Chapter 20 As democratic reform increased the importance of public opinion, it became necessary for...

Chapter 20

• As democratic reform increased the importance of public opinion, it became necessary for Western politicians to appeal to the newly enfranchised public, made more aware through public education, popular journalism, and political campaigns.

Demands for Democracy

– Public Education• 1870s and 1880s many governments established national

systems of public education at the primary school level• They hoped to create more patriotic citizens, provide citizens

with skills and discipline, and educate the voters so that they could read the newspapers.

C. 1868 SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES

LAUS VENERIS


– Popular Journalism• Newspapers became cheap, sensational, and wildly popular• Featured screaming headlines, flag-waiving patriotism, an

easy style, sensational news, and attention-getting columns– Political Campaigns

• Realized they had to appeal to the new voters• They began crossing the country by railroads and delivering

campaign speeches, listening to interest groups, and holding rallies to gather support.

• Politicians began creating state institutions – census bureau and social security administration

• Liberal Democracy in Western Europe


– Reform Bills of 1867 and 1884• In the 1850s and 1860s, liberals controlled the British

government• Benjamin Disraeli of the Conservative Party took credit for

democratic reform• Conservatives passed the Reform Bill of 1867, it doubled the

electorate & gave the vote to the lower-middle class• They passed laws that limited working hours, established

sanitary codes, created housing standards, and aided labor unions

– France’s Third Republic• The Franco-Prussian War of 1870 spelled the emergence of

the Third French Republic• In February 1871, a victory for the monarchists, hopes to limit

democracy.


– The Paris Commune• Stood for decentralizing power in France,

self-governance, support of working class organizations, and greater equality for women

– Spread of Democratic Institutions• Republican teachers replaced Catholic

teachers• Military service became compulsary• A popular national press took root in Paris


• For and Against Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe– Germany Under Bismarck

• Bismarck dominated as Germany’s chancellor between 1870 and 1890

• He supported universal male suffrage, solidified the German states and people under Prussia, and brought the law codes, currencies, and military forces of the lesser states into conformity with those of Prussia

– Conflict with Catholic Church• Pressured non-German language groups to give up their

languages and traditions• In 1872, Bismarck struck out against Roman Catholics for

being insufficiently nationalistic• Kulturkampf – the struggle for civilization


– Conflict with Socialists• Bismarck passed laws asserting the state’s right to restrict

religious orders, require civil marriage, and bring all education under state control.

• He outlawed the Social Democratic Party’s publications, organizations, and meetings, and set the German police force on them.

• He established a system of social insurance• Bismarck made Germany a leader in enacting social policies• Bismarck’s campaign against the Social Democratic Party

would fail.– Nationalistic Discontent in Austria

• In Austria, liberalism spread during the 1870s, liberals supported constitutional monarchy, parliamentary government, and restricted suffrage


– Radical Action in Russia• For serfs, liberals, and intellectuals, and reforms did not go

far enough.• Vera Zasulich attempted to assassinate the St. Petersburg

chief of police in 1878.• She initiated a series of violent eruptions and assassinations• Terrorists killed numerous bureaucrats and police officials,

the government brutally suppressed the rebels

– Reaction Under Alexander III• Alexander III set out to erase every trace of liberalism and

democracy in Russia• Police arrested thousands of suspects, and he initiated a

sweeping program of Russianization

Chapter 20

• The democratization of politics led some past liberal and conservative ideas, as new groups, ranging from anarchists on the far left to ultra-nationalists on the far right, emerged to challenge established political ideas.

Insiders and Outsiders: Politics of the Extremes

• The Spread of Unions– Strikes

• In the 1880s, unionization spread rapidly, they demanded a say in working conditions and wages.

• They went on strike and flexed their political muscle through the vote.

• Socialism Gains Strength– The First international

• Marx helped union organizers to form the International Working Men’s Association in 1864.

– The Fabians• A group of well-known intellectuals advocated the adoption of

socialist policies through politics rather than revolution.


– Britain’s Labour Party• Labour had pressured the Liberals to adopt new policies

providing accident, sickness, old-age, and unemployment insurance for workers.

• Income tax and high taxes on inheritances landed on the rich• The Liberal and Labour Parties passed a bill that stripped the

House of Lords of most of its former power– France and Jaure’s

• French socialists joined the United Socialist Party under the leadership of scholar-orator Jean jaures

– German Social Democrats• They won the vote of 20% of the electorate• Eduard Bernstein urged socialists to cooperate with the

capitalist classes to obtain immediate benefits for labor and advocated a gradual approach to socialism.


• Anarchism: Freedom from All Authority– Bakunin

• Stressed the elimination of any form of authority that impinged on human freedom

• Anarchists believed that human beings, once freed from the corrupting institutions that oppressed them, would naturally cooperate with one another

• Anti-Semitism and Ultranationalism


– The Dreyfus Affair• Popularized scandals as well as anti-Semitic stories• People followed every development of “the affair” day after

day• In 1894, army officers accused and convicted Alfred Dreyfus

of treason and imprisoned him, but 3 years later his innocence was discovered

• Officers refused to reopen the case and it divided the nation.– Central and Eastern Europe

• For Jews, persecution was worse in central and eastern Europe

– Zionism• Persecution in eastern Europe & weakening of Jewish

identity thru assimilation in western Europe• Theodor Herzl became the leading figure in the movement


• Still Outsiders: Women, Feminism, and the Right to Vote– Political Activism

• Women were calling themselves “feminist”• They organized several movements to promote women’s

issues, demand legal equality of the sexes, and advocate social and political change.

– Suffrage Movements• The strongest movements arose in Great Britain• They reached a crucial conclusion: Being polite was not

going to win them the right to vote• Finland granted women the right to vote in 1906 – the 1st

victory for women’s suffrage

Chapter 20

• Around the Middle of the nineteenth century, European migrants traveled around the globe in search of a better life.

• Leaving Europe– Causes for the Migration

• Crowded, land could not support the population, commercial agriculture, natural catastrophes, human catastrophes

• Jews left for relief from persecution

Chapter 20

• This emigration of individuals was accompanied by the expansion of Western powers into the non-Western world, especially Asia and Africa, during the 1880s.

The New Imperialism: The Race for Africa and Asia

• Money and Glory– Economic Causes

• Industrial nations hungered for new markets, cheap raw materials and investment opportunities

• Westerners thought they would find these things in Africa and Asia, European workers believed that the guaranteed markets would keep them employed

– Politics of Imperialism• Colonizing process got complicated politically• Imperial powers took some colonies, because they wanted to

protect the borders.


– Nationalism and Imperialism• Burst of imperialism came at the time when nationalism was

on the rise in Europe• Governments used such conquests to display their muscle

– Justification• Finally, found ways to justify imperialism like bringing

“blessings” of their civilization to “backward” peoples

– Opposition to Imperialism• Intellectuals, reform clubs, and politicians called it an

unjustifiably cruel and costly exploitation


– Transportation Facilities• Steam-powered iron ships conveyed messages, materials,

and people• Smaller steamboats took travelers up rivers• Railroads• Suez Canal cut thousands of miles off journeys to Asia

– Force• Europeans possessed more firepower like breech-loading

rifles and machine guns

– Medicine• Disease kept Europeans out of Africa, but the French

discovered quinine that protects from malaria


– Patterns of Conquest• Missionaries and explorers, traders or military officers

• The Scramble for Africa– North Africa

• Egypt was a market for goods and investments and a bridge to Asia

– Sub-Saharan Africa• Land grab: French, western Africa; Germans, eastern Africa;

British, central Africa

– Boer War• Rich gold mines were discovered in Transvaal in the 1880s, British

immigrants flooded in, and decided to brush aside the two little Boer republics

• It took 3 years, severe casualties, enormous costs, and 300,000 troops for Britain to defeat them.


– Dominance, Conflict, and Consequences• Europeans considered themselves superior to the Africans,

and they treated them little better than slaves.• They treated them little better than slaves, and ignored

longstanding social, cultural, and political realities• Africans who resisted might be decimated in battle or

dispossessed and forced onto reservations• Many Africans rebel

• Establishing Control in Asia– India

• Linguistically and regionally diverse• The Indian subcontinent became Britain’s richest imperial

prize.


– Southeast Asia• French intruded and took Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos and

formed the Union of Indochina– China

• Kept westerners at arm’s length, admitted some European traders and missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries

• In the 18th century China became one of the world’s most prosperous and powerful societies

• In the nineteenth century, westerners streamed into China– Opium Wars

• Britain began trading Indian opium in China, and opium became one of Britain’s most important commodities.

• Chinese officials tried to stop opium trade, and Britain sent gunboats and troops and defeated the Chinese


– Taiping Rebellion• China’s civil war took 50 million lives• The famines that followed took many more

– Philippines• The United States grabbed the Philippine Islands in 1898,

and it cost the lives of 200,000 Filipinos– Boxer Rebellion

• Furious at those who had betrayed Chinese religion and customs

• A secret organization that believed in the spiritual power of the spiritual power of the martial arts, killed thousands of Chinese Christians and a number of foreigners

– Japan• Japan refused direct contact with the West


– The Meiji Restoration• In 1853, an American fleet forced the Japanese overthrew

the government and launched a social and political revolution• They ended the feudal structure, and began reorganizing

Japanese society along modern Western lines.• They patterned their business methods after the U.S., their

legal system after the French, and their navy after the British.– Russo-Japanese War

• Japan no longer viewed China as a source of culture to be respected

• In 1894, Japanese invaded China and forced it to pay a large indemnity and to give Korea up to Taiwan

• The Japanese attacked Russia, and defeated them

• The Legacy of Imperialism

Questions ?

• 1) What were the main aims and outcomes of the Congress of Vienna ?• 2) How did industrialization create class identities ?• 3) How did Europeans attempt to justify imperialist expansion ?• 4) What was the nature of British rule in India ?• 5) How did Japan and China react to the threat of European Imperialism ?

Groups

-Each group will answer their assigned critical question.

-Based on sources from class text book and at least 2 other academic sources.

-Present their findings to class next time we meet.

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