University of Pittsburgh Cortland Sperry
CHS Western Civilizations 11/17/17
Paper 2: Creation of Modern Europe Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many changes were occurring in Europe. Newer nations, such as Italy and Germany, were beginning to challenge older nations such as England and France. The main reason for this was the rise in technology throughout Europe and the beginning of modern ideas. The definition of modern is having characteristics of contemporary styles of art, literature, and music that reject traditionally accepted and emphasize individual experimentation and sensibility. It was obvious that during this time Europe was changing and that it was up to each country on whether they would change
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For example, Germany was united in 1871 by Prussian leadership. Once Germany gained independence, Otto von Bismarck, who was the newly crowned Chancellor, decided to make a council named the Bundesrat that was made up of individual German states. Then, Bismarck allowed for male suffrage throughout Germany. After unifying Germany, Bismarck helped form the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy. In addition to forming alliances, Germany was the first country to have an accident and insurance disability program, along with protection against foreign competition in agriculture and industry. Overall, Germany succeeded in gaining independence and did not allow for socialism or liberals to take over. As Germany was gaining independence, England was Industry took a major turn towards modern as shown by the older England and the newer Germany. For example, at the beginning of the 19th century England went through an industrial revolution. England had a great supply of cotton in its overseas colonies and had a lot of resources back at home. In addition, the cotton textile industry went through an economic boom with …show more content…
Germany began to force itself into the imperial contest by using their powerful bankers and businessmen to gain more land in Africa. By 1914, Germany had colonies in South West Africa, East Africa, Togoland, and the Cameroons. The German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, thought of these colonies as bargaining chips. In addition, to gaining colonies in Africa, Germany went through a “civilizing mission” in which they wanted to teach the Africans their heritage, history, and language. The Germans did a good job gaining land in Africa as it began to threaten the power held by France and England. While Germany was beginning to join the imperialisation of Africa, England was already in the thick of it. For example, England had seized control of Egypt in 1882 and changed its whole economy to focus on the production of cotton, raw silk, wheat, and rice. This helped increase England’s power because it gave them a country with many resources and the Suez Canal which allowed for more efficient access to Asia. Additionally, England needed to have control of the Southern and Eastern coasts of Africa to help with access to its empire in India. Then, in the South African War, England and the Boers fought until England defeated them and annexed South Africa. This was crucial for England because it helped them complete their goal in having control from “Cairo to
Cotton had first become popular in England mainly because it was cooler and more comfortable than wool, plus it could be dyed in many colors and patterns. However, English manufacturers had to battle the Indian cotton textiles, which were much cheaper. Therefore, the British government enacted protectionist tariff and barriers against Indian cotton that allowed the infant British textile industry to grow and nourish. The United States did the same thing to grow its own textile industry in the northeastern part of the country. The U.S. government enacted tariffs to protect its infant industry against British textile imports, the textile industry sparked the Industrial Revolution in the U.S..
Britain was committed to imperializing countries that benefitted them. Benjamin Disraeli, the British prime minister during the 1870’s, persuaded Great Britain to imperialize because it was a way to guard vital British markets overseas, resources, and jobs, as well as enhance their well known reputation as being the most powerful country (Butler). Great Britain wanted to spread its culture and religion (Butler). As a result, Christianity was dispersed imperialized countries under the name of Great Britain. Another major reason Great Britain imperialized in Africa was because other European countries that were participating in the “Scramble for Africa” (Berard). This was the time period where certain European countries fought over what countries in Africa to imperialize. Britain wanted more power, and therefore, more land as well. Therefore, they resorted to imperializing lands such as those in Africa.
Two other countries also practiced imperialism during this time, their actions increased the rivalry between Germany and them as stated by historyonthenet.com. " By 1900 the British empire extended over five continents and France had control of large areas of Africa." "The amount of land owned by Britain and France increased rivalry with Germany. " Imperialism was a major part of the eruption of WWI.
During the mid 18th century through the 19th century England started the Industrial Revolution. At the end of the industrial revolution there were more advantages than disadvantages, because the industrial revolution had to had cynical altercation in order for an increase in positive results. For example, the way goods were now manufacture. The goods were no longer produced in the household but in factories. England’s society had grown from agricultural to an industry dependent on manufacturing. Since the replacement of manual labor to manufacturing,the transformation of productivity and technical efficiency grew.For example, discipline managers would whip their workers if a task was not complete in the right format. The industrial revolution made people migrate from rural areas into urban communities in search of work which led to the expansion of cities.
The Industrial Revolution was the major advancement of technology in the late 18th and early 19th century that began in Britain and spread to America. The national and federal government helped the United States grow into a self reliant nation with improvements in transportation, technology, manufacturing and the growth of the population. Americans had an economy based on manual labour, which was replaced by one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. It began with the expansion of the textile industries and the development of iron-making techniques, and trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. One of the first to kick off, was the textile industry.
When Europe began to industrialize, it brought about a lot of change within the different nations.
A growing population resulted in a greater demand for Great Britain. They were the first to start the Industrial revolution. With their invention of the steam engine transportation of goods and people boomed, railroad, canals, etc. which resulted in a new class system. Before people lived in small communities and their lives revolved around farming, but with the start of the revolution more people and laborers moved to the city which had become urban and industrialized. New banking techniques such as corporations, partnerships, credit, and stocks were invented. Everything used to be made in people’s homes using handmade tools, yet now everything is done in factories using mass production. The three major materials cotton, coal, and iron were the up and coming new products used during the industrial revolution. Cotton was used for the textile industry, coal for steam power, and iron for the new types of transportation. There was also an improvement in living standards for some, but the poor and working people had to deal with bad employment and living conditions. When the laborers moved to the cities clocks and
The rise of European nationalism in the 19th Century brought with it an overabundance amount of change that would definitively modify the course of history. The rise of nationalism in one country would rouse greater nationalism in another, which would in turn, motivate even greater nationalism in the first, progressively intensifying the cycle that eventually concluded in a World War. Nationalism as an ideology produced international competition which inspired absolute allegiance to an individual’s nation state. The ideology was fueled by industrial commerce and imperialistic developments which led to nation-states pursuits of outcompeting rival nations.
Motives for British Imperialism in Africa Before the Europeans began the New Imperialism in Africa, very little was known about the inner parts of the continent. However, after some explorers delved deeper into the heart of Africa, the Europeans soon realized how economically important this area was, and how much they could profit from it. At the time, Britain had only small occupations of land in Africa, but after they realized that they could make money from the rich resources from the inner regions of Africa, they wanted to invade the African countries and take over. This led to the scramble and ultimately, the partition of Africa. During the Age of Imperialism, from 1870-1914, Britain was a major country, which proved to be true in the “carving up” and division of Africa.
In the early 1880’s, the powers of Europe started to take control of regions in Africa and set up colonies there. In the beginning, colonization caused the Africans little harm, but before long, the Europeans started to take complete control of wherever they went. The Europeans used their advanced knowledge and technology to easily maneuver through the vast African landscape and used advanced weapons to take control of the African people and their land. The countries that claimed the most land and had the most significant effect on Africa were France, England, Belgium, and Germany. There were many reasons for the European countries to be competing against each other to gain colonies in Africa.
During this time in England, The industrial revolution was well underway.
The industrial revolution of 17th and 18th centuries saw the transformation of Britain from a Neolithic nation into an industrious nation. However, this spread quickly throughout the world, introducing the modernisation of agriculture, revolution in power and manufacturing of textile.
The economy also experienced an increase with the rapid population growth of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, which led to a larger work force, allowing the innovations of the Industrial Revolution to become major manufacturing tools and to create factories and assembly lines. This imperialism, and thus boosted economy, led directly to the Industrial Revolution, and allowed Great Britain to develop more quickly.
Britain, specifically England, was a politically stable society at the time and became the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution for a number of other reasons. They had merchants who already had the capital for investing in the means of production and producing factories, they held more colonies than any other nation (some already rich in their own textile industries), they had the key raw materials needed for production, and there was a large number of readily available workers (Zmolek
In the late eighteenth century, the Industrial Revolution made its debut in Great Britain and subsequently spread across Europe, North America and the rest of the world. These changes stimulated a major transformation in the way of life, and created a modern society that was no longer rooted in agricultural production but in industrial manufacture. Great Britain was able to emerge as the world’s first industrial nation through a combination of numerous factors such as natural resources, inventions, transport systems, and the population surge. It changed the way people worked and lived, and a revolution was started. As stated by Steven Kreis in Lecture 17, “England proudly proclaimed itself to be the "Workshop of the World," a position that country held until the end of the 19th century when Germany, Japan and United States overtook it.”