Liberal and Conservative Modernization 1850-1914

  1. France a Paradox: Both Liberal and Conservative Modernization.
    1. Two Visions of modernity.
      1. The Liberal: 1789, 1830, February, 1848
      2. The Collectivist: "The Second Revolution, 1792-94," The socialist rising in the Spring of 1848, the "proto-Fascist" 1848-1870.
    2. From Second Republic to Second Empire: conservative or even proto-fascist modernization.
      1. The Presidency of Louis Napoleon 1848-1852
        1. "Napoleonic Ideas" --- "totalitarian democracy"? See Readings, pgs. 13-14.
        2. The Constitution of November, 1848
          1. Bourgeois-liberal electoral franchise.
          2. Restoration of public education to Roman Catholic clergy
        3. The "18th Brumaire" of Louis Napoleon ---
          1. "chief of state with unfettered authority" 2. December 1851 approved by 92% in plebescite.
          2. December, 1852 --- Napoleon III by 97%.
      2. The Second Empire 1852-1870
        1. "Democratic dictatorship" successful and popular during the decade of the 1850's
          1. "Plebescitary democracy."
          2. Elections returned delegates eager to support.
        2. The economic program.
          1. Credit Moblier and Credit Foncier
          2. State-capitalism --- anti-liberal, but socially sensitive.
          3. Public works projects: Purposes? --- see W-R-W, Ch., 8
          • Old Paris (pop. 547,000 in 1800) Documents 2, 3.
          • New Paris (pop. 2,714,000 in 1900) Documents, 6-9, 11, 12, 14-16, 19-21, 23.
        3. " A little war every three years" ---The role of foreign policy.
          1. Crimean War and the Treaty of Paris, 1856.
          2. Problematic Italy
            • --1859.
            • The Pope.
          3. The Mexican fiasco, 1861-1867.
        4. The transition to the "liberal empire.
        5. The Franco-Prussian War and the Revolution of 1870-1871.
    3. The Third Republic.1871-1914. The Triumph of Liberal Modernization.
      1. The Paris Commune and the evolution of the Third Republic.

        1. FYI: Photographs of the destruction to Paris as a consequence of the siege and the defeat of the Commune in 1871.

        2. The gradual consolidation of the "government that divides us least" by 1875. See Readings, p. 14.
      1. The maturation of the Republic --- finally! See Readings, pgs. 14-15.
        1. Stable Republic, volitile, but republican politics.
        2. Education: the triumph of republicanism, See McKay, pgs. 841-842.
        3. The Dreyfus Affair --- anti-semitism. See McKay, 842.
          1. The last gasp of the "ancien Regime" --
          2. Theodor Herzl and the rise of Zionism
  1. Great Britain: The rise of Structural Democracy in the Era of Victoria.
    1. The emergence of the modern party system and mass politics under the influence of the penultimate electoral reforms.(Conservative: 1867, Liberal: 1884)
      1. The "new" Liberalism.
        1. Welfare-state legislated into existence 1906-1914; nevertheless, legacy of the past and the rise of Labour
        2. "Little England-ism"
      2. The "new" conservatism.
        1. Laissez faire
        2. "Big England-ism"
    2. The Irish Problem.
      1. The Background:
        1. The Tudor Settlement
        2. The Cromwellian Settlement --- Scots into Ireland.
        3. Linguistic nationalism in the 18th century
      2. Home Rule movement
      3. Gladstone Bill, 1884 alienated the old liberals and drove them into the Conservative Party
      4. 1913 and 1914.
      5. World War I, the "Easter Rising" (April 24-29) and the proclamation of in 1916.
        1. The Irish Declaration of Independence in 1919.
        2. Michael Collins and the Republic of Ireland, 1922.
  2. Italy: Conservative Modernization 1850-1914.
    1. From "geographic expression" to national Monarchy. Centennia, 1859.3
      1. Three approaches:
        1. The Republican: Mazzini. Read McKay, 784-785..
        2. The Liberal Catholic: Father Gioberti
        3. The realistic: Cavour: three obstacles to overcome
      2. Realpolitik :
        1. A mix of liberal and conservative modernization domestically. .
        2. Foreign Affairs:
          1. Crimean War, 1855-56
          2. "The French Connection." -- Plombieres, July 1858.
      3. War and National Revolution.
        1. To Solferino (24. June) and Villafranca, 11. July 1859. Centennia 1859.3-
        2. The nationalist revolution.-- Centennia 1859.9
        3. Garibaldi and Sicily. May - September 1860.--Centennia, 1860.4-1860.9
        4. Kingdom proclaimed, 17. March 1861.
        5. Venetia, 1866.
        6. Papal States, 1870.
    2. As a "responsive" National State.
      1. Continuing problems:
        1. The Irredenta. See map.
        2. The Desidio
        3. The North-South divide
      2. The conservative "liberal" Monarchy
        1. Government supported business-climate.
        2. Burden on the poor.
        3. Immigration and Imperialism as safety valves.----- World War I and fascism.
    3. Germany: Conservative Modernization, 1850-1914.
      • From "geographic expression" to the kleindeutsch Second Reich.
        1. The Pre-conditions --
          1. The tradition of German dualism. Compare Centennia 1700 with 1860.
          2. The significance of Prussian acquisitions from the Treaty of Vienna.
          3. 1848: a "turning point that failed to turn."
          4. The Zollverein after 1832.
        2. The Constitutional Crisis of 1862 and the emergence of Bismarck.
        3. Realpolitik and the separation of liberalism from nationalism: The "Prussian conquest of Germany,"1864-1871. FYI: For documents on German national unification, click here.
          1. Diplomatic brilliance -- engineered a favorable balance of power..
          2. Schleswig-Holstein and the Danish War, 1864.
          3. The Austro-Prussian War, 1866 and its consequences.
            1. Sadowa, 3. July 1866
            2. The Treaty of Prague, 23. August -- insures Kleindeutschland
            3. The North German Confederation.
            4. Indemnity for Bismarck and the co-opting of the Liberals.Read Baumgarten quotation, McKay, 831.
          4. The Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871.
            1. The problem of the Catholic German South and the Ems Telegram.Click on the graphic below and read the text of Wilhelm's Telegram and Bismark's edited version.

            2. Napoleon III's last "little war." War fever in Paris on 19. July 1870.

            3. German Unification: 18. January 1871 at Versailles.

    1. The German Empire (Second Reich) 1871-1914: apparently successful conservative modernization.
      1. The consolidation of the new structure as a federal, constitutional, divine-right Monarchy.
        1. Universal manhood sufferage, but ....
        2. Issue of ministerial responsibility

      2. The struggle to consolidate the new nation-state and the rise of a new, mass-oriented party system.

        1. The cooperation of the National Liberals. Study cartoon that illustrates the surrender of the Liberals to conservative modernization.
        1. The Catholics and the Kulturkampf (1870-1873) against Pope Pius IX and fear of German ultramontanism
        2. Bismarck's shift to protectionism in the face of the economic crisis of 1873
          1. Progressives (future German Democrats- DDP) split off
          2. National Liberals made their peace with Bismarck
          3. Kulturkampf abandoned to mobilize Catholics for struggle against the Progressives and Socialists.
      1. The Social Democrats and the social-welfare state as a successful means of them away from revolutionary Marxism. Click here for a graphic that explains the world's first comprehensive social -welfare system.
      1. Foreign Policy: a "satiated Germany" and stability through balance of power.
        1. Collective Security, 1873-1887. See map.
        2. Reinsurance Treaty, 1887-1890. See map.
    2. Wilhelm II 1890-1914

      3. .

      1. Dispute with Bismarck.
        1. Foreign policy and the new Weltpolitik. The road to World War I. See map.
        2. The Socialist policy.
      2. The "dropping of the pilot."
      1. Social Democrats --- "revisionism" and trade-union alliance made the SPD Germany's largest political party by 1912 and Germany the most unionized, socialized state and leading industrial country in Europe.
  1. From Austrian Empire to Austria-Hungary.
    1. In the wake of 1848 "The turning point that failed to turn" ---The Bach System: bureaucratic, absolutist, centralism --- "responsive" but not national..
      1. Concordat of 1855 with the Papacy.
      2. Peasant land reform.
      3. Pro-business climate aided the beginning of industrialization.
      4. Economic modernization began to crystalize class antagonisms along nationality lines.
      5. Growing Magyar opposition
    2. 1866: Magyar blackmail and Compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867 condemned the Empire to the inability to create a functioning state-identity in an era of nationalism.
      1. Trans-Leitha: Magyar absolutism. See McKay, 844.
      2. Cis-Leitha: The incompatibility of liberalism and nationalism.
        1. See image on p. 845 in McKay, regarding attempt to give equality to all languages.
        2. Anti-clericalism.
        3. Laissez-faire economic policy --- economic expansion ---- crash of 1873 --- loss of political dominance by the liberals ---->strong state direction thereafter.
        4. Liberal reform legislation: equality of all before the law regardless of nationality or religion.
        5. Urban Modernization in Vienna.
          1. Old Vienna. ( pop. 247,000 in 1800) See W-R-W, Ch. 8 document # 1.
          2. New Vienna (pop. 1,675,000 in 1900). Response to 300% growth in population 1870-1890. See visual documents # 4, 5, 10, 13, W-R-W, Ch. 8.
          1. Influx of Slavs and Jews (1.3 to 12% in the period 1870-1890)
          2. Extreme housing shortage and slums and the government response: See W-R-W, Ch. 8, documents # 17, 18, 22, 24
        6. Politics: 6% of male population (property qualification) with pressure for expansion of the franchise led to the political mobilization of the masses into 3 camps:
          1. Liberals, traditionally German or Germanized -Slavs, bourgeois, became increasingly nationalist and anti-Semitic.
          2. Christian-Social: deeply Roman Catholic, anti-liberal, skeptical of industrialization, anti-Socialist ---split along national lines.
            • Vienna mayor, Karl Lueger, used traditional, Roman Catholic anti-semitism for political mass obilization.
            • Slovenes, Czechs, Poles etc. grew increasingly anti-Empire.
          3. Social Democrats: split along national lines.
          4. Universal suffrage introduced in 1906--- unworkable --- government by imperial decree.
      3. Fin de Siecle Vienna --- "The situation is critical, but not serious."
        1. Music: Bruckner, Mahler, Lehar, Schoenberg, Richard Strauss, etc.
        2. Art: "The Succession"---Gustav Klimt led the "succession" from the traditionalist Academy of Art into Modernism and probed the depths of sensualism and eroticism as did his contemporary Sigmund Freud in psychoanalysis. Click the thumbnail image below for an enlarged view of his 1909 painting "Der violette Hut".

          For WebMuseum of Paris exhibition of Klimt, in particular "The Kiss", click here.

          1. Joseph Maria Olbrich built the Succession Building to house the works of Klimt and other artists.
          2. Such as Otto Schiele
          3. Architecture and design:
            • Otto Wagner's famous Postal Savings Bank in Vienna
            For a Getty Publication introduction to the architecture of Otto Wagner click

        4.  
        1. Science and literature: Freud, Schnitzler, von Hoffmannsthal.
  2. Imperial Russia: 1850-1914: Classic conservative modernization: Economic and social modernization <----> political conservatism. Ultimate failure and revolution.

  1. The Era of Reform: Alexander II 1855-1881.
    1. The Background and stimulus of the Crimean War, 1853-1856.
    2. The Serf Reform of 1861 and its failures. See Readings, p. 19.
    3. The Zemstvo Reform of 1864 --- promise and failure.
    4. Other reforms --- and the rise of the Raznochintsy.
    5. Dashed Hopes into Revolutionary Aims.
      1. Nihilists into popopulists and terrorists --- the assassination of Alexander II in 1881.
      2. Populists into Marxists in exile
      3. Marxists into Bolsheviks
  2. The Failure of Conservative Modernization under Alexander II (1856-1881), Alexander III (1881-1894) and Nicholas II (1894-1917). Read: McKay, 839.
    1. State-run railroad expansion beginning in 1860's pushed the broadening of industrialization into a "take-off" in the 1890's.
    2. Sergeii Witte's application of the "List Model" and the consequences both positive and negative.
      1. Protectivism
        1. Insured success and high profits for industrialists and high prices for consumers.
        2. Rapid growth ---FYI: For Sergeii Witte's summary of growth click here. .
      2. Capital investment: Classic conservative modernization techniques:
        1. Foreign --- its consequences.
        2. Domestic --- labor-intensive and its consequences, e.g. Famine of 1891 --- rising cycle of strikes 1890's-1905.
    3. The Revolution of 1905 and continued effort of the Tsar to conserve political power. .
      1. The debacle of the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905.
      2. Bloody Sunday (22. January) touched off a year of revolutionary upheaval. .
      3. Bourgeois liberals under Miliukov demand parliamentary government and universal suffrage.
      4. Proletarian strikes
      5. Peasant demonstrations in the countryside. See cartoon, McKay, 837.
      6. National risings on behalf of linguistic rights and autonomy.
      7. General Strike and October Manifesto of 30. October.
    4. The "fig-leaf" of constitutionalism to cover the continuation of absolutism.
      1. Absolute veto of Tsar --- opposition in the First Duma.
      2. Second Duma --- paralysis--- 1907.
      3. Third (1907-1912) and Fourth Duma (1912-1917) --- rubber stamps of autocracy.
      4. Stolypin Land Reforms as an effort to stabilize the system.
    5. War as the "mighty accelerator" of the Revolution of 1917
[home][syllabus][outline][notices][notices archive][quiz analysis][links]