Chapter 23
Mass Society in an “Age of Progress,”
1871 - 1894
The Industrial Regions of Europe by 1914
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The Growth of Industrial Prosperity
Second Industrial Revolution
New Products
Human progress is tied to greater
consumption of material goods
Substitution of steel for iron
• Growth from 125,000 to 32 million tons
Growth of chemical industry
Electricity powers this revolution
• Thomas Edison and Joseph Swan – light
bulb
• Alexander Graham Bell– telephone, 1876
• Guglielmo Marconi– radio waves across
the Atlantic, 1901
• Siemens & Halske Electric railway in
Berlin, 1879
Internal combustion engine
• Mixture of gas and air first built in 1878
Automobile and airplane
• Henry Ford (1863-1947) – mass
production
• Zeppelin airship, 1900
• Wright brothers, 1903
New markets post 1870
Urban consumers demand skyrockets
National income growth
• Real wages increase
• Spend more on consumer goods
Competition for foreign markets
Cartels
Protective tariffs by most nations
• Growth in anti-free trade movements
New Patterns in an Industrial Economy
Depression, 1873-1895
Economic boom after 1895
La belle époque
German Industrial Leadership
Germany replaces Britain as the industrial leader
of Europe
• British suspicion of innovation
Emerging industries of chemicals and heavy
electric machinery
Union of science and technology
Japanese governmental planning and initiative
European Economic Zones 1900
Europe into two economic zones
Advance industrial core of Great Britain, Belgium France, the
Netherlands, Germany, western part of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, and northern Italy
Little industrial development in southern Italy, most of AustriaHungary, Spain, Portugal, the Balkan kingdoms, and Russia
Agricultural growth causes a drop in agricultural prices
Tariff barriers
A World Economy
Economic development in conjunction with growth in marine
and railroad transportation
Women and Work: New Job Opportunities
Expanding service sector changes quality and
quantity of employment opportunities
“Right to work”
Domesticity
Sweatshops
White-Collar Jobs
Clerks, shop assistants and nurses
Increased white-collar jobs creates shortage of
male workers opening up opportunities for
women
Secretaries and teachers
Freedom from “dirty work” of the lower-class
world
Prostitution
Working-class girls flocked to the cities from
the countryside
Employment unstable and wages low
Licensed and regulated
Contagious Diseases Acts in Britain, 1870s and
1880s
Organizing the Working Class
Socialist Parties desires to improve living and working
conditions for workers
German Social Democratic Party (SPD)
• Marxist rhetoric, improve the condition of the
working class
German Social Democrats
• Socialist party
Jean Jaurès (1859-1914)
• French socialism
Social Democratic Labor Party
• Marxist, organized in Russia in 1898
Second International
Revisionism and Nationalism
Eduard Bernstein (1850-1932), Evolutionary Socialism, 1899
• Demise of capitalism not near
• Bourgeoisie expanding
• Proletariat improving
• Discarded class struggle
• Evolution not revolution
 Using democratic policy to create socialism
Role of Trade Unions
Develop slowly, initially set up as mutual aid societies
Generally allied with Socialists, depending on the
country
England has the largest number of trade unionist preWWI
German trade unions attached to political parties
Anarchist Alternative
Support in less industrialized and less democratic
countries
People inherently good but corrupted by state and
society
Mikhail Bakunin, use of assassination and violence
Emergence of a Mass Society
Population Growth and Emigration
From 270 million to 460 million (1850-1910)
Declining mortality rate
• Medical discoveries and environmental conditions
• Improved public sanitation
• Improved diet
Increased emigration
• Between 1846 and 1932, 60 million Europeans
left Europe, half to the United States, the other
half to Canada and Latin America
Transformation of the Urban Environment
Growth of cities
Improving Living Conditions
Public Health Act of 1875 in Britain
Clean water into the city
Expulsion of sewage
Housing Needs
Reformer-philanthropists build model homes
Port Sunlight by Lord Leverhulme, 1887
Garden city movement in Britain, Ebenezer
Howard
Octavia Hill
• Nicer environment would encourage
people to improve themselves
British Housing Act, 1890
Redesigning the cities
Redesign of Vienna and Paris
Defensive walls pulled down
Great boulevards
New buildings
Displaced population
©2003 Wadsworth, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Thomson Learning ™ is a trademark used herein under license.
Population
Growth in
Europe, 18201900
The Social Structure of the Mass Society
The Elite
5% of the population that controlled 30 to 40
percent of wealth
Alliance of wealthy business elite and
traditional aristocracy
Industrial plutocrats
The Middle Classes
Upper middle class typically considered part of
the Upper class, middle middle-class, lower
middle-class
Share common lifestyle and values that come to
dominate society
Professionals
White-collar workers
The Lower classes
80% of the European population
Agriculture
Skilled, semiskilled, unskilled workers in the
urban working class
The “Woman Question”: The Role of Women
Marriage the only honorable and available career
Elizabeth Poole Sanford
• Women should avoid becoming self-sufficient
Birth control emerges and birth rates decline slightly in early 20th century
The Middle-class Family
Domesticity
Leisure time and holiday traditions
Schooling of sons with functional knowledge to prepare for ones future
Boy Scouts
Working-class Family
Daughters work until married
1890 to 1914 higher paying jobs made it possible to live on the husband’s
wages
Limit size of the family
Infanticide/abortion
Coitus interruptus
Abortion
abandonment
Reduced work week
Education and Leisure in an Age of Mass
Society
Mass education in state-run systems after
1850
Personal and social development
Most countries provide a free and
compulsory education at the primary
level
Needs of industrialization
Need for an educated electorate to
heighten patriotism and produce
informed voters
Differences in education of boys and
girls
Demand for Teachers
Increased literacy
Newspapers
Mass Leisure
Amusement parks
Music and dance halls
Tourism
Thomas Cook pioneered the field in
England
Sports
Recreation
Professional sports teams and leagues developed
Amusement parks
Sundays
The National State
Western Europe: The Growth of Political Democracy
continues
Reform in Britain
William Gladstone
Suffrage: Reform Act of 1867
Reform:
• English Reform Bill of 1884: agricultural
workers given right to vote
• Redistribution Act of 1885: Reorganized the
election boroughs
• Salaries paid to members of the House of
Commons
 More people can run for office
Ireland
• Limited land reform
• Charles Parnell demands home-rule
• Home Rule Act, 1914
The Third Republic in France
Second Empire collapses when French are defeated in the
Franco-Prussian War
Universal male suffrage1871
Radical republicans form independent government “The
Commune”
• Brutal regime divides the working and middle class
even further
Government troops break the commune
Republican constitution establishes the Third Republic,
1875
General Georges Boulanger (1837-1891), 1889
• This Crisis rallied citizens to the cause of the Republic
Louis Michel
The Growth of Political Democracy
Spain less effected by the innovations of the time
King Alfonso XII
Liberals and Conservatives
Spanish-American War
Barcelona 1909
Italy less effected by the innovations of the time
Had pretensions of great power status
Sectional differences in Italy
Chronic turmoil beyond the government’s control
Central and Eastern Europe: Persistence of
the Old Order
Germany
Prussian military tradition that the Emperor
commands
Trappings of parliamentary government
1871 Constitution establishes nationhood
Bismarck’s conservatism
Kulturkampf
Social Democratic Party
Social welfare programs to lure
workers to his Party
Used coalitions to his benefit,
dropping them when they became
useless
Austria-Hungary
1867 Constitution
Nationality still not stable
Prime Minister Count Edward von Taaffee,
1879-93
Problem of minorities worsened with 1907
universal male suffrage
Imperial emergency decrees
Parliamentary system in Hungary
Russian Autocracy
Alexander III, 1881-1894
Reform had been a mistake
• Overturned and repressive
measures return
Nicholas II, 1894-1917
Weak
Believed in absolute rule