The Age of Mass Politics1871-1914

France, Germany, England, Russia, Austro-Hungarian Empire

Austro-Hungarian Empire

• Ausgleich (Compromise)• Hungarians had own government– 25% wealthiest had right to vote

• Austria assimilated Magyars– Language a sticky issue (German or Czech)– 1907 universal male suffrage (Austria)– Anti-Semitism

France Third Republic

• Paris Commune• Adolphe Thiers• Weak president• Chamber of Deputies had most power (elected)• Trade Unions legalized• Secular education & reform; tax supported schools,

compulsory education• Multiparty system• Shifting coalitions

Problems for the Third Republic

• Boulanger Crisis– Leader gained support of military– Attempted coup, failed– Fled, killed himself

• Panama scandal– De Lesseps– Corrupt, millions of dollars

Dreyfus Affair

• 1894• Jewish Captain• Emile Zola: J’accuse• Alliance between moderate republicans and

socialists• Conservatives and Catholic Church discredited• Socialists gain seats• Anti-Catholic movement

Anti Semitism

• Dreyfus Affair• Pogroms• Zionist Movement– Theodore Hertzel– The Jewish State– Father of Zionism

Victorian England

• Tory Party=Conservative Party=Benjamin Disraeli

• Whig Party=Liberal Party=William Gladstone

Conservative Party=Benjamin Disraeli

• Aggressive foreign policy• Expansion of the British Empire• Sympathy for the working class• Reform Bill of 1867– House of Commons, redistributed seats, more

representation– Rotten boroughs lost seats– Almost all men over 21 right to vote– Doubled the number of men

Liberal Party=William Gladstone

• Liberal• Supported Irish Home Rule, fiscal policy, free

trade, extension of democracy and against Imperialism

• Abolished taxes to support Church of England• Secret ballot• Civil service reform, competitive examinations

Liberal Party=William Gladstone

• Reform Act of 1884– Suffrage to adult males in the counties on the

same basis as in the boroughs– 2 million agricultural voters added– Close to universal male suffrage

New Groups Emerge

• Women’s suffrage• Fabian Society– Advanced a form of revisionist Marxism– Political democracy and economic socialism

• Independent Labor Party– Keir Hardie– Third political party– Trade unionists, socialists

Liberal Party

• 1905-1920’s• Aggressive social & economic programs• Foundations of social welfare state– Guaranteed standard of living– Unions right to strike– Workers compensation– Unemployment insurance & old age pensions– Mandatory school– Taxes increased on wealthy

Liberal Party

• Parliament Act 1911– Eliminated power of House of Lords– 5 year Parliament term

• Representation of the People Act 1918– Women of 30 vote– All men, no property qualifications

Women’s Rights & Suffrage

• Started with divorce, marriage, and property laws

• Needed suffrage to change anything• Suffragettes came from the middle class– Had time, education– Working class & socialists worked separately

Women’s Rights & Suffrage

• Millicent Garrett Fawcett– National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies

(NUWSS)– Demanded Parliament give vote

• Emmeline Pankhurst– Militant– Finland 1906, Norway 1913– Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU)

Emmeline Pankhurst

• Destroyed:– RR stations– Art works– Store windows– Chained themselves to Parliament building– Hunger strikes– Emily Davison

Women’s Rights & Suffrage

• Representation of the People Act 1918• Reform Act of 1928– Women over 21

The Irish Question

• Young Ireland (Nationalism 1848)• Gladstone: in favor of home rule• Ulster– Protestant counties in Northern Ireland

• Irish Home Rule Act: didn’t pass House of Lords• Easter Rebellion (1916)• 1922, Ireland gained independence, N.Ireland

remained part of British Empire

The Eastern Question

• Ottoman Empire– “The Sick Man of Europe”– Russia and A-H wanted territory

• Pan-Slavism– Unite all Slavs under Russia– Russo-Turkish War– jingoism

• Congress of Berlin (1878)– Russia gained little– Romania, Serbia, Montenegro independent

Socialist Movements

• Advance the proletariat• Nationalism as a tool by ruling class• Opposed war• Marxism lead the way• Socialist united=First International• Huge growth: Germany, France, Belgium,A-H• 1883, exiled from Russia (Lennin), Switzerland

Revisionism

• Elections instead of Revolutions• Standard of living up• Labor unions grew• Bread and butter issues: wages, hours, working

conditions• Collective bargaining• EDUARD BERNSTEIN– Evolutionary Socialism– Proved Marx false

Germany: Social Democratic Party (S.P.D)

• Marxist• Sweeping social change• Demilitarization of Germany• Bismarck gives in to demands– Protective tariff– Modern social security– National sickness & accident insurance – Old age pensions, retirement benefits– Regulated child labor– Improved working conditions

Socialists Elsewhere

• Jean Jaures-France, gained seats in Chamber of Deputies

• England- Fabian Society, political democrarcy & economic socialism, Labor Party, foundations of social welfare state

Anarchy

• Spun off from mainstream socialists• Destroy the centralized state• Mikhail Bakunin• Strongest in Spain & Italy• Political assassinations: 6 leaders in 20 years– Alexander II– King Umbro (Italy)– President William McKinley

Russia

• Crimean War defeat turning point• Lacked middle class to push for reform

Alexander II (1855-1881)

• Emancipation Act 1861: freed the serfs• Mirs: most Russians lived in Communes,

collective ownership, hard to leave• Zemstvos: assemblies that adminstered local

areas, popular participation, lords controlled them

• Censorship relaxed• Education liberalized

Alexander II (1855-1881)

• Industrialization– Railroads– Industrial suburbs– Factory working class– Strengthened military

• Critics– Realism replaced Romanticism– Intelligensia– Nihilism: believed in only science, had to rebuild society• 1881 Assassinated

Count S.Y. Witte

• Industrialization of Russia• Western capital• Trans Siberian Railway• Gold standard• 4th in steel production• Spread of Marxist thought

Russia Problems

• 1/3 of farmland not used• Population explosion• Depression 1899• Russo-Japanese War 1905

Alexander III (1881-1894)

• Reactionary• Autocracy, Orthodoxy, and Russification• Anti Semitism, pogroms• Theodore Herzel: Zionism, Jewish homeland

Nicholas II (1894-1917)

• Russo-Japanese War– Russia had Manchuria wanted Korea– Russia lost

1905 Revolution

• Peasants and middle class demand change• “Bloody Sunday”: Jan.1905• General strike, peasant revolt, troop mutinies• October Manifesto

– Duma created– Freedom of speech, assembly, press– Czar had absolute veto– Revolutionaries divided in Duma

• Mild economic recovery• Peter Stolypin: agrarian reform, encouraged free enterprise• Gregorii Rasputin: doubt about the Czar increased