Ways of the World

The European Moment and The Most Recent Century

By Sammy Lee

Chapter 17 - Revolution• North American Revolution

– In The United States• A conservative moment in that it had originated in an effort to preserve

the existing liberties of the colonies, rather than to create new ones.– Revolutions elsewhere

• Peru in 1780s, Haiti in 1791-1804, Mexico in 1810-1813, Brazil in 1822.• The French Revolution

– Came from sharp divisions in French society. – New liberal attitudes – Culminated in the deposition of the then-current French monarchy. – French revolutionaries believed they were “starting from scratch” after the

revolution.– Robespierre ascends to power. Implements “the Terror” and tries to destroy

the old vestiges that went against post-revolutionary France.

CH 17 Cont• From 1780-1890, across the world, slavery lost it’s legitimacy and was largely

ended.• Ideas and practices of the Revolutions played a large role.• Enlightenment ideals and liberal political doctrine stressed the rights of individuals• In many cases, economic lives of former slaves did not improve dramatically after

abolition– i.e., Sharecropping in the United States– Emancipation meant “nothing but freedom”

• Except for Haiti, minorities who constituted slave populations did not experience political equality

• The labor shortages in agriculture brought people in search of work from all over the world : Caribbean, Peru, South Africa, Hawaii, etc.

CH 17 Cont• For a long time before this period, states usually did not coincide with the culture

of a particular people. • By the end of the 20th century, the idea of nation state was so widespread that it

seemed/seems natural.• Before the era of Atlantic revolutions, people usually did not consider rule by

foreigners a terrible offense, because identities were usually concentrated in local cities, clans, regions, etc.

• Napoleon’s conquests played a huge factor in making citizens cognizant of the common bonds with their countrymen.

• Printing and publishing standardized a variety of languages into a small number, which allowed people to think of themselves as part of a common linguistic group or nation.

• Ideologies such as liberalism, socialism, etc. developed as potential solutions to the nation’s problems.

Chapter 18 - Industrialization• Why Europe?

– A scientific revolution – Britain the first country to industrialize– Coal was the primary fuel for the revolution

• Railroads are a useful measure of industrial development. – Britain had a head start in revolution, according to the Table on pg. 535.

• The Industrial Revolution had class-related issues.– Aristocracy, Middle Classes, and a “Laboring Class”

• The upper classes owned the majority of wealth

• People laboring in the industries experienced much hardship: long hours, low wages, unsafe conditions, etc.

• Marx theory developed in light of the Revolutions.

CH 18 Cont• Why Europe?

– A scientific revolution – Britain the first country to industrialize– Coal was the primary fuel for the revolution

• Railroads are a useful measure of industrial development. – Britain had a head start in revolution, according to the Table on pg. 535.

• The Industrial Revolution had class-related issues.– Aristocracy, Middle Classes, and a “Laboring Class”

• The upper classes owned the majority of wealth

• People laboring in the industries experienced much hardship: long hours, low wages, unsafe conditions, etc.

• Marx theory developed in light of the Revolutions.

CH 18 Cont• Russia

– Russia’s industrialization occurred late, relative to Western European countries.

– The Russian Industrial Revolution grew rapidly following the Crimean War– Industrialization led to the political Revolution of 1905, which forced the Tsar

to implement a Constitution and a State Duma.

• Urbanization– People moved from rural areas to densely populated areas in cities– Relocation of people around places of manufacturing.

Chapter 19 - Troubles and Threats• Imperialism

– Industrial countries needed international markets to sell their items.– Industrial countries needed to expand their means of production, labor,

resources, etc.

• Perceptions of the “other”– Europeans during the Industrial age developed a secular arrogance, and even

racist ideology– Use “science” as a basis for this racism– An Idea of a “Progressive Development of Man”

• Crisis within China– Bureaucratic state did not keep pace with a growing population– Revolts against the Qing dynasty on account of its Manchurian Origins– Culmination of China’s internal crisis lay in the Taiping Uprising.

CH 19 Cont• Western Pressures

– Opium Wars– American and British merchants had found a market for Opium in China– From 1000 Opium Chests from 1773, to 23,000 chests in 1832.– Opium was made illegal in China. – Officials were bribed, turning a blind eye, and were thus corrupted– The Treaty of Nanjing imposed numerous restrictions on Chinese Sovereignty.– China lost control of Vietnam, Korea and Taiwan after the Opium Wars.

• Failure of Modernization– Boxer Rebellion, who were anti-imperialists killed numerous Europeans and

Chinese Christians.

CH 19 Cont• Japan

– Encountered the aggressive power of the west during the nineteenth century.– Commodore Matthew Perry’s ship forced the Japanese to open up more

“normal” relations with the world.– Japan didn’t succumb to domination… it created it’s own East Asian empire.– A Meiji Restoration that went hand-in-hand with “American Intrusion”– Japan modernized during the last three decades of the nineteenth century.– Japan’s defeat of the Russian empire in the Russo-Japanese war signaled that

Japan was an international force to be reckin’ with.

Chapter 20 – Colonial Encounters• Colonial Rule in many places, for many people, was a traumatic

experience.• Many countries were weary of the British• Coercion: Forced Labor

– Most infamous cruelties occurred in the Congo– Private companies working under Belgium forced locals to

collect rubber.• Reign of terror that cost millions of lives

CH20 Cont

• Education– The acquisition of education, for a minority of people, generated

new identity.– To illiterate people, the knowledge of reading and writing was

almost like a magical power– It could mean escape for living under European control, such as

forced labor.– Many people embraced European culture, dressing in European

style clothes, building European-style buildings.

• Religion– Provided the catalyst for new or transformed identities

CH20 Cont• Religion Cont.

– Most dramatic was the widespread conversion to Christianity.– Some 10,000 missionaries descended to Africa by 1910. By

1960, almost about 50 million Africans.– In some places like Africa, Christianity became synthesized with

local religions. Converts continued to use protective charms and medicines etc.

Chapter 21 Collapse & Recovery

• First World War– Nature of competing states– Italy and Germany joined fragmented territories into two major

new powers.– By the early Twentieth century, the balance of power was

expressed in two rival alliances: The Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente.

– Outbreak of war occurred when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated

CH 21 Cont• WWI Legacies

– A total war that mobilized each country’s entire population– Outcomes of the war… seemed to mock the Enlightenment

values of progress, tolerance and rationality.– Who could question that science and technlolgy were

unquestionably good things?– In Russia, the war led to a revolution, and the destruction of the

aristocracy.• Rise of Communism

• The Great Depression– Sharply challenged the governments of Capitalist countries,

which generally believed the economy would regulate itself.

CH 21 Cont• The Great Depression Cont.

– Economic Collapse– Paper fortunes almost wiped out overnight after the stock

market crash (October 24, 1929)– Banks closed, many people lost their life savings– Unemployment soared– Many people looked toward the Soviet model, which had a

more equal distribution of income and state-controlled economy.

– The U.S. response to depression was the New Deal, which was comprise of government spending programs in order to moderate depressions and recessions.

Chapter 22 – Rise and Fall of Communism

• Global Communism– Modern Communism found its political and

philosophical roots in Nineteenth century European socialism, inspired by the teachings of Karl Marx

– 1970 was the high point of Communism, with almost one-third of the world’s population governed by Communist regimes.

Chapter 22 Cont.

– During the Cold War decades, the Warsaw Pact brought the Soviet Union and Eastern European communist states together in a military alliance designed to counter the threat from the Western capitalist countries of the Nato Alliance.

– Both the Soviet Union and China defined industrialization as a fundamental task of their regimes.

– Communist governments became the source of fear and loathing to many in the Western capitalist world.

Chapter 22 Cont.

– Proxy wars were fought between the U.S. and Soviet Union (Korea, Vietnam)

– Nuclear Weapons raised the stakes of the Cold War.

– Maoist ideas of Communism fade away in the 1970s in China.

– The Soviet Union collapses in late 80’s/early 90’s• Gorbachev was an instrumental figure for this.

– The United States remained as the only superpower

Chapter 23 - Independence and Development in the Global South

• The End of Empires– Twentieth Century witnessed the Demise of many

empires– The Austrian and Ottoman Empires collapsed after

WWI.– The Russian Empire collapsed, under the auspices of

the Soviet Union– WWII ended German and Japanese Empires– The Soviet unraveled in the late 20th century.– British Rule ended in India. Social protest by Gandhi

yielded profound results

Chapter 23 Cont.

• Experiments in Economic Development– At the top of the agenda everywhere in the Global

South was economic development– East Asian countries in general have had the strongest

record of economic growth– In Most of Africa and Much of the Arab world, there

was little sign of catching up.• Turkey & Iran– The quest for economic development represented the

embrace of an emerging culture of modernity

Chapter 23 Cont.

• Turkey and Iran Cont.– The culture of the west was exposed in these

countries, which held traditional Islamic values.– Turkey adopted many European style legal codes and

embraced western culture– Iran had opposite trends.• The final quarter of the twentieth century led to

revivals that cast the religion as guide to public and private life.

Chapter 24 – Accelerating Global Interaction

• Global Interaction– The foundations for post-war globalization were set

after the Great Depression– Institutions such as the IMF, the “Bretton Woods

System” fostered global trade.– In the 1970s, the U.S. and Great Britain abandoned

many earlier political controls on economic activity as leaders viewed the entire world as a single market.

– The collapse of state-run economies only ensured the globalism would spread across the globe.

Chapter 24 Cont.

• Global Interaction Cont.– World trade skyrocketed from a value of some 57

billion in 1947 to well over 7 trillion in 2001.• Disparities and Resistance– Globalization divided Mexico

• The Northern Part of the country, with business ties to the U.S. became much more prosperous than the south.

– China’s rapid economic growth fostered mounting inequality between rural households and burgeoning cities.

Chapter 24 Cont.

• Globalization and an American Empire– American dominance has been dubbed “empire of

production”– In the final quarter of the twentieth century, the U.S.

faced growing international competition.– Global exercise of American Power generates

controversy• The Vietnam war divided America more sharply tan at any

time since the Civil War.• Similar controversies were associated with the American

Invasion of Iraq in the early 21st Century.