Lecture Notes: The Age of Science and Empire

In the summer of 1887, Paris saw the construction of the Eiffel Tower.
It was completed in March 1889 for the Paris Exposition.
The Eiffel Tower symbolized the triumph of European civilization, showcasing:
- Industry
- Science
- Culture
Responses were mixed; it was seen as an eyesore.
One critic humorously frequented the tower's restaurant to avoid seeing it.
Originally meant to be dismantled in 1919, it was saved by radio signal transmission technology.
The ambivalent reception parallels the broader age (1890s-1914).

European civilization triumphed through:
- Science: Unlocking the secrets of nature.
- Technology: Light bulb, telephone, phonograph, film, radio.
- Advances: Medicine, transportation, weaponry.
This led to global domination.
However, triumph led to anxieties and insecurities.
Europeans gained the capacity to understand the depths of their souls and found disorder, confusion, violence, and rage.
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness embodies this sentiment.
Kurtz, representing the best of European civilization, descends into savagery in colonial Africa.
This raised the question of whether this capacity for moral degeneration lurks inside everyone.

The bacteriological revolution laid the groundwork for conquering infectious diseases and modern medicine.
Prior to the 1860s, infectious diseases were rampant due to lacking the knowledge of their true cause.
Doctors sometimes worsened the situation.
Ignacio Simmelweis introduced handwashing in the 1840s in Vienna, which decreased maternal mortality.
His ideas were ridiculed due to the lack of a theoretical model to explain the effects.
Medical science still followed the ancient Greek model of humor imbalance.
Theories about miasmas or bad air.

Louis Pasteur developed the germ theory in the 1850s and 1860s.
Germ theory is the idea that diseases are caused by germs, or what we now call bacteria, tiny microorganisms that can enter the body, reproduce and cause sickness or even death.
His work included wine fermentation, pasteurization, and rabies cure.
The model showed that disease was caused by microorganisms.
Acceptance of Pasteur's ideas led to a dramatic fall in infectious disease rates by the end of the 19th century.
Diseases like cholera, yellow fever, and smallpox became rare.
However, tuberculosis and viral diseases persisted.
The idea of germs was disquieting: tiny, undetectable particles causing agony and death.
People felt less in control of their surroundings.

Medical science led to viewing social problems in biological terms.
Society viewed as a social organism susceptible to diseases.
Individuals not measuring up to physical/mental standards were seen as threats to society.
Calls for measures to protect society from these threats increased.
Eugenics emerged, gaining popularity in Europe and North America in the early 20th century.
The eugenics movement reflected the increasing prominence of race in social discourse.
Biological makeup and racial characteristics determine abilities, character, and proclivities.
Nationality was equated with race: German/Teutonic, English, and French races.
Nations were seen as biological entities.
Social Darwinism (misunderstanding Darwin) justified the status quo.
Groups on lower rungs were seen as organically inferior.
Applied to working classes, the destitute, and non-European peoples.

European colonialism was not new; empires dated back to the 15th century.
Reached a peak in the 17th-18th centuries: English, French, Dutch mercantile empires.
Early 19th century: empire building was on the wane.
The slave trade was discredited and abolished.
The Industrial Revolution drove European prosperity.
Liberals advocated for free global markets over colonial domination.

Technical innovations after the 1850s made overseas expansion possible.
- Steamships: faster, more reliable travel.
- International telegraph cables: instantaneous communication.
- Quinine: treatment for malaria.
- New weapons: breech-loading rifle, machine gun.
Europeans had the capacity for global domination.

Racial theories and social Darwinism provided justification.
Carl Pearson suggested non-European peoples were inferior and fated to live under European domination.
The civilizing mission or "white man's burden" was a notion to combine racial ideology developed by Rudyard Kipling.
Kipling suggests Europeans were superior but had an obligation to lead and serve.
This included building schools, hospitals, teaching the ignorant, and curing the sick.
The natives would not understand or appreciate it.
Even with the hostility and ungratefulness from the natives the noble white men were bound to carry out the duty.
Kurtz in Heart of Darkness exemplifies the superficiality of this concern.
Thousands of Westerners sincerely believed in the ideology.

There was money and wealth to be made.
King Leopold of Belgium and Cecil Rhodes combined empire building with wealth pursuit.
Greed and ambition drove many ordinary European men.
But wealth doesn't explain everything; some areas offered little profit.
Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II: "Germany wants its place in the sun."
A country without imperial possessions was seen as a second-rate power.
Maintaining colonies required stations for steamship coal replenishment.

Empires derived experience that would be used in Europe itself.
Concentration camps originated with the British in the Boer War.
Ethnic cleansing and genocide also had origins in colonial experiences.
The extermination of the Herrera and Namakua tribes by Germans in Namibia was one of the first times in the modern era that an entire ethnic group was slated for extermination.
The horrors of the 20th century had origins in the experience of empire.