens
o Distrusted popularly elected Duma and resisted popular involvement in gov,
relying on the old bureaucratic regime
o Duma, educated middle classes, and the masses became critical of the tsar’s
leadership
o Sept 1915, parties from conservative to moderate socialists formed the
Progressive bloc, which called for a completely new gov responsible to the Duma
instead of the tsar
▪ Nicholas II temporarily adjourned the Duma
▪ Tsar announced that the was traveling to front to lead and rally Russia’s
armies, leaving gov in charge of his wife, Tsarina Alexandria
Nicholas’s departure was fatale
o Tsarina Alexandria dismissed loyal political advisers and turned to court favorite,
Rasputin, for his purported healing powers to heal Alexandria’s hemophiliac son,
Alexis
o In a desperate attempt to right the situation and end the unfounded rumors that
Rasputin was the empress’s lover, three members of the high aristocracy
murdered Rasputin in December 1916
▪ Ensuing scandal further undermined support for the tsarist government
Imperial Russia entered a terminal crisis
o Despite limited success vs the Austrians, heavy casualties, bad food and
equipment, and concern for those at home led to opposition in the ranks
o Soldiers deserted, swelling the numbers disaffected at home
o By early winter 1917, cities were wracked by food shortages, heating fuel was in
short supply, and the economy was breaking down
o Mid-March: violent street demonstrations broke out in Petrograd (St. Petersburg)
and spread to factories, and engulfed the city
o Tsar ordered army to open fire on protesters, but soldiers refused to shoot and
joined the revolutionary crowd
o Duma declared a provisional government on March 12, 1917
o Nicholas abdicated
The Provisional Government
• February Revolution: (unplanned uprisings accompanied by violent street demonstrations
in Petrograd, Russia) that led to provisional gov and abdication of tsar was result of an
unplanned uprising of hungry, angry ppl in the capital, but was eagerly accepted
throughout the country
• Patriotic upper and middle classes embrace the prospect of a more determined war effort,
while workers anticipated better wages and more food
• After generations of autocracy, provisional gov established equality before the law,
freedom of religion, speech, and assembly, and the right of unions to organize and strike
• liberal and moderate socialist leaders of provisional gov rejected broad political reforms
o Russian ppl were sick of fighting, new leaders refused to take Russia out of war
o New gov formed in may 1917 included socialist Alexander Kerensky who
became prime minister
▪ Refused to confiscate large land holdings and give them to peasants,
fearing that such drastic action would only complete the disintegration of
Russia’s peasant army
▪ For Kerensky and moderate socialists, the continuation of war was still a
national duty
o Human suffering and war weariness grew, testing the limited strength of the
provisional gov
• Provisional gov had to share power with rival Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’
Deputies
o Modeled on revolutionary soviets of 1905
o Comprised of 2-3 thousand workers, soldiers, and socialist intellectuals
o Saw itself as a true grassroots product of revolutionary democracy
o Acted as a parallel gov
o Issued its own radical orders, weakening authority of political gov
• Most famous edict of Petrograd soviet was Army No. 1 of May 1917: stripped officers of
their authority and placed power in the hands of elected committees of common soldiers
o Designed to protect the revolution from resistance by aristocratic officer corps
o Led to collapse of army discipline
• July 1917, provisional gov ordered a poorly considered summer offensive against the
Germans
o Campaign was a miserable failure
o Peasant soldiers began “voting with their feet”
o Deserted in droves, returning to villages to help their families get a share of the
land which peasants were seizing as they settled old scores in a great agrarian
upheaval
o Russia was descending into anarchy
o Unparalleled opportunity for the most radical and talented of many revolutionary
leaders: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution
• Lenin’s life had been dedicated to the cause of revolution
o Middle class, became enemy of imperial Russia
o Law student, eagerly studied Marxist socialism, which began to win converts
among radical intellectuals as industrialization surged forward in Russia
o Pragmatic, flexible, Lenin updated Marx’s revolutionary philosophy to address
existing conditions
• Three interrelated concepts were central for Lenin
o Stressed that only violent revolution could destroy capitalism
▪ Denounced all theories of a peaceful evolution to socialism as a betrayal
for Marx’s message
o Argued that under certain conditions a socialist revolution was possible even in a
nonindustrialized agrarian country like Russia
▪ Industrial working class was tiny, but peasants and workers were
numerous, poor, exploited, and could take the place of Marx’s traditional
working class in the conflict
o Believed that the possibility of revolution was determined more by human
leadership that by vast historical laws
▪ Called for highly disciplined elite of intellectuals and professional
revolutionaries
▪ Elite would never be seduced by short term gains, unlike ordinary workers
and trade union officials
▪ Would not stop until revolution brought it to power
• Lenin’s version of Marxism had a major impact on event in Russia and changed the way
future revolutionaries undertook radical revolt around the world
• Lenin’s ideas did not go unchallenged by other Russian Marxists
o Meeting of Russian Social Democrat Labor Party in London, maters came to a
head
o Lenin demanded a small, disciplined, elitist party, while is opponents wanted a
more democratic party with mass membership
o Russian Marxists split into two rival factions
▪ Bolsheviks “majority group”
• Tenuous majority of a single vote
• Lenin kept the name for propaganda reasons and developed the
revolutionary party he wanted: tough, disciplined, and led from
above
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▪ Mensheviks “minority group
Unlike most other socialists, Lenin had not rallied around the national flag in 1914
o Observing events from neutral Switzerland, where he lived, Lenin viewed was as
product of imperialist rivalries and a marvelous opportunity for socialist
revolution
o After Feb Revolution of 1917, German gov provided impatient Lenin/wife/20
colleagues a safe passage across Germany and back into Russia
▪ Germans hoped that Lenin would undermine sagging war effort of
provisional gov
o Lenin attacked at once
o To astonishment of Bolsheviks, rejected all cooperation with what he called a
“bourgeois” provisional gov
▪ “All power to the Soviets”
▪ “All land to the peasants”
▪ “Stop the war now”
o Promises of “Bread, land, and Peace” spoke to the expectations of suffering
workers, peasants, and soldiers
▪ Earned Bolsheviks substantial popular support
o Movement for revolution was at hand
Lenin and Bolsheviks almost lost struggle for Russia
o Attempt to seize power in July collapsed; Lenin went into hiding
o Temporary setback made little difference in the long run
o Intrigue between Kerensky and his commander in chief General Lavr Mornilov
resulted in Kornilov’s leading a feeble coup against provisional gob
o In face of counter-revolutionary heat, the Bolsheviks were rearmed and redeemed
o Kornilov’s forces disintegrated, but Kerensky lost all credit with the army, the
only force that might have saved democratic government in Russia
Trotsky and the Seizure of Power
• Throughout summer, Bolsheviks greatly increased popular support
• Party membership soared
• Bolsheviks gained fragile majority in the Petrograd Soviet
• Lenin’s supporter Leon Trotsky, revolutionary and orator and radical Marxist, brilliantly
executed the Bolshevik seizure of power
o Painted untruthful picture o German and counter-revolutionary plots, Trot
convinced the Petrograd Soviet to form a special military revolutionary committee
and make him its leader
o Military power in the capital passed into Bolshevik hands
o Militants from Trot’s committee joined with trusted Bolshevik soldiers to seize
government building and [pounce on members of the provisional gov
o Went on to the Congress of Soviets where a Bolshevik majority declared that all
power had passed to the soviets and named Lenin head of the new gov
• Bolsheviks came to power for 3 key reasons
o By late 1917, democracy had given way to anarchy: power was there for ppl who
could take it
o Bolsheviks had a determined and superior leadership from Lenin and Trot, which
the provisional gov lacked
o Bolsheviks appealed to soldiers and urban workers who were exhausted by war,
weary of tsarist autocracy, and ready for radical changes
▪ With time, many Russians would become bitterly disappointed with the
Bolshevik regime, but for the moment they had good reason to hope for
peace, better living conditions, and a more equitable society
Dictatorship and Civil War
• Monumental accomplishment of Lenin, Trot, and rest of Bolsheviks was not taking
power, but keeping it
o Bolsheviks conquered chaos they helped create and began to build a communist
society
o Conspirators became conquerors
• Lenin profited from developments over which he and BSV’s had little control
o Peasants invaded, took, and divided land
▪ When Lenin mandated land reform from above, he approved what
peasants were already doing
o Popular unrest spared to the cities
o Urban workers established their own local soviet or committees and demanded
direct control of individual factories
▪ Lenin ratified with decree
• BSV’s cleverly proclaimed their regime a “provisional workers’ and peasants’
government” promising that a freely elected Constituent Assembly would draw up a new
constitution
• Free elections proved to be a setback: BSV’s won only 23% of elected delegates
• Socialist Revolutionary Party – peasants’ party – had a clear majority
• Constituent Assembly met for only 1 day, then was permanently disbanded by BSV
soldiers acting under Lenin
• Lenin began to form a one party state
• Unlike colleagues, Lenin acknowledged that Russia lost war with Germany and the only
realistic goal was peace at any price
o Price was high: Germany demanded Soviet gov give up all its western territories
o Areas inhabited by Poles, Finns, Lithuanians, and other non-Russian ppls
conquered by tsars over the centuries
• At first, Lenin’s BSV’s refused to accept such great territorial losses
o But when German armies resumed their unopposed march into Russia in February
1918, Lenin had his way in a very close vote
o 1/3 of Russia’s population was sliced away by the treaty of Brest-Litovsk: signed
with Germany in May 1918,
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▪ With peace, Lenin escaped the disaster of continued war and could pursue
his goal of absolute political power for the BSV’s, now called
Communists, within Russia
War’s end and destruction of democratically elected Constituent Assembly inspired
armed opposition to BSV regime
o Ppl who supported self rule in Nov saw that they were getting dictatorship from
the capital
o Officers of old army rejected peace treaty and organized the White opposition to
the BSV’s in southern Russia, Ukraine, and Siberia, and west of Petrograd
▪ Whites came from many social groups united by hatred of Communism
and BSV’s, the Reds
By 1918, Russia was in a full fledged civil war
o 18 self proclaimed regional govs were challenging Lenin’s gov in Moscow
o By end of year, White armies were on attack
o October 191, closed in on central Russia from 3 sides, appeared they would
triumph, did not
Lenin and Red Army beat back counter revolutionary White Armies for several reasons
o BSV’s had quickly developed a better army
▪ Trot’s leadership
▪ At first, BSV’s preached democracy in the military and elected officers in
1917
▪ Beginning March 10918, Trot became war commissar of the newly formed
Red Army
▪ Reestablished strict discipline and the draft
▪ Soldiers deserting or disobeying were shot
▪ Trot made effective use of former tsarist army officers who were actively
recruited and given unprecedented powers over their troops
▪ Trot formed a disciplined and effective fighting force, which repeatedly
defeated the Whites in the field
Other conditions favored the BSV’s
o Reds controlled central Russia and the cities of Moscow and Petrograd
o Whites attacked from fringes and lacked coordination
o Poorly defined political program of Whites was a mishmash of liberal
republicanism and monarchism, and never united under a democratic banner
o While BSV’s promised ethnic minorities in Russian controlled territories
substantial autonomy, the nationalist Whites wished to preserve the tsarist empire
The BSV’s mobilized the home front for the war effort by establishing a system of
centralized controls called war communism:
o All banks and industries were nationalized
o Private enterprise was outlawed
o Commissars introduced rationing, seized grain from peasants to feed cities, and
maintained strict workplace discipline
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o Measures contributed to a breakdown of normal economic activity, they
maintained labor discipline and kept the Red Army supplied with men and
material
Revolutionary terror contributed to Communist victory
o Lenin and BSV’s set up fearsome secret police called Cheka, dedicated to
suppressing counter revs of all types
▪ During civil war, Cheka imprisoned and executed without trial thousands
of supposed class enemies
▪ Victims: clergymen, aristocrats, and wealthy Russian bourgeoisie,
deserters from Red army, political opponents, including the tsar
o Red Terror of 1918-1920 helped establish the secret police as a central tool of the
new communist gov
Foreign military intervention to support the White armies helped BSV’s
o To stop spread of communism, Western Allies (US< Brit, France, Japan) sent
troops to support the Whites
o Efforts were limited and halfhearted
o 1919: Westerners were sick of war, and few politicians wanted to get involved in a
new military crusade
o Allied intervention did not aid the Whites effectively, though it did permit the
BSV’s to appeal to the patriotic nationalism of ethnic Russians, in particular
former tsarist army officers who objected to foreign involvement in Russian
affairs
By Spring of 1920, White armies were almost completely defeated, and BVs retook much
of territory ceded to Germany under Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Red army reconquered Belarus and Ukraine, both of which had gained a brief moment of
independence at the end of WWI
Building on this success, the Bolsheviks moved westward into Polish territory, but were
halted on outskirts of Warsaw in August 1920 under Polish field marshal and chief of
state Jozef Pilsudski
o Defeat halted SV attempts to spread communism into western ERP, though in
1921 the Red Army overran the indep nationalist gov of the Caucasus
o Russian civil war was over
Despite losses to Poland, BVs had won an impressive victory
The Peace Settlement
• As civil war spread in Russia and chaos engulfed much of e. ERP, the war in the west was
coming to an end
• Spring 1918, German high command launched desperate attack against France
o Offensive failed, and US, Brit, and France defeated Germany
o Guns of WW fell silent, and victorious Western Allies came together in Paris to
establish a lasting peace
o Expectations were high: optimism was unlimited
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The Allies worked out terms for peace with Germany and for the creation of
peacekeeping League of nations
o Nevertheless, hopes of ppl and politicians were disappointed, for the peace
settlement of 1919 turned out a failure
o Rather than lasting peace, brought economic crisis and violent political conflict
The End of the War
• Early 1918, German leadership decided it was time of a final attempt, an all-out attack on
France
o Defeat of Russia released men and materials for western front
o Looming arrival o US troops and growth of dissent at home quickened German
leaders’ resolve
o General Ludendorff and company fell on France once more in spring 1918
o German armies came within 35 miles of France, but the exhausted, overextended
forces never broke through
o Stopped in July at second Battle of the Marne, where Am’s saw action
o Late but massive Am intervention tipped the scales in favor of Allied victory
• By Sept, Brit, French and Am armies were advancing steadily on all front, and a panicked
Ludendorff realized that Germany had lost the war
o Not wanting to shoulder the blame, insisted that moderate politicians should take
responsibility for defeat
o October 4: German emperor formed a new, more liberal civilian gov to sue for
peace
• Negotiations over an armistice dragged on, the frustrated German ppl rose up in revolt
o Nov 3: sailors in Kiel mutinied, and throughout n Germ, soldiers and workers
began to establish revolutionary councils on the Russian soviet model
o Sam day, A-H surrendered to Allies and began breaking apart
• Revolution broke out in Germany, and masses of workers demonstrated for peace in
Berlin
• With army discipline collapsing, Emperor William II abdicated and fled to Holland
• Socialist leaders in Berlin proclaimed a German republic on November 9 and agreed to
tough Allied terms of surrender
• Armistice went into effect on November 11, 1918
• War was over
Revolution in Austria-Hungary and Germany
• Military defeat brought turmoil and revolution to A-H and Germany, as it had to Russia
• Having started the war to preserve an imperial state, the A-H Empire perished in the
attempt
o The indep states of Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, and a larger Romania,
were carved out of its territory
o Greatly expanded Serbian monarchy gained control of the western Balkans and
took name Yugoslavia
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o For four months in 1919, until conservative nationalists seized power, Hungary
became an indep Soviet republic
o A-H no longer existed
In late 1918 Germany likewise experienced a dramatic revolution that resembled the
Russian Revolution of March 1917
o A genuine popular uprising welled up from below, toppled an authoritarian
monarchy, and created a liberal provisional republic
o In both countries, liberals and moderate socialist politicians struggled with more
radical workers’ and soldiers’ councils for political dominance
o In Germany, moderates for Social Democratic Party and their liberal allies held on
to power and established the Weimar Republic – democratic gov that would lead
Germany for the next 15 yrs
o Success was a deep disappointment for the Russian BVs who hoped that a more
radical revolution in Germany would help spread communism across EPRN
country
Several reasons for German outcome
o Majority of Marxist politicians in Social Democratic Party were not
revolutionaries and were really moderates, as they had been before the war
o Wanted political democracy and civil liberties and favored gradual elimination of
capitalism
o There were also German nationalists, appalled by the prospect of civil war and
revolutionary terror
o Of crucial importance as the fact that moderate Social Democrats quickly came to
terms w/ army and big business, which helped prevent Germany from reaching
total collapse
Yet triumph of German Social Democrats brought violent chaos to Germany in
1918-1919
o New republic was attacked from both sides of the political spectrum
o Radical communists led by Karl Liebknecths and Rosa Luxemburg and their
supporters in councils tried to seize control of gov in Spartacist Uprising in Berlin
in January 1919
o Moderate Social Democrats called in nationalist Free Corps militias, bands of
demobilized soldiers who had kept their weapons, to crush uprising
▪ Karl and Rosa arrested and murdered
o In Bavaria, a short lived Soviet style republic was overthrown on gov orders by
Free Corps
o Nationwide strikes by leftist workers and a short lived military takeover (the
Kapp Putsch) were also repressed by the central gov
By summer of 1920, situation had calmed down, but the new repub gov faced deep
discontent
o Communists and radical socialists blamed Social Democrats for murders of Karl
and Rosa and the repression of the Bavarian Soviet
o Right wing nationalists, including new Nazi Party, despised government from
start
▪ Spread myth that German army had never actually lost war, but were
“stabbed in the back” by socialists and pacifists at home
▪ In Germany, the end of th war brought only a fragile sense of political
stability
The Treaty of Versailles
• Jan 1919: delegates met in Paris to make peace treaty
• Produced Treaty of Versailles which laid out postwar settlements and was signed by
Allies and defeated Germany
o Inspired great expectations
▪ Idealism strengthened by President Wilson’s peace proposal, the Fourteen
Points
• Open diplomacy, a reduction in armaments, freedom of commerce
and trade, and the establishment of a League of Nations
• Demanded peace be based on notion of national selfdetermination, ppl should be able to choose their own national
governments through democratic majority rule elections, and live
free from outside interference in territories with clearly defined
permanent borders
• Despite general optimism inspired by these ideas, conference and
treaty generated disagreement
• Controlling powers at conference were named the “Big Three”: US, Brit, and France
• Germany, A-H, and Russia were excluded from the conference, though their lands were
placed on the negotiating table
• Italy was included, but its role was limited
• Conference included smaller nations from Middle East, Africa, East Asia, but their
concerns, were ignored
• Almost immediately, Big Three began to quarrel
o Wilson was obsessed with creating a League of Nations
▪ Insisted that this question come first, for he passionately believed that only
a permanent international organization could avert future wars
▪ Wilson had his way although Lloyd George of Brit and Georges
Clemenceau of France were unenthusiastic
• Concerned with punishing Germany
• Question of what to do with Germany dominated discussions
o Clemenceau: Wanted Germany to pay for aggression
▪ Fought on French soil, wanted revenge, economic retribution, and lasting
security
▪ Required creation of a buffer state btw France and Germany, permanent
demilitarization of Germany, and vast German reparations
▪ Lloyd George supported Clemenceau, but was less harsh
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▪ Wilson thought Clemenceau’s demands seemed vindictive, and violated
Wilson’s sense of Christian morality and principle of national selfdetermination
▪ By April the countries attending the conference were deadlocked on the
German question, and Wilson packed his bags to home
In the end, Clemenceau was convinced that France could not afford to face Germany
alone in the future and agreed to a compromise
o Gave up French demand for a Rhineland buffer state in return of a formal
defensive alliance w/ US and Brit
o Under terms of alliance, Wilson and Lloyd George promised that their countries
would come to France’s aid in the event of a German attack
o Allies moved quickly to finish settlement, believing that further adjustments
would be possible within the dual framework of a strong Western alliance and the
League of Nations
Treaty of Versailles was key to settlement
o Redrew map of ERP
o War’s losers paid price
o New indep nations carved out of A-H and Russian Empires included Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Finland, the Baltic States, and Yugoslavia
o Ottoman Empire was split apart, territories placed under control of the victors
o Germany’s African and Asian colonies were given to France, Brit, and Japan as
League of Nations mandates or administered territories; Germany’s losses were
minor thanks to Wilson
Alsace-Lorraine returned to France
Ethnic Polish territories seized by Prussia during 19th c of Poland were returned to newly
made polish state
Predominately German Danzig was placed within Polish border, but as a self-governing
city under the LON protection
Germany had its army limit to 100,000 men and agreed to build no military fortifications
in the Rhineland
Article 231, the war guilt clause: Allies declared that Germany with Austria was solely
responsible for the war
o Germany thus had to pay reparations equal to all civilian damages caused by the
fighting
o Unfortunate and much criticized clause expressed French and to some extent Brit
demands for revenge
o For Germans, reparations were a crippling financial burden
o Moreover, it was an insult to German national pride
▪ Believed wartime propaganda that claimed Germany was an innocent
victim, forced into war
Germans gov protested to treaty
o NO alternative since ppl of Germany were still starving from blockade
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o German reps from ruling moderate Social Democrats and Catholic Party signed
treaty in Versailles
TOV was hardly perfect, but it was a beginning
o Germany punished, not dismembered
o New world organization complemented a traditional defensive alliance of satisfied
powers
o Remaining serious problems were hoped to be solved later
o Allied leaders had seen speed as essential for another reason
▪ Detested Lenin and feared his BV rev might spread
▪ Best answer to Lenin’s class for worldwide upheaval were peace and
tranquility for war-weary ppl
Great hopes of early 1919 turned to ashes by end of year
o Western alliance collapsed
o Plan for permanent peace gave way to fragile ERPN truce
Reasons for turn of events
o US Senate and Am ppl rejected Wilson’s handiwork
▪ Henry Lodge thought the treaty gave away Congress’s constitutional right
to declare war and demanded changes in the articles
▪ Wilson rejected all attempts at compromise
▪ In doing so, ensured that treaty would never be ratified by US and would
never join LON
▪ Senate refused to ratify Wilson’s treaties forming a defensive alliance with
France and Brit
▪ Am turned its back on ERP
▪ Renunciation of Am’s responsibility
Using US Actions as an excuse, Brit refused to ratify its defensive alliance with France
Bitterly betrayed by its allies, France stood alone
Principle of national self-determination was good in theory but flawed in practice
o Borders of new states cut through a jumble of ethnic and religious groups who
despised each other
o New central ERPN nations would prove to be economically weak and politically
unstable the focus of conflict in the interwar years
o In the colonies, desires for self-determination would prove to be economically
weak and politically unstable, the focus on conflict in the interwar years
o Desires for self-determination were ignored
o Great Powers received Germany’s colonies but were hardly ready to give up their
won
o Problems with self-determination were particularly evident in the fate of the
territories of the former Ottoman Empire, where victorious Allies paid little
attention to desires of native ppls in Middle East
The Peace Settlement in the Middle East
• Imposed political settlement on what was Ottoman Empire
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o Brought radical/controversial changes to Middle East
o Ottoman Empire was broken up, Brit and France expanded their power and
influence in the Middle East, and Arab nationalists felt cheated and betrayed
Brit gov encouraged war time Arab revolt against Ottoman Turks and made vague
promises of an indep Arab kingdom
o When fighting stopped, Brit and French chose to honor secret wartime agreements
to divide and rule Ottoman lands
o Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916: Secret accord, Brit and France agreed that
France would receive Lebanon and Syria, and much of modern Turkey, and Brit
would receive Palestine, Transjordan, and Iraq
o Allies never truly intended to grant Arab self-determination after the war
o Arab nationalists reacted with surprise and resentment
Brit plans for Ottoman province of Palestine angered Arab nationalists
o November 1917: Balfour Declaration: declared that Brit favored a “National
Home for the Jewish People” in Palestine, but without prejudicing the civil and
religious rights of the non-Jewish communities already living in Palestine
o Some members thought the declaration would appeal to German, Austrian, Am
Jews and help Brit war effort
o Others sincerely supported the Zionist vision of a Jewish homeland which they
hoped would help Brit maintain control of Suez Canal
o Palestinian Arabs were destroyed
1914 Jews accounted for 11% of Ottoman districts lumped together to form Palestine;
rest was predominately Arab
o Both groups understood that the National Home for Jewish Ppl mentioned in
Balfour Declaration implied the establishment of some kind of Jewish state that
would violate majority rule
o State founded on religious and ethnic exclusivity was out of keeping with Islamic/
Ottoman tradition, which was more tolerant of religious diversity and minorities
than the Christian monarchs or nation states in EPR
Though Arab leaders attended Versailles Peace Conference, efforts to secure autonomy in
the Middle East came to nothing
o Only kingdom of Hejaz was granted indep
o Arab nationalists came together in Damascus as general Syrian Congress in 1919
and unsuccessfully called again for political indep
o Congress proclaimed Syria an indep kingdom
Western reaction was swift/decisive
o French army stationed in Lebanon attacked Syria, taking Damascus in July 1920
o Arab gov fled; French took over
o Brits put down Iraq with bloody fighting and established effective control
▪ Brit mandate furthermore incorporated the Balfour Declaration and its
commitment to a Jewish national home
▪ Western imperialism, in the form of LON mandates, replaced Ottoman
rule in the Arab Middle East
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Allies sought to impose harsher terms on defeated Turks than on “liberated” Arabs
o Treaty forced on the helpless Ottoman sultan dismembered the Turkish heartland
o Brit and France occupied parts of modern day Turkey, and Italy and Greece also
claimed shares
o Sizable Greek minority in w Turkey, and Greek nationalists wanted to build
modern Greek empire modeled on Christian Byzantium
o 1919 Greek armies carried by Brit ships landed on Turkish coast and advanced
unopposed into interior while French troops moved in from South
o Turkey seemed finished
Turkey survived postwar invasions
o Led by Mustafa Kemal, Turks refused to acknowledge the Allied
dismemberment of their country and gradually mounted a forceful resistant
o Kemal directed successful battle at Gallipoli, and despite staggering losses, the
newly established Turkish army repulsed the invaders
o Greeks and British allies sued for peace
o After long negotiations, the Treaty of Lausanne recognized the territorial integrity
of a truly indep Turkey and abolished hated Capitulations that the ERPN powers
had imposed over the centuries to give their citizens special privileges in the
Ottoman Empires
Kemal, nationalist w/o religious faith, believed that Turkey should modernize and
secularize along Western lines
o Established a republic, had himself elected president, then created a one party
system, partly inspired by the BV example, to transform the country
o Most radical reforms of religion and culture
▪ For centuries, most intellectual and social activities were regulated by
Islamic religious authorities
▪ Influenced by example of w. ERP, Kemel limited place of religion in daily
affairs
▪ Separation of church and state
▪ Promulgated law codes inspired by ERPN models
▪ Established secular public school system
▪ Women received rights
▪ By his 1938 death, Kemel had implemented much of his revolutionary
program
▪ Moved turkey much closer to ERP, foretelling current efforts by Turkey to
join the EPRN Union as a full fledged member
The Human Costs
• Immense human costs
o 10-13 million deaths
• Germany most military casualties
• France highest proportionate number of losses
• 20 million died of following influenza
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Number of violent deaths made proper burials difficult, if not impossible
o Soldiers interred where they fell
o Limited accurate identification
o Bodies moved to more formal cemeteries
o Thousands remained unID’d
Millions of ordinary ppl grieved, turning to family, friends, neighbors, and church for
comfort
o Towns and villages across EPR raised public memorials to honor dead
National memorial sites
Widows, orphans, and disable veterans were victims of war
o 10 million came home disfigured
o Gov tried to take care of disabled and survivor fams, but there was never enough
money to fund pensions/job training
o Artificial limbs uncomfortable and employers didn’t want disabled ppl
o Crippled veterans often forced to beg on the streets
German case
o 10% were direct victims, taking care of them was a difficult problem
o Veteran groups came together to lobby for state support, and 1/3 of Weimar
Repub went to pensions and benefits
o With onset of Great Depression, benefits were cut
o Bitter veterans influenced by Nazis who wanted overthrow of republic
o Human cost of war had another price: Newly formed radical parties manipulated
popular feelings of loss and resentment to undermine fragile PLMT government
Ch 27. The Age of Anxiety 1900-1940
Uncertainty in Modern Thought
• Decades surrounding WWI 1880s to 1930s brought intense cultural and intellectual
experimentation
o Philosophy, science, literature
• New ideas spread rapidly after war
• Began to question and abandon many cherished values and beliefs since the ENLT and
the 19th c scientific/industrial triumphs
• Ordinary ppl found many revolutionary ideas unsettling
o Many turned to Christianity, which experienced a remarkable revival
Modern philosophy
• Before 1914, ppl still believed in ENLT philosophies of progress, reason, and individ
rights
• Supporters of ENLT view saw Polit rights spreading to women/workers, rising standard
of living, taming of the city, and growth of state supported social programs as
improvement
o Encouraged faith in the ability of a rational human mind to understand the
universe through intellectual investigation
o Laws of society that rational humans could discover and act on
• As 19th c drew to an end, small group of serious thinkers and creative writers mounted a
“determined attack” on the well worn optimistic ideas
o Rejected general faith in progress and the rational human mind
o Friedrich Nietzsche: Never a sympathetic philosopher, wrote as a prophet in a
provocative and poetic style
▪ Argued the West overemphasized rationality and stifled the authentic
passions and animal instincts that drive human activity and true creativity
▪ Believed reason, democracy, progress, and respectability were outworn
social and psychological constructs whose influence was suffocating selfrealization and excellence
▪ Rejected religion: Christianity embodied a “slave morality” that glorified
weakness, envy, and mediocrity
▪ “God is dead” murdered by modern Christians who no longer really
believed in him
▪ Painted a dark world
▪ West was in decline; false values had triumphed
▪ Death of God left ppl disoriented and depressed
▪ Only hope for individ was to accept the meaninglessness of human
existence and then make that very meaningless a source of self defined
personal integrity and hence liberation
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▪ That way, at least a few superior individuals could free themselves from
the humdrum thinking of the masses and become true heroes
Little read during his active years, Nietzsche’s work attracted gorwign attention in the
early 20th c
Artists and writers experimented with his ideas, which were fundamental to the rise fo the
philosophy of existentialism in the 1920s
Subsequent generations have remade Neitzsche to suit their own needs, and his influence
remainds today
Growign dissatisfaction with established ideas was apparent in other important thinkers
o Henri Bergson: Immediate experience and intuition were as important as rational
and scientific thinking for understanding reality
▪ A religious experience or a mystical poem was often more accessible to
human comprehension than was a scientific law or math equation
o Georges Sorel: Marxian socialism was an insprin gbut unprovable religion, rather
than a scientific truth as Marx had argued
▪ Socialism would shatter capitalist society through a great general strike of
all working ppl inspired bya myth of revolution
▪ Rejected democracy and believed that the masses of the new socialist
society would have to be tightly controlled by a small revolutionary elite
WWI accelerated revolt against established certainties in philosophy, but went in 2
directions
o English speaking countries: acceptance of logical positism
o Continental countries: existentialism
Logial positivism was revolutionary
o Aruged that what we know about human life must be based on rational facts and
direct observation
o Theology and most of traditional philosophy was meaningless because even the
most cherished ideas about God were impossible to prove using logic
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Logical positivism; philosophy is ony the logical clarification of
thoughts, and therefore it should concentrate on the study of language, which expresses
throughts
o Great philosophical issues of the ages – God, freedom, morality – are quite
literally senseless, a great waste of time
o Neither scientific experiments nore logic of math could demostrate their validity
o Statements about such matters reflected only the personal preferences of a given
individual
o “Of what one cannot speak, of that one must keep silent”
Logical positivism, dominant in England and US today, drastically reduced the scope of
philosophical inquiry and offered little solace to ordinary ppl
On the continent: existentialism
o Loosely united diverse/contradictory thinkers in a search for usable moral values
ina world of anxiety and uncertainty
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Heidegger and Jaspers: emphasis on the loneliness and meaningless of human existence
in a godless world and the individual’s need to come to tersm with the fear caused by this
situation
Most existentialism thinkers were atheists
o Inspired by Nietzsche, did not believe that a supreme being had established
huanity’s fundamental nature and viven life its meaning
Jean-Paul Satre: No God given, timeless trutsh outside of individual existence
o Only after they are born do ppl struggle to defin their essence
o Existence is absurd
o Humans are alone, there is no God to help them
o Left to confront arrival of dead and are hounded by despair
o Shattering of belifs in God, reason, and progress
Recognized that humans must act int eh world
Because life in meaningless, individs are forced to creat their own meaning and defin
themselves through their actions
Most ppl try to escape their unwanted freedom by structuring their lives around
conventional social norms
To escape is to live “bad faith”, to hide from the truths of existence
TO live authentically, individs must beome “engaged” and choose their won actiosn in
full awareness of their inescapable responsibility for their own behavior
Power ethical component: placed stress on individual responsibility and choice
o “Being in the world” in the right way
WWII
o Terrible conditions reinforced meaningless of life
o Choose between Hitler or resisting Hitler – Good vs. evil, significance of choice
The Revival of Christianity
• Decades after WWI witnessed revival of Christian thought
• Before 1914, science was used to defend religion
o Christ seen as great moral teacher
• Some theologians turned away from unscientific aspects of Christianity
• Esp after WWI, thinkers and theologians began to revitalize fundamentals of Chritianty
o Sometimes described as Christina existentials: shared loneliness and despair of
eatheistic existentialisted, stressed humans’ sinful nature, need for faith, myster of
God’s forginvess
• Soren Kierkegaard: fundamental Christian belief
o Impossible for ordinary individs to prove existence of God, but rejected notion
that Christinaity was an empty practice
o Suggested that ppl must take a leap of faith and accept existence of unknown but
awesome and majestic God
• Karl Barth: Humans were imperfect, sinful creatures whose reason and will are flawed
o Religious truth is made known to humans only throughGod’s grace, not through
reason
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o Ppl have to accept God’s word and the supernatural revelation of Jesus Chrit with
awe, trust, and obedience, not reason or logic
Catholics: Catholocism and religion was answer to postwar “broken” world
After 1914, religion became more relevant and meainful to thinking ppl than it had before
o 1920-1950
o converted to religion or attracted to it
Religion was a meaningful answer to uncertainty and anxiety
o “One began to believe in heaven because one believed in hell”
The New Physics
• Science unlike religion was based on hard facts
• Scientific advances influenced beliefs of thinking ppl
• By late 1800s, became one of the main pillars supporting Western society’s optimistic
and rationalistic worldview
• Unchanging natural laws seemed to determine physical processes and permit useful
solutions to more and more problems
• Comforting to ppl who were no longer part of religion
• Challenged by new physics
o Discovery that atoms were not hard and permanent
o Marie Curie: Radium constantly emits particles, and does not have a constant
weight
o Max Planck: Energy emitted in uneven spurts called “quanta”
• Called to question old distinction between matter and energy: implication ws that matter
and energy might be diff forms of the same thing
• Old view of atoms of stable basic building blocks of nature was shaken
• Albert Einstein: theory of special relativity: time and space are relative to viewpoint of
obserer, and only the spped of light is constant for all frames of reference in the unverse
o Challenged supposedly immutable theories of Newton
• 1920s: Heroic age of physics
o Breakthrough after breakthrough
o Rutherford: atom can be split
o Neutron found
• Few nonscientists understood revolution in physics, but implications of new theories and
discoveries were disturbing to millions of men and women in 1920 and 1930s
o Heisenberg: uncertainty principle: nature is unknowable and unpredictable
▪ Universe lacked absolute objective reality
▪ Everything was “relative” that depended on observers frame of reference
• Ideas of uncertainty caught on among ordinary ppl who found unstable relativistic world
strange and troubling
o Not dependable and rational
o Only tendencies and probabilities in the complex and uncertain universe
o Physics no longer provided comforting truths about natural laws or optimistic
answers about humanity’s place in an understandable world
Freudian Psychology
• Questions regarding power and potential of human mind
• Before Freud, most professional psychologist assumed that conscious mind processed
sense experienced in a rational and logical way, thus human behavior was the result of
rational calculation
• Sigmund Freud, 1880s
o Human behavior was irrational, governed by the unconscious, a sort of mental
reservoir that contained vital instinctual drives and powerful memories
o Unconscious was unknowable to the conscious mind, but it deploy influenced
people’s behavior, so that they were unaware of the source or meaning of thei
actions
o Three structure of the self, the id, ego, and super ego that were at war with one
another
▪ Primitive, irrational id was unconscious: source of sexual, aggressive,
pleasure seeking instictincts it sought immediate fulfillment of all desires
and was totally amoral
▪ Id was kept in check by superego, the consciecn of internatlized voice of
patrental or social control
▪ Superego was also irrational: overly strict and puritan, and was constantly
in conflict with pleasure seeking id
▪ Ego: rational self that was mostly conscious and worked to negotiate
between the demands of the id and superego
o Healthy individual possessed strong ego that balanced id and superego
o Mentall illness from three structure were out of balance
o Danger of society when unacknowledged drives might overwhelm the control
mechanisms of the ego in a violent, distorted way
▪ Talking cure of speakingof problems to solve unconscious tensions
o Mecahnisms of rational thinking and traditional moral values could be too strong:
civilization was possible ony when individs renoucnced irrational instincts to live
peaceably
o Renunciation made communal life possible, but left instincts unfulfilled and led to
widespread unhappiness
o Western civilization was inescapably neurotic
• Only after 1919 died Freudian psychology receive popular attention
• Some interpreted Freud as saying requirement for mental health was an uninhibited sex
life
• For others, it undermined old easy optimism about the rational and progressive nature of
the human mind
Twentieth Century Literature
• Western lit influenced by pessimisn, relativism, and alienation
• 19th c writers wrote as all knowing narrators describing relastic characters
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New techniques to express new realities
Limited, confused viewpoint of single individ
Focused attention on complexity and irrationality of human mind where feelings,
memories, and desires are forever scrambled
Stream of sconsciousness technique: reliance on internal monologues to explore psyche
o Virginia Woolf
o William Faulkner
o James Joyce: Mirror modern life: gigantic riddle waiting to be unraveled
Turned focus from society to individual and from realism to psychological relativity
Rejected idea of progress: “anti-utoipas” of things to come
o Western culture was in its old age and would soon be overtaken by East Asia
Modernism in Architecture, Art, and Music
• Creative artists rejected old forms and values
• Modernism in architecture/art/music meant constant experimentation and a search for
new kidns of expression
Architecture and Design
• Architects in late 19th c begun to transofmr physical frameowkr of urban society
• US: rapid urban growth and lack of rigid building traditions, pioneered new architecture
o 1890s Chicago school of architects used cheap steel, reinforced concrete, and
electric elevators to build dkyscrapers and office buildings lacking exterior
ornamentation
o Frank Lloyd Wright: series of modern houses feautirng low lines, open
interiors, and massproduced building materials
• ERPNs were inspired by Am examples of functional construction
• Promoters of modern architecture argued that buildings and living spaces should be build
according to functionalism: Budiligns, like industrial products, cshould be useful and
functional – they should serve the purpose for which they were made
o A hosue is a machige for living in
o Architects should adopt latest tech in construction
o No longer decorate buildings, but find beauty in clean straight lines of practical
contruction and efficient machinery
o Symmetrical rectangles of steel, concrete, glass
• In ERP, architectural leadership centered in German speaking countries
o Bauhaus: brought together leading mordern architects, designers, and theatrical
innovators, 1920s
o Effective, inspired team, combined study of fine art with applied artin crafts of
printing, weaving, and furniture making
o Streess on functionalism and good design for everyday life
o Attracted students all over the world”
New Artistic Movements
• Decades surrounding WWI, visual ars experienced radical change and experimentation
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o New artistic way to challenge assumption of ppl trying to paint reality
o Became increasingly abstract
o Turned backs on figurative representation and began to form its constituent parts:
lines, shapes, colors
Widely popular: ppl flocked to centers to train
Impressionsim: Blossomed in Paris in 1870s: Monet, Degas
o Tried to portray their sensory impressiosn in their wrk
o Looked at orld fr subject matter
o Turned backs on traditional themes such as battles, religious scenes,
1890s: Postimpressionists Van Gogh added psychological element to search within self
and express deep feelings on canvas
Picasso and Cubism
o Representation of mood, not objects
WWI encouraged radicalism
Ch 28. Dictatorships and the Second World War 1919-1945
Authoritarian states
• Both conservative and radical dictatorships swept through ERP in 1920s and 1930s
o 2 types of dictatorships had similarities, but were diff
• Conservative authoritarian regimes
• Radical totalitarian dictatorships
o Communism and fascism
o Radical reconstruction of existing society
Conservative Authoritarianism and Radical Totalitarian Dictatorships
• Traditional form of antidemocratic gov in ER was conservative authoritarianism
o Relied on obedient bureaucracies to control society
o Liberals, democrats, socialists were jailed/exiled
o Limited in power and objectives
o Neither ability nor desire to control aspects of their subjects’ lives
o Limited demands to taxes, army recruits, and passive acceptance
o As long as ppl did not try to change system, they had considerable indep
• After WWI, authoritarianism revived, especially in lesser developed E ERP
• New kinds of radical dictatorship went further than conservative authoritarianism emerged in
Soviet Union, Germany, and Italy and other countries
o Communist dictatorship ruled SU since RussRev
o Fascist dictators in Italy and Germany
• By start of WWII, fascists governments controlled Spain, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Romania
• Communist and fascist political parties were well established in all major ERPN nations, where
they ran for PLMT office as they challenged liberal democracy
• Totalitarianism: radical dictatorship that exercises “total claims” over the beliefs and behavior of
its citizens by taking control of the economic, social, intellectual, and cultural aspects of society
o Fascism vs Communism
▪ One party
▪ Used violent political repression and intense propaganda to gain complete power
▪ State tried to dominate economic, social, intellectual, and cultural aspects of
people’s lives
▪ Deviation from norm could become a crime\
• TTLNSM owed much to total war of WWI
o Required state govs to limit indiv liberties and intervene in economy to achieve victory
o Brutality of war eroded ideal of individual rights
o Value of one life seemed far less important than good of entire nation
o TTLN politicians were inspired by modern state at war
o Showed disregard for human life and greatly expanded the power of the state in pursuit of
social control
• Communist and fascist dictatorships shared other characteristics
o Rejected PLMT gov and liberal values
▪ Classical liberalism wanted to limit power of state and protect individ liberties
o Believed liberal individualism undermined equality and unity
o Rejected democracy in favor of a one party political system ruled from the top
o Charismatic leader dominated TTLN state: Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler
▪ Created political parties of a new kind, dedicated to promoting idealized visions
of collective harmony
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Used force and terror to intimidate and destroy political opponents and pursued
policies of imperial expansion to exploit other lands
Censored mass media and instituted propaganda campaigns meant to advance
their goals
TTLN govs engaged in massive projects of state controlled social engineering
dedicated to replacing individualism with a unified “People” capable of
exercising the collective will
Communism and Fascism
• COMM + FSM shared desire to revolutionize state and society
• Differences btw COMM and FSM
• COMM
o Lenin
o Society COMMS strove to create an international brotherhood of workers
▪ Class differences would disappear, resulting in a society free of capitalist
inequality
o Aggressively intervened in all walks of life
o State used force to destroy upper and middle classes
o Nationalized private property, pushed rapid industrialization, and collectivized agriculture
o Late 1920s and 1930s: millions lost their livelihoods and lives
o New world around destruction of class differences
• Fascism
o Mussolini, Hitler
o Striving to build a new community on a national, not international level
o Glorified war and military
o Sought to destroy indep working class movements
o Nation was highest embodiment of the ppl, and powerful leader was supposedly the
materialization of the ppl’s collective will
o Promised to improve lives of ordinary workers
o Intervened in economy, but did not try to level class differences and nationalize private
property
o Ideal of community rooted in bonds of nationalism
o Society would ‘t be a battlefield of classes or individs, all strata and classes would work
together to build a harmonious national community
o New national community grounded in racial homogeneity
▪ Eugenics: selective breeding of humans could improve general characteristics of
a national population
▪ Legit means of social planning and improvement
▪ Inspired Nazi ideas of “race and space”
• Nazis pushed ideas to limit
o Believed that German nation had to be “purified” of outsider groups: Jews, Gypsies, gays,
retarded ppl, who were unable to contribute to the nation’s “racial stock” needed to be
eliminated/segregated
o Led to Holocaust, attempt to purge Germany and EPR of all Jews and other groups
deemed “undesirable” by mass killings
• Soviets never attempted to destroy a group entirely
o COMMS denounced eugenics
• COMMS and FSCS were sworn enemies
o Clash of ideologies, in part responsible for loss of life in WWII
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Popular consensus
o Neither Hitler nor Stalin achieved the total control they sought
o Nor did they rule alone: help of large state bureaucracies and large numbers of ordinary
ppl
Stalin’s Soviet Union
• Lenin established outlines of modern TTLNSM after BSV Rev
• Joseph Stalin finished the job
o Consolidated power and eliminated enemies in mid 1920s
o 1928: Undisputed leader of COMM Party, launched five year plan: the “Revolution from
above” aimed at modernizing the SU and creating a new communist society with new
attitudes, new loyalties, and a new socialist humanity
• 1920 Five year plan and those that followed were extremely ambitious
o Beginning of attempt to transform Soviet society into a COMM state
o Ultimate goal to generate new attitudes, new loyalties, and a new socialist humanity
o Means to do so: constant propaganda, enormous sacrifice by the ppl, harsh repression that
included purges/executions, and rewards for those who followed
o In 1930s, SU became dynamic modern TTLN state
From Lenin to Stalin
• 1921: Lenin and BSVs won the civil war, but ruled a shattered and devastated land
o Farms in ruins, food exhausted
o Drought with war = famine
o Industrial production broken down
• Riots by peasants and workers, and open rebellion by previously pro-BSV sailors at Kronstadt
• Lenin changed course
o Repressed Kronstadt rebels, and replaced war communism with the New Economic
Policy (NEP): which reestablished limited economic freedom in an attempt to rebuild
agriculture and industry in the face of economic disintegration
▪ BSVs had seized grain w /o payment
▪ Now peasants producers could sell surpluses in free markets, and private traders,
and small handicraft manufacturers could reappear
▪ Heavy industry still in hands of national gov
• NEP was political and economic success
o Politically: necessary, temporary compromise with SU’s peasant majority
▪ Realized his gov was not strong enough to take land from peasants and turn them
into state workers, Lenin made a deal with the only force capable of overtaking
his gov
o Economically: Brought rapid economic recovery
▪ By 1926, industrial output surpassed, and agricultural production was almost
equal to prewar levels
• Intense struggle for power began in inner circles of COMM party: Lenin didn’t choose successor
when he died in 1924
o Stalin vs Trotsky
• Stalin
o Good organizer, poor speaker, no experience outside of Russia
• Trotsky
o Great/inspiring leader who planed takeover and created victorious Red Army
o Appeared to have all advantages in struggle to take power
•
Stain won because he was more effective at gaining the all important support of the party, the
only genuine source of power in the one party state
o Rose to general secretary of the party’s Central Committee in 1922, he used his office to
win friends and allies with jobs and promises
o Better able to relate Marxian teaching to Soviet realities in the 1920s
▪ “Socialism in one country” that was more appealing to the maj of communists
than was Trot’s doctrine of “permanent revolution”
▪ Stalin argued that Russian dominated SU had ability to build socialism on its
own, while Trot maintained that socialism in the SU could succeed only if a
socialist rev swept throughout ERP
▪ To many Russian COMMs, Trot’s views sold their country short and promised
risky conflicts with capitalist countries
▪ Stalin’s willingness to break with the NEP and “build socialism” at home
appealed to young militants in the party, who detested the capital appearing NEP
The Five-Year Plans
• Party congress of 1927: ratified Stalin’s consolidation of power, marked end of NEP and
beginning of era of socialist five year plans
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First five year plan had staggering economic objectives
o
Total industrial output was to increase by 250%
o
Heavy industry was to grow even faster
o
Agricultural production was slated to increase by 150%
o
1/5 of peasants in SU were scheduled to give up private plots and join socialist collective
farms
o
By 1930, economic and social change was sweeping the country
Stalin unleashed his second revolution for many reasons
o
o
Ideological considerations
▪
Stalin and his militant supporters were deploy committed to socialism as they
understood it
▪
Feared a gradual restoration of capitalism, wished to promote the working
classes, and were eager to abolish the NEP’s private traders, indep artisans, and
property owning peasants
Economic motivations
▪
Fragile economy recovery stalled in 1927 and 1928, and a new socialist offensive
seemed necessary to ensure industrial and agricultural growth
▪
Economic development would allow the USSR to catch up with the West and
overcome traditional Russian “backwardness’
“We are 50 or 100 years behind the advanced countries> We must make this good
distance in 10 years”
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Indep peasantry remained a major problem
o
Peasants had wanted to own land, and they finally had it
o
Sooner or later the peasants would embrace conservative capitalism and pose a threat to
the regime
o
At the same time, the mainly urban COMMs believed that the despised/feared “class
enemy” in the villages could be squeezed to provide the enormous sums needed for all
out industrialization
To resolve issues, in 1929 Stalin ordered the collectivization of agriculture: forced consolidation
of individ peasant farms into large, state controlled enterprises
o
•
•
Peasants all over the SU were compelled to move off their small plots onto large, state
run farms, where their tools, livestock, and produce would be held in common and central
planners could control their work
Increasingly repressive measures instituted by the state focused on the kulaks: class of well off
peasants who had befitted the most from the market policies of the NEP
o
Very small group, but were held up as great enemy of progress
o
Stalin called for their “liquidation” and seizure of their land
o
Stripped of land and livestock, many starved or were deported to forced labor camps for
“reeducation”
Forced collectivization of agriculture led to disaster
o
Peasant resistance caused chaos in the countryside, and large numbers of farmers
slaughtered animals and burned crops rather than turn them over
o
1929-1933: number of horses, cattle, sheep, and goats in SU decreased by half
o
State controlled collective farms were not more productive
▪
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Output of grain barely increased, and collectivized agriculture was unable to
make any substantial financial contribution to Soviet industrial development
Ukraine: drive against peasants turned into assault on all Ukrainians in general, who had sought
indep from Soviet rule after WWI
o
1932: Stalin and associates set levels of grain deliveries for Ukrainian collective at
excessively high levels, and refused to relax quotas even with starvation
o
Man made famine in Ukraine
Collectivization was a cruel but real victory for Stalinist ideologues
o
Human cost staggering
o
Millions died as direct result
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o
By end of 1938: 93% of peasant families had been herded onto collective farms,
neutralizing them as a political threat
o
Opposition of peasantry had forced supposedly all powerful state to make concessions
Rights to limit family’s labor and to cultivate tiny family plots which provided
food
▪
Family plots produced 22% of all agriculture
Industrial side of 5YP was more successful
o
Huge State Planning Commission, the “Gosplan” oversaw program by setting production
goals and controlling deliveries of raw and finished materials
o
Production bottlenecks and slowdowns often resulted
o
Stalinist planning generally favored heavy industry over production of consumer goods,
leading to shortages of basic necessities
o
Despite problems, Soviet industry produced 4x as much in 1937 as it had in 1928
o
No other major country had achieved such rapid industrial growth
Forced industrial growth went hand in hand with urban development: more than 25 million ppl
migrated to cities during 1930s
o
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Mostly peasants who left villages to become laborers in Russia’s growing industrial
centers
Steel was idol of Stalinist age
o
SU needed heavy machinery for rapid development, and an industrial labor force was
created almost overnight as peasant men and women began working in the huge steel
mills and plants built across the country
o
1930-1932, indep trade unions lost most power
▪
Gov could assign workers to any job anywhere in the country, and an internal
passport system ensured that individs could not move w/o permission of police
▪
When factory managers needed more hands, they called on ppl on collective
farms, who sent them millions of peasants over the years
•
Workers typically lived in deplorable conditions in hastily built industrial cities
•
Also experienced some benefits of upward mobility
o
“In old tsarist Russia, we weren’t even considered people. We couldn’t dream about
education, or getting a job in a state enterprise…I have the right to a job, to education, to
leisure”
o
Some propaganda from state censored publication
o
Enthusiasm was partly authentic
o
Great industrialization drive, from 1928-1937 was an awe inspiring achievement
purchased at enormous sacrifice on part of ordinary Soviet citizens
Life and Culture in Soviet Society
• Aim of Stalin’s 5YP was to create a new kind of society with a strong industrial economy and a
powerful army
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•
Stalin and his helpers were good Marxian economic determinists
o
Once everything was state owned, they believed, a socialist society composed of
committed socialists would inevitable emerge
o
Their utopian vision of a new humanity floundered, but they did build a new society
whose broad outlines existed
Life in society had both good and bad aspects
o
Consumption was reduced to pay for investment, thus there was little improvement in the
average standard of livings in the years before WWII
o
Average nonfarm wage purchased only half as much in 1932 as it had in 1928
o
After 1932, real wages grew slowly, but by 1937, workers could still buy only about 60%
of what they had bought in 1928
o
Collectivized peasants experienced great hardships
Daily life was difficult in Stalin’s SU
o
Many ppl lived primarily on black bread and wore old, shabby clothing
o
Constant shortages, although heavily taxed vodka was always available
o
Housing was a problem: millions moved into cities, but the gov built few new apartments
o
Relatively lucky fam received one room for all its members and shared both a kitchen
and a toilet with others on the floor
Life was hard but not hopeless
o
Idealism/ideology had a real appeal for many communists and ordinary citizens, who saw
themselves building the world’s first socialist society while capitalism crumbled and
degenerated into fascism
o
Optimistic belief in the future of the SU attracted Westerners to SU
Soviet workers did receive more social benefits
o
Age old pensions, free medical services, free education, day cares
o
Unemployment was practically unknown
o
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•
•
•
•
Possibility for personal advancement
Keys to improving position were specialized skills and technical education
o
Industrialization required massive numbers of trained experts, such as skilled workers,
engineers, and plant managers
o
Stalinist state broke with egalitarian policies of the 1920s and provided tremendous
incentives to those who could serve its needs
o
Paid unskilled worker masses and farmers low wages, but gave high salaries/privileges to
growing technical and managerial elite
o
Elite joined with political and artistic elites in new upper class, whose member were rich
and powerful
Radical transformation of Soviet society had profound impact on women’s lives
o
Marxists had believed that capitalism and midd class husbands exploited women
RussRev proclaimed complete equality of rights for women
o
1920s: divorce and abortion made easily available, and women were urged to work
outside home
o
Stalin reversed trend: gov revoked many laws supporting women’s emancipation to
strengthen traditional family and build up state’s population
Lasting change for women involved work and education
o
Peasant women continued to work on farms, and millions of women toiled in factories
and in heavy construction
o
Soviets opened higher education to women, who could now enter the ranks of the better
paid specialists in industry and science
o
Medicine became a woman’s profession
Soviet society demanded sacrifices from women
o
Maj of women had to work outside home
o
Wages were so low that it was impossible for a family to live only on husband’s earnings
o
Men continued to dominated best jobs
Rapid change and economic hardship led to broken families, creating physical and
emotional strains for women
o
Mobilization of women was striking characteristic of women
Culture was politicized for propaganda and indoctrination purposes
o
Party activists lectured workers in factories and peasants on collective farms
o
Newspapers/films/radio recounted socialist achievements and capitalist plots
•
o
1930s: intellectuals were ordered by Stalin to become “engineers of human minds”
o
Instructed to exalt the lives of ordinary workers and glorify Russian nationalism
o
Russian history was rewritten so early tsars became worthy forerunners of Stalin
o
Writers and artists could combine creativity and polit propaganda
Stalin seldom appeared in public, but his presence was everywhere
o
Portraits, statutes, books
o
Gov persecuted religion and turned churches into “museums of atheism”
o
State had earthly religion and high priest: Marxism-Leninism, and Stalin
Stalinist Terror and the Great Purges
• Mid 1930s: great offensive to build socialism and a new society culminated in police terror and
massive purging of COMM Party
•
•
o
First used by BSV to maintain power, terror as state policy was revived in the
collectivization drive against the peasants
o
Top members of party and gov publicly supported Stalin’s initiatives, but there was some
grumbling
▪
Even Stalin’s wife complained about misery in Ukraine
▪
Stalin insulted her and she committed suicide
Late 1934, Stalin’s #2 man, Sergei Kirov was mysteriously murdered
o
Stalin probably ordered his murder, but he blamed it on “fascist agents” within the
COMM party
o
Stalin used this incident to launch a reign of terror that purged the party of supposed
traitors and solidified his own control
Murderous state sponsored repression picked up steam over the next 2 years
o
The “great purge” of 1936-1938: series of spectacular public show trials in which false
evidence, often gathered using torture, was used to incriminate party administrators and
Red Army leaders
o
August 1936: 16 “Old Bolsheviks”: prominent leaders in the party since the RussRev,
confessed to contrived plots against Stalin – all were executed
o
1937: secret police arrested a mess of lesser party officials and newer members torturing
them and extracting confessions for show trials
o
Union officials, managers, army officials, citizens were accused to country revolutionary
activities and struck down
o
8 mill were arrested, millions executed or never returns from prisons/labor camps
•
•
•
Stalin and remaining party leadership recruited 1.5 million new members to take place of those
purged
o
More than half of COMM party had joined since purges, and experienced rapid social
advance
o
Often children of workers, they usually studied in new technical schools and proved
capable of managing gov and large scale production
o
Despite human costs, purges brought practical rewards to new generation of committed
communists
▪
These youngsters had no recollection of Lenin and his ways
▪
Robots who only knew of Stalin
o
Would serve Stalin effectively until his death in 1953
o
Would govern SU until early 1980s
Stalin’s mass purges remain baffling, most historians believed that those purged were innocent
o
Highly publicized purges sent warning to ppl: no one was secure, everyone had to serve
the party and its leader with redoubled devotion
o
Some scholars argued that terror was part of a fully developed TTLN state, which must
always fight real/imaginary enemies
Long standing interpretation that puts blame on Stalin has been challenged
o
Some say Stalin’s fears were exaggerated but real
▪
Many in the party and in general population shared his fears
▪
Bombarded with ideology and political slogans, the population responded
energetically to Stalin’s directives
▪
Investigations and trials snowballed into mass hysteria, resulting in a modern
witch hunt that claimed millions of lives
▪
Deluded Stalin found large numbers of willing collaborators for crime and
achievement
Mussolini and Fascism in Italy
• MSL’s fascist movements and seizure of power in 1922 were important steps to rise of
dictatorships in EPR between two world wars
•
MSL began polit career as revolutionary socialist, but after WWI he turned against working class
and sought support of conservatives
•
MSL and supporters were first to call themselves “fascists” revolutionaries determined to create a
new TTLN state based on extreme nationalism and militarism
•
Did not succeed
o
Dictatorship was brutal and theatrical, but included elements of conservative
authoritarianism as well as dynamic TTLNSM
The Seizure of Power
• Early 20th c: Italy was a liberal state w/ civil rights and a constitutional monarchy
•
Eve of WWI: PLMT regime granted UMS and Italy appeared to be growing towards democracy
•
Serious problems
o
Much of Italian population was still poor, and many peasants were more attached to their
villages and local interests more than to the national state
o
Papacy and devout Catholics, conservatives, and landowners remained strongly opposed
to liberal institutions and to middle class lawyers and politicians who ran country for their
own benefit
▪
o
•
•
•
Relations between church and state were often very tense
Class differences were often extreme, leading to development of powerful revolutionary
socialist movement
▪
Socialist Party gained leadership as early as 1912
▪
Opposed WWI from beginning
War worsened political situation
o
Having fought w/ Allies to gain territory, PLMT gov disappointed Italian nationalists with
Italy’s modest gains at Versailles
o
Workers and peasants felt cheated: to win their support during the war, the gov promised
social and land reform, which was not delivered after war
Unemployment and inflation soared after the war ended, creating mass hardship
o
RussRev which promised ordinary workers a way out energized Italy’s revolutionary
socialist movement
o
Italian Socialist Party followed BSV example, and radical workers and peasants began
occupying factories and seizing land in 1920
o
Scared and mobilized property owning classes
o
After war, pope lifted ban on participation by Catholics in Italian politics, and strong
Catholic party emerged
o
By 1921 revolutionary socialists, antiliberal conservatives, and anxious property owners
were all opposed to liberal PLMTY gov
In this situation, Benito Mussolini stepped in
•
o
Began polit career as a Socialist Party leader and radical newspaper editor before WWI
o
Urged that Italy join the Allies, and was expelled from Socialist Party
o
After he came back from war, he began organizing bitter war veterans into a band of
fascists, from the Italian word for “a union of forces”
At first MSL’s program was a radical combination of nationalist and socialist demands: territorial
expansion, benefits for workers, land reform for peasants
o
Competed directly with Socialist Party and failed to get off ground
•
MSL saw that is violent verbal assaults on rival Socialists won him growing support from
conservatives and frightened middle classes, he shifted gears in 1920 and became a sworn enemy
of socialism
•
MSL and his private militia of Black shirts grew increasingly violent
•
o
Band of fascist toughs roared off in trucks at night
o
Beat up Socialist organizers
o
Few were actually killed, but Socialist newspapers, union halls, and headquarters were
destroyed and Black Shirts managed to push socialists out of city gov in n. Italy
Fascism soon became a mass movement
o
•
Skillful politician, MSL convinced his followers that they were not just opposing the
“reds” but also making a revolution of their own, forging a strong, dynamic movement
that would help the little ppl against established interests
As gov collapsed in 1922 (largely because of Black Shirt chaos), MSL stepped forward as savior
of order and property
o
Struck a conservative not in his speeches and gained support of army leaders
o
Demanded resignation of existing gov
•
October 1922, band of armed fascists marched on Rome to threaten king and force him to appoint
MSL prime minister of Italy
•
Victor Immanuel Iii who had no love for old liberal politicians, asked MSL to take over gov and
form a new cabinet
•
After widespread violence and a threat of armed uprisings, MSL seized power using legal
framework of Italian constitution
The Regime in Action
• MSL became prime minister n 1922, yet his long term political intentions weren’t clear until 1924
o
Some radical Black Shirt supporters wished to immediately construct a revolutionary
fascist state
o
MSL’s ministers: old conservatives, moderates, even Socialists, and he moved cautiously
to established control
•
MSL promised a “return to order” an consolidated support among Italian elites
•
Fooled by MSL’s apparent moderation, the Italian PLMT passed a new electoral law that gave 2/3
of the reps in the PLMT to the party that won the most votes
•
o
Allowed Fascist Party and allies to win overwhelming maj in April 1924
o
Shortly after, group of fascist extremes kidnapped and murdered Socialist politicians
Giacomo Matteotti
o
Outraged MSL’s opponents, and a group of prominent PLMTY leaders who demanded
that MSL’s armed squads be dissolved and all violence be banned
MSL didn’t order Matteotti’s murder, but took advantage of ensuing political crisis
o
Hesitated, then charged forward
o
Declared intent to “make the nation Fascist”, he imposed a series of repressive measures
o
▪
Gov ruled by decree, abolished freedom of press, and organized fixed elections
▪
Arrested political opponents
▪
Disbanded all indep labor unions
▪
Put dedicated Fascists in control of Italy’s schools
“Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state”
▪
•
•
Italy’s one party dictatorship under MSL had unquestioned authority
MSL’s Fascist Party drew support from broad sectors of population, in large because he was
willing to compromise with traditional elites that controlled army, economy, and state
o
Never tried to purge these groups or move against them
o
Left big business to regulate itself, and called for no land reform
MSL drew increasing support from Catholic Church
o
Lateran Agreement of 1929: Recognized Vatican as a tiny indep state, and agreed to give
church significant financial support
o
Pope expressed satisfaction and urged Italians to support MSL’s gov
•
Because he was forced to compromise with conservative elites, MSL never established complete
TTLN control
•
MSL’s gov proceeded w/ attempts to bring fascism to Italy
o
Massive rallies and sporting events
•
o
Creating fascist youth and women’s movements
o
New welfare benefits
o
Newspapers, radio, and film promoted MSL as powerful strongman who embodied
highest qualities of Italian ppl
MLS’s gov was opposed to liberal feminism and promoted traditional gender roles
o
“New fascist man” was supposed to be a virile, patriotic warrior
o
His wife was guardian of the home who raised children to support the values of the
fascist state
▪
Some women found satisfaction in devotion to family, national service, and
Italian “race”
•
•
•
•
MSL gained popularity by manipulating popular pride in grand history of ancient Roman Empire
o
“Resurrection of Roman-ness”
o
Propagandists criticized liberalism and PLMTY gov as foreign imports that violated
“Roman” traditions
MSL matched aggressive rhetoric with military action
o
Italian armies invaded African nation of Ethiopia in October 1935
o
Won in 1936, and cemented ties with Nazi Germany, but shocked the international world
Deeply influenced by Hitler’s example, MSL’s gov passed series of anti-Jewish racial laws in
1938
o
•
Unpopular, and fascist gov did not aggressively persecute Jews until late WWII, when
Italy was under Nazi control
MSL did not establish truly ruthless police state
o
•
“We Italian women are always ready to sacrifice petty personal vanity
and outward appearances to collaborate effectively”
Only 23 political prisoners condemned to death
MSL’s fascist Italy was never totally TTLN
Hitler and Nazism in Germany
• Nazi Germany dictatorship was a product of Hitler’s tactical genius and Germany’s social and
political situation
• National Socialism (Nazism) shared some characteristics with Italian Fascism, but Nazism was
far more interventionist
• Under Hitler, Nazi dictatorship smashed or took over most indep organizations, established firm
control over the German state and society, and violently persecuted the Jewish population
• Truly TTLN
•
Based on racial aggression and territorial expansion, led to history’s most destructive war
The Roots of National Socialism
• National Socialism grew out of many developments, most influential: extreme nationalism and
racism
o Captured mind of Adolf Hitler and he dominated Nazism until end of WWII
• Hitler
o Son of Austrian customs official
o Spent childhood in small towns in Austria
o Mediocre student: dropped out of high school at 14
o Moved to Vienna, exposed to extreme Austro-German nationalists who believed Germans
were superior and natural rulers of c.ERP
o Advocated union w/Germany and violent expulsion of “inferior” ppls as means of
maintaining German domination of the A-H empire
o Hitler early absorbed virulent anti-Semitism and hatred of Slavs
o Belief in crudest distortions of Social Darwinism, superiority of Germanic races, and
inevitability of racial conflict
o Jews, he claimed directed an international conspiracy of finance capitalism and Marxian
socialism against German culture, unity, and people
• Racist anti-Semitism became wildly popular on right wing of ERPN politics in decades
surrounding WWI
o Rooted in centuries of Christian anti-Semitics
o Given pseudoscientific legitimacy by 19th c developments in biology and eugenics
o These ideas came to define Hitler’s worldview and would play an immense role in the
ideology and actions of National Socialism
• Hitler greeted outbreak of WWI as a salvation
o Struggle and discipline of war gave life meaning
o Served as dispatch carrier on western front
o Germany’s loss shattered Hitler’s world – became convinced that Jews and Marxists had
“stabbed Germany in the back”, and he vowed to fight on
• Late 1919: Hitler joined tiny extremist group in Much called German Workers’ Party
o Denounced Jews, Marxists, and democrats
o Promised a uniquely German national Socialism that would abolish injustices of
capitalism and create a mighty “people’s community”
• 1921: Hitler gained absolute control of small but growing party, renamed the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party, or Nazis in 1920
• Hitler became master of mass propaganda and political showmanship
o Wild, histrionic speeches
o Attacked Versailles treaty, Jews, war profiteers, and Germany’s Weimar Republic
• Party membership multiplied 10x after 1922
• 1923: Weimar Republic seemed on verge of collapse, and Hitler, inspired by MSL, organized an
armed uprising in Munich – Beer Hall Putsch
o Failure by poor planning
o Hitler arrested
Hitler’s Road to Power
• At trial, Hitler denounced Weimar Repub and gained enormous publicity
o Concluded that he had to come to power through electoral competition rather than armed
rebellion
o
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Wrote Mein Kampf in prison term
▪ Laid out his basic ideas on “racial purification” and territorial expansion that
would increasingly define National Socialism
In Mein Kampf, Hitler claimed that Germans were a “master race’ that needed to defend its “pure
blood” from groups he called “racial degenerates” (Jews, Slavs, others)
o German race was destined to grow, and needed Lebensraum (living space)
o Space could be found to Germany’s east, in c. ERP, which Hitler claimed was inhabited
by the “subhuman” Slavs and Jews
o Portrayed sweeping vision of war and conquest in which the German master race would
colonize and ultimately replaced “subhumans” across E.C. ERP
Championed idea of leader-dictator or Fuhrer whose unlimited power would embody the ppl’s
will and lead the German nation to victory
o Deadly combination of race and space
o Would propel Hitler’s Germany into WWII
In years of prosperity and stability between 1924 and 1929, Hitler built up the Nazi Party
o By 1928, it had 100,000 members
o To appeal to middle class, Hitler de-emphasized anticapitalist elements of National
Socialism and vowed to fight communism
o Nazis still remained small splinter group in 1928, when they received only 2.6% of
popular vote in general elections and 12 seats in Reichstag
o Nazi deputies pursued legal strategy of using democracy to destroy democracy
Great depression of 1929 brought ascent of national Socialism
o Promised German voters economic as well as political salvation
o Appeals for “national rebirth” appealed to a broad spectrum of voters, including middle
and lower class groups (small business owners, office workers, artisans, peasants, skilled
workers striving to be in middle class)
o Seized by panic as bankruptcies increased, unemployment soared, and communists made
election gains, voters deserted conservative and moderate parties fo5 Nazis
o 1930: Nazis won 6.5 million votes and 107 seats in the Reichstag
o July 1932: 14.5 million votes, 38% of Reichstag, now largest party in Reichstag
Breakdown of democratic gov helped Nazis seize power
o Unable to gain support of maj in Reichstag, Chancellor Heinrich Bruning dissolved the
PLMT
o Convinced President, General Hindenburg to authorize rule by decree under Article 48
of constitution, allowing central gov to govern w/o consent of PLMT
o Bruning tried to overcome economic crisis by cutting back gov spending and ruthlessly
forcing down prices and wages
o Conservative policies intensified Germany’s economic collapse and convinced many
voters that the country’s republican leaders were stupid and corrupt, adding to Hitler’s
appeal
Division on left side also contributed to Nazi success
o Even though 2 left wing parties outnumbered Nazis in Reichstag, the COMMS refused to
cooperate w/ Social Democrats
o German COMMS long competed w/ socialists for allegiance of working class
o In crisis of early 1930s, failed to resolve differences and mount an effective opposition to
the Nazi takeover
Hitler excelled in dirty backroom politics of decaying Weimar Republic
o 1932: Hitler gained support of conservative politicians and key leaders in the army and
big business
o
o
o
These ppl thought they could use Hitler for their won advantage, to resolve political crisis
and also to get increased military spending, contracts, and tough measures against
workers
Accepted Hitler’s demand to be appointed chancellor in a coalition gov, reasoning that he
could be used and controlled
January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor by President Hindenburg
State and Society in Nazi Germany
• Hitler moved rapidly and skillfully to establish an unshakable dictatorship that would pursue the
Nazi program of race and space
o First, Hitler and Nazi Party worked to consolidate power
▪ To maintain legal appearances, Hitler called for new elections
▪ 1933: Reichstag building was partly destroyed by fire
▪ Hitler blamed COMM Party, and convinced President Hindenburg to sign
dictatorial emergency acts that abolished freedom of speech and assembly as well
as most personal liberties
• Façade of democratic government was soon torn asunder
o Nazis won only 44% of elections, Hitler outlawed COMM Party and arrested its PLMT
reps
o March 23, 1933: Nazis pushed through Reichstag the Enabling Act: gave Hitler absolute
dictatorial power for four years
o Nazis moved on to smash or control all indep organizations
o Deceitful stress on legality, coupled with divide and conquer techniques, disarmed
opposition until it was too late for effective resistance
• Germany became a one party Nazi state
o Elections were farces
o New regime took over gov bureaucracy intact, installing Nazis in top positions
o Created series of overlapping Nazi party organizations responsible solely to Hitler
o Systems of dual gov was riddled with rivalries, contradiction, and inefficiencies
o Nazi state was often disorganized and lacked unity that its propagandists claimed
o Fractured system suited Hitler and his purposes
o Lack of unity encouraged competition among state personnel, who worked to outdo each
other to fulfill Hitler’s vaguely expressed goals
o Fuhrer played established bureaucracy against his personal party gov and maintained
dictatorial control
• Once Nazis were firmly in control of gov, Hitler and arty turned attention to construction a
National Socialist society defined by national unity and racial exclusion
o First, attacked political enemies: COMMS, Social Democrats, trade union leaders: forced
out of jobs or arrested and taken to concentration camps
o Nazis outlawed strikes and abolished indep labor unions, which were replaced by Nazi
controlled German labor Front
• Hitler purged Nazi Party of more extremist elements
o Nazi storm troopers (SA), the quasi-military band of 3 million toughs in brown shirts
who’d beaten up Jews and fought communists now expected positions in the army
▪ Some talked of “second revolution” that would create equality among all
Germans by sweeping away capitalist system
o Now that Nazis were in power, Hitler was eager to win support of traditional military and
maintain social order
o Decided that leadership of SA had to be eliminated
o
•
•
•
•
•
•
June 30, 1934, Hitler’s elite personal guard, the SS, arrested and shot 1,000 SA leaders
and other political enemies w/o trial
o Afterwards, the SS grew rapidly
o Under leader Heinrich Himmler, the SS took over political police and concentration
camp system
Nazi Party instituted policy called “coordination” meant to force society to conform to National
Socialist Ideology
o Professional ppl: doctors, layers, teachers, engineers saw previously indep organizations
swallowed by Nazi associations
o Publishing houses under Nazi control
o Universities and writers brought into line
o Democratic, socialist, Jewish lit put on growing blacklists
o Burned books, modern art and architecture deemed “degenerate” were strictly prohibited
o Life became violently anti-intellectual
o By 1934 a brutal dictatorship characterized by frightening dynamism and obedience to
Hitler was largely in place
Acting on vision of racial purity, party began a many faced campaign against those they deemed
incapable of making a positive contribution to the “master race”
o Persecuted undesirable groups based on reputed racial characteristics
o Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, gays, Jehovah’s Witnesses, handicapped, asocials who were targets
of ostracism and state sponsored repression
In the Nazi “racial state”, barbarism and race hatred were institutionalized with the force of
science and law
o New university academies wrote studies that measured and defined racial differences
o Prejudice was presented in the guise of enlightened science, a means for creating a strong
national race
o Ethical breakdown exemplified in series of sterilization laws, which led to forced
sterilization of 400,000 “undesirable” citizens
From beginning, German Jews were a special object of Nazi persecution
o By end of 1934, most Jewish lawyers/doctors/professors/civil servants/musicians had
been banned from their professions
o 1935: Nuremberg laws classified being Jewish as having 3 or more Jewish grandparents
▪ Outlawed marriage and sexual relations between Jews and those defined as
Germans
▪ Deprived Jews of all rights of citizenship
o Conversion to Christianity and abandonment of Jewish faith made no difference
▪ “Only be known by those of German blood”
▪ “Racial comrade”
▪ “Only one who is of German blood, no matter what religious faith”
For maj of German citizens not targeted by these laws, the creation of a demonized outsider
group contributed to feelings of national unity and support for Hitler regime
Late 1938: Assault on Jews accelerated
o Well organized wave of violence: Kristallnacht (night of broken glass)
o Nazi gangs smashed windows, looted Jewish owned shops, destroyed homes/synagogues
o German Jews rounded up and made to pay for damage
o 3/5 Jews emigrated, sacrificing all of their property to leave Germany
o Some Germans opposed outrages, but most went along or looked the other way
o Lack of opposition reflected anti-Semitism to a degree, but revealed strong popular
support enjoyed by Hitler’s government
Popular Support for National Socialism
• Why did ordinary Germans back this brutally repressive regime? Coercion and reward enlisted
popular support
o Secret police and growing concentration camp persecuted political and “racial enemies”
o Yet for maj of German citizens who were not Jews, communists, etc., Hitler’s gov
brought new opportunities
o The German “master race” benefited from Nazi ideologies of race and space
• Hitler promised the masses economic recovery, “work and bread”
o Large public works program to help pull Germany out of depression
o Work began on highways, offices, sports stadiums, public houses
o Created jobs and instilled pride in national recovery
o By 1938, unemployment fell by 2%
o 1932-1938: standard of living for average employed worker increased moderately
o Business profits rose sharply
• Persecution of Jews brought substantial benefits to ordinary Germs
o Jews forced out of jobs and homes, germs stepped in to take their place
o Aryanization (“Aryan master race” of pure German blood: Jews forced to sell businesses
to “racially pure” Germans at rock bottom prices
o For millions of Aryans, rising of standard of living war tangible evidence that Nazi
promises were more than show/propaganda
• Economic recovery accompanied by great wave of social and cultural innovation intended to
construct Volkgemeinschaft: a ppl’s community for all racially pure Germans
o Mass organizations to spread Nazi ideology and enlist volunteers for Nazi cause
o Millions of Germans joined Hitler Youth, League of German Women, and German Labor
Front
o Nazi Winter Relief charity drives handed out donations to needy
o Mass rallies brought together thousands of participants
o Reports on such events in Nazi controlled press brought message home to millions more
• Nazis made great attempts to control the private lives and leisure time of ordinary Germans
o State sponsored “Strength Through Joy” programs set up exercise classes, beautified
workplaces, and took working-class Germs of free vacations
o Newly invented holidays encouraged Germs to celebrate the values of the racial state at
home
o Gov promised prosperity and touted a glittering array of inexpensive and enticing ppl’s
products
▪ Items such as Volkswagen intended to link individ desires for consumer goods to
collective ideology of the ppl’s community
o Though such programs faltered as state turned resources toward rearmament for
approaching war, they suggested to all that regime sincerely wished to improve German
living standards
• Women played special role in Nazi state
o Promising to liberate women from women’s liberation” Nazi ideologues championed
return to traditional family values
o Outlawed abortion, discouraged women from holding jobs or obtaining higher education,
and glorified domesticity and motherhood
o Women cast as protectors of hearth and home
o Instructed to raise young boys and girls in accordance with Nazi ideals
o
•
•
Later 1930s: facing labor shortages, Nazis reluctantly reversed course and encouraged
women to enter labor force
o At same time, millions of women enrolled in Nazi mass organizations, which organized
charity drives and other social programs, experienced a new sense of community in
public activities
Few historians think Hitler and Nazis brought about a real social revolution
o Yet Hitler’s rule corresponded to a time of economic growth, and Nazi propagandists
continually triumphed the supposed accomplishments of regime
o Vision of ppl’s community, national pride of German recovery, and feelings of belonging
created by acts of racial exclusion led many Germans to support regime
o Hitler remained popular with broad sections of population well into the war
Not all Germs supported Hitler
o Number of German groups actively resisted him after 1933
▪ Opponents of Nazis never unified, accounting for lack of success
▪ Regime clamped down: thousands of polit enemies imprisoned, thousands
executed
o In first years of Hitler’s rule, principle resisters were COMMS and Socialists in trade
unions, groups smashed by expansion of SS system
o Second group of opponents arose in Catholic and Prot Churches
▪ Efforts primarily at preserving religious life, not overthrowing Hitler
o In 1938 and again during the war, a few high ranking army officers, who feared
consequences of Hitler’s reckless aggression, plotted against him, but all were
unsuccessful
Aggression and Appeasement
• Nazification of German society fulfilled only part of larger Nazi agenda
o Aggressively pursued policies meant to achieve territorial expansion for supposedly
superior German race
• At first, Hitler carefully camouflaged his expansionist foreign policy
o Germany still militarily weak, and Hitler loudly proclaimed his peaceful intentions
o Germany’s withdrawal from LON in October 1933 indicated that Stresemann’s policy of
peaceful cooperation was dead
o March 1935 Hitler openly proclaimed that Germany would no longer abide by
disarmament clauses of TOV
o Established military draft and began to build up German army
▪ France, Italy, and Brit protested strongly and warned against future aggressive
actions
• Emerging united front against Hitler quickly collapsed
o Brit adopted policy of appeasement: granted Hitler everything he could reasonably want
in order to avoid war (Hitler wanted western Czechoslovakia)
▪ Dictated French policy
▪ Motivated by pacifism of population still horrified by memories of WWI
o As in Germany, many powerful conservatives in Brit underestimated Hitler
▪ Believed that Soviet COMM was the real danger and Hitler could be used to stop
it
o Strong AntiCOMM feelings made alliance between Western Powers and Stalin unlikely
• Hitler suddenly marched armies into demilitarized Rhineland in March 1936, violating TOV and
Locarno
o Brit refused to act
o
o
o
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
France could do little w/o Brit support
Emboldened, Hitler moved more aggressively in international affairs
Enlisted powerful allies in Nazi cause
▪ Italy and Germany established Rome-Berlin Axis in 1936
▪ Japan, under rule of fascist dictatorship, joined Axis alliance
At same time, Germany and Italy intervened in Spanish civil war, where their military helped
General Francisco Franco’s revolutionary fascist movement defeat the democratically elected
republican gov
o Republican Spain’s only aid came from SU
o Public opinion in Brit and France was hopelessly divided on whether to intervene
Late 1937: Hitler moved forward with plans to crush Austria and Czechoslovakia as first step in
drive for living space in the east
o By threatening Austria w/ invasion, Hitler forced Austrian chancellor to put local Nazis in
control of gov in March 1938
o Next day, in Austrian Anschluss (annexation), German armies moved in unopposed, and
Austria became two more provinces of Greater Germany
Simultaneously, Hitler demanded that territories inhabited mostly by ethnic Germs in w.
Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) be ceded to Nazi Germany
o Democratic Czechoslovakia was allied with France and SU and was prepared to defend
itself
o Appeasement: Sept 1938: Brit prime minister Arthur Neville flew to Germ 3x in 14 days
▪ In these negotiations, Chamberlain and French agreed w/ Hitler that Germany
should immediately take over the Sudetenland
▪ Chamberlain told cheering crowds he secured “peace for our time”
o Sold out by Western Powers, Czechoslovakia gave in
Chamberlain’s peace was short lived
o March 1939, Hitler’s armies invaded and occupied rest of Czechoslovakia
▪ Effect on Western public opinion was electrifying: no possible rationale of self
determination for Nazi aggression, since Hitler was seizing ethnic Czechs and
Slovaks as captive ppls
o Hitler used question of German minorities in Danzig as pretext to control Poland
▪ Suddenly militant Chamberlain declared that Brit and France would fight if Hitler
attacked his eastern neighbor
▪ Hitler did not take warnings seriously and pressed on
August 1939: about face that stunned the world – Hitler and Stalin signed a so called
nonaggression pact that paved road to war
o Each dictator promised to remain neuytral if the other became involved in open hostilities
o Secret protocol divided Poland and east-central ERP into German and Soviet zones
o Stalin agreed to pact because he remained distrustful of Western intentions and Hitler
offered immediate territorial gain
For Hitler, everything was set
o September 1, 1939: German armies and warplanes smashed into Poland from 3 sides
o Two days later, Brit and France declared war on Germany
WWII had begun
The Second World War
• Nazi Germany’s unlimited ambition unleashed an apocalyptic cataclysm of world war
•
Hitler’s armies conquered much of w and e ERP, establishing a vast empire of death and
destruction based on Nazi ideas of race and space
•
Japanese armies overran much of SE Asia and created their own racial empire
•
Reckless aggression brought together a coalition of unlikely but powerful allies determined to
halt fascism: Brit, US, and SU
o
“Grand Alliance” decisively defeated Axis powers after decimating much of ERP and
E.Asia
German Victories in Europe
• Planes, tanks, and trucks in blitzkrieg, or “lightning war,” Hitler’s armies crushed Poland in 4
weeks
•
•
•
o
SU quickly took eastern half of Poland and indep Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia, and
Latvia
o
French and Brit armies prepared defenses in west
Spring of 1940: Nazi lightning war struck again
o
After occupying Denmark, Norway, and Holland, German motorized columns broke into
France through southern Belgium, split Franco-Brit forces, and trapped Brit army on
French beaches of Dunkirk
o
Brits withdrew troops but not equipment, and France was taken by Nazis
o
July 1940: Hitler ruled practically all of western continental EPR
o
Italy was an ally; Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria joined Axis powers; SU, Spain, and
Sweden were friendly neutrals
o
Only Brit, led by Winston Churchill remained unconquered
To prepare for invasion of Brit, Germany sought to gain control of the air
o
Battle of Brit; July 1940: 1,000 Germ planes a day attacked Brit airfields and key
factories, dueling with Brits defenders in the sky
o
Losses heavy on both sides
o
Sept 1940: Hitler angrily turned from military objectives to indiscriminate bombing of
Brit cities to break Brit morale
o
Brit aircraft factories increased production, and bombed ppl of London dug in
o
By October, Brit was beating Germany 3 to 1 in the air war, and the Battle of Brit was
over
o
Nazi war machine turned south and invaded and occupied Greece and Balkans
Hitler now allowed his lifetime obsession of creating a vast eastern ERPN empire ruled by master
race to dictate policy
o
June 1941: Germ armies attacked SU along a vast front, breaking the Nazi-Soviet Pact
o
By October Leningrad was practically surrounded, most of Ukraine conquered, and
Moscow besieged
o
Soviets did not collapse, and Germans in summer uniforms were beaten by the severe
winter
o
Stalled in Russia, Hitler and allies still ruled over a vast ERPN empire stretching from
outskirts of Moscow to the English Channel
o
Hitler, the Nazi leadership, and the loyal German army were positioned to greatly
accelerate construction of their New Order in ERP
Europe Under Nazi Occupation
• Hitler’s New Order was based firmly on guiding principle of National Socialism: racial
imperialism
•
o
Occupied ppls were treated according to their place on the Nazi racial hierarchy
o
All were subject to harsh policies dedicated to ethnic cleansing and plunder of resources
for Nazi war effort
New Order: Hitler’s program based on racial imperialism, which gave preferential treatment to
Nordic ppls; the French, an “inferior” Latin ppl, occupied a middle position, and Slavs and Jews
were treated harshly as “subhumans”
o
o
•
Nordic ppls: Dutch, Norwegians, Danes, received preferential treatment
▪
Believed they were racially related to the Aryan master race
▪
Nazis established puppet govs of various kinds
▪
Nazis found collaborators willing to rule these states in accord w/ German needs
France divided into 2 parts: German army occupied north, including Paris, SE remained
nominally indep – Marshal Henri Petain formed a new French gov, the Vichy regime, that
adopted many aspects of National Socialist ideology and willingly placed French Jews in
hands of Nazis
IN all conquered territories, Nazis used a variety of techniques to enrich Germans and support the
war effort
o
Occupied nations forced to pay costs of war and for occupation – price was high
o
Nai administrators stole goods and money from local Jews, set currency exchange at
favorable rates, and forced occupied ppls to accept worthless wartime scrip
o
Soldiers encouraged to steal but also purchase goods at cheap exchange rates and send
them home
▪
o
Flood of plunder reached Germany, which helped maintain high living standards
and preserved popular morale well into the war
Nazi victory placed national Jewish populations across EPR under German control, and
eased the planning and implementation of the mass murder of EPRN Jews
•
•
IN occupied territories in eastern front, German rule was ruthless and deadly
o
From the start, Nazi leadership had cast the war in the east as a war of annihilation
o
Now set out to build vast eastern colonial empire where Jews would be exterminated and
Poles, Ukrainians, and Russians would be enslaved and forced to die out
o
Ethnic German peasants would resettle resulting abandoned lands
IN pursuit of such goals, large parts of w. Poland were incorporated into Germany
o
•
•
Another part of Poland was set up as General Government and placed under rule of
merciless civilian administration
With support of military commanders, Germ policemen, and bureaucrats in occupied territories,
Nazi administrators and Himmler’s elite SS corps now implemented a program of destruction and
annihilation to create a “mass settlement space” for racially pure Germans
o
Across eastern front, Nazi armies destroyed cities and factories, stole crops and farm
animals, and subjected conquered ppls to forced starvation and mass murder
o
Murderous sweep of Nazi occupation destroyed lives of millions, as example of Belarus
▪
7/9 mill were still in country by 1944
▪
3 million homeless
In response to such atrocities, small but determined underground resistance groups fought back
o
Hardly unified
o
COMMS and Socialists often disagreed with more centrist or nationalist groups on long
term goals and short term tactics
▪
o
•
Yugoslavia: COMM and royalist military resistance groups attacked Germs, but
also each other
Resistance still presented a real challenge to the Nazi new Order
▪
Poland, under the longest Germ occupation, had the most determined and well
organized resistance
▪
Nazis closed all Polish universities and outlawed national newspapers, but Poles
organized secret classes, and maintained thriving underground press
▪
Underground members of Polish Home Army passed intelligence about Germ
operations to Allies and committed sabotage
▪
COMM groups in Poland attacked Nazis
▪
French resistance undertook similar actions, as did groups in Italy, Greece,
Russia, and Netherlands
German response was swift and deadly
o
Nazi army and SS tortured captured resistance members and executed hostages in reprisal
for attacks
o
Germ army murdered male population of Czechoslovakia and France and leveled entire
towns
▪
Nazi barbarism in pursuit of racial New Order occupied in ERP
The Holocaust
• Ultimate abomination of Nazi racism was condemnation of all EPRN Jews and other ppls
considered racially inferior to extreme racial persecution and then annihilation in the Holocaust:
great spasm of racially inspired mass murder that took place during WWII
•
•
•
•
After taking power, Nazis began to use social, legal, and economic means to persecute Jews and
other “undesirable” Jews
o
Euthanasia
o
As Germany began war, 70,000 ppl with physical and mental disabilities were forced to
special hospitals/barracks/camps
▪
Deemed by Nazi administrators as “unworthy lives”, who might “pollute the
German race”
▪
Murdered in cold blood
▪
Victims mostly ethnic Germs, but euthanasia campaign was stopped after church
leaders and ordinary families spoke out
Germ victory over Poland in 1939 brought 3 million Jews under Nazi control
o
Jews living in Germ occupied territories were soon forced to move into centralized urban
areas known as ghettos
o
In walled off districts in cities large and small (ex. Warsaw and Lodz) hundreds of
thousands of Polish Jews were forced to live in highly crowded and unsanitary
conditions, w/o real work or adequate sustenance
o
Over 500,000 ppl died in Nazi ghettos
Racial violence reached new extremes when Germ war of annihilation against SU opened in 1941
o
3 military death squads known as Special Action Units (Einsatzgruppen) and other
military groups followed the advancing German armies into central ERP
o
Moved from town to town shooting Jews and other target populations
o
Victims of mobile killing units were often forced to dig their own graves before being
shot
o
Murdered 2 million innocent civilians
Late 1941: Hitler and Nazi leadership ordered SS to implement mass murder of all Jews in ERP
o
“Final solution of the Jewish question”
o
Germs set up industrialized killing machine that remains unparalleled
o
SS established network fo concentration camps, industrial complexes, and RR transport
liens to imprison and murder Jews and so called undesirables, and to exploit their labor
before they died
o
In occupied eastern territories, surviving residents of ghettos were loaded onto trains and
taken to camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau
▪
•
•
Over 1 million murdered in gas chambers
o
Some few were put to work as expendable laborers
o
Jews of Germ and then of occupied W and C ERP were likewise rounded up, put on
trains, and sent to the camps
o
Even after it was clear Germ would lose the war, the killing continued
Murderous attack on ERPN Jews was ultimate monstrosity of Nazi racism and racial imperialism
o
By 1945, Nazis had killed about 6 million Jews
o
Who’s responsible?
▪
Hitler/Nazi leadership because ordinary Germs had little knowledge of
extermination camps or were forced to participate by Nazi terror and totalitarian
control
▪
Germs knew about and were at best indifferent at fate of “racial inferiors”
What inspired those who actually worked in the killing machine, the “desk murderers” who sent
trains and soldiers, shot Jews in forests, and guarded camps
o
Some believe that extremists and widely shared anti-Semitism led ordinary Germs to
become Hitler’s willing executioners
o
Others say that heightened peer pressure, the desire to advance in the ranks, and the need
to prove one’s strength under the brutal wartime violence turned average Germs into
reluctant killers
▪
o
Conditioning of racist Nazi propaganda clearly played a role
Whatever the motivation, numerous Germs were somehow prepared to join the SS
ideologues and perpetrate crime: from mistreatment to arrest to mass murder
Japanese Empire and the War in the Pacific
• Racist war of annihilation in ERP was matched by racially inspired warfare in E. Asia
o
In response to polit divisions and economic crisis, a fascist gov had taken control of
Japan in 1930s
o
•
•
•
•
•
As in Germ/Italy, Jap system was highly nationalistic and militaristic and was deeply
committed to imperial expansion
Japs shared extremist EPRN ideas about hierarchy, but thought the Asian races were far superior
to western Aryans
o
Anti-Western views voiced in speeches, schools, and newspapers
o
Glorified warrior virtues of honor and sacrifice
o
Proclaimed that Japan would liberate E. Asia from Western colonialists
Japan soon acted on racial-imperial ambitions
o
1931: Jap armies invaded and occupied Manchuria, bordering NE Chine
o
1937: Japan invaded China itself
o
1940: Jap entered formal alliance w/ Italy and Germany to cement ties w/ fascist regimes
of ERP
o
Summer 1941: Jap armies occupied southern portions of French colony of Indo China
Goal was to establish what Japs called the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
o
Under slogan “Asia for Asians”, propagandists maintained that Jap expansion was
intended to liberate E. Asian ppl from the hated Western colonialists
o
By promising to create a mutually advantageous union for long term development, the
Japs tapped current of nationalist sentiment, and most local populations were glad to see
the Western Powers go
Co-Prosperity Sphere was a sham
o
Real power remained in hands of Jap military commanders and their superiors in Tokyo
o
Occupiers exploited local ppls for Japan’s wartime needs
o
Japs often exhibited great cruelty toward civilian populations and prisoners of war, which
aroused local populations against invaders
o
Ability of Japs to defeat Western colonial powers set a powerful example for national
liberation groups in E. Asia in years of decolonization that followed WWII
Jap expansion in Pacific evoked a sharp response from US administration under President
Roosevelt, and Japan came to believe war w/ US was inevitable
o
Surprise attack on US fleet in Pearl Harbor in Hawaiian Islands
o
December 78, 1941: Jap sank/crippled every Am battleship, by all aircraft carriers were at
sea and escaped unharmed
o
Brought Ams into war in ERP and Asia in spirit of anger and revenge
•
As Ams mobilized for war, Jap armies overran more EPRN and Am colonies in SE Asia
o
By May 1942 Jap controlled vast empire and was threatening Australia
o
Ams pushed back and engaged Japs in series of hard fought naval battles
o
July 1943: Ams and Australian allies opened successful island hopping campaign that
slowly forced Jap out of its conquered territories
o
War in pacific was extremely brutal and atrocities were committed on both sides
o
Violence, mutual hatred, and dehumanizing racial stereotypes made fighting intensify as
US moved toward Japan
The “Hinge of Fate”
• While Nazis/Japs built empires, Brit, Us, and SU joined together in a military pact Churchill
called the Grand Alliance
•
•
o
Chance more than choice
o
Only Jap attack at Pearl Harbor brought isolationist US into war
o
Brits and Ams were opponents of Soviet COMM, and disagreements between Soviets and
capitalist powers sowed mutual distrust
o
Stalin repeatedly urged Brit and US to open second front to relieve pressure on SU forces
by attacking the Germ w. front, but Churchill and Roosevelt refused until Summer of
1944
o
Despite such tensions, overriding goal of defeating the Axis powers brought together
these reluctant allies
To ease tensions, Grand Alliance agreed on a policy of “Europe first”
o
Only after Hitler was defeated would the Allies mount an all out attack on Japan, the
lesser threat
o
Allies also agreed to concentrate on immediate military needs, postponing tough political
questions about eventual peace settlement
o
To further encourage mutual trust, Allies adopted principle of unconditional surrender of
Germany and Japan
▪
Cemented Grand Alliance because it denied Hitler any hope of dividing his foes
▪
Also meant Soviet and Anglo-American armies would almost certainly be forced
to invade and occupy all of Germany, and that Japan would fight to the bitter end
Military resources of Grand Alliance were awesome
o
US harnessed vast industrial base to wage global war
o
1943: Outproduced Germany, Italy, Japan, and rest of world combined
•
o
Brit became an impregnable floating fortress, a gigantic frontline staging area for the
decisive blow to the heart of Germany
o
After determined push, SU’s military strength was so great that it could have defeated
Germ w/o Western help
▪
Stalin drew on heroic resolve of Soviet ppl, esp those in the c. Russian heartland
▪
Broad based Russian nationalism, as opposed to narrow communist ideology,
became a powerful unifying force in what the Soviet ppl called the Great
Patriotic War of the Fatherland
Combined might of Allies forced back Nazi New Order on all fronts
o
N. Africa, heavy fighting between Brit and Axis forces resulted in significant German
advances
o
Battle of El Alamein in May 1942, Brit forces defeated Germ/Italian armies and halted
Axis penetration of N. Africa
▪
•
•
•
Winston Churchill called this battle the “hinge of fate” that cemented Allied
victory
o
Shortly thereafter, the Anglo-American force landed in Morocco and Algeria
French possessions, which were under control of Petain’s Vichy gov, went over to the
Allies
o
Fearful of an Allied invasion across the Mediterranean, In Nov 1942, Germ forces
occupied Vichy France, and the collaborationist French gov ceased to exist
After driving Axis powers out of N. Africa in spring 1943, US and Brit forces invaded Sicily and
then mainland Italy
o
MSL overthrown in coup d’état and new Italian gov publicly accepted unconditional
surrender
o
Germs had anticipated such a move – Nazi armies invaded and seized control of n and c.
Italy, and Germ paratroopers rescued MSL and put him at head of puppet gov
o
Facing still German resistance, Allies battled their way up Italian peninsula
o
Germs still held northern Italy, but were clearly on the defensive
Spring 1943: Crucial Allied victories in sea and in air
o
In first years, Germ submarines attacked N. Atlantic shipping, hampering Brit war effort
o
New antisubmarine technologies favored Allies
o
Soon, massive convoys of hundreds of ships were streaming across Atlantic, bringing
troops and supplies from US to Brit
Germ air force never recovered from defeat in Battle of Britain
•
o
With almost unchallenged air superiority, the US and Brit now mounted massive
bombing raids on Germ cities to maim industrial production and break civilian moral
o
By war’s end, hardly a Germ city of any size remained untouched, and many lay in ruins
Brit and US had made critical advances in western front, but Germ forces suffered worse defeats
at hands of Red Army on e. front
o
Germs captured major cities of Moscow and Leningrad in early winter 1941, but were
forced back by determined Soviet counterattacks
o
Germs mounted second and initially successful invasion of SU in summer of 1942, but
the campaign was a disaster
o
Downfall came at Battle of Stalingrad when in Nov 1942, Soviets surrounded and
destroyed entire German Sixth Army of 300,000 men
▪
Jan 1943: only 123,000 soldiers left to surrender
▪
Hitler refused to allow a retreat, and suffered a catastrophic defeat
▪
For first time, Germ public opinion turned against war
▪
Summer 1943: Larger, better equipped Soviet armies took offensive and began to
push Germ s back along entire eastern front
Allied Victory
• Balance of power was now clearly in Allied hands, yet fighting continued in EPR fro almost 2
years
•
•
o
Germany: less fully mobilized for war than Brit in 1941, stepped up efforts
o
Germ war industry, under Nazi minister of armaments, Albert Speer, put to work
millions of prisoners of war and slave laborers from across occupied ERP
o
Between 1942 and July 1944, Germ war production tripled despite heavy AngloAmerican bombing
German resistance against Hitler failed to halt fighting
o
Unsuccessful attempt by conservative army leaders to assassinate Hitelr in July 1944 only
brought increased repression by fanatic Nazis who’d taken over gob
o
Disciplined by the regime, frightened by unconditional surrender, and territorized by Nazi
propaganda that portrayed advancing Russian armies as Slavic beasts, Germs fought on
with suicidal resolve
June 6, 1944; Am and Brit forces under General Dwight Eisenhower landed on beaches of
Normandy, France in history’s greatest naval invasion
o
100 days, more than 2 million men and ½ mill vehicles pushed inland and broke through
Germ lines
Rejecting proposals to strike straight at Berlin, Eisenhower moved forward cautiously ion
a broad front
•
o
Not until 1945 did the Am troops cross the Rhine and enter Germ
o
By spring 1945 the Allies had also pushed Germs out of Italina peninsula
o
April 1945: MSL captured in n. Italy by anti-fascist COMM partisans and executed
Soviets, who’d been advancing since 1943 reached outskirts of Warsaw by Aug 1944
o
Anticipating Germ defeat, Polish underground Home Army ordered an uprising, so that
the Poles might take the city on their own and establish indep from Soviets
o
Warsaw Uprising was a miscalculation – citing military pressure, Red Army refused to
enter city and allowed Germs to destroy Polish insurgents
o
Only after Home Army surrender did Red Army continue
o
Warsaw was decimated and mostly civilians lost their lives
•
Over next 6 months, Soviets moved southward into Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia
•
January 1945: Red Army crossed Poland into Germany, April 26, met Am forces on Elbe River
•
Allies closed vise on Nazi Germany and overran ERP
•
As Soviet forces fought their way into Berlin, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker and on May
8, remaining Germ commanders capitulated
•
War in Pacific drew to a close
•
o
In spite of repeated US victories, Jap troops had continued to fight with enormous
courage and determination
o
Am commanders believed the conquest of Japan might cause Am casualties and Jap lives
o
Jap was almost helpless, its industry and wooden cities destroyed by intense Am bombing
o
Yet Japs seemed determined to fight on, ready to die for a hopeless cause
Aug 6 and 9, 1945: Am planes dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan
o
Mass bombing ended the final nightmare – unprecedented human destruction
o
Au 14, 1945: Jap announced surrender
o
WWII had claimed lives of more than 50 million soldiers and civilians