grade 12-history_fetena_net_0ee1

Unit 1 Summary: Development of Capitalism and Nationalism 1815-1914

  • Introduction:-
    Capitalism, Industrial Revolution, Nationalism
  • Unification of Italy and Germany
  • Imperialism
  • American Civil War and "Eastern Question"
  • Learning outcomes:-
    Factors contributing to nationalism
    Appreciate capitalist economy
    Analyze Italy and Germany's unification
    Explain economic, political and social philosophies and their world impacts
  • Key words:-
    Capitalism, Industrial Revolution, Imperialism, Social Darwinism, Mercantilism, Laissez-faire, "Eastern Question", Balkan Wars

1.1 Development of Capitalism

  • From grade 10, capitalism came from decaying feudalism
  • Dominant economic system in the Western world after the breakup of feudalism
  • Emerged in Northwestern Europe (Great Britain and the Netherlands) from the 16th to 17th centuries, when mercantilism was established
  • Mercantilism: Distribution of goods bought at a specific price and sold at a higher price to generate profits
  • Protestant Reformation of the 16th century helped consolidate capitalism in the Western world.
  • Strong nation-states in Europe also supported the development of capitalism through regulations, uniform monetary systems, and public investment
  • Shift from public to private initiative
  • In the 18th century theorists led by Adam Smith challenged mercantilist doctrines.- They believed states increased their wealth at the expense of another state’s wealth remained constant.
  • Industrial capitalism arose in mid-18th century due to merchant capitalism investment in machinery.
  • Main features of capitalism
    • Private ownership of the means of production, especially in the industrial sector
    • Economy run by individuals or corporations
    • Capitalist society split into two antagonistic classes: capitalist class (owners) and working class (laborers).
    • Capital used to enlarge productive capacity unlike previous systems that invested in pyramids and cathedrals.
    • Motive is to make and sell goods and services for profits.
    • Markets should operate without government intervention (laissez-faire).
  • Adam Smith (1723-1790)
    • Scottish economist and moral philosopher is considered one of the forefathers of capitalism
    • An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)
    • Laissez-faire economics that would benefit its practitioners while also promoting society’s general welfare.
  • Karl Marx (Industrial capitalism in the 19th century)
    • Industrial workers inspired revolutionary philosophy
    • Socialist system: no private ownership, all means of production were collectively or state-owned.
    • Central planning determined production and resource allocation.
    • Exploitation of the surplus value of labour is one of the major drawbacks of capitalism.
    • Predicted capitalist economies would weaken in systematic crises, causing social disturbance and wealth concentration, eventually leading to proletarian-led class war

1.2 The Industrial Revolution

  • Industrial Revolution (Britain, 1750/1780-1850)

    • Industrial capitalism establishment
    • Preceded by a long period of change and development from the mid-16th century.
    • Continued because of industrialization.

  • Industrial revolution features

    • Industrial production transformation for greater, cheaper output.
    • Interconnecting organizational and technological changes.
    • Shift from small scattered production (putting out system) to factory system
    • Industrial capitalist owned factory, machinery, power, raw materials, and finished products.
    • Workers sold labor for wages.

  • Factory System Benefits

    • More productive, lower unit cost, and more profitable (if goods sold).
    • More production in a given time with less cost
    • Factory system was dominant in major industries in Britain, especially the cotton textile industry of Lancashire in the northwest of England.

  • Machines and Factories (Human labor and skill replaced by more, complex, and larger machines).

  • Inanimate Power (Steam Power):

    • Steam Engine Evolution: Adapted to operate machinery in factories (James Watt, 1783/84).
    • Application to Land Transport: Railways. (Liverpool and Manchester railway = 1830)

  • Cheap mass production, means no longer scarcity of commodities but overproduction and difficulty selling commodities.<

    * Before, economic depression resulted from wars, epidemics, or bad harvests.<

    * From the industrial revolution, a normal cause of economic depression was overproduction caused by a lack of effective demand.

  • The industrial revolution made the agricultural sector of advanced countries less dominant.<

    * Advanced economies had a falling percentage of their population living in rural areas and employed in agriculture<

    * Science applied to increasing agricultural production led to artificial fertilizers and pesticides.

  • Shift from country side to towns and cities, despite bad conditions, because more food was available and more employment to feed an expanding population increased.

  • Bourgeois class (industrialist) and proletariat (wage earners)<

    * New class consciousness because the interests were antagonistic<

    * Industrial proletariat provided the mass base for socialist doctrins

  • Industry, tech , and science applied to armies and navies<

    * Western States became more interested in non-western lands as raw material source and export market for goods<

    * Steamships, railways, and telegraph improved transport and communication ( Integrated Capitalist World Economy)

  • Resulted in 19th-century imperialism (colonial Expansion), where industrial revolution laid the ground work.

  • Industrial revolution made economic, social, cultural changes faster than ever before.<

    “change became the norm”.

1.3 Nationalism

  • Nationalism has been the most powerful political force since the Civil War

  • Roots in shared regional and cultural identities, custom, language and religion<

    It influenced all classes but more so the urban than the rural peasants

  • Created the atmosphere which made WWI possible.<

    Aggravated the great international crisis and made the peoples of Europe support the war.

  • Factor which promoted the growth of nationalism in the 19th century:-
    Compulsory primary education<

    Used by the government for state building and inculcating patriotism

  • Compulsory military service<

    Used by the government to inculcate patriotism and loyalty to the state and rulers

  • Cheap newspapers for the masses<

    Often had chauvinistic tones, but nationalism and hostile feelings towards neighboring states were also features of the “quality” newspapers for the upper and middle classes.

  • Much of the literature of the years before World War I was also strongly nationalist<

    Warned against the dangers of neighboring countries<

    Created patriotic societies to inculcate patriotism agitate for strength

  • Wars (Italy, Germany, Balkans)<

    Stimulated nationalism by the wars of unification in Italy and Germany and of national liberation in the Balkans. British nationalism was stimulated by the small colonial wars<

    In the USA victory in the Spanish-American War of 1898 stimulated American nationalism

  • Pseudo-Science (Social Darwinism)<

    «Social Darwinism» spread the idea that history is a struggle between states and nations for power, supremacy, and even survival. The strongest state and nation<

    Would be the victors, while weak states and nations would be subjugated and destroyed

  • Between the 1880s and 1914, nationalism transformed its character in several ways:-
    More and more national movements appeared in Europe and in the Ottoman Empire outside Europe, particularly towards areas with small territories<

    Nationalism tends towards fragmentation

    Earlier, in the nineteenth century nationalism appeared to work towards greater unity, as in the case of Italy and Germany

  • Language and ethnicity language for nationalism.

    Submerged minority nationalities struggled to assert the rights of their languages

  • A national question became part of the domestic politics of many states, Particularly multinationals like Austria-Hungary and Tsarist Russia and others like Britain with its serious Irish question.<

    Petty bourgeois attracted. Success meant more employment in the public sector for the languange speaker.<

    Nationalism could be and was used to strengthen loyalty to the state and the ruler and to divert the workers away from socialism.

    However, where national minorities existed, nationalism could arise from their national demands and cause discontent and disloyalty.

  • The USA was very successful in the nineteenth century in assimilating millions of emigrants who came to the USA from Europe. Conditions in ther home country.US citizens, joined a country and a nation which offered them more economic opportunities and more social and political freedom.

1.4 Unification of Italy

  • 1815; Began with the Congress of Vienna and the end of Napoleon’s rule

  • 1871: Ended with the Franco-Prussian War

  • In 1852: Italy was still divided and Austrian supreme. North, the rich provinces of Lombardy and Venetia were part of the Austrian Empire.

  • The north-central part of Italy involved the petty states of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany, which were very much under Austrian influence

  • The Papal States covered a lot of territory across Italy

  • French Garrison in Rome to protect the Pope

  • The south of Italy and the island of Sicily were part of the kingdom of Naples (poor feudal and backward), ruled despotically with austrian ties.

  • Northwest of Italy kingdom of Piedmont with Sardina that was really independent with constitution, parliament and civil rights. (best chance of independent Italy)

  • Liberals and nationalists saw the best hope of a United Italy in unification with Piedmont under the constitutional monarchy of King Victor Emmanuel II

  • Main Obstacle

    Power of Austria<

    Austrian wanted to maintain status quo.

  • Another Obstacle<

    Weakness of national sentiment

  • Favorable Factor<

    Diplomatic isolation of Austria in the Crimean War and rivalries between France and Austria because French help in Italian Aims

  • Architects of Italian Unification:-
    From Above<

    Camilo Cavour

  • From Below<

    Giuseppe Garibaldi

  • Cavour: Piedmont prime minister from 1852-62

  • In 1858 Cavour met Napoleon III secretly at Plombiere to reach an alliance against Austria<

    Cavour provoked austrian delclaration, resulting intervention.<

    Austria ceded Lombardy Austria kept Venetia<

    International Red Cross Association established by Henri Dunant

  • Other developments<

    Provinces Romagna and Italian controlled states revolted to establish closer ties with Piedmont.<

    Then the Kingdom of Italy turned to the kingdom of Sicily.

  • Garibaldi

    • After uprising in Sicily against Naples, Garibaldi led volunteers in 1860
    • Successful guerrilla warfare and magnetic personality recruited volunteers
    • Mobilization of the Sicillian Masses<

    Mobilization of Sicilian Masses.<

    Demoralization of Naples army and treachery officials resulted. <

    Victor Emmanuel assembled deputies and on February 18 Victor Emmanuel assembled deputies of the states that acknowledged his supremacy at Turin to assume the title king of Italy.<

    Four months later Cavour died.

  • The process to full Italian unification was achieved by Austro Prussian War. Prussian's success forced Austria to cede Venetia and Franco-Prussian's withdraw leading italy to capture Rome and make it the capital by taking the rome government from France .

1.5 Unification of Germany

  • In the 1850s, Germany was a loose confederation of 39 states called the German Confederation (the Bund).

  • The Bund was presided over by Austria with Prussia second.

  • The bund was not a satisfactory Form of unity for Gernand nationalists

  • German nationalism was encouraged by successful Italian unification

  • Obstacles to german unification were

    • Austria want status quo.<

    German princes want remain independant,

    and cultural differences between north and South Germany.

  • Otto Von Bismarck appointed chief minister<

    Bismarck Politically Conservative but extremely able collected addition taxation for the