La Belle Epoque

Shaking up the World!

Paris 1900

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/1900fair/paris07.jpg

http://www.senegalaisement.com/jadis/docs/expo1900.jpg

Charles Darwin

Darwin

• Wrote “The Descent of Man”–Puts forth the theory of evolution

• Disrupts religion• Science can be used to explain things, not faith

–World was simply “matter in motion”–Survival of the fittest

Albert Einstein

Einstein

• Universe was not finite and did NOT follow the laws of cause and effect–Things didn’t always happen for a

reason–Theories help propel space

discoveries

Sigmund Freud

Freud

• Stated that behaviors come from feelings and the unconscious– “Rational” people (Westerners) act on

impulses, just like “primitive” people (Non-Westerners).

– Helped with the understanding of mental disabilities

Second Industrial Revolution

• Electric Street Cars

Cars

• Mercedes–Perfects

engine

• Henry Ford–Assembly Line:

reduces time to make a car from 12 hours to 1.5 hours

Results

• Standard of Living goes up

• People live longer– Louis Pasteur –

micro-organisms cause disease

Optimism• If Westerners were all of this and

progressing, then they would continue to dominate – Darwin’s theory

• Europeans believed that they would control the entire world