Chapter 26
The New Power Balance
1850-1900
AP World History
New Technologies and the World Economy
Railroads
 By 1850 every industrializing country began to build
railroad lines. Large networks could be found in Britain,
France, Germany, Canada, Russia, and Japan, with the
largest (by the end of the century) in the US.
 Why the tremendous explosion in RR building –
 While RR began in Britain by the end of the century they
had been surpassed by all the above (save Japan). Why is that
not surprising –
 Environmental impacts -
Steamships and Telegraph Cables
 Shipbuilding developments - iron (then steel) for
hulls, propellers, and engines.
Allowed for enormous increase in carrying capacity of
freighters (200 tons – 1850 to 7500 tons – 1900)
Impact of shipping advancements (price, world trade, desire for raw
materials and markets, etc) –
 Submarine telegraph cables used to coordinate
movements of ships around the globe.
 The Steel and Chemical Industries
 Steel could only be made in small quantities by skilled
blacksmiths before the 19th century (Bessemer process and
subsequent improvements changed that)
Impact of large scale cheap steel production –
http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/h-carnegie-steel.htm
 19th century brought large-scale manufacture of
chemicals(organic and non-organic) and synthetic dyes
 Alfred Nobel – dynamite (safe nitro); also patented a
smokeless gunpowder – more powerful and accurate
firearms.
Nobel Peace Prize – a love interest?
(Did you know that Hitler and Stalin were both nominees)
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/nobelprize_facts.html
Electricity
 1870s - efficient generators that turned mechanical energy
into electricity used to power arc lamps, incandescent lamps,
streetcars, subways, and electric motors for industry.
 Edison – light bulb (1879), first electric grid (1882)
 Edison – DC, Tesla - AC
 Electricity eventually would help to alleviate pollution caused
by horse-drawn vehicles and didn’t pollute air (gas lamps,
coal, stoves/ovens, etc).
 Other impacts of electricity – work, street cars, subways,
street lights, settlement patterns, etc
World’s greatest failure?
“I have not failed a thousand times I have found a
thousand ways not to be successful”
World Trade and Finance
 Between 1850 and 1913 world trade expanded tenfold, while
the cost of freight dropped between 50 and 95 percent
 Even cheap and heavy products (agricultural goods, raw materials, and machinery)
could be shipped around the world.
What helped lead to the dramatic drop in shipping
costs and increase in trade -
 The growth of trade and close connections between the
industrial economies of Western Europe and North America
brought great prosperity and increased vulnerability to
these areas
 Increasing global interdependence increased likelihood that economic
impacts would not be isolated to one country alone
 Non-industrial areas even more vulnerable to swings in the
business cycle. Why (natural phenomenon, overproduction,
competition, synthetic replacements, etc) -
 .
Population and Migrations
 Between 1850 and 1914 Europe population almost doubled
– approx 265,000,000 to 468,000,000
 European Emigration spurred growth in US, Canada,
Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina.
 US – 23,000,000
to
 Canada – 2,500,00
to
92,000,000
7,200,000
 What were the reasons so many people emigrated from Europe –
 Proportion of people of European ancestry in the world’s
population rose from one-fifth to one-third.
 European population increases –
 drop in the death rate (why?)  improved crop yields (why)  canning and refrigeration (impact) –
 the provision of a more abundant year-round diet
 etc
Urbanization and Urban Environments
 Meteoric rise in urbanization (Europe, America, Japan). Why –
 Industrialization along with mass transportation
benefitting the rich and middle class and later the working class).
(initially
 Improved sewage, water supply systems, gas and electric
lighting, police and fire departments, sanitation and
garbage removal, building and health inspection, schools,
parks, and other amenities made cities much more
desirable places to live.
 Urban planning (often over older areas) made cities easier to
navigate and more attractive places to live, cities began to
expand outward.
 Although urban environments improved in many ways, air
quality worsened. Coal used as fuel polluted the air. While
horses began to be slowly replaced the waste left by their
still substantial numbers added to the often noxious
miasma of cities (significant reduction in their numbers would be decades in coming)
Middle-Class Women and the “Separate Sphere”
 “Victorian Age” - not only to the reign of Queen Victoria
(r.1837–1901), but also to the rules of behavior and the
ideology surrounding the family and relations between men and
women.

Men and women were thought to belong in “separate spheres,”
the men in the workplace, the women in the home.
 Before electrical appliances, a middle-class home demanded lots of
work; technology eliminated some tasks and made others easier.
 However, new technology raised standards of cleanliness – so a woman could
expect just as much work as before
 The most important duty of middle-class women was to raise their
children.
 Women were excluded from jobs that required higher
education. A middle class woman was expected to quit
working and stay at home to raise the her children as soon
as she had children. Some middle-class women were not
satisfied with home life and became involved in volunteer
work or in the women’s suffrage movement.
 Additionally, expected to have at least one servant if middle class
Working-Class Women
 Working-class women led lives of toil and pain.
 Domestic servants, facing long hours, hard physical labor,
and sexual abuse from their masters or their masters’ sons.
 Factory workers - poorly paid work in the textiles mills and
clothing trades.
 Married women were expected to stay home, raise children,
do housework, and contribute to the family income.
Socialism and Labor Movements
Marx and Socialism
 Best-known socialist was Karl Marx (1818–1883) who,
along with Friedrich Engels (1820–1895) wrote the
Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867).
 Marx saw history as a series of class struggles
 The “haves” and the “have nots”
 Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat
 Believed workers would rise up and overthrow owners;
establishing a classless society
 Marx's theories provided an intellectual framework
dissatisfaction with unfettered capitalism.
 No specific plans
 Flaws in his ideology? (hint human nature) -
Labor Movements
 Labor unions - organizations of industrial workers to
protect their interests as well as better conditions, benefits,
etc
 Universal male suffrage gave workers greater influence
over governmental decisions and convinced many to seek
concessions from the government and even to win
elections; through the vote rather than violence
 Women were usually not welcome in the male dominated
trade unions or in politics in general
Nationalism as a unifying and divisive force
Language and National Identity Before 1871
 Language was usually the crucial element in creating a
feeling of national unity, but language and citizenship did
not always coincide.
 Until the 1860s nationalism was associated with liberalism,
as in the case of the Italian liberal nationalist Giuseppe
Mazzini. After 1848 conservative political leaders learned
how to preserve the social status quo by using public
education, universal military service, and colonial
conquests to build a sense of national identity that focused
loyalty on the state.
With the help of Camillo di Cavour
Victor Emmanuel II united Northern
Italy.
In the South Guiseppe Garibaldi
(leader of the Red Shirts) worked to
unite the Italian states.
Garibaldi’s followers were called Red Shirts for
signature red shirts they wore; including into battle
Italian unification completed - 1870
Despite unification Italy still had many unsolved economic
and social problems.
Italy did not become highly industrialized
- this would plague Italy well into the 20th
century!
Italy’s lack of industrial might would be one
of the biggest reasons for the Italian Army’s
poor performance in both world wars!!!!!
WWI
WWII
The Unification of Germany
 Until the 1860s the German-speaking people were divided
among Prussia, the Austrian Empire, and numerous smaller
states.

Prussia took the lead in the movement for German unity - strong industrial base,
militaristic nation with the latest military, transportation, and communications
technology.
 During the reign of Wilhelm I (r. 1861–1888) the Prussian
chancellor Otto von Bismarck achieved the unification of
Germany through a combination of diplomacy and a series
of wars with other European powers.
The Prussian chancellor Bismarck used warfare as an
instrument of national policy. He used a series of three
wars to unify the German states and make Germany
the most powerful country on the continent of Europe.
Bismarck is well known for his policy of Realpolitik (the
Reality of Politics) – power politics. He also stated that the
“Blood and Iron” of Germany would make Germany mighty.
What represented the blood and the iron of Germany? Lastly,
Bismarck was credited with saying that he negotiated and
governed with a “Mailed Fist.”
What did Bismarck mean by each of these statements?
Bismarck’s wars of unification.
1864
1866
What three countries did Bismarck provoke war with
in order to unify Germany?
1870-71
Austria and Prussia went to war in 1866.
The Prussians had better leaders, better
equipment, and utilized superior strategy.
The Austrian Empire became the Austrian-Hungarian Empire
after its defeat at the hands of the Prussians.
One of the most important factors in the Prussian
victory over the Austrians was the Prussian needle
gun.
The Austrians were using guns which had to be loaded from
the muzzle (front of the barrel) of the gun.
Most of the Prussian troops were using the “Needle Gun”.
The “Needle Gun was loaded through the breech (side of the
weapon). Furthermore it used a round which contained the shot
and powder in a metal jacket.
**In what ways was the Prussian weapon far superior to the
Austrian weapon?
In 1871 Wilhelm I was crowned Kaiser of the new
German Empire - and the second Reich was born.
The Prussian victories and
subsequent unification worried
the other European powers. The balance of
power on the European continent had now
swung decisively
in Germany’s favor.
Victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War
completed the unification of Germany, but it also
resulted in German control over the French
provinces of Alsace and Lorraine and thus in the
long-term enmity between France and Germany.
French military planning for the next four plus decades
would revolve around avenging this loss and retaking the
provinces of Alsace and Lorraine
Nationalism after 1871
 After the Franco-Prussian War all politicians tried to
manipulate public opinion in order to bolster their
governments by using the press and public
education in order to foster nationalistic loyalties.
In many countries the dominant group used
nationalism to justify the imposition of its language,
religion, or customs on minority populations.
 Europeans (Herbert Spencer 1820–1903) took up Darwin’s ideas
“natural selection” and “survival of the fittest” applied them to human societies to justify European
Imperialism and dominance of “big business”
The Great Powers of Europe 1871-1900
Germany at the Center of Europe
 German unification undid the balance of power that
the Congress of Vienna had tried to restore.
 Bismarck worked very hard to isolate France by
forging a loose coalition with Austria-Hungary and
Russia.
 At home, Bismarck used mass politics and social
legislation to gain popular support and to develop a
strong sense of national unity and pride amongst the
German people.
 Wilhelm II (r. 1888–1918) dismissed Bismarck and
initiated an aggressive German foreign policy that
placed emphasis on the acquisition of colonies and
the build-up of a “risk fleet”. In the process he
succeeded in undoing almost all of Bismarck’s foreign
policy successes
France and Great Britain
 France was now a second-rate power in Europe
 Smaller population (and population growth)
 Smaller army
 Less industrialized
 While Britain, had a stable government and a
narrowing in the disparity of wealth it was not without
its own problems.
 Irish resentment of English rule,
 An economy that that had fallen behind the U.S. and Germany
 An enormous empire that was very expensive to administer and
to defend.
 For most of the 19th century Britain pursued a policy of “splendid
isolation” toward Europe; preoccupation with India led the British
to exaggerate the Russian threat to the Ottoman Empire and to
the Central Asian approaches to India while they ignored the rise
of Germany.
Russian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian and Russian Empires were a collection
of many diverse nationalities, languages, and
religions.
How could this create problems concerning
the administration and ruling of the empire?
Russia and Austria-Hungary
 The forces of nationalism weakened Russia and
Austria-Hungary. (Austria had alienated its Slavic-speaking minorities by
renaming itself the Austro-Hungarian Empire.)
 Ethnic diversity also contributed to instability in both
 In 1861 Tsar Alexander II emancipated the peasants
from serfdom, but did so in such a way that it only
turned them into communal farmers with few skills
and little capital
 Neither industrialized to any appreciable degree
 Middle-class of each remained small and weak while the landowning aristocracy dominated politics.
 Russia was embarrassed on the world stage in the RussoJapanese War (1904–1905)
 The Revolution of 1905 demonstrated the dissatisfaction of the
masses and caused Tsar Nicholas II to introduce a constitution
and the Duma (parliamentary body)
 reverted to despotism as soon as he had the situation stabilized.
Japan Joins the Great Powers 1865-1905
China, Japan, and the Western Powers, to 1867
 China resisted Western influence – ended up divided into spheres of
influence
 Japan transformed itself into a major industrial and military power.
 Japan embraced Westernization; China did not (Japan
wanted to avoid China’s fate)
 Dowager Empress (Cixi) and other officials opposed railways or other
technologies that would spread foreign influences
 Tokugawa Shogunate had closed Japan to the West
(early 17th century)
 In 1853, the American Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Japan
with a fleet of steam-powered warships and demanded that the
Japanese open their ports to trade and American ships.
 Dissatisfaction with the shogunate's capitulation to American and
European demands led to a civil war and the overthrow of the
shogunate in 1868.
Meiji Restoration and the Modernization of Japan
 Meiji were willing to change their institutions and their society
in order to help transform their country into a world-class
industrial and military power.
 The Japanese government encouraged industrialization,
funding industrial development with tax revenue extracted
from the rural sector and then selling state-owned enterprises
to private entrepreneurs.
 Sent emissaries to observe German, Britain, and American
societies, govt., military, etc.
 By 1890 Japan had a large modern navy and a modern army of
500,00 men
 Japan was a militaristic society with a foreign policy that
defined Japan’s “sphere of influence” to include Korea,
Manchuria, and part of China (Greater Asian co-prosperity sphere)
 Anyone who was an obstacle to these plans would have to
be removed as such
 Sino-Japanese War (1894)
 resulted in ineffectual Chinese reform effort (the Hundred Days
Reform) in 1898
 Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)
 Annexation of Korea (1910)
 Takeover of businesses, teaching of Japanese, etc