Chapter 1/Lectures 1, 2 & 3

Chapter 1/Lectures 1, 2 & 3

1. Overview of the World in the 1800s and Early 1900s

   • Shift from agricultural productivity to industrial*
     • Rise in size and power of middle class*
       • Resented by lower class
       • Seen as threatening to upper class
       • Gradually replaced aristocracy*
     • Vastly different living styles in urban and rural areas*
       • Rapid industrialization created a lot of city slums*
         • Wealth not evenly divided*
     • Lead by GB*
   • Territorial empires*
     • Conquest of land surrounding core region
     • Difficult to defend
     • contained multiple conflicting religions and ethinicities
     • Ottoman*
       • Often in conflict with Russia
         • Allied with GB and FR to prevent Russian expansion to Black Sea
       • Weak by end of 1800s*
         • External war against Russia
         • internal political conflict over Westernization
           • Not industrializing as quickly*
         • increasing ethnic nationalism
       • Lead by Sultan Abdulhamit I*
         • Lacked ability to collect taxes*
           • Created public debt administration*
             • Foreigners in charge of collecting taxes*
               • Made it difficult to catch up to Europe*
     • Russia*
       • Second most territory after GB
       • Westernization opposed by nobility and Orthodox christians
         • Not industrialized*
       • Multi-ethnic population*
       • Ruled by Tsar Nicholas II*
         • Okhrana*
           • secret police*
         • Completely autocratic*
           • Violent opposition toward him*
             • Russian Revolution in 1905*
               • Duma created but had no real power*
     • China
       • Threatened by trade with Europe
         • led to Opium Wars
           • defeated by GB
             • GB took control of economy and trade, made it to benefit west
       • Qing dynasty in control
         • Taiping revolutions against Qing
           • Weakened empire
             • Gave Japan and Russia opportunity to attack and take some land
     • Germany*
       • Relatively new as nation-state (1871)*
       • Rapidly industrialized after formation*
         • Very rich as result*
       • Lead by Kaiser Wilhelm II (1888-1918)*
         • Head of gov appointed by Kaiser was Chancellor*
         • Parliament made of Reichstag and Bundesrat*
           • Relatively powerless*
           • Controlled state finances*
           • Not fully a representative democracy*
     • Austria-Hungary*
       • Collection of territories put together by Habsburgs*
       • Many different ethnic regions*
         • Not a true sense of unity*
         • Wanted own ethnic nation-states*
       • Slow in industrializing compared to GB, France, Germany*
   • Sea-Linked Empires*
     • Economies based on mercantilism
       • country should export more than it imports to gain wealth
     • Great Britain*
       • Largest empire*
         • 20% of world land mass, 23% of human race
         • Mostly tropical dependencies
           • Small groups of Europeans controlling native populations
           • Used for labour
           • Considered expendable
         • Settlement colonies
           • White Dominions
             • Canada and Australia
             • Indigenous mostly killed off
           • Mixed-settler colonies
             • South Africa, New Zealand, Hawaii, Caribbean
             • Europeans co-existed with natives
               • Sense of white Christian cultural superiority
                 • Created a lot of conflict
       • Largely urban population*
         • Not common yet at the time*
       • Constitutional monarchy*
         • Monarchy seen as figure-heads, guarantee of stability and tradition*
         • Prime Minister and Parliament had power*
           • Vote not yet universal*
     • France*
       • Second most powerful country and empire*
       • Not as industrialized as GB*
       • Governed by Third Republic*
         • No monarch, no nobility*
         • Lead by Prime Minister*
   • Economic capitalism present in empires
     • Laissez-faire
       • belief that government should not be part of economic affairs beyond protection of peace and property rights
     • free competition
   • New Imperiallism
     • Japan*
       • Focused on aggressive industrialization after Meiji Restoration*
         • Japanese gov imitating modernization in Europe*
       • Wealth invested in military*
         • Imitated German mililtary*
       • Intent to build empire in Pacific*
         • Lacks own natural resources*
         • Wanted status as world power*
     • United States of America*
       • Militarily isolationist*
         • Only really paid attention to politics in Americas*
           • Monroe Doctrine*
             • Americans threatening Europeans if they tried to take any part of Americas*
           • Roosevelt Corollary*
             • Americans gave themselves the right to intervene in Central and South American politics*
               • Causes resentment toward USA from them*
       • Started geostrategic positioning against Japan in Pacific
         • Gained Puerto Rico, Philippines, Guam, Cuba in Spanish-American War of 1898*
       • Very powerful*
         • Rapid territorial expansion after independence*
           • Defeated natives
           • Signed diplomatic treaties with GB and FR
           • Lots of natural resources*
         • Large population from immigration*
         • Heavily industrialized and urbanized*
       • Democratic republic*
     • Used gunboat diplomacy
       • pursuing foreign policy objectives by demonstrating and/or threatening to use overwhelming force
   • Social Darwinism
     • Nations that can't adapt to industrialization shouldn't be prevented from dying out
     • Based on Darwin's theory of natural selection
   • Growing opposition to conservatism
     • Feminism
       • Focus on gaining suffrage
       • Advocated for abolitionism in US
       • Russia first to give national political equality to women in 1906
       • Most western industrialized countries gave vote to women by 1925
     • Liberalism
       • Demanded end of absolute monarchies
       • Direct product of the Enlightenment
       • Primarily middle class movement
         • Called for representative gov dominated by propertied classes
       • Wanted legal equality, religious tolerance, freedom of press
     • Marxism
       • Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto"
         • No one owns property, no class distinctions
         • Everything produced is public goods to be divided evenly to all who participated in the production system
     • Nationalism
       • Product of imperialism
         • States and nations no longer matched up
       • Believed people joined by a common culture should be joined politically by a gov that meets their specific needs
       • Goal to en imperialism
   • Paris Exposition Universelle*
     • 58 countries participated
       • Colonies not allowed own pavilions
         • Recreations of indigenous temples and villages by French architects
           • Portrayals of indigenous people very racist, barbaric, primitive*
       • USA had most exhibits and won most awards
     • Exhibited technological advacements
       • Talking films
       • Moving sidewalks
       • Steel architecture
       • Diesel engine
       • Electrical lights
         • Palace of Electricity*
       • Showed world white superiority*
     • Distorted version of reality*
       • European version of world*
   • Globalization underway*
     • Caused by trade, industrialization, colonization*
     • Speed of transport and communication increasing*
       • Railroads, steam ships*
       • Telegraph*
     • Easier access to information*
       • Photography*
       • Rotary printing press*
         • Creation of popular press, widespread newspapers, etc. *
       • Fairly accurate maps of world*
     • Attempt to standardize the measure of time*
       • Creation of time zones*
   • Colonized or occupied areas
     • Africa*
       • Almost completely controlled by Europeans*
       • Entire continent colonized*
     • India*
       • Most important of British colonies*
         • Large population*
         • Centre of world civilization*
         • Rich in natural resources*
       • Captive market for GB products*
         • Weakened Indian economy*
           • Not able to industrialize, modernize*
     • China*
       • Not doing well*
         • Chinese Boxer Rebellion
           • Qing dynasty weakened*
             • Internal disunity
             • Heavy western intervention*
               • Western imposed Open Door Policy in China
                 • Agreement among world powers to respect the territorial integrity of China
                   • Intended primarily to limit Japanese expansion in China
                   • GB, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, Italy consented
                 • Caused disagreements about spheres of interest of each power in China
               • Empress began chanelling aid to oppose westerners
                 • Openly supported "The Righteous and Harmonious Fists" aka the Boxers
               • Caused Opium Wars*
                 • Hong Kong given to GB*
           • Boxers attacked foreign embassies in Peking
             • Murdered diplomats, christian missionaries, chinese christian converts
           • Empress declared war on West
             • West sent Eight-Nation Alliance
               • Quickly captured Beijing
               • Forced Qing dynasty to accept the Boxer Protocol
                 • Allowed western military forces to occupy China
                 • Ended Qing empire