Europe on the Edge and then Walking into the Abyss

1
Europe on the Edge and then Walking into the Abyss

• Politics, Culture, the New Imperialism and the
  Coming of War 1870-1914

2
Introduction

• Before 1914, Europeans still believed in the
  values and ideals of reason, science, and
  progress
• However, by the end of the 19th century a
  dramatic transformation in the realm of ideas and
  culture challenged many of these assumptions
  creating a new view of the physical universe, an
  appeal to the irrational, alternative views of
  human nature and radically innovative forms of
  literary and artistic expression
• These new ideas, though opening up a new modern
  consciousness, would also create a sense of
  confusion and anxiety

3
Emergence of a New PhysicsTraditional
Scientific View

• Science was one of the chief pillars on which the
  optimistic and rationalistic view of the world
  was supported
• Additionally, the West still held to the
  Newtonian mechanical conception of the universe
• Moreover, matter was thought to be composed of
  indivisible solid material bodies called atoms

4
Emergence of a New Physics

• Marie Curie and Radium
• The first crack in this view was made by Marie
  Curie her husband Pierre who discovered that
  the element radium gave off rays of radiation
  that came from within the atom itself
• Atoms were now no longer small, hard material
  bodies, but small world containing subatomic
  particles that behaved in a random and
  inexplicable fashion
• Max Planck and Quanta
• Building upon the work of the Curies, Max Planck
  rejected the idea that a heated body radiates
  energy in a steady stream, but instead rather
  discontinuously, in irregular packets he called
  quanta
• Concept of quantum theory vs. Newtonian physics

5
Emergence of a New PhysicsAlbert Einstein and
Relativity

• It was to be Albert Einstein and his theory of
  relativity that would challenge and replace the
  Newtonian worldview
• According to this new theory, space and time are
  not absolute but relative to the observer, and
  both are interwoven into what Einstein called a
  four-dimensional space-time continuum
• Einsteins theory rested upon his formula of
  Emc2
• Rejection and than acceptance of Einsteins
  theories

6
Friedrich Nietzsche and Superman

• In the decades before 1914, there were also
  contradictions in the intellectual sphere
• Due to the influence of science, confidence in
  human reason and progress still remained
  dominant however, there was a small group of
  intellectuals who attacked the idea of optimistic
  progress, dethroned reason, and glorified the
  irrational
• The greatest and most influential of these
  figures was Friedrich Nietzsche
• What was to blame for this enfeeblement of
  Western civilization? Christianity
• slave morality
• God is dead
• Rise of the superman

7
Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis

• The optimism about the rational nature of the
  human mind was further undermined by a Viennese
  doctor by the name of Sigmund Freud
• Unconscious
• The Interpretation of Dreams, (1900)
• Freud strongly believed that human behavior was
  determined by the unconscious, by earlier
  experiences and inner forces that people were
  largely oblivious to
• Repression
• These forces were oblivious because of
  repression harmful events were blotted from
  conscious awareness but remained within the
  unconscious where it still influence behavior
• The id, ego, and superego
• Rejection of Freuds ideas

8
Social Darwinism and Racism

• In the second half of the 19th century, many
  scientific theories were wrongly applied to
  achieve other ends
• The one that would have the most far-reaching
  consequences was the application of Darwins
  theory of evolution to society, and was known as
  Social Darwinism

9
Social Darwinism and Racism

• Herbert Spencers Social Statistics
• The most popular exponent of Social Darwinism was
  the British philosopher Herbert Spencer
• Progress came from the struggle for survival
• This could apply to both people and states
• As applied to Society Race
• Darwins ideas were also applied to human society
  in radical ways by extreme nationalist and
  racists
• The extreme nationalists argued that nations were
  also engaged in a struggle for existence and
  only the strongest fittest survived
• German volkish ideology and Houston Stewart
  Chamberlain
• Jews seen in biological terms

10
Attack on Christianity and Church Responses

• Weakening of Religion
• The growth of scientific thinking as well as
  modernization presented new challenges to the
  Christian churches
• Industrialization urbanization weakened the
  hold the churches had on the masses
• In addition, many of the political movements of
  the late 19th century were hostile to established
  religion - anticlericalism
• Science became a major threat to religion as the
  century progressed - Darwins theory of evolution
• Pius IX and Leo XIII
• Pope Pius IX and the Syllabus of Errors (1864)
• However, under his successor, Leo XIII, the
  Catholic Church tried to compromise with
  modernity with mixed results

11
Culture of Modernity

• The revolution in physics and psychology was
  paralleled by a revolution in literature and the
  arts
• In the period before 1914 writers and artists
  rebelled against the traditional literary and
  artistic styles that had dominated Europe since
  the Renaissance creating what is now known as
  Modernism
• Literature
• Emile Zolas Naturalism
• Yeats, Rilke, and Symbolism
• Art
• Pissarro, Monet, Morisot, and Impressionism
• Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Post-Impressionism
• Picasso Cubism and Kandinsky Abstraction

12
Politics New Directions and New Uncertainties

• Just as uncertainties marked the intellectual and
  cultural life of Europe, so was it true of
  Europes political life
• The steady progress in liberal principles and
  political democracy after 1871 was soon slowed
  and to an extent halted after 1894
• The new mass politics opened the door to changes
  many liberals found unacceptable
• Right-wing politics
• Demands of Women
• Lastly, tensions continued to grow as the
  authoritarian governments of central Europe
  refused to meet the demands of the reformers

13
Womens Rights Movement

• Custody and Property
• In the 1830s, women began to join reform
  movements to improve their position
• Their initial goal was to change the family
  marriage laws that made it difficult for women to
  secure divorce and property laws that gave
  husbands complete control over their wifes
  property
• These early efforts were not exactly successful
• Suffrage
• By the 1840s 50s, the womans movement
  entered the political arena with the call for
  equal political rights, especially the right to
  vote
• The British womens movement was the most vocal
  and active in Europe, though it was split between
  moderate the radical forces
• Although few followed these methods, demands for
  womens rights were heard throughout Europe, but
  it was only after 1914 when they were finally
  given the right to vote

14
Liberalism Transformed in Britain

• In dealing with the problems created by the new
  mass politics, liberal governments were forced to
  follow policies that undermined the basic tenets
  of liberalism and this is no more apparent than
  in Britain
• Workers, Labour and the Liberal Party
• The Liberals, led by David Lloyd George,
  recognized that they had to enact a program of
  social welfare or lose the support of the workers
• Liberalism, based upon the idea that the
  government that governs least governs best, was
  forever transformed

15
Growing Tensions in Wilhelmine Germany

• Germany, only recently united, experienced
  growing pains as it experienced telescopic
  modernization
• The problem is that Germany is still very
  authoritarian and conservative, at least in the
  circles of power
• But the growth in industrialization and
  modernization creates a whole series of contrasts
  contradictions
• Social Democracy is growing as well as the demand
  for more political participation and democracy
• The ruling political and industrial elite oppose
  this, and try to divert the publics attention
  with an activist foreign policy
• However, the tensions between traditionalism and
  modernization remain, a ticking time-bomb ready
  to explode

16
Imperial Russia

• Industrialization and Socialism
• In Russia, there was also great tension between
  the forces of traditionalism and modernization as
  industrialization reshaped the face of Russia
• Just as in Western Europe, socialist thought and
  parties appeared in Russia, but were soon
  suppressed and they resorted to revolutionary
  activities
• The Revolution of 1905
• These tensions came to a head with Russias
  defeat by Japan in 1905, resulting in the 1905
  Revolution
• The government of Nicolas II capitulates and
  grants parliamentary government with the Duma
• However, the experiment with democracy is
  short-lived

17
The New Imperialism

• In the 1880s, the nation-states of Europe
  embarked upon an intense scramble for overseas
  territory
• This revival of imperialism, or what is called
  new imperialism, led Europeans to carve up most
  of Africa and Asia, further increasing the
  tensions between the powers in Europe
• Why did this happen and what can explain it?

18
Causes of the New Imperialism

• Competition among European Nations
• Social Darwinism and Racism
• Humanitarianism and Missions
• Economic Gain

19
Creation of EmpiresAfrica

• The British and Africa
• The Cape Colony the Boer Republic
• Cecil Rhodes
• From the Cape to Cairo
• The Boer War (1899-1902)
• Scramble to Carve the Continent
• By the 1880s, the rest of Europe intervened in
  Africa
• France would control most of North Africa,
  including Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco
• Britain, Egypt and the Suez Canal
• By 1914, all of Africa except for Liberia and
  Ethiopia had been conquered by Europeans

20
Creation of Empires Asia

• Although Asia had been open to Western influence
  since the 16th century, very little of its
  territory had fallen under direct European
  control
• This was to change in the middle of the 19th
  century
• James Cook and Australia
• China and the "Open Door"
• Matthew Perry and Japan

21
Responses to Imperialism

• We have seen several examples of European
  imperialism and how they imposed their beliefs
  and culture upon these conquered people, but how
  did they respond?
• We will look at three examples of how indigenous
  peoples responded to foreign rule
• Boxers and a Chinese Republic
• Meiji Modernization of Japan
• British Control of India

22
International Rivalry and the Coming of War

• Before 1914, Europe experience a period of peace
  lasting nearly 50 years
• Although there had been some wars, but none
  really involving the Great Powers or leading to a
  general war
• The reason for this was Bismarcks retraining
  influence

23
The Bismarckian System of Alliances

• Bismarck knew that the creation of a united
  Germany upset the balance of power
• Bismarck, France and the Three Emperors League
  (1873)
• The disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and who
  would benefit from it, Austria or Russia
• The Congress of Berlin (1878)
• After the Congress, the European powers sought
  alliances to safeguards themselves
• Bismarcks alliance system worked to keep the
  status quo intact, however, he was dismissed by
  William II in 1890

24
New Directions and New Crises

• Germanys search for a place in the sun
• With the dismissal of Bismarck, William II took
  an active interest in foreign policy seeking
  Germanys place in the sun
• However, in pursuing this new activist foreign
  policy, Germany undid most of Bismarcks system
• Triple Entente
• Franco-Russian Alliance (1894)
• Now the Germans faced enemies on both borders, so
  they sought out additional allies, specifically
  the British
• Anglo-German Naval Race
• Signing of the Entente Cordiale (1904) and the
  Triple Entente
• Europe was now divided into two opposing power
  blocs, the Triple Alliance versus the Triple
  Entente - it was only a matter of time before
  some spark set off war between the two

25
Crisis in the Balkans

• The first step in the road to war in 1914 began
  in the Balkans with the Balkan Crisis of 1908-09
• The next step were the two Balkan Wars in 1912
  1913
• Results of the Balkan Wars and the cold war
  between Austria-Hungary and Serbia/Russia
• As 1914 came, Europe sitting upon a keg of
  gunpowder ready for a spark to set it off
• It would take a little accident to set it off
  with the European age of progress about to come
  to a inglorious and bloody end