Chapter 24 The Building of European Supremacy

Population Trends and Migration

Number of Europeans rose to 447 million by 1910 - then - birth and death rates declined or stabilized and began to slow in DEVELOPED countries while increasing in underdeveloped nations

Migration was result of:

a. Emancipation of peasants

b. Railways, steamships and better roads made travel easier and cheaper

c. Cheap land and better wages

d. Europeans moved to other continents relieving social and population pressures

First Industrial Revolution - England took the lead

Second Industrial Revolution - Belgium, France and Germany increased production of heavy industries. German steel passed England by 1893.

Emergence of Germany was major fact of European economic and political life by 1900

NEW INDUSTRIES

Railway systems spurred economic growth

1st - textiles, steam and iron

2nd

Steel - Bessemer process

Chemicals - Solway allowed recovery of chemical by-products - sulfuric acid, laundry soap, dyestuffs and plastics direct link between chemicals and industrial development, Germany took the lead with research and education

electricity - energy delivered anywhere. Daimler invents combustion engine - car

Oil - automobile and chemical use of petro demand for oil

ECONOMIC DIFFICULTIES

1850 - 1900 not uninterrupted or smooth economic growth

Bad weather and foreign competition affected farming resulting in lower consumer food prices - forced people to emigrate from rural areas

Banks failed and capital investment slowed but standard of living in industrial nations improved due to real wages. Pockets of unemployment and terrible working and living conditions = strikes and labor unrest = unions

Consumer goods were answer. Lower food prices = more money to spend on goods = stores catalogues

City Life in the Second Industrial Revolution

Rise of the Middle Class After the 1848 revolts, the Middle Class ceased being revolutionary force and wanted to protect possessions - set society’s values

Became Diverse

Upper Middle Lower White Collar

Petite Bourgeoisie

Bank owners Engineers shopkeeper Business owners Architects Salesmen

Commerce Chemists Teachers

Krupp Family Accountants Nurses

Only a few hundred Dentists

Managers - secretaries

Had country homes rented apartments or private homes

10 servants spent 50 % income on 1 maid

on food and servants

clothes conscious went to church

Education, music No drinking, gambling

Travel was important Sexual purity, loyal to partner

Furniture, pianos books Social tensions among the various middle class groups did exist

Working Class Physical Laborers - No Servants

Highly skilled

Printers

Masons, Construction bosses, Foremen, made Science and musical instruments, Cabinet makers, potters, jewelers

Earned $500.00 per year

Semi- skilled

Factory workers, machine tenders, carpenters, bricklayers, pipefitters

Earned $7.00 a week

Unskilled

Dockworkers, teamsters, street vendors, domestic servants, “sweated industries

Earned 5.00 per week

Drinking did decline because Middle Class made it socially unacceptable

Gathered in Cafes, pubs and taverns

Watched spectator sports like racing and soccer

Went to music halls to see vaudeville

Urban migration = poor housing, hostility between levels and unemployment. Had trouble mixing socially, anti-Semitism.

Redesigning Cities

Centers of business, government and stores, opera houses

Haussmann

Characteristics:

Tore down lower class housing

Broad Streets lined with trees

Parks and open spaces - Opera created public service jobs or jobs with private construction co.

Public buildings

Zoning laws brought Sewers and Aqueducts

Department Stores and apartments replaced Commune

Horse drawn street cars

Subways and railways moved middle class to better housing in suburbs. Moved from high rent and urban congestion

•Eiffel Tower

•Sacre Coeur

Sanitation

Cholera led to reform hit all social classes - miasmas clean up cities

Chadwick- Sanitary Idea

No drainage or garbage collection disease

Results :

A. Water and sewage, gas mains, concrete Mortality rates

B. Expanded government role

Public Health Act

Melun Act

Emminent DomainC. Bacterial Revolution

Disease is not caused by bad air but by bacteria

Pasteur - Germ Theory

Koch - Culture of Bacteria - vaccinations

Jenner - Small pox

Lister - Used antiseptics to clean wounds

Housing

Middle Class shocked by living conditions of the poor = Housing reform

Believed:

a. Good living conditions = good values and good family life

b. Alleviated social and political unrest

c. Save and invest in homes would give lower class same values as them

Result : Private philanthropists took charge

Low interest rates

Cheaper housing projects

Housing was political issue government legislation

Problems Women faced

Property Rights:

Married women could not own property in their names and more women stayed at home as wages for men of all social classes increased

Reform was slow 1882 Married Women’s Property Act

Family Law:

Women were to give “obedience” to husbands

Divorce was difficult - by 1880s could get divorced

had to prove adultery, extramarital sex was a double standard

Contraception and abortion were illegal

Education:

Less access than men and education was inferior, % of illiterate women exceeded men

Universities reserved for men until late 1880s, early 1900s

Educated men feared educated women would take their jobs

Many women hesitated to support feminism because stereotypes were so ingrained

Employment Patterns

A. Jobs opened up outside professions requiring low skills therefore low wages. [government jobs, department store clerks, secretaries, telephone operators, more teachers]

B. Married women withdrew from the work force

• Employers favored young unmarried women

• Men’s wages went higher

• Better health conditions meant men were living longer - less widows

• Middle class values made it acceptable for women to stay at home. Made a family look wealthy

The Cult of Domesticity

Middle Class Woman

HOME LIFE

was as wife and mother because home was a man’s refuge

Not included in husband’s business life like before

Leader of consumer goods

Enjoyed sex, had less children to enjoy comforts

RELIGIOUS LIFE

Took on charitable and social works for lower classes through religious institutions

Attended mass, made sure children got religious education, prayer was part of live

But - reliance on priests made women appear Conservative and pliable to the influence of priests

Working Class Woman

Was single or young

At the mercy of the “putting out” system and condition in sweated shops were horrible. At the mercy of the market, demand determined employment

PROSTITUTION

Paris - 155,000 legal, 750,000 suspected

Was a viable alternative to the working class.

Even though it was shunned by middle class, there was a double standard. Middle class appeared monogamous but were promiscuous. Thought of wife in terms of money, family and social status but purchased affection of the lower classes

Prostitution and Poverty

Unskilled working family with no skill or education

Kinship Ties and Childrearing

Newlyweds lived near parents in a neighborhood

Families helped with sickness, unemployment, old age and death

Relatives lent support and money during tragedies

For poor, elderly moved in to cook, watch children, share Sunday meals

Childrearing

Growing love and concern for children, emotional bonds and sacrifice for child increased as infant mortality decreased

Mothers breastfed their child

Books on childrearing and hygiene [Droz, fathers should be involved]

Fewer illegitimate babies left at founding homes because pregnancy meant marriage

Swaddling stopped

Limited size of family to take care of the ones they had so birthrate declined

Well-educated middle class became concerned with music lessons, summer vacations, travel and dowries

Concern caused pressure on children

The Suffragettes

Opposed Women’s Vote because

women would vote for conservatives

Socialists were weird

Women were worried about their social class and $$$$

Nationalism would win over feminism for most women

Women were divided over peaceful or violent tactics

Feminists

Political action - VOTE

John Stuart Mills- utility and efficiency

Millicent Fawcett - show respectability to get vote

The Pankhursts - used violence

Made gains in Socialist Germany

OVERALL

A. Ownership - property and wages belonged to men 1882 Married Woman’s Property Act let women own property in their name (G.B.)

B. Education was less available and inferior to a man

C. Family law - divorce was hard for a woman, had to prove cruelty and injury. Children were the property of the husband and there was a double standard for adultery

Zionism

By 1800, Jews began to gain rights close to equal citizenship, except for Russia

After 1848, Germany, Italy Belgium gave Jews full citizenship.

1858 - Jews could sit in Parliament

1867 - Austria-Hungary gave Jews full legal rights

Jews entered professions that had been closed to them before, participated in literary and cultural life, became leaders in science and education.

They became members of cabinets and liberal political parties, especially socialists

In 1880s and 1890s, this feeling of security began to erode due to economic depressions that many associated with Jewish Bankers

Some Jewish leaders turned to Zionism but most felt they would be safe under liberal, legal protection

Engels’ First International Membership Card

The German Social Democratic Party

The Bolshevik Revolution