Download AP EH CHAPTER 23 NOTES---Mass Society in an “Age of Progress

AP EH CHAPTER 23 NOTES---Mass Society in an “Age of Progress” (1871-1914)
II.
THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRIAL PROSPERITY
A. New Products and New Markets
1. the 2nd Industrial Revolution saw the advent of steel as it
replaced iron as the “go to” metal of choice
2. between 1860 and 1913, steel production went from a
combined 125,000 tons to 32,000,000 tons combined in Great
Britain, France, Germany, and Belgium
3. Germany began to replace Britain as Europe’s industrial
leader by the early 20th Century largely due to its
development of new areas of manufacturing including
chemicals and heavy electric machinery
4. electricity was the energy source that powered the 2nd I.R.
a. American Thomas Edison invented the light bulb
b. American Alexander Graham Bell invented the
telephone
c. Italian Guglielmo Marconi sent the first radio waves
across the Atlantic
5. the first internal combustion engine burning a mixture of gas
and air was produced in 1878
6. the internal combustion engine would lead eventually to the
development of both the automobile and the airplane
7. the growth of industrial production depended upon the
development of markets for the sale of manufactured goods
8. increased competition for foreign markets and the growing
importance of domestic demand led to a reaction against free
trade and the imposition of steep protective tariffs by most
nations
9. cartels were formed to decrease competition internally
10. the formation of cartels was paralleled by a move toward
even-larger manufacturing plants, especially in the iron and
steel, machinery, heavy electrical equipment, and chemical
industries
11. the development of markets after 1870 was best characterized
by wealthier urban consumers in Europe who desired a
growing number of products
12. the chief result of the 2nd I.R. on agriculture was a drop in
agricultural prices (abundance of grain & lower transportation
costs)
13. by 1900, Spain lagged behind the rest of western Europe in
terms of industrialization
B. Women and Work: New Job Opportunities
1. the 2nd I.R. had an enormous impact on the position of women
in the labor market
2. working-class men argued that keeping women out of
industrial work would ensure the moral and physical wellbeing of families
1
3. the desperate need to work at times of family necessity
forced women to do marginal work at home or labor as
pieceworkers in sweatshops
4. the expansion of government services created a large
number of service or white-collar jobs such as secretaries
and telephone operators
5. big businesses and retail shops needed clerks, typists,
secretaries, file clerks, and sales clerks
6. these new white-collar jobs available to women were
generally mundane and, except for nursing and teaching,
required few skills beyond basic literacy
7. most white-collar jobs were filled by working-class women
who saw these jobs as an opportunity to escape from the
“dirty” work of the lower-class world
8. despite these new job opportunities, many lower-class
women turned to prostitution to survive (estimated that
60,000 prostitutes lived in London alone in 1885)
9. the rise in female prostitution in European cities during the
later 19th Century can best be attributed to the heavy
migration to cities by country women and their increasingly
desperate struggle for urban economic survival
10. in most European countries, prostitution was licensed and
regulated by government and municipal authorities
C. Organizing the Working Classes
1. the desire to improve their working and living conditions led
many industrial workers to form political parties and labor
unions (many socialist or Marxist in nature)
2. Germany became a hotbed for socialism and labor unions
3. the German Social Democratic Party (SPD)
a. founded in 1875
b. working-class and socialist party
c. led by Marxists Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel
d. party espoused revolutionary Marxist rhetoric
e. sought to improve the living conditions of the working
class
f. despite the “establishment” government’s efforts to
kill the party, it became the largest single political
party in Germany by 1912
4. socialist parties also emerged in other European states,
although none proved as successful as the German Social
Democrats
5. as the socialist parties grew, agitation for an international
organization that would strengthen their position against
international capitalism also grew (ex: 2nd International in
1889)
6. Revisionism and Nationalism
a. some Marxists believed in a pure Marxism that
accepted the imminent collapse of capitalism and the
need for socialist ownership of the means of
production (ex: Bebel)
2
III.
b. revisionism posed a direct threat to orthodox Marxism
c. most prominent among the revisionists was Eduard
Bernstein (1850-1932)
d. Bernstein thought many of Marx’s ideas had been
proven incorrect and he stressed the need to work
through democratic politics to create socialism
e. nationalism was also a divisive issue for international
socialism
f. socialist parties varied from country to country and
remained tied to national concerns and issues
g. nationalism proved a much more powerful force than
socialism on such issues as WWI
7. the Role of Trade Unions
a. trade unions in the 19th Century were shaped by:
1. fusions of nationalism and socialism
2. the decline of the labor movement in Britain
3. the development of evolutionary socialism
(Bernstein’s philosophy)
b. the trade union movement prior to WWI varied from
state to state, but was generally most productive when
allied with socialist parties (most successful in
Germany)
8. the Anarchist Alternative
a. the lack of revolutionary fervor of socialist parties and
trade unions drove some people from Marxian
socialism into anarchism
b. anarchism was a movement that was especially
prominent in less industrialized and less democratic
countries (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Russia)
c. initially nonviolent, in the later 19th Century, anarchists
attempted to accomplish a transformation of society
through assassinations and other acts of political
terrorism
THE EMERGENCE OF MASS SOCIETY
A. Population Growth
1. the European population increased dramatically between
1850 and 1910, rising from 270 million to over 460 million by
1910
2. the chief cause of rising European populations between 1850
and 1880 was a rising birthrate
3. after 1880, a noticeable decline in death rates largely explains
the increase in population
4. medical discoveries and improved environmental conditions
contributed to this drop in death rate
5. although growing agricultural and industrial prosperity
supported an increase in European population, it could not
do so indefinitely, especially in areas that had little
industrialization and a severe problem of rural overpopulation
6. some of the excess labor from underdeveloped areas
migrated to the industrial regions of Europe (ex: 400,000
Poles moved to the Ruhr region of Germany)
3
7. Poles and Jews fled Eastern Europe for the US during this
time
a. between 1880 and 1914, 3.5 million Poles migrated to
the US
b. due mainly to persecution, 40% of all Russian
immigrants to the US during this time were Jews
B. Transformation of the Urban Environment
1. one of the most important consequences of industrialization
and the population explosion of the 19th Century was
urbanization
2. in 1800, urban dwellers constituted 40% of the population in
Great Britain, 25% in France and Germany, and only about
10% in Eastern Europe
3. by 1914, urban dwellers had increased to 80% of Great
Britain’s population, 45% in France, 60% in Germany, and
30% in Eastern Europe
4. from 1800 to 1900, the number of European cities that had
populations of at least 100,000 went from 21 to 147.
5. people were driven from the countryside to the cities by
sheer economic necessity---unemployment, land scarcity,
and physical want
6. Improving Living Conditions
a. in the 1840s, a number of urban reformers, such as
Edwin Chadwick in Britain and Rudolf Virchow and
Solomon Neumann in Germany, had pointed to filthy
living conditions as the primary cause of epidemic
disease and urged sanitary reforms to correct the
problem
b. the British Public Health Act of 1875 prohibited the
construction of new buildings without running water
and internal drainage systems
c. essential to the public health of the modern European
city was the ability to bring clean water into the city
and expel sewage from it (dams/reservoirs along with
vast sewage systems relying on huge underground
pipes met the need)
d. middle-class reformers who denounced the unsanitary
living conditions of the working class also focused on
their housing needs
e. early efforts to attack the housing problem
emphasized the middle-class, liberal belief in the
efficacy of private enterprise
f. reformers believed that the construction of model
dwellings renting at a reasonable price would force
other private landlords to elevate their housing
standards
g. reformer Octavia Hill’s housing venture was designed
to give the poor an environment they could use to
improve themselves (Leverhulme’s Port Sunlight &
Howard’s garden city movement are other examples of
private housing reform efforts)
4
h. in 1890, the British Housing Act empowered local town
councils to collect new taxes and construct cheap
housing for the working classes (London and
Liverpool were the first cities to take advantage of the
legislation)
i. Germany had similar legislation passed by 1900
j. in 1894, France took a lesser step by providing easy
credit for private contractors to build working-class
housing
7. Redesigning the Cities
a. housing was but one area of urban reconstruction
after 1870
b. in the 2nd half of the 19th Century, many of the old
defensive walls, worthless from a military standpoint,
were pulled down
c. these areas were converted into parks and wide
boulevards
d. as cities expanded and entire groups of people were
displaced from urban centers by reconstruction, city
populations spilled over into the neighboring villages
and countryside, which were soon incorporated into
cities
e. the construction of streetcars and commuter trains by
the turn of the century enabled both working-class and
middle-class populations to live in their own suburban
neighborhoods
C. The Social Structure of Mass Society
1. historians generally agree that after 1871 the average person
enjoyed an improving standard of living (real wages doubled
between 1871 and 1910 for British workers)
2. in western and central European countries most affected by
industrialization, the richest 20% of the populations received
between 50% and 60% of the national income
3. The Elite
a. at the top of European society stood a wealthy elite,
constituting only 5% of the population but controlling
30% to 40% of the wealth
b. in the course of the 19th Century, landed aristocrats
blended sometimes grudgingly with the most
successful industrialists, bankers, and merchants to
form a new elite
4. The Middle Classes
a. the middle classes consisted of a variety of groups:
1. upper middle class (wealthy industrialists and
merchants)
2. middle level (lawyers, doctors, government
bureaucrats, engineers, accountants,
architects, moderately well-to-do merchants
and industrialists)
3. lower middle class (small shopkeepers, traders,
manufacturers, prosperous peasants)
5
4. bank tellers, sales clerks, secretaries, telephone
operators
b. the moderately prosperous and successful middle
classes shared a common lifestyle, one whose values
tended to dominate much of 19th Century society
c. the 19th Century middle classes were very concerned
with propriety and shared values of hard work and
Christian morality
5. The Lower Classes
a. the lower classes of European society constituted
almost 80% of the European population
b. the largest segment of European society in the 19th
Century was composed of peasant landholders,
unskilled day laborers, and domestic servants who
worked for very low wages (less true in western and
central Europe)
c. the elite of the working class were skilled artisans
(cabinet makers, printers, jewelry makers)
d. semi-skilled laborers were below the skilled artisans
(carpenters, bricklayers, and many factory workers)
e. urban workers did experience a real improvement in
the material conditions of their lives after 1871
f. a rise in real wages, accompanied by a decline in many
consumer costs, especially in the 1880s and 1890s,
made it possible for workers to buy more than just
food and housing
D. The “Woman Question”: the Role of Women
1. in the 19th Century, women remained legally inferior,
economically dependent, and largely defined by family and
household roles
2. throughout most of the 19th Century, marriage was viewed as
the only honorable and available career for most women
3. the lack of meaningful work and the lower wages paid to
women made it difficult for single women to earn a living
4. the number of offspring born to the average woman decreased
during this time (1st family planning clinic opened in
Amsterdam in 1882)
E. The Middle-Class Family
1. the family was the central institution of middle-class life
2. men provided the family income while women focused on
household and child care
3. the reduction in family size allowed women to devote more
time to their children and leisure activities
4. an ideal of togetherness was fostered by the 19th Century
middle-class families
5. European middle-class families during the late 19th Century
stressed functional knowledge for their children to prepare
them for their future roles
6. Elizabeth Poole Sanford in her essay, Women in Her Social and
Domestic Character, advised women to avoid being selfsufficient
6
F. The Working Class Family
1. changes in the standard of living from 1890 to 1914 in Europe
affected the working-class family by allowing working-class
parents to devote more attention to their children (higher pay in
heavy industry)
2. for the children of the working classes, childhood was over by
the age of nine or ten when they worked as apprentices or were
employed in odd jobs
3. daughters in working-class families were fully expected to
work until marriage
G. Education and Leisure in an Age of Mass Society
1. mass education was a product of the mass society of the late
19th Century
2. after 1850, secondary education was expanded as more
middle-class families sought employment in public service and
the professions or entry into elite scientific and technical
schools
3. between 1870 and 1914, most Western governments began to
offer at least primary education to both boys and girls between
the ages of six and twelve
4. most European educational systems were free and compulsory
at least the primary level
5. several motives drove European states to develop systems of
mass public education for their citizens including:
a. political, to produce more informed voters in expanding
electorates and to heighten patriotism producing more
integrated nations (CHIEF REASON)
b. liberals believed that education was important to personal
and social improvement and also sought to supplant
religious education with moral and civic training based on
secular values
c. conservatives were attracted to mass education as a means
of improving the quality of military recruits and training
people in social discipline
d. new firms of the 2nd Industrial Revolution demanded skilled
labor which in turn caused a need and demand for mass
education
6. the development of compulsory education created a demand
for teachers, and most were female
7. females were paid lower salaries, in itself a considerable
incentive for governments to encourage the establishment of
teacher-training institutes for women
8. the most immediate result of mass education was an increase
in literacy
9. adult illiteracy was virtually eliminated by 1900 in Germany,
Great Britain, France, and Scandinavia
10. countries that did not emphasize education had a much
different story (illiteracy rates: 79% Serbia; 78% Romania;
72% Bulgaria; 79% Russia)
11. with the dramatic increase in literacy after 1871 came the rise
of newspapers targeting the masses (ex: Daily Mail [London])
7
I.
12. Mass Leisure
a. in the preindustrial centuries, play or leisure activities had
been closely connected to work patterns based on
seasonal or daily cycles typical of the life of peasants or
artisans
b. new leisure hours were created by the industrial system—
evening hours after work, weekends, and later a week or
two in the summer---which largely determined the
contours of the new mass leisure
c. the influx of rural people into industrial towns eventually
caused the demise of traditional village culture, especially
the fairs and festivals that had formed such an important
part of that culture
d. new technology created novel experiences for leisure,
such as the Ferris wheel at amusement parks (amusement
parks and carnivals became very popular during this time)
e. music and dance halls appeared in last half of the 19th
Century (targeted adults)
f. the upper and middle class first created the market for
tourism, but as wages increased and workers were given
paid vacations, tourism became another form of mass
leisure
g. Thomas Cook (1808-1892) was considered the “Father of
Tourism” in England
h. by the late 1800s, team sports had also developed into
another form of mass leisure (soccer and rugby in
Europe—baseball in the US)
i. primarily male-oriented, sports were not just for leisure or
fun, but they were intended to provide excellent training in
teamwork and individual skills for participants (youth in
particular)
THE NATIONAL STATE
A. Western Europe: the Growth of Political Democracy
1. Reform in Britain
a. the growth of political democracy was one of the major
developments of British politics between 1871 and 1914
b. Gladstone’s Reform Act of 1884 gave the vote to all men who
paid regular rents or taxes, thus largely enfranchising the
previously excluded agricultural workers
c. in 1885, Parliament passed the Redistribution Act which
eliminated historic boroughs and counties and established
constituencies with roughly equal populations and one
representative each
d. members of Parliament began receiving pay for their service
in 1911 which opened Parliament to people other than the
well-to-do
e. in 1870, Gladstone attempted to alleviate Irish discontent by
enacting limited land reform, but as Irish tenants continued to
be evicted in the 1870s, the Irish peasants responded with
“terrorists” acts (British responded with even more
8
repressive measures; Gladstone did introduce Irish home
rule bills in 1886 and 1893 [both failed] )
f. the Home Rule Act of 1914
1. bill passed by Parliament which gave
independence to all but the northern
seven counties (Ulster Ireland) of Ireland
2. aggravated problems between northern and southern Ireland the
Protestant dominated north wanted and received the right to remain
part of Great Britain
3. Catholic majority in the south and
minority in the north wanted an
undivided Ireland
4. violence erupted between participants
involved
2. The Third Republic in France
a. the defeat of France by the Prussian army in 1870 brought the
downfall of Louis Napoleon’s 2nd Empire
b. Bismarck intervened and forced the French to choose a
government by universal male suffrage
c. the French people rejected the republicans and elected
monarchists to 400 of 630 seats
d. in March 1871, radical republicans formed and independent
government known as the Paris Commune
e. the National Assembly refused to give up its power and
crushed the Commune despite stiff resistance (20,000 killed;
10,000 imprisoned overseas)
f. suppression of the Commune widened the split between the
French middle and working classes
g. although a majority of the members of the National Assembly
wished to restore a monarchy to France, an inability to agree
on who should be king caused the monarchists to miss their
opportunity
h. in 1875, an improvised constitution established a republican
government as the least divisive compromise
i. the Boulanger crisis actually strengthened republican forces
in France despite the opposition of the Church, monarchists,
and army officers (Boulanger appeared ready to launch a
coup d’etat with the support of many when he lost his nerve
and fled the country)
3. Spain and Italy
a. in the late 19th Century, Spain and Italy remained 2nd rate
European powers less transformed by the economic and
cultural innovations of the age
b. in Spain, the Barcelona revolt in 1909 and its repression
made clear that reform would not be easily accomplished
because the Catholic Church, large landowners, and the army
remained tied to a conservative social order
c. by 1870, Italy had emerged as a geographically united state
with pretensions of great power status but rang hollow
because of internal weaknesses
9
E.
1. government corruption
2. chronic turmoil between workers and industrialists
3. sectional differences
4. lost a war to Ethiopia
Central and Eastern Europe: Persistence of the Old Order
1. Germany
1. despite being unified by 1871, Germany still had important
divisions within its society
2. Germany under Bismarck was characterized by the
chancellor forming coalitions to get what he wanted and then
dropping them at his convenience
3. Bismarck passed social welfare legislation to woo workers
away from the Social Democrats (EX: social security)
4. Bismarck was removed in 1890 by Kaiser Wilhelm II before he
could finish off the socialist through repressive measures
once and for all
2. Austria-Hungary
1. in 1867, Austria-Hungary was theoretically a constitutional
government, but in reality was still an autocracy under
Hapsburg control
2. the problem of the minorities continued to trouble the empire
3. the nationality problem remained unresolved and led to
strong German nationalist movements
4. unlike Austria, Hungary had a working parliamentary system,
but one controlled by the great Magyar landowners who
dominated both the peasants and various minority groups
within that part of the empire
3. Russia
a. during this period, the government made no concessions
what-so-ever to liberal or democratic reforms (assassination
of Alexander II)
b. reformers were persecuted
c. entire districts were placed under martial law if inhabitants
were suspected of treason
d. the power of the zemstvos was greatly curtailed
e. Alexander III and later his son Nicholas II would turn a blindeye to reform
10
11