The Industrial Revolution and Its Impact on European Society

XX
The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain
Origins of the Industrial Revolution
● Agricultural revolution led to food increase.
○ ordinary British families did have to use most of their income to buy food.
○ Britain therefore had a new supply of capital.
○ Had an effective central bank, and well developed credit faculties.
● Political power rested in the hands of a progressive group of people
● British exports quadrupled from 1660-1760.
○ Britain had developed a vast colonial epmire
○ Had the highest standard of living
● This demand from both domestic and foreign markets and the inability of the old system to fulfill
it led entrepreneurs to seek and accept the new methods of manufacturing.
Technological Changes and New Forms of Industrial Organization
● In the 1770 and 80s, the cotton textile industry took the major revolutionary step by inventing the
modern factory.
The Cotton Industry
● Traditional cottage industry, in which Britain had already taken the lead, was disrupted by the
flying shuttle and the spinning jenny.
● Cartwright’s power loom allowed the weaving of cloth to catch up with the production of it.
○ The concentration of labor in the new factories also brought the laborers and their
families to live in the new towns that rapidly grew up around the factories.
The Steam Engine
● The steam engine pushed the cotton industry to new heights.
○ James Watts invented an engine powered by steam, and then a rotary engine.
○ By 1840, 366 million pounds of cotton were imported.
○ The success of the steam engine led to a need for more coal and an expansion in coal
production.
The Iron Industry
● In the early 1700s, new methods of smelting iron ore to produce cast iron were devised using
coke derived from coal.
● in 1740, Britain produced 17,000 tonnes of iron, by the 1840s, over 2 million tonnes, by 1852,
almost 3 million tonnes, more than the rest of the world combined
A Revolution in Transportation
● In 1804, Richard Trevithick pioneered the first steam-powered locomotive on an industrial rail
line in southern Wales.
● George Stephenson improved on the steam locomotive.
● The availability of a cheaper and faster means of transportation had a domino effect on the
growth of the industrial economy. Lowering price of goods, markets grew, increased demand,
factories were built in response. Continuous self-sustaining economic growth came to be seen as
a fundamental characteristic of the new industrial economy.
The Industrial Factory
● Factory became the chief method of organizing labor. Workers were forced to work regular hours
and in shifts to keep the machines producing at a steady rate.
 ● This was a paradigm shift in the work day.
● As the 1800s progressed, the second and third generations of workers came to view a regular
work week as a natural way of life.
The Great Exhibition: Britain in 1851
● In 1851, the British organized the first world industrial fair.
○ Symbolized human domination over nature.
● Great Britain had become the world’s first and richest industrial nation.
○ Produced 1/2 of the world’s coal and manufactured goods, it’s cotton industry was equal
in size to the industries of all other European countries combined.
The Spread of Industrialization
● First to be industrialized on the continent were Belgium, France, and the German states and North
America, the young United States.
Industrialization on the Continent
● Continental countries borrowed British technology.
○ gradually gained technological independence. Continental countries started to found
technical schools to train engineers and mechanics.
○ governments provided for the costs of technical education.
Centers of Continental Industrialization
● The industrial revolution occurred in three major centers between 1815 and 1850, Belgium,
France, and the German states.
● Heavy industry on the Continent before 1850 was a mixture of old and new.
The Industrial Revolution in the United States
● In 1800, the US was an agrarian society. six out of seven American workers were farmers.
○ by 1860, the population had grown from 5 to 30 million people
○ only 50% of people were farmers
● A British immigrant, Samuel Slater established the first textile factory in Rhode Island in 1790
○ by 1813, factories with power looms copied from British version were being established.
○ Americans started to surpass British technical inventions.
● Thousands of miles of road and canals were built linking east and west. The steamboat facilitated
transportation on the Great Lakes.
● By 1860, there was more than 27,000 miles of railroad track covering the US.
○ women made up more than 80% of the labor force in the large textile factories
○ European immigrants appeared in large numbers to replace American women and
children in the factories when rural births declined.
○ The rich got richer, the poor did not, at this time, get poorer.
Limiting the Spread of Industrialization
○ Before 1870, the industrialization in west and central Europe and the US did not extend
to the rest of the world.
■ There was not much of a middle class.
Example of India
● In other parts of the world where they had established control, newly industrialized European
states pursued a deliberate policy of preventing the growth of mechanized industry.
○ British policy encouraged Indians to export their raw materials while buying British-
made goods.
 ○ Some of the rapidly industrializing nations of Europe worked to deliberately thwart the
spread of the Industrial revolution to their colonial dominions.
The Social Impact of the Industrial Revolution
● The social impact of the Industrial revolution was being felt in the first half of the 1800s
Population Growth
● expansion of population rates was due to the decline in death rates throughout Europe
● overpopulation magnified some area’s problem of rural poverty.
○ In Ireland, it produced the century’s great catastrophe
The Great Hunger
● Ireland was one of the most oppressed areas in western Europe
● The predominantly Catholic peasant population rented land from mostly absentee British
Protestant landlords
○ Between 1781 and 1845, the Irish population doubled from 4-8 million
● In the summer of 1845, the potato crop was struck by a black fungus
○ Great Famine resulted, and more than 1 million inhabitants died of starvation and disease
○ 2 million emigrated to the US and Britain
○ rapid urbanization occured in the first half of the 1800s
The Growth of Cities
● Cities had traditionally been centers for princely courts, gov and military offices, churches, and
commerce
○ by 1850, they were becoming places for manufacturing and industry
● In 1800, London had 1 million people, by 1850, London had 2.36 million
Urban Living Conditions in the Early Industrial Era
● dramatic growth of cities produced miserable living conditions
○ Wealthy, middle-class insulated themselves, living in suburbs or in the outer ring of the
city
● In the inner ring stood row houses of the artisans and lower middle class
○ located in the center of the town was row houses of the industrial workers
● Towns and cities were fundamentally death-traps
Urban Reformers
● Edwin Chadwick became obsessed with eliminated poverty and squalor of the metropolitan areas
○ advocated a system of modern sanitary reforms
○ Britain’s first Public Health Act created the National Board of Health
New Social Classes: The Industrial Middle Class
● The rise of industrial capitalism added a new group to the middle class.
○ The term bourgeois came to include people involved in commerce, industry, and banking
as well as professionals: lawyers, teachers, and physicians.
● By 1850, the traditional entrepreneurship was declining and being replaced by a new business
aristocracy
○ The Industrial Revolution began at a time when the agrarian world was still largely
dominated by landed elites.
New Social Classes: Workers in the Industrial Age
● According to the 1851 census in Britain, while there were 1.8 million agricultural laborers and 1
million domestic servants, there were only 811,000 workers in the cotton and woolen industries,
 and 1/3 of these were still working in small workshops or in their own homes
○ disproportionate productivity
Working Conditions for the Industrial Working Class
● no security and no minimum wage
● children were a cheap supply of labor
● Factory Act of 1833
○ number of children employed declined
● Excessive working hours for women were outlawed in 1844
● Poor Law Act of 1834
○ established workhouses were jobless poor people were forced to live
Efforts at Change: The Workers
● workers in Great Britain began to look to the formation of labor organizations to gain decent
wages and working conditions
○ despite government opposition trade unions were formed by skilled workers
■ they limited worker’s entry into the trade to preserve their own worker’s
positions and gained benefits from employers
Luddites
● skilled craftsmen in the Midlands and northern England who in 1812 physically attacked the
machines they believed threatened their livelihoods
Chartism
● aim was to achieve political democracy
● two petitions gained millions of signatures and were presented to parliament in 1839 and 42
○ underlying threat of force
○ both were rejected
Efforts at Change: Reformers and Government
● Reform-minded individuals campaigned against the evils of the industrial factory
○ Factory of 1833 - stipulated that children between 9 and 13 could only work 8 hours a
day
○ 1847 Ten Hours Act - children 13-18 could only work ten hours
○ 1842 Coal Mines Act - eliminated the employment of boys under ten and all women in
mines
Reaction, Revolution, and Romanticism, 1815-1850
XXI
The Conservative Order, 1815-1830
● After the defeat of Napoleon, European rulers moved to restore the old order.
○ Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia all met at the Congres of Vienna in Sept.
1814 to arrange a final peace settlement
○ Austrian foreign minister, Prince Klemens von Metternick claimed he was guided by the
principle of legitimacy
■ necessary to restore old monarchs
■ At the Congress of Vienna, the great lands powers all grabbed land to add to their
states
■ They believed they were all forming a new balance of power that would keep any
one power from dominating Europe
Conservative Domination
● peace arrangement of 1815 were the beginning of a conservative reaction against liberal and
nationalist forces unleashed by the French revolution
○ Edmund Burke started conservatism in 1790
■ no one generation has the right to destroy contract of society
■ organized religion is crucial to social order
■ community took precedence over individual rights
The Concert of Europe
● new status quo meeting regularly of Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria and later France to meet
periodically in conferences to discuss their problems and avoid conflicts
○ formed the quintuple alliance and adopted a principle of intervention
○ Britain broke the principle when they refused to let the Concert of Europe intervene in
Latin American revolutions
The Revolt of Latin America
● Latin America remained in the hands of the Spanish and Portuguese
● Revolutions threw off the Spanish and Portuguese authorities
● Great Britain now dominated the Latin American economy
● the emphasis on exporting raw materials and importing finished goods ensured continued
dominance by Great Britain
The Greek Revolt
● principle of intervention was a double edged sword, could be used to support revolution
● Ottoman Empire agreed to allow Russia, France, and Britain decide the fate of Greece
Conservatives in the European States
● Between 1815 and 1830, the conservative domination of Europe evident in the Concert of Europe
was also apparent in domestic affairs as governments worked to maintain the old order
Great Britain
● Tory ministers ran the government until 1830, didn’t change political or electoral system
Restoration in France
● In 1814, the Bourbon family was restored to the throne of France in Louis XVIII
○ accepted Napoleon’s Civil Code with its principle of equality
○ property rights of individuals were also preserved
○ in 1824, Louis died and was succeeded by his brother Charles X, who attempted to
 restore the old regime, sparking public outrage and almost leading to another revolution
The Italian States
● Congress of Vienna had established nine states in Italy
● largely under Austria’s thumb
Repression in Central Europe
● After 1815, the Hapsburg empire and Metternick played an important role
● the Vienna settlement in 1815 had recognized the existence of 38 sovereign states (the Germanic
Confederation) in what had once been the Hold Roman Empire
○ Austria and Prussia were two of the major powers
○ the confederation had little real power
● The Austrian Empire was a multinational state
○ Metternick managed to repress nationalist forces and hold the empire together.
Russia: Autocracy of the Tsars
● Russia was overwhelmingly rural
○ Tsar was still divine right
● Alexander I had been raised in the ideas of the Enlightenment, because a reactionary and reverted
to strict and arbitrary censorship
○ his successor, Nicholas I, became a strict reactionary because of a revolt at the beginning
of his reign
The Ideologies of Change
● Although conservative forces were in the ascendancy from 1815-30, powerful liberal movements
were at work
Liberalism
● people should be as free from restraint as possible
● evident in both economic and political liberalism
Economic Liberalism
● laissez-faire - state should not interrupt the free play of natural economic forces
● Gov is for defense of country, protection of individuals, and construction and maintenance of
public works too expensive for individuals to undertake
Politicam Liberalism
● Protection of civil liberties
● religious toleration, separation of church and state
● tied to the middle-class and especially the industrial middle-class
● John Stuart Mill argued for ‘absolute freedom of opinion and sentiment on all subjects.’
Nationalism
● rose out of an awareness of being part of a community that has commonalities
○ did become a force for change until the French Revolution
● Threatened to upset existing political order
● nationalism and liberalism became strong allies
Early Socialism
● early socialism was largely the product of political theorists or intellectuals who wanted to
introduce equality into social conditions
Revolution and Reform, 1830-1850
● Beginning in 1830, the forces of change began to break through conservative domination of
 Europe
The Revolutions of 1830
● In France, the ultraroyalists attet under Charles X to restore the old regime led to a revolt by
liberals in 1830 called the July Rebellion
● Charles X fled, his cousin Louis-Philippe became the new monarch
● Supporters of liberalism played a primary role in France’s revolution, but nationalism was the
crucial force in three other revolutionary outbursts in 1830
● In Britain, the Whigs realized that concessions were preferable to revolution, so Britain became
immune to revolutionary disturbances
The Revolutions of 1848
● Despite the successful revolutions in France, Belgium, and Greece, the conservative order
remained in control of much of Europe
Another French Revolution
● Severe industrial and agricultural depression beginning in 1846
● Louis-Philippes’ government refused to make changes
○ group of moderate and radical republicans formed a provisional gov and called for
election by universal male suffrage that would draw up a new constitution
○ four days of bitter and bloody fighting by government forces crushed the working-class
revolt
● The new constitution ratified in November established a republic with a one-house legislature
○ Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte won the elections in
1848
Revolution in the Germanic States
● Revolutionary cries for change caused many German rulers to promise constitutions and other
liberal reforms.
● Attempt of the German liberals failed
Upheaval in the Austrian Empire
● Austrian Empire only needed the new of the Paris revolution to erupt in flames in March 1848
○ demonstrations in Buda, Prague, and Vienna led to Metternich’s dismissal
● Hungary was granted its wish for its own legislature
● Bohemia, the czechs began to demand their own government as well
● Although Emperor Ferdinand I and the Austrian officials had made concessions to appease the
revolutionaries, they awaited an opportunity to reestablish firm control
● Only through the intervention of Nicholas I, who sent 140,000 russian troops to aid the Austrians,
that the Hungarian revolution was finally crushed in 1849
○ the Austrian revolutions had failed
Revolts in the Italian States
● Failure of revolutionary uprising in Italy in 1830 and 1931, encouraged Italian movement for
unification
● Leadership of Italy’s resurgence passed into hands of Giuseppe Mazzini a dedicated Italian
nationalist who founded an organization called Young Italy in 1831
○ Wrote The Duties of Man
● seemed to be on the verge of fulfillment when a number of Italian states rose in revolt in 1848
○ Beginning Sicily rebellions spread northward as ruler after ruler granted a constitution to
 his people
○ Charles Albert, king of the north Italian state of Piedmont, took up the call and assumed
leadership for a war of liberation from Austrian domination
■ But his invasion of Lombardy proved unsuccessful
The Failures of 1848
● Throughout Europe in 1848, popular revolts had initiated revolutionary upheavals that had
prodded the formation of liberal constitutions and liberal governments
○ failure of the revolutionaries to stay united led to the reestablishment of the old regimes
The Maturing of the United States
● United States Constitution ratified in 1789, committed the nation to two of the major philosophies
of the first half of the nineteenth century: liberalism and nationalism.
● John Marshall on the Supreme Court made it into an important national institution by asserting
the right of the Court to overrule an act of Congress
● Election of Andrew Jackson extended politics to democracy of the masses
Culture in an Age of Reaction and Revolution: The Mood of Romanticism
● Romanticism emerged to challenge the Enlightenment’s preoccupation with reason in discovering
truth
The Characteristics of Romanticism
● Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - The Sorrows of Young Werther
○ made an accidental fashion of suicide
● individualism in romanticism
● Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected and published local fairy tales
Romantic Poets and the Love of Nature
● To the Romantics, poetry ranked above all other literary forms because they believed it was the
direct expression of one’s soul
● poetry gave full expression to love of nature
Romanticism in Art
● Romantic artists deliberately rejected the principles of classicism
○ Beauty was not a timeless thing, it depended on your culture
Romanticism in Music
● Music was the most Romantic of the arts because it enabled the composer to probe deeply into
human emotions
● Ludwig Beethoven served as a bridge between Classicism and Romanticism
Longing for the eternal is the essence of Romanticism
An Age of Nationalism and Realism, 1850-1871
XXII
The France of Napoleon III
● A new generation of conservative leaders came to power
○ foremost among them was Napoleon III (1852-1870) of France
■ taught his contemporaries how to Authoritarian governments could use liberal
and nationalistic forces to bolster their own power.
Louis Napoleon: Toward the Second Empire
● elected as President of the French republic
● for three years he persevered in winning the support of the French people and when the National
Assembly rejected his wish to be allowed reelection, Louis seized government with troops on
1851
● After reinstating universal male suffrage, he asked the French to restore the empire
● On dec 2, 1852, Louis Napoleon assumed the title of Napoleon III, starting the second empire
The Second Napoleonic Empire
● As chief of state, Napoleon III controlled the armed forces, police and civil service
● in the 1860s, as opposition to some of his policies began to mount Napoleon III liberalized his
regime
● In a plebiscite in 1870 the French people gave Napoleon another victory by accepting a new
constitution that might have inaugurated a parliamentary regime
● War with Prussia was the death knoll for Napoleon III, he was ousted and the Third Republic was
proclaimed
Foreign Policy: The Mexican Adventure
● Most flagrant of NIII failures was his imperialist adventure into Mexico
Foreign Policy: The Crimean War
● NIII’s participation in the Crimean War had been more rewarding
The Ottoman Empire
● Who would be the chief beneficiaries of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire
● Nationalist revolts led to the creation of an independent Serbia in 1817 and a free Greece in 1830
● The Russians gained a protectorate over the Danubian provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia in
1829
War in Crimea
● Russia’s proximity to the Ottoman Empire naturally gave it special opportunities to enlarge its
sphere of influence
● In 1852 - Russians demanded right to protect Christian shrines in Palestine
○ Ottomans refused, Russians invaded
○ Turks declared war on Russia Oct 4, 1853
○ 1854, Britain and France declared war on Russia, fearful of Rissian gains at the expense
of the disintegrating Ottoman Empire
● War was costly to both sides
○ broke up long-standing European power relations and effectively destroyed the concert of
Europe
○ Russia, defeated, withdrew from European affairs for the next 20 years
● not until 1870, would new combinations form to replace those that had dissappeared
○ it was this new situation that made the unification of Italy and Germany possible
National Unification: Italy and Germany
● The breakdown of the Cocnert of Europe opened the way for Italians and the Germans to
establish new states
The Unification of Italy
● In 1850, Austria was still the dominant power on the Italian peninsula
● after the failure of the revolution of 1848-49, advocates for Italian unification focused on
Piedmont as the only hopeful state leading the unification
The Leadership of Cavour
● Cavour was a consummate politician, he pursued a policy of economic expansion that increased
gov revenues
● had no illusions about Piedmont’s strength, knew he couldn’t challenge Austria directly
● made an alliance in 1858 with the French emperor Louis Napoleon and then provoked the
Austrians into invading Piedmont in 1859
○ Austria got ass kicked by French armies
● a peace settlement gave the French Nice and Savoy
○ awarded Lombardy to Cavour and Piedmont
● Cavour’s success caused nationalists in the northern Italian states of PArma Modena and Tuscany
to overthrow their governments and join their states to Piemont
The Efforts of Garibaldi
● Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882) a dedicated Italian patriot raised army of Red Shirts
○ they landed in Sicily, by end of July 1860, most of Sicily had been pacified under
Garibaldi’s control
● Naples and the 2 sicilies fell in early september,
○ Garibaldi turned them over to Cavour
○ 1861, the new kingdom of Italy was proclaimed under a centralized government
● Unification was not copmlete because Venetia in the north was still held by Austria and Rome,
remaining under papal control supported by French troops
○ In the Austro-Prussia War of 1866, the new Italian state became na ally of Prussia
○ in 1870, the Franco-Prussian War resulted in the withdrawl of French troops from Rome,
allowed Italy to annex it peacefully
The Unification of Germany
● After the failure of the Frankfurt Assmebly to achieve German unification in 1848-9, German
nationalists focuesed on Austria and Prussia as the only two states powerful enough to unify
Germany
○ but Austria feared the creation of a stron German state beacuse of its multi-national
culture and inhabitants
Bismark
● King William I (1861-88) attempted to enlarge and strengthen the Prussian army
○ appointed a new prime minister Count Otto Von Bismark
○ who collected taxes and ignored the army
○ governed Prussia by simply ignoring Parliament
○ had an active foreign policy, which led to war and German unification
The Danish War (1864)
● Bismark’s first war fought over the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein
 ○ persuaded the Austrians to join Prussia in declaring war on Denmark in 1864
○ then agreed to divide the administration of the two duchies
○ used the join administration to create friction with the Austrians and goad htme into was
in 1866
The Austro-Prussian War (1886)
● At Koniggratz in 1866, the Austrian army was defeated, now excluded from German affairs
● Prussian army had been readying and was militarily superior
The Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)
● Bismark and William I had achieved Prussia as dominant of all northern Germany in 1866
● Bismark realized that france would never be content with a strong German state to its east
○ he manipulated a dispute over the candidacy of the king of spain into making fance
declare war on Prussia in 1870
○ southern states honored their military alliances with Prussia and joined the war effort
against hte french
● William I was proclaimed kailer or emperor of the Second german Empire
● German unity had been achieved by the Prussian monarchy and the Prussian army
○ with its industrial and military might, the new state had become the strongest power on
the continent
Nation Building and Reform: The National State in Mid-Century
The Austrian Empire: Toward a Dual Monarchy
● Defeat at the hand of the Prussian in 1866 forced the Austrians to deal with the firecely
nationalistic Hungarians
○ Compromise of 1867, created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary
○ Holding the two states together was Francis Joseph, a single monarch
○ in domestic affairs the hungarians were an independent state
Imperial Russia
● The defeat in the Crimean War in 1856 revealed the blatan deficiences of Russia at the hands of
the British and French
● Tsar Alexander II ruend his energies to a serious overhaul of the Russian system
○ freed the serfs
○ legal reforms of law and courts
Great Britain: The Victorian Age
● Like Russia, Britain avoided revolutionary disturbances in 1848
● Reform Act of 1832 had opened the door to political representation for the industrial middle class
○ in the 1860s, Britain’s liberal parliamentary system demonstrated once again its ability to
make both social and politicla reforms that kept the country stable and prosperous
○ one of the reaons for Britain’s stability was its continuing economic growth
The United States: Slavery and War
● Ameican national unity was increasingly threatened by the issue of slavery
The Civil War
● As the war dragged on, it had hte effect of radicalizing public opinion in the North
The Emergence of a Canadian Nation
● By the Treaty of Paris in 1763, Canada, or New France, passed into the hands of the British
● in 1837 groups rose in rebellion against the British
 ● 1867 Parliament established the Canadian nation
○ although foreign affairs still remained under the control of the British government
Industrialization and the Marxist Response
● Between 1850 and 71, Continental industrialization came of age
○ age of considerable economic prosperity particularly evident in the growth of domestic
and foreign markets
○ real change for the industrial proletariat would come only the with development of
socialist parties and socialist trade unions
Marx and Marxism
● beginnings of Marxism was The Communist Manifesto by Marc and Engels
● “the histroy of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”
● the emergence of a classless society would lead to progress in science, technology, and industry
and to greater wealth for all
○ after hte failure of the revolutions of 1848 of Germany, Marx went to London, where he
spent the rest of his life
● fate of socialism passed into the hands of national socialist parties instead of working men’s
associations
Science and Culture in an Age of Realism
● growth of scientific knowledge and shift from Romanticism
A New Age of Science
● The Scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had fundamentally
transformed the Western worldview and fostered a modern, rational approach to the study of the
natural world
● dev of steam engine led to study of thermodynamics
● birth of electricity
● increasing secularization and growth of materialism
○ in part due to the theory of organic evolution and natural selection
Charles Darwin and the Theory of Organic Evolution
● In 1859, Charles Darwin published his celebrated book On the Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection
● chance variations that occurred in the process of inheritance enables some organisms o be more
adaptable to the environment than others
● was there a place in the Darwinian world for moral values?
Realism in Literature
● belief that the world should be viewed as realistically as possible
● loss of ideals
● Charles dickens focused on the lower and middle classes in Britain’s early industrial age
Realism in Art
● representation of human misery, cult of ugliness
Mass Society in an “Age of Progress” 1871-94
XXIII
The Growth of Industrial Prosperity
● European’s belief in progress after 1871 was the stunning
● d material growth produced by what historians have called the second industrial revolution
○ the original industrial revolution had given rise to tectiles, railroads, iron, and coal
○ in the second revolution, steel, chemicals, electricity, and petroleum led the way to new
industrial frontiers

I skip pages 485 to 500 because they’re to do with more cultural topics which Dr. Barr does not focus on
at all.

The National State

● largely in Western Europe that mass politics became a reality
Western Europe: The Growth of Political Democracy
● Both Britain and France saw an expansion of hte right to vote, but liberal reforms proves less
successful in Italy
Reform in Britain
● By 1871, Great Britain had a functioning two-party parliamentary system and the growth of
political democracy became one of the preoccupations of British politics
○ the right to vote was further extended during the second ministry of William Gladstone
withe the passage of the Reform Act of 1884
○ Gradual reform through parliamentary institutions had become the way of British
political life
The Third of Republic in France
● The defeat of France by the Prussian army in 1870 brought the downfall of Louis Napoleon’s
Second Empire
○ French people rejected the republicans and favored the monarchists in the New National
Assembly
○ radical republicans in response formed an independent republican government in Paris
known as the Commune in 1871
○ Gov troops massacred thousands of the Commune’s defenders
○ 1875 - improvised constitution that established a republican form of government as the
least divisive compromise
● The Constitution of 1875 solidified the Third Repulic for 65 years
Italy
● By 1870 Italy had emerged as a geographically united state with pretensions to great power status
● The Catholic church which had lost the Papal states got the Vatican City recognized YES!
● Italy became the first modern European nation to be defeated in battle by an African state,
Ethiopa
Central and Eastern Europe: Persistence of the Old Order
● Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia pursued political policies that were quite different from
those of the Western European nations
● old system of Autocracy was barely touched by changein Russia and Eastern Europe
Germany
 ● the constitution of the new imperial Germany begun by Bismark in 1871 provided for a federal
system with a bicameral legislature
● the policies of Bismark who served as chancellor of the new German state until 1890, often
prevented the growth of more democratic institutions
● in 1878 Bismark abandoned the liberals and alarmed by the growth fot he social democratic party
began to go after the Socialists
○ began to attempt to woo worked away from socialism by enacting social welfare
legislation
○ Bismark’s social security system was the most progressive the world had yet seen
● William II eager to pursue his own policies sent the aged chancellor packing
Austria-Hungary
● After the creation of the Dual monarchy of Austria Hungary in 1867 the Austrian part received a
constitution that established a parliamentary system with the principle of ministerial
responsibility
● but emperor Francis joseph largely ignored ministerial responsibility
Russia
● In Russia the gov made no concessions to liberal and democratic reforms
○ Alex I was assassinated so his son Alex II was a reactionary
○ pursued a radical Russianification system to make satellite countries as Russian as
possible
○ XX
■ trying to exploit nationalistic movements