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The Nineteenth Century. Throughout the century, conservative kings and their aristocratic advisors remained in power in most European states. But the 19th century was also a century of progress, peace, and tremendous social change. The Industrial Revolution which had begun in England during the second half of the 18th century, spread to the Netherlands and France; from there to Germany, Northern Italy, the United States, and Japan. By the end of the century, it was beginning to have an impact on Russia. The substitution of machine labor for human and animal labor constituted the most important social change, in my opinion, since the Neolithic or Agricultural Revolution some 10,000 years ago. The Industrial Revolution has undergone a number of stages or phases and is still evolving. The first phase was from about 1750 to 1850. Coal and the steam engine were were the dominant driving forces of this phase. During the second phase, steel, oil, turbines, electricity, and internal combustion engines replaced the simpler technologies. Wooden sailboats were replaced by diesel powered steel ocean liners and battleships. Between 1815 and 1914, no major world war disrupted the general progress of economic development. There were many minor wars of which the more significant ones were those connected with the unification of Italy in 1861 under the leadership of Piedmont-Sardinia and Germany under Prussia in 1871. After 1870, there was a second wave of European colonization which led to the subjugation of almost all of Africa to the European powers. By 1914 almost all the world was under European domination either directly as colonies or indirectly as colonial offshoots which had been founded by Europeans and gained their independence from their mother country like the United States and the South American republics. Chinese, Japanese, and the Ottoman Empires, while remaining independent, were under tremendous pressure to modernize or be subjected to European domination. Japan was the only non-Western state which, by the end of the century, had become industrialized. Within the European states, industrialization was producing new social classes: the industrial bourgeoisie and the industrial proletariat. The forces of democracy, initiated by the American and French Revolutions, continued to demand an end to aristocratic rule. Class conflict and mass ideologies were prominent features of the 19th century. Nonetheless, the traditional monarchies and their landed aristocratic allies continued to rule in most countries of Europe at the end of the century. But everywhere, the bourgeoisie was gaining economic strength and demanding its share of political power. Unsuccessful revolutions had broken out repeatedly throughout the century. Monarchs and aristocrats were being forced slowly to make accommodations not only to the bourgeoisie but also to the rising working class. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom symbolized a prissy, smug kind of conventional morality. Working class poverty existed side by side with great wealth. The ideas of Charles Darwin on human evolution challenged the Christian sensibilities of Biblical infallibility. These domestic tensions and a growing sense of nationalism helped to bring about World War I.Week 7: Ideologies, the Congress of Vienna, Concert of Europe, and the Conservative Order Ideologies
Congress of Vienna
The Conservative Order of the Nineteenth Century
Concert System
Week 8: Phase One of the Industrial Revolution: 1750 - 1850
Revolutions from 1820 to 1848
Week 9: Blood and Iron Unification of Italy
German Unification
Week 10: Developments from 1871 to 1914 Political Developments
Phase Two of the Industrial Revolution and Social Problems at Home: 1850 - 1914
New Directions in Thought
European Domination of the Globe to 1914
Second Hourly Examination
Updated April 29, 2003 |
