MODERN ERA 1750 - 1914

CULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS

WESTERN CONSUMERISM AND LEISURE

• Countries– United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand– France, Germany, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Italy

• Increased production created demand– Popular consumption increases– What was once luxury is now necessity

• Increased advertisements by industry– Increased demand– Increased expenditure on luxuries– Product crazes arise

• Bicycle• Sewing Machine• Mass produced clothing

• Mass Leisure Culture– Increased recreation time allows for rise of mass culture

• Shortened work weeks• Weekends now off• Yearly vacations become popular including popular recreation spots

– Newspapers become widely spread– Popular theatre started up; public music competitions– Rise of team sports– All classes shared many of the same pursuits, interests

• All point to a growing secularization of society

REIGN OF WESTERN SCIENCE• Enlightenment

– Scientific knowledge became widespread– Intellectual community expanded greatly

• Industrial Revolutions– Inventions become common– Entrepreneurs rewarded

• Reign of Science, Belief in Progress– Positivism of Auguste Comte quite popular

• Observation, scientific approaches to problems• Apply science to society in useful, rational ways

– Agricultural Revolution was often fueled by scientific discoveries– Science challenged, replaced religion, faith as explanation of world

• Charles Darwin– 1859: Descent of the Species: animals evolve, adapt (not humans)– Only the fittest survive to reproduce, random selection– Produced a very complex picture of nature

• Albert Einstein– Newtonian universe was far too simplistic to explain reality– Revolved around discoveries in science and math– Theory of Relativity added time as a factor to physics

• Sigmund Freund– Applied new learning to social sciences: humans were a product of their environment– Workings of the human subconscious: id, ego, superego produce the person– Behavior determined by impulses– Emotional problems can be relieved if brought into the light of rational discussion

ARTISTIC EXPRESSIONS• Science, knowledge of optics, color influence the arts

– Art becomes a mass appreciation– Concert halls, galleries become common and open to the public– Constant change and great debate also common amongst arts

• Art represents and mirrors the period– Classicism

• Return to Greco-Roman art, the good old past• Common during the French Revolution, Napoleon• Favored by English, Americans too

– Romanticism • Saw the world in rosy images of myth, history, ideals, emotion• Emphasis on the uniqueness of our ethnic heritage, nature• Corresponded to the rise of nationalism

– Realism• An outgrowth of the Industrial Revolution, science• Paint the world as it really is not as it appears• Attention to realistic detail: strongly favored in France, United States

– Impression to Cubism to Expressionism• How do I imagine the world becomes I do I feel when I see the world• Related to science including evolution of social sciences, psychology

• Music, Literature Have Similar Periods

IMAGES OF WESTERN AGES:CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM, REALISM, IMPRESSIONISM, CUBISM,

EXPRESSIONISM

MONET: TRAINS

MILLET: GLEANERS

DELACROIX: LADY LIBERTY

MUNCH:SCREAMDAVID:

SABINE WOMEN PICASSO:

THE LADIES

SARGENT:GROUP WITH

PARASOLS

AND THE REST?• Non-European World

– Responds more than acts– Copies more than creates– Often rejects new influence, emphasis on old

• No Mass Cultural Such as Arose in the West– Elite culture often patterned after Western tastes– Newly educated colonials joined with old elites– Masses often retain old cultures, suspicions of outside influences

• Syncretism– Many Western ideas, thoughts co-opted– Some non-Western ideas borrowed by Westerners

• True of art: Gauguin, Van Gogh, Picasso borrowed Asian, African motifs• Japonisme was a Western graze for all things Japanese

– Changed to blend with local ideas– Tai-Ping rebellion in China is a good example

• Christianity blends with Confucianism, Buddhism• Leader of Taiping is brother of Jesus Christ• Attempt to free the poor, peasant from West, Chinese elite

– Russia and Japan• Both borrowed heavily from Western knowledge• Sometimes adapted it for local use, often times improved• Began to develop their own distinctive styles

IMAGES OF THE REST

OROZCO(MEXICO):ZAPATA

LAI SUNG(CHINA)

THE SHIP

HAMDI(TURKEY)

MERCHANTOF ARMS

GOYO(JAPAN)WOMEN

COMBINGHAIR

COSTA(BRAZIL)WOMEN

IN GREEN

De CASTRO(PERU)

JOSE DE SAN MARTIN

IMPACT OF THE WEST ON THE REST

• Europeans, Americans permeated many societies– Traders, missionaries, settlers, investors immigrated– Experts, teachers trained non-Westerners

• Missionaries often had the greatest impact– They sought

• To change society fundamentally and not just religiously• Missionaries often equated God and progress• Changed educational systems• Revolutionized medicine, hospitals, health• Introduced Christianity to virgin territory

– Schools• Most colonizers left education to missionaries• Taught western ideas, methods, thought patterns• Taught in western, non-Western languages (often first time written down)• Often developed a region’s first literary tradition• Often taught self-sufficiency• Westerners were very anti-traditional, individualistic

– Educated often preferred to become bureaucrats, missionaries, businessmen– Biggest impact was in Africa, India, Vietnam

• Even in societies independent of western control, missionaries had impact– Missionaries in China had tremendous impact– Many future leaders were Christian, Christian educated

WESTERN EDUCATION AND THE RISE OF AFRICAN AND ASIAN MIDDLE CLASSES

• Western schools in the colonies– Provide a pool of people to support colonizers

• Educate the people to become good little westerners• Often the education was open only to existing elites, upper classes• Tendency to discourage universities for elite

– British education• Western literature and manners; • Western sense of morality

– French education• Create a sense of nationalism• Emphasis on speaking French, dress, etiquette, cuisine• Actually accorded many colonials equal citizen status with French whites

– American education• Taught value of capitalism, Christianity, democracy; • Often most numerous mission schools in China• Asians often came to American universities especially in Hawaii

• Results– Ended up educating a new middle class

• Often this group was mercantile• Many staffed lower ranks of colonial civil service

– Created a common intellectual, professional elite as many became doctors, teachers, lawyers, writers– Created a common sense of belonging to a group

• Gave natives a common language often for first time (even if it was a European one)• Common attitudes, values which spread across ethnic groups, traditions

– Many of these people would later challenge colonial rule using their colonial learning• Mohandas K. Gandhi is a great example

– Indian of the Vaisaya caste living in South Africa– Learned to be British barrister (lawyer), used knowledge to challenge British racial laws