*The
Causes of the Renaissance*
- The
Middle Ages, which began around 500 AD, finally came to an end around 1450
AD.
- Though
the beginning of the Renaissance, which signaled the end of the Middle Ages,
occurred in the city-states of Italy, the same reasons that caused the
Renaissance to begin in Italy caused it to appear in the rest of Western
Europe.
- The
conditions that led to the Renaissance in Italy are as
follows:
1. Because
of the Crusades, and the new trade routes, Europeans began to come in contact
with other, more advanced civilizations, which influenced them
greatly.
2. The
Church, due to the scandals that occurred, lost much of its power, and people
began to doubt its ultimate authority.
3. Due to
trade, the middle class grew, and people began to accumulate vast sums of money.
They then wanted to enjoy and show off their wealth, which led to a philosophy
of enjoying this life instead of simply waiting for the next
one.
4. Competition
between wealthy people for status led to developments in education and art,
since wealthy people, wanting to be respected, would compete to see who was the
most educated or had sponsored the most artists.
*The
Definition of the Renaissance*
- The
Renaissance (French Term) means the rebirth of culture. However, it would be
more accurately put as the rebirth of ancient culture since the Middle Ages did
have a form of culture, just not the same culture as the ancients.
- An
essential element of the Renaissance was the beginning of humanism, which
glorified the culture of Ancient Greece and Rome.
*The Four
Aspects of Humanism*
-
Humanism was a new philosophy that really defined the Renaissance. Although it
was an intellectual movement and didn’t really spread to most people, it had a
huge impact on the age.
- Though
many believe that humanism replaced religion in the Renaissance, in reality, the
two coexisted. Most humanists were actually religious, and the only difference
between the beliefs of church and of the humanists had was that the humanists
believed that this life was important and should be enjoyed while the church did
not, and felt that people should focus on awaiting the afterlife instead.
-
Humanism consists of four essential aspects, which are as
follows:
1. Admiration
and emulation of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
2. Philosophy
of enjoying this life, instead of just waiting for the next
one.
3. The
glorification of humans and the belief that individuals are can do
anything.
4. The
belief that humans deserved to be the center of attention.
-
Humanism also had a subdivision known as civic humanism. The civic
humanists believed that participation in public affairs was essential for human
development, and that individuals should not cut themselves off from society and
study the world. Instead, they should help make changes in it by becoming a part
of government. Eventually, the beliefs of the civic humanists spread to the
humanists as a whole.
*The
Humanists*
-
Petrarch à (1304 -
1374) was the first humanist of the Renaissance. He greatly admired the Greeks
and Romans and preferred them to his own contemporaries, who he saw as barbaric.
He even felt that the only true examples of moral and proper behavior could come
from the Ancients. Though he was a lawyer and cleric by trade, he devoted
himself to writing poetry, papers, and letters, which were often to the famous
Greeks and Romans.
-
Boccaccio à (1313 –
1375) was a writer who became famous for a collection of short stories called
The Decameron that is now thought of as the first prose masterpiece ever
written in Italian. The Decameron is a book relating how a group of young
Florentines went to a secluded villa to escape the plague and began telling
stories. It was one of the first books intended for entertainment and is
groundbreaking in its frank treatment of relationships and its creation of
ordinary, realistic characters.
-
Baldassare Castiglione à writer
who is best known for his novel, The Courtier, which, by taking the form
of a conversation between the sophisticated men and women of a court in Urbino,
became a manual of proper behavior for gentlemen and ladies for centuries to
come.
-
Guarino da Verona & Vittorino da Feltre à were
educators who turned the ideals of the humanists into a practical curriculum.
They founded a school in which students learned Latin, Greek, mathematics,
music, philosophy, and social graces.
-
Marsilio Ficino à was a
member of a new, later group of humanists called the Neoplatonists, who believed
in studying the grand ideas in the work of Plato and other philosophers as
opposed to leading the “active life” the civic humanists lead. Ficino believed
that Plato’s ideas showed the dignity and immortality of the human soul.
-
Giovanni Pico à another
Neoplatonist who believed that he could reconcile all philosophies and show that
a single truth lay behind them all.
*Humanist
Art*
- The
area in which the humanists really excelled was art. Though some of the novels
and essays written in the time have become classics, none of their writing (or
any other area) ever came close to being as brilliant as their art.
- The differences between Medieval art and Renaissance art are numerous, and very dramatic, for a complete change in style occurred.
- Also,
during the Renaissance, great artists, for the first time, gained special
recognition and prestige instead of simply being craftsmen.
*Characteristics
of Medieval Art*
-
Paintings were lacking in depth and perspective.
-
Paintings usually lacked a background.
- Always
themed religiously and usually focusing on heaven or holy
people.
- The
paintings were not realistic, and made no sense geometrically or
mathematically.
- The
subjects did not show any emotions, except for calm or
piety.
*Characteristics
of Renaissance Art*
-
Emulation of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
- Good
use of depth in paintings.
-
Linear (further away = smaller) and atmospheric (further
away = hazier) perspective.
-
Paintings began to have more detailed backgrounds.
- Not
necessarily religious, more focus on earthly themes and
humans.
- More
realistic, geometrically precise and mathematically accurate.
-
Subjects showing signs of more emotion.
-
Contraposto posture, in which the subject is shifting his or her
balance.
*Artists
of the Early Renaissance*
-
Giotto à (1267 –
1337) was a painter famous for the solid bodies, the expression of human
emotion, and the suggestion of landscape in his paintings.
-
Masaccio à (1401 –
1428) was a painter who used the inspiration of the ancients to put a new
emphasis on nature, on three-dimensional human bodies, and on perspective. He
also was the first painter since the ancients to show nudes in his paintings.
-
Donatello à (1386 –
1466) was mainly a sculptor whose focus was on the beauty of the human body. He
made some of the first nude sculptures since the ancients.
-
Brunelleschi à (1377 –
1446) was an architect whose work was groundbreaking for its simplicity,
symmetry, balance and harmony. Additionally, he created the largest dome built
in Europe since the ancients in a cathedral in Florence.
*Artists
of the High Renaissance*
-
Leonardo à (1452 –
1519) was a painter (and a scientist, writer, and inventor) whose paintings are
remarkable for their technical perfection, in other words, for their good use of
angles, perspective, and a detailed background.
-
Raphael à (1483 –
1520) was a painter who used his mastery of perspective and ancient styles to
produce works of harmony, beauty, and serenity and convey a sense of peace.
-
Michelangelo à (1475 –
1564) was a painter who also experimented in poetry, architecture, and
sculpture. Most of his work focuses on individuals who always give a sense of
strength and ambition.
-
Titian à (1479 –
1576) was a painter who painted scenes of luxury in such a vivid, immediate way
that his paintings seem real to the viewer.
*The
Short Term Causes of the Reformation*
- John
Wycliffe à (1320 –
1384) was an English reformer who argued that the Church was becoming too remote
from the people and advocated for simplification of its doctrines and less power
for the priests. He believed that only the Scriptures declared the will of God
and questioned transubstantiation, the ability of the priests to perform
a miracle turning the wine and bread into Christ’s blood and body. His views
were branded heretical, but he was able to survive in hiding though his remains
were dug up by the Church in 1428 and burned. He left an underground movement
called the Lollards who faced constant persecution.
- Jan
Hus
à (1369 –
1415) was a Bohemian who argued that priests weren’t a holy group, claiming
instead that the Church was made up of all of the faithful. He questioned
transubstantiation, and said that the priest and the people should all have both
the wine and the bread. He was burned at the stake in 1415, but his followers,
led by Zizka, raised an army and won against the emperor, who let them to
set up their own church (the Utraquist Church) in which both the wine and bread
were eaten by all.
- The
Avignon Exile and Great Schism
à were
both events that greatly undermined both the power and prestige of the Church,
and made many people begin to question its holiness and the absolute power of
the Papacy. People realized that the Church was a human institution with its own
faults.
- The
Printing Press
à before
the invention of the printing press in the mid-1400s, many people didn’t have
access to information or changes in religious thought except through word of
mouth and the village viellées. With the printing press, new ideas, and
the dissatisfaction with the church, could spread quickly, and people could read
the Bible for themselves.
*The Long
Term Causes of the Reformation*
-
The
growth in the power of the secular king and the decrease in the power of the
Pope.
- The
popular discontent with the seemingly empty rituals of the
Church.
- The
movement towards more personal ways of communicating with God, called lay
piety.
- The
fiscal crisis in the Church that led to corruption and abuses of power –
IMPORTANT!
*Abuses
of Church Power*
-
Simony à the sale
of Church positions, which quickly led to people becoming Church officials
purely for economic motives, and not for spiritual ones.
-
Indulgences à the sale
of indulgences was the biggest moneymaker for the Church. When a person paid for
an indulgence, it supposedly excused the sins they had committed (the more $,
the more sins forgiven) even without them having to repent. Indulgences could
even be bought for future sins not yet committed and for others, especially
those who had just died, and were supposed to make a person’s passage into
heaven faster.
-
Dispensations à payments
that released a petitioner from the requirements of the canon law.
-
Incelebacy à church
officials getting married and having children.
-
Pluralism à having
more than one position at a time.
-
Nepotism à control
by a particular family.
*The
Definition of the Reformation*
- The
Reformation was the final splitting of the Western Church into two halves.
- The two
branches of the Church were Catholicism and Protestantism.
*Martin
Luther*
- Luther
(1483 – 1546) was born into a middle class family in Saxony, Germany. He got a
good education and began studying law. After almost being hit by lightning, he
decided to become a monk.
- As a
monk, he became obsessed with his own sinfulness, and pursued every possible
opportunity to earn worthiness in God’s eyes (for example, self-flagellation)
but he was still not satisfied, for he felt that God would never forgive a
sinner like himself.
-
Finally, he had an intense religious experience that led him to realize that
justification in the eyes of God was based on faith alone and not on
good works and sacraments.
-
Then, in 1517, he saw a friar named Johann Tetzel peddling indulgences and
claiming that by buying them, people could save themselves time in the
purgatory. Since he said that by buying the indulgences, people could excuse
sins, people were coming to buy the indulgences in droves. This outraged Luther,
and on October 31st, 1517 he posted his Ninety-Five Theses on the
church door.
- The
theses explained that the Pope could remit only the penalties he or canon law
imposed, and that for other sins, the faithful had only to sincerely repent to
obtain an indulgence, not pay the Church.
- The
theses made the profits from the indulgences drop off, and angered the order
that supported Tetzel. Luther and the rival monks began to have theological
discussions, which were at first ignored.
- But, by
1520 Luther had written three radical pamphlets:
1. An
Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation
à made a
patriotic appeal to Germans to reject the foreign Pope’s
authority.
2. The
Babylonian Captivity
à attacked
the belief that the seven sacraments were the only means of attaining grace,
saying that only two, baptism and the Eucharist (which were mentioned in the
Bible) were important.
3. The
Liberty of the Christian Man
à
explained his principle of salvation by faith alone.
*The Diet
of Worms*
-
Luther’s writings could no longer be ignored, and, in 1520, Pope Leo the Fifth
excommunicated him, and Luther responded by calling the Pope an anti-Christ. So,
Charles the Fifth ordered him to offer his defense against the decree at a Diet
of the Empire at Worms.
- At
Worms, Luther refused to retract his statements, asking to be proved wrong with
the Bible. So, Charles ordered that Luther be arrested and his works burned, but
Prince Frederick of Saxony came to Luther’s aid and allowed Luther to hide in
his castle. There, Luther established the Lutheran
doctrines.
*Lutheran
Doctrine and Practice*
-
Codified in the Augsburg Confession the Lutheran beliefs are as
follows:
1. Justification
by faith alone, or the belief that faith alone, without the sacraments or good
works, leads to an individual’s salvation.
2. The Bible
as the only authority, not any subsequent works.
3. All
people are equally capable of understanding God’s word as expressed in the Bible
and can gain salvation without the help of an intermediary.
4. No
distinction between priests and laity.
5. Consubstantiation
(the presence of the substance and Christ coexist in the wafer and wine and no
miracle occurs) instead of transubstantiation.
6. A
simplified ceremony with services not in Latin.
*The
Appeal of Protestantism*
- Appeal
to the peasants:
1. Message
of equality in religion, which they extended to life in
general.
2. A
simplified religion with fewer rituals, which made it easier to
understand.
3. Luther
rebelled, which inspired many of them to do the same.
- Appeal
to the nobles:
1. No tithe
to pay, so $ stays in the country.
2. Since
they are against Charles for political reasons, they can justify it by becoming
Protestant.
3. No more
church owned land, so they can get more land.
4. No tithe
for peasants, so they can tax them more.
- Appeal
to the middle class:
1. No tithe
to pay, so more $ for them.
2. Now they
can read the Bible and interpret it in their own way.
3. Concept
of individualism – you are your own priest.
*Other
Forms of Protestantism*
-
Zwingli à (1484 –
1531) had beliefs very similar to Luther, except that he believed that NONE of
the sacraments bestowed grace, and that they were purely symbolic. He also felt
that for people to lead godly lives, they had to be constantly disciplined and
threatened – Calvinism without predestination.
-
Radicals à many
radical sects broke out, and after Munster (where a sect called the Melchiorties
gained political control of the city and began to establish a heavenly Jerusalem
on earth) they were all persecuted. Since some believed that Baptism should only
be administered to adults who asked to be baptized, they were all called the
Anabaptists (rebaptisers).
-
Calvin à (1509 –
1564) formed the second wave of the Reformation. Though Lutheranism and
Calvinism both believed in people’s sinfulness, salvation by faith alone, that
all people were equal in God’s eyes and that people should follow existing
political authority, Calvin believed in predestination or the concept
that God, being all knowing, already knows if a person is going to go to heaven
and become part of the elect or not. Though behavior on earth technically had no
effect on the decision, it was established that moral people tended to be part
of the elect. Calvinist communities were model places, with very strict moral
codes that were vehemently imposed. The church and its doctrines were also very
well defined in the Institutes of the Christian Religion and all
Calvinists were supposed to make their communities worthy of the future
elect.
*Existing
System of Government in England*
- Local
administration à members
of the gentry (not technically members of the nobility, but still had large
estates and were dominant political figures) were chosen to become JPs. The JPs
were voluntary unpaid officials that served as the principal public servant in
the more than forty counties. Since the gentry wanted appointments for reasons
of status, the king could always count on their support.
-
Lawmaking à though
the Parliament grew in power, it always remained subordinate to the crown.
Nevertheless, the English kings knew that they couldn’t take severe measures
without its consent. The Parliament contributed to the unification of the
country, even though it took away power from kings.
-
Judiciary à the
common law (based on the interpretations and precedents made by individual
judges), not Roman law was in effect, and traveling judges administered it. This
helped unify the country as well.
*Changes
made by Henry VII and Henry VIII*
-
Henry VII à founder
of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII came to power shortly after the War of Roses, a
civil war that weakened the nobles greatly. He was a conservative, and
strengthened the crown by applying the traditional methods, such as:
1. He
carefully built up funds without overtaxing his subjects; he put collection and
revenue in the hands of a small, efficient group of his officials. Avoided
foreign entanglements.
2. He
increased the power of the JPs and had the Star Chamber (a group of royal
councilors) resume hearing appeals, which strengthened royal power and decreased
noble power because nobles could no longer control the local courts.
-
Henry VIII à tended
to enact more radical measures than did his father, such
as:
1. In 1513
he beat invading Scottish army @ Flodden, near England’s north
border.
2. Decided
to break with the Roman Catholic Church after advice from Thomas Cromwell. This
had the effect of stimulating the economy since church funds stayed in the
country and the church lands were annexed. It also greatly strengthened the
Parliament and gave it more responsibility.
3. The break
with the Church also had the effect of making a reorganization of the
administration necessary. They made six departments, each with specific
functions. Cromwell was the executive of the councils. A Privy Council was also
established, consisting of the king’s advisers.
*Existing
System of Government in France*
- Local
administration à there
was no real system for local government, and aristocrats were virtually
independent rulers until the new monarchs came along.
- Royal
administration à had
three departments: the Chancery (had charge of formal documents), the Treasury
($), and the Parlement of France (the court of law). Roman law was used, which
helped the king because the monarch was then able to issue
ordinances.
-
Lawmaking à
representative assemblies, known as Estates, limited the throne’s power because
the estates had to approve measures made by the king before they were enacted.
The throne was forced to negotiate with the estates, especially to raise taxes.
Nevertheless, the Estates never were as powerful as the English Parliament. The
taxes (the sales tax, hearth tax, and salt tax) all went to the crown and after
1451, they could be collected on the king’s authority alone.
- Army
à unlike
the English, they had a standing army that was rarely used but always a threat,
so it increased the king’s power. However, it took an enormous amount of
funding.
*Changes
made by Louis XI and Charles VIII*
-
Louis XI à began
his reign after the Hundred Years War, which weakened the crown. At the
beginning of his reign, there was anarchy, and the king had no power. However,
changes he made reestablished the crown’s power. For
example:
1. He beat
Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy, who was Charles V great-grandfather (ick!)
and he then reannexed Burgundy except for the Low Countries, which the duke’s
daughter kept.
2. Nicknamed
“the spider” because, using his diplomatic tactics, he annexed so much crap.
-
Charles VIII à he began
the invasion of Italy, which was eventually a failure, since the Hapsburgs
kicked his butt. However, it did provide a distraction for the restless and
aggressive nobles.
*Changes
made by Louis XII, Francis I and Henri II*
-
Louis XII à began
reign after Charles VIII and before Francis I. He made many changes,
including:
1. He
increased the size and complexity of the administration.
2. Adopted
the sale of offices (simony) that stimulated social mobility and
corruption.
3. Due to
the fact that the clergy and nobles were exempt from taxation, the crown was
forced to rely on the lower classes, which couldn’t provide enough money to
upkeep the standing army and the country. So, under Louis XII, the country began
taking loans from banks (Fugger).
-
Francis I à took
over after Louis XII, made most changes of any new monarch in France, such
as:
1. Gaining
power over the Church with the Concordat of Bologna (1516), which allowed him to
make appointments, and, though it was not stated, it effectively allowed him to
control the Church without breaking from it (see Henry
VIII).
2. He began a major reorganization of the
government. He legalized the sale of offices, formed and inner council and
centralized all tax gathering and accounting responsibilities in 1523.
3. He passed
the lit de justice, which states that if an assembly is delaying passing
a monarch’s law the monarch can then appear before the assembly and make it the
law.
4. During
his reign the Estates General stopped meeting and consequently lost
influence.
5. After his
reign, the monarchy was the strongest that it had ever been. Unfortunately, the
advent of the Reformation screwed everything up again –
Calvinism!
-
Henry II à son of
Francis I. Under his rule, the French finally lost the Italian war to the
Hapsburgs.
*Existing
System of Government in Spain*
- The
Iberian Peninsula was divided into three different sections, as
follows:
1. Portugal
à in midst
of its overseas exploration.
2. Castile
à the
largest and richest area. It was still fighting the Muslims on its Southern
frontier. This led to nobles gaining a lot of political
power.
3. Aragon
à small
area same size as Portugal.
- In
October 1469 Isabella of Castile married Ferdinand of Sicily, which led to a
ten-year civil war which the two monarchs won.
*Changes
made by Ferdinand and Isabella*
-
Although Ferdinand and Isabella made no attempt to form a monolithic state (all
united) they did somewhat unify Spain into a federation where the nobles lost
power.
- Each
province was treated differently, and changes were made as
follows:
1. Aragon
à remained
a federation of territories administered by viceroys who were appointed by the
king but allowed local customs to remain intact. Each province was allowed to
keeps its own representative assembly, called the Cortes.
2. Castile
à in
Castile, they were determined to assert their superiority and restore order to
the countryside (which was screwed up by civil wars). They did this by
establishing the Cortes of Castile, an assembly dominated by urban
representatives who shared the wish for order since peace helped trade. The
Cortes also had tribunals to try criminals.
- They
also made general changes, such as:
1. They
overhauled the entire administration by saying that “ability rather than social
status should determine appointments.” They kicked out the nobles as local
administrators, and replaced them with people from a lesser class of nobility
called the hidalgos (similar to gentry in England) who occupied positions
called corregidors, which were local judicial officers.
2. They
weakened the clergy and after they got rid of the Muslims in 1492, the Pope
allowed them to make appointments. So, by Charles V’s reign they had power over
the church.
3. Also, in
1478, the Pope granted them the power to have an independent Inquisition to kick
out all non-Christians, such as the Muslims and Jews. Without other religions,
Spain was more united. Plus, the Inquisition, like the Italian wars, kept the
nobles busy.
4. They
instituted a sales tax so revenues increased. They were able to this because,
like the French, the Spanish taxes could be raised without the Cortes consent.
5. They
instituted Castilian law, which all came from the throne and was similar to
Roman law.
6. After
Isabella’s death, Ferdinand concentrated on foreign affairs and reannexed
several provinces from France and entered the war in Italy, which under Charles
V (Hapsburg) they won against Henry II of France. They won because they had the
best standing army.
*The Holy
Roman Empire under Charles V*
- Charles
V was the king of Spain but the Cortes didn’t like him because he requested
additional tax funds so that he could take the Spanish troops and try to unify
the HRE. So, effectively, he wasted all of Spain’s $ from the new world on
stupid wars! Naturally, when Charles V left for war, the poor people revolted
but the nobles put down the rebellion before Charles V came back. The nobles
sided against the peasants only because along with attacking Charles, they
attacked the nobles.
- After
the uprising, he kept his administration entirely Spanish. While he was fighting
outside wars, he relied entirely on a skilled administrator, Francisco de los
Cobos, who enlarged the administration and the system of councils. He made two
types of councils, one of each department of government and the other for each
territory ruled. At the head was the Council of State. A federation emerged,
like US.
- Though
corruption was widespread, centralization gave monarch lots of power. Spain’s
administration was the most detailed, though it was not always the most
efficient.
-
Charles’ major problem was $ because he wasted all of it on his stupid wars
(like the one against the Ottomans, and all the ones against the Schmalkaldic
League in HRE) in Europe. Since Aragon was more independent, the entire tax
burden fell on Castile, but Castile did get a monopoly of trade with the New
World, which gave them lots of silver. However, the monopoly eventually led to
foreign domination since no one else could get the $. Consequently, Philip II
had to declare Spain bankrupt several times because of the wars.
*Elizabeth
I (1558 – 1603)*
- Queen
Elizabeth was a skillful queen who was very able to sense the mood of her
people, and very good at using propaganda to promote her
image.
- She was
a very successful queen, and the only issue she left unresolved was the question
of succession. However, at the last minute, her Scottish cousin James I was
chosen.
*James I
(1603 – 1625)*
-
In 1603,
James took over and was greeted eagerly as he traveled from Scotland to London.
However, both the religious controversy and the conflict between the king and
Parliament were unresolved, and soon began to cause trouble for the new king.
- James
was a complete believer in divine right monarchy or the belief that that
kings rule by divine right and should have absolute power. He believed
Parliament was unnecessary.
-
Millenary Petition à petition
given to James as soon as he reached the capital signed by 1,000 churchmen which
asked James to move the Anglican Church further away from Catholicism (no
popery, no bishops) and to simply and “purify” the services instead. James
responded by saying simply, “No bishop, no King,” because he felt that the
bishops, as traditional figures of authority should stay, since otherwise people
could also begin questioning his authority.
-
Gunpowder Plot à plot by
Catholics to assassinate king and Parliament whose discovery raised a lot of
anti-Catholic sentiment in England.
-
Foreign Policy under James I à James
wisely kept England out of the Thirty Years War (though this made some
Englishmen unhappy since it was seen as a failure to support the Protestant
cause) and he even tried to make peace with Spain by attempting to marry his
son, Charles I, to a Spanish princess (which enraged the public). However, the
Spanish turned Charles I down, which sparked a conflict. Instead, Charles was
married to Henrietta Marie of France, another Catholic. But, just as the war
against Spain began, James died and Charles took over.
*Charles
I (1625 – 1649)*
- Though
Charles was sure that the war would unite the country under his leadership, it
actually provided Parliament with more opportunities to force him to make
concessions, since he needed to tax to support the war and Parliament’s approval
was needed for new taxation.
- Several
Parliaments were called and dissolved in rapid succession for the king was
unwilling to concede on the issue of Buckingham. Finally, in 1628, Parliament
had enough of the king’s behavior (he was illegally forcing loans from people in
order to avoid relying on Parliament for $) and decided to draw up a petition
stating their traditional rights.
- The
Petition of Right à passed
in 1628 (Charles simply agreed to be able to get more $), it stated the rights
of Parliament, such as:
1. Due
Process of Law (Habeas Corpus)
2. No
taxation w/out Parliament’s consent.
3. No
billeting of troops.
4. Parliament
must be called frequently (not specific).
- Though
Charles accepted the Petition, in reality, like his father, he was an
absolutist.
- Next,
Parliament moved to impeach Buckingham, which the king objected to, so he
dissolved Parliament. The duke was then assassinated, and the king called the
Parliament back into session expecting more cooperation. Parliament, however,
was angry because, under his wife’s influence, Charles had begun to favor the
High Church and not enforce the laws against popery.
- So, in
1629, Parliament tried to enact laws against Catholics to reverse the drift
towards the High Church. Charles was unable to stop them since he was in
desperate need of $ to support the war against Spain, but he finally decided to
dismiss Parliament, and sent word to the Speaker of the House of Commons, who
was supposed to immediately give up his chair. Instead, the infuriated members
of the House forced the speaker back into the chair and passed three quick
anti-Catholic resolutions.
- Charles
was enraged and dissolved Parliament, swearing he would never call another
one.
- So, for
11 years Charles attempted to rule completely w/out Parliament. Since Parliament
had no way to call itself back into session, the only weapon it had against
Charles was public opinion.
- Because
of four events, public opinion gradually shifted towards Parliament. The events
were:
1. Charles’
treatment of his opponents à for
example, John Eliot’s imprisonment in the tower of London until he apologized,
which he never did.
2. Archbishop
Laud à
appointed by the king, the archbishop was a zealous believer in the High Church
who was strongly against Puritans (imposed Anglican Prayer
Book).
3. Ship $
Case à to raise
$, the king spread a tax that was formerly only applicable to coastal towns to
all towns, which Parliament considered a violation of their rights.
4. The
imposition of the Anglican Prayer Book which lead to a Scottish rebellion.
- Since
putting down the rebellion required $, Charles was forced to call
Parliament.
-
Short Parliament à because
the Parliament demanded concessions, it was quickly
dissolved.
- Long
Parliament à again,
Charles was forced to call a Parliament, and although most of his opponents from
the Short Parliament were reelected, he was forced to pass the following to get
$:
1. Bill of
Attainder against Strafford (king’s chief advisor) that demanded Strafford’s
death.
2. Bill of
Attainder against Archbishop Laud (who would die after 4 years
imprisonment).
3. Law that
gave up king’s right to dissolve Parliament.
4. Triennial
Act à required
having Parliament meet every three years.
5. No
taxation w/o Parliament’s approval (taxes that had been passed that way declared
illegal).
6. The
abolishment of the Star Chamber.
7. Impeachment
of Bishops in Anglican Church.
- Just as
the Parliament was getting ready to impeach the queen, Charles had enough and
entered the chamber with a section of the army to arrest the leaders, but they
had already left. This began a civil war. Charles’ last chance for peace was to
sign the 19 Propositions, which would state Parliament’s superiority, but he
refused to sign, so civil war began!
*Civil
War*
- The
civil war consisted of two phases, which were as follows:
1. King vs.
Parliament (1642 – 1646) à the king
quickly raised an army of mercenaries, while Parliament allowed Cromwell to take
over and form the New Model Army, which won.
2. Parliament
vs. Parliament’s Army (1646 – 1649) à Cromwell
splits from most of the Parliament since he is an Independent (believes in
freedom of religions) and they are strictly Puritans. So, everyone joins against
Cromwell, but he still wins.
*England
Under Cromwell*
-
Cromwell executed the king in 1649, saying he was not to be trusted, and then
purged Parliament of all dissenters (600 à 60
people, called Romp Parliament) which got him firmly in control.
-
Cromwell soon became a military dictator, and he divided England into 12
military districts that were ruled by martial law. However, he was unable to
make any lasting changes.
- He was
far ahead of his time in his religious toleration (which was limited, since it
didn’t include Catholics and Anglicans, but was still remarkable for the time)
but did not believe in democratic rule.
-
Levellers à faction
that wanted all people to vote.
-
Diggers à faction
that wanted all people to vote and wanted to share all the wealth
equally.
-
Cromwell disagreed with both the levellers and the
diggers.
- After
Cromwell died, his son Richard was unable to maintain power so Charles II was
summoned back from France and the monarchy was restored.
*Charles
II (1660 – 1685)*
-
Nicknamed “The Merry Monarch” Charles II was very easygoing and had no problem
with compromising with Parliament. After the interregnum both parties were eager
to compromise.
- The
Treaty of Dover à in 1670,
Charles II secretly signed the treaty with France. The treaty stated that, in
exchange for military support (against the Dutch) and $, Charles would try to
convert England back to Catholicism and to convert back to Catholicism
himself.
- The
Declaration of Indulgence à in 1672,
w/out consulting Parliament, Charles issued a Declaration of Indulgence, in
which he promised not to enforce the laws against Catholics and the
non-Conformists (they were simply included to mask Charles’ pro-Catholic
sentiment). Parliament saw through the trick, however, and demanded that the
king retract the declaration, which he did.
- Test
Act à in
response, Parliament passed the Test Act in 1673, which prohibited anyone who
had not had an Anglican communion from entering into the army or public service.
The law was aimed at excluding Catholics. Charles allowed the law to be passed,
but his used his powers of dispensation to sneak some Catholics into public
service anyhow.
*James II
(1685 – 1688)*
- Before
James became king, a rebellion caused by the Popish Plot (a hoax that stated
that there was going to be an assassination of Charles II to bring James II, a
Catholic, to the throne, and that James was going to convert the country back)
called the Monmouth Rebellion occurred, which was easily put down. Public
opinion of James was still high, though James’ brutal handling of the rebels
after they were caught somewhat angered and worried the
public.
- The
first thing James II did was to immediately declare that he was a Catholic and
that he was going to try to convert the country back to Catholicism (what a
moron). He also, stupidly enough, revealed the details of the Treaty of
Dover.
- Next,
he tried to romanize (convert back to Catholicism) Oxford and Cambridge, as well
as the army. He romanized the army using his powers of dispensation, and he did
so because he felt that the only real source of power was the army, and in order
to control the army, he knew he needed to have Catholic, not Protestant,
officers.
-
Finally, he passed a Declaration of Indulgence that was ignored, so he
passed another law forcing every bishop to read it in church. Seven bishops,
however, refused to obey, and they were put on trial, and found not guilty (to
the king’s astonishment and anger).
- Still,
after all James’ stupidity, Parliament was still reluctant to revolt since they
remembered what had happened last time and did not want to repeat the same
mistake. Also, since James was getting old and his three daughters were
Protestants, they figured that he would die soon and England would once again
have a Protestant ruler.
-
However, James’ wife became pregnant, which was a miracle at her age, and
actually gave birth to a healthy baby boy – something that totally
changed the scene for Parliament (Oh No!). Parliament, knowing it had to act
right away, asked William of Orange (married to Mary, daughter of James) to
invade and take over, which he did. The king fled w/out a fight as his top
general, John Churchill, deserted him the night before the battle and joined the
other side.
*The
Glorious Revolution*
- So, in
1688, William and Mary take over as comonarchs. William of Orange, the leader of
the Dutch who is fighting the French, was so thankful to be able to take over
England because of its military strength that he did not mind being a limited,
not an absolute, monarch.
- Then,
Parliament passes the Bill of Rights a statement that, once and for all,
establishes Parliament’s supremacy. Also, to please William, Parliament finally
passes the Act of Toleration.
*Definition
of the Scientific Revolution*
- The
Scientific Revolution (1543 – 1687) was a period of time in which many
breakthrough discoveries were made in science and philosophy, as well as an era
in which the Europeans’ perception of the universe and their role in it was
changed forever.
-
Although the SR began by only affecting the scientific and intellectual elite (5
% of the population or so) the concepts that originated during the SR eventually
spread to all of the population.
*Science
Before the Scientific Revolution*
- Prior
to the SR, all scientific concepts came from either the Bible or ancient
scientists. Since, during the Middle Ages, most of the works of other ancient
scientists were lost, Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Galen became the only, and
therefore ultimate, authorities, on their fields. The old beliefs came
from:
1. The
Bible
à
naturally, the main source of information, in all respects, was the Bible, whose
teachings were taken literally (for example, if a story stated that the world
stopped spinning, Europeans believed that the world actually did stop
spinning).
2. Aristotle
à was the
greatest philosopher of ancient times. He was viewed as the absolute authority
on physics, although many of his theories were clearly wrong! His theories
included the belief that there was no movement without a mover (which fit
in perfectly with church philosophy since it made it obvious that God was
necessary to move the Earth) and that in their natural state all objects were
at rest (i.e. all objects wish to be at rest, motion is an unnatural state
which must be accounted for by an outside force at all times). He explained
motion by the fact that each of the four elements (earth, air, fire and water)
wished to return to its natural place (for example, a stone falls because it
wants to return to the earth). Air and fire, he said, always wished to go
upwards and earth and water wished to fall downwards. Aristotle believed in
teleological (based on the fact that everything is made for a
purpose).
3. Ptolemy
à a great
astronomer from ancient times, he stated that the earth was the center of the
universe and that the sun and all the planets moved around in crystalline
spheres. Since this alone was not able to mathematically explain
retrograde motion Ptolemy added in epicycles (circles within
circles), which, through some very complicated calculations, could approximate
planetary motion.
4. Galen
à though
his influence was far lesser than that of Aristotle and Ptolemy, Galen’s medical
and anatomical theories dominated the scientific world for years even though
they were proved wrong by dissections.
*Causes
of the Scientific Revolution*
- One
cause was that scientists were simply beginning to take note of the inadequacies
of the standard theories, and, although they greatly preferred to make slight
changes to the theories (vs. abandoning them) some scientists were beginning to
question the old authorities.
- Still,
it is unlikely that the scientists would have challenged the established
theories without the influence of the other ancient scientists, especially
Archimedes, (who were rediscovered during the Renaissance due to the humanists’
efforts to find ancient works) that disagreed with the old theories.
- Another
influence was the interest in what is now regarded as magic, but was then seen
as serious science. These branches of science included alchemy and astrology,
and were linked by the belief that the world could be understood through several
secret truths (like Neoplatonism). These sciences contributed to the outpouring
of new ideas, the questioning of the old theories, and the use of
math.
- Lastly,
the European interest in technology both stimulated and made possible the SR.
New instruments and devices (printing press, telescope, vacuum pump,
thermometer, barometer and microscope), often made for other purposes, were used
in science and made possible many of the new discoveries. The interest in
technology was actually stimulated by the competition between the different
nations b/c applied technology was used in warfare.
*The
Major Scientific Discoveries*
-
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543) à was a
Polish priest and astronomer who shook the foundations of European beliefs. He
challenged Ptolemy’s system simply because it was too complex and he felt
that there had to be a better system mathematically. So, based on mathematics,
he developed a new, sun-centered system that placed earth as the third planet
rotating around the sun. This system eventually ended up requiring complex
mathematics as well, but Copernicus was a great mathematician who easily
defended his theory. Copernicus even began developing the concept of gravity,
for he stated that large masses have their own attractive forces.
However, he kept the crystalline spheres and did not account for the stars. His
major work was The Revolution of Heavenly Bodies (1543 – start of
scientific revolution), which, fearing the Church, he did not publish until his
deathbed. The book sparked a major controversy, but, because of the Church, it
was dangerous to express Copernican views openly.
-
Giordano
Bruno (1548 –
1600) à though
Bruno did not actually develop any additionally theories, he made the mistake of
openly supporting Copernicus and ridiculing the old philosophy. The church
arrested him, and after his refusal to recant, burned him at the stake, making
him a lesson for others.
-
Tycho Brahe (1546 – 1601) à
stargazer who meticulously recorded star data for years.
-
Johann Kepler (1571 – 1630) à a
brilliant mathematician who developed the first theories of motion. With the aid
of Brahe’s star data (which he acquired since he was Brahe’s assistant), Kepler
came of with the theory that the planets moved in ellipses, and that they did
not move at a steady rate. Instead, as they came closer to the sun, they
accelerated, and they slowed down as they moved away. So, Kepler’s First Law of
Motion stated that the planets moved in elliptical orbits, and his Second Law
stated that the planets sweep though an equal area of space in an equal amount
of time.
-
Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) à was the
first scientist to use the telescope. With the telescope, he saw Jupiter’s moons
(the existence of which proved that not everything orbited the earth, as was
previously thought) and the craters on the moon (which proved that heaven was
not perfect). Based on his observations, Galileo concluded that the principles
of terrestrial physics could be applied to the heavens as well. In 1610, he
wrote the Starry Messenger and subsequently got in trouble with the
Spanish Inquisition, which stated that it was not allowed to openly support
Copernicus. So, in 1632, he wrote the Dialogue on the Two Great World
Systems (supposedly a work of fiction, but obviously supported Copernicus).
But this did not fool the church, for they forced him to recant in 1633 and made
him spend the last years of his life under house arrest. There, he developed his
Theory of Inertia, which stated that things in motion remain in motion
unless acted upon by another force (implies that God is not necessary to move
planets), which he published in The Two New Sciences in 1638. Galileo is
really considered to be the first modern scientist, for he developed the
scientific method of experimentation and was one of the first mechanists
(how, not why).
-
Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) à brought
to a climax all the previous works in his masterpiece, The Principia,
which described three laws of motion (in the absence of force, motion continues
in a straight line; the rate of change of the motion is determined by the forces
acting on it; action and reaction between two bodies are equal and opposite) and
a law of universal gravitation (which applied the concept of gravity to
both the earth and the heavens). Newton also supported observation and
experimentation, and helped further develop the scientific method.
*The New
Epistemologies*
- The SR
allowed many new epistemologies (theories of knowledge) to develop. First, the
belief in mechanism, which stated that scientists should question how
(not why) things worked, became more widespread, especially through Galileo and
Newton. The opposite philosophy to mechanism is teleology, which stated
that everything is made for a purpose, and was used by Aristotle.
- Mainly,
however, the discoveries helped the scientific method develop. The scientific
method, which was a new theory on how to obtain and verify knowledge, stressed
experience, reason, and doubt and rejected all unsubstantiated authority. The
scientific method revolutionized science, and made measurement of data, and
mathematics, essential parts of science. From the SR onwards, science was based
on pure fact – the acquisition of data and the testing of
theories.
- The
scientific method was actually a combination of two theories of
knowledge:
1. Empiricism (a.k.a.
induction) à was
advocated by Francis Bacon (who wrote New Atlantis a description
of an ideal society based on science) and supported going from particular
knowledge (observation) to general knowledge.
2. Rationalism (a.k.a.
deduction) à was
advocated by Rene Descartes (who wrote the Discourse on the Method of
Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences) who stated
that senses can lie and that the only way to find truth was to start from
one fact, which was “I am doubting” and proceed to deduce all other statements –
“I think, therefore I am.” Descartes also stated that there was an essential
divide between the world of thought and reality (tangible objects). In other
words, he took Bacon’s statement that religion (faith) and science (fact) should
be separate and turned it into a far-reaching divide between the reality of the
world and our perception of it – i.e. The Matrix!
*The
Famous Empiricists*
-
Empiricism was a very influential epistemology, and soon, it was beginning to be
applied to other fields, not just science. Actually, several individuals used
empiricism to develop political theories.
-
Thomas Hobbes à was a
radical Nominalist who stated that there are no abstract ideas.
Therefore, he was also an atheist (since God is an abstract idea – he must not
exist). He also did not believe in abstract good or evil. Instead, in his
Pleasure-Pain Philosophy he stated that, since abstract good and evil do
not exist, the only good things are ones that bring one pleasure and the only
bad things are the ones that bring one pain. Mainly, however, Hobbes used
empiricism to develop a political system. Because, according to him, in the
state of nature (w/out any authority) there would be a constant war of
all-against-all b/c of competition, diffidence (fear), and vain glory (desire to
show off). Nobody could ever win the war, for, although a law of nature
exists which states that if you want respect then respect others,
people, the terrible beings that they are, will break the agreement to get what
they want unless there is an outside authority enforcing the law. So, the only
solution, Hobbes writes in his masterpiece, The Leviathan (1651) is
ABSOLUTE MONARCHY! Hobbes’ absolute monarchy is not based on divine right, but,
instead, it is based on a social contract (an agreement between the
people and their ruler) in which the people agree that, since anything is better
than the war of all-against-all, they will give up their natural rights to the
government in exchange for protection. So, the government is all-powerful, but,
in theory, they will never need to actually use their power, it is only a
threat.
- John
Locke à the next
significant empiricist, he was somewhat a reaction to Hobbes’ negativity. Locke
began with the assumption that, at birth, each person is born with a tabula
rasa (blank slate) and that all human nature and knowledge comes from either
direct experience or from reflection. Therefore, since all beliefs come from
experience, all beliefs are open to criticism (this was one of the most powerful
arguments for equality and tolerance yet). Clearly, Locke was a great supporter
of equality, toleration, and education (make good environments). Locke also used
his ideas to write a social contract, like Hobbes. Locke’s social contract,
however, as stated in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) and
Two Treatises of Government (1689), had almost nothing in common with
Hobbes. Locke stated that, in the state of nature, people are neutral, since it
all depends on the environment. Based on this, he said that, at birth, each
person has certain inalienable rights of life, liberty and
property. Since people must be forced to respect e/others rights, government
is formed, to protect the rights. In his contract, government must protect
peoples’ rights, but not more, and the people must obey the government so long
as it does not do more than necessary. If it does, people have the right to
rebel and establish another government. The Declaration of Independence is
pretty much just paraphrasing JL’s beliefs.
-
David Hume à was the
dead end of end of empiricism. He stated that there can’t be any absolute
knowledge if everything is based on the senses. So, people can know things
through common sense, but not through philosophy (which he says is a joke) and
he hates dogma.
*The
Effects of the Scientific Revolution*
- People
felt that human understanding of the universe could be reduced to mathematical
laws.
- The
universe was no longer appeared to be a mystery. In fact, people felt that it
was orderly, rational, and, most importantly, could be understood by
humans.
- People
felt that humans were able to control their own destiny.
- The
concept of natural laws developed. These laws, which were similar to the
laws found in science by Newton, could govern other aspects of life as well,
such as economics, politics, or ethics.
- Science
gained wider appeal and unprecedented popularity. Additionally, science was
institutionalized, and scientific societies sprung up throughout Europe, on both
the national and personal level. The institutions greatly helped the rate of
progress.
-
Positive effects of the SciRev à gain of
knowledge, greater toleration (both religious and scientific), less superstition
and more scientific answers, and freedom to deviate from established theories,
which opened the door for new, further developments.
-
Negative effects of the SciRev à loss of
innocence, loss of traditional faith, loss of faith in heaven, earth is no
longer regarded as the center (God’s pet project), skepticism, loss of
personal/caring God.
-
Overall, however, the SR was an era of optimism that gave way to an Age
of Reason in the 18th century. People living during the SR felt that they had
surpassed even the ancients and were at the peak of human knowledge, and ideas
of progress dominated intellectual discussions.
*The Arts
During the Scientific Revolution*
-
Mannerism à a
reaction to the glorification of humans seen in the Renaissance, Mannerism
featured distorted human figures, strange perspectives and unnatural colors and
lighting. Mannerism reached its peak during the instability of the Reformation,
and it reflected the concerns of a troubled time. The major Mannerist painter
was El Greco (1541 – 1614).
-
Baroque à a
reaction to Mannerism, the Baroque style occurred during the Counter
Reformation, and it reflected the desire for grandeur and the wish to inspire
and awe people with God’s greatness. A famous baroque painter was
Caravaggio (1571 – 1610) whose paintings were famous for their depictions
of highly emotional moments. Other famous baroque painters were Rubens
(1577 – 1640), and Veláquez (1599 – 1660), who glorified church
figures and rulers. Bernini, a baroque sculptor and architect, did the
inside and outside of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome.
-
Classicism à like
Baroque, Classicism attempted to awe the viewer. However, like the Renaissance,
it attempted to awe the viewer with form and discipline – also they wished to
return to ancient values. Big guy was Poussin whose paintings were more
subdued than the baroque guys (he liked togas).
- The
Dutch à b/c of
Protestantism and republicanism, Dutch art was less religious (if religious only
personal faith, not that of Church obviously) and more precise b/c big buyers
were bourgeoisie (merchants not dumb nobles). Big dude was Rembrandt who
pretty much just painted pictures of himself (pretty conceited, but really was
just fascinated by human character and lighting).
-
Monteverdi à invented
concept of opera and orchestra, after many new instruments were invented. His
masterpiece was Orfeo (1607).
*The
Literature During the Scientific Revolution*
- Michel
de Montaigne
à invented
the essay (what did he have to do that for?); influenced by skepticism
(“What do I know?”) which eventually led to search for self-knowledge (“Know
thyself”) and his belief that acting righteously is more important than
following doctrine (sometimes).
-
Cervantes à wrote
Don Quixote, which illustrated the wide gaps between rich and poor and
the difference between reality and fantasy of his time by poking fun at society
and politics (he thought that politics disregarded human
values).
-
Shakespeare à wrote
plays that made timeless statements about human behavior and covered a very wide
range of topics and emotions. However, his plays also reflected his time as
death, turmoil and change were always present. Also, the vigor in his plays
showed the sense of achievement that also characterized the 1500s (don’t ask
what achievements, please!).
-
Corneille à was the
dominant French playwright of the 1600s whose work reflects the rise of
classicism. At first, he refused to follow the three new set rules for drama
(unity of time, location and plot). His masterpiece was Le Cid (1636)
which was condemned by Richelieu b/c it did not follow the three rules. But,
Le Cid was still very popular.
-
Racine à the
model classical dramatist who still generated very emotional stuff.
*Social
Patterns and Popular Culture During the Scientific
Revolution*
-
Population decreased after the 16th century. In the 17th century, population
began to rise again, leading to overcrowding in the cities, bigger armies,
increased crime, more taxation (but food prices didn’t rise = bad for peasants),
and beggars (not enough food for peasants).
- Also,
during the SciRev, social status became mobile because it became based on wealth
and education as opposed to family heritage. The emphasis on education led to a
higher literacy rate, which led to the start of newspapers and book sales. Woman
also gained opportunities (in business).
- In the
East, peasants were reduced to serfdom, and in the West, many were forced to go
into the cities in search of a job (leading to chaos @ cities) and village unity
decreased b/c of increased population and national intervention for law
enforcement (intendants).
- In the
village, ancient traditions held fast, for example, the belief in magic and the
yearly festivals such as Charivari. Like Calvinism, villagers felt they couldn’t
control their own destiny (unlike SciRev, the beliefs of which had not spread to
the village yet), which led to witch hunts that eventually subsided when the
SciRev and Counter Reformation (b/c now better educated priests who knew what
the hell – get it – they were talking about) spread to the village.
*Absolutism
in France under Louis XIV*
- Louis
XIV, a.k.a. the Sun King, was the next threat to universal absolute monarchy.
- Born in
1638, he ruled from 1643 – 1715. His rule had three
phases:
1. 1643 –
1661 à Cardinal
Mazarin rules b/c Louis XIV was too young. Mazarin put down the Fronde
(rebellion by nobles, not by peasants) but only after Louis XIV fled Paris
and his entire family was killed (oops!) which, naturally, left a lasting
impression on Louis XIV (could have been a reason why Louis XIV did not want his
palace @ Paris). This phase ended when Mazarin died in
1661.
2. 1661 –
1682 à Louis
takes over, builds Versailles, and vows not to let anyone rule over him. He
built up the standing army, continued centralization of power through the
bureaucracy, helped the economy grow and said I am the state, which
pretty much sums it up.
3. 1682 –
1715 à Constant
wars, France vs. the rest of Europe.
*Louis
XIV’s Internal Policies*
-
Versailles à isolated
location of Louis XIV’s palace. Versailles was the great trap dedicated
to the taming of the aristocracy. Effectively, it drew the nobles away
from their affairs and kept them close to Louis XIV. Versailles was a constant
party, so nobody wanted to leave. Louis XIV, however, knew how to balance work
w/party so he was a good ruler, unlike his successors and the foreign rulers who
tried to emulate him. Versailles was also the center of French
culture.
- Louis
attempted to strengthen the economy by making reforms (which he later ignored
b/c he needed instant $ for wars) by stimulating manufacturing, agriculture, and
trade. He also tried to reduce the effect of France’s internal toll, and tried
to boost overseas trade.
- Louis
XIV wanted to unify the country and keep his control over it, which he
attempted to do by:
1. Trying to
create religious uniformity (i.e. trying to make France Catholic). First, Louis
XIV revoked the entire Edict of Nantes in order to “clean out” the
country from the Huguenots. He also tried to get a papal bull to condemn the
Jansenists, a Catholic faction, but Louis XIV died before he could put the
policy into effect. This aspect of Louis’ policies did not work, for they simply
angered productive and hardworking sects of the French population while
accomplishing nothing. In other words, in attempting to unify the country
through religion, Louis XIV simply alienated his people.
2. Employing
intendants and royal officials to subdue peasants and collect taxes.
Although this helped the economy and the treasury, it was terrible for the
peasants, who had to pay exorbitant taxes to support the wars, and, since nobles
couldn’t be taxed, the peasants were forced to bear all the burden of
taxation.
3. Keeping
the parlements and nobles (with Versailles) under control. Additionally, he
ruthlessly suppressed all the peasant rebellions that
occurred.
*Louis
XIV’s Foreign Policies*
- Louis
made very good use of his contrasting advisers, which helped him greatly @
foreign policy.
-
Colbert à one of
Louis’ advisers who regarded the Netherlands as France’s biggest enemy b/c of
their mercantilist policies. Therefore, he felt that all the taxes should go to
building up a navy to fight the Netherlands, who tended to dominate the overseas
trade routes.
-
Louvois à other
adviser, who emphasized the army b/c he felt that France was threatened by
land.
- First,
Louis listened to Colbert, and fought the Dutch. When this war (1672 – 1678)
failed, Louis turned to Louvois and began land wars. The result was that France
was able to annex a lot of territory, until the other countries ganged up on him
b/c of the balance of power.
-
Grand Alliance à league
formed against Louis headed by Leopold I (HRE) and William III
(Netherlands/England). The league went to war against Louis @
1688.
- When
Louis began to lose his territories he chose to seek peace and get rid of
Louvois. But the peace didn’t last long, for, in 1690, the War of the Spanish
Succession began.
- The
War of the Spanish Succession à was a
war to gain the Spanish throne for Louis’ family. The previous king had actually
chosen Philip (Louis XIV’s grandson), and his wishes might have been respected
had Louis promised to open Spain to trade and not unify France and Spain under
one ruler. Since he didn’t agree to do so, the Grand Alliance declared war on
him in 1701. Louis was defeated, but at the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 he still
was able to secure the throne for his grandson though he couldn’t unify the
country and had to open Spain to trade. Mainly, the war was a waste of $ and an
additional on France’s already strained economy.
*France
after Louis XIV*
- After
Louis’ death in 1715 the duke of Orléans served as reagent (until 1723).
The duke was committed to giving power back to the aristocracy, so he restored
the parlements to power (he gave them the power to veto royal laws, a power they
would never relinquish) and replaced royal bureaucrats w/nobles. On the
financial side, a brilliant financier named John Law tried to solve the $
crisis w/ government banks, but the scheme failed. A positive change was that
the peasants were never again to be oppressed as they were under Louis XIV (not
by much though) b/c government realized that in order to be successful, need
mass support.
- After
the duke, Louis XV gave almost unlimited authority to his tutor and
adviser, Cardinal Fleury, who was a cautious, dedicated man. During
Fleury’s time, France began to recover: harvests were abundant, population grew,
and commerce boomed.
- The
problems that had plagued the reign of Louis XIV, however, were not solved, and
when Fleury died in 1743 the pressures exploded. France was plunged into stupid
wars that ruined the economy and Louis XV, having nobody to replace Fleury,
placed his confidence in several advisers, most of which were incompetent. Louis
XV was uninterested in government, and he neglected his work! So, the problems
went w/out solving, and only got worse.
*Absolutism
in Austria under the Hapsburgs*
-
Leopold I à ruler of
the HRE (but really Austria) who established a court similar to Louis XIV’s
Versailles at Schonbrunn. Although Leopold only had control over Bohemia,
Austria, and a small part of Hungary, he still had considerable
authority.
- Unlike
Louis, however, Leopold relied on the Privy Council, a group of leading
nobles, to devise policy and run his government. After consulting w/them, he
would come to a final decision. Since Leopold gave the nobles influence in the
government w/out first establishing control over their lands, the nobles were
far more autonomous, so, though Leopold had less power, he had more support.
- Since
members of the Austrian court did not necessarily have to be Austrian, some
great foreigners came to power, such as Prince Eugene (1663 – 1736), who
volunteered to serve the Austrians in the war w/the Turks. Since he was very
talented, he became field marshal and had a decisive influence on Hapsburg
affairs b/c he transformed their military policies from defensive to aggressive.
Eugene led the Austrians as they laid the foundations for a new empire of
Austria-Hungary.
-
Charles VI (r. 1711 – 1740) à was
Leopold’s successor, whose major problem was that he had no male heir. In 1713
he drafted the Pragmatic Sanction, which stated that all Hapsburg lands
would pass intact to the heir regardless of who it was. He forced all the major
powers to sign the PS.
-
Maria Theresa à was
Charles’ daughter, who was heir to the throne in 1740. MT was in a difficult
position, for not only had Charles had left her w/an empty treasury, a poorly
trained army and an ineffective bureaucracy, but she also faced a rebellion by
the Czech nobles in Bohemia, and the Hungarian nobles were ready to follow suit.
So, MT went around to the nobles and appealed to them as a damsel in
distress. Though she was also forced to promise the Hungarians autonomy
(w/in empire), the plan still worked wonders. But MT also faced other nations,
who didn’t respect the PS.
- The
War of Austrian Succession (1740 – 1748) à The
French (to help Bavaria claim the Hapsburg throne), Spain (hoped to win back
control of Austria’s Italian possessions), and Prussia (took Silesia) gang up on
Austria. Only England supports Austria (BOP), but b/c of MT’s brilliant tactics,
Austria was able to fight to a stalemate and only gave up Silesia.
-
Maria Theresa’s State Building Policies à MT was a
moralistic and pious woman who was still a very brilliant ruler. She believed in
the divine mission of the Hapsburgs, and was ready to defend her country. First,
she reformed the church by forbidding the founding of new monasteries
(they were wasteful) and abolishing the clergy’s exemptions from taxes! Next,
she established a new bureaucracy in Vienna by appointing new local
officials and reorganizing the central ministries. The new bureaucracy helped
her collect taxes. Lastly, she improved the military and its
training.
*Absolutism
in Prussia under the Hohenzollerns*
- In
Brandenburg-Prussia, state building was once again made possible through an
alliance between the ruler and the nobles. The nobility saw that they could get
serfs and consolidate their power on their lands, and the elector saw that he
could build a strong state. The nobles created very efficient, profitable
estates, and were known as Junkers.
-
Frederick William (r. 1648 – 1688) à a.k.a.
the Great Elector. Realizing that other states were swarming over his
possessions at will, he built a good army, which he used to impose order and to
gain territory (w/out actually using the army, just through intimidation). In
domestic policy, FW got rid of the Diet of Brandenburg (it actually got rid of
itself as it gave FW the power to raise taxes w/out its consent in 1653),
established the War Chest, which financed the army and collect government
revenue, and placed the implementation of policies in the hands of war
commissars. FW quickly intimidated his only sources of resistance, the cities,
w/the army, and established his control.
-
Frederick III (r. 1688 – 1713) à unlike
his father, he enjoyed court society and made Berlin into a cultural center with
a lively court and an Academy of Sciences. He also effectively gained Prussian
independence by asking Leopold to make him a king in exchange for his army (for
war of Spanish succession). After gaining independence, Frederick changed his
name to Frederick I.
-
Frederick William I (r. 1713 – 1740) à was a
Spartan ruler who disdained court society and concentrated on the army. He built
up the army (38,000 à 83,000
men) by instituting a form of conscription. He took great care of the army and
drilled it incessantly. As a result, he had a fantastic army that he could use
to intimidate other powers (he actually never fought wars w/it). On the domestic
side, FW created the General Directory of Finance, War and Domains, which
took over in 1723 all government functions except justice, education and
religion. FW made education compulsory, but did not really enforce the rules.
-
Frederick II (r. 1740 – 1786) à a.k.a.
Frederick the Great, he was trained for kingship by his father and had a fierce
sense of duty. He realized only absolute rule could bring results, so he used
his absolute power to reach objectives. Immediately, he was able to establish
religious toleration and judicial reform, but his main goal, security, was more
difficult to accomplish. To gain security, Frederick knew that he had to acquire
new, stronger borders, and he began the process of gaining territory in 1740
when he attacked the Hapsburg’s province of Silesia, which the Hapsburgs
couldn’t defend. In the War of Austrian Succession that followed,
Frederick was able to keep Silesia.
*Absolutism
in Spain under Hapsburgs/Bourbons*
- After
Philip IV the throne went to Charles II, a sickly man incapable of
having children. Spain had a relatively weak monarchy, for the nobles controlled
the regime, and Spain’s dominions had been reduced by the war of Spanish
succession (Netherlands + Italy à
Austria).
- After
the war of Spanish Succession, however, the Bourbons gained control of the
crown, and they ended the traditional independence of Aragon, Catalonia and
Valencia and created a united Spain. The Bourbons also established the office of
the intendant in Spain, which helped curb the nobles.
-
Count Pedro de Campomanes à liberal
reformer in Spain during the Bourbon rule that, among other things, expelled the
Jesuits b/c he felt they were too powerful and opposed to reform.
*Absolutism
in Russia under Peter the Great*
- Peter
(the Great Westernizer) was born in 1672, and, when he was three, his father
Tsar Alexis (Romanov) died and his half-brother from an earlier marriage
(from Miloslavsky family à old
believers in the Russian Orthodox Church) took over, called Fedor. After Fedor
died, there was the question of succession – was it to be Ivan (dumb, older son)
or Peter (brilliant, younger son)?
- So,
Sophie (Peter’s brilliant half-sister) organized the Streltsy, a group of
conservative soldiers w/nothing to do, and removes Peter and his mother (from
Naryshkin family à
westernized) sending them to Preobrazhusky (place filled w/foreigners)
where Peter learns Western ways.
- In
1689, Peter goes back to Moscow and overthrows the government of Ivan (in name,
but really it is Sophie) and becomes a co-ruler w/Ivan.
-
Peter’s Crash Course in Westernization à
beginning in 1689 Peter gives Russia a crash course in Western ways. He sent
Russians to the West to study, brought foreigners into Russia, forced men to
shave (against Old Believer rules, symbol of modernization), adopted Western
court rituals and founded an Academy of Sciences.
- In
1697, he went to the West himself undercover. Peter was a giant, and he was also
VERY intelligent, and he learned about Western ways from the bottom up
(shipbuilding, metallurgy, dentistry). When he returned, he set up many
factories w/serf labor.
-
Peter’s Administration à in
ruling, Peter pretty much ignored Duma (advisory council) and
concentrated on his bureaucracy. He organized his administration into several
departments each of which either had a specialized function or took care of a
region. He totally subdued the nobles, and used coercion to make them listen to
him (do this or else!).
-
Russian Society à Peter
made a very clear dividing line between peasants (had to pay poll tax, military
conscription, forced public work) and nobility (status in which was now based on
level in bureaucracy and not family). Result was more controlled social order +
more uniformity.
- Though
Peter was very intelligent, he was also very barbaric, w/bad temper, and drank
SO much! Hates religion, hates Streltsy, and really hates Old Believers. When
the Patriarch (Pope for Russian Orthodox Church) dies, he simply does not
replace him, and simply appoints a council called the Synod to run church
(he can control Synod). Also, he makes a mock religion.
- On way
back from Europe, Peter meets Augustus the Strong, a Polish king, and
they become best friends, and decide to declare war on Sweden – they think “easy
target” since the Swedish king just died and there is a 12-year-old on the
throne. Peter wants ports.
-
Charles XII à Swedish
king MILITARY GENIUS! Obsessed w/war, very brilliant, great physical courage,
very willful, upright moral man, Lutheran, determined to fight to death if
attacked, but will not attack if not provoked.
- The
Great Northern War à Charles
crushes Denmark, then scares Polish away from Riga (they were besieging it) and
totally beat Russians, who were besieging Narva. So, by 1700, Charles has really
won, but he still wants revenge, and chooses (big mistake) to go after Augustus
first (b/c Augustus didn’t declare war, which is sneaky and he thinks Russians
are pathetic). For 7 yrs Charles chases after Augustus and finally puts him in
jail. Now Charles attacks Peter, but now Peter is ready. Charles takes 35,000
men and invades Russia, and Russians use Scorched Earth Policy (retreat
and burn everything) so in INCREDIBLY harsh Russian winter of 1707-1708 the
Swedes freeze. So, in 1709 at Poltava the Russians win a crushing victory
and gain Baltic provinces as Window à
West.
*The
United Provinces*
- The
UP’s were moving towards absolutism when William III had the office of
Stadholder (during the wars against Louis XIV), but the Estates General soon
reasserted themselves and ended the wars. Then, William sought the English
crown, but only w/the approval of the Estates and he had to leave the
representative assemblies for the two countries separate.
- When
William died w/out hier, Antonius Heinsius continued his policies, but
the government was really controlled by the Estates General. But the UP’s soon
began to decline, for their trading power and naval supremacy was surpassed by
England.
-
Dutch Society à in the
UP’s, social distinctions were less prominent and social mobility was easier.
Also, instead of ancient families of nobility, the UP’s were filled with
merchants and mayors – they were the most bourgeoisie state.
*Sweden*
- In
Sweden, the nobles emerged from a long struggle vs. the monarchy as the dominant
force. During the reign of Charles XI this was not a problem as Charles
stayed out of Europe’s wars and was able to conserve his resources and not rely
on the nobility.
- His
successor, Charles XII (little genius kid) who r. 1697 – 1718, fought
Poland and invaded Russia (maybe he wasn’t such a genius after all) where he got
his little butt kicked. Then, his neighbors began taking over his lands, and the
nobles took advantage of his absence to reassert their
power.
- So,
Queen Ulrika was forced to accept a constitution that gave the Riksdag
(like Parliament) control over the country and Stockholm became an elegant
capital w/out many big political aspirations.
*Poland*
- Poland
was the strongest contrast to the French society, for it was so chaotic and not
unified that it ceased to exist as a state in the late 18th century. This chaos
was a result of the complete dominance of the nobility, which didn’t allow a
centralized government to form. Though there were some brilliant kings who
still fought in wars (when all nobles saw a threat they would unite and form an
army under king), they could exercise power once wars were over (since kings
were elected).
- The
crown, then, had no bureaucracy or funding, so Poland still resembled a feudal
kingdom.
*England*
- England
was the model for a nonabsolutist regime. Though Charles II was able to
summon and dissolve Parliament, make appointments in the bureaucracy, and had to
sign all the laws, he no longer had the Star Chamber, he couldn’t arrest
Parliament leaders, and he couldn’t add seats in the Commons. In effect, he also
could no longer use dispensations or raise $ w/out
Parliament.
- Now,
the gentry (wealthy local leaders w/out titles of nobility – who the textbook is
obsessed with) had control of the government through Parliament (not
through the monarch other countries).
-
James II à
successor of Charles II who was a total moron (bull in the china shop). After a
struggle for the succession, which he won, James immediately announced his
support for Catholics (dumb move), and began to antagonize Parliament (dumb move
again). So, after a series of idiotic events, seven leaders of Parliament
invited William III to invade, and he did, and James II
fled.
- The
Glorious Revolution à William
and Mary (daughter of James) became co-monarchs in 1689. William was able to
accept a limited monarchy, and a Bill of Rights was passed, which
determined succession, defined Parliament’s powers, and established civil
rights. An Act of Toleration was passed, which put an end to religious
persecution, and a Triennial Act was passed, which stated that Parliament
had to meet every three years. William guided England into an aggressive foreign
policy and greatly expanded the central government. Unlike rulers before him,
William saw his limits.
- England
had already begun to develop a multi-party system. One side was the Whigs
who opposed royal power and Catholicism. Their rivals, the Tories,
favored the crown and wished for a traditional and ceremonial Anglicanism. The
Whigs controlled the government form much of William’s ruler, and they supported
his war vs. Louis XIV (b/c Catholic and harbored James’ supporters). But, in
1700, the Tories won by opposing the war. By 1702, they were at war again over
the Spanish Succession, and the Whigs were in control again. 1710 brought back
the Tories, for the English were sick of the war, and they persuaded Queen
Anne (William’s successor) to make peace at Utrecht in 1713. After
Anne, George I (Hanover) took over, as did the
Whigs.
-
England’s Economy à at the
same time, England was winning big time power in the navy and in the colonies,
and it surpassed France. A notable achievement was the making of the Bank of
England in 1694. The bank could raise $ for government and keep it for
people at favorable interest – first government bonds. London is now the
financial capital of the world. But, most Englishmen were untouched by the boom,
and the peasants still lived @ crappy conditions in village or city.
-
English State Building à the
process of state-building continued during the Hanover time, and the bureaucracy
grew as a result of the wars. Luckily, in England, the upper classes paid taxes
too, and so they also supported the state building, not just the poor people
(like France).
-
Since the 1st two Hanover kings (George I and George II) couldn’t speak
English well, Sir Robert Walpole pretty much ran things. His major
accomplishment was his good handling of the South Sea Bubble Crash in
1720, a financial crash similar to the failure of John Law’s scheme in France.
Walpole kept England at peace and is often seen as the 1st prime
minister. Walpole’s peaceful policies pleased large landlords but angered
merchants (feared growth of French commerce) who found leadership in William
Pitt, who wanted to get rid of France sea influence (England’s destiny).
*Diplomacy
and Warfare*
- During
the 17th century international relations became more impersonal and based on
rational thought and less based on relationships between kings. Gradually
dynastic influences gave way to the concept of the state. Leaders tried to shape
their policies on reasons of state – i.e. security.
- One
principle at work was the Balance of Power (BOP) – all powers agreed that
it was best not to be dominated by one state. The goal was to keep balance, and
diplomats were not always honest and were often deceitful in attaining their
goals.
- In the
armies and navies, the size, organization and skill grew. So, there was less
brutality. The idea of an unconditional surrender was unheard of, and most
battles took place for a specific purpose. Another limit of the scale of war was
the constantly shifting alliances and distrust, and the weak communications
between allies and between a king and his troops.
- The
Seven Years War (1756 – 1763) à began
w/a realignment of diplomatic alliances. Now, the antagonism between France and
England and the rivalry between Prussia and Austria was taking over. So, Austria
had a diplomatic revolution and made an alliance w/France and Russia
against Prussia. Prussia tried to find allies, so it sought England at the
Convention of Westminster, insulting France. England joined Prussia, but
still, Prussia was almost demolished. Luckily for them, at the last minute the
ruler of Russia goes and dies! A complete MORON who loves Frederick takes over,
and, just as Russian troops are about to get rid of Prussia, he turns them back
(what a loser!). Then, France and England work out their difficulties. Finally,
at the Peace of Hubertusburg (what a name) Prussia gets Silesia and
Austria gets Saxony back.
*Demographic
Change*
- Prior
to the eighteenth century, the levels of populations seemed to flow in cyclical,
or wave-like patterns, depending on natural phenomena such as crop failures,
plagues, etc.
- Around
1730, a new era in Europe’s demography began. During the 18th century (which is
considered, demographically, to begin in 1730), Europe’s population skyrocketed,
jumping from 120 to 190 million. Prussia, Sweden, Spain, France, and especially
England experienced tremendous population increases during this period. After
this time, the cyclic behavior of the populations stopped, and Europe’s
population simply continued to increase.
- The
rapid population growth was, according to historians, caused by a decline in
mortality rates (as opposed to an increase in birthrates) in all the countries
except for England. The decline in mortality rates occurred b/c Europe began to
enjoy a more stable and better food supply (due to improvement in avg. climate,
opening of more farmland, and improvement in transportation systems). Disease
was still a major problem, but, on the whole, mortality rates
declined.
*Economic
Growth*
- During
the 18th century, overall wealth also increased, although the growth was
not consistent. Still, the overall trend was a positive one. In the first
decades of the century, prices remained stable, due to the economic consequences
of the War of the Spanish Succession. Significant growth began around 1730 and
continued until 1815. This period was characterized by gradual price inflation
(which reflected growing demands for goods from a growing population). This
gradual price inflation stimulated the economy, and, although there were some
problems, the economy generally grew.
- The
growth, however, did not affect all sectors of society in the same way.
Though the gradual increase in prices was good for landlords, employers,
merchants, and landed peasants, it was very bad for the poor, landless peasants,
who could barely afford to live.
-
Protoindustrialization à is the
economic development that occurred just prior to the rise of the factory system
and may have led to it. Protoindustrialization, a.k.a. the putting out
system, was a system in which merchants distributed raw materials to
peasants’ households, who would process it, and then would pick it up and sell
it. Protoindustrialization led to increased manufacturing and population growth
in rural areas. Additionally, it strengthened marketing networks, helped
merchants get more $ (which could be re-invested in production), helped the
peasants make $ (increasing their demand for goods), and allowed peasants to
familiarize themselves w/industrial processes. Though it didn’t lead to
technological improvement, it helped economic growth.
*Changes
in Industry*
- Though,
during the 18th century, most industries remained the same, dramatic change was
beginning to occur, especially in the manufacturing of cotton cloth. The changes
in industry were meant to increase the productivity of labor through new
technologies. This replacement of workers with new tools and machines, which is
known as factor substitution, eventually led to the factory.
-
Increases in performance (which is measured by the output per individual)
in industry always depend on the structure (characteristics that support
industry – economy, politics, etc.) of the society. Before Europeans could
change the format of industry, they had to face major obstacles and make changes
that affected the very structure of European society.
-
Europeans faced many difficulties as they attempted to change the structure of
the economy, such as:
1. Small
Market Size à since
European countries were cut off from one another for both physical and political
reasons, merchants were forced to deal with very limited markets. This slowed
the growth of specialized manufacturing and limited the mobility of capital and
labor.
2. Skewed
Distribution of Wealth à since
the aristocracy used most of the income, merchants would cater to their desires
and make small quantities of luxury goods, as opposed to lots of cheap goods
that would be accessible to the public. This screwed up supply and demand.
3. Property
Rights/Privileges à these
traditional institutions worked against innovation, as rents and tolls often
sucked up capital that would otherwise be available to both would-be consumers
(peasants) and the entrepreneurs (merchants).
4. Guild/Government
Regulations à were
huge problems for the merchants. As the guild regulations established a
standard, traditional procedure for industry, which was not be changed, they
made innovation exceedingly difficult. Government restrictions on economic
activity and licensing of monopolies only made it more difficult for merchants.
5. Cultural
Attitudes à as many
Europeans, especially the nobles, still regarded $ as dirty and simply wanted to
have their titles, going into business was discouraged.
*Laissez-Faire
Economics*
- Many
Europeans began to question and criticize the barriers that prevented further
industrialization and innovation. They called for less control of the economy.
- Adam
Smith à a
Scottish philosopher who epitomized the concerns and desires of the age, and
wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
(1776). Smith believed that $ was not actually wealth, but only showed it,
and that real wealth consisted of the added value of manufactured items produced
by invested capital. Most importantly, however, he stated that economic
progress required that each individual be allowed to pursue his/her
self-interest freely w/out restrictions for this would lead to economic
growth. Natural divisions of labor and specialization, he stated, should be
encouraged. This philosophy became known as laissez-faire economics,
which means that people should be allowed to pursue their own economic
interests. Smith also introduced the concept of the invisible hand that
stated that if all individuals follow their own self-interest, it would be for
the economic good of everyone, since everyone will do what they do best.
-
Laissez-faire economics really caught on, especially in England, and in 1786
France and Britain signed a free-trade treaty. Guilds were growing weaker, and
in 1791, the French got rid of them. In the 1790s, the English also began to
pass laws against them, and the merchants gained freedom.
*England
Begins to Industrialize*
- England
was the first nation to develop a social structure supportive of innovation and
economic growth. So, why was it England? This is b/c of many advantages, such
as:
1. Geography
à England
was close to the sea, which allowed trade w/foreign nations and colonies. Also,
England had two great resources essential to industry, iron and coal, as well as
a lot of good, productive farmlands.
2. Existing
Capital to Invest à the
English began with a store of capital from the colonies, which led to the
creation of a banking and investing system – the Bank of England – in 1694. The
bank took responsibility of England’s public dept, sold shares to the public,
and met the interest payments for shareholders. This helped stabilize the
markets.
3. Free
Trade à the
English had markets in their colonies, the other European powers (free trade
agreement w/ France in 1786) and the Spanish colonies b/c of the Treaty of
Utrecht.
4. Labor
Supply à slavery,
cheap labor (peasants) due to the Enclosure Acts, which drove the peasants out
of the communal farmlands and made them look for work.
5. Friendly
Political Environment à since
the gentry were in control of the government (since they had Parliament) they
could pass laws favorable to the merchants.
6. Navy
à need I
say more?
*Cotton
Begins Industrialization*
- Since
England had developed a social structure supportive of industrialization, all it
needed was a take off industry, or an industry that would begin a pattern
of industrialization all the others would follow. In England’s case, this
industry was cotton manufacturing.
- Due to
the slave labor in the plantations, there was a very large supply of raw cotton.
There was also a very high demand for the durable, cheap cotton goods. However,
the putting-out system had reached its limits in productions, so merchants were
ready to take the next step towards industrialization.
-
Richard Arkwright à inventor
of the water frame, which was able to twist fibers into thread using waterpower.
Before him, though weavers could make cloth quickly from yarn, production was
slowed down b/c the yard couldn’t be made quickly enough. Arkwright shifted the
balance the other way. Arkwright also made the very first factories.
-
James Watt à inventor
of the steam engine. Arkwright asked Watt to use steam engines to drive his
spinning machines, and the first factories were created.
-
Edmund Cartwright à inventor
of a power-driven loom. Though the opposition of handloom weavers and technical
flaws made the loom not really become available until the 19th century, once it
became available, both spinning and weaving could go incredibly fast.
- The
cotton industry was revolutionized by the 19th century, for goods could be made
incredibly fast, and merchants could house all their workers in factories and
watch them work. After industrialization, the price of cotton fell tremendously,
and it became available to many poorer people.
*Changes
in Agriculture*
- In
England, many peasants were able to leave the country and go to the city, where
they found work as factory laborers, because of the new agricultural techniques,
which caused an increase in efficiency and productivity. If it hadn’t been for
these changes, the peasants could not have left.
-
Convertible Husbandry à instead
of letting land lie unused every second or third year (to prevent it from become
infertile) agricultural innovators planted fields w/turnips (which could also
provide feed for livestock, which could make fertilizer) to help it regain
fertility. If they encountered other problems, they would experiment w/other
crops that would hopefully fix the problems.
-
Charles Townshend à
innovator who proved the value of planting turnips instead of resting
land.
-
Jethro Tull à noble
who was into agricultural innovation.
- In
addition to convertible husbandry, innovators experimented with selective
breeding of animals.
-
Enclosure Movement à
throughout Europe, all towns shared communal lands, which were divided into
small plots. This made it very difficult to change agricultural techniques,
since the village as a whole had to agree to a certain technique. But, in
England, Parliament was able to (in response to the petitioning of large
landowners) enclose all the land in a village, even against the will of the
village itself. Though enclosure was difficult and expensive, it was worth it,
for it ended up generating high profits. In the end, the communal field system
was practically eradicated in England, leading to the domination of rural
society by great landlords and their tenant farmers. Enclosure also forced many
peasants to leave for the cities, where they could then find work.
- On the
continent, however, things were very different, for, in Eastern Europe, nobles
completely controlled the lives of their serfs, who spent their time in unpaid
labor for their noble lord. In Western Europe, though there was no serfdom, most
peasants lived under a system called seigneurialism, in which the
peasants lived under a local lord and owed him certain obligations. Since,
throughout the continent, peasants were barely surviving, they had little time
to worry about efficiency (change was too risky to afford). So change came very
slowly, especially in Eastern Europe.
*Eighteenth-Century
Colonial Empires*
- After
1715, the three original imperial powers began to decline. Portugal retired from
active competition (but kept Brazil), the Dutch could only hope to protect their
existing lands, and the Spanish grew weaker, thought they still tried to keep
their monopoly over trade.
- So, the
English and the French became the new colonial powers. The British and the
French expanded their control in the West Indies, West Africa, North America,
and India/Asia (where they established trading empires). Though the English and
the French had different administrative techniques for their colonies (English
didn’t directly control the colonies as much as the French did) both countries
relied on mercantilist techniques. So, the powers attempted to keep a trading
monopoly with their colonies. They did so using their naval powers.
-
Colonial trade provided new products, stimulated the economy and trade (remember
Triangular Trade), and was based on slavery, which decimated Africa.
- The
intense competition between the French and English soon led to fights throughout
their empires. Fighting broke out in Canada/North America, the Ohio Valley
(since the French began establishing strongholds in the wilderness, the British
feared that westward expansion would be cut off). The French gained the
allegiance of the American Indians (as they were not settlers, the Indians felt
that their presence would be better for them than the
English).
- The
Great War for Empire à after
years of hostilities, an official war broke out in 1756. This war, which was
known as the Seven Years’ War in Europe, was known as the French and Indian war
in North America and the Great War for Empire throughout. As the British (led by
William Pitt) had control of the seas, they were able to cut off supplies
from France and win the war in 1759.
- The
Treaty of Paris à ended
the war and was favorable for England, though, in exchange for peace, the
English gave back some of the French islands they had taken. But the English got
Canada.
- The
British in India à the
British entered India and gained control gradually, first through the British
East India Company and later on directly through the English government itself
(after Sepoy mutiny). The British made a class loyal to them by turning the
landlords into a class of nobility and giving them control over their lands. The
British also educated an Indian bureaucracy trained in their ways. Many people
were drawn to India, mainly to make $, but some to “help civilize” the country.
- On the
whole, the colonies greatly stimulated the economy, and also led to increased
competition. However, not all groups were helped by the growth of the eighteenth
century, for the peasants and slaves, who were the backbone of society, never
saw the fruits of their labor.
*The
Definition of the Enlightenment*
- The
Enlightenment was a period of time in which many intellectuals, who were called
philosophs, began to question the traditions of society and to look at
the universe in a scientific, critical light.
- During
the Enlightenment, all the trademark aspects of European society were exposed to
criticism and analysis through reason. No institution was spared, for even the
church itself was attacked by the cynical philosophs. Though the Enlightenment
began as a movement that only reached the intellectual elite of society, its
repercussions would eventually reach and have a big impact on society as a
whole.
*The
Beliefs of the Philosophs*
- The philosophs, a group of intellectuals who supported the ideals of the Enlightenment, stood for a series of beliefs, which they stood for, regardless of the cost. These ideas included:
1. Reason
à the
universe can be explained through reason, as can all human institutions. The
philosophs thought that reason could be applied to everything, and that it could
be used to correct the problems in society.
2. Skepticism
à the
philosophs believed that everything should be open to questioning and criticism,
even religion. They disliked dogma, superstition, and blind
faith.
3. Toleration
à both
religious and intellectual. They felt that all ideas were equally valid, and
that people should have the freedom to express themselves and their ideas.
4. Freedom
à that is,
intellectual freedom, an idea closely linked to toleration. They felt that
people should have free speech, press, and freedom of religion. They felt that
each person should have the opportunity to reason things out for
themselves.
5. Equality
à based on
Locke’s Tabula Raza – all people are equal.
6. Education
à again,
based on Locke. They believed that education could eventually lead to a perfect
society, a paradise of reason and toleration.
7. Optimism
à very
optimistic, believed in science bringing progress.
8. Enlightened
Despotism à for many
kings, enlightened despotism (“I am ruling b/c I can be a servant of the state
and bring the enlightenment to my people”) replaced divine right monarchy and
other justifications for ruling.
*The
Famous Philosophs*
-
Voltaire à our
favorite! Voltaire is often regarded as the leading figure of the Enlightenment.
A talented writer, Voltaire stood for many of the ideals of the period. First of
all, he greatly admired science and helped to popularize it. In 1738, he wrote
Elements of the Philosophy of Newton, which attempted to make Newton’s
discoveries understandable. Voltaire greatly admired the English, for he felt
their society had allowed greats like Locke, Bacon and Newton to rise, and in
1734 he wrote the Philosophical Letters on the English, which celebrated
English toleration. Also, Voltaire absolutely hated religion (actually he didn’t
hate religion per se, but he really hated intolerance) and he wrote The
Philosophical Dictionary in 1764, which stated that organized religion bred
intolerance and superstition. Voltaire was a deist, and felt religion should be
a private matter. Throughout his life, Voltaire faced persecution and
censorship, and as a result, he was a dedicated advocator of intellectual and
religious freedom. Voltaire was a brilliant satirical writer (Candide)
and literary critic who poked fun at every element of society (which is why all
his books were banned).
-
Diderot à most
famous for his Encyclopedia, Diderot also wrote a series of novels,
plays, math theorems, and works on religion and morality. His most original
works examined the role of passion in human personality and in morality. Diderot
often felt that his contemporaries overemphasized reason over passion. He also
sometimes criticized religion, and ended up as an atheist. But his most
important work was the Encyclopedia, which classified all human knowledge
from the most common to the most complex. The aim of the book was to “change the
general way of thinking.” The book treated religion w/artful satire, analyzing
it like any other topic. Science was the core of the book, and scientific
techniques and discoveries were presented in it. Economically, the Encyclopedia
supported the Physiocratic view against trade restrictions. The Encyclopedia was
banned in many places, but it was still distributed, and had a great impact on
the intellectuals of Europe.
- Jean
d’Alembert à famous
French mathematician.
-
Baron de Montesquieu à wrote
The Spirit of the Laws a book that described an ideal system of
government using checks and balances. He believed that societies and political
institutions could be studied scientifically, and that a balanced government
would lead to success.
-
David Hume à he was
the empiricism who made that stupid argument about the tree falling in the
forest. He hated dogma, and I mean really hated it. He went around proving how
everybody was wrong. He was an atheist and he didn’t believe in any general
knowledge, so who knows what he did believe in. Anyhow, he wrote Inquiry into
Human Nature that criticized Christianity.
- Adam
Smith à that
economist dude. Not that important. He only came up with an entire new
philosophy on economics but that isn’t part of this chapter so look at the other
outline!
-
Immanuel Kant à a
brilliant philosopher, he stated that Hume woke him from his “dogmatic slumber”
and believed that reality and perception were two different things. However, he
believed that so long as it is organized by certain concepts, like cause and
effect, science is still valid.
-
Cesare Beccaria à was an
economist and penal reformer who wrote On Crimes and Punishments, which
argued for human rights and humanitarianism.
-
Edward Gibbon à
historian who criticized Christianity and held it responsible for the fall of
the Roman Empire in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
*The
Elite Culture of the Enlightenment*
- During
the Enlightenment, many new forms of elite culture developed. These
developments had hardly any effect on the majority of the people, but the elite
culture, united by French as a common language, bound together into a
cosmopolitan world.
- First
of all, the elite began to travel around Europe. They looked at the
cultural centers and cities, as well as the ancient monuments of antiquity.
Cities were being spruced up during this time with the additions of amenities
(like streetlights and public transportation) and two important new ideas,
coffeehouses (where people could eat and talk) and shop windows (sparked
commerce).
- A
so-called republic of letters began to develop (popularized by Pierre
Bayle, who like religious toleration), in which journals and newspapers
circulated among the elite. Though the republic was limited to the educated, all
classes and backgrounds could join in. The elite also met in salons
(philosophical party houses of the elite, very snobby and stylish) and
academies both of which helped spread ideas and unite people. There,
people could dispute their ideas and come up w/new ones.
- Also,
during this time, publishing increased tremendously and people began to read
more. Traveling libraries were developed, as were journals and, most
importantly, newspapers. There were new employment opportunities in bookselling
and publishing, as well as the smuggling of so-called bad books, which
ranged from Voltaire to pornography (i.e. anything that was banned).
*Art,
Literature, and Music*
- Art
of the Enlightenment à the art
of the Enlightenment consisted of two competing styles, Rococo and
Neoclassicism. Rococo was the art of the nobility, meaningless, w/out content,
but very pretty, using bright, swirling colors, like Rubenism. Famous
Rococo painters were Francois Boucher and Fragonard.
Neoclassicism, on the other hand, favored line over color, and was all about
drama, tension, emotion, content, and an imitation ancient style. The philosophs
loved the NC, for they favored themes that the philosophs liked. Famous painter
was Jacques Louis David.
-
Literature of the Enlightenment à this is
where the modern novel was first developed, by Samuel Richardson and
Henry Fielding, both in England. The novel emerged as a new form of
writing in which a story was told and characters were presented in a realistic
social context filled with everyday problems. Another writer was Fanny
Burney. Satire was also perfected during the Enlightenment, by brilliant
writers like Jonathan Swift, and, naturally, good ol’ Voltaire.
Also, during this time, romantic poetry was born. Before, poetry followed strict
rules and was not very emotional or anything, but in the Enlightenment writers
like William Wordsworth and Friedrich von Schiller made it all
mushy. Poetry came to be a signature part of the new style, Romanticism.
Johann von Goethe was a romantic poet who came to embody the entire
period and whose masterpiece was called Faust.
-
Music of the Enlightenment à music
really changed, and the symphony developed into what it is today. Pretty much,
this was the work of Beethoven, Mozart and Hayden. After
them, music also became much more passionate and was full of expression and
emotion.
*Popular
Culture during the Enlightenment*
- Popular
culture was pretty much totally separate from the elite culture, and was not
really that affected by it at all. At this level culture was still public
recreation and oral tradition.
- There
was, however, some popular literature meant to be read aloud in the community.
This consisted of religious material, almanacs, and literature for fun
(stories). Mainly, popular writing actually fostered submissiveness, not
rebellion, for it had a fatalistic acceptance of the status quo.
- But the
most important part of popular culture was the oral tradition, which consisted
of the folktales and songs passed from generation to generation. These tales
expressed the hardships and goals of the time, with themes like struggles to
survive and magical happenings.
- Though
literacy rose a little, in rural areas it was still very low. Education was
scarce, for few parents could allow their children to go to school while they
were needed in the fields. Many of the elites, like Voltaire, did not believe
that the masses should be educated, but even when the government tried to
encourage education (Prussia, Austria) it did not really have a big result.
Anyway, even when they went to school, the goals of elementary schooling were
simply to instill religion and morality, show the value of hard work, and
promote deference to superiors, not really to learn anything.
- Lastly,
popular culture included festivals and taverns (the salons for normal people)
where common people could enjoy themselves and relax. Sports also became
important during this time, and people began to attend sporting events
more.
*The
Origins of the Revolution*
- The
Enlightenment provided the ideology for the Revolution. For decades the
philosophs questioned accepted political and religious beliefs and advocated for
freedom, liberty and reason. Although they neither predicted nor pushed for a
revolution, the philosophs wished to make people aware that the traditional ways
were not always best.
- Also,
prior to the Revolution, several sensational lawsuits about the scandalous
doings of high aristocrats occurred, and when the information about the trials
got out to the reading public, it made the aristocracy and the monarchy appear
to be ridiculous despots.
- The
French government was undoubtedly corrupt and ineffective. Louis XVI was not
suited to be an absolute monarch (he was stupid) and his queen, Marie
Antoinette, was hated through the land for her lack of sympathy with the people.
-
Although this did not directly lead to Revolution, the most French people were
unhappy and oppressed, and did not get enough to eat. This was not directly
attributed to the system of government, and the peasants weren’t really involved
with the Revolution, but the popular discontent did contribute to sparking the
flames of Revolution among those who noted the injustice in French society.
-
Long-term economic difficulties made it necessary for the king to try to tax the
nobility, an act that pretty much set in motion the entire deal.
*The
Prelude to the Revolution (1774 – 1789)*
- So,
when Louis XVI took the throne in 1774, the monarchy was in a pretty bad shape
economically. - Turgot
(finance minister) tried to make reforms to fix the situation (like removing
government restrictions on commerce, cutting down court expenses, and replacing
the obligation of peasants to work on royal roads with a small tax on all
landholders) but this made him unpopular with the nobles.
- So dumb
Louis kicked Turgot out and replaced him with Necker who avoided new
taxes, which made him popular, but took out huge loans instead, which was bad
for the economy. After a while things were so screwed up that the new finance
guy, Calonne, rightly stated that the monarchy was on the verge of
bankruptcy. Calonne came up w/new taxes and proposed to convene provincial
assemblies. To support his plan, he called an Assembly of Notables but
they didn’t end up supporting him! Instead (gasp) they denounced the court
spending and wanted to audit the accounts.
-
Naturally Louis got rid of Calonne and appointed Archbishop Brienne (one
of the notables) in his place. Brienne submitted Calonne’s ideas to the
Parlements, but they rejected them. Then they demanded that Louis convene the
Estates General. Louis responded by attempting to send the Parlement into exile,
but was forced to back down.
- So,
Louis recalled the Parlements and Necker and agreed to convene the EG in
1789…
*The
Estates General Meet*
- As the
word spread that the EG were going to meet, the liberal ideology began to take
shape. People against tradition (they didn’t needed to be lower class,
necessarily) came to be known as patriots.
- The
first big issue was the method of voting for the EG. The Third Estate,
representing 95% of population, asked to be doubled in size – the king said OK.
But as the old method of voting (by order) made the upper chambers outweigh the
Third Estate regardless of numbers, the Third Estate felt ripped off (how stupid
do you think we are?) and asked for the voting to be conducted by
head.
- Before
the EG, the king invited the citizens to elect delegates to assemblies. All male
taxpayers could vote for electors, who, in turn, chose reps for the Third Estate
of the EG. Also, he asked citizens to write grievance petitions – cahiers. Most
cahiers dealt with local issues, and gave no hint of the Revolution to come.
Only some, from Paris, talked about natural rights and all that stuff. Still,
the cahiers and local elections helped make citizens aware of politics.
*The
National Assembly (1789 – 1791)*
- May
5th, 1789 à the EG
finally met, for the first time since 1614. But the king only spoke generally
and didn’t clear up the voting mess.
- June
17th, 1789 à the
Third Estate had enough and proclaimed itself the National Assembly. A
few days later, most of the clergy joined. The king decided to support the dumb
nobles and locked the Third Estate out of its meeting hall.
-
Tennis Court Oath à on June
20th, the Revolutionaries went to a tennis court and swore that they wouldn’t
separate until they had given France a constitution.
- The
king responded by promising equality in taxation, civil liberties, and regular
meetings of the EG but voting would be by order. Then, he ordered the estates to
go to their individual meeting halls, but the TE didn’t go. Finally, he
recognized the NA and (trying to act like it was all his idea) told all the
estates to join it. But, he secretly was ordering 20,000 royal troops to the
Paris region.
- At the
same time as this political stuff, the ordinary citizens were getting mad over
food shortages. When they heard rumors of the royal troops, they feared an
aristocratic plot to overthrow the NA. And, when the king got rid of Necker (who
was popular) on July 11 it was the last straw.
- July
14th, 1789 à fearing
counter-revolution Parisian crowds attacked the Bastille, the 20,000 troops
joined (on Rev side), and the Revolutionaries won. At the same time, royal
officials in Paris were ousted and were replaced w/a Revolutionary municipality,
and a citizens’ militia was formed.
- The NA
was saved, but the hungry peasants were still hungry and consequently still
angry. Starvation and rumors (that nobles were going to destroy the harvest)
caused The Great Fear in which the peasants attacked nobles and revolted.
-
August 4th, 1789 à in
response, the deputies of the clergy and nobility gave up their ancient
privileges. In one night, feudalism and seigneurialism were abolished for
good!
-
August 26th, 1789 à NA
writes The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen as the
constitution will take a long time to finish. The Declaration established
natural rights like freedom of expression, religion, etc. It all comes from
Locke and from Rousseau (a little).
-
Civil Constitution of the Clergy à #1
mistake for Revolutionaries. In 1790, they passed this law that forced clergy to
become state employees and take oaths of loyalty to state. 50% clergy obeyed,
other 50% didn’t, and the pope condemned the action, so many religious people
were alienated.
-
Constitution of 1791 à finally,
in 1791, the constitution was finished. It established a limited monarchy w/a
clear separation of powers. There was a unicameral legislature elected by
indirect voting. Every adult male w/minimal taxpaying requirements could vote,
w/a higher qualification needed to serve public office.
*The
Legislative Assembly (1791 – 1792)*
- After
the constitution was finished, the NA gave way to the Legislative
Assembly. B/c of the Self Denying Ordinance, no NA members could be
in the LA.
- Just as
the first LA is about to go into effect, the king escapes! In his unsuccessful
Flight to Varennes he tries to escape, but is captured. LA decides to
keep him anyway, and they go on as if nothing had happened even though
everything is messed up.
- Then,
the LA makes the dumb decision to go to war w/Austria and Prussia b/c of the
Declaration of Pillnitz (which wasn’t intended as serious anyway). The
Girondins feel this will somehow unite the nation, the Royalists hope that they
lose (king goes back), and Jacobins want to lose then win.
-
August 10th, 1792 à then,
b/c of the Brunswick Manifesto the Parisian militants decided to storm
the royal palace at the Tulieries. They drove the king from the throne, the LA
declared him suspended, and then half the LA escaped as well. Now, without the
king, the LA was also illegitimate.
*The
Radical Phase (1792 – 1794)*
- So, a
new government had to be established, as the constitutional monarchy, w/out a
monarch, had lost its legitimacy. Temporarily, a Paris Commune or city
government was created. But this was not enough to maintain order, and in
September, hysteria spread by the radical journalists resulted in the
September Massacres, in which popular tribunals summarily executed
thousands of prisoners, who were feared to be counter-revolutionaries.
- The
hysteria began to fade when the French won at the Battle of Valmy on
September 20th. Then, France was declared a Republic, and a National Convention
met for the first time.
-
January 21st, 1793 à Louis
XVI was guillotined after lengthy deliberations.
- Now,
the Convention was being threatened from many different sides (see debate) –
including internal rebellions, foreign invasions, economic crisis, factionalism,
popular pressure, etc. So, they decided to purge the Girondins and establish a
program for public safety.
-
Constitution of 1793 à although
this constitution was never put into effect because of the military crisis, in
addition to confirming the individual rights laid out in the last constitution
(plus the rights of public assistance, education, and even of rebellion to
resist oppression), it provided for a legislature elected by the people (men
only though) that would also elect the executive.
- The
Jacobins swept aside the new constitution, declaring the government
“revolutionary until the peace” and instituting the Reign of Terror. A
twelve-man committee, the Committee for Public Safety, was in charge, and
the main leaders of the Committee were Robespierre, Danton, and
the ultra radical Hébert.
- During
the ROT, the French were fighting the foreign wars, and, soon enough, with the
strict discipline of the ROT, they began to win.
- But,
finally, the ROT culminated in the execution of its own leaders – Danton and
Robespierre executed Hébert, Robespierre executed Danton, and then Robespierre
himself was overthrown.
*The
Thermidorian Reaction (1794 – 1795) and The Directory (1795 –
1799)*
- After
the fall of Robespierre, the revolutionary committees that had led the ROT were
destroyed, the Paris Jacobin Club was closed, and the Convention offered an
amnesty to the remaining Girondins. The term Thermidorian Reaction refers
to the return of conservatism after the ultra-radical phase in the FR and is now
applied to any such pattern in other revolutions.
- The
anti-Jacobin sentiment grew so strong, in fact, that a White Terror
erupted against anyone connected with the Jacobins. The social austerity of the
old calendar was back, the fancy titles, and all that stuff made their
return.
- The
last revolutionary uprising occurred in 1795, when the sans-culottes launched a
poorly organized revolt (calling for “bread and the constitution of 1793”) and,
after two days of street fighting, were overwhelmed by the government.
- In
1795, a new constitution was drafted. It proclaimed a general amnesty and set up
a five man executive committee known as the Directory. It also had a two-house
legislature. The Directory attempted to stay on the moderate side of everything,
and it became incredibly corrupt! It had to overthrow itself after the first
general election because a royalist majority won, and things only got worse. By
1799 any semblance of legitimacy was gone, making way for
Napoleon…
*The
Definition of Romanticism*
-
Romanticism was a major movement in the early nineteenth century. Although it
was more an attitude towards life than it was a philosophy, it did have some
defining characteristics.
-
Romanticism was almost a counterpoint to the ideals of the Enlightenment, which
were then associated with liberalism and the middle class.
-
Romanticism could coexist w/other political philosophies, for example
nationalism or socialism.
-
Actually, conservatives and radicals both drew on romantic philosophy, for
conservatives claimed that stability was only possible through tradition and
respect of customs while radicals claimed that a new era required the shattering
of old institutions just as artistic change required new
creativity.
-
Romanticism was also an artistic movement.
*Romanticism
(Rousseau and French Revolution) vs. Liberalism
(Enlightenment)*
-
Romanticism was a movement that idealized the countryside, liberalism thrived in
the cities.
-
Romanticism emphasized emotion, the heart, and poetry (often illogical and
emotional) while liberalism emphasized reason, the mind, and prose (logical and
unemotional).
-
Romanticism stressed intuition, and the concept of genius (often misunderstood)
while liberalism stressed reason and scholarship (you must study and work to
improve yourself).
-
Romanticism viewed nature as untamable, irrational, and out of control. They
felt that nature controlled humans, not visa versa. Liberalism felt nature could
be controlled, and, most importantly, understood through mathematical laws – it
stressed progress.
-
Romanticism stressed the uniqueness of the individual (sometime nations
nationalists) while liberalism stressed the fact that humans control own
destiny, that perfection can be reached through education, progress and science
and that there are universal human laws.
-
Romanticism idealized the Middle Ages (knights in shining armor) while
liberalism despised it.
*Romantic
Philosophy and Literature*
-
Although romantic thought flourished with the revival of religion, the increased
interest in history and rising nationalism, it was mainly
philosophical.
-
Romantic thinkers wrote about metaphysics, aesthetics, the philosophy of nature,
and even (in Germany and Scandinavia) a romantic philosophy of
science.
-
Romantics tended to express themselves through poetry, aphorisms, and
autobiographical accounts.
-
Friedrich Schiegel à was a
very influential romantic thinker from Germany.
-
Samuel Taylor Coleridge à was an
English romantic poet who wrote the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a tale
of guilt, redemption, and the supernatural.
-
William Wordsworth à another
romantic poet whose poems contrasted the beauty of nature with urban corruption
and denounced the materialism of his age.
- In
general, novelists and dramatists began to set their tales in the past, favor
vivid description and attempt to describe the larger picture of human existence
(like Shakespeare and Cervantes).
*Romantic
Art and Music*
- In art,
the romantic painters began to emphasize color over line, scenes of nature
(especially wild nature), exotic scenes, movement, action, dark backgrounds,
turmoil, and an appeal to emotion.
- The
romantic style was almost the opposite of the last great style,
neoclassicism.
-
Romantic portraits (which were out anyhow) were blurry and tried to show inner
personality.
- Big
guys were Delacroix (French painter who did Greece Expiring and
Liberty Leading the People), Goya (Spanish painter) and Turner
(English painter who did The Slave Ship).
- At the
same time a competing school of painting, realism, emphasized ordinary, common
people and scenes from everyday life.
-
Neoclassicism was not completely gone either, for Delacroix’s artistic enemy was
Ingres (a student of david who emphasized detail, crisp focus and blended
neoclassicism with romantic influence).
- In
music romantic composers appealed directly to the heart, stressing melodies and
using freer harmonies. Big romantic composers were Schubert and
Schumann.
*Political
Ideologies*
- Almost
all the “isms” of the nineteenth century (Romanticism, Liberalism, Nationalism,
Socialism, Conservatism, and Radicalism) came from either the Enlightenment or
the French Revolution (or as a reaction to the French
Revolutions).
-
Conservatism à
conservatives tended to justify the status quo, defend tradition and hierarchy,
and stress the limitations of human understanding. Conservatism arose mainly
from Edmund Burke, and Englishman who stated that society exists through
a continuity of the traditions that have developed over the years. Although
Burke allowed for gradual change in theory, he mainly supported established
institutions. Other conservatives, Joseph de Maistre and Louis de
Bonald stated that society, in order to preserve itself, had to keep close
control on dangerous ideas of reform.
-
Liberalism à
political liberalism, which originated with Locke and Enlightenment, was
associated with ideas of social progress, economic development and the middle
class. Liberals hoped to achieve a free society governed by a constitution that
valued individual rights. John Stuart Mill was the most important liberal
spokesman of the nineteenth century – he supported freedom of thought, universal
suffrage and collective action by workers.
-
Economic Liberalism à although
many liberals were also economic liberals, the two groups were not necessarily
equivalent. Economic liberals always supported laissez-faire. David
Ricardo, an Englishman who wrote the Principle of Political Economy and
Taxation (1817), extended Smith’s ideology. He stated that a product’s value
results from the labor required to make it, and emphasized labor saving as the
source of profit. Also, he said that economic laws governed prices, such as the
iron law of wages (which applied the law of supply and demand to labor).
-
Utilitarianism à the call
for social reform led to utilitarianism, which stressed the role of the state in
society. One influential utilitarian was Jeremy Benthan, and Englishman
who dismissed the doctrine of natural rights as a meaningless abstraction and,
instead, proposed that utility should guide public policy. With good being that
which give the most people pleasure and the bad being than which gives the most
people pain, Benthan stated that self-interest could also guide public
policy.
-
Socialism à
socialist despised the competitive spirit of capitalism and advocated a society
in which people could live harmoniously and could be truly free. The early
socialists – Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Owen – were late
called utopian socialists by Marx b/c they attempted to found ideal
communities in which everyone cooperated for the public
benefit.
*The
Structure of Society*
- By the
beginning of the nineteenth century, the original social pyramid structure of
society was being transformed into different, more fluid, classes – and social
relationships were becoming matters of contact between individuals. The classes
were as follows:
1. Aristocracy
à although
the aristocrats did lost much of their influence, they remained a potent force
throughout Europe. The aristocracy continued to control most of the wealth of
the country and still dominated the administration and the military. The
aristocrats held on to more power in the south and east, though, for, there,
they in effect had control over the peasant masses.
2. Peasants
à most
Europeans were peasants. The peasants felt the effects of change as agriculture
became more commercial (profits increased) and technology changed, but the big
change for most peasants was the emancipation of the peasants from feudal
obligations, which encouraged peasants to enter the commercial market. But, on
the other hand, the decline of local industries (putting-out system) made the
peasants even more dependent on small plots of land. In general, peasants stuck
by tradition, although they could also become major political forces in some
cases.
3. Workers
à a new
class, the industrial workers lived dependent on their employers and often made
barely enough to keep alive. They often lived in dirty slums, with special
restrictions on their rights, etc. Workers were clearly an emerging political
force in society, one the upper classes (rightly) feared. But, although there
were attempts to make organized labor movements, for the most part, the vast
majority of the working class remained defenseless without the skills to
organize well.
4. Artisans/Skilled
Workers à the most
independent workers, the artisans continued to live by a hierarchy of masters
and apprentices. They did benefit from industrialization, and, unlike the
factory workers, did have the organization and education to organize effectively
to improve conditions.
5. Middle
Classà the most
confident and assertive class, the middle class ranged from the great bankers to
the petit bourgeoisie (clerks, shopkeepers, etc.) and was held together by
shared ideals and common interests 97 all were opposed to special privileges and
saw themselves as the beneficiaries of careers open to talent. Essentially an
urban class, they liked to see themselves as self-made. They were associated
with the liberal ideology of the time, and pushed for
moderation.
- During
this time, the population also increased (due to fewer diseases, increased food
supply and a lower of the age at which people married) and cities grew
greatly.
- This in
turn led to terrible conditions in the cities, and efforts to improve them
through charities and government laws concerning public
welfare.
- Charity
was mainly conducted by the middle class and the very religious, and mostly by
women.
Although
the charities helped a few, they were not sufficient, and government
intervention was required to fix the situation. By mid-century, housing and
sanitary codes regulated most cities.
- Later,
governments also began to regulate child labor and stop vagrancy. Education
became a matter of national policy as well, and most countries established
compulsory public schooling.
*The
Spread of Liberal Government*
- As
liberal social programs spread throughout Europe, England became the model for
many aspiring liberal nations. But England itself had passed through a time of
reform and change.
- Between
1688 and 1832 there was no reform at all in England b/c the English were
afraid reform might open the gates for a revolution like in
France.
- By the
late eighteenth century England desperately needed reform, but would-be
reformers like Tom
Paine,
John Wilkes, Price and Priestly were not permitted to
reform.
- England
had an archaic system of government: only 500 people were elected to the House
of Commons through the Burrows (which were totally corrupt – “pocket burrows”),
there was total misrepresentation (new cities like Manchester had no reps) and
it was all in all really unfair.
-
Finally, in 1832 the Reform Bill was passed, which extended the franchise from
500,000 to 800,000 votes (which allowed upper MC to vote), and redistricted
(more proportional representation). This was a big deal b/c it signaled the
beginning of the end for the gentry 97 now the middle class was taking over and
gaining control of the government.
- After
1832 new reforms such as the Factory Act (limiting hours of child labor) and the
Poor Law were passed, and finally a law granting all resident taxpayers the
right to vote in municipal elections.
- Still,
more reforms were pushed for by the masses. One big issue was the Corn Laws
(tariff on agricultural goods), which the landowners liked (can raise prices,
more $) but middle class and working class despised (food prices up). So middle
and working classes joined against gentry. In 1846 the laws were repealed (a
final proof of the switch in power to the middle class). The Test Act was also
repealed around this time.
- The
radicals in England, known as the Charterists, wanted universal male
suffrage, annual elections, secret ballots, and salaries for parliament members.
But this movement, unlike the one against the Corn Laws, ended up in
failure.
*The
Revolutions of 1830*
- In
1830, revolution swept across Europe, beginning with the abdication of Charles X
in France, which sparked off minor revolts in central Italy, Spain, Portugal,
some German states, and Poland. But Austria and Russia once again crushed most
of the revolutions.
-
France à of
course it started with France. First, Charles X didn’t like the elections, so he
passed the July Ordinances (which cancelled elections, upped censorship, and
called for new elections), which resulted in the people taking to the streets in
revolution, Charles running away, and Lafayette bringing Louis Philippe from
Orleans as the new king. The new reign, known as the July Monarchy, emphasized
moderation – the regime began w/a new constitution presented as a contract that
guaranteed individual rights, etc. The July Monarchy attempted to identify w/the
middle class, and Louis called himself the citizen king. But the monarchy didn’t
please anyone b/c it attempted to please everyone, so, naturally, nobody was
satisfied. Anyhow, during this time Guizot (a moderate liberal who spoke of
liberty and progress but did nothing) skillfully dominated the
government.
-
Belgium à the
Belgians (Catholics) followed the French revolted against the Dutch Protestants.
They established a liberal constitutional monarchy and became a prosperous small
country.
-
Spain à in
Spain, the monarchy supported the liberals. In 1833, however, the monarchy was
threatened by a conservative uprising (the Carlists). So, to win support more
support from the liberals, the monarchy granted a constitution in
1834.
*The
Revolutions of 1848*
- In
1848, liberal revolutions broke out throughout Europe. Although, at first, they
appeared to be spectacularly successful, in the end, all the revolutions
failed.
- In
general, revolutions occurred where governments were distrusted and where the
fear and resentment fed by rising food prices and unemployment found focus in
political demands.
- In the
end, the revolutions failed b/c the revolutionaries found themselves divided,
and also, as Seaman states, because the original governments still had the power
and will to survive.
-
Sometimes 1848 is referred to as “the turning point at which modern history
failed to turn” because it seemed as though the revolutionaries were only so
close to success.
*Revolution
in France*
-
Naturally, it all started in France (where else?) b/c of a small issue about
suffrage. When the government refused to widen suffrage, the parliamentary
opposition launched a protest movement that staged large banquets across the
country.
- The
government (aware of its own unpopularity b/c by trying to be in the center,
they didn’t please anybody) banned the banquet scheduled for Paris in late
February 1848, but some deputies said they would attend anyway, sparking a
popular rebellion – barricades formed, the whole deal.
- Louis
Philippe responded by reviewing his National Guard, they refused to cheer him,
LP realized he had no support and abdicated in favor of his grandson and left
for England.
- Instead
of listing to LP, of course, two rival newspapers chose a provisional government
of men, who appeared a the Hotel de Ville and declared France a republic. Led by
Alphonse de Lamartine, an admired romantic poet, the new government was
dominated by moderates who at first cooperated with the more radical members.
They agreed on universal male suffrage, and on the citizen’s right to work, and
they established a commission to hold public hearings on labor problems.
- But the
new regime didn’t want to go overboard – it rejected intervention on behalf of
other revolutions, didn’t use the red flag, and added new taxes. Relations w/the
church were great, nearly 85% of the people voted, moderate republicans won, and
all seemed well…
- The
workers, however, were not satisfied and agitated for a social program and
pinned their hopes on the program of national workshops that had been
established (although they were imaged as cooperatives, they were really
temporary relief programs). But the program seemed stupid to the moderates, who
disbanded the workshops in June (bad move).
- Now the
workers were really ticked off, and they responded by building barricades. For
three days they fought viciously against the republic’s troops (led by
General Cavaignac) but were crushed in the bloody time known as the
June Days. Now, with almost dictatorial powers, Cavaignac restricted the
press, suppressed the radicals, and instituted severe discipline on the workers.
Although Cavaignac remained a republican and the assembly still wrote its
constitution, something was definitely off.
- The
June Days represented the fatal split between the two revolutionary
groups:
1. Middle
class à wanted
moderate goals, like equality of taxation, careers open to talent,
representative government (but only w/middle class voting b/c voters had to have
stake in society and education), freedom of speech, press – goals of
Enlightenment.
2. Working
class à wanted
radical goals, socialism, total equality – new type of revolution no longer
based on Enlightenment but based on socialism and working class.
- So, in
December, there was an election and Louis Napoleon Bonaparte won w/70% of
the votes b/c of his name, which meant glory and stability. Bonaparte later
changed the government to an empire w/himself as emperor just like his uncle,
the original Napoleon. So, all in all, the revolution
failed!
*Revolution
in Austria*
- In the
Austrian Empire, the Hungarians had by mid-March established a free press and a
national guard and had abolished feudal obligations and special privileges.
Vienna then reluctantly allowed Hungary to levy its own taxes and direct its own
army.
- This
Hungarian example caused students in Vienna to demand representative government
for Austria as well – crowds rose up, Metternich resigned, censorship was
abolished, a constitution was promised, and universal male suffrage was
given.
- But, of
course, Hungarian autonomy caused similar demands from the Czechs in Bohemia,
the Croatians in Croatia, and the Romanians in Transylvania.
- The
original revolutionaries, however, had no tolerance for other smaller
revolutions against the Germans, and it supported the repressors of those small
revolutions.
- As the
smaller revolutions gained power, so did the Hapsburgs (who asked for the
support of the smaller revolutions against the first revolutions).
- The
Hapsburgs then used their powerful armies to force all the revolutionaries into
submission.
*Revolution
in Prussia*
- In the
meantime, Frederick William IV of Prussia, upon hearing about the uprising in
Vienna, granted some concessions, relaxed censorship and called the Landtag
(parliament). Fighting broke out anyway. But when FW agreed to remove his troops
from Berlin and elected a constitutional assembly through indirect male suffrage
(Berlin), it stopped and it seemed that the revolution had won out.
-
Frankfurt Convention à in May,
830 delegates met at Frankfurt to discuss German issues. Most favored a
monarchial German state w/a semi-democratic constitution, but there was a split
between the Little Germans (wanted Prussia to lead) and Big Germans (wanted
Austria to lead).
-
Finally, the Little Germans won out, and in March 1849 the Prussian king was
elected to become the German emperor. But (gasp!) he refused – which was
actually not surprising since the Prussians were never liberal, cared nothing
for Germany, and FW didn’t want his power limited – so the constitution was
never put into effect. Note that by this time the Landtag in Prussia had already
been dissolved.
- Also by
this time the MC had been spooked by the strength of the working class
rebellions, so they asked for help from the Prussian king, he sees they are
powerless: that’s all for that revolution!
*Revolution
in Italy*
- A
similar pattern occurred in Italy. At first, the revolutions were successful,
and all the states got constitutions (Napes, Tuscany, Piedmont, even Papal
States).
-
Lombardy and Venetia had been part of the Hapsburg Empire, but after the
revolution in Vienna, a revolt broke out in Milan against the Austrian forces
there. In the Five Glorious Days of Milan the Austrians were forced to
retreat. The Venetian republic was reestablished, and Piedmont joined the war
against Austria as well. In fact, when it then turned out that the pope was not
an Italian nationalist (surprise, surprise) and he escaped, Rome was even left
to be run by a representative assembly.
- Still,
military force was the decisive factor, and Austria came back and beat Piedmont
and its allies, leaving Austria back in firm control. Louis Napoleon then
restored the pope, Sicily fell to the kingdom of Naples in May 1849, and,
finally, Venetia was defeated in August 1849 by Austria.
*The
Effects of Revolution*
-
Although none of the revolutions succeeded, they had a lasting impact on Europe.
- The
widespread revolutions measured the failures of restoration, once again
demonstrated the power of political ideas, and uncovered the effects of a
generation of social change.
- Several
gains, in fact, did endure: peasants in Prussia and Austria were emancipated,
Piedmont and Prussia kept their new constitutions, and monarchs learned they
needed to watch public opinion.
-
Liberals learned that they couldn’t depend on the masses to follow them w/out
making demands, they reevaluated their own goals – perhaps the old order was
better than anarchy, they thought. The, on the other hand, saw they couldn’t
trust the liberals to help them (they were ripped off).
-
Everyone realized that revolutions needed power and armies to back them up but
that, nevertheless, nationalism was a powerful new force in politics.
*Nationalism*
-
Nationalism’s roots stem from a shared sense of regional and cultural identity,
but the French Revolution and the effects of Napoleon’s conquests really caused
it to emerge as a force in Europe.
-
Nationalism was also a movement towards modernization, as countries attempted to
industrialize in order to compete with other nations and tried to modernize
their political systems.
- As an
intellectual movement, nationalism also emphasized the importance of culture and
cultural uniqueness. It rejected the universality of the Enlightenment and
stated that each country had its own unique values and was suited to its own
system of government. Many thinkers (like German nationalists Herder and
Gottlieb) urged their countrymen to celebrate their cultural values.
- So,
nationalism led to a fascination with folk culture and national history.
- As a
political movement, the goal of nationalism was independence: both actual and
economic.
- Note
that there were two different types of nationalism:
1. Liberal
à combined
w/ideas of the French Revolution, the liberal nationalists stated that no
country is better than another, but that each country has its own unique
qualities. All nations deserve to be unified and led by people of their own
nationality who can provide the nation with a constitution that is rational,
reasonable and just, they said.
2. Militaristic
à
associated w/ideas of social Darwinism and Realpolitik, the claim of
militaristic nationalism is that one’s nation is better, not just different.
Machiavellian politicians who are out for personal power can exploit this form
of nationalism.
*The
Crimean War*
-
Nationalist tensions led to the Crimean War, which originated over competing
claims by Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox monks to be the guardians of
Jerusalem’s holy places.
- France
(supporting the Catholics) pressured the Ottoman sultan into giving the
Catholics special privileges, which caused the Russians (supporting the Greek
Orthodox) to demand a protectorate over Orthodox churches w/in the Ottoman
Empire. Then the Russians occupied Wallachia and Moldavia, Danubian lands that
were under the Ottomans.
-
Concerned by the Russian expansion, the English urged the sultan to resist the
Russian demands. When negotiations broke down, Britain and France sent their
fleets to the Aegean Sea, and in October 1853 the sultan declared war on Russia.
When his butt got kicked, Britain and France joined him to preserve the balance
of power.
- In the
end, England (BOP), France (defend Catholics), Piedmont (to go to peace
conference) and Turkey fight Russia in the Crimean area. This war exposed the
weakness of Austria and Russia, and showed how antiquated their systems
were.
-
Congress of Paris à finally,
the Turkish side won and the powers met at the Congress of Paris, a congress
that was preoccupied with issues of nationalism. Russia was forced to cede some
territory, surrender its claims in Turkey and accept a ban on warships in the
Black Sea. The big issue at the conference had to do w/national claims (who
should get the Danubian principalities?), an issue which was postponed b/c the
Austrians didn’t want the obvious solution (an autonomous state) to be put into
effect as they felt threatened by nationalist interests.
*Italian
Unification*
-
Giuseppe Mazzini à known as
“the spirit” of Italian Unification, Mazzini was one of the first Italian
nationalists. His form of nationalism was very romantic and emphasized Italy’s
uniqueness and special role in Europe. In nationalism, Mazzini saw the
expression of natural communities, the basis for popular democracy and
international brotherhood. Although Mazzini made many attempts to unify Italy
through movements like Young Italy and conspiracies and propaganda (etc.), he
never succeeded. His big chance came in 1848, but, when Austria regained
control, Mazzini left.
-
Consequently, the task of unification, surprisingly, came to the small state of
Piedmont, which had fought Austria and emerged with a constitutional monarchy
led by Victor Emmanuel II.
-
Cavour à was
Prime Minister, a liberal who believed in progress, tolerance, limited suffrage,
and who saw nationalism as an avenue to modernization. Although Piedmont’s
internal strength was his first concern, he also wished to make Piedmont the
center of Italy’s resurgence, the Risorgimento.
-
Plombieres Agreement à made by
Cavour w/Louis Napoleon, the Plombieres Agreement stated that if Piedmont were
at war w/Austria then France would back them up. If Piedmont won, then there
would be land gains for both countries. Cavour wanted Venetia and Lombardy out
of the deal (but he never intended to fully unify Italy), and Napoleon wanted to
weaken Austria, get Nice and Savoy, and get back at the Austrians (for Congress
of Vienna).
- They
were just looking for a way to start the war when Austria did some stupid
things: it imposed military conscription on Venetia and Lombardy (super
unpopular), and it sent a declaration of total disarmament or war to Piedmont –
geez, talk about playing right into their hands.
- So
after two battles at Magenta and Solferino, things are going well when Napoleon
III quits b/c he realizes he is falling into a trap (worried about Piedmont
getting too strong)!
-
Treaty of Villafranca à is where
Napoleon III pulls out and the Austrian-Sardinian war
ends.
- But
now, it is time for Garibaldi who is the ultimate romantic. He recruits a
thousands volunteers, sails down to Sicily and attacks the Kingdom of Two
Sicily. As he wins battles, his army grows, and he is soon ready to take on
Papal States (also France then) and Cavour (b/c Garibaldi is a republican and
Cavour has a monarch). So, in 1860 he marches to meet the North and, in order to
prevent a civil war, he gives ALL his conquests to Cavour and goes home to grow
corn!
- So now
Northern Italy (w/exeception of Venetia and Rome) joins Southern
Italy.
- In
1866, through the Austro-Prussian war, Italy gets Venetia, and then, in 1870,
through the Franco-Prussian war, Italy sneaks in and takes Rome. Now Italy is
totally unified.
*German
Unification*
- The
process of German Unification began as early as 1834, when the Zollverein
(Prussian led economic union) was formed. Then in 1848 the Frankfurt
Assembly reinforced the concept of a united Germany. In 1861, Willhelm I mounted
the Prussian throne, and in 1862 Bismarck was appointed
PM.
-
Similarities to Italian Unification à events
not planned in advance (contrary to leader’s claims later on), industrialized
north and rural south, done piece by piece, done using Realpolitik, at first
leaders didn’t want/expect full unification, and big obstacle in both cases =
Austria.
- When
Willhelm I came to power in 1861, there was a big issue on military spending:
Willhelm wants $, Parliament doesn’t want more taxes. So Willhelm appoints
Bismarck, who collects taxes regardless (reminiscent of England w/Charles I).
But this time, b/c of the tradition of absolutism, the monarch won out and,
although Parliament was mad, it couldn’t do anything about it.
- Then,
in 1864 there is The Danish War in which Austria & Prussia fight the
Danish. This war originates when Danish want traditional German provinces of
Schleswig and Holstein. Naturally the Austrians and Prussians win, and Austria
gets Holstein while Prussia gets Schleswig at the Gastein Convention. It
has been debated whether or not this was a deliberate plan by Bismarck to start
war later – but no, b/c in, Austria made some exorbitant demands, but Bismarck
still didn’t go to war…
- Then in
1866 the Austro-Prussian (Seven Weeks) War starts. Bismarck instigates
this war by causing trouble in Holstein, the Prussians kick Austrian butts b/c
Austrians have out of date military technology and have to cope with all these
nationalist issues.
- Next in
1870 the Crisis of the Spanish Succession occurs. The question is the
next Spanish emperor (not this again). Bismarck proposes Leopold of Hohenzollern
(Will’s cousin), the Cortes like it, but France sure doesn’t. Willhelm backs
down at Ems, but he won’t promise to never do it again when Napoleon III
asks him to. Concerned, Will sends the Ems Telegram home to Bismarck
saying what happened, Bismarck changes a few choice words, releases it to the
press and voila – you have a war!
- So the
Franco-Prussian War is on. France is favored, but, once again, Prussia
totally wipes the floor with the French. Not only does Prussia win, but the
Prussians even force the French into unconditional surrender via the Siege of
Paris (not very pretty, people were eating their dogs and cats). Then, to
add insult to injury, the French pay a huge indemnity, have to give up
Alsace-Lorraine, and must watch Willhelm get crowned Emperor of Germany at
Versailles! What could be worse?
*Popular
Culture*
- The
thirty years before 1914 have now become known as the Belle Époque. In
this era, many Europeans came to share an urban life with plenty of
opportunities for entertainment.
- As new
attractions such as music halls became available to more and more people,
traditional games and festivals gradually became less important. In sports, many
traditional games faded away as cricket, soccer and rugby became more popular.
Sports games became important parts of mass culture.
- People
had more time for leisure due to the adoption of the English week (Sundays and
half of Saturdays off), and women also gained more opportunities to attend the
theater, etc.
- Since
people had more time to read, newspapers increased in circulation, now giving
more space to sensationalistic human-interest stories and less attention to dry
analysis of the news.
- There
were also more popular novels, and in wealthy nations, over 50% of the pop.
could read/write. But mass schooling was still limited to a few years in basic
subjects, and few poor could afford more.
*Women’s
Movements*
- From
the 1860s onwards, women had begun to organize in behalf of their interests.
Several types of women’s movements existed, including:
1. Led by
middle class women, most women’s movements were centered in charitable work and
education. Cautious in outlook, they spoke out against the social injustices
that caused millions of women to be subjected to terrible
poverty.
2. By the
1880s, the first type of movement had led to a more politically radical one that
was less geared towards protecting women and was more concerned with
equality.
3. Another
movement, led by the women’s trade unions, was mainly concerned about the
problems of pay and working conditions in the factories.
- Now,
most women in industrial countries were engaged in work for pay, although jobs
were still tied to gender. Women were paid less and were mainly forced to do
dull tasks or service work.
- Over
time, some new jobs spread to women – such as the jobs of secretaries, office
clerks, bookkeepers, and saleswomen in department stores.
- The
triumph of women in science, etc. was causing some change in the attitudes
towards women, although women still faced opposition from many people who felt
their place was in the home. By 1910, some progress had been made and most
nations had passed laws protecting women workers and increasing women’s rights:
they could control property, make decisions, and participate in civic life.
*The
Arts*
- In this
time, there was a new variety of artistic styles.
-
Naturalists à this
school believed that the artist had to show life exactly as it was w/careful
detail and research. This applied especially to the novel – Emile Zola
was the master of the school.
- A
common theme for this time was determinism, the belief that behavior was
predetermined through social circumstance and blood inheritance (influence of
Darwin).
-
Impressionism à during
this time the big new style was impressionism. Instead of attempting to capture
reality, impressionists showed “what the eye first sees” by using color, light,
and flattening the canvas. The big guys were Manet (the Manet Revolution,
he was really the first impressionist), Monet (yeah, the one who did the
paintings of the same pond 100 times), Renoir (focused on people scenes)
and Degas (also focused on people in their private moments). The
impressionists were into art for arts sake and made no political points
in their work (unlike romantics).
- Post
Impressionism à took the
next step and was even less realistic, didn’t even try to show reality at all.
The big people included Van Gogh (Starry Night, etc.), Paul Gaugin
(beginning of surrealism), and the Pointillists (one dot at a time,
led by Seurat).
-
Abstract Impressionism à really
an early 20th century movement, it was just pretty things, w/no correlation to
reality – “rhythmical arrangement of line and color” (Henry Matisse).
*Attacks
on Liberal Civilization*
- It
seems that now, finally, liberalism has won out, but it was still being attacked
from many directions during this era, especially during the fin de siecle
(1870 – 1914).
-
Radicalismà there
were several different types of working class/radical movements, most of which
were socialist, during this time. The different ones
included:
1. Marxism
à the most
common type, as most socialist parties in Europe were at least formally Marxist.
In 1864, a group of English labor leaders called an international conference in
London, and Marx decided to attend. Known as the First International, the
meeting was dominated by Marx (who kicked out people he didn’t agree with – for
example, the Blanquists). Marx had a big issue w/the Russian anarchist
Mikhail Bakunin, who supported nationalism (Marx hated it) and thought
Marx was too authoritarian. Although the First International died after 1872
(when Bakunin was expelled), it helped build a workers movement by spreading
Marxism. After this, most Marxist parties combined moderate policies w/exciting
slogans – they formed the Second International in 1889.
2. Revisionist
Socialism à similar
to Marxism except in the fact that they believed that, instead of a revolution,
the proletariat should take over through the democratization of the government,
the revisionist socialists gained power in politics.
3. Trade
Unions à trade
unions, sometimes known as Syndicalist Movements, also gained an avid
following. Skilled artisans often led these movements, but the greatest threat
was posed by the concept of the General Strike by the factory workers.
The concept of the general strike was proposed by Georges Sorel (who
wrote Reflections on Violence in 1908 and rejected bourgeois rationalism
in favor of violence to create political movements).
4. Anarchism
à there
were also anarchist groups, which were illegal and underground parties
specializing in random acts of violence – terrorism. Although not all anarchists
were bomb throwers (Prince Peter Kropotkin, for example, was gentle and
compassionate, but his idea of anarcho-communism didn’t catch on) all
anarchists hated established authorities.
-
Conservatism à rightist
movements revived during this time, gaining support among the aristocrats, rural
people, and member of the lower-middle class. They defended voting by class,
limited suffrage, and attacked the shallowness of middle class culture and
capitalism. Sometimes the right used nationalism and patriotism to gain support.
- The
Church à the
Christian religion greatly attacked the materialism and selfishness of modern
society. Both Protestants and Catholics often denounced the injustices of
society, but the Catholic Church was especially hostile towards liberalism. In
1864, Pope Pius IX issued a declaration that described the evils of
modern society (it denounced total faith in reason, state control, and stated
that the pope would not reconcile himself with liberalism) and in 1869 the
Vatican Council declared that the pope was infallible when speaking ex
cathedra. The battle between church and state was still going on during this
era, but, as time passed, the conflict became outmoded and both sides became
more cooperative as states turned their attention to the left instead. The
church also encouraged charity work – for example, in 1891 Pope Leo XIII
spoke out against social injustice and pushed for change.
-
Philosophy à some
philosophers of the time began to look beyond reason. They stated that humanity
was essentially irrational. For example, Henri Bergson believed that
human understanding arose from intuition, not reason, and felt that spontaneity
and creativity was key. Friedrich Nietzsche attacked everything about his
society: equality, democracy, nationalism, militarism, etc. and felt that
society’s only hope lay in being led by a few ubermench (supermen).
-
Charles Darwin à Darwin’s
discoveries, which made people appear to be more like animals and showed that
humans were irrational creatures controlled by nature, also undermined faith in
liberalism, a philosophy that was based on a belief in human rationality.
*Common
Domestic Problems*
- So,
although liberalism was under attack in a big way, it still survived, but not
without its share of issues and domestic problems, which were dealt
w/differently in each country.
- One
issue was suffrage – although the trend had become to increase suffrage, there
was a big debate over women’s suffrage. Also, each system had found its own way
to constrain democracy.
- Another
was the exact role of the state in areas such as social welfare (education,
housing, public health) and the economy. Special interest groups often lobbied
for gov’t support, and conflicts often arose when the gov’t was faced
w/competing interests – does this sound familiar? Hmm…
- So, as
governments gained responsibilities in social welfare, transportation, etc.
their bureaucracies (surprise, surprise) grew in size. Businesses also became
more bureaucratic, as did workers unions, political parties, and professional
associations. Though the large-scale organizations also had a stabilizing
influence, they made all the conflicts and social divisions larger scale
too.
- Another
issue was national identity: should certain groups be included in a nation’s
identity? This often led to major problems in which nations were split
apart.
*France’s
Domestic Policies*
- During
Franco-Prussian war, in the four-month Siege of Paris, a split broke out
between the right (which wanted to quit) and the left (wanted to fight like in
1792). The left won out, and established a radical Paris Commune, which
took over the city in 1871. They held out as out as long as they could (they ate
their dogs and cats), but the Germans still won.
- So,
France’s newly elected assembly went to meet at Versailles and agreed to peace
on German terms. Since the assembly couldn’t agree on a form of government (I
sense a pattern here), it compromised by making Adolphe Thiers chief of
the “Executive Power”.
- Now,
the Paris Commune people thought they were the people running the country
– and (you guessed it) a civil war breaks out. It is the republic national
government (led by Thiers) vs. the Paris Commune (led by Charles de la
Cruz – a Robespierre wannabe who is also known as the Incorruptible and also
wants the Republic of Virtue – what a copycat).
- The
Germans are happy to sit back and watch the French kill e/o – haha, they
say.
- May
1871 à the
“bloody week”. 25,000 people were killed in street fighting. Finally, the
insurrection was put down and the French Third Republic was born (1871 – 1940).
Although the people who wanted the republic were a minority, since the others
are so divided, they won!
- The
Paris Commune became this big Marxist legend of the Socialist Revolution.
- The new
Third Republic had a Chamber of Deputies (elected by direct universal male
suffrage) a Senate (elected by indirect suffrage through local officials) and a
president (which was weak). It was a regime of compromise. From 1879 to 1899, it
was lead by moderate republicans.
- There
were still plenty of problems: in 1889 General Georges Boulanger actually
became more popular than the politicians using nat’lism, and the leaders fear a
coup, but nothing happened. And in 1894, the whole Dreyfus Affair
occurred (bad for military, monarchists, and Church).
- Still,
things pulled together, and from 1900 to WWI the gov’t was in the hands of firm
republicans who purged the army of their opponents, attacked the church
(separated church and state in 1905) but still stayed pretty much moderate. The
prime minter from 1906 to 1909 was Georges Clemenceau.
*Germany’s
Domestic Policies*
- Until
1890, Bismarck totally dominated German politics. But then young William II,
eager to run the country and exasperated w/Bismarck’s complex policies, forced
his resignation.
-
Bismarck’s policies had allowed the court, army, bureaucracy and the big
businesses to accumulate tremendous amounts of power. His successors were faced
w/the challenge of holding the system together w/the demands of the public and
parliament. No easy job. They tried to mimic his foreign policy successes (big
mistake) and copied him in building up the army. There were big issues over
enlarging the army in 1887, 1893, 1898 and 1911 – 1913: each time the army got
bigger, the government relied more on nationalism, and society got more divided.
- The
government also attempted to appeal to the public by propaganda in the 1890s.
The Prussian Junkers and industrialists ran these campaigns that supported high
tariffs, imperialism and the military and attacked socialists, Jews and
foreigners. They won victories, such as the Naval Bill of
1898.
- The
government also extended many social welfare programs: social security, labor
arbitration, regulation of working hours, safety standards, etc. and built
railroads and stuff.
- Still,
the Social Democrats (socialist party) gained a lot throughout the 1890s and
dominated Germany’s labor unions. The SD’s remained firm revolutionaries (no
revisionism for them) choosing strict Marxism. The lines for battle, so to
speak, were clearly drawn in German politics.
- In
1909, the last peacetime chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, took
office. He tried to placate both the conservative court and the more radical
parliament. His programs for reform failed.
*Italy’s
Domestic Policies*
- Italy’s
liberal monarchy wanted to modernize while balancing the budget. But, since the
gov’t was totally corrupt and had very limited suffrage, it couldn’t win much
popular support.
- In the
1880s and 1890s, the prime minister Francesco Crispi tried to win popular
supported by policies like anticlericalism, a trade war w/France and imperialism
– but, instead, he angered people and had to resort to martial law to end a
protest movement among Sicilian peasants.
- Unrest
increased until riots reached revolutionary scale in Milan in 1898. The gov’t
restored order, but it took bloodshed and repression. Conservatives argued for
more oppression, but the Chamber of Deputies refused. Under Giovanni
Giolitti (prime minister from 1903 to 1914) the gov’t got more popular
support through acknowledging the right to strike, nationalizing railroads and
life insurance, sponsoring public health and supporting universal male suffrage.
-
Although there were still conflicts, Italy was industrializing at a rapid rate,
the war against Turkey in 1912 helped gain public support, and Italy was pretty
much set on a liberal track.
*Russia’s
Domestic Policies*
- Russia
had blocked reform for a generation, and it had become a totally backwards
country. When Alexander III came into power, he tried to achieve stability
through the Orthodox Church and police control of ideology. He game nobles a
greater role n local councils (the zemstvos) and gave governors
permission to use martial law to restrict non-Russian religions and languages
and persecute Jews.
- Then,
when Russia suffered a humiliating defeat at Japanese hands in the
Russo-Japanese war in 1904, the pressure for reform grew tremendously. The
Social Revolutionaries and the Marxist Social Democrats were both gaining
strength, and the liberal members of the zemstvos decided to hold an
illegal meeting in which they argued for civil liberties.
- In 1905
striking workers marched on the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to petition for
a constitution and labor unions. They were shot down by the army on “Bloody
Sunday” – which led to agitation so wide that in March the tsar promised to call
an assembly of notables and announced reforms of religious toleration, reduced
restrictions on non-Russians and Jews, and fewer payments for
peasants.
- This
was not enough. Urban strikes, peasant riots, etc. showed the country demanded a
constitution, and in August the tsar said he would consult the Imperial Duma.
- The
public wanted even more, and responded w/a wave of strikes so effective it
forced the tsar to issue the October Manifesto, which granted a
constitution.
- The
people who supported the constitution became known as Octoberists, more
liberal leaders became known as the Cadets (short for Constitutional
Democrats), and, further to the left, some socialists refused to compromise and
called for another general strike, which was only partially successful and whose
leaders were soon arrested.
- The
Fundamental Laws announced in May 1906 defined the new gov’t: the tsar
could still veto, name his ministers, command the executive, the judiciary, and
the army, and the nat’l legislature would have an upper house (half of whose
members were appointed by the tsar) and the Duma.
- Since
elections under this system brought the Cadets into power, Nicholas disbanded
the legislature and held new elections, which turned out more radical. So, he
passed a law favoring the upper classes.
-
Although the new system was somewhat corrupt, it was still workable and allowed
Russia to industrialize. The prime minister from 1906 – 1911, Peter
Stolypin, reformed education and administration and created full private
ownership of land and social insurance.
*Austria-Hungary’s
Domestic Policies*
- In
Austria-Hungary, politics had reached a stalemate, as the creation of the
autonomous regime in Hungary had touched off conflicts w/the rest of the empire.
Only the conservative instincts of the court, aristocracy, and the bureaucracy
stopped reform, and stopped the country from disintegrating through the ABC
Paradox (nationalist rebellions).
- From
1879 – 1893 Count Eduard von Taffe held office. Although Czechs and Poles
supported Taffe, he was forced to stick to inaction for fear of alienating his
other supporters. In response to worker’s agitation, Taffe proposed welfare
measures but repressed the socialists (making the left and the right mad). After
his fall, the gov’t relied more on support from the top, since universal male
suffrage (introduced in 1907) put the Christian Socialist and Social Democrats
in the lead.
- In
Hungary, the Magyars kept control through oppression and corruption of the
bureaucracy. They weakened the empire w/their independent policies. But, for
mutual survival, the leaders of both Austria and Hungary stayed away from change
and relied on imperial foreign policy to distract.
*Spain’s
Domestic Policies*
- From
1854 – 1863, a liberal coalition held power in Spain, and Spain experienced
economic growth and the beginning of industrialization. But this growth soon
brought new demands, and in 1868, the unpopular Queen Isabella II fled and
revolution ensued.
- The
revolution was led by political moderates who agreed on a constitution monarchy
w/universal male suffrage, trial by jury and freedom of religion and the press.
But, they couldn’t find a king, and finally had to settle for an Italian prince
who gave up after three years. The republic only lasted two more years until
Isabella’s son was reinstalled as Alfonso XII. Little change occurred
during his reign, and a parliamentary system based on limited suffrage did
little to reform the country.
-
Industrialization made everything worse, and, in Cuba, the gov’t was soon faced
w/guerilla war and was forced to withdraw. This led to more thought, but not
enough, for in 1909 the tensions resulted in a week of violence in Barcelona.
This was put down, and the moderate regime came back.
*England’s
Domestic Policies*
- In
England, the domestic issues were resolved through a two-party system.
William Gladstone transformed the Whigs into the Liberal Party, and
Benjamin Disraeli turned the Tories into the Conservative Party.
Gladstone supported increased suffrage and reform, and even sympathized with
radicals. Disraeli supported a simper suffrage reform bill, which was passed in
1867.
- The
larger electorate provided for in 1867 allowed the Liberals to dominate for six
years. The Liberals reformed education, the army, disestablished the Anglican
Church of Ireland and restricted the abuses of absentee landlords. When the
Conservatives returned in 1874, they expanded the authority of the state and
added social welfare bills. The Liberals then continued their support of
universal male suffrage, which was passed in 1885.
- But,
when Gladstone agreed to Irish home rule in 1886, his party split and some
Liberals (led by Joseph Chamberlain) allied w/the Conservatives, who took
over using imperialism.
- While
the Conservatives promoted British power abroad, they restructured local
government by making country councils elective and therefore more democratic
(1888, 1894) and extended the reforms of the civil service (in 1902 they got a
national education system w/secondary schools).
- But the
working class was still dissatisfied, and, in 1900, union representative and
intellectuals combined to for the Labour party, which was basically a democratic
socialist party. The Liberal and the Labour parties campaigned for social
programs that the Conservatives were against.
- In
1906, the Liberals won again, and they established programs of workers’
compensation, old-age pensions and urban planning. This (and the arms race) led
David Lloyd George to propose the “people’s budget” in 1909, which was
rejected by the House of Lords. But the king, who threatened to appointed more
peers, forced the upper house to consent to the budget and a change in the
constitution, which prohibited the Lords from vetoing money bills or anything
that passed three times.
- The
conflict led to an increase in social tension: there were more strikes and
violence, and there was a possibility of the dreaded general strike. And, when
in 1914 the Commons gave the Irish home rule, the Protestants of N. Ireland
threatened civil war.
- But,
the outbreak of WWI generated a wave of national unity, though the peace and
prosperity of the Edwardian era (1901 – 1910) was sacrificed in exchange.
*Foreign
Policy From 1870 to 1890*
- By
1870, all the major powers that would participate in WWI were in place. Their
foreign policies from 1870 to 1890 (end of Bismarck’s rule) would in many ways
set the stage for WWI.
-
England à the #1
power in Europe, by a lot. England had been the first to industrialize and it
was still well ahead (steel production, paper use, etc.) until 1890, when
Germany began to surpass it. England was the biggest imperial power, with India,
Canada, and its plans for the Cape à Cairo
railroad. It had the Suez Canal (which was its “lifeline” and it would protect
at all costs) as well. The English navy was also bigger than all the others in
the world combined! England’s only concern with Europe was for the balance of
power and nothing more – no peacetime alliances.
-
France à the #3
power in Europe. After the horrible mess of the Paris Commune and the Dreyfus
affair, the French Third Republic seemed solidly established. The main goal for
France was to regain control of Alsace-Lorraine (the “lost provinces”).
Consequently, they had a vendetta against Germany. In imperialism they were the
second place power with many African States and influence in China and Southeast
Asia. Also industrialized.
-
Russia à also the
#3 power in Europe. A totally backwards country that only freed its serfs in
1861, was not industrialized at all (b/c needed middle class and trade, which it
didn’t have). Russia’s goal was, as ever, the WWP (warm water port), which it
would need for trade. It wanted to get it on the Mediterranean, from Turkey,
which would be easily done if not for England, which wanted to maintain peace
near its lifeline, and kept stopping them. They could also get the WWP by
encouraging Pan-Slavism and, therefore, causing the disintegration of
Austria-Hungary, but this obviously causes serious issues with Austria-Hungary
(yea, they had issues).
-
Austria-Hungary à the #5
power in Europe. They are really, really scared of one thing: Slavic
nationalism, which is being encouraged by Russia (who they hate, surprisingly
enough). The deal between Austria and Hungary, incidentally, is that the Magyar
Hungarians and the Austrians are presenting an allied front against Slavic
nationalism.
-
Germany à the #2
power in Europe at the middle of the entire mess. Controlled by Bismarck,
Germany developed a huge (and confusing) system of peacetime alliances, all
based on their fear of a two front war – or that France, who hates them, might
find an ally.
*Bismarck’s
Alliance System*
- So it
all began with Germany’s well-justified fear of a two front war – France and
somebody else ganged up against Germany. But who could the someone else
be?
1. England?
– England
and France together would be a serious problem. Luckily for Bismarck, England
does not for peacetime alliances and won’t interfere unless the BOP is
threatened. So, all Bismarck has to do is make sure he doesn’t threaten England
– so no colonial possessions, don’t mess w/lifeline, no navy, etc.
2. Austria-Hungary
à a valid
possibility, especially as he beat Austria-Hungary in 1870, which humiliated
them.
3. Russia
à again, a
valid possibility.
- So, to
prevent the dreaded two front war, Bismarck had to befriend BOTH A-H and Russia.
There was one slight problem: due to the Pan-Slavism issue, A-H and Russia hated
e/o!
- In
1874, Bismarck formed the Three Emperors League, an understanding between
A-H and Russia.
- Then
another problem began to develop. The Ottoman Empire (now the sick man of
Europe) is in bad shape, and as Turkey controls the Balkans, which Russia wants
but A-H and England would defend, a war seems eminent.
- War
would be very bad for Bismarck, as it would bring the British onto the continent
to defend their lifeline, it would cause a war between A-H and Russia, and it
would ally France w/England.
-
Russo-Turkish War à the only
war where the winner is placed first! From 1876 to 1878, Russia wipes the floor
with Turkey – Turkey is collapsing, everyone is mobilizing (oh crap). So
Bismarck takes the initiative and quickly calls…
- The
Congress of Berlin à in 1878,
Bismarck presented himself as the honest broker (yea right) and pretty much ran
the session. He forced Russia to give back practically all its winnings – or
else it would have to fight with Germany – and sided w/A-H, but now Russia feels
betrayed and angry, and could possibly join France in a two front war! Also, all
the little Balkan states were made here.
- So, in
1879, Bismarck makes the Dual Alliance w/A-H, which becomes the Triple
Alliance in 1881 with the addition of Italy. Now his friendship w/A-H is
totally confirmed.
- Then he
goes to Russia and asks if Russia wants to bring back the good old Three
Emperors League, and Russia (who doesn’t know what to make of it all) says
sure, and it is recreated in 1881.
- In 1887
the TEL falls apart b/c Russia and A-H hate e/o too much, but Bismarck quickly
makes the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia (non-aggression pact) to prevent
two front war.
- So it’s
all good when Willhelm I has to go and die, bringing impatient and power-hungry
Willhelm II to the throne. Will II wants navy, colonies, and “Germany’s day in
the sun” and doesn’t want the complex alliance system. So in 1890, he fires
Bismarck (he never liked the old guy anyway)!
*Events
Leading Up to WWI*
-
Franco-Russian Alliance à when the
Reinsurance Treaty came up for renewal in 1890, Will II showed no desire to
renew it, so Russia knew that the Germans had chosen Austria over them.
Consequently, they formed an alliance w/France in 1894.
-
Entente Cordiale à then in
1904, England (gasp) actually made an understanding w/France, their longtime
enemies, b/c Germany was beginning to threaten them – it was building a navy,
competing for colonies, and being arrogant and obnoxious (Kruger
Telegram).
-
Moroccan Crisis #1 à in 1905,
the Germans decided to test the French/English understanding, and hopefully mess
it up, over an issue w/Morocco. France wanted special status there, and
announced it as their protectorate – Germany gets angry, sends ship, and calls a
congress. But at the congress, everyone but A-H sides w/France, and the F/E
alliance only gets stronger – so dumb move for G.
-
Triple Entente à which
leads to, in 1907, the Triple Entente, an informal coalition of France, England
and Russia. This comes about b/c after the Russo-Japanese war in 1907, England
no longer feels threatened by Russia b/c Russia has no more navy. Now, they can
all be friends.
-
Balkan Crisis #1 à a.k.a.
the Bosnian Annexation Crisis, this one was a biggie. Back in 1878 in the
Berlin Congress, A-H, which was getting nervous about the Balkan states, was
allowed to occupy Bosnia. Now, it suddenly decides it wants to keep Bosnia, but
it knows it must strike a bargain with Russia, which wants its WWP. So in 1908
Russia and A-H agree: Russia gets a WWP, and A-H can annex Bosnia w/o Russian
intervention. So A-H goes ahead and annexes Bosnia while Russia (to the surprise
of the Serbs) does nothing. Then Russia calls its congress on the WWP, all agree
except England and Germany, so A-H (figuring it won’t get it anyway if England
and Germany are against it) says nothing. Russia feels totally ripped off, and
is out to get Austria too.
-
Moroccan Crisis #2 à now,
France wants to annex Morocco. Talks seemed to be going well when the Germans
sent the gunboat Panther to a Moroccan port in 1911 and then asked for
all of the French Congo in exchange. Although there was an eventual compromise,
it heightened tensions.
-
Tripolitan War à in 1911,
Italy declared war on Turkey to get Tripoli, which it got
easily.
-
Balkan War #1 à seeing
Italy’s easy victory, Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece declared war on Turkey in 1912
and kicked the Turks butts.
-
Balkan War #2 à in 1913
(now it is a war per year), Serbia, Greece, Romania and Turkey went to war
against Bulgaria b/c Bulgaria gained too much land in the last war.
- Which
leads us to…
*The July
Crisis of 1914*
- On
June 28th, 1914 (another of those landmark dates), the Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary’s throne, was assassinated by a Serbian
terrorist from the Black Hand. A-H was outraged, and convinced a strong response
was necessary as they believed that the terrorists were affiliated w/the Serbian
gov’t (think Taliban and Al Queda).
- So
Austria-Hungary asked Germany what they should do, and on July 5th Germany
responded by saying A-H has Germany’s full support regardless – the “blank
check” – essentially saying to go ahead and kick the Serbians’ butts.
- On July
23rd, A-H gave Serbia an incredibly harsh ultimatum obviously designed to be
rejected and start a war and gives Serbia 48 hours to respond favorably to all
the demands. On July 25th, Serbia responded by accepting all but 2 of the
demands and asking for international mediation.
- On July
28th, A-H refused meditation and declared war on Serbia claiming demands weren’t
met.
- On July
30th, Tsar Nicholas II ordered a full mobilization against A-H and Germany, so,
on August 1st, Germany responded by declaring war on Russia and warning France
to declare its intentions in 48 hours or else. By August 3rd, France’s hours had
expired and Germany declared war on it.
- On
August 4th, the Germans asked the Belgians for permission to use their country
to get to France, Belgium refused, and Germany invaded, leading to the British
declaration of war on Germany the next day b/c of its violation of Belgium’s
neutrality.
- So that
is why they call it “stumbling into war” – was it stupidity or what?
*The
Causes of WWI*
- There
have been several different interpretation of what caused the war, beginning
w/the Treaty of Versailles, which blamed it all on Germany.
- Then,
in 1924, Sidney Bradshaw Fay and Henry Elmer Barnes challenged
that view and stated that war became inevitable and that the blame rested on all
the nations equally. Anyhow, they said, it was more A-H than Germany, as Germany
had tried to hold A-H back but it became too late. Britain should have declared
its intentions earlier, Serbian nat’lism started it, Russia was the key country
to mobilize and Germany was the last to mobilize – so, they said, it wasn’t all
Germany! The long-term causes (according to them) were: the alliance system, the
arms race, economic rivalry, imperialism and NATIONALISM. This view was so
convincing it became classic and led to the Treaty of Versailles not being
enforced – as they had said it was too harsh.
- In
1961, the German historian Franz Fischer actually reopened the question
and refuted the now classic view using German secret documents as evidence.
“Germany willed and coveted the Austro Serbian war,” Fischer said. Germany’s
motive was: worried about Russia (which was gaining power by the second) so knew
it had to hit now before it became too late, its ambitions for colonies and more
territory in Europe, and to distract the socialist menace at home.
*The
Course of the War*
- Okay,
pretty much, we don’t need to know this stuff, but there are a few noteworthy
battles. We won’t be asked about the other ones so who the heck
cares!
-
Generally what happened was that the Germans got close to Paris, where they were
stopped at the Battle of the Marne. There, both sides built miles of
parallel trenches – and from then on, it was just stalemate as in battle after
battle each side attempted to break through the enemies’ lines. At the Battle
of Verdun, where the Germans again tried to break through, it became
a total war of attrition, as no strategy seemed to work. The Battle of the
Somme was the allied counterattack, to no avail.
- The
Eastern front followed a similar pattern of stalemate – i.e. nothing happened
except they kept fighting and people kept killing e/o – please, what was the
point?
- The
main naval battle, the Battle of Jutland, was when the Germans tried to
break out of the British naval blockade, but they failed, and had to resort to
submarine warfare, which drew in the US.
- In the
end, it was US involvement that decided the fate of the war, as things had just
become dependent on who could be drawn in to provide fresh supplies and
men.
*The
Effects of the War*
- The war
strained the resources of each country to the max. It created national unity,
for a time, but it also caused great hardship. Supplies were lacking, women went
to work in the factories, there was disruption and dislocation, and Europeans
grew thinner and less fashionable (as the textbook says).
- The war
contributed greatly to the increased involvement of the government in society,
led to increased propaganda, and also to women’s liberation.
- Many
social customs faded out, and society became more open (at least for a time).
- There
was also a rapid development of new technology. Overall, however, the economy
was greatly hurt by the war, as world trade had been totally disrupted.
- And
then, of course, practically a whole generation of young men in every country
had disappeared.
*The
Peace Treaties*
-
Fourteen Points à the list
of US war aims, the Fourteen Points was a very idealistic treaty that wanted to
“make the world safe for democracy” – it supported nationalism, democracy, etc.
Wilson felt that oppression led to war, and that if oppression was stopped, war
would be stopped as well. Wilson supported the idea of colonies eventually
reaching independence, state lines being drawn by nationalism, and so
on.
-
Paris Peace Conference à in 1919,
all the winners met in Paris (where else?) to determine what the new Europe
would be like. Among the main players were:
1. Woodrow
Wilson à from the
US, Wilson is truly the honest broker here: he doesn’t really have any interests
except for promoting long term peace a la Fourteen Points.
2. Clemenceau
à from
France, all he wants to do is get Germany back for what they did. In 1870,
Clemenceau was the mayor of Paris (which explains a lot) so he now wants to
enact a Carthaginian peace: just to start, he is determined to kill the Kaiser
and dismember Germany.
3. Lloyd
George à from
England, LG is, as he said, “stuck between Jesus Christ and Napoleon” – although
he had to promise his country to kill the Kaiser and to make Germany pay, he is
not as psychotic (I mean exaggerated) as Clemenceau.
-
Treaty of Versailles à
surprisingly enough, they actually came up with a treaty! The Rhineland was
occupied for 15 years (or until the $ was paid) and permanently demilitarized,
France got Alsace-Lorraine (not even a point of contention), Germany lost all
its colonies, they added the Polish corridor, Germany had to pay billions of $
in reparations, and there was, to add insult to injury, the war guilt clause,
which said it was all Germany’s fault. At first, Germany refused to sign, but
they did after all. Also, the TOV established the mandate system.
*Influences
on Twentieth Century Culture*
- In the
twentieth century, small movements in new directions from prior decades became
dominant in many fields. Psychology, literature and art probed the irrational
and surreal.
-
Sigmund Freud’s discoveries had huge influence and implications. Freud
stated that the mind was divided into the unconscious, the subconscious, and the
conscious, and that people were driven by the id (instinctual urges
residing in the unconscious), which is controlled by the ego, which is
told to do so by the superego (conscience imposed by society). He also
found that all memories were kept, in some from, and that repression of memories
from the conscious mind led to neuroses. Freud invented psychoanalysis to
cure patients of their neuroses.
- From
Freud’s discoveries, many inferred that greater candor in society would lead to
a happier population (although Freud himself did not think so). Carl G. Jung
broke from Freud and developed a theory of the collective unconscious (a
common bond between whole peoples expressed in rituals).
*Movements
in Literature*
-
Surrealism à the
surrealists applied Freudian ideas directly and believed art had to penetrate
the subconscious. Both an artistic and literary movement, surrealism explored
inner thoughts and dreams.
- Other
writers, though not necessarily surrealists, explored human irrationality. For
example: Marcel Proust (who wrote Remembrance of Things Past and
focused on interior monologue and the expression of the narrator’s feelings),
Franz Kafka (who wrote descriptions of twisted fantasies), James Joyce
(who wrote Ulysses, which told a day in the life of the
average Dubliner on epic proportions) and Virginia Woolf (who was a
political activist and feminist w/A Room of One’s
Own).
- In
general, novelists turned away from the clear, chronological narratives of the
past and focused more on controversial issues and the exploration of dreams and
fantasies.
*Movements
in Art*
- In all
the arts, the new thing was to shock the audience by presenting absurd things,
etc. The Dadaists were excellent and this, and used their bizarre
routines to infuriate the proper Paris bourgeoisie. The Futurists in
Italy were obsessed with speed, and the Fauvres in France and the
Expressionists in Germany aimed to wildly break conventions.
- In
painting, the Cubists and Expressionists confused people with
their strange designs, often incorporating violence and amorality. This scared
most people.
*Movements
in Philosophy*
- The big
philosophical work of this time was by Oswald Spengler and was called the
Decline of the West. He treated civilizations as living organisms and
stated that WWI was the beginning of the end for Western Civilization. Jose
Ortega y Gasset was just as pessimistic in The Revolt of the Masses,
for he stated that the masses would use their rising power to destroy
civilization’s achievements.
- In
Principia Mathematica, Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead
stated that philosophers should only worry about things that were precise
and empirically demonstrable. Ludwig Wittgenstein agreed in his related
system of local positivism, and, in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus he
tried to limit though by insisting on symbolic logic. These new analytic
philosophers emulated science, and tried to get rid of any statements that did
not have a precise meaning. Philosophy became more specialized.
*Advances
in Science*
- By this
time, science had become incomprehensible to the average person. It became
increasingly specialized, and even though people generally knew the implications
of the theories, they did not really understand them. Many laws were overturned
during this time, as well.
-
Albert Michelson and Edward Morley in 1887 started one line of new
thinking by challenging the theory that the universe was filled w/a substance
called ether. Albert Einstein followed up on this (and then some) in his
Theory of Relativity, which stated that space and time were not absolute.
-
Physicists were also finding a new understanding of matter. In 1895, Willhelm
Roentgen discovered x-rays, and two years later J.J. Thomson proved
that the electron existed. Researchers like Pierre and Marie Curie
explored radioactivity and further proved the divisibility of the atom.
Ernest Rutherford followed up on this by associating radioactivity w/the
breakdown of big atoms.
- This
led to quantum physics, or the attempt to explain why Newton’s laws didn’t work
for subatomic particles. Max Planck challenged Newton in 1902 by showing
energy was emitted in quanta and had many properties of matter, and in 1919
Rutherford changed an atom by bombarding it w/subatomic particles. But they
could find no unified theory to explain the subatomic world.
-
Werner Heisenberg then came up with the Uncertainty Principle,
which stated they really couldn’t know anything for sure. By this time Newtonian
physics (in some cases) and the old conception of the atom had been thrown out
the window Science became ultra-complicated, and now there were no more
popularizers like Voltaire to make it understandable to everyday people.
- In
biology, advances were made in the study of heredity and in the isolation of
viruses (which led to new drugs like penicillin). In sociology, the big guys
were Emile Durkheim (who used statistics to analyze customs) and Max
Weber (the “ideal type”). They both were concerned w/the customs that held
society together and were concerned about what happened when group norms broke
down.
*Popular
Culture*
- There
were many new technologies (such as cars, radios, planes, etc.) and lots of
excitement in the 1920s. New and daring styles of architecture became popular,
as did advertising.
- The big
new thing was the movies. Movies took full advantage of the trend towards
distortion sin time and perspective. They also became super popular as well as
very profitable. All sorts of people, from the rich to the poor, attended the
movies, although movies became more specialized to each country with the
introduction of sound in 1929. Politics was sometimes there, too.
*The
Initial Revolution*
- After
1905, Russia was a constitutional monarchy. But, because only the upper classes
were allowed to vote, the conservatives pretty much dominated the Duma and
blocked reforms. When the war broke out in 1914, the Duma was suspended and Tsar
Nicholas II went to command the army. He left his wife (who was controlled by
insane Rasputin) to run the country.
-
Throughout 1916, discontent mounted to an almost intolerable level.
Transportation was poor, production low, war refugees were everywhere, there
were terrible food shortages – and, to make it worse, the peasants (who wanted
land) and the workers were already raging mad.
- So, in
March 1917 (called either the March Revolution or the February
Revolution), strikers filled the streets of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and,
led by the Soviet of Workers (a groups of workers) they joined with the Duma
committee and formed a provisional government. Nicholas II, who couldn’t count
on the army’s support, was forced to abdicate.
- The
provisional government was mainly moderate bourgeoisie (it was led by
Milyukov and the only socialist was Kerensky, who was a social
revolutionary and part of the Petrograd soviet) and it quickly established civil
liberties, gave political prisoners amnesty, and stopped religious persecution.
But, besides supporting the 8-hour-workday and ordering the abolition of class
privileges, it left the other social issues to the constituent assembly it
promised to call soon.
- The
revolutionaries were actually highly divided, for Russia had many revolutionary
parties, such as:
1. Cadets
à short
for constitutional democrats, they were the most moderate of the revolutionaries
and aimed for a liberal democracy.
2. Social
Revolutionaries à the SRs
were mainly concerned with the peasants.
3. Social
Democrats à were the
Marxists, but they were also divided between the Bolsheviks (Lenin’s group) and
the Mensheviks.
- The
Bolsheviks (led by Lenin) wanted a hard-core, ultra-organized revolutionary
group to be the vanguard of the revolution and they did not want to cooperate
w/the Cadets. The Mensheviks wanted a larger party of part time revolutionaries
and wanted to cooperate w/the Cadets.
*The
November Revolution*
- While
the first revolution occurred in Russia, Lenin, in exile in Switzerland, was
organizing his party and formulating a new version of Marxism. Lenin stated that
there was not going to be a spontaneous awakening of class consciousness
(instead, the only result would be “trade union consciousness” and becoming
middle class wannabes) and that an energetic party of revolutionaries was needed
to divert the proletariat and take them towards the real revolution.
- In
April 1917, however, the Germans (who hoped, since Lenin thought that WWI was an
irrelevant civil war between the capitalists, that Lenin would disrupt the war
effort) let Lenin back into Russia though a closed railroad car. He issued the
April Theses (a masterpiece of propaganda), which supported “Peace, Land,
and Bread” and “All Power to the Soviets”.
-
Meanwhile, the provisional government was collapsing. There were disagreements
over war policy and strikes. Kerensky became the leader, but his gov’t was
attacked from left (the Bolsheviks and their failed revolution in the July Days)
and right (the Kornilov Coup). Kerensky still focused on the war, and in
his attempt to get just one more great offensive (it never worked) he lost much
public support.
- Because
of the Kornilov Coup, Kerensky asked the left to help defend the gov’t, so all
the Bolsheviks were let out of prison. They won control of the Moscow and
Petrograd soviets, and Trotsky was elected president of the Petrograd soviet.
- On
November 6th, Lenin seized power in Petrograd and Moscow, and announced to the
Congress that the Bolsheviks held power and were taking control of the armies.
Although Kerensky tried to gain support, the armies were not interested in
fighting for him.
-
Congress approved a one-party cabinet: the Congress of Soviets replaced the
parliament; they elected a Central Executive committee, which advised the
cabinet. There was no real elected body – though elections were held for the
constituent assembly (otherwise it would appear that the Bolsheviks were afraid
of the results), it was dismissed after one day.
*Communist
Russia*
- First,
the Communists declared that land, livestock, and farm equipment belonged to the
state but could be temporarily held by peasants. They also stated that no
peasant was to work for hire, and that committees of the poor would supervise
the allocation of land. There would be worker’s committees controlling the
factories, and all ranks were abolished. People’s tribunals were established as
well.
- In the
next few months, everything was nationalized: railroads, banks, foreign trade,
etc. A new secret police, the Cheka was established as well.
-
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk à in
February 1918 Russia just stopped fighting, and in March Russia surrendered to
the harsh Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which forced Russia to surrender more than
one million square miles of territory to Germany. The communists tolerated the
harsh terms because they felt that a revolution would soon occur in Germany as
well.
- In
July, Russia was declared a federation and political power was given to the
local soviets, organized by occupation and elected by universal suffrage. The
soviets elected delegates, who elected more delegates, up until the all-Russia
Congress. The Communist party was not mentioned, but it really ran the show, for
its Central Committee elected the Politburo, which shared power with the Council
of People’s Commissars (but in reality it was all the Politburo).
-
Red/White Civil War à then,
from 1918 to 1921, there was a brutal civil war of Communists vs. Everyone Else.
Since the troops weren’t committed to fighting the Bolsheviks, the Red Army won
out, but at enormous cost (the policy of War Communism, which was
stealing food from the peasants to feed the cities, caused agriculture to drop
to 1/5th of its former level). After the civil war, there was the Communist-run
Red Terror.
- Then,
rising discontent caused Lenin to introduce the NEP (New Economic
Policy), which is Bukharin’s pet project. The NEP is basically a retreat
back to capitalism (private enterprise was encouraged, only enterprises with 60+
people were state-run, peasants allowed to grow and sell their own grain). IT
WORKS!
*Stalin’s
Rise to Power*
- So all
is going well until Lenin gets a stroke in 1923. Now there is a power vacuum in
the party, and all five other members of the Politburo wonder who will fill it.
The candidates are:
1. Leon
Trotsky à
commander in chief of the army, and secretary of state.
2. Gregory
Zinoviev à leader
of the Comintern (spreading the Rev to other countries).
3. Les
Kamenev à chief of
staff.
4. Nikolai
Bukharin à chief of
propaganda (a little more conservative, NEP).
5. Joseph
Stalin à
considered by far the least talented, not a great thinker or speaker, did
nothing during the Revolution or Civil War. So, he is made the Secretary of the
Party.
- They
see the parallels to the FR, and they are all wondering who Napoleon will be.
Everyone thinks it will be Trotsky who they dislike as he joined the party late
and is not trusted.
- So
Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev form a STOP TROTSKY movement. They also form a
Lenin Cult (a Cult of Personality), which turns Lenin into a God of Communism.
Trotsky hates this, since he knows Lenin wasn’t infallible. But Stalin and co.
use the Lenin Cult to prove all the times that Trotsky was supposedly wrong
(whenever he disagreed with Lenin).
- On his
deathbed, Lenin realizes what Stalin is doing and writes in his will that Stalin
should be expelled. But when they open the will, Kamenev and Zinoviev leap to
Stalin’s defense and say (believe it or don’t) that this one time Lenin
made a mistake, and vote to suppress the will and win.
-
Meanwhile, several ideological debates continue:
1. NEP vs.
Collectivization à while
Bukharin wants to keep the NEP permanently, Trotsky wants to start
collectivization (instead of small private farms, big state run farms). Stalin
sides with Bukharin as a pretext to attack Trotsky.
2. Permanent
Revolution vs. Socialism in One Country à since
Trotsky wants to spread the Revolution throughout Europe, Stalin states he wants
to focus on Russia.
- By
1925, Trotsky is forced to step down from the army (he could have pulled a coup
d’etat, but he hated dictatorship, as it was against his principles) and is
exiled by 1927.
*Russia
Under Stalin*
- A new
term, totalitarianism, was invented to describe Stalin’s control over
Russia (and Hitler’s over Germany, etc.). Stalin controlled everything:
education, propaganda…
- In the
1920s he made his enemies look bad in the history book, and then in the 1950s he
wiped them out of the books altogether. He assassinated Trotsky in Mexico City
to prevent him from telling the truth about the oppressive nature of his regime.
- After
eliminating Trotsky Stalin moved against Kamenev and Zinoviev. He kicked them
out of the party and replaced them with loyal supporters. In 1927, Stalin
attacks Bukharin and proposes collectivization (as his own idea, of course).
Bukharin (finally) gets the idea. Then in 1928, Stalin proclaims that he is “the
Lenin of today” and turns himself into a living God of Communism. A new Cult of
Personality is born.
-
Collectivization à a.k.a.
the First Five Year Plan (1928 to 1932). Peasants were forced off their land or
whole villages were destroyed. Then, they were forced onto state run farms.
Although it was absolutely brutal, it worked! Industry grew tremendously. Still,
agriculture declined.
- Then,
Stalin began a series of purges after the assassination of Serge Kirov (a
popular Stalinist who was actually killed on Stalin’s orders as a pretext and
also b/c he was becoming too popular). He used the NKVD – in a series of show
trials he had all the old Bolsheviks (anyone who was around at the Revolution)
“confess” to crimes against the state – Bukharin, Zinoviev, all the army
officers, etc.
- The
twentieth century gave rise to several new forms of government. While in Russia,
people turned to Communism during and following World War I, in Italy and
Germany, people turned to another form of government known as Fascism.
- Like
the Communists, the Fascists were a misery party (popular during times of
widespread suffering or economic depression that left the mainstream parties
looking inadequate). Although the Communists and Fascists were sworn enemies,
they were actually pretty similar. Or at least that is how it turned out when
looking at the Soviet regime.
-
Fascists had no exact ideology (there was no Fascist Karl Marx to write it out)
and, unlike Communism, it was not an intellectual movement (in fact it was
anti-intellectual). The Fascists just ripped off the ideas of other people, like
Nietzsche or Sorel’s Reflections of Violence and used them for their own
purposes.
- The
Fascists tended to glorify violence, think of the welfare of the state, and
ignore the rights of the individual. Fascists stressed nationalism and
militarism, and the end goal of their regimes was to have a dictatorship that
embodied the spirit of “the people”. Fervent love for the state and not thinking
(let propaganda think for you) was encouraged in Fascist regimes as well.
*The Rise
of Fascism in Italy*
- After
WWI, Italy was definitely looking for a misery party: unemployment rates were
high, there was a lot of inflation, and there was talk of revolution. Peasants
were stealing land, and striking workers and angry industrialists were
struggling for control. The upper classes feared a Communist rebellion, social
issues had not been addressed, and the peace treaty had made people mad.
- During
this time the first Fascist movement was born. Led by Benito Mussolini,
the Fascists denounced liberalism using leftist rhetoric and denounced Marxism
b/c of its lack of nationalistic sentiment. They effectively used propaganda and
activists (black shirts) to spread their message.
- At
first the Fascists were not very successful. In 1921, during the first elections
with universal male suffrage, two new parties (the Catholic Popular,
which demanded reforms but was based on peasants and conservatives and the
Socialists, who split off from the Communists) rose to power. The
Fascists won 35 seats, and were included in the prime minister Giolitti’s
personal coalition.
- But
instead of just operating by the rules, the Fascists used their black shirted
activists to plant bombs, beat up other parties, disrupt meetings, and scare
people.
- Then,
when the left wing unions called a general strike in 1922, the Black Shirts
started to take over town councils by force. In October, they staged a march on
Rome. Parliamentary leaders woke up after a while, called for martial law, but
the King (Victor Emmanuel III) refused. Mussolini reached Rome, where he was
invited to form a cabinet by the King.
- So
Mussolini became the prime minister, and his party won a huge victory in the
elections of 1924 b/c of his techniques of intimidation and fraud. Then he began
terrorizing the opposition and shooting their leaders. The opposition was unable
to respond effectively b/c they were so divided.
*Italy
Under Mussolini*
- By 1925
Mussolini had gotten rid of all his opponents and gained control of the press.
He then moved to make his power official by passing a series of law that
declared the Duce (leader) of Fascism the head of state w/the right to govern by
decree. Opposition parties were outlawed, opponents arrested and the civil
services and judiciary branches were purged of any people thought too
independent.
- During
this time, Mussolini’s immense propaganda machine created a Cult of Personality.
Italians were told to obey the leader and to fight for their country, and were
filled with nationalistic pride and confidence. The single-party government
reached into every aspect of Italian life. Armed with a militant secret police,
the Fascist party kept tight control on the country and soon won thousands of
new supporters.
- The
Fascists didn’t really have a consistent ideology or policy, but they did
establish the Corporate State in Italy. In the Corporate State, each
sector of production was supposed to be organized into a huge corporation. Each
corporation was headed by a party member appointed by the government, and was to
establish the policies for the industry and wage scales.
- By
1926, they were able to outlaw strikes and unions b/c of the corporate system.
They fixed the number of corporations at 22, and the Duce was made president of
each of them. He also appointed the Council of Delegates (who sat in the
National Council of Corporations) for each corporation. Consequently, the
corporations never achieved any real autonomy and had no power.
- Italy
never became as orderly as Mussolini promised, but freedom and individual rights
were destroyed. Although a quiet intellectual opposition was allowed, thousands
of people were exiled or killed for opposing the government.
- In
economics, the Fascists sought autarchy (a self-sufficient national
economy) and were into industrialization and technology. The government didn’t
mind big business but generally favored nationalization. In 1926, they began a
big campaign to increase agricultural production, which led to a doubling in
grain production.
- The
government attempted to keep peasants on the land and increase the birthrate,
but neither campaign was effective. They were, however, able to stop the Mafia
in Sicily, drain the marshes near Rome, and build railroads and superhighways.
They used these public works programs to combat unemployment, and this (and the
benefits of the new things built) gave people a sense of security.
-
Mussolini’s biggest achievement was his agreement with the Vatican, known as the
Lateran Agreement (1929). In the agreement, Mussolini recognized Vatican
City as an independent state, established religious teaching in public schools,
guaranteed that marriage laws would conform to Catholic doctrine, promised to
restrict the Protestants and promised to give the Church money to pay for the
damage done during Italian unification. The agreement favorably disposed the
Church (and many Italian Catholics) towards Mussolini.
*Germany
after World War I*
- After
World War I, Germany had a democracy known as the Weimar Republic. It was
headed by a President (w/a 7 year term) who oversaw the country but didn’t make
day-to-day decisions. The President could call new elections at any time. The
Chancellor (elected from the majority party in the Reichstag) ran the country.
The Reichstag (Parliament) was formed through direct elections where people
voted for a party (not for people) and the % of votes a party received was the %
of the seats the party got.
- Since
the Chancellor came from the majority party, if there was no majority party, the
President was allowed to appoint a Chancellor. There were three (really two)
types of Chancellor:
1. Parliamentary
Chancellor à the
Parliamentary Chancellor could suggest laws, but the laws had to be passed by a
majority vote of the Reichstag.
2. Presidential
Chancellor à the
Presidential Chancellor could declare laws by decree unless a majority of the
Reichstag vetoed them. To stop a Presidential Chancellor, there would have to be
a “negative majority” in the Reichstag.
3. Temporary
Dictator à the
Constitution also allowed for a “temporary dictator” in times of emergency if
2/3 of the Reichstag agreed.
- At
first, the Weimar Republic had a really rough time. The Republic’s first act on
November 11, 1918 was to agree to an armistice (which was really a
surrender). This armistice was seen as the first failure of the Weimar
Republic.
- After a
war that had totally exhausted the country, it was really hard for Germany to
bear defeat. The army consequently made up a myth about being “stabbed in the
back” by people inside Germany. According to them, it was the left-wing
politicians (also Jewish people) that caused their loss.
- During
this time President Hindenburg and Chancellor Ebert ran the country. The
democracy seemed on the right track, even though the SPD (Socialists) had made a
horrid deal with the army, which led to the brutal murder of the Spartakus Band
(ancestors of the KPD: Communists). After this, the KPD had no leaders (and was
controlled by Moscow) and the left was forever divided.
- In
1920, there was the Kapp Putsch, in which the right-wing extremist army
officers seized Berlin. Although the army would not fire on them, they were
eventually forced to withdraw by the left-wing labor unions. This contributed to
the instability of the time.
- Then in
1923 came horrible ultra-inflation! Caused by the French occupation of the Ruhr
(industrial heartland) b/c when Germany fell behind in paying the reparations
that French seized the German factories, the German workers went on strike, and
then, when the gov’t decided to pay the French, money became worthless. This was
horrible for people: all their savings disappeared – and was seen as the second
failure of the Weimar Republic (it wasn’t their fault though).
- Then on
November 8/9, 1923, the Beer Hall Putsch occurs, led by General
Ludendorff and Hitler (unknown at the time). It fails miserably, but Hitler gets
nat’l press coverage, gets out of jail after a really short time, and learns
that legality is the way to go (working though the gov’t to destroy
it).
- From
1925 to 1925, though, the Republic does really well! The economy is OK, led by
Gustav Stresemann (foreign minister) Germany gets admitted into the
League of Nations and is back in the international community. Moderate parties
are doing well, not the Nazis.
- But
then in 1929 w/the Great Depression everything collapses. Since Germany
is dependent on US $, when the US economy crashes so does the German, only
worse. Now the “misery parties” begin to come into their
own…
*The Rise
of Fascism in Germany*
- One
party that made a spectacular rise with the onset of the depression (along with
the KPD and SPD) was the Nazi party, led by Adolph Hitler (who took it
over when he found it on a spy job and changed it from a pretty harmless
“everyman” party to an insane militaristic one).
- The
Nazis attacked democracy, advocated war against Germany’s enemies (Jews,
Communists, other nations, etc.) and had the SA (a street army of brown-shirted
storm troopers), the SS (an elite group in black uniforms who were bodyguards
and special police), and propaganda to spread their message.
- With
the depression and the failure of the Republic to solve the problems plaguing it
(what could it do?) the Nazis, with their calls for rearmament and stopping the
Communists, became more popular.
- Because
of the depression, in 1930 the coalition government of Social Democrats resigned
and the Center party (led by Bruning) took over. Hindenburg allowed the
new government to enact measures by decree, but this didn’t help b/c there was a
negative majority so nothing could get done.
- Since
the 1930 election gave the Nazis more seats Hitler ran for president in 1932
(though he knew he would lose against Hindenburg). He lost, but he got lots of
press coverage, etc. Hindenburg then picked a new chancellor Franz von
Papen (the moron).
- Papen
tried to gain Hitler’s support by (stupidly) lifting the bans on the SA and SS
and tried to form a right-wing coalition. But it didn’t work, Hindenburg called
another election, and the Nazis gained! But Hindenburg (who didn’t like Hitler)
still didn’t name him chancellor, picking Von Schleicher.
- Now
Papen (who wanted to get back into power) told Hindenburg to appoint Hitler the
head of a coalition government (the only way to stop the negative majority). He
did so on the terms that: there would be no other Nazis in the cabinet, and
every time Hitler met w/him Papen would be there too.
- Papen
thought he could use Hitler, but the joke was on him – it was the other way
around. Again being underestimated is a big advantage (think Napoleon). Hitler
takes the deal in 1933. Almost immediately, he called another election, and
through cheating, the Nazis won an even bigger majority.
- Then
(lucky for Hitler) the Reichstag building was set on fire. Hitler blamed it on
the Communists, declared a state of emergency (which allowed him to issue all
these special laws that ended individual freedoms) and then after the
election outlawed the KPD so he would get a majority!
- But he
still didn’t have the 2/3 majority needed to become a dictator. So he sucked up
to the Center party and made all these promises to them (yea right) and was then
able to pass the Enabling Act, which gave him, as chancellor, the right
to enact all laws w/o the Reichstag for four years.
*Germany
Under Hitler*
- First
Hitler moved to consolidate his power by sending all his opponents to
concentration camps or putting them in exile, etc. By July he outlawed all other
parties and destroyed the opposition, and by November he had restructured the
government and purged the civil service and judiciary, outlawed strikes, and
controlled the press (sound familiar – think Mussolini).
- Then in
June 1934 he got rid of all the other leaders of the party and any opposition
leaders who were left in the Night of the Long Knives (also done b/c of
an agreement w/the army which stated that in return for never allowing the SA to
take them over, the army would swear oaths of allegiance to him and allow him to
become President too). When Hindenburg died in August, he declared himself
Fuhrer (uniting the Presidency and Chancellorship) and supported the
decision through a vote.
- Then,
the federal states lost their autonomy (gleichschaltung – coordination)
and all gov’t employees were made appointees of Hitler. New courts were
established, strikes were outlawed (the National Labor Front directed all
concerns) and the Gestapo (secret police) infiltrated all levels of society.
- In
economics, they were very successful. Public works projects lowered unemployment
to a tolerable level, and the gov’t used deficit spending to restore the
economy. To pay for this, a system devised by the brilliant economist Hjalmar
Schacht required that payments for foreign trade be made w/$ whose value
changed according to the products and nations involved (pretty much barter).
This increased Germany’s self-sufficiency, but in the end they paid by printing
more $.
- During
this time, propaganda advertised the benefits of the new government. Women were
presented as subordinate members of the family (meant for breeding more Aryans).
Also, Hitler sucked up to the army by pushing rearmament and gained more direct
control of different branches of the government, such as the foreign services.
- To deal
w/the church, Hitler made a concordat with the Vatican in 1933, which gave the
state a voice in the appointment of bishops but assured the Church of its
authority over Catholic orders and schools. Protestants were given the
Evangelical Church under a bishop appointed by Hitler (although many left when
the bishop said he would “Aryanize” the church and formed the Confessional
Church). Most clergy cooperated w/the state, the ones who resisted were
arrested.
- Then
there was anti-Semitism. In 1935, the gov’t codified its anti-Semitic beliefs in
the Nuremberg Laws and then added many other horrible laws to oppress the Jewish
people. In 1938 Kristallnacht occurred after a Jewish boy murdered a
German diplomat: Jews were beaten and murdered and their property was destroyed.
Gypsies were also attacked.
*Authoritarian
Regimes in Central Europe*
- By
1929, in Central Europe, authoritarian regimes had taken over Hungary, Spain,
Albania, Portugal, Lithuania, and Yugoslavia, and by 1936 liberties had also
been suppressed in Romania, Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Greece.
- For the
most part, the new regimes were conservative, Christian and anti-communist, and
are sometimes called semi-fascist. The only exception to the rule was
Czechoslovakia, which was a democratic republic with free enterprise led by
Thomas Masaryk (a brilliant statesman).
*1933-1935:
The Nightmare Begins*
-
Beginning in 1933, foreign policy leading up to the war was slowly approaching
the inevitable. All the players could see it coming, but many still attempted to
prevent it. Remember, just like the escalator descending into the mess below:
you can’t turn around and you can’t run away.
- In
1933, Hitler comes to power. As he still has not secured his position in Germany
his only move is to drop out a disarmament conference (not very
nice).
- By 1934
Hitler has consolidated his position in Germany and is ready to begin his
aggressive foreign policy. His first move is very strange and surprising: he
forms a 10-year non-aggression pact with Poland (obviously no intention of
living up to it, does it to give people a false sense of security).
- In 1934
his only foreign policy flop occurs: his attempt to create the anschluss
(union of Germany and Austria) through a Nazi putsch in Austria fails. He
was stopped b/c Mussolini (then allied w/Austria and not friends w/Germany)
threatened to invade.
- Then
came 1935, a big year. On March 9 (Saturday Night Special) Hitler
announces he will build an air force. There are no protests. On March 16
(SNS) he announces that Germany will build a navy and a ½ million man army.
France freaks, asks England what to do, English protest, so Hitler promises
Germany will never have more than 35% of the English navy. The English agree in
essence throwing out the Treaty of Versailles. Also in this year Italy invades
Ethiopia and gets kicked out of the League of Nations. Hitler congratulates him
(suck-up).
*1936-1937:
Things Get Worse*
- In
March 1936, Hitler tells his Generals that he wants to remilitarize the
Rhineland (breaking the Versailles Treaty and Locarno Pact, which was signed
freely and says if single German soldier there then it will be considered a
Germany invasion). Even Generals think this is going too far (the French will
lose it, they warn) but Hitler insists, though he says if single French soldier
attacks they will turn around. France springs into action and asks England, who
says let them have it (!) so in one fell swoop they gain back the entire
Rhineland. How stupid could they be?
- Also in
1936, the Spanish Civil War breaks out. In it the
Loyalists/Republicans (liberals, socialists, communists, etc.) fight the
fascists (army and Franco). Hitler and Mussolini send equipment and
troops to the fascists, France asks England what to do, England says stay out so
they do. During this time, Hitler and Mussolini form the Axis Alliance
(axis of evil). The only person, ironically enough, defending the
Republicans was the USSR (Stalin) so the gov’t got labeled as Stalinist. In
1939, Franco won but refused to join the Axis in WWII although he hoped they
would win.
- Nothing
big happens in 1937, but Hitler does call a secret meeting of his advisers
(known now through secret documents captured) and says he wants a war of
conquest between 1938 and 1943. The advisers who objected were kicked out. The
meeting was called the Hossbach Protocol. Also, during this time the
English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (a.k.a. the moron) introduced
(though he had already been using it) his policy of appeasement – give
them what they want anything is better than war – and he replaces people who
don’t support the policy w/those who do.
*1938: A
Horrible Year*
- Now the
big issue (again) is the Anschluss but this time Mussolini is Hitler’s
ally and will not support Austria. Hitler wants a full German nation (finish
what Bismarck started). So he has Nazis go to Austria and has the SA start
making trouble. When the SA riots are put down, Hitler says that the German
people are being persecuted.
- Then in
November the Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schussnig (“no Anschluss for
Schussnig”) banned the SA/SS. Hitler freaked and threatened him, forcing
him to lift the ban and put Nazis as heads of police and army. Now the Nazis can
hold all their rallies and beat people up.
- As a
last resort, Schussnig calls a plebiscite on the Anschluss but Germany mobilizes
and at the last minute Schussnig calls off the vote and resigns. So in March the
new Nazi “chancellor” (he appointed himself) invites the German army in to “put
down disturbances” (which they caused) and Austria falls to Germany.
- Then,
Hitler decides he wants the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. He uses the tactics
he used w/Austria but in May the Czechs mobilize and he can’t respond, so it
looks like he backed down (oh the humiliation). Hitler is so mad he declares:
“If I don’t have Czechoslovakia by October 1, WAR!” at least to his generals.
-
Remember, Czechoslovakia is the Versailles success story: the only democracy
that works, w/a strong economy, great border defenses and a well-trained army.
It is allied w/Yugoslavia, Romania, France, England, and the USSR. If Germany
invaded it would lose.
- On
September 15, Neville Chamberlain goes to Berlin and talks to Hitler, who
says he wants the SDL (“last territorial demand”). NC goes home, tells Daladier
(France) and the Czechs they should let him have it. A week later, NC goes back
and finds out Hitler now wants ½ of Czechoslovakia by October 1. Everyone is
preparing for war (remember how much easier it would be to defend Czechoslovakia
than Poland) but then Mussolini chickens out and calls
the…
-
Munich Conference (9/29/38) à Hitler,
Chamberlain, Daladier and Mussolini (no Russia or Czechoslovakia) meet. Germany
gets everything it wants: ½ of Czechoslovakia as protectorate, all
fortifications and stuff there, etc. By 1939 he has taken all of
Czechoslovakia.
*1939:
War Begins*
- Now he
wants Poland. Although he had a better claim to Poland, the West wakes up (it’s
about time, folks) and realizes Hitler doesn’t just want to conquer German
people – hey he wants to conquer all of us! So, they decide to back
Poland.
- By
August everyone knows war is coming, but Hitler has one last trick up his
sleeve: a non-aggression pact w/Stalin! Of course he is only thinking for the
short run to avoid the two front war. Stalin is thinking the West wants the USSR
and Germany to mutually eliminate e/o by not supporting him against Hitler. He
doesn’t want this to occur. Stalin and Hitler also make a deal to split Poland.
- On
September 1, 1939 the war begins through a phony invasion of Germany by
“Poland” (really the Germans in Polish army suits). Appeasement is finally over.
*The
Course of the War*
- So on
September 1, 1939 the war began over Poland. Britain and France gave Hitler 48
hours to evacuate Poland and on September 3 major war began. Poland was beaten
in a really short time by the German tactic of Blitzkrieg.
- Then
the so-called “Phony War” began. For six months neither side made any big moves
on land b/c they didn’t want to waste troops and make the mistakes of WWI. This
break was ended when the Germans attacked on the Western front on May 10, 1940.
- At the
same time, Russia was fighting Finland b/c Stalin wanted Finnish territory for
defensive purposes against his “ally” Hitler. Finland wasn’t too hot on the
idea, Stalin wanted to rush in and kick their butts, but it proved to be harder
than expected as the Finns held the Russians back for weeks. Finally the
Russians won (they had more people). Hitler (and Stalin who then reorganized the
army) realized the Russian army was in bad shape.
-
Meanwhile the Germans were wiping out one country after another: France fell in
six weeks, as did Belgium and the Netherlands. Italy joined the war on Germany’s
side, so the British were the last ones left against Hitler. Their fate was
decided by the Battle of Britain, which was an air battle in the summer
of 1940. Luckily, the British won out using their radar technology and the
Germans turned their sights to (just like
Napoleon)…Russia!
-
Hitler’s attack on Russia totally surprised Stalin, and the Germans were kicking
the Red Army’s butt. Millions of Russian troops were killed or captured (sent to
Germany to be slaves). But they still couldn’t capture Moscow or Leningrad. Then
on December 6, the Russians suddenly counterattacked the Germans at Moscow
(troops were in reserve for fighting the Japanese).
- Then on
December 7, Pearl Harbor. The US declares war on Japan, and then Germany
declares war on the US (really stupid move, they were just asking for it).
- The
German army was barely surviving the Russian winter. Their plan was to capture
the oil fields in the southern USSR. The crucial battle to get there was the
battle of Stalingrad (if the Germans did not win there would always be the
threat of a Russian attack). This is the decisive battle and both sides knew it.
- In
November 1942, the Red Army was able to surround the Germans at Stalingrad and
they are cut off. Hitler does not allow his troops to retreat, but by January
1943 remaining troops surrender. Now it is just a chase heading back to Germany
with the Russians pushing the Germans out.
- Things
go from bad to worse for the Germans and Germany surrenders unconditionally on
May 8, 1945 (VE Day). Hitler had killed himself (4/30/45) to avoid being
captured by the Russians.
- The
other WWII fronts included:
1. North
Atlantic
à Allies
were battling U-boats to ensure that they would be able to attack Europe from
Britain.
2. North
Africa
à British
and Americans against Rommel’s Afrika Korps, Axis driven out in 1942. Then
Americans were told to go after Italy, which was stupid.
3. Italy
à
Americans land there and take over Sicily, so the Italians get rid of Mussolini
and surrender. But then Germany took over Italy and continued the war there to
great effect as they kept lots of Allied troops busy and accomplishing
nothing.
4. France
à Because
of the Italy campaign the invasion of France was delayed until 1944. Then D-Day
was on June 6, 1944. Led by Eisenhower, the allies caught the Germans by
surprise and moved across northern France. They met up with the Russians in
central German in March 1945.
- Then
the war with Japan continued for a while until, after the atomic bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese surrendered unconditionally on September 2,
1945 (VJ Day).
*The
Aftermath of the War*
- After
the war, all of Europe was in shambles. Major cities had been destroyed as a
result of bombing, industry was really messed up, there were refugees
everywhere, etc.
- There
was no big peace conference after WWII, but along the course of the war several
meetings of the allies had helped decide policy:
1. Casablanca
à In 1942
FDR and Churchill met and agreed that their goal was to be unconditional
surrender, only.
2. Teheran
à In 1943
FDR and Churchill met and promised to start a second front in
France.
3. Yalta
à In 1945
FDR, Churchill and Stalin met. This meeting was important for it is often
considered the beginning of the cold war. At Yalta, it was decided to divide
Germany into 4 zones (US, USSR, British, French) and Berlin into zones as well.
The Allies decided to occupy and demilitarize Germany. Since US didn’t have bomb
yet it was thought Japan war would go on for several years, so the US wanted
USSR support and got it in exchange for Russia getting the land it lost in the
Russo-Japanese war. It was agreed Eastern Europe would have free elections but
the governments would have to be “friendly” to the USSR.
4. Potsdam
à After
the war was over, in July 1945, the Allies met and outlined the future of
Germany. The borders in Eastern Europe were changed a little and the zones of
occupation in Germany were established. They also worked out terms of peace
w/Japan.
- Then
there were a series of trial, the Nuremberg Trials, which tried the Nazi
war criminals in 1945 and 1946. Several international agencies, including the
United Nations, were created after WWII. Mainly, after WWII, there was an era of
slow (but steady) recovery helped by the US. Of course, there was also the
threat of the Cold War.
à The
Thirty Years War and the Wars of Religion in France
à The
Napoleonic Era and the Congress of Vienna
à Post
WWII Europe: The Cold War and European Recovery
I got too
lazy! My apologies. Also, sorry for any typos, etc.
© Susanna
Heinz 2001