The New Power Balance, 1850-1900

The New Power Balance, 1850-1900

Inventions of the time:

• Railroads: by 1915 the U.S. had the largest in the world by far—they opened up new lands to people

• railroads were also used in unindustrialized nations to transport raw materials

• Ocean Shipping: more efficient, powerful engines; increased size of ships to carry more freight, steel replaced wood, propellers replaced paddle wheels

• Submarine telegraph cables: by 1900 connected all countries and “annihilated time and space”

• Steel: made cheaper by Henry Bessemer (1/10 cost)

• better than iron because it is both hard and elastic


Inventions of the time (cont’d):

• Chemical dyes: hurt tropical nations who used to produce the most indigo (India)

• Explosives: the invention of nitrogylcerin was important for making explosives used in mining, railroad building, and weapons

• Electricity: electric current was at first costly and used sparingly, then was improved and mostly used for lighting after that

• Germany had the most advanced scientific institutions and had become the leading producer of dyes, drugs, fertilizers…

• Economies became closely intertwined as world trade grew, causing booms and depressions in the business cycle.


Industrial Europe:

• a big increase in Europeans moving overseas was due partially to a lower death rate

• Great Britain controlled most of the world’s trade and finances by 1900

• Cities changed: railroads with regular schedules brought food and commuters, police and fire departments were created, city planning became more common, and improved sanitation/lower death rates

• Middle class: exhibited wealth in fine house, servants, and elegant entertainment


The Victorian Age:

• rules of behavior and family where the home was idealized as a peaceful and loving refuge

• a code of morality that England considered universal

• men and women belonged in “separate spheres”; the home was the sphere of the woman, the business/work world for men

• Families were considered middle class if they employed at least one full time servant

• New household technologies were invented to help women keep the house clean, but it really meant more work as standards of cleanliness were raised.

The New Power Balance, 1850-1900The Victorian Age for women:

• Women could sometimes work in businesses if there was a typewriter and telephone—those were suitable tasks for women (actually, women were cheaper to hire)

• Teaching was a good female profession because it was an extension of their motherly duties at home

• Women who felt unsatisfied at home worked as volunteer social workers or nurses, organized reform movements, worked for women’s suffrage.

• Urban industrial women had to earn extra money for the house if needed, as well as taking care of house/children

• Working class women could support their families by sewing, doing laundry for people, taking in boarders, or doing service/factory work—not teaching—that was for singles.


Socialism:

• history is a long series of conflicts between social classes-the most recent one being the struggle between workers and property owners

• Karl Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto which said there is a difference between wages people earn and the amount of money property owners make—this “surplus value” is money the owners make and workers never see—the revolution will be over this

• However, most workers felt the best solution was labor unions and voting

The New Power Balance, 1850-1900Nationalism:

• the most influential idea of the 19th century

• nationalists wanted to realign national boundaries to fit religious and linguistic divisions (one ethnicity = one country)

• A famous 19th century nationalist was Giuseppe Mazzini—he wanted to unify Italy, which was still just a bunch of states

• Liberalism was an ideal growing at this time. It believed in the sovereignty of the people, the need for a constitutional government, freedom of expression, and the need for a national government/parliament

• Conservatism was still powerful: the Revolutions of 1848 were ethnic revolutions that were unsuccessful and conservatism won; taught politicians they couldn’t keep people out of politics forever

The New Power Balance, 1850-1900Unification of Germany:

• uniting Germany was important—German was the most widely spoken language in Europe

• Germany was made up of diverse states—Prussia, much of Austria, and smaller states—religious differences, too

• King Wilhelm I “ruled” Prussia but really it was ruled by Otto von Bismarck

• Bismarck was a Junker-a conservative wealthy landowner-he became famous for realpolitik—tough power politics with no room for idealism. He ruled without parliament’s assistance saying power doesn’t come by having meetings, but by “Blood and iron.”

• “Blood and iron” referred to the industry and nationalism he saw around Europe, wanted to imitate it

The New Power Balance, 1850-1900Unification of Germany (cont’d):

• Bismarck formed the North German Confederation with Prussia and some smaller states and attacked France, winning Alsace and Lorraine, a place where the people spoke German but felt French—a conflict in nationalism

• This Franco-Prussian war changed the politics of Europe. France became more liberal; Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary became more conservative

• Bismarck, after obtaining some territory, focused on keeping Germany conservative, so he gave all adult males the vote—kept middle class liberals from having too much influence

• French society was struggling—they’d changed governments yearly from 1871-1914. The event that epitomized their social divisions was the Dreyfus Affair

The New Power Balance, 1850-1900The Dreyfus Affair:

• Alfred Dreyfus was a Jewish officer in the French army from Alsace (German-speaking France until 1871)

• Dreyfus was wrongfully convicted of treason and put in jail.

• Many liberals and socialists were on the side of Dreyfus, saying he was innocent, while conservatives thought he was guilty. The case needed to be reopened due to new evidence, but doing so would have exposed the corruption in the French army.

• Ultimately Dreyfus was released from prison but “the Affair” caused anti-Semitism to increase in France.

• The rise of Zionism (nationalism for Jews who wanted a Jewish state) can be traced to this event.


Great Britain:

• GB had many problems at this time:

• the Irish resented British rule—threat to nationalism

• the empire had grown expensive—Britain had fallen behind the economies of U.S. and Germany in industrial production

• the empire was expensive to maintain (recall the Sepoy Rebellion in India—colonies were expensive)

• Britain maintained a policy of “splendid isolation” from the rest of Europe for much of the 19th century. They only helped during the Crimean War to fight Russia in 1854.

The New Power Balance, 1850-1900Russia and Austria-Hungary:

• Nationalism failed to unify them—their empires included too many ethnic and language groups to unify

• In Russia only 45% of people spoke Russian

• South-central Europe had the most division—the Balkan peninsula and the Slavic people there were very nationalistic but weren’t becoming countries.

• Tsar Alexander II freed the serfs to enlarge the labor pool and industrialize. All it did was create a lot of poor communal farmers and he failed to create a modern state based on the Western model

• The Russo-Japanese war in 1904-1905 caused a popular uprising: the Revolution of 1905, forcing the tsar to have a constitution and a Duma (parliament)

The New Power Balance, 1850-1900China and Japan:

• China and Japan had opposite responses to the new power balance and the new imperialism: China resisted the West and Japan transformed itself into a major industrial power.

• China, devastated by the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) turned inward and started the “self-strengthening movement” trying to reform government spending and corruption

• The emperor of Japan had no real power. Power rested in the hands of the military leader called the shogun

• The Tokugawa Shogunate began in the 1600s. Its biggest weakness was the inability to resist foreign invasion, so Japan closed its borders to foreigners. Anyone leaving the country or allowing someone in could be killed.


• In 1853 Matthew C. Perry (navy) arrived in Japan and gave them one year to decide to open their ports, sparking a crisis in the country—accept foreign influence or no?

• In 1858 the Treaty of Kanagawa was written on the model of the unequal treaties between the West and China. Japan didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of China and the opium war.

• 1868 rebels overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate and declared Mutsuhito emperor “restored” or Meiji Restoration.

• The Meijis wanted to protect Japan from imperialists so tried to become rich with a strong army.

• The wanted to embrace foreign ideas, institutions and techniques—German government and army, British navy, etc.


• Once government-owned industries in Japan became profitable they were sold to private investors

• Japan’s plan for imperialism included controlling a “sphere of influence” to include Manchuria, Korea, and part of China

• They had to fight Russia for Manchuria in 1904-1905 and won—it stunned the world that Asians had beaten Europeans.

• Boxer Uprising 1900: a series of riots against the foreign presence in China—the Dowager Empress supported the uprising but didn’t back it up with an army. The European powers were able to block the Boxers (Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists) but nationalism grew in China.

Documents

The New Power Balance, 1850-1900