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History Notes

The French Revolution:

Economic problems in France were compounded in 1788 and 1789 by the worst harvest of the century.

By 1789, there were a lot of hungry people in the countryside and a lot of unemployed people in the

city. Every major group at the time had a beef with the French government. There were 120,000 clergy

people. There was a separation between the upper clergy (who tended to live opulently) and the

curates (who loved and worked alongside the people of his parish). The curates thought that the system

was not doing anything to help the poor people. Both the Petite and Upper Bourgeoisie (of which there

were about 3.5 million) wanted to change government interference in economic life. The Upper

Bourgeoisie (successful professionals like lawyers, doctors, bankers, etc) wanted a laissez-faire economy

(from the Enlightenment ideals and Smiths Wealth of Nations). The Petite Bourgeoisie wanted to

increase government interference. They wanted the government to control market high prices (which is

more in line with a moral economy). There were 22,000,000 peasants in France. There were some very

well-to-do peasants at the time. In the past, these peasants had leased land from nobles and farmed for

the market. Many of them had lots of land to produce lots of crops. They were peasant class but they

lived life more like a tenant farmer. The middle class peasants maybe owned a piece of machinery like

a plow that they could lease out for money. They tended to have too little land to farm. These two

classes of peasants were not typical of the state of most peasants. It is estimated that it took

between 35 and 50 acres to farm successfully. Most (90%) peasants had about 5 acres so they hired

themselves out to other peasants or nobles. Some peasants went begging for much of the years. The

peasant condition deteriorated in the 1770s. In the 1780s, proper nutrition for peasants in France was a

big problem. At the same time, there were still about 1 million serfs in France. The peasants were the

most taxed part ofthe population. Also, nobles would sometimes bring up old charters called terriers

that would say that they (the nobles) were owed something from the peasants of the area. It reached abreaking point finally. Nobles and the clergy tried to make the king call an Estates General (a meeting all

representatives of all of the estates). It had been 175 years since the last one had been called. Louis XVI

agreed, but there were big disagreements about the rules for the Estates General. (The three estates,

remember, were divided into those who pray, those who fight, and those who work: clergy,

nobles, and peasants respectively.) Elected representatives of the third estate (the peasants) did not

want to get shafted in the estates general. They wanted as much of a voice as the nobles and clergy.

However, the nobles and clergy did not even want to meet with the third estate. (Some of the curates

began to deflect to the third estate.) When the Estates General opened in Versailles in May 1789,

nothing happened. Representatives of the third estate, one morning, went to a building on the grounds

for a meeting. It was locked because the groundskeeper had overslept. They went to the tennis courtsand made an agreement known as the Tennis Court Oath. In this oath, they declared that they were

no longer representatives of only the third estate. They were the representatives of all of France. They

were a National Assembly, and it was their goal to create a constitution. After a week, Louis XVI

capitulated, but the revolution was on. The nobles had believed that they would dominate the Estates

General by calling it, but the third estate was the dominant group. It was agreed that the National

Assembly would convene in Paris (the most important city of the Revolution). At the time, there were

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many rumors that the king would try to put down the Revolution and that the nobles would help him.

Also, in the countryside, there were rumors that the nobles were hoarding grain and had hired brigands

to burn fields/peasant huts/crops, etc. There was the idea of aristocratic plots. The peasants armed

themselves the best they could and waited for the brigands to appear. (This was known as the Great

Fear), the brigands didnt show up so the peasants went looking for them at the estates of nobles. (The

nobles, remember, had been bring up those terriers, and the peasants were still angry about that.) It

became a convenient time to break into the noble estates to look for those terriers and destroy them.

(The peasants turned to plundering the noble estates.) The peasants of the countryside soon started

attacking boles. This happened in Paris too. The spring and summer after a bad harvest are the worst

times; this was the case in late summer 1789. (A famous story about the atmosphere in Paris at the

time is as follows. A group of young aristocrats went on a summer drive one day. They saw a crowd

around a bakery complaining about the prices and shortages. One of the young aristocrats jumped out

of the car before her friends could stop her to see what was happening. A few minutes later, her friends

spotted her head on a pole floating through the crowd.) Attacks on nobles became more frequent.

Beheading became popular too. On the 14th

of July 17889, the Bastille in France was stormed. The

Bastille was a prison. A lot of armed peasants went to the Bastille and stormed it. They killed all of the

guards and administrators there and proceeded to destroy it. They stormed it because there were

rumors that the king was bringing troops to the Versailles area to try to close the National Assembly and

was hiding them in the Bastille. The nobility and crown had to do something about the situation in the

countryside to prevent a riot. They abolished serfdom and terriers. Shortly after the storming of the

Bastille, the National Assembly propagated the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. The

Declaration provided for equal application of Law regardless of gender and social status. It guarded the

rights of liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression. It postulated the idea that ultimately

rule, that power derives from the people, that the people are the true sovereign. The idea of Popular

Sovereignty was a very radical idea. The Declaration was condemned for a century or so by

conservatives and the Catholic Church, who defended that sovereignty comes from god, that the

monarchy and the three estates were Divinely Established Order (the Divine Right of Kings). The

revolutionaries were claiming sovereignty though; peasants were claiming rule. There was also the idea

that people comprise the nation. This was the idea of nationalism. (Nationalism was the most

destructive force over the next two centuries; it will become the most common cause of war.) The

National Assembly lasted from June 1789 to October 1791. It sold church lands to pay off the national

debt. It drew up a constitution and established a constitutional monarchy in which the king and a

legislative assembly ruled. This took effect after elections were held in October of 1791. The

Constitutional Monarchy lasted until May of 1792. Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louis XVI, was not

popular at the time. There were rumors that she was cheating on the king and Louis XVI was weak. A

large group of women went to Versailles because they were fed up with the situation. They insisted that

the King and Queen go to Versailles. (The guards of Versailles by that time, though, had been

slaughtered and beheaded.) Just before October 1791, Louis XVI tried to get his family out of France

(the Flight to Verennes), but he forgot to disguise the carriage and he failed. As the King and Queen

became more and more unpopular, Austria and Prussia began threatening the Revolutionaries. This

made the King and Queen more unpopular. War erupted in 1792 when a Paris crowd stormed the Kings

palace in Paris, effectively overthrowing the monarchs on August 10. The National Convention began

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working on a new Constitution in 1792, and the first French Republic was formed. Initially, it was

controlled by the Girondins (moderates). The Jacobins were more radical, and the most radical of this

group belonged to the Mountain group. The most famous Mountain was Robespierre. He was known

as the Incorruptible because he was very loyal to revolutionary values. He was the most idealistic of

the group; he refused to use his position to acquire wealth. The Jacobins took over in June 1793. They

pushed for the trial of the royals (Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI). They wanted to convict the two of

treason and to sentence them to the guillotine. They were supported by the sans-culottes. The sans-

culottes were mostly radicalized shop-keepers and craftsmen; they were politically conscious, aggressive

actives from the lower class. The National Convention eventually created a Committee of Public Safety

which became the executive arm of the Convention. The Jacobin-led government built up the army (to

one million men by mid 1790) and tried to mobilize the entire population for the war effort. Also, the

Jacobins instituted terror and the widespread use of the guillotine against real and alleged enemies of

the revolution. Most of the enemies were in the Vendee in West France where priests and nobles had

stirred up the peasants in a rebellion against the revolutionary government in 1793. This counter-

revolution was put down with enormous loss of life. There was a Reign of Terror in Paris especially.

Louis XVI was executed in 1793, Marie Antoinette in October 1793. Between 25000 and 40000 people

were executed by the end of the Reign of Terror. 1300 people in Paris were executed in Paris in June

and July in 1794. Many of those killed were good revolutionaries like George Danton. The Revolution

began devouring its own children. The French did not know what to do with opposition. The English

took a long time to learn what to do with political opposition after the Civil War. This opposition

became known as Loyal Opposition, the losing side of a political argument. In France, they did not

know what to do with those groups. This meant that a lot of people were put to death. Robespierre

was mostly responsible for this. He was blamed by the people of Paris and was put to death on July 28,

1794. Parisians finally came against the Terror. Robespierre was blamed for the excesses and met the

blade of liberty. Also, the people on the Committee were making money on the military that rose up

since the Revolution. They knew that Robespierre would turn on them, so he was executed. Soon the

Convention wrapped up its work and created yet another government, a republic consisting of a

legislative association and a five-man executive body known as the Directory. This government lasted

from 1795 to 1799. It was known for its corruption, but it benefited from good harvests and a general

economic turnaround in France. Also the people of France were exhausted from five years of

Revolution. Meanwhile, the war continued, and victorious generals assumed superstar status even

though popular support for the war waned. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 to 1821) was the biggest

superstar general. He seized power in a coup dtaton November 9, 1799 or the 18 Brumaire,

according to the revolutionary calendar. He assumed the title of First Consul, and in December of 1804

he crowned himself emperor. He promulgated the Napoleonic Code of Law that solidified some of the

gains of the revolution (security of property rights, equality before the law for men, and equality of

opportunity) yet it treated women as inferior; it accepted a double standard. The Napoleonic Code built

on achievements of the French Revolution. Napoleon made an agreement with the Catholic Church.

Catholic worship became protected by law, but church lands were not returned. It established the

principle of governance by experts to produce effectiveness. This is one of the hallmarks of modern

society. It changed the basis of authority in France. He displayed prowess as a General. He defeated

Holland, Prussia, and Austria, but he could not invade England. He incited guerrilla warfare in Spain.

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He managed to remake the map of Europe. He established the Continental System. He tried to prevent

trade with the British. He couldnt though because he did not have the naval power to do so. So he

caused discontent in Russia (Britains most important trading partner). Also, Russia had lost in the

Campaign of 1805 to 1807. He wanted revenge. He amassed a magnificent military tradition. Napoleon

was impertinent in telling Alexander I that he wanted to Marry Alexs sister. Tensions built up so

Napoleon built up the greatest army up until that point in history. He tried to invade Russia in June

1812 with the largest army ever up to that point in history (600,000 men). Russia was led by Michel

Kutuzov with 120,000 troops whose general plan was to "make a stand and then run like hell." On

September 7, 1812, the two armies met in the Battle of Borodino (a village next to Moscow). This was

the bloodiest battle that had ever occurred up to that point in history. There were over 100,000

casualties in one day. Kutuzov and his army fled to a point beyond Moscow because he did not want to

waste away his army's numbers. Napoleon went all the way to Moscow and waited for the Russian

Czar Alexander to surrender. However, Alexander refused to do so. Moscow turned into hell for the

French in the meantime. The city burned downed mysteriously in the Great Moscow Fire of 1812, and

also the huge army needed to be fed. (They originally planned to live off of the land, but when men

were sent to gather food, none of them ever came back. It is assumed that they were picked off by

guerrilla fighters.) Also, as the Russians proceeded into Russia, they burned everything behind them,

leaving nothing for the pursuing French to survive on. Napoleon eventually decided to retreat till the

spring from Moscow, but Kutuzov brought in troops from the rear (along with present guerilla fighters).

Napoleon left Russia with 50,000 men. This turned out to be one of the greatest military disasters in

history. Napoleon went back to France to raise and army (another one) but was defeated in Leipzig at

the Battle of Nations in October 1813. He abdicated his throne in early April 1814; he went into exile

island of Elba. He returned to France though on March 1, 1815. He was defeated at Waterloo by the

British and Prussia under the Duke of Wellington on June 18, 1815 in the Battle of Waterloo. (He had

been disliked by the Prussians and the British who did not like his imperial conquests.) He died of

stomach cancer on the island of St. Helena in 1821 in exile. After his death, he was still very popular

even outside of France to the extent that there was Napoleon memorabilia. 20 years after his death,

the French decided to exhume his body to bury it in Paris. His body, though, was perfectly preserved.

In the 1960s to 1970s this phenomenon was investigated; and it was discovered that he may have been

poisoned by arsenic.

Effects of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era:

It popularized new political ideas and ideals. There was the idea of rights; that all people should be

guaranteed certain rights. (In the USA, this is enshrined in the constitution.) There was also the idea of

revolution in all aspects of the social system. People began to make a living from revolting in the 19th

century. Popular sovereignty was the idea that ultimately power lies in the hands of the people.

Nationalism was the idea that people, not just a government, constitute a nation. The French

Revolution and the Napoleonic Era also inaugurated nationalism and mass-based politics. In France,

this was seen in the sans-culottes of the French lower middle class who played a huge role in the French

Revolution. People of the lower classes begin to have roles and to affect politics. The French

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Revolution and Napoleonic Era also induced a backlash or counter-revolution across Europe from 1815

to 1848, which was a very conservative era. The two periods helped create the modern spectral view

of politics or the political spectrum.

Radicalism Liberalism Conservatism Reactionary

- Most Idealistic- Revolutionaries- Want Institutional

Change

- Willing to UseViolence

- Want MoreChange- What Might Be- Idealism- Pragmatism

- Suspicious ofChange- Traditionalism- Pragmatism

- Mosthostile tochange

- Want toTurn Back

the Clock

An ideology is a set of beliefs. The fundamental issue with political philosophy has to do with the

relationship between the individual and the state. Individualism versus the State; Freedom versus

Authority; Liberty versus Order. Conservatives stress the state and authority. Hobbes' idea of the worst

thing in the world is anarchy. Conservatives consistently come down on authority's side in a clash withliberty. Liberals believe that liberty should be expanded and authority reduced. They believe that using

law, we must define as precisely as possible the respective jurisdictions of the individual and the state.

Sometimes the state must intrude to make life livable for the poorest of society. We need federal

government to provide for them; otherwise they cannot become individuals. Early liberals wanted to

removed interference of the state in economic life completely (laissez-faire), but by the end of the 19th

century, they realized that some state protection must be issued. Martin Luther King used the idea of

non-violent civil disobedience (from Gandhi). He was a critic of the Viet Nam War and had socialist

ideals.

Liberalism and Conservatism in the 19th century:

Liberals from 1815 to 1848 sounded a lot like the philosophes. They represented mainly the interest of

the Middle Class; as such, when they talked about rights (like voting), it was for people who owned

property. They supported education and literacy, the separation of church and state, and a laissez-faire

economy. They were ideological. In some places, particularly in the multinational empires of the time,

liberals flirted with nationalism. They believed in the principle of national determination. In empires

(like Austria), there were ethnic minorities who were unhappy with the status quo. The minorities were

mistreated sometimes and did not have the same rights and political clout as the ruling ethnicities did.

Liberals tended to identify themselves with liberation movements. Prussia also had nationalists. Therewere movements for minority groups to break with Prussia. Conservatives were represented by

monarchs, national churches, aristocrats (boyars and Junkers). They tended to be inflexible and wanted,

if possible, to return to the time before the French Revolution (by which they were frightened and

angered). Conservatives and Reactionaries were against the enlightenment and French revolutionary

traditions. Radicalism is an ultra-liberalism represented mostly by college students and intellectuals.

They emphasized social justice, real equality, socialists

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The two eras also created chronic political instability. Radicalism was a form of ultra-liberalism. Radicals

were mostly college students and intellectuals. They emphasized social justice, real equality, and

socialism (the equitable division of wealth in society). They were critical of laissez-faire economies

where the rich have huge advantages over the poor. Like liberals, radicals can be nationalistic. Later,

they tended to identify with internationalism as opposed to the specific interest of one country. After

the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, there developed a revolutionary reaction to the

changes caused by both periods. The reactionaries tended to be extremely conservative. (For

example, the best example of a reactionary group in America in modern times is the Ku Klux Klan.) A

reactionary, the Austrian Chancellor Clement Metternich was the most influential person between the

years of 1815 to 1848. Also, a Holy Alliance was originally composed by Czar Alexander I who turned

increasingly conservative during the wars with Napoleon and after 1815 was a full blown reactionary.

(Before then, though, he had already turned to mysticism and had gone batty.) The Alliance was

formed to prevent revolutions from occurring in Europe. Alexander managed to partner Russia with

Austria and Prussia in the Alliance. (The British rule of the time referred to the Alliance and its goal as

sublime nonsense.)

The period between 1815 and 1914 was a highly ideological age with conservatives in charge. There was

a conservative reaction after the Enlightenment, French Revolution, and the Napoleonic Era. The idea of

legitimacy was born. This was the idea that the only legitimate rules were those that had been in

charge before the French Revolution. The Holy Alliance represents this. There was a desire to prevent

revolution happening again in Europe. 1815 to 1848 was known as the Age of Metternich, the Austrian

Chancellor. Conservatism of the time tended to be very reactionary, but the movement had trouble.

The Greeks rebelled against the Turks at the beginning of 1810. Countries like Russia had to decide who

to support, the rebels or the Turks (for whom Russia held a historical dislike). The Russians chose the

Greek Cause for National Independence in the end though. Also, lots of smaller uprisings in the 1820s

occurred. In the 1830s in France, Belgium, and Poland there were major revolutions. France saw theoverthrow of the second king after Napoleon, Charles X (1824 1830) who wanted to rule as an

absolute monarch. He was replaced by the Prince of Orleans Louis Philippe who was known as the

citizen king because he dressed like a Middle Class businessman. Belgium gained independence from

Holland. Poland revolted against Russia in the capital city of Warsaw. It was mainly a revolt of the

Polish nobility, and they were unsuccessful. The Russians put down the Polish revolt ferociously. The

revolutions, especially in France, were inspired by the ideas of liberalism and radicalism. The 1840s saw

further political crises. The 1840s were known as the hungry 40s. Unemployment was high and there

were severe economic and structural problems with the new industrial system. It was the decade, also,

of the Irish Potato Famine, in which between 750,000 and 1 million people died of starvation or left for

America. Later, in 1848, revolutions began again in February. The French people were unhappy with

Louis Philippe, and he was chased out of France; a republic was proclaimed. On the political side of the

revolutions, there was a desire for change and a more representative government. There was the drive

for a unified Germany; there was discontent in the Austrian Empire. There were many revolutions from

German speaking Europe down to Italy. Northern Italy was part of the Austrian Empire. Italy was a

mess, and there was drive by radicals for a unified state of Italy, but neither the Catholic Church nor the

Austrian Empire would allow it. Some German nationalists favored what was called The Greater

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German Solution. This was the unification of all German speaking peoples including Austrian Capital,

Vienna, which was the center of German culture at the time. They wanted to make Austria the hub of a

unified Germany. (There was also the Smaller German Solution that excluded Austria and centered

unification on Prussia with the capitol at Berlin.) Austria, though, was a multinational Empire with many

ethnic minorities. (The Hungarians were the largest minority followed by the Slavs, etc.) Some German

nationalists wanted Austria without all of the extra people; some wanted the minorities. In the end,

existing powers in Europe held on to power, and the radicals were beaten back with violence (especially

in the Austrian Empire). In fact, the Russians sent 140,000 soldiers to Austria to fight the Hungarian

revolt. Nationalists failed also in other places; the revolutions failed. Liberals and Radicals could not get

on the same page, and conservatives by that time tended to be more flexible, more responsive to the

needs of their peoples. Revolutions faded in Italy and in France where the nephew of Napoleon took

charge. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte III was elected president of France, but made himself dictator in

1852. He crowned himself emperor on the anniversary of his uncles coronation. He was the prototype

for the infamous 20th

century dictators. He ruled until 1870. The revolutionaries who survived acquired

valuable political experience, though. The revolts also managed to further politicize the masses. It

brought more people into the political process. Between the 1850s and 1914, the most important

political events were the unifications of Italy and Germany (especially). The Kingdom of Sardinia Pied

Mont consisted of the Island of Sardinia and parts of the Northwest of Italy. It was the most

economically and socially developed part of Italy. (It also had the strongest military.) The Prime

Minister of Sardinia Pied Mont, Cavour, was a moderate liberal. He believed in Italian unification, and

he possessed formidable political skills and diplomacy which he provided to the cause. Giuseppe

Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi were both radicals. Mazzini was the PR guy of Italian unification. He

wrote copiously about the need for Italian unification (so by the time it happened, both Italians and

other Europeans expected it). Garibaldi provided the military force. Cavour sent his army to the north

of Italy and Garibaldi sent his to the Kingdom of Sicily in the south of Italy. They achieved unification in

1861 under the Kingdom of Sardinia Pied Mont. The architect of German Unification was Otto von

Bismarck (a conservative Junker), the Prussian Chancellor known as the Iron Chancellor. He was prime

minister of Prussia but became chancellor in 1852. He did not have a distinguished academic record. He

represented a new phenomenon, a conservative, authoritarian, militaristic branch of nationalism which

was previously dominated by liberals and radicals. He stated We will not solve the burning issues of

our time by talk, no, we will solve these issues by blood and iron. (Blood and iron, meant of course,

war and industry.) He tried to use war deliberately to gain power. In Little Denmark, he said that the

Germans there were being oppressed by the Danish government. He brought Austria and Prussia

against the small state. They were, of course, successful. However, Prussia won the pass to Denmark

while Austria won the Prussian side of Denmark. Austria had to go through this Prussian pass to get to

their war spoils. Bismarck wanted to promote war with Austria. He wanted to put an end to the idea

that Austria should be the capitol of the United Germany. In 1866, war came and Prussia won. Prussias

third target was France. In 1870, Bismarck suckered Louis Napoleon III into war. He got the King of

Prussia to think that Napoleon had insulted him and Napoleon to believe that the Prussian king had

insulted him. They went to war with each other, and it was (scarily) an easy Prussian victory. By 1871,

Grater Germany existed. The king of Germany became Kaiser (emperor). After this, Bismarck became

a man of peace, but by then he had used his military power to their fullest extent for political means.

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He had already gained the political enmity of France (and there was discontent elsewhere). This meant

that he would have to maintain a relationship with Russia. He did not want to have war with France and

Austria, but he knew that France would hate him for gaining Alsace and Lorraine after the war. Louis

Napoleon III had to abdicate the throne during the war with Prussia (he was captured, actually), and

after Frances defeat in 1871, there was another revolt called the Paris Commune over what kind of

government would control of France. The Middle Class, liberals, and conservatives did not want

socialism or a full-fledged Republic (which meant universal suffrage). The commune was put down by

troops resulting in murder and exile. The Third Republic was created which lasted 70 years, but it did

not necessarily have the full support of the people. It was a moderate republic. It had a president, a

Chamber of Deputies, parlements, etc. Governments in this era became more responsive to the needs

of the people. Conservatives became more flexible by the end of the 19th

century, and liberals were

more flexible in terms of the economy. They realized that laissez-faire was not all good. (There had to

be some protection of the people from exploitation.) In most places, there was some kind of voting, so

liberals and conservatives had to be more flexible and responsive to peoples wants and needs because

they had to compete for votes. The first place with a welfare system was Germany because during the

1870s and 1880s, a strong socialist movement emerged there. Bismarck wanted to undermine it so he

pandered to the lower classes. Also, he adhered to the ideas of traditional paternalism. (He was a

Junker, remember.) In Russia, Alexander II ruled from 1855 to 1881. When he came to power during

the war with the Ottoman Empire (which was being aided by the British and French empires e because

they were afraid that Russia would expand), Russia was defeated in the Crimean War. Alexander

thought that Russia needed reform. He had officials study the state of Russia and came up with a few

changes. Firstly, he emancipated Russian serfs. Half the serfs lived and worked on state land. Others

were treated as slaves by their owners. He modernized the Russian military. He removed the

requirement of 25 years of duty for draftees. He reduced this to a smaller term dependent on ones

education with a small stint in the reserves. He introduced independent judges, and trial by jury in most

civil cases (equality before the law). He reorganized local government. He created Zemstros (town

councils) and Dumas (village councils) to take on the routine obligations of the government.

Industrialization, strictly speaking, refers to a significant change in economic organization, with an

extraordinary increase in productivity, based on capital investment, factories, machinery, and wage

labor; but it is also a social process insofar as it profoundly affects social institutions, values, patterns of

behavior, living standards, quality of life, human relationships, and even political systems; one of its

most distinctive features is its capacity for sustained or continuous growth; that is, unlike in a Pre-

Industrial Economy, where a rise in production is soon followed by stabilization, the Industrial Economy

keeps, in fact must keep, growing. There have been several times in Pre-Industrial History where a

development has effected a large change toward efficiency (such as the inventions of the yoke or plow).

After these developments, there were increased in production then stabilization. Industrial societies

have a need to continually produce more (than before). Production goes up (for better or for worse).

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in (this is debatable) the late 18th

century. By the 1780s, a

take off had occurred in key industries like ship-building, brewing, pottery (engineering in general), and

most significantly, the textile industry. The production of relatively cheap cotton garments was key.

There were several phases of Industrialization. In England/Britain, the Industrial revolution was based

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on textiles, coal for fuel, steam for power, and iron for building. In 1850, the Industrial Revolution in

continental Europe and the USA was based on oil for fuel, on electricity for power, on steal for building,

and synthetic products. Britain had a half-century head start on the Industrial Revolution because of the

interruption of the French Revolution. On the continent it started in places like Holland; it spread east,

but Russia did not experience the Industrial Revolution until the 1890s. The USA experienced it in the

1840s. The first foreign, non-European industrialized nation was Japan which began a significant

modernization program in the 1870s.

Causes of the Industrial Revolution:

There was great technological innovation (inventions) at the time. Those that contributed in the early

Industrial Revolution used science (as developed by the natural philosophers and spread by things like

salons). There was an increase in the number of people who were trying to solve various Industrial

problems with science. The inventions were simple but labor saving, production increasing, and

efficient. The steam engine was invented by James Watt in 1789. (It was originally invented by someone

else, but it was perfected by Watt.) The watt engine had 20 Horsepower. There were major

developments in the cotton industry. Textile production had two basic procedures: spinning (cotton to

produce string) and weaving (string to produce textiles). James Kay invented the flying shuttle which

increased the efficiency of weavers. Spinning was a slow process, but weaving was quick. Weavers

before were often left for periods with no work to do while they waited for the spinners to catch up.

There was a need to speed up spinning. James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny in 1754.

Arkwright invented the waterframe. Samuel Crompton invented Comptons mule. Many of these were

huge machines that needed space (as before, spinning and weaving was performed in small cottage and

home settings). The space need was met by the building of spinning mills which were the first factories.

There were many developments. The early 18th century (1709) gave about 2.2 patents per year. By the

late 18

th

century (the 1790s) close to 70 patents per year were issued. 95 patents were issued in 1800.There was an abundant supply of the right natural resources (coal and iron). Developments in

transportation (and communication) occurred. There were the first blacktopped roads (called Macadam

roads), and canals were built. Storms in the English Channel made moving products by sea expensive

and dangerous. Canals expedited the process. One could move goods around inside England (as in from

factories to markets). There was the development of new financial institutions that facilitated business

ventures. Before, most banks were in London. They spread to the countryside. With banks comes a

ready amount of capital for investment; also, the development of the insurance industry happened. Life

insurance, fire, and (more importantly for overseas trade) marine insurance grew. People now had

insurance against disaster. The acquisition of insurance also reduced the probability of disaster. There

was incentive to avoid accidents because with insurance there was the chance of starting over. Also,paper money, checks, and promissory notes came into vogue in the late 18

thcentury. This allowed

people to spend lots of money easily; it made transactions easier. There was also the growth of

domestic demand for Industrial goods as a result of population increase. The Industrial Revolution

happened at the same time as the American Revolution. The British lost its most important trading

partner. It didnt matter, though, because there was a huge population increase in Britain at the time.

The population increase itself also spurred on the Industrial Revolution. There were 5.7 million people n

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Britain by 1700. By 1750, there were 6 million, but in 1800, there were 9 million. This led to greater

demand for goods and more people to work in factories. There were huge expanses in business because

of this. The capitol for the Industrial Revolution had accumulated over time. It came from overseas

trade. Many industrialists came from rich trading families. There was also an agricultural revolution

that had happened before the Industrial Revolution. It goes back to the 17th century when members of

the gentry class began to farm more aggressively. They got Acts of Parliament that allowed them to

consolidate their land ownings. Before, there was an intermingling of land because most farming was

communal. These people also began to expand cultivatable land by draining bogs and swamps. They

began to experiment with devices and forage crops like clover and turnips that would return nutrients to

the soil and became food for animals (who were able to produce more fertilizer). There was also

political stability that allowed the citizenry to concentrate on other things (like generating wealth).

There were changes in attitude as well. There was a change in the attitude toward profit making. There

was the idea that man is by nature a very competitive being who always wants to improve his/her lot.

We pursue profit by nature. This idea became more respectable (resulting in the death of the moral

economy and the criminalization of things like the food riot, etc). There was the idea that the operating

capitalist was engaging in work that would ultimately benefit everyone. There was also the idea that life

was not controlled by fate but by people. People make things happen. We are in control of our

destinies; we can work for change of all kinds, including economic change. People were more optimistic

and thought more and more about the future. People had subconsciously embraced the idea of

progress.

Consequences of the Industrial Revolution:

The economic results include the creation of an industrial, capitalist economy. Industrial capitalism is an

economy that rests on private control of the economy, the profit motive, the self-correcting mechanism

known as the law of supply and demand, capital investment, and wage labor. The social consequencesincluded a huge, unprecedented increase in population and the growth of urbanization/city life. Going

back to year 1000, 800,000 to 900,000 people lived in Europe. By 1650, there were 1 million people (not

much growth). By 1750, there were 140 million people, and by 1800, 188 million. There was

tremendous population expansion. Also, the 18th

century was a healthy century with huge commercial

activity. By 1900, more than 400 million people live in Europe. This demonstrates the Industrial

Revolutions capacity for growth and expansion. The Industrial Revolution made it possible to feed,

clothe, and house an increasing number of people. Most of the city resided in cities, and there was a

countryside exodus for work. In 1800 there were 22 cities in Europe led by London with a population of

1 million (followed by Paris with a population of 800,000). By 1850, there were 2.5 million people in

London, and by 1910, there were 7.25 million people. In 1850, there were 48 cities in Europe. Britainhad 6 cities with a population of more than 100,000. These were the new Industrial cities. There was an

exacerbation of older social and health problems and the creation of new ones. City life consisted of

overcrowded shanties where disease spread, unsanitary conditions increased susceptibility to disease,

and epidemics like smallpox and cholera spread and claimed many lives, and the close proximity

increased the crime rate. It is estimated that for the later part of the 19th century, there were 80,000

hookers in England. Those in London alone were performing 2.5 million tricks per week in a population

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of 1.3 million adult males. (The Victorian Period, which lasted from 1837 to 1903, was known ironically

for prudery.) Sanitation measures, clean food and drug laws, immunization programs, and philanthropic

efforts helped the situation though. Crime was counteracted by the development of the modern police

method and modern lighting in cities. Housing codes, sanitation systems, and a range of legislation

passed by reforming officials, philanthropy and developments in medicine helped. (Philanthropy is

when either money is donated or an organization receives charity and provides some public service.

Modern examples of philanthropic organizations include the Make-A-Wish Foundation, St. Judes, the

Salvation Army, the SPCA, St. Vincent de Paul, etc.) Other philanthropic groups developed for securing

the franchise (like womens suffrage groups, suppression of vices groups, prohibition groups, etc.) A

system of classes replaced the old estates. A social structure based on a class system grew up. Before,

status was ascribed at birth. In the new class system, status was achieved. The class system was based

on occupation, income, education, and lifestyle. In the 18th and 18th centuries, the middle class was

comprised of businessmen (white collar), and the working class was composed of people who worked

with their hands (blue collar). The class struggle helped determine the class system in America. It was

intended that class conflict would be prevented so we have an American class mythology that rich,

upper class people have the same goals and interests as poor/lower class (or even middle class) people

do to prevent the resentment of the rich. The big gainers of Industrialization were the Middle Class

Industrialists, especially the upper middle class. After Industrialization, though, eventually everyone

improved/gained something. (Historians have studied the consumption patterns for workers in the

1750s and for working class industrialists in the 1820s, and they found higher consumption for the

latter. However, the standard of living based solely on consumption does not necessarily coincide with

the quality of life.) For some, especially the working class, improvement took struggle, but they

eventually achieved it. For example, millions worked under exploitative conditions in factories until they

formed unionswhich were disliked and fought by the upper class industrialists of courseand

demanded change. Working class people got the right to vote and to form unions (and later the right to

strike). Also, children as young as 5 worked in factories doing the jobs for less pay that the adults could

not do. The Sadler Report published in 1831 and 1832 showed that children were being cruelly

exploited (16 hour days, 6 days per week) and being beaten and abused because kids simply do not

want to work. They want to play so they were beaten (sometimes even by their parents). The Sadler

Report eventually led to legislation that limited child labor and made working conditions for women

easier, but this happened later. There was so much abuse, the Sadler Report said, because of the desire

to get work out on time. Industrialization destroyed traditional family life (certainly for factory workers).

People who work all of the time in factories have poor home lives. And even when hours were reduced,

life and change in Industrial Europe were faster. Industrialization brought people out of the domicile.

Before, craftsmen worked at home. Farmers worked at home. Women and children stayed at home.

After the Industrial Revolution, home became merely a crash pad. A new kid culture was created to

keep kids away from the home (daycares, etc.) Dysfunctional families became more common. The

divorce rate increased. Before Industrialization, work cycles were in tune with the rhythm of life. There

were slow times and busy times, etc. Industrialization did violence to human nature; it may have

changed human nature.

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Socialism:

There was a reaction to the social and economic changes of the Industrial Revolution. There was a

reaction, especially, to the exploitation of the working class. Socialism is a form of radicalism that insists

that society (and thus economy) should be based on cooperative rather than competitive principles.

Robert Owen was a British businessman. He purchased cotton mills in New Lanark, Scotland in 1799. Atthe cotton mills, he raised wages, tried to improve working conditions, and created schools for the

children of the mills. He also mandated that no children under the age of ten should work in the mills.

The workers were contented. The mills became very profitable and productive. Owen also tried to

establish model communities. (There was one in Indiana.) Karl Marx (German) was a philosopher by

training. He was one of the great Renaissance Man figures. He spent most of his life in Britain, and he

lived from 1818 to 1883. He tried to figure out the Industrial Capitalist Economy. He wrote a three

volume study of it entitled Capital whose first volume was published in 1867. The second and third

volumes were published posthumously by friend and collaborator Frederick Engels. The most famous

part of this work was the Communist Manifesto. In his work, Marx critiqued capitalism. He said that

capitalism exploits workers (the working class). He said that capitalism creates an anarchy ofproduction. The self-correcting mechanism known as the Law of Supply and Demand results in the ups

and downs of the economy that affect mostly workers. Capitalism resulted in the alienation of

everyone. He claimed that people could not achieve their full potential in a capitalistic society. (He said,

though, that capitalism was a greater achievement than the pyramids of Egypt. For the first time in

history, mankind can overcome the subsistence crisis that was as old as mankind. We were able to feed,

clothe, and house ourselves.) People, though, cannot reach their full potential in a capitalist society

because we all have multiple talents. In a capitalist society, we are restricted to one or two things in our

whole lives. We must work to make money (suggesting coercion). People do not and can not choose

where they end up working. The brain turns to mush and becomes part of the machine. Compare this

to craftsmen who create things of beauty. Industrial workers arent doing what they want to do andmay not even see the complete product of their work. They are alienated from his labor. Since he can

not develop to his full potential, he is alienated from himself; he becomes a commodity. Early in his

career, Marx stressed that the way out of this was revolution. He wrote The Cry of Revolution in

which he argued using dialectical; that is, he used the concepts of thesis/antithesis and synthesis. He

believed that the rise of capitalism and the bourgeoisie replaced the nobility as the ruling class. The

bourgeoisie exploited the proletariat (the working class mainly, but not exclusively). There comes a time

when the proletariats start to realize that whats good for me is good for you in regard to the

bourgeoisie is not true. The idea of whats good for me is good for you is a false consciousness. At

that point, Marx says, they have achieved class consciousness. Their interests are antithetical to the

interests of the Bourgeoisie. Revolution begins. Marx predicted that the proletariats would eventually

win. Revolution originally meant armed battle for Marx, but later when socialist political parties formed,

Marx believed that socialists could be voted into office. He went from advocating violent revolutions to

political ones. He predicted that when workers take over, they would install a democratic government

and instate socialism. The state would take over the means of production and thus the economy.

Eventually socialism would morph into communism, which is community control over the means of

production. In communism, there would be no need for money. Society would be based on the concept

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of from each according to his abilities, to each according to his need. This was a utopian view of

communism. He believed that it was only applicable in very advanced societies that had already gone

through the Industrial Revolution. Marx in the 1860s and 1870s belonged to the 1st International

Working Mans Association which was a radical organization that brought radicals from all over the

world together. In 1889, the 2ndInternational Working Mans Association was formed which was a

Marxist organization, but it was formed after Marxs death. The people of the association did not know

how to bring Marxism to the future. They thought that Marx had scientifically predicted a revolution.

The orthodox members of the group simply waited for the revolution. Evolutionary socialists believed

that no revolution would occur because workers had formed unions and had achieved higher wages,

etc. Then radical socialists like Lenin believed that evolutionary socialists and orthodox socialists were

both wrong. They believed that socialists must eat, drink, and sleep revolution. They formed a party of

revolutionaries. They believed that people would probably never achieve revolution on their own and

must be dragged to Revolution.

Imperialism:

Imperialism is an old concept. Imperialism is when a stronger political power dominates a weaker one

(economically, socially, governmentally, etc.). There was an unprecedented expansion of European

power in the 1870s to the early 20th

century. Before this expansion was over, virtually all of Africa (with

the exception of Liberia and Ethiopia) was part of some European Empire. Britain added 45 million

square miles to its already large empire. France added 3 million; Germany added 1 million mostly from

Africa and Asia. Belgium took over 90,000 square miles, especially from the Congo. The USA added

125,000 square miles in the Spanish American war and with the acquisition of the Philippines, Hawaii,

and Cuba.

Reasons for Imperialism:

By the 2nd half of the 19th century, Europe had the military, technology, communication, and

transportation necessary to expand imperialistically, especially over the cultures of Africa and Asia. By

1900, one-fourth of the worlds population lived in a European colony. More people than that were

dominated economically by European countries. Also, there were lots of natural resources (like rubber,

tin, diamonds, coconuts, and tea) in colonies. Colonies provided a market in which to dump cheap,

industrial goods on people. Culturally, scientists wanted to study the exotic flora and fauna of the

colonies. Clergymen wanted to spread Christianity to the heathens to renew the foothold that

organized religion had lost after the Enlightenment. There was also a quest for adventure and new

leisure activities in Europes upper class. Politically, nationalism played a role. (If one country had a

colony, other countries have to have one too.) Ideologies (racism) and Social Darwinism were used to

justify imperialism. Darwin had published the Origin of Speciesin 1857 with the idea of natural

selection. Herbert Spencer coined the term survival of the fittest when he tried to apply Darwins

theory of natural selection to what happens in society. He argued that Europeans were stronger,

smarter, and more moral than Africans and Asians so they should rightly be dominate. Rudyard Kipling

called it the white mans burden. Schools, hospitals, railroads, etc. were built in the colonies.

Christianity spread, and native people were exposed to European ideas on politics (liberty/freedom).

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Europeans wanted wealth though. Some colonies were successful, but someone had to pay for the

soldiers, buildings, administrators, etc. that were required to run a colony. This financial burden fell on

the taxpayers. The colonies did not pay for themselves. Imperialism became part of the scenario that

led to World War I; it increased tension between European countries. The colonists were generally

brutally exploited, especially in the Belgian Congo. Eventually there were outcries against this. There

was the breakdown, also, of native tradition. The natives were treated as inferiors. The native elites

were forced to accept European ways of life. There was a loss of identity. These elites were supposed

to act as much as possible like Europeans and were educated under the European system, but they still

had to suffer racism because of their skin color.

China:

China, in history, was not really dominated by any European country because of its large size. It could

not be broken up by any single European country. Europeans, though, developed spheres of influence

in which China was divided into cones and dominated by some European power who wanted to

capitalize on the economic weakness that was present in China at the time. The Chinese were

responsible for the invention of writing, paper, gun powder, printing, and Confucianism. From 1644 to

1911, Chin was ruled by the Manchu Dynasty of Emperors. The Dynasty was decrepit by the 19th

century, though. China had fought a few wars with Britain, but for the most part they had kept

themselves isolated from Europe. From the Middle Ages onward, though, there was increasing contact

between China and European countries until the 19th

century. At that time, it was impossible to avoid

contact with the British. (The British had colonized India.) The Opium Wars began when the Chinese

tried to prevent the British from selling drugs in China. The British were angry that they were trying to

interfere with business by prohibiting the drugs. China lost the war. This paved the way for greater

foreign influence in China. The Japanese wanted to capitalize on business in Manchuria. This led to war

in 1894 and 1895. China lost again, and foreigners began flooding in. The Manchu dynasty fell in 1911,but not before there was a strong reaction in the form of war by Chinese Nationalists against foreign

intruders. The Boxer Rebellion occurred with Boxers (Chinese nationalists) rose up in 1900 andwas

put down. The nationalist sentiment remained strong in China, especially amongst the peasants. The

Manchu Dynasty was overthrown by Dr. Sun-Yat-sen who became the president of China. He died

prematurely though in 1925. He was succeeded by Chiang-Kai-shek who established a military

dictatorship in China. He slaughtered tens of thousands of Chinese Communists. However, large chunks

of China were still ruled by war lords. The Communist movement was based in peasants. There was a

Communist insurgency led by Mao-Zedong and Chou-Enlai . Chiang-Kai-shek was expelled to Taiwan.

Mao established a Communist Dictatorship. After his death, his successors toned down the Dictatorship

to be more capitalistic.

India:

India eventually became a British colony. The British were competing with France for India and won. It

took 100 years, though, to establish rule over all of India. India became the crown jewel of the British

Empire. The British developed a very efficient service to rule over India. They recruited from the Indian

elite classes and educated them in the British system. The elites, though, were still looked down upon

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because of their skin color (racism). The biggest problem with modernization in India was its Varna and

caste system. The majority of people were on the bottom of the caste system. The lowest people (the

jatis) were people who dealt with carcasses and guts. The most numerous group were the peasants.

There was a huge difference of mentality between the elites and the peasants. This became a political

problem. The British needed to bridge the gap between the two. Mohandas Gandhi managed to do

that. He heavily used the concept of non-violent disobedience. In the 1920s and 1930s, he was the

most important politician in India. India under his leadership gained independence from Britain. India,

however, was eventually divided into Pakistan (Muslim) and India (Hindu).

Japan:

For centuries, Japan had only limited contact with the West. Japan would allow some trade (mostly with

the Dutch) to get news, but essentially they were isolated. In 1853, Matthew Perry essentially forced

Japan to enter into an agreement with America. This shook the system in Japan and led to the

overthrow of the working system there. Shintoism (emperor worship) was practiced in Japan, but the

most powerful person in Japan was the warlord known as the shogun. He actually called the shots in

Japan. This new system in Japan led to the downfall of the Shogunate. In the 1860s and 1870s, a group

of modernizers began the Industrial Revolution in Japan. This group provided many rights to the people,

but they still mandated that the state remain very powerful and could remove those freedoms if

necessary. There was a changeover of the old aristocracy, who were associated with samurai warriors,

to rulers who were like politicians in the West. Japan was still very militaristic though. (Germany was

too.) Japan clashed with the Russians in 1904 over Manchuria in China. A naval war followed with

Japan winning. Roosevelt eventually negotiated the Peace Treaty that ended the war.

Early 20th Century:

There was a revolutionary situation in Russia that was ruled by Nicholas II. Between 1894 and 1918,

Russia began its Industrial Revolution fueled by loans mostly from France because Russia did not have a

very large Middle Class. Sergei Witte was the minister of finance who was the architect of Russian

Industrialization. He wanted to produce the infrastructure of Russia. The Industrial Revolution in Russia

was produced by the government and not by capitalist citizens. Witte squeezed the peasants of Russia

to get as much money as he could out of them. Many of the peasants still belonged to communes. They

were given land after liberation, but they had to pay for it. This led to peasant revolts in the 1900s.

There was a full scale rebellion against the government in the 1900s in Moscow. This was theRevolution of 1905, and it was eventually put down. However, as a result there was a development of

political parties in Russia. The cadets were liberals who were mostly part of the Constitutional

Democratic Party. Some of them wanted a Constitutional Monarch; some of them didnt want a

monarch at all. There were the Socialist Revolutionaries (the SRs) who used terrorism against the

government. There were many assassinations at the hands of the SRs. There were two Marxist Parties.

The Mensheviks were a moderate group. (They correspond to the French Jacobins.) The Bolsheviks

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were a radical group under Lenin. (They correspond to the French Mountains.) Workers of St.

Petersburg with help from the parties created a soviet (council) called the Petrograd Soviet.

What was the situation in Europe that led to WWI?

The number one cause of World War I was that the entire scenario of nationalism, imperialism, and

militarism combined to encourage and arms race. The number two cause was the creation of alliances

among nations. The Triple Alliance was the oldest. It was between Germany, Austria, Hungary, and

Italy. It was established in 1882. The Triple Entente was between Russia, France, and Great Britain, and

it took shape between 1893 and 1907. The two rival alliance systems added a lot of tension, and then

developed a powder keg situation in the Balkan area (which had been part of the Ottoman Empire with

the exception of Bosnia and Herzegovina). Austria-Hungary, through lying and cheating, took over the

two areas. This made Serbia angry. Serbia was backed by Russia which was expanding constantly

through gains of parts of the Ottoman Empire. Serbia wanted those areas, and there were Serbian

nationalists in Herzegovina who were willing to use terrorism to achieve an end. They used it against

Austria-Hungary. The nationalist organization that formed against Austria-Hungary was called the Black

Hand. A member of this group, Gravilo Princip, assassinated Francis Ferdinand (heir to the throne of

Austria-Hungary) in Sarajevo in 1914. Austria-Hungary, egged on by Germany, blamed the assassination

on the Serbs and gave them an ultimatum. The Serbs would not allow searches for members of the

Black Hand on Serbian soil so Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Austria-Hungary was a multi-

national empire. It declared war on Serbia after the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. After

the war declaration, the alliance system that had been set up came into effect with one exception: Italy

was not able to come through on its promise. It ended up fighting on the other side. The allies were

Great Britain, France, Russia (which had sworn to protect Serbia), the US, and Italy. The Central Powers

were Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. Germany had wanted to invade through

Belgium, violating Belgian neutrality. Great Britain had sworn to protect this neutrality, but they wereincapable of doing so. Belgium, eventually though, managed to halt the German advance. World War I

was a new kind of war. Battles were fought on a larger scale with more potent weaponry. There were

new weapons like submarines, tanks, and planes for intelligence and bombing along with old weaponry

like machine guns and heavy artillery. There was also mass trench warfare on the Western Front in

which each side of the war prepared extensive trench systems that were all connected with tunnels and

protected with barbed wire. One side would bombard the other gunfire, etc. and then try to attack

across "No Man's Land." The other side would then start shooting at those soldiers to cut down the

attacking fire. The Battle of Verdun was a very bloody battle. Everywhere you looked there was blood

and guys; the ground had a buttery texture with all of the gore. There were 700,000 deaths; hundreds

of thousands were wounded. At the Battle of Somme took 700,000 French and British lives, and therewere 500,000 German casualties. In all, there were more than a million dead. For the most part, it was

a stalemate. The Germans wanted Paris, but they could not attain it. The US entered the war on the

6th of April 1917 because Germany wanted to practice unrestricted submarine warfare. The Germans

had begun attacking US ships. (They were sending supplies to the British though.) The US entrance into

the war tipped the balance in favor of the allies on the Western Front. By 1918, the Germans were

retreating on France. The Germans finally asked for peace. On November 11, 1918 an armistice was

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signed. World War 1 took 10,000,000 lives and wounded 20,000,000. It cost one-third of a trillion

dollars. A Peace conference was held, but it was dominated by Great Britain, the US, and France (Russia

had pulled out). The Versailles Peace Agreements included the breakup of Austria-Hungary to create a

number of smaller states. Germany lost Alsace and Lorraine. The Ottoman Empire lost territory in Asia.

Germany lost territory, was forced to demilitarize (army reduced to a token army for defense), had to

make reparations to Great Britain and France, and it had to sign a special war-guilt clause. In the clause,

Germany had to accept primary responsibility for the war. The French were chiefly concerned with

punishing the Germans (most of the war was fought in France). French politicians thought it would

political suicide not strongly push for punishing Germany and getting Alsace and Lorraine back. This

severe punishment (especially the War Guilt Clause) fueled the Nazi movement in Germany in the 1920s

and 30s.

The Russian Revolution:

There was a major Revolution I Russia because of World War I that led to a communist system in Russia.

Russias Revolution of 1905 was a consequence of the Russo-Japanese War. Russias Industrial

Revolution had begun in the 1890s. The architect of the Russian Industrial Revolution was Witte.

Russia, unlike Great Britain and other countries, had a small middle class which collectively did not have

enough capital for the Industrial Revolution. Witte tried to squeeze the peasants as much as possible.

Peasant Communes at the time owed the government for land they had received after emancipation.

But since the condition of the peasants had declined after emancipation in 1861, the peasant debt to

the government only increased. Witte wanted them to pay, and he also relied heavily on loans from

France. This is what put the Russians on the same side as the French in World War I. The Russian

Industrial Revolution was also not based mostly on cheap consumer goods. It was based on building an

infrastructure (roads, railroads, mining, etc.). It was based on heavy industry versus light consumer

goods. In 1905, there were peasant disturbances in the countryside, and people in Moscow erupted inRevolution. The Russian Government survived the revolution because the army remained loyal.

Nicholas II made a compromise with the people when he said that he would create a constitution and

allow the creation of a parliamentary body called the Duma. The Duma and the limited monarchy were

enough for moderate liberals, but not for the radicals. (Nicholas II had brought Witte out of retirement

to advise him on how to split the moderate from the radical liberals.) Soon, though, he turned the

Duma into simply an advising body. Also, Peter Stolepan (Pyotr Stolypin) was an advisor to Nicholas II.

He tried to break up the commune system in Russia because he believed that it was holding Russia back.

World War I was a disaster for Russia.

Nicholas II (1894 to 1917) and his wife Alexandra had 5 children (4 girls and 1 boy, Alexis who was a

hemophiliac). Alexis had started bleeding one day, and the doctors there could not do anything about it.

Then Rasputin, a self-proclaimed Siberian monk, asked to enter his room, and the boys bleeding

stopped. Rasputin became very popular with the queen after this. Rasputin, though, had a reputation

as a degenerate. He had a philosophy that to get to the heights of heaven, he had first to sink to the

lowest depths of sin. Alexandra though that Rasputin was sent by god to them. Scandals were caused

by his tastes for young women, etc. Rasputin became a big problem for the royal family. During the

war, Nicholas the second made a very dumb mistake. In early 1916, he decided that he would go to rally

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the troops at the forefront of the war so he left Alexandra in charge at the capital in Petrograd. This

meant that Rasputin was actually running the place. The war brought all kinds of hardships to Russia.

The economy was in shambles by 1917; the administration fell apart mainly because Rasputin made

Alexandra fire a bunch of administrators and put his friends in those positions. Russia lost a couple of

battles in the war, and the Russian people were angry (and they blamed Rasputin). In December of

1916, three plotters, including the nephew of Nicholas II, invited Rasputin one night to a dinner party.

They fed him food laced with poison, but nothing happened so they shot him and brought him to the

Neva River to put his body in the ice. His body was eventually found, and an autopsy disclosed that he

died of drowning. In the last week of the next February, demonstrations in Petrograd were begun by

women in the streets of Petrograd (over prices in Russia, etc.). They were accompanied by male factory

workers who wanted to protest in solidarity with the women. Before you knew it, there were 100,000

people in Petrograd protesting. The troops were called in, but they too joined the spontaneous

revolution. The duma demanded that Nicholas II abdicate. He did, and the duma appointed a

provisional government that was lead by liberal leader P. Milyukov who was eventually replaced by Alex

Lerensky. Meanwhile, workers and soldiers created a soviet of deputies. At first, the people in the

political parties who didnt have much say were the Bolsheviks. The administration of the provisional

government though made several mistakes that would undercut the influence of the moderates

amongst the people. Land hungry peasants were seizing noble land. They wanted a law that would

okay these seizures. The provisional government denied them because, they argued, the provisional

government did not have the power to grant such a request. They were supposed to set up a

permanent after a Constitutional Convention was called. They never called it though. Also, the

provisional government kept arguing that since Russia was a democracy now, it had a responsibility to

fight along with its political partners like France in the war. The people had this though; the war was a

burden on the people. Lenin and Trotsky (two top Bolsheviks) were eventually able to plan a coup

dtat. They feared an eminent military coup dtat. Lenin became the leader of the Soviet, and Trotsky

took a high position too. They seized power on November 7, 1915. Lenins big promise at the time was

Land, peace, and bread. His first act was to acknowledge the fait accompli of the peasant land

seizures. (The land actually belonged to the peasants, but he permitted them to use it.) He worked to

get Russia out of the war. There was a civil war in the spring of 1917 that pitted some people, known as

the Whites, against the Bolsheviks (now Communists), called the Reds. The Reds stuck together, but the

Whites represented a large number of political philosophies so they were divided. Under Trotskys

guidance (he sort of became the Commissar of War), they won. At that point, Lenin set up his New

Economic Policy. Russia was not ready for communism or socialism, he believed. The New Economic

Policy represented a mix of capitalist and socialist elements. Lenin was hoping that World War I would

have resulted in friendly socialist governments elsewhere to which Russia could turn for help. That

didnt happen though so Lenins new economic policy was developed. There was private industry for

consumer goods in Russia, but the state controlled public provisions like transportation.

Rise of 20th

Century Dictators

Russia: Lenin died in 1924. Trotsky was the head of the Petrograd Soviet. Stalin, among party leaders,

was the only one who wasnt an intellectual. He was actually the petty criminal type. He pushed his up

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in the party. He made himself indispensible in the party. He became the General Secretary, but he was

kind of a screw up. He was in charge of entry to the party though so he brought a lot of people who

were beholden to him into the party. He made use of some party rules to accuse his political opponents

of disloyalty to the party. He managed to succeed Lenin and was in charge by 1928. He was almost a

dictator by then. That year, he began his Revolution from Above which created the evil empire, the

real communist nation. There were three components to his revolution. The first was hyper-

industrialization. This was industrialization at a breakneck speed. He believed that the industrialization

process was too slow in Russia. He believed that Russia was lagging other countries so he wanted to

Industrialize Russia on the basis of 5 year plans. Planning committees came up with these plans for

industrialization. The plan was contrary to Lenins New Economic Policy. They developed a plan to pay

for the industrial revolution through state control of agriculture. He put peasants into collective farms.

This is a process called collectivization. The peasants resisted this; they hated taking orders from nobles

before, and now they were taking orders from the state. They became employees of the state. They

began burning, killing livestock, and attacking the people who came to tell them what to do. Stalin was

set on using collective farming to provide for his five-year plan though. There were lots of peasants

killed during this time. Some of them were exiled to Siberian labor camps called Gulags. In the end,

Stalin had areas quartered off (especially in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan) in which grain was taken

forcibly from the peasants. About 15 million peasants died. Stalin did not want anyone to know about

this, the peasant treatment and the screw ups in the five year plans of which there were many. Party

leaders, for example, planned to build a canal connecting the White Sea. Tens of thousands of peasants

died during its construction, and the canal ended up being too shallow. Eventually, word did get out

though. Stalin tried to blame resistance on the kulaks (well-to-do peasants); he tried to say that they

were the only ones who were against his five year plans. But they were not the only source of

resistances. There was the idea that Stalin need to be replaced. One candidate for the replacement

would have been Sergei Kirov who was the number two guy in the party under Stalin. At this point,

Stalin began his purges. He had Kirov assassinated and had killed anyone whom he deemed a threat to

party interests. There were many arrests and executions. There were show trials in which defendants

were forced into admitting to crimes and into ratting out others. Like Ivan the Terrible, when Stalin

went after you, he went also for your tails, your whole family, friends, partners, etc. There were

about 1 million executions. Stalins purges, though, were mostly directed at the Communist party

(especially the leadership in the party). Stalin was remaking the party; anyone who remembered how

Lenin had built up the Communist Party when he was alive was purged. He was killing anyone who

remembered Party history and was then able to reinvent it. For example, in the late 1930s, the official

party history painted the picture that Lenin, not Trotsky, was Lenins right hand man in the revolution.

Trotsky had been exiled, and Stalin had him tracked down in Mexico and assassinated in 1940. He

became a non-person in the party. By the end of the purges, Stalin wielded more power in Russia than

Peter the Great. He even purged his top generals, anyone who was a threat. Stalin liked to be called

Vozhd which means the Leader.

Italy: Benito Mussolini was a fascist dictator in Italy. He founded the National Fascist party in about

1919. By the early 1920s, the NFP was a major force in Italian life. By 1922, Mussolini had become the

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Prime Minister in Italy after he led followers in a symbolic march on Rome. By 1926, he had become Il

Duce which means The Leader.

Germany: Hitler became the dictator of Germany. In about 1919, he started a Nazi group in Germany

that gradually acquired followers. Nazi (or Nationalsozialismus) meant National Socialists; the Nazis

were not socialists though. They incorporated that name into the title of the party to attract workersout of competition with the real Socialist Party. (Some party members were actually eliminated by

Hitler because they were looking for a 3rd

way between Socialism and capitalism.) Hitler, in the

Weimar Republic as Germany was called at the time, became popular in the 1920s. He was put in jail

after he and his followers attempted a coup detat in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. It was during his stint

in jail that he wrote his infamous Mein Kampf(My Struggle). In January of 1933, he was appointed the

German Chancellor by the German president that the time. By 1942, he had become de Fuhrer which

means the leader.

The similarity in titles between the three dictators reflects an utter contempt for elected politics. It

represents the thoughts that the leaders themselves represent the needs and desires of the people.

They were above democratic politics. One of the common denominators between Nazism, Fascism, and

Stalinist Communism is the stress on the charismatic leader and the abhorrence of democracy (even

though Stalin claimed Russia to be a democracy). Stalinism breaks off from Fascism and Nazism there.

Fascism and Nazism glorified the state as the ultimate value and condemned liberalism, Socialism,

democracy, and individualism. They repudiated anything left of center (even sometimes moderate

conservatism). Both ideologies were extremely conservative, reactionary. They hate everything modern

(with the exception of course of military technology because they strongly believed in military solutions

to political problems). Pacifism was considered weak, degenerate. Also, there was a common thread of

gangsterism. They eliminated political opponents. The first concentration camps were for socialists

and communists (not Jews). (By the way, there is a difference between a death camp and aconcentration camp. Death camps were places where people who were going to be killed were sent.)

World War II

Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Japan were the Axis Powers. (Remember that Matthew Perry had

demanded trade with Japan, humiliating the country. In response, Japan went through a very rapid

process of modernization and militarization, and at the time of the second World War, Japan was

controlled by a powerful, militaristic oligarchy that during World War I had invaded Manchuria and in

1937, China proper.) The Germans had been prevented from re-militarizing by the Versailles treaty.

Hitler had figuratively thrown that out of the window. He had had a contempt for international treaties.

He also capitalized on the fact that the great democracies of the world at the time had been weakened

by the Great Depression of 1929. Hitler rode that all the way to power. He claimed that h would end

unemployment in Germany by sending all of the unemployed men into the army. He managed to take

over Austria and Czechoslovakia. Britain and France, at first, didnt do much about it. They believed,

wrongly, that Hitler was a normal politician who was subject to reason and wit like most people. Hitler

was a lunatic, though. Eventually, Hitler went too far. His goal was to conquer all of Eastern Europe

(including Poland and the Soviet Union) for colonization. He believed that Germans were the master

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race and that Eastern Europeans were sub-humans that should work for the Germans. Stalin knew this

and thought that Britain and France would manage to stop Hitler. When they failed to do so, he knew

that the Germans would try to invade Russia. Stalin sent his foreign minister Molotov to Germany.

Molotov managed to procure a pact that prevented war with Russia in the Molotov/Ribbentrop

Agreement. On September 1, 1939, the Germans attacked Poland though. France and Britain then

declared war on Germany, beginning World War II. The Allies (or Allied Powers) were Great Britain,

France, China, and as of June 194 when the Germans had attacked Russia, the USSR. On December 7,

1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Hitler declared war on the US, and at that point, the United

States joined the war on the Allied side under President Franklin Roosevelt. The Allies were involved in

the Battle of Normandy on June 6, 1944 (D-Day). In the East, major wars include the Battle of Leningrad

and the Battle of Kursk (the largest tank war up that point). The war was decided on the Eastern front in

the Battle of Stalingrad between 1942 and 1943 in which the Russians managed to push Axis forces

back. Ten million Germans died at the hand of the Red Army. The Battle of Berlin occurred in May of

1945 in which Berlin was taken by the Red Army. The United States dropped 2 atomic bombs on Japan

to end the war there. This was in accordance with terror bombings on civilians. Hitlers Final Solution

saw the loss of 6 million Jews (the Holocaust). Other groups that were targeted were gypsies,

homosexuals, and Slavs. By the end of World War II, 51,238,000 people had died. 17 million were

soldiers. This means that most of the deaths were civilian casualties. 292,000 Americans died (1/500).

618,000 Britains died (1/150). 3 to 4 Million Germans died (1/25). 20 million Russians died (1/22). The

Red Army had managed to liberate a large of area of Europe and wanted Communist-friendly

governments to be built there. This led to the Cold War that lasted from the late 1940s to the 1980s.