UNIT IV: 1750-1914
The era between 1750 and 1914
C.E. was one of clear European hegemony. In the previous era (1450 to 1750
C.E.), Europeans had tilted the balance of world power away from
QUESTIONS OF PERIODIZATION
Very important characteristics
that distinguish 1750-1914 from previous eras in world history include:
We
will analyze these important characteristics of the period by examining these
topics:
Although
coercive labor systems as such declined during this era, new questions of
equality and justice emerged as west came to dominate east,
and the gap between the rich and poor grew larger, particularly in the most
prosperous countries.
CHANGES IN GLOBAL COMMERCE, COMMUNICATIONS, AND
TECHNOLOGY
By
1750 international trade and communications were nothing new. During the
1450-1750 era Europeans had set up colonies in the
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Remember
that to be called a Marker Event in world history, a
development should qualify in three ways:
Like
the Neolithic Revolution that occurred 10,000 years before it, the Industrial
Revolution qualifies as a Marker Event according to all of the above criteria.
It brought about such sweeping changes that it virtually transformed the world,
even areas in which industrialization did not occur. The concept seems simple;
invent and perfect machinery to help make human labor more efficient - but
that's part of its importance. The change was so basic that it could not help
but affect all areas of people's lives in every part of the globe.
The
Industrial Revolution began in
WHY
The
Industrial Revolution helped
NEW
INVENTIONS
The
earliest transformation of the Industrial Revolution was
These
machines were bulky and expensive, so spinning and weaving could no longer be
done at home. Wealthy textile merchants set up the machines in factories, and
had the workers come to these places to do their work. At first the factories
were set up near rivers and streams for water power, but other inventions later
made this unnecessary. Before the late 1700s
TRANSPORTATION
IMPROVEMENTS
Once
the textile industry began its exponential growth, transportation of raw
materials to factories and manufactured goods to customers had to be worked
out. New inventions in transportation spurred the Industrial Revolution
further. A key invention was the steam engine that was perfected by James Watt
in the late 1790s. Although steam power had been used before, Watt invented
ways to make it practical and efficient to use for both water and land
transportation.
Perhaps
the most revolutionary use of steam energy was the railroad engine, which drove
English industry after 1820. The first long-distance rail line from the coastal
city of
1)
Railroads gave manufacturers a cheap way to transport materials and finished
products.
2)
The railroad boom created hundreds of thousands of new jobs for both railroad
workers and miners.
3)
The railroad industry spawned new industries and inventions and increased the
productivity of others. For example, agricultural products could be transported
farther without spoiling, so farmers benefited from the railroads.
4)
Railroads transported people, allowing them to work in cities far away from
their homes and travel to resort areas for leisure.
THE
SPREAD OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The
Industrial Revolution occurred only in
The
earliest center of industrial production in continental
Industrialization
began in the
During
the late 1800s, industrialization spread to
CHANGES IN PATTERNS OF WORLD TRADE
Industrialization
greatly increased the economic, military, and political strength of the societies
that embraced it. By and large, the countries that benefited from
industrialization were the ones that had the necessary components of land,
labor and capital, and often government support. However, even though many
other countries tried to industrialize, few had much success. For example,
India tried to develop jute and steel industries, but the entrepreneurs failed
because they had no government support and little investment capital. An
international division of labor resulted: people in industrialized countries
produced manufactured products, and people in less industrialized countries
produced the raw materials necessary for that production. Industrial England,
for example, needed cotton, so turned to India, Egypt, and the American south
to produce it for them. In many cases this division of labor led to
colonization of the non-industrialized areas. As industrialization increased,
more iron and coal were needed, as well as other fibers for the textile
industry, and the British Empire grew rapidly in order to meet these demands.
Many
countries in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and southeast Asia
became highly dependent on one cash crop - such as sugar, cotton, and rubber -
giving them the nickname of "Banana Republics." Such economies were
very vulnerable to any change in the international market. Foreign investors
owned and controlled the plantations that produced these crops, and most of the
profits went to them. Very little of the profits actually improved the living
conditions for people that lived in those areas, and since they had little
money to spend, a market economy could not develop.
Despite
the inequalities, the division of labor between people in countries that
produced raw materials and those that produced manufactured goods increased the
total volume of world trade. In turn, this increased volume led to better
technology, which reinforced and fed the trade. Sea travel became much more
efficient, with journeys that had once taken months or years reduced to days or
weeks. By 1914 two great canals shortened sea journeys by thousands of miles.
The Suez Canal built by the British and French in the 1850s linked the
Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, making it no longer necessary to go around
the tip of Africa to get from Europe to Asia by sea. The Panama Canal,
completed in 1913, did a similar thing in the western hemisphere, cutting a
swath through Central America that encouraged trade and transportation between
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
DEMOGRAPHIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES
The
Industrial Revolution significantly changed population patterns, migrations,
and environments. In industrialized nations people moved to the areas around
factories to work there, cities grew, and as a result an overall migration from
rural to urban areas took place. This movement was facilitated by the growth of
railroads and improvement of other forms of transportation. This era also saw
migrations on a large scale from Europe and Asia into the Americas, so that the
overall population of the western hemisphere increased. However, this movement
did not translate into a decrease of population in the eastern hemisphere.
Particularly in Europe, the Agricultural Revolution improved nutrition,
especially as the potato (transported from the New World in the previous era)
became a main diet staple for European peasants.
THE END OF THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY
Even
as we may debate whether slavery and the slave trade came about because of
racism or economic benefit, we may argue about why both ended during this era.
From the beginning, as the Atlantic slave trade enriched some Africans and many
Europeans, it became a topic of fierce debate in Europe, Africa, and the
Americas in the late 18th century. The American and French revolutions
stimulated these discussions, since both emphasized liberty, equality, and
justice, topics that fed a strong abolitionist movement. Because most slaves
were not allowed to learn to read and write, most outspoken abolitionists were
free whites in England and North America. However, Africans themselves took up
the struggle to abolish slavery and the slave trade, rising in frequent slave
revolts in the 18th and 19th centuries that made slavery an expensive and
dangerous business. Probably the most famous African spokespersons was Olaudah
Equiano, a west African who published an autobiography in 1789 that recounted
his experiences as a slave in Africa and the New World. He later gained his
freedom, learned to read and write, and became active in the abolitionist
movement. Many people read his works, heard him speak, and were influenced to
oppose slavery.
Despite
the importance of the abolitionist movement, economic forces also contributed
to the end of slavery and the slave trade. Plantations and the slave labor that
supported them remained in place as long as they were profitable. In the
Caribbean, a revolution, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture resulted in the
liberation of slaves in Haiti and the creation of the first black free state in
the Americas. However, the revolution was so violent that it sparked fear among
plantation owners and colonial governments throughout the Caribbean. In the
late 18th century, a rapid increase in Caribbean sugar production led to
declining prices, and yet prices for slaves remained high and even increased.
Even
as plantations experiences these difficulties, profits from the emerging
manufacturing industries were increasing, so investors shifted their money to
these new endeavors. Investors discovered that wage labor in factories was
cheaper than slave labor on plantations because the owners were not responsible
for food and shelter. Entrepreneurs began to see Africa as a place to get raw
materials for industry, not just slaves.
THE
END OF THE SLAVE TRADE
Most
European countries and the United States had abolished the slave trade before
the mid-19th century: Britain in 1807, the United States in 1808, France in
1814, the Netherlands in 1817, and Spain in 1845. Ardent abolitionists in
Britain pressured the government to send patrol ships to the west coast of
Africa to conduct search and seizure operations for ships that violated the
ban. The last documented ship that carried slaves on the Middle Passage arrived
in Cuba in 1867.
THE
END OF SLAVERY
The
institution of slavery continued in most places in the Americas long after the
slave trade was abolished, with the British abolishing slavery in their
colonies in 1833. The French abolished slavery in 1848, the same year that
their last king was overthrown by a democratic government. The United States
abolished slavery in 1865 when the north won a bitter Civil War that had
divided the southern slave-holding states from the northern non-slavery states.
The last country to abolish slavery in the Americas was Brazil, where the
institution was weakened by a law that allowed slaves to fight in the army in
exchange for freedom. Army leaders resisted demands that they capture and
return runaway slaves, and slavery was abolished in 1888, without a war.
IMMIGRATION
TO THE AMERICAS
Various
immigration patterns arose to replace the slave trade. Asian and European
immigrants came to seek opportunities in the Americas from Canada in the north
to Argentina in the south. Some were attracted to discoveries of gold and
silver in western North America and Canada, including many who made their way
west from the eastern United States. However, European and Asian migrants who
became workers in factories, railroad construction sites, and plantations
outnumbered those who were gold prospectors.
By
the mid 19th century European migrants began crossing the Atlantic to fill the
factories in the eastern United States. Increasing rents and indebtedness drove
farmers from Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Scandinavia to North America,
settling in the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys in search of land. The
potato famine forced many Irish peasants to make the journey, and political
revolutions caused many Germans to flee the wrath of the government when their
causes failed. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most immigrants to
North America were from southern and eastern Europe, fleeing famine, poverty,
and discrimination in their countries of origin.
While
migrants to the United States came to fill jobs in the developing industrial
society, those who went to Latin America mostly worked on agricultural
plantations. About 4 million Italians came to Argentina in the 1880s and 1890s,
and others went to Brazil, where the government paid the voyage over for
Italian migrants who came to work on coffee plantations after slavery was
abolished. Others came from Asia, with more than 15,000 indentured laborers
from China working in sugarcane fields in Cuba during the 19th century. Chinese
and Japanese laborers came to Peru where they worked on cotton plantations, in
mines, and on railroad lines.
THE DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION
This
era saw a basic change in the population structures of industrialized
countries. Large families had always been welcome in agricultural societies
because the more people a family had, the more land they were able to work.
Children's work was generally worth more than it costs to take care of them.
However, in the west, including the United States, the birth rate declined to
historically low levels in the 19th century. This demographic transition from
high birth rates to low reflected the facts that child labor was being replaced
by machines and that children were not as useful as they were in agricultural
societies. Instead, as life styles changed in urban settings, it became
difficult to support large families, both in terms of supporting them with
salaries from industrial jobs and in housing them in crowded conditions in the
cities. High birth rates continued elsewhere in the world, so the west's
percentage of total world population began to slip by 1900 even as its world
power peaked.
ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES
Wilderness
areas in Europe were virtually gone by 1750, with almost every piece of land
used by farmers or townspeople. However, the process continued during this era,
and deforestation became the most serious problem. Americans transformed their
lands even more rapidly as people moved west, clearing forests for farms and
then moving on when the soil was depleted. The cultivation of cotton was
especially harmful. Planters cut down forests, grew cotton for a few years,
moved west, and abandoned the land to scrub pines.
Surprisingly,
industrialization actually relieved environmental depletion in Britain because
raw materials once grown on British soil; like wool and grain - were replaced
by coal and iron found underground. Iron replaced wood in many building
structures, including ships, so that deforestation slowed.
The
most dramatic environmental changes in industrialized countries occurred in the
towns. Never before had towns grown so fast, and major cities formed. London
grew from about 500,000 inhabitants in 1700 to more than 2 million by 1850,
with the largest population a city had ever had in world history. Cities in the
middle industrial belt of Britain, such as Liverpool and Manchester grew
rapidly during this period as well. New York City in the United States reached
about 600,000 in 1850.
CHANGES IN SOCIAL AND GENDER STRUCTURE
Industrialization
also transformed social and gender structures in countries where it developed,
although it is not entirely clear as to whether the "gender gap"
narrowed or widened. By and large industrialization widened the gap between the
rich and the poor by creating opportunities for businessmen to be far richer
than the upper classes in an agricultural society ever could be. Although they
were free, not forced, laborers, the wages for factory workers were very low,
and many suffered as much if not more poverty than they had as rural peasants.
WORKING
CONDITIONS
Industrialization
offered new opportunities to people with important skills, such as carpentry,
metallurgy, and machine operations. Some enterprising people became engineers
or opened their own businesses, but for the vast majority of those who left
their farming roots to find their fortunes in the cities, life was full of
disappointments. Most industrial jobs were boring, repetitive, and poorly paid.
Workdays were long with few breaks, and workers performed one simple task over
and over with little sense of accomplishment. Unlike even the poorest farmer or
craftsman, factory workers had no control over tools, jobs, or working hours.
Factory workers could do very little about their predicament until the latter
part of the period, when labor unions formed and helped to provoke the moral
conscience of some middle class people. Until then, workers who dared to go on
strike; like the unmarried girls at the Lowell mills in Massachusetts; they
were simply replaced by other workers from the abundant supply of labor.
FAMILY
LIFE
Because
machinery had to be placed in a large, centrally located place, workers had to
go to factories to perform their work, a major change in lifestyles from those
of agricultural societies. In previous days all family members did most of
their work on the farm, which meant that the family stayed together most of the
time. Division of labor meant that they did different types of work, mostly
split by gender and age, but the endeavor was a collective one. Even in the
early days of commercialization, "piece work" was generally done by
people at home, and then delivered to the merchant or businessman. Now, people
left their homes for hours at a time, often leaving very early and not
returning till very late. Usually both husband and wife worked away from home,
and for most of this period, so did children. Family life was never the same again.
In
the early days of industrialization, the main occupation of working women was
domestic servitude. If they had small children, they usually tried to find work
they could do at home, such as laundry, sewing, or taking in lodgers. However,
even with both parents working, wages were so low that most families found it
difficult to make ends meet. Most industrialists encouraged workers to bring
their children along with them to the factories because children usually could
do the work, too, and they were quite cheap.
CHANGES
IN SOCIAL CLASSES
A
major social change brought about by the Industrial Revolution was the
development of a relatively large middle class, or "bourgeoisie" in
industrialized countries. This class had been growing in Europe since medieval
days when wealth was based on land, and most people were peasants. With the
advent of industrialization, wealth was increasingly based on money and success
in business enterprises, although the status of inherited titles of nobility
based on land ownership remained in place. However, land had never produced
such riches as did business enterprises of this era, and so members of the
bourgeoisie were the wealthiest people around.
However,
most members of the middle class were not wealthy, owning small businesses or
serving as managers or administrators in large businesses. They generally had
comfortable lifestyles, and many were concerned with respectability, or the
demonstration that they were of a higher social class than factory workers
were. They valued the hard work, ambition, and individual responsibility that
had led to their own success, and many believed that the lower classes only had
themselves to blame for their failures. This attitude generally extended not to
just the urban poor, but to people who still farmed in rural areas.
The
urban poor were often at the mercy of business cycles; swings between economic
hard times to recovery and growth. Factory workers were laid off from their
jobs during hard times, making their lives even more difficult. With this
recurrent unemployment came public behaviors, such as drunkenness and fighting,
that appalled the middle class, who stressed sobriety, thrift, industriousness,
and responsibility.
Social
class distinctions were reinforced by Social Darwinism, a philosophy by
Englishman Herbert Spencer. He argued that human society operates by a system
of natural selection, whereby individuals and ways of life automatically
gravitate to their proper station. According to Social Darwinists, poverty was
a "natural condition" for inferior individuals.
GENDER
ROLES AND INEQUALITY
Changes
in gender roles generally fell along class lines, with relationships between
men and women of the middle class being very different from those in the lower
classes.
LOWER
CLASS MEN AND WOMEN
Factory
workers often resisted the work discipline and pressures imposed by their
middle class bosses. They worked long hours in unfulfilling jobs, but their
leisure time interests fed the popularity of two sports: European soccer and
American baseball. They also did less respectable things, like socializing at
bars and pubs, staging dog or chicken fights, and participating in other
activities that middle class men disdained.
Meanwhile,
most of their wives were working, most commonly as domestic servants for middle
class households, jobs that they usually preferred to factory work. Young women
in rural areas often came to cities or suburban areas to work as house
servants. They often sent some of their wages home to support their families in
the country, and some saved dowry money. Others saved to support ambitions to
become clerks or secretaries, jobs increasingly filled by women, but supervised
by men.
MIDDLE
CLASS MEN AND WOMEN
When
production moved outside the home, men who became owners or managers of
factories gained status. Industrial work kept the economy moving, and it was
valued more than the domestic chores traditionally carried out by women. Men's
wages supported the families, since they usually were the ones who made their
comfortable life styles possible. The work ethic of the middle class
infiltrated leisure time as well. Many were intent on self-improvement, reading
books or attending lectures on business or culture. Many factory owners and
managers stressed the importance of church attendance for all, hoping that
factory workers could be persuaded to adopt middle-class values of
respectability.
Middle
class women generally did not work outside of the home, partly because men came
to see stay-at-home wives as a symbol of their success. What followed was a
"cult of domesticity" that justified removing women from the work
place. Instead, they filled their lives with the care of children and the
operation of their homes. Since most middle-class women had servants, they
spent time supervising them, but they also had to do fewer household chores
themselves.
Historians
disagree in their answers to the question of whether or not gender inequality
grew because of industrialization. Gender roles were generally fixed in
agricultural societies, and if the lives of working class people in industrial
societies are examined, it is difficult to see that any significant changes in
the gender gap took place at all. However, middle class gender roles provide
the real basis for the argument. On the one hand, some argue that women were
forced out of many areas of meaningful work, isolated in their homes to obsess
about issues of marginal importance. On the farm, their work was "women's
work," but they were an integral part of the central enterprise of their
time: agriculture. Their work in raising children was vital to the economy, but
industrialization rendered children superfluous as well, whose only role was to
grow up safely enough to fill their adult gender-related duties. On the other
hand, the "cult of domesticity" included a sort of idolizing of women
that made them responsible for moral values and standards. Women were seen as
stable and pure, the vision of what kept their men devoted to the tasks of
running the economy. Women as standard-setters, then, became the important
force in shaping children to value respectability, lead moral lives, and be
responsible for their own behaviors. Without women filling this important role,
the entire social structure that supported industrialized power would collapse.
And who could wish for more power than that?
NEW POLITICAL IDEAS AND MOVEMENTS
In
1750 only England and the Netherlands had constitutional monarchies,
governments that limited the powers of the king or ruler. All the other
kingdoms of Europe, as well as the Muslim Empires and China, practiced
absolutism. Absolutist rulers benefited from the tendency for governments to
centralize between 1450 and 1750 because it extended the power they had over
their subjects. Most of the rulers reinforced their powers by claiming special
authority for the supernatural, whether it be the mandate of heaven as
practiced in China, or divine right as European kings declared. Between 1750
and 1914, absolute rulers almost everywhere lost power, and the rule of law
became a much more important political principle.
One
of the most important political concepts to arise from the era was the
"nation-state," a union often characterized by a common language,
shared historical experiences and institutions, and similar cultural
traditions, including religion at both the elite and popular levels. As a
result, political loyalties were no longer so determined by one's attitudes
toward a particular king or noble but by a more abstract attachment to a
"nation."
FORCES FOR POLITICAL CHANGE
As
the Industrial Revolution began in England, the economic changes were
accompanied by demands for political changes that spread to many other areas of
the world by the end of the 19th century. Two important forces behind the
change were:
REVOLUTIONS
A
combination of economic, intellectual, and social changes started a wave of
revolutions in the late 1700s that continued into the first half of the 19th
century. The started in North America and France, and spread into other parts
of Europe and to Latin America.
THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Ironically,
the first revolution inspired by the new political thought that originated in
England began in the North American colonies and was directed at England. It
began when American colonists resisted Britain's attempt to impose new taxes
and trade controls on the colonies after the French and Indian War ended in
1763. Many also resented Britain's attempts to control the movement west.
"Taxation without representation" turned British political theory on
its ear, but it became a major theme as the rebellion spread from Massachusetts
throughout the rest of the colonies. Colonial leaders set up a new government
and issued the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The British sent forces to
put the rebellion down, but the fighting continued for several years until the
newly created United States eventually won. The United States Constitution that
followed was based on enlightenment principles, with three branches of
government that check and balance one another. Although initially only a few
had the right to vote and slavery was not abolished, the government became a
model for revolutions to come.
THE
FRENCH REVOLUTION
A
very different situation existed in France. No established nobility existed in
the United States, so when independence was achieved, the new nation had no old
social and political structure to throw off. In contrast, the Revolution in
France was a civil war, a rising against the Ancien Regime, or the old kingdom
that had risen over centuries. The king, of course, had absolute power, but the
nobility and clergy had many privileges that no one else had. Social classes
were divided into three estates: first was the clergy, second the nobility, and
the Third Estate was everyone else. On the eve of the Revolution in 1789, about
97% of the population of France was thrown into the Third Estate, although they
held only about 5% of the land. They also paid 100% of the taxes.
Part
of the problem was that the growing class of the bourgeoisie had no political
privileges. They read Enlightenment philosophes, they saw what happened in the
American Revolution, and they resented paying all the taxes. Many saw the old
political and social structure as out of date and the nobles as silly and vain,
undeserving of the privileges they had.
The
French Revolution began with King Louis XVI called the Estates-General, or the
old parliamentary structure, together for the first time in 160 years. He did
so only because the country was in financial crisis brought on by too many wars
for power and an extravagant court life at Versailles Palace. Many problems
converged to create the Revolution: the nobles' refusal to pay taxes,
bourgeoisie resentment of the king, Louis Vic's incompetence, and a series of
bad harvests for the peasants. The bourgeoisie seized control of the
proceedings and declared the creation of the National Assembly, a legislative
body that still exists in France today. They wrote the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and the Citizen, modeled after the American Declaration of
Independence, and they set about to write a Constitution for France.
The
years after the revolution began were turbulent ones that saw the king beheaded
and the government taken over by the Jacobins, a radical group that sought
equality through executing those that disagreed with the government. The Reign
of Terror lasted for about two years, with thousands of people guillotined and
thousands more fleeing the country. The Jacobin leaders themselves were
eventually guillotined; the country teetered for several years in disarray, and
finally was swept up by Napoleon Bonaparte as he claimed French glory in
battle. Democracy did not come easily in France.
CONSERVATIVE REACTION TO REVOLUTION
Napoleon
Bonaparte, of minor nobility from the island of Corsica, rose through the ranks
of the French military during a time of chaos. He seized the French Government
at a time when no one else could control it. He promised stability and
conquest, and by 1812 the French Empire dominated Europe to the borders of
Russia. His invasion of Russia was unsuccessful, done in by cold winters, long
supply lines, and Tsar Alexander It's burn and retreat method that left French
armies without food. Finally, an alliance of European countries led by Britain
defeated Napoleon in 1815 at Waterloo in modern day Belgium. Although Napoleon
was defeated and exiled, other countries were horrified by what had happened in
France: a revolution, the beheading of a king, a terrorizing egalitarian
government, and finally a demagogue who attacked all of Europe. To conservative
Europe, France was a problem that had to be contained before their ideas and
actions spread to the rest of the continent.
The
allies that had defeated Napoleon met at Vienna in 1815 to reach a peace
settlement that would make further revolutions impossible. The Congress of
Vienna was controlled by the representatives of three nations: Britain,
Austria, and Russia. Each country wanted something different. The British
wanted to destroy the French war machine, Russia wanted to establish an
alliance based on Christianity, and Austria wanted a return to absolutism. They
reached an agreement based on restoring the balance of power in Europe, or the
principle that no one country should ever dominate the others. Rather, the
power should be balanced among all the major countries. France actually came
out rather well in the proceedings, due in large part to the talents of their
representative, Tallyrand. However, the Congress restricted France with these
major decisions:
THE SPREAD OF REVOLUTION AND NEW POLITICAL IDEAS
No
matter how the Congress of Vienna tried to stem the tide of revolution, it did
not work in the long run. France was to wobble back and forth between monarchy
and republican government for thirty more years, and then was ruled by Napoleon
III (Bonaparte's nephew) until 1871, when finally a parliamentary government
emerged. And other countries in Europe, as well as colonies in Latin America,
had heard "the shot heard round the world," and the true impact of
the revolutionary political ideas began to be felt.
REVOLUTIONS
IN LATIN AMERICA
From
North America and France, revolutionary enthusiasm spread throughout the
Caribbean and Spanish and Portuguese America. In contrast to the leaders of the
War for Independence for the United States, most of the early revolutions in
Latin America began with subordinated Amerindians and blacks. Even before the
French Revolution, Andean Indians, led by Tupac Amaru, besieged the ancient
capital of Cuzco and nearly conquered the Spanish army. The Creole elite
responded by breaking the ties to Spain and Portugal, but establishing
governments under their control. Freedom, then, was interpreted to mean liberty
for the property-owning classes. Only in the French colony of Saint Domingue
(Haiti) did slaves carry out a successful insurrection.
The
rebellion in 1791 led to several years of civil war in Haiti, even though
French abolished slavery in 1793. When Napoleon came to power, he sent an army
to tame the forces led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave. However,
Napoleon's army was decimated by guerrilla fighters and yellow fever, and even
though Toussaint died in a French jail, Haiti declared its independence in
1804.
Other
revolutions in Latin America were led by political and social elites, although
some of them had important populist elements.
1.
Caracas, Venezuela - At first, laborers and slaves did not support this
Creole-led junta. However, they were convinced to join the independence
movement by Simon de Bolivar, a charismatic military leader with a vision of
forging "Gran Columbia," an independent, giant empire in the northern
part of South America. He defeated the Spanish, but did not achieve his dream
of empire. Instead, regional differences caused the newly independent lands to
split into several countries.
2.
Buenos Aires, Argentina - Another charismatic military leaders - Jose de San
Martin - led armies for independence from the southern part of the continent.
His combined Chilean/Argentine forces joined with Bolivar in Peru, where they
helped the northern areas to defeat the Spanish. Martin's areas, like those led
by Bolivar, also split along regional differences.
All
in all, constitutional experiments in North America were more successful than
those in South America. Though South Americans gained independence from
colonial governments during the 19th century, their governments remained authoritarian
and no effective legislatures were created to share the power with political
leaders. Why this difference?
|
COMPARATIVE
CONSTITUTIONAL EXPERIMENTS; NORTH AMERICA AND SOUTH AMERICA |
|
|
NORTH AMERICA |
SOUTH AMERICA |
|
Mother country had
parliamentary government, so colonial governments had a constitutional model |
Mother country governed by
absolute monarch; colonial governments had authoritarian model |
|
Colonies had previous
experience with popular politics; had their own governments that often
operated independently from British control |
Colonies had no experience
with popular politics; colonial governments led by authoritarian Creoles |
|
Military leaders were popular
and sometimes became Presidents (Washington, Jackson), but they did not try
to take over the government as military leaders; constitutional principle
that military would be subordinate to the government |
Had difficulty subduing the
power of military leaders; set in place the tradition of military juntas
taking over governments |
|
American Revolution occurred
in the 1770s; vulnerable new nation emerged at an economically advantageous
time, when the world economy was expanding |
Latin American Revolutions
occurred during the early 1800s, a time when the world economy was
contracting, a less advantageous time for new nations |
The
differences in political backgrounds of the two continents led to some very
different consequences. For the United States (and eventually Canada), it meant
that relatively democratic governments left entrepreneurs open to the Industrial
Revolution, which, after all, started in their mother country. For Latin
America, it meant that their governments were less supportive and/or more
removed from the economic transformations of the Industrial Revolutions, and
stable democratic governments and economic prosperity would be a long time in
coming.
IDEOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF REVOLUTIONS
The
Enlightenment philosophy that inspired revolutions in the United States,
France, and Latin America brought about lasting changes in western political ideology,
with some people reacting against the chaos that revolutions brought, and
others inspired by the values of democracy, liberty, equality, and justice.
Three contrasting ideologies may be seen by the early 1800s:
REFORM
MOVEMENTS
The
political values supported by revolutions were embraced by some who saw them as
applying to all people, including women and former slaves. Values of liberty,
equality, and democracy had profound implications for change within societies
that had always accepted hierarchical social classes and gender roles. Reform
movements sprouted up as different people put different interpretations on what
these new political and social values actually meant.
Women's
Rights
Advocates
of women's rights were particularly active in Britain, France, and North
America. Mary Wollstonecraft, an English writer, was one of the first to argue
that women possessed all the rights that Locke had granted to men, including
education and participation in political life. Many French women assumed that
they would be granted equal rights after the revolution. However, it did not
bring the right to vote or play major roles in public affairs. Since gender
roles did not change in the immediate aftermath of revolution, social reformers
pressed for women's rights in North America and Europe. Americans like
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in the United States decided to
concentrate their efforts on suffrage, or the right to vote. A resolution
passed at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, emphasized women's rights to
suffrage, as well as to education, professional occupations, and political
office. Their movement did not receive popular support, however, until the 20th
century, but their activism laid a foundation for large-scale social change
later.
The
Limits of the Abolitionist Movement
Although
slavery was abolished in Europe and North America by the late 19th century,
blacks did not realize equality within the time period. Although former slaves
were guaranteed the right to vote in the late 1860s in the United States, they
were effectively barred from political participation by state and local
legislation called Jim Crow laws. Blacks all over the Americas tended to have
the least desirable jobs, limited educational opportunities, and lower social
status than whites.
Conservative
Reactions to Reform
During
the late 1800s two systems of related political thought emerged among
conservatives to justify inequalities:
Marxism
Another
reaction to the revolution in political thought was Marxism, The father of
communism is generally acknowledged to be Karl Marx, who first wrote about his
interpretation of history and vision for the future in The Communist Manifesto
in 1848. He saw capitalism; or the free market; as an economic system that
exploited workers and increased the gap between the rich and the poor. He
believed that conditions in capitalist countries would eventually become so bad
that workers would join together in a Revolution of the Proletariat (workers),
and overcome the bourgeoisie, or owners of factories and other means of
production. Marx envisioned a new world after the revolution, one in which
social class would disappear because ownership of private property would be
banned. According to Marx, communism encourages equality and cooperation, and
without property to encourage greed and strife, governments would be
unnecessary. His theories took root in Europe, but never became the philosophy
behind European governments, but it eventually took new forms in early 20th
century Russia and China.
NATIONALISM
In
older forms of political organizations, the glue of political unity came from
the ruler, whether it is a king, emperor, sultan, or caliph. Political power
generally was built on military might, and a ruler controlled the land that he
conquered as long as he controlled it. Power was often passed down within one
family that based the legitimacy of their rule on principles that held sway
over their populations, often some kind of special contact with the spiritual
world. The era 1750 to 1914 saw the creation of a new type of political
organization - the nation - that survived even if the rulers failed. Whereas
nations' political boundaries were still often decided by military victory, the
political entity was much broader than control by one person or family. Nations
were built on nationalism - the feeling of identity within a common group of
people. Of course, these feelings were not new in the history of the world.
However, the force of common identity became a basic building block for
nations, political forms that still dominate world politics today. Nationalism
could be based on common geographical locations, language, religion, or
customs, but it is much more complex than that. The main idea is that people
see themselves as "Americans" or "Italians" or
"Japanese," despite the fact that significant cultural variations may
exist within the nation.
Napoleon
contributed a great deal to the development of strong nationalism in 19th
century Europe. His conquests were done in the name of "France," even
though the French monarchy had been deposed. The more he conquered, the more
pride people had in being "French." He also stirred up feelings of
nationalism within a people that he conquered: "Germans" that could
not abide being taken over by the French. In Napoleon's day Germany did not
exist as a country yet, but people still thought of themselves as being German.
Instead Germans lived in a political entity known as "The Holy Roman
Empire." However, the nationalism that Napoleon invoked became the basis
for further revolutions, in which people around the world sought to determine
their own sovereignty, a principle that Woodrow Wilson called self-determination.
RISE OF WESTERN DOMINANCE
A
combination of economic and political transformations in Europe that began in
the 1450 to 1750 era converged between 1750 and 1914 to allow the
"west" (including the United States and Australia) to dominate the
rest of the world. From China to the Muslim states to Africa, virtually all
other parts of the world became the "have nots" to the west's
"haves." With political and economic dominance came control in
cultural and artistic areas as well.
NEW EUROPEAN NATIONS
A
major political development inspired by growing nationalism was the
consolidation of small states into two important new nations:
These
new nations altered the balance of power in Europe, causing established nations
like Britain and France concern that their own power was in danger. Nationalism,
then, was spurred on by a renewal of deep-rooted competition that European
nations carried to the ends of the earth. They competed with one another
through trade, industrial production, and colonization, setting up worldwide
empires to bolster their attempts to outdo all the others.
EURASIAN EMPIRES
The
Russian and Ottoman Empires - two land-based powers in Eurasia - suffered the
disadvantages of being neighbors to the rising nations in Europe. Russia had
its wins and losses during the era yet managed to retain its power, but the
Ottomans were in steep decline during most of the period and on the brink of
destruction by 1914.
THE
RUSSIAN EMPIRE
The
Russian Empire turned its attention to the west under the late 17th and early
18th century rule of Peter the Great. His moves to build Russia into a great
western empire were reinforced by tsar Catherine the Great in the late 18th
century. Although the tension between Slavic traditions and the new western
orientation remained, Russia retained its growing reputation as a world power,
especially after resisting Napoleon's invasion in 1812. However, Russia in the
mid-19th century was a huge, diverse realm that was very difficult to rule from
a central location, even with the power granted to an absolute tsar. Its economy
remained agriculturally based, with most people as serfs bound to the land that
they cultivated.
Russia
got into trouble with powerful England and France, when its formidable army
attacked the Ottoman Empire to seize access to warm water ports around the
Black Sea. Fearful of an upset in European balance of power, England and France
supported the Ottomans in defeating Russian troops in the Crimean War
(1853-1856). This defeat clearly showed Russian weakness, and it led Tsar
Alexander II to attempt reform by emphasizing industrialization, creating
elected district assemblies called zemstvos, and emancipating the serfs.
Russia's
instability became apparent when Alexander II was assassinated by one of the
many revolutionary groups that were growing rapidly within the country. Some of
these revolutionary groups were Marxist, and their influence would eventually
take over the country in 1917. However, Russia continued on under absolute rule
until then, with an intense state-run industrialization program that did
modernize Russia by the end of the 19th century.
THE
OTTOMAN EMPIRE - "THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE"
The
Ottoman Empire reached its peak during the 16th and 17th centuries when they
won many of their encounters with European kingdoms, although their attack of
Europe was stopped with their unsuccessful siege of Vienna. By the early 1800s
the Ottoman Empire had many internal problems, including these:
When
the Russians attack started the Crimean War, the Ottomans were aided by England
and France. Even though Russia was defeated, an important result of the war was
that the Ottomans found themselves increasingly dependent on western Europe.
Even before the war, weak Ottoman rulers tried to restore their power by
imposing western reforms, such as trials, rules of law, separation of church and
state, and a Magna Carta type document. Young people were sent to France to
learn modern military techniques and medicine. Education reforms featured
textbooks written in French, and the army adopted French-style uniforms. The
nickname that western nations bestowed on the Ottomans reflected their
attitudes about the empire: "the sick man of Europe."
The
decline of Ottoman power and prosperity had a strong impact on a group of urban
and well-educated young men who protested European domination of the empire's
political, economic, and cultural life. Inspired by the European nationalist
movements, they began to call themselves the Young Turks, and they pushed for a
Turkish national state. A constitution was granted in 1876, but was later
rescinded under a new sultan. However the Young Turk movement continued on
through the era.
IMPERIALISM
Empire
building is an old theme in world history. Societies have sought to dominate
weaker neighbors as long ago as ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, all the way
through to the present. Motivations have been similar - to obtain natural
resources, to subdue enemies, to accrue wealth, to win power and glory - but
until the rise of the west, most empires have expanded to territories next to
their borders. With the combination of sea power, centralized governments, and
industrialized economies, European nations set out to build empires all over
the world, like none that had been seen before. They were driven by the need to
provide raw materials for their industrial capacity, and the types of goods
exchanged were determined by that need.
TYPES
OF IMPERIALISM
Europeans
began building their empires in the western hemisphere in the early 1500s, but
by the 1800s, Spain and Portugal were no longer powerful countries, and the
largest British colony had become the United States. Britain, France, Germany,
Russia, and the Netherlands continued to colonize during this era, but they
also devised other ways to spread their empires. In the late 19th century Japan
and the United States joined the European nations as an imperialist power.
Types
of imperialism in the 1800s included:
IMPERIALISM
IN AFRICA
Between
1450 and 1750 Europeans traded with Africa, but they set up very few colonies.
By 1850, only a few colonies existed along African coastlines, such as Algeria
(French), the Cape Colony (Great Britain,) and Angola (Portugal). Instead, free
African states continued, and after the end of the slave trade in the early
1800s, a lively exchange took place between Europeans and African states, such
as the Sokoto Caliphate in western Africa and Egypt and Ethiopia in northeast
Africa. They traded manufactured goods for gold, ivory, palm oil (a substance
used in soap, candles, and lubricants). Under the leadership of Muhammad Aliž
and his grandson Ismailž Egypt grew to be the strongest Muslim state of the
19th century, producing cotton for export and employing western technology and
business methods. They benefited from the American Civil War, when cotton
shipments from the southern U.S. were cut off, but the Egyptian cotton market
collapsed after American shipments resumed after the Civil War was over.
In
the latter half of the 19th century, dramatic changes occurred, as Europeans
began to explore Africa's interior, and by 1914, virtually the entire continent
was colonized by one or the other of the competing European countries. European
imperialists built on the information provided by adventurers and missionaries,
especially the famous Dr. David Livingstone and Henry Stanley. Livingstone, a
Scottish missionary, went to Africa in the 1840s and spent three decades
exploring the interior of Africa and setting up missionary outposts all the way
from central Africa to the Cape Colony on the southern tip. When people in
Britain lost contact with Livingstone, journalist Henry Stanley became a news
sensation when he traveled to Africa and found Livingstone. The two sparked
interest in Africa and others followed, including the imperialists.
Belgium
was one of the first countries to sponsor expeditions to develop commercial
activities, first establishing the Congo Free State under the direction of
Belgium's King Leopold II, and eventually seizing it as the Belgian Congo. This
event set off the Scramble for Africa, in which Britain, France, Germany, and
Italy competed with Belgium for land in Africa. The Berlin Conference of
1884-5, in an effort to avoid war, allowed European diplomats to draw lines on
maps and carve Africa into colonies. The result was a transformation of
political and economic Africa, with virtually all parts of the continent
colonized by 1900.
IMPERIALISM
IN INDIA
With
the Mughal Empire significantly weakened, the French established trading cities
along the Indian coast during the 18th century, but the British East India
Company had pushed them out by the early 1800s. The British were still
following the model of government support for private companies that they had
used in colonizing North America during the 19th century. The company forced
the Mughals to recognize company rule first over Bengal, and when the old
Mughal Empire was defeated in the 18th century by Iranian armies, the British
pushed for economic control over more and more areas. Again India fell into the
familiar pattern of decentralized independent states ruled by nawabs, native
princes who had nominally supported the Mughal emperor, and the company made
agreements with them that were economically advantageous to the British.
The
British "Raj" - 1818-1857
India
was under "company" rule for almost forty years, but they were not
actually a British colony during that time because the British East India
Company was still private, even though the British government supported it.
However, the company administered governmental affairs and initiated social
reform that reflected British values. At the same time, they depended on the
nawabs to support them, and so they also had to abide by Indian customs and
rules as well. The contradictory roles they played eventually erupted in the
Sepoy Rebellion of 1857. The Sepoys were Indian Muslims and Hindus who served
the British as soldiers in the army that defended the subcontinent. The
rebellion took the British by surprise, but they found out that the Indian fury
could be traced to a new training technique that the soldiers refused to
follow. It required them to put a bullet shell in their mouths that had been
greased in either pork or beef fat, with the pork fat being highly offensive to
the Muslims and the beef to the Hindu. The British changed the practice, but it
was too late because nationalism had reached India, too, and a movement for a
country based on Indian identity was beginning. The leaders of the movement
would have to wait about 90 years, though, to fulfill their dreams.
British
Rule - 1857-1947
The
Sepoy Rebellion showed the British government how serious the problems in India
were, and they reacted by removing the British East India Company from control
and declaring India a British colony. British officials poured into India to
keep control of its valuable raw materials for industry and trade, particularly
cotton and poppies for opium. They expanded production, built factories in
India, and constructed huge railroad and irrigation, and telegraph systems.
Rising
Indian Nationalism
With
growing industrialization and British controlled trade, a middle class of
Indian officials and managers began to rise during the late 1800s. By and
large, the British did not allow Indians to own companies or to hold top
government positions, but they did provide education for people to fill middle
level and professional jobs. Some Indians went to England for higher education,
where they absorbed western political values of liberty, equality, and justice,
and they began to apply those values to their own situations. For example, the
Brahmo Samaj movement, led by Rammouhan Roy, advocated unity for Indians by
combining traditional and modern ways. The Indian National Congress was formed
in 1885, with the goals of promoting political unity and appointing more
Indians into higher positions in the British Civil Service. The Congress was
controlled by Hindus, and in 1906 another nationalist group was established for
Muslims called the All-India Muslim League. Despite tensions between them, by
1914 both groups were demanding Indian independence from the British.
Were
the British merely exploiting Indians for profit, or were they trying to
"do the right thing" for India? Certainly the profit motive was
strong, especially apparent in the takeover in the early years by the British
East India Company, a profit-driven company. However, many British people of
the time insisted that a major goals for the government was to improve Indian
lives through modernization of their country. Perhaps the most famous defense
for British motives was The White Man's Burden, a poem by Rudyard Kipling that
promotes the vision of a British world leadership idealistically improving the
lives of people in the areas they dominated. Of course, the Indian National
Congress and the All-India Muslim League did not agree.
IMPERIALISM
IN CHINA
After
the long and prosperous rules of Kangxi and Qianlong in the 17th and 18th
centuries, problems of the Qing Dynasty began to mount during the early 19th century.
It suffered from many old land-based ailments, such as long borders to defend
and the challenge of keeping transportation and communication routes operating,
but they also faced other serious issues. The Manchu, rulers of the Qing
dynasty, were originally a northern group that conquered the Han Chinese under
Ming rule. Han Chinese, as they did under Mongol rule, pushed for restoration
of rule to the natives. The dynasty also began to experience significant
revolts from minorities, and the government, under an increasingly corrupt line
of rulers, was not able to deal with them properly. As the Chinese dynastic
cycle was clearly going into decline, Europeans sensed the problems, and began
to push for trading rights that China had been reluctant to grant in earlier
times.
The
Opium Wars (1839-1842)
In
1759 Emperor Qianlong had restricted European commercial presence to Guangzhou,
a port in the southeastern part of China. There the trade was very much
supervised by Chinese under the cohong system, with specially licensed Chinese
firms operating under government set prices. Trade with Europeans was also
restricted by the fact that Europeans had very little that the Chinese wanted
to buy, even though the reverse was far from true. So the British East India Company,
using Turkish and Persian expertise) grew opium in India and shipped it to
China. As a result, trade boomed, especially once the Chinese developed
addictions to the drug. The weak Qing government failed to act, even after some
Chinese officials began to support the trade by accepting bribes. In 1838, with
about 40,000 chests of opium coming into Guangzhou that year, the government
finally tried to stop it.
The
Opium Wars began after the Qing refused to listen to British protests of the
trade ban. The British sent well-armed infantry and gunboats to attack first
Chinese coastal villages, and eventually towns along the Grant Canal. The
British used the Canal to reach inland areas, fought the ill-equipped villagers
all the way to the Yellow River, when the Qing surrendered. Although the
British did not take over the government, they forced the Qing to sign a treaty
allowing the trade.
The
Unequal Treaties
The
Treaty of Nanjing, signed by the Chinese after the Opium Wars, was oriented
toward trade. The Chinese agreed to allow the trade of opium and open other
ports to exclusive trade with Britain. Beyond that, it gave the British control
of Hong Kong (near Guangzhou), and it released Korea, Vietnam, and Burma from
Chinese control. This was the first of many unequal treaties signed by Asians
with European nations, and they eventually led to "spheres of
influence." China was divided up into trading spheres, giving each
competing European nation exclusive trading rights in a particular areas. By
the early 20th century, virtually all of China was split into these areas, and
the Qing government was virtually powerless.
The
Taiping Rebellion - 1850-1864
The
Qing Dynasty was significantly weakened by the Taiping Rebellion, a revolt led
by Hong Xiuquan, a village schoolteacher who hated the Manchus as foreigners.
He gathered support among poor and unhappy farmers, and under his charismatic
leadership, his armies captured the city of Nanjing as their capital, and came
very close to toppling the government in Beijing. Hong was an unusual leader,
believing that he was the younger brother of Jesus, and advocating abolition of
private property and equality for women. The Chinese government finally ended
the civil war, with a great deal of help from the Europeans, but the cost to
the country was about 20-30 million killed in this 14-year struggle.
Although
it is difficult to see the Taiping Rebellion as nationalism, its leader's ideas
were similar in many ways to the radical political movements in the west.
Chinese nationalism was more apparent in the 1900 Boxer Rebellion, in which a
group called the Boxers led an army against the Qing with the express purpose
of recovering "China for the Chinese." The group fed on their efforts
to rid the country of European interests, and even though the rebellion was
unsuccessful, the Boxers laid the foundations for the 1911 Chinese Revolution
that finally ended the Qing Dynasty.
NEW
IMPERIALIST NATIONS
By
the late 1800s, two non-European nations- the United States and Japan; were
rising to power through industrialization and imperialism. Both were destined
to become important world powers in the 20th century.
The
United States
As
industrialization enriched and empowered the United States in the late 19th
century, the country also began to experiment with imperialism. It began with
the purchase of Alaska from Russia, and followed with a coup of the native
government in Hawaii, a plot sponsored by American planters and growers in the
Hawaiian Islands. Both Alaska and Hawaii became territories, and although many
questioned the wisdom of the Alaska purchase, the Hawaii takeover clearly had
an economic motive.
After
a quarrel over Cuban independence, the United States defeated Spain in the
Spanish American War in 1898, a fairly easy task since Spain was long past the
peak of her colonial power. The peace treaty gave the Philippines, Puerto Rico,
and the Pacific island of Guan to the United States as protectorates, as well
as considerable economic control of Cuba. To keep their new empire intact, President
Theodore Roosevelt advocated the building of a powerful American navy, and the
United States sponsored the building of the Panama Canal to allow the new Great
White Fleet access to both east and west coasts of the country.
Japan
United
States sea captain Matthew Perry may take some credit for the destruction of
the Tokugawa Shogunate. By the mid 19th century the Japanese were most
concerned about European incursions in China, and so they kept up their guard
against Europeans trying to invade their islands from the south. They were most
surprised when Perry arrived from the east with his demands for opening of
Japan to trade with the United States through an "unequal treaty."
That was all the daimyos needed to joint together in an insurrection against the
Tokugawa, who indeed signed such a treaty. To legitimize their cause, the
daimyos fought in the name of the emperor, and when they won, they declared
that the legitimate government had been "restored." The Meiji
Restoration took advantage of the fact that their geography made them less
strategically important than the Chinese, so that the Europeans and Americans
tended to leave them alone. They were left to their own devices - to create a
remarkable state that built the foundations for Japan as a world power.
The
Meiji (meaning "enlightened rule") claimed to have ended centuries of
shogun-dominated governments that made the emperor totally powerless. They
mystified and revered the position of the emperor, who became a very important
symbol for Japanese unity. However, the new state did not give the emperor any
real power, either. Japanese nationalism was built on the mysticism of the
emperor, anxiety over the foreign threat, and an amazing transformation of
Japan's military, economy, and government. The country was ruled by oligarchs,
a small group of leaders who together directed the state. They borrowed heavily
from the west to industrialize their country and to build a centralized, strong
military. They gradually but systematically dissolved the daimyo and samurai
classes, and they placed a great deal of emphasis on building a strong
education system.
The
era from 1750-1914 was clearly one of growing European power and domination of
the globe. Industrialization created unprecedented wealth, and new western
political ideas spawned strong, centralized states that directed empires around
the world. However, the new political ideas encouraged nationalism, which on
the one hand strengthened the industrialized countries, but on the other hand
caused the people that they dominated to resent their control. The potential
for worldwide power and riches also intensified the conflict and competition
that had long existed among European states. In 1914 these conflicts came to
the surface and erupted into a Great War that ushered in the new, very
different era of the 20th century.