Unit 7 - Capitalism and Imperialism - 4º bil

UNIT 7 - Capitalism and

Imperialism

1- The birth of the modern world 1870-1914

- EUROPE -> period of tense international relations.

- SPAIN -> bad period for Spain. It lost its remaining colonies in 1898.

- Consumer society increased -> social inequalities -> economic crisis.

- Colonizations period.

- ART -> Modernism

and Impressionism.

The Franco-Prussian War 1870-71-War between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia,

aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member.

-Prussia won the war and it brought about changes in Europe. France had to surrender the region of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany.

-Napoleon III's Empire finished during the war, and the Third Republic was established in France.

-German Confederation became a political union as well after the war, as Bismarck wished.

2- Political tension in Europe 1871-1914

-Period of uneasy peace or tense calm in Europe.

-Many countries continued keeping their armies well-prepared.

-Germany had a decisive foreign policy and it could be divided into

two phases:

.Bismarckian system.

.Wilhelm II's policies.

The Bismarckian system

-Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) became the First Chancellor of the German Empire or Second Reich after 1871 Treaty of Versailles.

-He previously was one of the main figures on the German Unification.

-He was conservative, and he

dominated European affairs

between 1860 and 1890.

-He created a "balance of power"

that preserved peace in Europe

from 1871 to 1914.

The Bismarckian system

-The "Iron Chancellor" ruled a system known as the diplomacy of Realpolitik.

-It was a system of alliances to keep control of European affairs.

The policies of Wilhelm II

-Wilhelm II (1859-1941) was the last German

Emperor (kaiser) and last king of Prussia from 1888 to November 1918.

-He dismissed Bismarck in 1890 and abandoned his Realpolitik system. He was ambitious.

-He began the Weltpolitik system in 1897, consisting in a policy of expansionism which created a tense period.

-That was a fundamental change in the conduct of German foreign policy that led to World War I.

Activities

Page 141, exercises 2 and 3.

3- The Bourbon restoration in Spain. Main Events:

-After the end of the First Spanish Republic in December 1874, a military uprising established Alfonso XII and a parliamentary monarchy.

-Period of stability.

-Constitution of 1876.

-Two official political parties:

.Liberals

.Conservatives

-Third Carlist War (1872-76)

-Regional movements.

The Restoration of the Bourbons

-December 1874: military uprising led by Martínez Campos -> Alfonso XII was crowned King of Spain.

-The government of Sagasta did not oppose.

-The Restoration succeeded thanks to the previous work of Cánovas del Castillo.

-Alfonso XII reigned from 1874 to 1885.

Parliamentary monarchy

-Constitution of 1876:

.It was conceived by Cánovas del Castillo.

.Parliament elected first by censitary, then universal male suffrage from 1890's.

.Theoretically democratic, but in practice, power was shared by two alternating political parties -> "the turno system".

.Sovereignty shared between King and Parliament (Cortes).

.Two-chamber system: elected Congress, and Senate.

.Strengthening of the Monarchy.

Two-party system

-The political system was known as

turno system or two-party system ->

two political parties alternated in power:

.The Liberals, led by Sagasta.

.The Conservatives, led by Cánovas.

-This system was fraudulent, elections were manipulated (pucherazo or caciquismo were usual methods), but it was considered necessary to maintain the stability.

Third Carlist War (1872-1876)

Third Carlist War (1872-1876)

-Carlists forces managed to occupy several towns in the interior of Spain.

-They proclaimed the restoration of Catalonian, Valencian and Aragonese fueros (charters).

-After four years of war, the carlist pretender, Carlos VII, went to exile in France.

-The war caused between

7.000 and 50.000 casualties.

Other issues

-Unofficial political groups (such as Republicans) opposed the Government because they rejected the two-party system, considered unfair.

-Regionalist movements developed in some regions of Spain.

Alfonso XII's death

-In November 1885 Alfonso XII died, he was 28 years old.

-His wife, Maria Christina of Austria became regent for their son, next Alfonso XIII.

-She ruled from 1886 to 1902, during the minority of Alfonso XIII.

-Alfonso XIII ruled from 1902 to 1931.

Regency period (1886-1902)

-Spanish-American War, 1898 -> Spain lost its last remaining territories in America to the USA: Puerto Rico and Cuba, and the Philippines in Asia as well.

-It was known as the Disaster of 1898.

-Consequences:

.Loss of colonial markets

.Working-class protests

.Popular revolts

Activities

Exercises 1, 4, 5 on page 141.

Listening

Exercise 6 on page 141.

4- Finance capitalism

In late 19th century Europe a new system known as finance capitalism was established.

4.1. Changes and innovations

There were changes in

energy, technology,

finance and investment,

and innovations in the

new industries and in new

business structures.

Energy

New sources of energy were discovered:

ELECTRICITY

1867 Bergès -> hydroelectrical generator

1879 Edison -> electric light bulb

OIL

Innovations to refine oil and to produce

new fuels such as kerosene and petrol.

Important invention of the petrol-powered

car in the late 19th century.

Technology

Improvement of the Bessemer converter made it cheaper:

.produce steel for: railways, cars, machinery and the new skyscrapers.

Technological advances:

.Stainless steel

.new types of fibres

New industries

-Electrical technology

.Production of equipment

.Companies like Siemens or AEG.

-New food industries

.Perishable food in metal tins

-Chemical industry

.Perfumes

.Medicines

.Dynamite

Finance and investment

-Business owners needed capital, and they obtained it from a variety of sources:

.loans from banks (interests)

.direct investments of banks in industry

.form a company and sell shares to investors

.Stock exchange

New Business structures

New forms of organization were created:

-Cartels

-Trusts

-Holding companies

Some companies acquired monopolies over certain products or services to avoid competition.

Activities

Exercises 8, 9 on page 145

4.2. The consequences of finance capitalism

-Consumerism

-Economic instability

-International trade increased

-Trade imbalances

-Increased industrial productivity

Activities

Exercise 12 on page 145.

Listening

Exercise 14 on page 145.

5- The turn-of-the-century world economy

-Late 19th century and beginning of the 20th.

-The Second Industrial Revolution is developing.

-Three countries were more powerful in industry in that moment:

.Germany -> leader in Europe.

.The USA -> immigration from Europe was used for workforce; westward expansion.

.Japan -> Government leaded the industrialization.

Other countries

-Great Britain lost its past leading role in the industrialization process because they did not invest in new industries or in modernization.

-Spain continued in the same way, just a few regions were industrialized.

6- Imperialism

Imperialism or Colonialism is the policy or practice of extending a state's rule over other weaker territories.

6.1. The colonial empires

-The colonizers were mainly the USA, Japan and European powers (above all great Britain and France).

-The regions that became colonies during this period under the power of the colonizers were large areas of Africa, Asia and Oceania.

The British and the French Empires

Activities

Exercises 15, 16 and 17 on page 149.

6.2. The causes of imperial expansion

-Causes or factors of imperial expansion:

.Finance capitalism

.Industrial development

.Necessity to invest capital surpluses

-Colonies provided:

.Cheaper raw materials and new sources of energy

.New markets

.International prestige and power for the colonizers

-Emigration to colonies was usual (because of unemployment problems).

6.3. The consequences of imperialism

-Settlers imposed their culture over native people.

Racial segregation.

-Rivalry between imperial powers was the origin of

the WWI and create other smaller wars.

-Imbalanced world economy.

-Colonies suffered economic dependence.

-Exploitation of the workforce and raw materials.

Positive consequences

-Construction of new infrastructures in the

colonies.

-Growth of the population due to improvements in

wealth and hygiene (mortality rate decreased).

-Development of urban life (but it was controlled by

the bourgeoisie from the imperial powers).

Activities

Exercises 18, 19 and 22 on page 149.

Listening: exercise 20 on the book.

7- An unequal society

-Consequences of Finance capitalism in society:

Greater inequalities between classes:

.Upper and middle classes became richer and were part of the consumer society.

.Working class got worse in their poor situation.

7.1. The consumer society

-Consumerism developed during the late 19th century among upper and middle classes.

-They usually acquired manufactured goods and also luxury products.

-The ways in which consumerism manifested were:

.Advertising

.New luxury items

.Tourism /leisure time

.Cinemas

7.2. Social inequalities

Differences between classes increased.

The working class suffered the most difficult situations, with problems to cover basic necessities.

That led to a period of protests and strikes between 1880 and 1914.

New Socialist and Communist parties were created to defend the workers rights.

7.3. Spanish society at the turn of the century

-In Spain, the same problems and inequalities between classes led to the same consequences: the appearance of more trade unions and political parties to defend workers.

-The most important were:

.PSOE, 1879

.FTRE, 1881

.UGT, 1888

.CNT, 1910

Pablo Iglesias (1850-1925)

-He was a Spanish socialist and labour leader.

-He is regarded as the father of Spanish socialism;

having founded the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in 1879 and the Spanish General Workers' Union (UGT) in 1888.

-He produced many excellent intellectual works in Spain and internationally.

-Iglesias was one of the best propagandists among Spanish socialist idealists; few workers' leaders wrote so much of interest. Characterised by vehement defense and furious attack, his works make an ethically coherent call for regeneration and hope.

Culture and economy

The Regeneracionismo was an

intellectual movement leaded by

Joaquín Costa. They wanted to

renew Spanish society and improve the lives of

working-class people.

Rural credit unions were created to help farmers.

The Anarchist movement continued its violent actions

and the government repressed them.

Homework

Exercise: 26 page 155, notebook, next day.

To hand in: Exercises 24, 25 and 29 on page 155.

8- Modernism and Impressionism8.1. Modernist Architecture or Art Nouveau

-Characteristics:

.Late 19th and early 20th centuries. Art Nouveau was most popular in Europe, but its influence was global.

.Reaction to academic art of the 19th century, it was inspired by natural forms and structures, not only in flowers and plants but also in curved lines.

.Architects tried to harmonize with the natural environment.

.Considered a philosophy of design of furniture, which was designed according to the whole building.

.Variety of building materials: functional and decorative.

Art Nouveau / Modernismo

In France, Hector Guimard's Paris metro entrances were of art nouveau style.

Art Nouveau / Modernismo

Victor Horta had a decisive effect on architecture in Belgium, where he created several Art Nouveau buildings.

Hôtel Tassel, Brussels

Modernismo español. Gaudí

-In Spain, the style was based mainly in Barcelona and was an essential element of the Catalan Modernisme. Architect Antoni Gaudí, whose decorative architectural style is so personal that he is sometimes considered as practising an artistic style different from Art Nouveau, nonetheless uses Art Nouveau's floral and organic forms.

-His designs from about 1903, the Casa Batlló and Casa Milà, are most closely related to the stylistic elements of Art Nouveau. However, famous structures such as the Sagrada Familia characteristically contrast the modernising Art Nouveau tendencies with revivalist Neo-Gothic.

Gaudí. Casa Batllò

Gaudí. Casa Milá

Sagrada Familia Gaudí

Parc Guell, Gaudí

Gaudí in León. Casa Botines

Gaudí in León. Palacio Episcopal, Astorga

Activities

Exercise 27 on page 155

8.2. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

IMPRESSIONISM

19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists.

Impressionist painting characteristics include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), common, ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles.

Impressionist Painters

Claude MONET was a founder of French impressionist painting.The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), depicting a Le Havre port landscape.

Monet

Other works

Édouard Manet

He was a French painter. One of the first 19th-century artists to approach modern and postmodern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

He was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style.

Camille Pissarro

He was a Danish-French Impressionist painter. His importance resides in his contributions to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. Pissarro was the only artist to have shown his work at all eight Paris Impressionist exhibitions, from 1874 to 1886.

Spain. Joaquín Sorolla

Sorolla was a Valencian painter. He excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterized by a skillful representation of the people and landscape under the sunlight of his native land.

Impressionist sculpture. Rodin

-Auguste Rodin was a French sculptor. Although he is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's school of art.

-Sculpturally, Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply surface in clay. Many of his most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime.

-Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality.

Rodin works

Post-Impressionism

Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colours, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and real-life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colour.

The term was coined in 1910 by Roger Fry in the title of an exhibition of modern French painters: Manet and the Post-Impressionists, organized by Fry for the Grafton Galleries in London.

The most famous painters were: Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezánne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Seurat and Signac.

Vincent Van Gogh

He was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color, had a far-reaching influence on 20th-century art.

Paul Gauguin

He was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist who was not well appreciated until after his death. He was later recognized for his experimental use of colors and synthetist style that were distinguishably different from Impressionism.

Paul Cézanne

He was a French Post-Impressionist painter. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of art, Cubism.

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

He was a French painter, printmaker and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 1800s yielded a collection of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern and sometimes decadent life of those times.

Pointillism

-Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image.

-Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism.

-The term Pointillism was first coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works of these artists.

- Neo-impressionism and Divisionism are also terms used to describe this technique of painting.

Georges Seurat

He was a French Post-Impressionist painter. He is noted for his innovative use of drawing media and for devising the technique of painting known as pointillism.

Paul Signac

He was a French neo-impressionist painter who, working with Georges Seurat, helped develop the pointillist style.

Activities - Homework

Exercise 30 on page 155.

Exercises 11 and 15 on page 157.

Exercises 1 and 2 on page 156.

Complete the diagram on page 158.