CH 15

The Building of European Supremacy: Society and Politics to WW1

Summary-1860-1914

Unprecedented productive capacity New steel mills, RRs, shipyards,

chemical plants Age of the automobile, airplane,

bicycle, telephone, radio, typewriter, and electric light bulb

Age of European global empires Powerful national states with large

bureaucracies, corporate structures and organized labor

Assumption!!

Industrial, military, and financial supremacy permanent?

20th century reveals it to be temporary

Population trends

1900-401 million in 1900-20% of world’s population

1846-1932-Mass migration of Europeans to the rest of the world-50 million

Relieved social and population pressures of Europe

More went to the US than all the others combined

The 2nd Industrial revolution Emergence of Germany as major

industrial power

1st industrial revolution-textiles, steam, iron

2nd industrial revolution-steel, chemicals, electricity, iron

1850’s Bessemer process

Cheap new way to manufacture steel by removing impurities from the iron

Solvay process of chemical production Process of alkali production allowed

recovery of more chemical by products and permitted production of sulfuric acid and laundry soap

Germany a leader

Application of electrical energy 1881-1st European power plant in GB Electricity more versatile and

transportable source of power

Petroleum

1850’s Australian inventor new lamp that burned kerosene

1885-Daimler produces internal combustion engine

American Henry Ford mass produces automobile

Europe dependent on foreign sources of crude oil-same as now

New Classes-the Middle Classes Upper Middle class-few hundred

families that possessed tremendous wealth and owned major factories

Small entrepreneurs and professionals

Petite bourgeoisie-secretaries, retail clerks, lower level government workers-spent disposable income on consumer goods

Cities

Rapid urbanization Redesign of Paris Removal of small streets and alleys Creation of public parks and major public

buildings-created government jobs Building of department stores, office complexes,

and middle class apartment buildings Mechanical trams and subway system Development of Suburbs Problems of urban sanitation and cholera New Water and sewer syetms

1889-Eiffel Tower

Symbol of French Industrial strength

Basilica of the Sacred Heart Act of national penance for defeat in

Franco-Prussian War

London-1900

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taAxsv_ek1s

Paris-1900

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-4R72jTb74

Old cities

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibYdD7EvRl0

Women in the late 19th century Social and legal disabilities

Property rights Family law Education

Property rights

Married women could not own property in their own names

Placed tremendous disability on married women

1882-GB passes married Woman’s Property Act

1895-France allows women to have savings accounts in their own name

1900-Germany allowed women to take jobs without husband’s permission

Family Law

Women required to “give obedience” to husbands

Most nations did not permit divorce Legal causes of divorce-cruelty or injury,

adultery-difficult and expensive to prove Double standard persisted-male versus

female adultery Fathers with legal authority over

children Both contraception and abortion illegal

Education

Less access to education University and professional education

reserved for men Educated male elites feared that

educated women posed challenges to traditional gender roles

School teaching of elementary children-haven for women

Conflict between domestic responsibility and feminism

New employment patterns

1. Large scale expansion of the variety of jobs open to women-low wages and supplemental income

2. Withdrawal of many married women from the workforce-young and unmarried women took jobs

Poverty and Prostitution

More women seeking employment than jobs

Economic vulnerability-force into prostitution

Minimal regulation and general legalization

Women from the age of late teens to 25

More in coastal town and big cities

Middle Class women

The Cult of Domesticity Middle class women did not work Wife and mother Enjoyed great domestic luxury and

comfort Praise of motherhood, domesticity,

religion, and charity Relation between religion and

domestic life Administration of charity

Political feminism and suffrage 1792-Mary Wollstonecraft-The

Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Britain-suffrage movements Millicent Fawcett National Union of

Women’s Suffrage Societies

Moderate group that called for responsible political activity

Emmeline Pankhurst

Radical branch of English feminists Women’s Social and Political Union Suffragettes-violent tactics of arson,

and sabotage 1909-1910-Mass marches and arrests Hunger strikes-force feeding of women Tremendous influence on American

movement 1918-british women get right to vote

suffragettes

Jews in the 19th Century

Jewish emancipation from the ghetto Differing degrees of citizenship in

countries Russia and Poland treated Jews as

aliens State sanctioned pogroms-riots

against Jews

1850-1880- little organized prejudice in non-Russian Europe-participated fully in economic, political, cultural, and scientific life

1858-GB abolished Christian oath Requirement of Christian oath to

serve as member of Parliament ended

Benjamin Disraeli-Born a Jew, baptized as a Christian at age of 12

Lionel Rothschild-head of London branch of banking houses-elected but would not take oath, served from 1858-1874

Anti-semitism

1870’s and 1880’s-growth of anti Semitic voices

Economic stagnation-blamed on Jewish bankers and financiers

Trade Unionism

Labor turned to trade unionism, political parties, and socialism

1871-Labor unions legalized in GB 1884-France legalized unions 1890-German unions allowed to function 1st efforts-skilled workers better wages and

conditions 2nd efforts-industrial unions (unskilled

labor)

Strikes

Employers opposed trade unions Rash of strikes before WW1 Most of Europe’s labor force still not

unionized by 20th century New collective form of association to improve

economic security Universal male suffrage brought workers into

political parties Socialism now a political force-goal unite the

working classes Socialism versus nationalism

Karl Marx and the 1st International 1864-British and French trade unionists

founded International Working Men’s Association (First international)

Marx approved effort to reform institutions within existing political and economic processes

Violence associated with Paris Commune Marxism emerges as leading form of

socialism

Germany: Social Democrats and revisionism German Social Democratic Party (SDP) 12 years of persecution under Bismarck 1880’s-SPD polled more and more votes

in Reichstag Bismarck proposes Social Welfare

legislation Health insurance, accident insurance,

plan for old age and disability pensions Represented conservative paternalistic

alternative to socialism

Revisionism

Eduard Bernstein (1850-1932) Evolutionary Socialism

Conditions not meeting Marx’ expectations 1. Standard of living was rising-

stockholding making ownership of capital more widespread

2. Franchise to working class made parliamentary democratic change possible

Takeaway!

German trade union members did not want revolution, but wanted to be patriotic Germans as well as good socialists.

SDP becomes impt institution s in Imperial Germany-Growth of welfare state

Russia: Industrial development and Bolshevism1890s-Russia enters the Industrial ageCount Sergei Witte-Minister of FinanceFinance arrangement with French for

Russian modernization and developmentFavored Heavy industries1900-3 million factory workersPoor living and working conditionsPeasant conditions worsened-lived and

farmed in mirs

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov 1870-1924

Lenin

Repressive policies of Russian Czar Russian socialists lived in exile Russian Marxist-Gregory Plekhanov-

exile in Switzerland Chief disciple-Lenin Brother executed in 1887 Arrested in 1895-sent to Siberia 1900-Switzerland Debates among Russian socialists

Ideology-Lenin

What is to be done? (1902) Rejected the concept of mass

democratic party composed of workers

Called for small tightly organized elite of revolutionaries that were highly dedicated

Instrument of change would not be proletariat but cadre of revolutionaries

Bolsheviks versus Mensheviks 1903-London Congress of Russian

Social Democratic party Lenin and his supporters-Bolsheviks-

majority faction

Moderates Social democrats-Mensheviks-minority faction-wanted to model the SDP in Germany

Lenin’s Two principles

1. Elite Party 2. Dual social revolution-workers

and peasants

The Revolution of 1905

Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 Demonstrations at the Winter Palace in

St. Petersburg Troops open fire killing 40 people Mass demonstrations lead to deaths of

hundreds Bloody Sunday a turning point in

Russian history-No longer trusted the Czar

Open mutiny and rise of Worker soviets

Czar Nicholas II backtracks… October Manifesto-promised Russia a

constitutional government Announces creation of Duma Czar undermined the Duma and

stripped it of its powers

Family

Hemophilia-an inherited disorder

Grigory Rasputin-Orthodox monk

Assassination of Rasputin

Everything began in the wee hours of December 30, when Rasputin arrived at Yusopov's palace and was shown to the basement apartment. There, Yusupov offered him tea, cakes and alcohol laced with the cyanide. This is where the sources first diverge. The story told by Yusupov is that Rasputin consumed both poisoned cake and wine but failed to succumb to the poison. He merely began to complain of a heavy head and a burning stomach.

.

The story continues

Yusopov returned to the basement with a revolver and fired a single bullet into Rasputin's stomach at close range. Rasputin fell over, presumably dead. The story told by the conspirators, however, insists the bullet was not enough. Rasputin lay in the basement for nearly an hour, but then something happened.

All of a sudden, I saw the left eye open ... A few seconds later his right eyelid began to quiver, then opened. I then saw both eyes - the green eyes of a viper - staring at me with an expression of diabolical hatred. [...] Then a terrible thing happened: with a sudden violent effort Rasputin leapt to his feet, foaming at the mouth. A wild roar echoed through the vaulted rooms, and his hands convulsively thrashed the air. He rushed at me, trying to get at my throat, and sank his fingers into my shoulder like steel claws. His eyes were bursting from their sockets, blood oozed from his lips. "

And more

After attacking Yusupov, Rasputin pushed past him and fled out of the building. The conspirators fired shots at the fleeing man. This time Rasputin was shot first through the back and then through the head at a distance.

Hard to kill legend

At this point, in a fit of anger, Yusupov reportedly grabbed a club and began to attack Rasputin's body with it. This is the "beating" that Rasputin supposedly survived, if you assume that the headshot was not actually fatal. That he may still have been alive at this point is hard to believe given the primary documentation, but some web sites and casual history books insist that he was, because it is vital to the Rasputin legend.

Drowning

According to those sources, when the conspirators dumped Rasputin in the Malaya Nevka river he was still breathing, and it was the icy water that finally did him in. As evidence, some have long claimed that the autopsy discovered a large amount water in Rasputin's lungs, proof that he was still breathing. Others claim that when his body was found his hands were held up in a way that suggested he had been making the sign of the cross, clear evidence that he lived on after being dumped in the river.

Death