European History/European Imperialism and Nationalism
Introduction
The period between 1870
and 1914 saw a Europe that was considerably more stable than that of previous
decades. To a large extent this was the product of the formation of new states
in Germany and Italy, and political reformations in older, established states,
such as Britain and Austria. This internal stability, along with the
technological advances of the industrial revolution, meant that European states
were increasingly able and willing to pursue political power abroad.
Imperialism was not, of
course, a concept novel to the nineteenth century. A number of European states,
most notably Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, had carved out large overseas
empires in the age of exploration. However, the new technologies of the
nineteenth century encouraged imperial growth. Quinine, for instance, allowed for the
conquest of inland Africa, whilst the telegraph enabled states to monitor their
imperial possessions around the world. When the value of these new technologies
became apparent, the states of Europe began to take control of large swathes of
territory in Africa and Asia, heralding in a new era of imperialism
The States of Europe
France
After France's victory
in the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck required France to hold elections so that
he could negotiate a peace. Elections were held for a provisional government,
and monarchists were elected, which was unacceptable to revolutionaries of
Paris. Paris responded by forming its own government, a 40 member council or
"commune" with its own national guard. The commune established the
equality of all citizens, promotion of women's rights, and communal workshops.
On May 21, Adolph Theirs, leader of the French provisional government, sent in
troops to "restore order" in Paris. Members of the commune killed the
Archbishop, packed the Tuileries with gunpowder, and blew it up. When it was
all over, however, 20,000 Parisians had been killed by the troops.
Thus began the 3rd
Republic of France from 1871 until 1940. The 3rd Republic consisted of a
ceremonial President and a two chamber Parliament with universal male suffrage.
Germany
The idea of a German state had existed since
the formation of the Kingdom of Germany in the early Middle Ages. The kingdom
was succeeded by the Holy Roman Empire, but the authority of the emperors was
weak, and the power of the central state declined until its final abolition in
1806. In 1815 the German-speaking territories were divided into around 40
states, many of them small.
The beginnings of
popular nationalism in Germany can be traced to Napoleon's invasion of German
territory in 1806. Whilst this act helped precipitate the dissolution of the
Holy Roman Empire, Napoleon's political machinations helped to encourage
nationalist feeling. Many people within the German heartlands wished to escape
the influence of foreign autocrats, such as the emperors of France and Austria,
and build their own state.
This broad feeling was
encouraged by the works of eighteenth century German writers and philosophers,
such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and particularly Johann Gottfried von
Herder. With his work on aesthetics, gothic art, and folk poetry, Herder
encouraged an idea that the Germans had a rich common cultural heritage.
Although Herder glorified the Germans, he was well travelled, feeling that
every country had its unique features, and was worthy of some admiration.
However, the
unification of Germany was not solely due to nationalism. It is worth noting
that, in an era when Europe was increasingly dominated by large empires, many
German states were small to the point of insignificance. Most German rulers
understood that there was strength in working together. This understanding was
to lead to inter-state co-operation across the region, the most notable example
being the Zollverein, the
customs union that encompassed most of northern Germany by the early 1830s.
This variety of
factors, both nationalistic and economic, were exploited by the conservative
King of Prussia, William I, and his chief minister, Otto von Bismarck. Both
understood the value of a unified German state, particularly one which excluded
Austrian influence.
Wars of Unification
Whilst he had a clear
idea that the unification of Germany should be his goal, Bismarck was a shrewd
politician and exploited, rather than initiated, events. The complicated
dynastic successions within the German confederation proved to be a useful tool
to this end.
The first such conflict
was triggered by the Schleswig-Holstein problem. Schleswig and Holstein were
German duchies whose ruler was also the Danish king, Frederick VII. Frederick's
death in 1863 caused consternation amongst German nationalists as his successor,
Christian IX, decided to annex Schleswig and Holstein, and make the German
duchies into part of the Danish state. The Diet of the German Confederation
demanded that this be prevented and encouraged Prussia and Austria, the only
German states to have significant military strength, to invade Denmark.
The war between Denmark
and the Germany states was short and decisive and the Danes were defeated in
1864. In the resultant peace treaty, the Danish king renounced his rights to
the disputed territories of Schleswig and Holstein to Prussia and Austria
respectively.
The occupation of
Schleswig and Holstein was to prove the catalyst for the next German war, the
Seven Weeks War of 1866. Whilst control of these provinces was regulated by the
Gastein Convention of 1865, Bismarck was able to provoke the Austrians into
declaring war. This was as decisive as the previous conflict. The meticulously
planned Prussian advances outmaneuvered the Austrians, who were forced on the
defensive, and quickly defeated.
In 1867, Prussia
established the North German Confederation, made up of 21 small northern states
with a constitution and Kaiser Wilhelm as king. The small states were still in
a vacuum, however, and needed some form of encouragement to join with Prussia.
In 1870, Prince Leopold
Hohenzollern was asked to take the crown in Spain, and France demanded that the
Prussians agree that no Hohenzollern ever take the Spanish throne in the
so-called "Ems Dispatch." Bismarck manipulated the telegram; his
modifications made France and Germany appear more hostile than they actually
were. After he released it to the press in Europe, France declared war on
Prussia, and the remaining German states joined Prussia for protection.
The Franco-Prussian war
lasted from 1870 to 1871, and resulted in the defeat of Emperor Napoleon III.
He was captured on September 2, 1870 at the Battle of Sedan. On January 18,
1871, the German Empire was proclaimed at Versailles as a major snub to the
French. On May 1871, the Treaty of Frankfurt was signed, and France ceded
Alsace-Lorraine and 5 billion gold francs to Germany.
Italy
Throughout the Middle
Ages and early modern period Italy consisted of a patchwork of small states.
Its urbanization and position in the Mediterranean meant that Italy was a
politically important region and, for much of this period it was dominated by
foreign powers, most notably the Bourbon dynasty which, during the eighteenth
century, provided kings for both France and Spain.
The dominance of
foreign powers was brought to an end by the Napoleonic wars. Napoleon's
attempts to dominate the peninsula failed, and the monarchies of France and
Spain were weakened by long years of war. Moreover, Napoleon had attempted to
conglomerate much of Italy into a single state, a process that encouraged a
sense of the Italians belonging to a nation. It is notable, for instance, that
Napoleon provided Italy with its national flag, the green, white, and red tricolore.
Although the Treaty of
Vienna restored many of the small Italian states, nationalist feeling remained,
and was preserved by nationalistic and revolutionary groups, such as theCarbonari in southern Italy. These groups were
inspired by revolutionary activity in other European states. As a result, the
early nineteenth century saw numerous small insurrections against the autocrats
ruling the Italian states, most notably with the French-inspired revolts of
1831, which afflicted the Papal States. Such revolts were frequently small in
scale, however, and were easily dealt with by the rulers of Italy.
The Italian Unification
movement was led primarily by two central figures: Count Camillo Benso di
Cavour, who supplied much of the ideology for the movement, and Giuseppe
Garibaldi, who led the fighting of the movement. Cavour was the Prime Minister
of Piedmont-Sardinia and served King Victor Emmanuel II. He built up the strength
of Piedmont-Sardinia, establishing a strong army, a healthy economy, and
political freedoms, such as freedom of the press. He gained the support of
Napoleon III by promising him Savoy and Nice. Austria invaded Italy, but the
Italians, aided by French troops, defeated the Austrians at the battles of
Magenta and Solferino.
Garibaldi led the Red
Shirts, or guerrilla fighters in Italy. He was a supporter of a republic but
conceded to a monarchy. He took his forces into southern Italy and successfully
conquered Naples and the two Sicilies. Cavour sent troops south to stop
Garibaldi from invading Rome, which was occupied by French troops, but both
sides met in Naples and surprisingly became allies. In 1861, the Kingdom of
Italy was declared with Piedmont's Victor Emmanuel as king. However, Italy's
agrarian south and industrial north had difficulty uniting, and the unification
was not complete until 1870, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War.
Russia
During the late 1800s, Russia began to work to
increase its power and to overall westernize itself. The state was considered
weaker in military terms than other nations and had lost to Britain and France
in the Crimean War of 1853–1856. It had an autocratic tsar with no social
contract, and serfdom still existed in Russia. There was a small middle class
with much less industrialization.
Nicholas I came to
power after the death of his brother, Alexander I. His reign began marred by
the Decembrist revolt of 1825 among the soldiers, some of whom supported his
other brother. Thus, Nicholas ruled through police action and use of the army.
Alexander II came to
power, using the defeat in the Crimean War as the major impetus to reform. He
believed that Russia needed to follow the European model in order to become
more powerful. As a result, in 1861, he gave the serfs freedom. However, the
serfs were still bound in many ways to their formal feudal dues. The former
serfs were given only half of the land, and the nobles were allowed to keep the
other half. In addition, former serfs had to pay a communal redemption fee to
their former lords.
In addition, Alexander
II ended the secret police started by Nicholas I, and he created public trials
that had professional judges with state salaries as well as juries. Zemstvos
were created, which were local provincial councils, elected by the people, that
dealt with local governmental issues such as roads and schools. Finally,
Alexander reduced the draft from 25 years to 6 years.
Despite Alexander's
actions, unrest continued in Russia. Peasant revolutionaries resented the
redemption fees, and two new groups arose in Russia. The first, the nihilists,
believed in nothing but science and rejected traditional society and culture.
The second, the anarchists, led by Mikhail Bakunin, set out to destroy any
government, even a reformist tsar like Alexander II. In 1881, an anarchist
group known as the "People's Will" assassinated Alexander II with a
bomb.
Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905
In 1860, the Russians
founded the city of Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean, and began work on the
Trans-Siberian Railroad to connect the East to the West. The Russo-Japanese war
was caused by the imperialist ambitions of Russia and Japan in Manchuria and Korea.
In a number of key battles, the war resulted in a surprise victory for Japan in
a peace agreement brokered by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905.
The war resulted in the
establishment of Japan as a major world power. Japan modeled European industrialization
and militarism, and increased its focus on China, gaining dominion over Korea
and establishing a claim to Manchuria. This expansion helped to cause World War
I. The war marked the first major victory of a non-western power over a western
power. As a result of the failure of the war in Russia, there was considerable
discontent at home, and this discontent led to the Revolution of 1905. Finally,
as a result of the defeat, Russia turned its interests back to the West and the
Balkans.
The Revolution of 1905
Under Czar Nicholas II,
who ruled from 1896 to 1917, the people believed that "papa czar"
could hear their grievances and he would fix them. However, the people soon
learned that the czar could not be trusted.
On what has become
known as "Bloody Sunday," June 22, 1905, a peaceful march of
thousands of St. Petersburg workers to the Winter Palace by Father Gapon took
place. The marchers desired an eight hour work day, the establishment of a
minimum wage, and a constitutional assembly. However, the Czar was not in the
city, and Russian troops panicked and killed several hundred of the marchers.
As a result of Bloody
Sunday, riots erupted throughout the country during 1905. Soviets formed the
councils of workers in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Demands for representation
increased, and the moral bond between the people and the czar was broken. As a
result, the October
Manifesto was granted to stop the
disturbances. The October Manifesto provided a constitution, a parliament
called the Duma, and some civil liberties. The Duma actually possessed little
power, however, and was primarily intended to divide and subdue the revolutionaries.
Stolypin's Reforms
Pyotr Arkadyevich
Stolypin was appointed minister by the Czar to address the problems of 1905. At
Stolypin's recommendation, the czar ended redemption payments by the serfs,
increased the power of the zemstvos, and allowed the peasants to own their land
outright for the first time. Peasants were now allowed to buy more land to
increase their holdings, and were even given loans. In some sense this was a
sincere attempt at reform, and it created a new class of prosperous,
entrepreneurial peasants called Kulaks. However, for the most part this was
again an attempt to subdue revolutionaries, as the ulterior motive of the plan
was to create a new class of peasant farmers who would be conservative and
loyal to the czar. Under Stolypin's lead, revolutionaries and dissenters were
brutally punished in what became known as "Stolypin Neckties."
Stolypin was assassinated in 1911.
International Relations
Imperialism
In 1871, political
stability of European nations resulted in renewed interest in imperialist
endeavors. Britain became heavily involved in colonialism. The newly-unified
Germany saw expansion as a sign of greatness. France also became involved in
imperialist affairs due to foreign competition.
Europe's political, military and economic
domination of the world gave birth to the British notion of the white
man's burden. The white man's burden held that the white man had an
obligation to forcefully spread their ideas and institutions with others. This,
of course, was utilized by some European governments as moral justification for
their imperialistic foreign policies.
In addition, as a
result of European industrialization, nations had an increased need for various
resources, such as cotton, rubber, and fuel. Moreover, a high level of
nationalism was at the time being experienced across Europe, particularly as a
result of Napoleon's Empire. As nationalism grew at home, citizens began to
desire more troops for their army, and thus colonies were needed to provide
more troops, as well as naval bases and refueling points for ships.
By the late 1800s, a
number of nations across Europe possessed new colonial territories. Belgium had
taken the Congo in central Africa. France controlled Algeria, and Italy
controlled Somalia.
It was said that
"The sun never sets on the British Empire." By this time, Britain's
colonial territories spanned the world, and during the late 1800s Britain
expanded their territorial possessions to include Egypt, Kenya, and South
Africa.
In Asia, the British,
Dutch and French all established or expanded their colonies.
Crimean War
The Crimean War found
its roots in the so-called "Eastern Question," or the question of
what to do with the decaying Ottoman Empire.
The Crimean War was
provoked by Russian tsar Nicholas I's continuing pressure on the dying Ottoman
Empire, and by Russia's claims to be the protector of the Orthodox Christian
subjects of the Ottoman sultan.
Britain and France
became involved in order to block Russian expansion and prevent Russians from
acquiring control of the Turkish Straits and eastern Mediterranean, and to
prevent Russia from upsetting the European balance of power.
The Crimean War is
considered one of the first "modern" wars and it introduced a number
of "firsts" to warfare. The Crimean War marked the first time
railroads were used tactically to transport troops and to transport goods to
troops over vast distances. The War also marked the first time steam powered
ships were used in war. Additionally, new weapons and techniques were used,
including breech-loading rifles, which loaded from the rear, artillery, and the
deployment of trenches. The telegraph was used for the first time as well,
allowing for the first "live" war to be broadcast in the press.
The conflict marked the
end of Metternich's Concert of Europe. At the end of the war, Russia was
defeated and as a result looked weak. The shock of the defeat in the Crimean
War in Russia led to Alexander II enacting sweeping internal reform. Alexander
recognized that in order to compete with other nations, it would have to
industrialize and modernize. As a step toward this, Alexander liberated the
serfs in 1861. Finally, the Ottoman Empire was kept intact, and it would
continue to decline until World War I.
Science and Technology
Darwin's Theory of Evolution
In his book On the Origin of Species by Means
of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin (1809-1882) wrote that creatures
experience genetic mutations prior to birth. Some of these random mutations are
beneficial, and some are not. He wrote that in the world, the creatures who are
the "most fit" are most likely to survive and thus pass on their
genes. This process, known as natural selection results in the strongest creatures
thriving and the weak dying off.
One of the most massive
results of Darwin's theory of evolution was that it was another major challenge
to the Catholic Church. This, coupled with the Reformation, Renaissance, the
Enlightenment and its subsequent rise of deism, and other related movements,
caused the Church to lose even more influence in society.
Also, Darwin's theory
led to the rise of the concept of social
Darwinism, or "survival of the fittest." The theory was fathered
by Herbert Spencer. Social Darwinism espoused the idea that consensual economic
interaction and property rights enabled societies to progress by allowing
productive members of society to flourish and unproductive members to be
punished by poverty. Accordingly, the theory of social Darwinism had a large
impact on classical liberal and libertarian theory. However, in non-libertarian
circles, social Darwinism did not enjoy a favorable reputation, as it was
perceived to have espoused apologism on behalf of the rich, while condemning
the poor.
New Mental Sciences
As a result of Darwin's
theory, a new group of mental sciences arose. People now began to believe that
life is a struggle, and they began to try to explain these struggles. These new
mental sciences supported the concepts of real politik and capitalism, and
rejected the notion that life is orderly, harmonious, predictable, or
reasonable.
During this time,
Sigmund Freud founded what is known as the psychoanalytical school of
psychology. He argued that people are not creatures of reason, as the
Enlightenment suggested, but rather that people act because of subconscious
motivations. He broke these motivations into three areas:
Id
The
id produces unconscious desires and is the most primitive of the three. The id
desires instant gratification. Freud argued that people will use defense
mechanisms and rationalization to justify acting upon the id.
Ego
The
ego is the reality principle or the conscious self. It attempts to suppress the
id and its intense desires.
Superego
The
superego is a person's conscience.
Lombroso argued that
you can tell criminals by their appearance. Pavlov argued that people's actions
are a response to being conditioned by stimuli in an environment. Finally,
Binet devised IQ tests, arguing that intelligence is a measurable quotient. As
a result, eugenicists used this to try to prove that some people were more fit
to live than others.
Society and Culture
The Victorian Age was a
period in which appearances were critical to social status. The dominating
social class was the middle class, or bourgeosie. High moral standards and
strict social codes, especially of etiquette and class status, were followed.
This era also saw a middle-class interest in social reform for the lower
classes.
Modern life was often
unsettling to Europeans, as their old ways were being replaced by urbanization,
industrialization, socialism, imperialism, and countless other new
"ways."
The population was
rising, with the Agricultural Revolution as well as advances in medicine
allowing the citizens to live longer. This resulted in a portion of the rising
population migrating to other locations, including emigrating to other nations.
Europeans migrated from the country to the city in search of industrial jobs.
In addition, many Europeans fled to the United States, South America, Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand for a number of reasons - to escape anti-semitic
persecution, to flee the Irish potato famine of 1840, and as a result of a
general overcrowding in Italy.
However, at the same
time, there were falling birth rates as a result of massive social changes in
Europe. Child labor laws were being enacted across the continent, and
compulsory education was enacted. Thus, the value of children to families fell
since they could not generate income, and the overall cost of having children
was now bore much more upon the parents.
White collar workers
now arose in society, and Europe saw the entrance of educated females into
clerical jobs in business and government. Disposable income became more common,
and thus department stores and other similar stores began to open. People spent
their extra income on fashion, home furnishings, cameras, and various other
items. New leisure activities became popular, including hunting, travelling,
and bicycling, as well as team sports, including polo, cricket, and soccer.
Impressionist Art
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement
that began as a loose association of Paris-based artists exhibiting their art
publicly in the 1860s. The name of the movement is derived from the title of a
Claude Monet work, Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), which
provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satiric review published
in Le Charivari.
Radicals in their time,
early Impressionists broke the rules of academic painting. They began by giving
colours, freely brushed, primacy over line, drawing inspiration from the work
of painters such as Eugène Delacroix. They also took the act of painting out of
the studio and into the world. Previously, still lifes and portraits as well as
landscapes had usually been painted indoors. The Impressionists found that they
could capture the momentary and transient effects of sunlight by painting en
plein air. Painting realistic scenes of modern life, they emphasized vivid
overall effects rather than details. They used short, "broken" brush
strokes of pure and unmixed colour, not smoothly blended, as was customary, in
order to achieve the effect of intense colour vibration.
Post-Impressionists
extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using
vivid colours, thick application of paint, distinctive brushstrokes 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 Post-Impressionists
were dissatisfied with the triviality of subject matter and the loss of
structure in Impressionist paintings, though they did not agree on the way
forward. Georges Seurat and his followers concerned themselves with
Pointillism, the systematic use of tiny dots of colour. Paul Cézanne set out to
restore a sense of order and structure to painting, to "make of
Impressionism something solid and durable, like the art of the museums".
He achieved this by reducing objects to their basic shapes while retaining the
bright fresh colours of Impressionism. The Impressionist Camille Pissarro
experimented with Neo-Impressionist ideas between the mid 1880s and the early
1890s. Discontented with what he referred to as romantic Impressionism, he
investigated Pointillism which he called scientific Impressionism before
returning to a purer Impressionism in the last decade of his life. Vincent van
Gogh used colour and vibrant swirling brush strokes to convey his feelings and
his state of mind. Although they often exhibited together, Post-Impressionist
artists were not in agreement concerning a cohesive movement. Younger painters
during the 1890s and early 20th century worked in geographically disparate
regions and in various stylistic categories, such as Fauvism and Cubism.
Christianity and Religion Questioned
New scientific theories
such as Darwin's Theory of Evolution and Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis
threatened traditional values. Historical scholarship, especially archaeology,
led to questioning the veracity of the Bible, and philosophers like Marx and Nietzsche
cast doubt on the morality of Christianity. Due to government's expanding role
in education, organized religion also came under attack from the secular state.
These pressures led
Pope Pius IX to put forth the Doctrine of Papal Infallibility. Pope Leo XIII
addressed the great social issues of the day, condemning Socialism but urging
improvements in labor conditions.
REFERENCE
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/European_History/European_Imperialism_and_Nationalism
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