tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13134666762761516612024-03-20T10:19:30.353+00:00Europe: from Bismarck to the First World WarA history of Europe from 1870 to 1914Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-60857850770790470722017-03-26T08:35:00.003+01:002017-03-26T08:35:52.152+01:00Apocalypse 1914: how war broke out<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcTZ_Tel2vKRowi_20OUbgVy9OBbqw1Gn08IWDR1pj8XvUUkwPNvymKZofj1vCVeIOifVhyikl1P0vkU86laep6R5tq8yAmQj2AqZ8T8o9MJNuXCVViqFxahwlnBqVDyU0xsyVFEEvwDp6/s1600/DC-1914-27-d-Sarajevo-cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcTZ_Tel2vKRowi_20OUbgVy9OBbqw1Gn08IWDR1pj8XvUUkwPNvymKZofj1vCVeIOifVhyikl1P0vkU86laep6R5tq8yAmQj2AqZ8T8o9MJNuXCVViqFxahwlnBqVDyU0xsyVFEEvwDp6/s200/DC-1914-27-d-Sarajevo-cropped.jpg" width="176" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The <i>Domenica del Corriere,</i> depicts Gavrilo Princip <br />
killing Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo.<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1913 the European powers were preparing for a possible war as the arms race accelerated. In March the German government introduced a new army bill designed to provide superiority over Russia in the following year. In confidence the party leaders in the Reichstag were told that the increases were justified by the expectation of the ‘coming world war’. The French urged on the Russians the necessity of completing the railways which would enable them to present Germany with a war on two fronts. The British government was proceeding with its naval programme. Russia was so fearful of the implications of the Berlin-Baghdad railway that she began a huge expansion of her forces and even contemplated seizing the Straits.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yet none of the powers wanted a world war, and right up to 1914 international crises were negotiated on a case by case basis. Less than two months before the war broke out an agreement was signed between Britain and Germany over extending the Baghdad railway to Basra. <a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/world-history/the-debate-on-the-origins-the-first-world-war">It has been argued</a> that the Junker elites wanted a war but this has more recently been contested.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Germany was prepared to fight a limited land war while it still had the military and economic advantage over Russia and was prepared to encourage Austria-Hungary to bring it about. On 8 December 1912 the Kaiser told <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_von_Moltke_the_Younger">Herman von Moltke</a>, his chief of staff, his naval chief <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_von_Tirpitz">Alfred von Tirpitz</a>, and two senior admiralty officials that if Russia was ready to defend Serbia against Austria, then Germany would consider war unavoidable. Moltke replied, ‘the sooner the better’. On the other hand, it has been argued that <i>all</i> the European states had expansionist ambitions and that the 8 December meeting did not come out with detailed war plans.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The answer to the question of who is to blame for the war? (if there is an answer) does not answer the question of <span style="font-style: italic;">why the war happened</span>. The over-riding factor was Austrian fear of Serbia. Its policy was to show the Serbs that they could not rely on the Russians to defend them. This meant being prepared to go to war with Russia in order to make this point. Austria was willing to go this far because she could rely on German support and Germany was prepared to back Austria because of her new interest in Turkey and her calculation that if there had to be a war, it should come sooner rather than later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The entry of France into the war was made inevitable by the plan drawn up in 1905 by the German chief of staff, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieffen_Plan">Alfred von Schlieffen</a> and arouse out of his concern that Germany could be ‘encircled’ by simultaneous attacks from France and Russia (as Frederick the Great had been). This required that if war broke out with Russia, France should be eliminated by a pre-emptive knock-out blow. Since this attack was to come through Belgium, it risked bringing Britain into the war, since Belgian independence was guaranteed by treaty.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6iWNFAdPgUw6OXcZyK2pRvkqO4FBiIdX44b1XSFdDWBR4sxVEgCSlDQBxE8akm-3zEFikIxMyTys6hgsHNrV18_KP0Z2eDAL5RLI1qdiGO4R_HT7f3Qp7_D5yUflbm5RoDDieXlScEeNl/s1600/main-qimg-9a3800a30c6ed275f9383ee24c970214.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6iWNFAdPgUw6OXcZyK2pRvkqO4FBiIdX44b1XSFdDWBR4sxVEgCSlDQBxE8akm-3zEFikIxMyTys6hgsHNrV18_KP0Z2eDAL5RLI1qdiGO4R_HT7f3Qp7_D5yUflbm5RoDDieXlScEeNl/s200/main-qimg-9a3800a30c6ed275f9383ee24c970214.gif" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Schlieffen Plan</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><a name='more'></a>Sarajevo</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 28 June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife were murdered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_in_Sarajevo">in Sarajevo</a> by a Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip. Princip was a member of the Young Bosnians, one of a group that sought an independent Yugoslav state. Though the Serbian government of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Pa%C5%A1i%C4%87">Nikola Pašić</a> was probably not responsible, the bombs and bullets had been provided by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragutin_Dimitrijevi%C4%87">Dragutin Dimitrijević (Apis)</a>, the head of the Serbian Intelligence Bureau, who was also head of an ultra-nationalist organisation called the Black Hand.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In early July interrogations of the conspirators revealed the Belgrade connection, though there was no hard evidence implicating the government itself.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The blank cheque</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Four men had to make the decision on how to react to the assassination: the Emperor, Franz Joseph, his chief of staff, Count <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Conrad_von_H%C3%B6tzendorf">Conrad von Hötzendorf</a>, the joint foreign minister of Austria and Hungary, Count <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Leopold_Berchtold">Leopold Berchtold</a>, and the prime minister of Hungary, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istv%C3%A1n_Tisza">István Tisza</a>. </span><span style="font-size: large;">They wanted to point the finger of blame at Serbia, and to persuade the rest of Europe of Serbian complicity.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYHqAqVpr6GMJOFaXyOCDwi6L-wHKW18epkDWHGP_gl6LG960EmC_R_9gU18i7jf6N_mFIPv-bU6LecUAwHbtAc3OD4bMb0vuhNI0b81368ChX6ZInXCoZAQ60AqPra8oZmIobk_UuqzET/s1600/470px-Franz_Conrad_von_Ho%25CC%2588tzendorf_%2528Hermann_Torggler%252C_1915%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYHqAqVpr6GMJOFaXyOCDwi6L-wHKW18epkDWHGP_gl6LG960EmC_R_9gU18i7jf6N_mFIPv-bU6LecUAwHbtAc3OD4bMb0vuhNI0b81368ChX6ZInXCoZAQ60AqPra8oZmIobk_UuqzET/s200/470px-Franz_Conrad_von_Ho%25CC%2588tzendorf_%2528Hermann_Torggler%252C_1915%2529.jpg" width="156" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Count Conrad von Hötzendorf<br />He wanted a hard line against Serbia<br />Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 5 July, following an Austrian mission to Berlin, Germany assured Austria-Hungary of its unconditional support in pursuing its case against Serbia. This '<a href="http://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/germanys_blank_cheque_to_austria-hungary">blank cheque' </a>has been seen as Germany's first mistake. It could have restrained its ally - but it chose not to.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Austrian reaction was delayed by harvest leave, the need to bring Tisza, on board, and by the fact that the French president, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Poincar%C3%A9">Raymond Poincaré</a>, was on a visit to Russia for important (and secret) talks with the foreign minister, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Sazonov">Sergei Sazonov</a>. This meant that the short, sharp war which perhaps the Germans had been banking on, was not going to happen.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The ultimatum</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 23 July, the Vienna government presented an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Crisis#Content_of_the_Austro-Hungarian_ultimatum_to_Serbia">ultimatum to Serbia</a> that was designed to be humiliating and to be rejected. The most controversial parts of the ultimatum were points 5 and 6, which were irreconcilable with Serbian sovereignty. On 25 July the Serbs issued an equivocal reply that could have been interpreted as defiance or playing for time. On the morning of 28 July Franz Joseph signed the declaration of war on Serbia. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Mobilisations</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 29 July Russia ordered a partial mobilisation. On 30 July a reluctant Nicholas II was persuaded by his military order a general mobilisation. The plans, drawn up some time in advance, meant that it was a mobilisation primarily against Germany.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Russian mobilisation was the first of the general mobilisations. Did this make war inevitable? At 3 pm on 31 July the Wilhelm II signed the order for the State of Imminent Danger of War (<i>Kriegsgefahrzustand</i>). Russia was given a twelve-hour ultimatum. </span><span style="font-size: large;">On 1 August Germany declared war on Russia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #e06666; font-size: large;">War</span></h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcNGMSMrwuK4z7nSbSPBnOAsrMuGhcSyWHOxSmzMqILk9b6YoVJi9mPFNBJBbUfaRdq6mdAzu64ycI5fEz3-iZMw0vSiSHjrPqNof4RKN2ymo_m_tuAw_gwlNHoQc3fFkMC9Vw4WXeanLx/s1600/Vonmoltke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcNGMSMrwuK4z7nSbSPBnOAsrMuGhcSyWHOxSmzMqILk9b6YoVJi9mPFNBJBbUfaRdq6mdAzu64ycI5fEz3-iZMw0vSiSHjrPqNof4RKN2ymo_m_tuAw_gwlNHoQc3fFkMC9Vw4WXeanLx/s200/Vonmoltke.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hermann von Moltke the Younger<br />Did he adhere too slavishly to<br />the Schlieffen Plan?<br />Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Moltke was trapped by the earlier Schlieffen Plan. It required immediate action in the direction of France, even though it was Russian mobilisation that had provided the <i>casus belli</i>. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Germany had to declare war on France before beginning hostilities – and this put her in the wrong. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On the evening of 1 August the German ambassador in Brussels handed a letter to the Foreign Ministry. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The letter demanded that Belgium accept German protection against a (non-existent) French attack. It demanded that Belgium answer within twelve hours (by 8 am on Sunday 2 August) whether she would resist the movement of troops through her territory. Later that day Belgium rejected the ultimatum.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Following the ultimatum to Belgium, in the early hours of 2 August German troops entered Luxembourg and secured the principal rail lines, which were, by treaty, under German management. </span><span style="font-size: large;">No resistance was offered, apart from a formal protest to Berlin. </span><span style="font-size: large;">All eyes were now fixed on the Belgian frontier.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When news of the German ultimatum to Brussels reached Britain on the morning of Monday 3 August, public opinion that had previously been hostile to war changed dramatically.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">On the evening of 3 August Germany declared war on Belgium and France. </span><span style="font-size: large;">At 8.02 am on 4 August the six infantry brigades and three cavalry divisions <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_invasion_of_Belgium">crossed into Belgium</a>, to be met with fierce resistance.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3bWWddvn9YVlylfh7ZS7JyAiurhsPIdTRHPsyR-bgmId2eGoUWmQtezhzgousxMCIZc1XWUGJ8njcesR7lpVX3KEilcWwqVKNCTBsW6bdLyTZBRlWHhGkv5t25RM4MFs1IrRT7caixE3g/s1600/401px-Edward_Grey_1914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3bWWddvn9YVlylfh7ZS7JyAiurhsPIdTRHPsyR-bgmId2eGoUWmQtezhzgousxMCIZc1XWUGJ8njcesR7lpVX3KEilcWwqVKNCTBsW6bdLyTZBRlWHhGkv5t25RM4MFs1IrRT7caixE3g/s200/401px-Edward_Grey_1914.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sir Edward Grey<br />He failed to make clear to<br />Germany that Britain would not<br />remain neutral if Belgium were invaded<br />Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When the news arrived in London, the cabinet agreed to send an ultimatum to Germany. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Grey,_1st_Viscount_Grey_of_Fallodon">Sir Edward </a></span><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Grey,_1st_Viscount_Grey_of_Fallodon">Grey,</a> the British foreign secretary, informed Sir Edward Goschen, the British ambassador in Berlin that he was to give the German government until midnight (11 pm British time) to reverse course and guarantee Belgium neutrality. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The ultimatum was wired to Berlin at 7 pm. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Goschen found the chancellor, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobald_von_Bethmann-Hollweg">Bethmann-Hollweg</a> in a state of great agitation. He told Goschen that Britain was going to war 'just for a scrap of paper'. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqbMiMbG2pzynvxI14_8x67xW6MMYiNHqwElRv8B74MuFlMJD9vx70VaZjWNhX70UF5Xnw0JmSBlPBWgG6Qi5eKSIiNf8N9ufaMZd6LfXXOyHYcuF4_t8Il2XIN6f6Ary0P5f5T-G-8-4S/s1600/Theobald_von_Bethmann-Hollweg_1913b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqbMiMbG2pzynvxI14_8x67xW6MMYiNHqwElRv8B74MuFlMJD9vx70VaZjWNhX70UF5Xnw0JmSBlPBWgG6Qi5eKSIiNf8N9ufaMZd6LfXXOyHYcuF4_t8Il2XIN6f6Ary0P5f5T-G-8-4S/s200/Theobald_von_Bethmann-Hollweg_1913b.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg<br />German chancellor<br />He miscalculated Britain's reaction<br />to the invasion of Belgium<br />Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 4 August Britain declared war on Germany. For Britain this was a war of choice - she had not been invaded like France and Belgium. So why did she join</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Though Britain was not bound by the terms of the <i>Entente Cordiale</i> there was a widespread feeling that she was honour-bound to come to the aid of France. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The invasion of Belgium converted many to the war.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Britain could not allow the creation of a German-dominated Europe.</span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<div>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">All the European crises before 1914 had been resolved peacefully. There was a widespread feeling that the Sarajevo crisis could be settled in a similar fashion.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The war came about because of a deep-rooted instability in Europe but also because of wrong decisions made in July and August by individual statesmen and military commanders. Few wanted a war. No-one would have wanted a war as catastrophic as the First World War. Yet they did not try hard enough to avoid it. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Once certain political decisions were made, the military machine was set in motion and at a certain point (when exactly?) war became inevitable.</span></li>
</ol>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
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Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-10966964919069773442017-03-19T09:43:00.003+00:002017-03-19T09:45:54.257+00:00Towards 1914 (3): Crises and wars<span style="font-size: large;">For this post I have been particularly indebted to two masterly books.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Christopher Clark, <i>Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 </i>(Penguin, 2014)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Margaret MacMillan, <i>The War that Ended Peace: How Europe Abandoned Peace for the First World War</i> (Profile, 2013)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The first Moroccan crisis</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Entente Cordiale had not been explicitly aimed at Germany, </span><span style="font-size: large;">but it created problems for German policy makers. In March 1905 Wilhelm II made a deliberate attempt to break it. He paid <a href="http://www.worldwar1.com/tlmorcri.htm">a state visit to Tangier</a> in </span><span style="font-size: large;">which he made a speech emphasising Germany’s commercial interests in Morocco and the importance of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Moroccan_Crisis">maintaining the independence of its Sultan</a>. </span><span style="font-size: large;">This was diplomatic bluster on Wilhelm’s part. Germany had no economic interests in Morocco and certainly did not want war. But it caused French and British diplomats to discuss the military possibilities of the Entente in the event of a war with Germany. The immediate outcome was the resignation of the French Prime Minister, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9ophile_Delcass%C3%A9">Delcassé,</a> in June, 1905.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Germany succeeded in having an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeciras_Conference">international conference called at Algeciras</a> in 1906. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The conference confirmed the integrity of the sultan's domains but sanctioned French and Spanish policing of Moroccan ports and collection of the customs dues. There was now no hope of a Franco-German rapprochement and the Anglo-French entente was solidified. The crisis revealed to British statesmen the importance of France and was the effectual end of the policy of isolation. It also revealed Germany’s isolation, with only Austria-Hungary supporting its position.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><h3 style="font-size: medium;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3 style="font-size: medium;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Anglo-Russian Entente</span></h3>
<div style="color: black; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;">On 31 August 1907 Britain and Russia concluded the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Russian_Entente">Anglo-Russian Entente</a> in St. Petersburg. It ended decades of hostility by defining their respective spheres of interest in Persia, Afghanistan, and Tibet, with Russia taking the northern areas of Persia and Britain taking the Persian Gulf area in the south. Its primary aim was to check German expansion into the area.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Along with the Franco-Russian alliance and the Entente Cordiale, this formed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Entente">Triple Entente</a> between the UK, France and Russia.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The <i>Daily Telegraph</i> interview</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Historians differ about how far German policy was dictated by the Kaiser, and how far his ministers pursued their own aims while allowing him to shoot his mouth off. But there is no doubt that Wilhelm's instability, unpredictability, and love of the limelight contributed to international tensions. His <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Telegraph_Affair">Daily Telegraph</a></i> interview of November 1908 severely strained Anglo-German relations.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As a slow-burn consequence, Bernhard von Bülow resigned as Chancellor in the summer of 1909 and was replaced by Theodore von Bethmann-Hollweg.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The naval race</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The <i>Daily Telegraph </i>interview came a time when Britain and Germany were beginning their naval race.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">From 1897 Germany embarked on a drive for world power (<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weltpolitik">Weltpolitik</a></i>), </span><span style="font-size: large;">which upset the relative stability of late nineteenth-century politics and posed a direct challenge to Britain. </span><span style="font-size: large;">This drive expressed itself in naval policy, which was in part a response to a campaign whipped up by the Navy League. In 1898 the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Naval_Laws">German Navy Law</a></span> <span style="font-size: large;">announced the intention to build a battle fleet. A law of 1900 decreed that this fleet was to be strong enough to challenge the British in the North Sea. This committed Germany to a continuous, and expensive programme.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This did not mean that the German government was envisaging an offensive naval war against Britain. Admiral Tirpitz was following contemporary strategic thinking when he calculated that if Germany had two battleships for every three floated by Britain – which meant a German North Sea fleet of some sixty battleships - then the German navy stood a good chance of victory in a defensive war.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Liberal government would have preferred spending on social reform, but it was pushed by events. British naval thinking, exemplified by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fisher,_1st_Baron_Fisher">Sir John Fisher,</a></span><span style="font-size: large;"> the First Sea Lord from 1904, was driven by the ‘two-power standard’ whereby the Royal Navy was to be stronger than the combined fleets of the next two maritime powers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJOrS_gKhSzi05kOxRqJ1M-OBfi78sotkochv_2kRlanAsUVHNhyphenhyphenkKahA-FUOBJetrCVnhP_QfuzDYdGg4GSibCihW8rbpgqu4_6JoOs2GWSP5t7WmS_EUk0xAhGpq9XYgxfHkbUz1i0ST/s1600/427px-Adm._John_Fisher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJOrS_gKhSzi05kOxRqJ1M-OBfi78sotkochv_2kRlanAsUVHNhyphenhyphenkKahA-FUOBJetrCVnhP_QfuzDYdGg4GSibCihW8rbpgqu4_6JoOs2GWSP5t7WmS_EUk0xAhGpq9XYgxfHkbUz1i0ST/s200/427px-Adm._John_Fisher.jpg" width="141" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Admiral Sir John ('Jackie') Fisher<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1906 <a href="http://www.friesian.com/dreadnot.htm"><span style="font-style: italic;">HMS Dreadnought</span></a> was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_%281906%29">launched</a>. She was 1,500 tons heavier than the last pre-dreadnought built for the Royal Navy and three knots faster and had ten 12 inch guns. This meant that she could outgun and outsail all other battleships, rendering them obsolete.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_rMTrDXuNhDsCL-OgWHDQTuoAEg4luKiycNvb2auX-Kv0viKNj2N8vOJpAwOgG6Kb6S9pugotQLQOWKKCFTboLa5N0AeBqmUMc-E85bt05IpzlMxI7rZDTSyPaFPZBVWeeGeugUetrOF/s1600-h/HMS_Dreadnought_1906_H61017.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319291844023854770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic_rMTrDXuNhDsCL-OgWHDQTuoAEg4luKiycNvb2auX-Kv0viKNj2N8vOJpAwOgG6Kb6S9pugotQLQOWKKCFTboLa5N0AeBqmUMc-E85bt05IpzlMxI7rZDTSyPaFPZBVWeeGeugUetrOF/s200/HMS_Dreadnought_1906_H61017.jpg" style="float: left; height: 150px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 200px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dreadnought at sea in 1906<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">By 1909 it was suddenly realised that the Germans were going to be building 10 Dreadnoughts against the 4 British ones that had been ordered up to then. The ‘We Want Eight’ panic then ensued, and six battleships and two battlecruisers were ordered in the 1909 program. After that, the pace was kept up. Germany would only give up her naval plans in return for a British promise of unconditional neutrality in a Franco-German conflict, and after Algeciras, such a compromise was impossible.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Crisis in the Balkans</span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1903 the pro-Austrian King Alexander of Serbia and his wife, Queen Draga were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandar_Obrenovi%C4%87">murdered.</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCDb6oXLj9HH1raTOlL5fnmNb3JiI9lUpfp40dMmFpoOxVq2e9Ik3b2kgg-DxFK0gl77qblGdCENhLarZ_xMbJLgPY9QLx4CaNkrciCojHHDI0yV5fW4IlyjNeoNIN-1wjJ3GCejtMN3A/s1600/King_Alexander_I_Obrenovic%25CC%2581_of_Serbia_and_Queen_Draga%252C_ca._1900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCDb6oXLj9HH1raTOlL5fnmNb3JiI9lUpfp40dMmFpoOxVq2e9Ik3b2kgg-DxFK0gl77qblGdCENhLarZ_xMbJLgPY9QLx4CaNkrciCojHHDI0yV5fW4IlyjNeoNIN-1wjJ3GCejtMN3A/s200/King_Alexander_I_Obrenovic%25CC%2581_of_Serbia_and_Queen_Draga%252C_ca._1900.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">King Alexander I Obrenović of Serbia <br />
and Queen Draga, c. 1900<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">His successor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_I_of_Serbia">King Peter</a> was a pro-Russian pan-Serb, who wanted to unite all Serbian lands, including those within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This led to Austrian fears that Serbia would become 'the Piedmont of the Balkans' - that is, would be the means of Austria losing its influence in south-east Europe as had previously happened in Italy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1908 Balkan issues re-emerged to destabilise Europe. Germany’s growing political and economic influence in the Ottoman Empire concerned Russia in particular. In spite of the promises of reform <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Hamid_II">Abdul Hamid </a>continued to misgovern his empire and this had particular repercussions for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonia_%28region%29">Macedonia</a>, which had been confirmed as an Ottoman possession in the Berlin Congress. The province was in a continued state of turbulence and this gave encouragement to the other Balkan states to stir up trouble there.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1908 the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turk_Revolution">Young Turks</a>, a nationalist and westernising group, led a successful revolution forcing Abdul Hamid to issue a new constitution. (He was deposed in a counter coup in the following year in favour of his brother and died in captivity in 1918.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGgAT10ahW2W6u5Yi6ke3poQ0CvJ54x4a7o0dluB-F-uXkE6ETS7oL0cj1-fMtM9W6rLyqR3-hVtANHRg8fIo1Iw0zOSq2sy_AL9_zRCse9Pf1Ok9mpyQB8Uh49yGkYY-3eUu9qiclPh2a/s1600/Declaration_of_the_1908_Revolution_in_Ottoman_Empire.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGgAT10ahW2W6u5Yi6ke3poQ0CvJ54x4a7o0dluB-F-uXkE6ETS7oL0cj1-fMtM9W6rLyqR3-hVtANHRg8fIo1Iw0zOSq2sy_AL9_zRCse9Pf1Ok9mpyQB8Uh49yGkYY-3eUu9qiclPh2a/s200/Declaration_of_the_1908_Revolution_in_Ottoman_Empire.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Declaration of the Young Turk revolution, 1908</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The annexation of Bosnia:</b> The instability in the Balkans convinced the Austrian foreign minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Alois_Lexa_von_Aehrenthal">Count von Aehrenthal,</a> that the status quo was not in the Habsburg interest as the weakening of the Ottoman Empire was stirring up the South Slavs within the Empire and also outside it. In October 1908 Austria-Hungary <a href="http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/boshtml/bos127.htm">annexed Bosnia- Herzegovina</a>, taking Russia by surprise as it pre-empted negotiations over the Balkans that were already taking place between the two powers. In spite of misgivings Germany backed Austria-Hungary, mainly because of their annoyance over the Anglo-Russian entente - even though, as in Morocco, she had no direct interest in the question. Wilhelm subsequently asserted that he stood beside his ally, Austria-Hungary, ‘in shining armour’, while von Bülow declared that the ‘German sword had been thrown into the scale of European decision’.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_crisis">annexation</a> was a humiliation not only for Russia but also for Serbia which regarded itself as the protector of all South Slavs (‘Greater Serbia’ or ‘Yugoslavia’) including the Bosnians. There were massive demonstrations in Belgrade, where parliament voted emergency funds for war.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The crisis ended in March 1909 when the Treaty of Berlin was revised. The annexation was reluctantly accepted and Austria made formal amends to the Turks by agreeing to pay for crown property in the provinces but the damage had been done. There was now a distinct possibility of open conflict between Russia and Austria-Hungary in the Balkans.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6eH6hbeTuFOVgBNJupzyyGwWdXwU_FP6n5FSFpR3WPrOg5c_hicKiNBKkgDif5BvdeFX-veoS373zN0MxI5p6k6_wSU6JBoZ6CAY9gWst9j_MnL2V79gboTlEm539NZW_99ZpM_AovtDv/s1600/402px-Caricature_Bosnia_Annexion_1909_Ion_Kalem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6eH6hbeTuFOVgBNJupzyyGwWdXwU_FP6n5FSFpR3WPrOg5c_hicKiNBKkgDif5BvdeFX-veoS373zN0MxI5p6k6_wSU6JBoZ6CAY9gWst9j_MnL2V79gboTlEm539NZW_99ZpM_AovtDv/s200/402px-Caricature_Bosnia_Annexion_1909_Ion_Kalem.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ottoman caricature of the<br />
annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The recognition of the annexation was followed by a secret treaty between Austria and Bulgaria. But Serbia was now implacably hostile to Austria and it began to support openly the South Slav revolutionary movements. Meanwhile Russia began to step up her arms programme.</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The second Moroccan crisis (the Agadir crisis)</span></h3>
<div>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRigUFfnsz00YYjwqXEBuoglNGs1lC6975VQnHNy1YV1wRQwzV6O66CJmC4tSJfYW_2McPHwTCDPTq4Gt4bGlijgnTPikjIOFvr5IIyDuzLr3TkTG2A_KC9JWzPhwZ0fjUdGx3K6DjQCWp/s1600-h/SMS_Panther.gif" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319293300555120562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRigUFfnsz00YYjwqXEBuoglNGs1lC6975VQnHNy1YV1wRQwzV6O66CJmC4tSJfYW_2McPHwTCDPTq4Gt4bGlijgnTPikjIOFvr5IIyDuzLr3TkTG2A_KC9JWzPhwZ0fjUdGx3K6DjQCWp/s200/SMS_Panther.gif" style="float: left; height: 122px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 200px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>SMS Panther</i><br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">After 1908 the central powers and the Entente grew ever further apart. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agadir_Crisis">next conflict</a> arose over Morocco. Like China and the Ottoman Empire, it was a crumbling state and a prey to the interference of the European powers. When a Berber rebellion took place in 1911 the French sent an expedition to occupy Fez, the capital, thus putting central Morocco under direct French control. The French remained in Fez after the crisis had died down. On 1 July the Kaiser ordered the gunboat <span style="font-style: italic;">Panther</span> to Agadir on the grounds that German nationals in Morocco needed protection (even though there weren’t any!).</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This stirred up alarm in Britain, <a href="https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Agadir_Crisis:_Lloyd_George's_Mansion_House_Speech">forcing Lloyd George to state publicly</a> that Britain could not be treated as of no account in a question that affected her interests. This was read as a declaration of support for France in a war against Germany. In November France and Germany reached a compromise (Morocco would become a French protectorate in return for economic concessions to German interests and a slice of territory in the French Congo) but the French Prime Minister Caillaux fell from power and was replaced by the more hawkish Poincaré. In Germany too public opinion was inflamed. The Kaiser and Tirpitz resisted Chancellor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theobald_von_Bethmann_Hollweg">Bethmann Hollweg’s</a> urgings to accommodate Britain and increased their dreadnought programme. The British then stepped up their production.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy_AdjXS0sU7k39E2s2LNxUxjZcw0I6IOojBFkaeo7N034y46SfbMNLFWIw2wBOpPm4ttsjVmJtB4RyneRpw7Hc8QvAJqqgYyphsfBt_yF5Az5Pf4TOBfjuOXCJkNggzXA4dix-z5aU0vP/s1600/Theobald_von_Bethmann-Hollweg_1913b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy_AdjXS0sU7k39E2s2LNxUxjZcw0I6IOojBFkaeo7N034y46SfbMNLFWIw2wBOpPm4ttsjVmJtB4RyneRpw7Hc8QvAJqqgYyphsfBt_yF5Az5Pf4TOBfjuOXCJkNggzXA4dix-z5aU0vP/s200/Theobald_von_Bethmann-Hollweg_1913b.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The Italo-Turkish War</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The French intervention in Morocco stirred up Italian ambitions in Libya. On 29 September 1911 Italy <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo-Turkish_War">declared war on the Ottoman Empire</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 3 October the Italian navy bombarded Tripoli and captured the city. On 4 December they landed at Tobruk, but were defeated in the hinterland by Turkish troops and Libyan volunteers organised by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Kemal_Atat%C3%BCrk">Captain Mustafa Kemal</a>. The Turco-Arabic resistance inflicted bruising defeats on the Italians, who emerged the eventual victors but at great cost.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The war was ended by treaty in October 1912. Although the Ottomans ceded Libya, it was to take the Italians twenty years to gain control of the interior.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The First Balkan War</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">With Turkey embroiled in a war with Italy, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Balkan_War">the Balkan states moved in</a>. In March 1912 Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro formed the Balkan League under Russian auspices to take Macedonia away from Turkey. The war began when Montenegro declared war on Turkey, on 8 October 1912, to be followed by Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece. The league was able to field a combined force of 750,000 men was soon victorious.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Turkish collapse was so complete that all parties were willing to conclude an armistice on Dec. 3, 1912. A peace conference was begun in London, but after a coup d'état by the Young Turks in Constantinople in January 1913, war with the Ottomans was resumed and again the Turks were routed. Under a peace treaty signed in London on May 30, 1913, the Ottoman Empire lost almost all of its remaining European territory, including Macedonia and Albania. The creation of an independent Albania was a coup for Austria-Hungary as it cut off Serbia from the sea.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The Second Balkan War</span></h3>
<div>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMxwBCbxwKXltZn8b3P1_KrrXu1988Qj_-gJvQfqogaQPcxiDFxVCoDC8Y7QKkCi7xrCDf_tYse3ahT9hVsxNtvYf03ZM_RhSYsNLjLiBjytE4VQjHw3Z7HoYkaUcOHIkpMU9I7AGKtxjL/s1600/Serbian_soldiers_in_Kratovo%252C_7_June_1913.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMxwBCbxwKXltZn8b3P1_KrrXu1988Qj_-gJvQfqogaQPcxiDFxVCoDC8Y7QKkCi7xrCDf_tYse3ahT9hVsxNtvYf03ZM_RhSYsNLjLiBjytE4VQjHw3Z7HoYkaUcOHIkpMU9I7AGKtxjL/s200/Serbian_soldiers_in_Kratovo%252C_7_June_1913.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Serbian troops with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_telegraphy" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;" title="Wireless telegraphy">wireless field telegraph station</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br />during the Second Balkan War, on June 1913.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Public Domain</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Balkan_War">This</a> began when Serbia, Greece, and Romania quarrelled with Bulgaria over the division of their joint conquests in Macedonia. On June 1, 1913, Serbia and Greece formed an alliance against Bulgaria, and the war began on the night of June 29/30, 1913, when King Ferdinand of Bulgaria ordered his troops to attack Serbian and Greek forces in Macedonia. The Bulgarians were defeated, however, and a peace treaty was signed at Bucharest between the combatants on August 10, 1913. Under the terms of the treaty, Greece and Serbia divided up most of Macedonia between themselves, leaving Bulgaria with only a small part of the region.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, Serbian forces remained in Albania. On 13 October Austria issued Serbia with an ultimatum and Serbia complied on 25 October. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The war was a foretaste of what was to come. For the first time a military aircraft (Romanian) was seen flying over a large civilian centre (Sofia). There were appalling atrocities on both sides. 21 per cent of the Bulgarian troops were killed or wounded or died from disease.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The political consequences of the wars were considerable. An enlarged Serbia was now the prominent Balkan power and Russia’s only ally in the region. The Austrians were deeply anxious about Serbia’s ability to stir up trouble among their Slav subjects.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">However, diplomacy had successfully averted crises in Morocco and the Balkans. Couldn't future conflicts also be resolved by diplomacy?</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-50838566710373228762017-03-12T14:57:00.002+00:002017-03-12T14:58:01.670+00:00Towards 1914 (2): The two alliances<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimOjhxOtlpNH8Vy3i2PZoCX1Y1pFeFRJkCe0O4NgXo2qlDnpjkM2nEr-4CW4YGzx8kbT5gZghPygOtsNy-bN2_n_kgax-D45A_8g09u3G0Z303Mh9ybHmTgJRPL2U_eGDs-4kIxaedG94b/s1600/French_Fleet_in_Kronstadt_1892.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimOjhxOtlpNH8Vy3i2PZoCX1Y1pFeFRJkCe0O4NgXo2qlDnpjkM2nEr-4CW4YGzx8kbT5gZghPygOtsNy-bN2_n_kgax-D45A_8g09u3G0Z303Mh9ybHmTgJRPL2U_eGDs-4kIxaedG94b/s320/French_Fleet_in_Kronstadt_1892.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The French fleet in Kronstadt, 1891<br />
Wikimedia Commons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The Dual Entente</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The idea of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance_Treaty">an alliance between Republican France and tsarist Russia</a> - unlikely as it might seem - was not new. It had been advocated by panslavists and French nationalists, but it remained insignificant so long as Bismarck nursed Russia and encouraged France overseas. As Russo-German relations cooled, the Reinsurance Treaty was allowed to lapse. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile Russia and France were becoming increasingly close economically and were hostile to what they saw as Britain’s expansionism.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In July 1891 the French fleet paid a symbolic visit to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronstadt,_Russia">Kronstadt</a> and diplomatic notes were exchanged. In August 1892 Russia promised to go to war if France were attacked by Germany alone and in return France promised to come to Russia’s help if she were attached by Germany (but not if she were attacked by Austria-Hungary). <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Russian_Alliance">This agreement</a>, though narrowly worded, was full of significance for the future: Europe was now on the way to being organised into two armed camps. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">At the end of 1893 a diplomatic convention was signed (and ratified in January1894) to reinforce the military one. In 1894 Nicholas II paid a state visit to Paris. But so secret was this alliance that the public did not become aware of it until 1897 and most French ministers did not know its precise terms until war broke out.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The existence of the two alliances, the Triple Alliance and the Dual Entente, did not directly cause the First World War. French and Russian interests continued to diverge in many ways. </span><span style="font-size: large;">However, the alliances narrowed the room for manoeuvre in Europe. Russia was committed to the defence of France against Germany; Germany was bound to prevent the disintegration of Austria-Hungary in the face of Russian pressure.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Britain and the Ottoman Empire</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">At the turn of the century Britain abandoned its previous foreign policy of '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splendid_isolation">splendid isolation</a>'. It also cooled on its support afor the Ottoman Empire that had been the keystone of its policy throughout the 19th century?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">In 1895 another Balkan crisis loomed when a series of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamidian_massacres">officially instigated massacres</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenians_of_Turkey">Armenians </a>took place in Turkey. Public opinion was greatly agitated in Britain. The British government wished to condemn the massacres but at the same time not allow a repeat of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-wVe_z2WfGyD-I7A9W5kaOT8bFwtO01Hg-Ee1uipI1j_I1hSyGdoABvWEJIIygtrXpzSbGeIG32QoitM2s_u-HM-cn6bSBt-0WfZQGNV6fxPZhuUJuJWYJh2YVLVF6DQZdFEjceTm8HR/s1600/1895erzurum-victims.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-wVe_z2WfGyD-I7A9W5kaOT8bFwtO01Hg-Ee1uipI1j_I1hSyGdoABvWEJIIygtrXpzSbGeIG32QoitM2s_u-HM-cn6bSBt-0WfZQGNV6fxPZhuUJuJWYJh2YVLVF6DQZdFEjceTm8HR/s200/1895erzurum-victims.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An American photograph of Armenian<br />
dead in Erzurum, eastern Turkey<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Britain had become thoroughly disillusioned with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Hamid_II">Abdul Hamid II</a>,</span><span style="font-size: large;"> who had failed to implement the promised reforms. It now seemed morally impossible to defend Turkey. At the same time the old strategic arguments for defending the access to the Mediterranean seemed out of date:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">(1) the Straits could no longer be defended successfully against the combined Franco-Russian fleets;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(2) the route to India could be better secured by maintaining control of Egypt and was no longer dependent on the balance of power in south-east Europe.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 19 January 1897 the British Prime Minister and Foreign Minister <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gascoyne-Cecil,_3rd_Marquess_of_Salisbury">Lord Salisbury </a>spoke in the Lords in the debate on the Queen’s Speech. This speech marked a dramatic reversal of British foreign policy by condemning the entry into the Crimean War. </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘The parting of the ways was in 1853 when the Emperor Nicholas’s proposals were rejected. Many members of the House will keenly feel the nature of the mistake that was made when I say that we put all our money on the wrong horse.’</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">But this remarkable change in policy did not have an immediate practical outcome. In 1897 Britain was isolated. She was at odds with France over the Sudan and relations with Germany were worsening.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Britain and Germany</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU0qVe1wGbgkRoamIzfOLn_oE_WgrXmZAXx3J4H9cCwUIx5BPax3k_uwQSY2R7OTmMkGNv2vC4mae7fA-bxsZwYasctkHHcAY_P22BH8hWkWsynE5JjXvrUuVJ6CQKzACQnOwPvRNg0NeG/s1600-h/Wilhelm_II_of_Germany.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316063482852636370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU0qVe1wGbgkRoamIzfOLn_oE_WgrXmZAXx3J4H9cCwUIx5BPax3k_uwQSY2R7OTmMkGNv2vC4mae7fA-bxsZwYasctkHHcAY_P22BH8hWkWsynE5JjXvrUuVJ6CQKzACQnOwPvRNg0NeG/s200/Wilhelm_II_of_Germany.jpg" style="display: block; height: 200px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 136px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kaiser Wilhelm II<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">By the end of the nineteenth century Kaiser Wilhelm II's unpredictable behaviour was causing great concern in Britain.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1893 Britain had protested against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Railway">German railway building in Asia Minor</a>, which had begun in 1888 when a German syndicate obtained a concession from Turkey.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Germany took the side of Britain’s opponents in colonial disputes and wars. From 1889 Britain and Portugal were at odds over Delagoa Bay (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maputo_Bay">Maputo Bay</a>, Mozambique) which arose when the Portuguese seized the railway running from the bay to the Transvaal. In 1894 Germany sent two warships to) as a demonstration against British pressure on Portugal.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">(The dispute was referred to arbitration, and in 1900 Portugal was condemned to pay nearly 1,000,000 pounds in compensation to the shareholders in the railway company.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 2 January 1895 news of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameson_Raid">Jameson Raid</a>, an excursion by British freebooters into the Transvaal, reached Berlin. On the following day the Kaiser sent a telegram to President Paul Kruger congratulating him on its suppression. British public opinion was outraged.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">In July 1897 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_von_B%C3%BClow">Bernard Heinrich von Bülow</a> became secretary of state (and chancellor in 1900) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_von_Tirpitz">Alfred von Tirpitz </a>became head of the Admiralty.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOKrplrKZvBp8nPyQop_apeyUyhtqabGjnpoNyGzrYXmLxAidSpsJWiyPHzpmXV6LUpEG4gSKaHIvP_abBjKDD9lCZNSkH6KNDIySxcipA7EM71sjPoY-7BKKQfBEPjMx74_TmKvLVqYh/s1600/Bundesarchiv_Bild_134-C1743%252C_Alfred_von_Tirpitz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDOKrplrKZvBp8nPyQop_apeyUyhtqabGjnpoNyGzrYXmLxAidSpsJWiyPHzpmXV6LUpEG4gSKaHIvP_abBjKDD9lCZNSkH6KNDIySxcipA7EM71sjPoY-7BKKQfBEPjMx74_TmKvLVqYh/s200/Bundesarchiv_Bild_134-C1743%252C_Alfred_von_Tirpitz.jpg" width="138" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alfred von Tirpitz<br />
Bundersarchiv Bild</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This marked a new turn in German politics, the abandonment of Bismarck’s contention that Germany was a ‘satiated’ power. It coincided with increased anti-German feeling in Britain as newspapers whipped up a campaign against German goods.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1898 Wilhelm visited Abdul Hamid II and secured a Turkish concession to Germany to extend the Berlin-Baghdad Railway to Basra, thus giving Germany access to the Persian Gulf.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">During the Boer War Britain’s sense of isolation increased. The one consolation was her naval supremacy which enabled her to ride out world opinion.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The world <i>c</i>. 1900</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Was the First World War inevitable?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In some respects the world was more orderly than it had ever been. Much had been done to mitigate the disorder of international competition. Colonial disputes had gone to arbitration and had been peacefully resolved. More questions were decided by arbitration between 1880 and 1900 than in the previous eighty years. Many people believed, with reason, that the world was becoming more peaceful.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There was also acceptance of the need to limit armaments, however difficult this might be to achieve in practice. The first <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/">Nobel Peace Prizes</a> were awarded in 1901.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1899, at the instigation of Nicholas II, a conference met at the Hague, where it was decided that a permanent court of arbitration should be set up to which disputes could be referred and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hague_Conventions_%281899_and_1907%29">International Court </a>was set up in the same year. It was agreed to prohibit some modern weapons such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dum-dum">dum-dum bullets</a> and poison gas.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A second Hague Conference met in 1907.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The enhanced prestige of the United States can be seen in the success of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish-American_War">Spanish-American War </a>and Theodore Roosevelt’s mediation which ended the Russo-Japanese War in August1905. The treaty recognised Japan’s paramount interest in Korea and marked the formal abandonment by Tsarist Russia of her Far-Eastern dreams.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Britain's alliances</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Anglo-Japanese alliance</b>: In 1902 Britain ended its long period of isolation, which the Boer War had so strikingly demonstrated, by entering into an alliance with Japan. It was strictly limited and was inspired by concerns over Russian and German influence in China and Manchuria and was only to last for five years. This gave the Japanese the assurance of Britain’s neutrality if Japan went to war with Russia. But it did not address British concerns about Russian activities in Afghanistan and Tibet.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Entente Cordiale</b>: As colonial conflicts died down relations with France improved. Britain and France had common concerns over Germany and the British and French Foreign Ministers sought ways to ease hostilities. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In May 1903 Edward VII visited President Loubet in Paris. Overcoming initial hostility, he charmed the Parisians. He had paid many previous visits to Paris and spoke fluent French. </span><span style="font-size: large;">French statesmen believed the king personally directed foreign policy, and for them the visit had the highest diplomatic importance. They listened with he told them not to trust the Kaiser.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">In April 1904 the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entente_Cordiale">Entente Cordiale</a> was signed. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Britain was allowed to consolidate its hold on Egypt and France was allowed to establish a protectorate over Morocco; Siam would be left an independent buffer between Burma and Indochina This did not, in practice, give Britain a great deal. The Entente was severely limited, as it did not commit either power to come to the aid of the other if attacked. Nevertheless, it was a diplomatic turning point, ending centuries of Anglo-French hostility.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Germany_GB_France.gif" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="153" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Punch cartoon showing a sour<br />
German response as John Bull<br />
walks off with the harlot, Marianne<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Germany_GB_France.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I</span>Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-64806616138038693602017-03-12T08:58:00.004+00:002017-03-12T10:43:29.050+00:00Towards 1914 (1): the Bismarck system<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXnnMg8a76mpkHlF2bkKy9LdIuwUEaetDMPd7qyTZ8VLwBVDgaihh8dLv0wgQnKfcnQdM4VOHpJvQubyIPsRkyNSfwNh-GzXsGOpv7iEY6FVIzIWlCCkrfjvbCZSv1Do8vYNtC5LENJu5T/s1600/509px-Otto_von_Bismarck.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXnnMg8a76mpkHlF2bkKy9LdIuwUEaetDMPd7qyTZ8VLwBVDgaihh8dLv0wgQnKfcnQdM4VOHpJvQubyIPsRkyNSfwNh-GzXsGOpv7iEY6FVIzIWlCCkrfjvbCZSv1Do8vYNtC5LENJu5T/s200/509px-Otto_von_Bismarck.JPG" width="169" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Otto von Bismarck<br />
Puppet-master of Europe<br />
Public domai</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">'In the approach to the outbreak of the First World War, four factors were crucial: first, the ambitions and strategies of the great powers; second, the system of alliances, the danger of which was less to drag allies into the abyss than to make them concerned lest their opposite numbers renege on their commitments at the last moment; third, the balance of power in the decision-making process between military men and civilian politicians; last, the pressure of both nationalist and socialist anti-militaristic opinion, and the opportunity offered by the war to achieve the ultimate in national integration'. Robert Gildea, <i>Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800-1914</i>, 3rd edn. (Oxford, 2003), 429.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Europe after 1870</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The two great factors in Europe after the Franco-Prussian War and the formation of the German Empire were:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">(a) the ‘German question’ (the place of Germany in the new world order) and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(b) the persistent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Question">Eastern Question</a>, the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the resultant rivalry between Russia and Austria-Hungary in the Balkans.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Bismarck was <a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/bismarck.htm">the major player in this geopolitical game</a>. He saw Germany as a ‘saturated’ power that needed consolidation rather than new territory, but this depended on Europe remaining at peace through the creation of stable alliances. In 1873 he formed the Three Emperors' League, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_the_Three_Emperors"><span style="font-style: italic;">Dreikaiserbund</span></a>, a conservative alliance designed to maintain good relations with Russia and Austria-Hungary and to prevent them from coming into conflict in the Balkans. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The League allowed Germany to achieve two objectives: to avoid the choice between Austria and Russia, and to maintain France in isolation. But could it hold?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">France was obsessed with Germany’s demographic and military superiority. French politicians were divided between <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revanchism">revanchists</a>, who wished to regain the lost provinces and those who wanted to abandon Alsace-Lorraine and seek an overseas empire.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Excluded from Italy and Germany by its military defeats, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary">Austria-Hungary </a>had become a south-eastern power. The dominating concern of the Dual Monarchy was the need to check Russian influence in the Balkans, an area that was becoming increasingly disturbed because of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. This meant that </span><span style="font-size: large;">tensions were inevitable, making the <i>Dreikaiserbund</i> fundamentally unstable </span><span style="font-size: large;">Bismarck tried to keep the peace by maintaining a policy of neutrality over the Balkans. In 1876 he famously declared in a speech to the Reichstag that the Balkan Question was not worth ‘the healthy bones of one Pomeranian musketeer’. But he could not avoid involvement in the region</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">The Congress of Berlin</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War_(1877%E2%80%931878)">Russo-Turkish War </a>of 1877-8 was a serious threat to the European order. Acting, in his own words, as 'honest broker', Bismarck summoned the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Berlin">Congress of Berlin</a> in 1878 </span><span style="font-size: large;">to revise the Treaty of San Stefano that Russia had imposed on the Ottoman Empire. The Russians saw the Congress as a humiliation; they had defeated the Ottomans only to lose their new client state of 'big Bulgaria'. On the other hand, Austria-Hungary made a decisive gain, when it was given leave to occupy and administer the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. </span><span style="font-size: large;">One of the Russian delegates told the Serb plenipotentiary at Berlin that the situation was only temporary as ‘within fifteen years at the latest we shall be forced to fight Austria’.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxteXS_5GxEYlbMm0ZW9TltiNMBiUa4EWPDPc68FzzzTd2XMdbg0rkMmOOj0RXXVoBnUjSK0-Gg_tLjbzBN1shHhZpzuDqZL_TbLJfs2UtoO7mX16FDrn3LcKW6nbHu5yLxdzjDng6MuBW/s1600/Balkans_1878.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxteXS_5GxEYlbMm0ZW9TltiNMBiUa4EWPDPc68FzzzTd2XMdbg0rkMmOOj0RXXVoBnUjSK0-Gg_tLjbzBN1shHhZpzuDqZL_TbLJfs2UtoO7mX16FDrn3LcKW6nbHu5yLxdzjDng6MuBW/s320/Balkans_1878.png" width="196" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Contemporary map of the Balkans after<br />
the Congress of Berlin.<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Congress saw the defeat of Bismarck’s strategy to maintain his alliances with both Austria-Hungary and Russia. Russian nationalists (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Slavism">Panslavists</a>) were gaining in influence. Russia felt let down by Germany, and relations between Berlin and St Petersburg cooled in an atmosphere of mutual recrimination.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Bismarck's alliances</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Dual Alliance:</b> Following the Berlin Congress, </span><span style="font-size: large;">Bismarck visited Vienna in September 1879. On 7 October the secret <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_Alliance_(1879)">Dual Alliance </a>was signed between Germany and Austria-Hungary. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Its terms were not only secret but very limited: </span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">if one of the signatories were to be attacked by Russia the other was to come to her support. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">if either were attacked by another power, the other would maintain benevolent neutrality unless Russia joined the attacker. </span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">What was the purpose of this alliance? As Germany was in no immediate danger from Russia, it seems clear that Bismarck’s aim was to attach Austria-Hungary to Germany so that he could prevent her from going to war with Russia. The success of the alliance therefore depended on Germany's ability to restrain Austria-Hungary. This remained the case while Bismarck was in power. It was to be a different story later on.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Triple Alliance: </b>Bismarck followed this up by making overtures to Britain, but nothing came of it. In 1881 he renewed the fragile <span style="font-style: italic;">Dreikaiserbund</span>. In May 1882 Italy, furious at the French occupation of Tunis, came into the Dual Alliance, which then became the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_Alliance_(1882)">Triple Alliance.</a> Germany and Austria-Hungary promised to help Italy against a French attack and vice versa.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMahBY_v7ZozhrUQNGj5pGd2fvOKSIapQL7uV-TGyP5BeiYYIPZ9coeKovUl88-_Bfypv_dnHRYPa-CUCYDzPV1Qh6pwJvFGFDCMiSiNM2RbC1WlxBJGWrJ7CefdhBvO6P5bxEtofzy1NI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-03-10+at+16.11.59.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMahBY_v7ZozhrUQNGj5pGd2fvOKSIapQL7uV-TGyP5BeiYYIPZ9coeKovUl88-_Bfypv_dnHRYPa-CUCYDzPV1Qh6pwJvFGFDCMiSiNM2RbC1WlxBJGWrJ7CefdhBvO6P5bxEtofzy1NI/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-03-10+at+16.11.59.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Triple Alliance, 1882<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Bismarck seemed to have made Europe more peaceful because he had contained the rivalries between Austria-Hungary and Russia and had neutralised and isolated France. At the same time France was becoming more hostile to Britain because of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Egypt_under_the_British">British occupation of Egypt in 1882</a>. This destroyed the chance of Anglo-French co-operation for twenty years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The Bulgarian crisis, 1885</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Balkans continued unstable after the Congress of Berlin. In September 1885 the ruler of Bulgaria, Prince <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_of_Battenberg">Alexander of Battenberg</a> brought Ottoman-controlled <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Rumelia">Eastern Rumelia</a> into Bulgaria. Russia refused to approve this independent action and Alexander III ordered the withdrawal of all Russian officers and advisors in the Bulgarian army. Later in the year Serbia declared war on Bulgaria, on the grounds that the balance of power in the Balkans was upset by Bulgarian unification. The Serbs were <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbo-Bulgarian_War">heavily defeated</a>, and in April 1886 the Powers recognised the new state under the ‘personal union’ of Alexander. A major war had been avoided, but the 1878 settlement had been undermined and the decline in Ottoman power was confirmed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In August Alexander 1886 was kidnapped by Russian officers and bullied into abdicating. The newly elected Bulgarian assembly turned out to be very anti-Russian, opening up the threat of a direct Russian invasion. Yet it was obvious that Austria-Hungary would not allow this to happen. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This crisis made the renewal of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Dreikaiserbund</span> impossible. Instead Bismarck negotiated a secret <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinsurance_Treaty">Reinsurance Treaty </a>with Russia in 1887 though he knew this was a feeble substitute. His attempt at bridge-building between Russia and Austria-Hungary had failed. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Bulgarian crisis had shown that Austro-Russian rivalry in the Balkans was now the great destabilising factor in eastern Europe. An even greater problem (from Bismarck's point of view) was how to keep France isolated. Would he be able to prevent a Franco-Russian rapprochement? In 1888 the first Russian loan was floated in Paris and the dependence of Russia on the French capital market began.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The fall of Bismarck</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1888 Emperor William I died and was succeeded by his son <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_III_of_Germany_%28Hohenzollern%29">Frederick III</a>, Queen Victoria’s son-in-law. But within three months he was dead of throat cancer and his son <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_II%2C_German_Emperor">Wilhelm II</a> became Kaiser. He wished to pursue his own policies both at home and abroad and saw Bismarck as a hindrance. In 1890 he <a href="https://networks.h-net.org/node/35008/pages/60783/bismarcks-fall-power-1890">forced his resignation </a>over social policy. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIH30scHl3qDhBAPoyQQx-3dnYKS0iE26gakZWxxDtfhsM7-vafkWbdqUjQBdQkTDaxa8kz2CqaTd5XNJvgAmU0-R0_Sw7UkCCPLGTMX3ZGRWFOUNWTYzEye3MTUgrpqisEIX8dVkEul1s/s1600/412px-1890_Bismarcks_Ruecktritt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIH30scHl3qDhBAPoyQQx-3dnYKS0iE26gakZWxxDtfhsM7-vafkWbdqUjQBdQkTDaxa8kz2CqaTd5XNJvgAmU0-R0_Sw7UkCCPLGTMX3ZGRWFOUNWTYzEye3MTUgrpqisEIX8dVkEul1s/s200/412px-1890_Bismarcks_Ruecktritt.jpg" width="136" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Dropping the Pilot'<br />
from Punch<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Bismarck’s fall did not immediately change German foreign policy but it opened the way for the transformation of the European system which he had dominated since 1870. His achievements were thrown away in the next decade. German foreign policy became confused and dependent on the Kaiser’s unstable character.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The fragile Concert of Europe that Bismarck had sought to create, in effect came to an end as<a href="http://www.worldwar1.com/tlalli.htm"> new occasions of conflict arose</a>.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></h3>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-35274177937997466372017-03-04T14:12:00.001+00:002017-03-06T08:28:41.449+00:00Mass politics, democracy, and communications<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQnmimXWkSw1qQEuXJIeNfUWZwLS-ITlTC0Bb_grjpaZ6jCAtdTR_kOInF42m347F-OM86PLUEEePwlbzKwGjtvs_ia9BJIUQlroWMhR-G_Ty_0crHcknhEYP_ARXA5ThunIfJhgTH1NEb/s1600/Landing_of_the_Atlantic_Cable_of_1866%252C_Heart%2527s_Content%252C_Newfoundland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQnmimXWkSw1qQEuXJIeNfUWZwLS-ITlTC0Bb_grjpaZ6jCAtdTR_kOInF42m347F-OM86PLUEEePwlbzKwGjtvs_ia9BJIUQlroWMhR-G_Ty_0crHcknhEYP_ARXA5ThunIfJhgTH1NEb/s320/Landing_of_the_Atlantic_Cable_of_1866%252C_Heart%2527s_Content%252C_Newfoundland.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Landing of the transatlantic cable at Heart's Content,<br />
Newfoundland, August 1866<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: large;">A d</span><span style="font-size: large;">emocratic world?</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The later 19th century has been seen as a period of modernisation in which, according to the German sociologist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber">Max Weber</a>, traditional authority increasingly gave way to legal-rational authority organised bureaucratically through impersonal institutions. In 1885 Sir Henry Maine pointed out in his book <span style="font-style: italic;">Popular Government</span>
</span><br />
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘Russia and Turkey are the only European states that completely reject the theory that governments hold their power by delegation from the community.’</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">In other words, they were the only large states that did not have some kind of parliamentary institutions.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Those states that had representative government were extending the franchise. Both France and Germany had adult male suffrage. In Britain (male) heads of urban households got the vote in 1867 and in 1884 the vote was extended to rural householders. This still left 40% of men without the vote. Spain obtained universal male suffrage in 1890 and Norway in 1898. Austrian men obtained the vote in 1907. From 1906 Russia had a parliament (the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duma">Duma</a>) elected on a propertied franchise. The Ottoman Empire <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turk_Revolution">acquired a parliament</a> in 1908. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Bureaucracy</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Mass politics meant the growth of political parties, and well- attended political meetings.
As Weber noted, this change towards accountable government and mass politics was accompanied by the growth of bureaucracy. <span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Following the Northcote-Trevelyan report in 1853 the British civil service was opened up to competitive examinations. Prussia introduced a codified career structure for civil servants in 1873 as a consequence of its experience of the French war. Germany’s </span>civil service grew from 450,000 in 1881 to 1.8 million in 1911; Britain’s from 81,000 to 644,000. The burden of government expenditure also rose and with it the spread of some form of income tax.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #e06666; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Monarchy</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">However monarchy was still the apex of the social hierarchy, and remained the rule in most of Europe, with France and Switzerland the only two republics that mattered in 1880 (Portugal became a republic in 1910). When new states appeared, they were given kings. Deference and hierarchy still appealed. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYTanJ9lIMiyRmIdNLb9jx-GRsStjGj7N66jso0zOALgKz8hWW7q6gLuHUbI0OrvdG59Zf8j2HqdIfYeH6Cn0vV1ukPgiFZ2XyWMT1AmC7x-nUbrO0ZLwdYm9jH7Gr9huKI_J_WHYOIHb-/s1600/Queen_Victoria%2527s_funeral_procession.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYTanJ9lIMiyRmIdNLb9jx-GRsStjGj7N66jso0zOALgKz8hWW7q6gLuHUbI0OrvdG59Zf8j2HqdIfYeH6Cn0vV1ukPgiFZ2XyWMT1AmC7x-nUbrO0ZLwdYm9jH7Gr9huKI_J_WHYOIHb-/s320/Queen_Victoria%2527s_funeral_procession.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Victoria's funeral procession in Windsor, 2 February 1901<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monarchies became more ritualistic with weddings and funerals public events (see also Queen Victoria’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Jubilee_of_Queen_Victoria">Golden</a> and Diamond Jubilees, her <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_of_Queen_Victoria">elaborate funeral</a>, and the celebrations in Russia in 1913 commemorating the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanov_Tercentenary">300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty</a>. Monarchs used the railways to make state visits and the image of the monarch was widely distributed through cheap engravings and press photographs. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monarchs also played a political role. Even the constitutional monarch, Queen Victoria, had a political motive for marrying her daughter into the Prussian royal family and for encouraging her granddaughter, Alex, to marry the heir to the Russian throne, the future Nichols II (right). <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_IX_of_Denmark">Christian IX of Denmark</a> was known as 'the father-in-law of Europe' because his children's marriages connected him to so many royal houses.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">One of the most blatant examples of royals engaging in politics can be seen in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy%E2%80%93Nicky_correspondence">‘Willy-Nicky correspondence'</a> between the Tsar and Kaiser Wilhelm II. (The Kaiser and the Tsarina were first cousins, both grandchildren of Queen Victoria.)
Yet monarchs were under pressure, facing the threat of assassination and revolt. </span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Nationalism</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Nationalism was on the increase in late nineteenth-century Europe. In 1905 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_union_between_Norway_and_Sweden">Norway separated from Sweden</a>. Nationalist movements fed off each other. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinn_F%C3%A9in#History">Sinn Fein</a> was founded in 1905 and was partly inspired by the example of the Magyars. Frustrated nationalists included the Poles in Russia, the Armenians in Turkey and the south Slavs of the Dual Monarchy (Austria-Hungary). In Ireland political nationalism took the form of a search for cultural identity with the foundation of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Theatre#History">Abbey Theatre </a>in 1904 and the revival of the Irish language. </span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Racial theories</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The downside of much nationalism was racism, partly inspired by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism">corrupted Darwinism</a> and was most influential in Germany. In 1899 the Englishman <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_Stewart_Chamberlain">Houston Stewart Chamberlain</a>, Wagner's son-in-law, published <span style="font-style: italic;">The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century</span>, which argued that northern Europeans were superior to all other humans. Joseph Chamberlain dreamed of a world dominated by the (racially similar) British and Germans. Slav nationalists propagated the ideology of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Slavism">pan-Slavism.</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> Anti-Semitism revived in intensity. In 1880 a German anti-Semitic league was formed. The influx of Jewish emigrants to Vienna increased anti-Jewish feeling there encouraged by the socialist mayor, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Lueger">Karl Lueger</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdOwCB-9299RSl__XvCxyxDVhuls2H_VAq-sTE9ElXk_mg_uWF83EjyEw-J5PsCxv3kqUH03bpdY5Smj5KNGUdkA-Zi6KHYoVYk8NYDc8s-Yg6kZH45H4ATLMdtBmPj8q9xOdBR9JGnoyS/s1600/Ludwig_Grillich7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdOwCB-9299RSl__XvCxyxDVhuls2H_VAq-sTE9ElXk_mg_uWF83EjyEw-J5PsCxv3kqUH03bpdY5Smj5KNGUdkA-Zi6KHYoVYk8NYDc8s-Yg6kZH45H4ATLMdtBmPj8q9xOdBR9JGnoyS/s200/Ludwig_Grillich7.jpg" width="138" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Karl Lueger<br />
charismatic mayor of Vienna<br />
populist and anti-Semite<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">In 1879 the Austrian politician, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Ritter_von_Sch%C3%B6nerer">Georg Ritter von Schönerer</a>, the strongest anti-Semite that Austria produced before Hitler, founded the Pan-German party. Through the development of mass rallies and torchlight processions and the use of propaganda, he was able to gain widespread support. He described himself as a pagan, wished to replace the Christian with pagan festivals, and coined the pseudo-medieval greeting, </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Heil</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">. He bestowed on himself the title </span><i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Fürher</i><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">.</span>
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: large;">
</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The <a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Dreyfus.html">Dreyfus case</a> exposed anti-Semitism in France. The new anti-Semitism was often a lower middle-class phenomenon and was fiercest in eastern and central Europe. </span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Welfare measures</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the new age of mass politics, government intervention increased. This was seen as a move from individualism to collectivism. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In the 1880s Bismarck introduced a new range of welfare measures. He declared that the state had to ‘meet the justified wishes of the working classes … through legislation and administration’. In spring 1883 he launched an accident insurance bill and a sickness insurance bill to cover a period of thirteen weeks after an accident. On 27 June 1884, the Reichstag passed the accident insurance scheme. In 1889 he introduced the first state-run social insurance programme paying old age and disability benefits. His system was funded with payroll taxes paid by the employee and the employer, along with contributions from the government. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He thus gave Germany the first modern social welfare safety net in the world. By the eve of the First World War more than 15 million Germans were covered by sickness insurance, 28 million were insured against accidents and a million were receiving pensions.paying retirement benefits. As his normally extremely critical biographer, Jonathan Sternberg writes,
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">'The state system of social security gave Germany the first modern social welfare safety net in the world and still forms part of the modern social security system, a significant achievement and entirely Bismarck's doing.' <i>Bismarck: A Life</i> (Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 417)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1908 Britain introduced old age pensions and a national insurance scheme in 1911.
These welfare measures show that governments believed they had to take the wishes of the electorate into account. But is accountable government the same as democracy? Women were largely excluded from the franchise and political power remained with elites who came from a narrow social band. </span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Literacy</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the nineteenth century Europe advanced towards mass literacy though the spread was very uneven and literacy can be varyingly defined. A study of 50 million Germans in 1886 demonstrated different forms of literacy ranging from the 20 million who could read popular literature to 10 million who could read more demanding works.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The press played an important role in homogenising populations. Newspapers became cheaper and more varied. In Italy from the turn of the century dailies began to carry sports pages. The provincial press was especially important in France. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1896, the first issue of Alfred Harmsworth’s <i>Daily Mail</i> appeared. It was based on the style of newspapers published in the USA. The eight-page newspaper cost only halfpenny. Slogans used to sell the newspaper included 'A Penny Newspaper for One Halfpenny' and 'The Busy Man's Daily Newspaper'. The <i>Daily Mail</i> was the first newspaper in Britain that catered for a new reading public that needed something simpler, shorter and more readable than those that had previously been available. One innovation was the banner headline that went right across the page. Considerable space was given to sport and human interest stories. It was also the first newspaper to include a woman's section that dealt with issues such as fashions and cookery. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Another innovation introduced by the <i>Daily Mail</i> was the publication of serials. Personally supervised by Harmsworth, the average length was 100,000 words. The opening episode was 5,000 words and had to have a dramatic impact on the readers. This was followed by episodes of 1,500 to 2,000 words every day.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The <i>Daily Mail</i> was an immediate success and circulation quickly achieved 500,000. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Harmsworth used his newspapers to promote inventions such as the telephone, electric light, photography, motorcycles and motor cars. He was so passionate about cars that Harmsworth prohibited his editor from reporting automobile accidents.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In France the most popular newspaper (circulation 1.4 m.) was <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Petit_Parisien">Le Petit Parisien</a></i>, </span><span style="font-size: large;">published from 1876, which offered its readers ‘human interest’ stories. The Russian equivalent was the <i>Gazeta Kopeika</i>, which sold for one kopek.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0du1C3_umLeVwTC113JVgpNa1JLKzq77PBCQ7Qg_-zOoVoQPzXzQorc0VQhr_zxCNxQ4nlfwwpzDG03fjvXeQE8vo7GpaYhy5-uK1IxqhW8N6BoEBw7jSvmAxiSyFAlw3dF5HGZZWee2p/s1600/tumblr_mfb2euqRIF1qc8yyuo1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0du1C3_umLeVwTC113JVgpNa1JLKzq77PBCQ7Qg_-zOoVoQPzXzQorc0VQhr_zxCNxQ4nlfwwpzDG03fjvXeQE8vo7GpaYhy5-uK1IxqhW8N6BoEBw7jSvmAxiSyFAlw3dF5HGZZWee2p/s200/tumblr_mfb2euqRIF1qc8yyuo1_1280.jpg" width="135" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sensationalist edition of <i>Le Petit Parisien</i><br />
October 1909</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Conservatives and liberals lamented the growth of a ‘trashy’ popular culture - but it was here to stay.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Space and time</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The first railway telegraph seems to have been installed in the Great Western between Paddington and West Drayton and was operating by the spring of 1839. In 1842 and improved telegraph consisting of double-needle instruments and only two wires was ordered. The wires were suspended overhead on upright standards of cast-iron and at intervals of up to 150 yards. By 1848, 1,800 miles of railway were so equipped in the country as a while. This enabled Greenwich or ‘railway’ time to become standard in Britain by the 1850s. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Germany was slower to adopt railway time and railway companies had to standardise times for their own local use. They made use of the synchronised electric clocks invented by the Scotsman, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bain_(inventor)">Alexander Bain</a>. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Belgium and the Netherlands introduced standard time in 1892, Austria-Hungary and Italy in 1893. In the same year, at the insistence of the Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke, Germany adopted standard time based on the Greenwich meridian. By the turn of the century it was claimed that between them the 52 million inhabitants of Germany owned now fewer than 12 million pocket watches.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Communications became international. The first successful <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_telegraph_cable">transatlantic telegraph cable</a> was completed on July 27, 1866, allowing transatlantic telegraph communications for the first time.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">With communications now international, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_meridian_(Greenwich)">International Meridian Conference</a> held in Washington DC in October 1884 standardised world time based on the Greenwich meridian – much to the resentment of the French.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1874 the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Postal_Union" style="font-size: large;">Universal Postal Union</a><span style="font-size: large;"> was founded. The volume of items sent through the mail increased from 3 billion letters and postcards to 25 billion in 1913. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_telephone">Alexander Graham Bell's telephone </a>was patented in the US in 1876 though by 1913 there were still 100 letters for every 21 telephone calls. During the 1890s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guglielmo_Marconi">Guglielmo Marconi</a> experimented with long-distance radiotelegraphy transmissions.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq8JHbQNPq60bELCQShI3JY4CytcwcW14AJIssj0OUjzusakCzpuo-1jplRB8LjW69CTH1cHAuUOMLO-PH7F8Hsfh7XjDwLZ8LRnlRfDILtJHsjePgytTwQS012P_MrCDAamZYSklOEu1I/s1600/Guglielmo_Marconi_1901_wireless_signal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq8JHbQNPq60bELCQShI3JY4CytcwcW14AJIssj0OUjzusakCzpuo-1jplRB8LjW69CTH1cHAuUOMLO-PH7F8Hsfh7XjDwLZ8LRnlRfDILtJHsjePgytTwQS012P_MrCDAamZYSklOEu1I/s200/Guglielmo_Marconi_1901_wireless_signal.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guglielmo Marconi<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">News agencies reported on national and international events. In October 1851 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Reuter">Paul Julius Reuter</a>, a German-born immigrant, opened <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuters#History">an office in the City of London</a> which transmitted stock market quotations between London and Paris via the new Calais-Dover cable. Two years earlier he had used pigeons to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service which operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. Reuters, as the agency soon became known, eventually extended its service to the whole British press as well as to other European countries. It also expanded the content to include general and economic news from all around the world. The reputation of its service was enhanced by a succession of reporting scoops. For example, in 1865 Reuters was first in Europe with news of President Lincoln’s assassination. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> As overland telegraph and undersea cable facilities developed, the business expanded beyond Europe to include the Far East in 1872 and South America in 1874. In 1883 Reuters began to use a ‘column printer’ to transmit messages electrically to London newspapers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">These developments enabled the public to engage with politics as never before. They did not necessarily make the world a safer place.
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: large;">‘Patriotism, jingoism, and inter-communal hatred often proceeded from the people and influenced otherwise cautious statesmen, rather than vice versa.’ C. A. Bayley, <i>The Birth of the Modern World 1780-1914 </i>(2004)</span></blockquote>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-13478430612598251082017-02-25T19:00:00.000+00:002017-03-05T16:40:23.570+00:00Feminism, socialism,anarchism<h3>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">Feminism</span></span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The nineteenth century saw the advancement of political rights for men but the emancipation of women was hampered by the doctrine of separate spheres and by the double standard of sexual morality. This was attacked in John Stuart Mill’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Subjection_of_Women"><i>The Subjection of Women</i> </a>(1869), the key feminist text of the nineteenth century.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Mill was a Liberal, who propounded an individualistic concept of feminism. In 1879 the German socialist leader, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Bebel">August Bebel </a>published <i>Woman and Socialism</i>, which set out a utopian view of a future classless society in which 'bourgeois' marriage and family life would no longer exist. This embarrassed some of his colleagues.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">By 1870 both France and Germany had universal male suffrage. This was introduced in Austria in 1907. In Italy in 1912 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_general_election,_1913">a law was introduced</a> to include all literate men of twenty-one or older, or who had served in the armed forces. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">These advances made women’s exclusion from the franchise all the more striking. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWRy08XmOb64CyPLlpbZGe-j43sqq1tWFhYK7-6qF14uh2ePHToBjcxQOzouE65X7ukP-BfFjPXyeJs4X9pcTntAIGMjFFfzZCXaD4t3fxCIdrDmFtpy8Fe0QTdB0cHI7t1INRiU5c9y-B/s1600/HubertineAuclert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWRy08XmOb64CyPLlpbZGe-j43sqq1tWFhYK7-6qF14uh2ePHToBjcxQOzouE65X7ukP-BfFjPXyeJs4X9pcTntAIGMjFFfzZCXaD4t3fxCIdrDmFtpy8Fe0QTdB0cHI7t1INRiU5c9y-B/s200/HubertineAuclert.jpg" width="139" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hubertine Auclert (1848-1914)<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The movement for women’s suffrage was strongest in Britain. It was more difficult in France because of the combined opposition of Republicans and conservatives. Nevertheless a female suffrage movement emerged in 1876. In 1880 its leading figure <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubertine_Auclert">Hubertine Auclert</a> launched a tax revolt, arguing that without representation women should not be subjected to taxation. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In February 1881 she launched a monthly periodical, <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Citoyenne">La Citoyenne</a></i>, arguing for women’s enfranchisement. In early 1885 she and her supporters held a shadow election in which fifteen women stood, though they did not gain admission to the Assembly. In 1904 she led a feminist demonstration in Paris in which she tore up a copy of the <i>Code Napoléon</i>. From a balcony she launched balloons on which were written the words: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">‘The Code crushes women: it dishonours the Republic.’ </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In 1908 she invaded the Chamber of Deputies with twenty followers and threw leaflets at the politicians. In the same year she and her companion invaded a polling booth and overturned ballot boxes. But the movement was weak compared with its British counterpart. A rally held early in July 1914 attracted only 6,000 people.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The largest women’s suffrage movement outside Britain was in Germany. In 1894 the Federation of German Women’s Associations was set up to campaign for the vote and against the regulation of prostitution. But the movement was split between the conservatives, who had limited aims and the radicals who campaigned for the rights of unmarried mothers and for access to abortion, and this division severely limited its effectiveness. However, by 1908 all German universities were open to women.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In the 1905 Revolution in Russia women became involved in political meetings and in organising strikes. The All-Russian Union of Equal Rights for Women was set up in protest that the Tsar’s October manifesto contained no reference to women. But feminists faced opposition from Socialists and from conservatives in the Duma as well as growing police harassment. However, after 1905 they were allowed to take state university examinations.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Women’s suffrage saw most progress in Scandinavia. In 1905 Norway saw complete independence from Sweden. Its new constitution included a limited right to vote for propertied women in 1907 and in 1913 full and equal suffrage was introduced.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6HqtndFUjG0ZwVCin1L0ykUtLjxfP5dv3DMsli77vJomSRq-wc69nwFEvRm5nElACKXEvOevVqxlzx3DvefMM3X3Pc-g0RTqlQRVSrCwSo5uv8i3wBvAiZfoOcCq3ym48YX3GivL75jP-/s1600/First_Female_Parliamentarians_in_the_world_in_Finland_in_1907.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6HqtndFUjG0ZwVCin1L0ykUtLjxfP5dv3DMsli77vJomSRq-wc69nwFEvRm5nElACKXEvOevVqxlzx3DvefMM3X3Pc-g0RTqlQRVSrCwSo5uv8i3wBvAiZfoOcCq3ym48YX3GivL75jP-/s200/First_Female_Parliamentarians_in_the_world_in_Finland_in_1907.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first female parliamentarians in<br />
Finland, 1907.<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Although part of the Russian Empire, Finland had retained its own political institutions, including the traditional Estates. Feminism was closely bound up with nationalism. In 1872 women gained the vote at municipal level. In 1892 the teacher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucina_Hagman">Lucina Hagman</a> founded </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">a Union of Women’s Societies to campaign for full political equality. In 1905 when the Tsar reluctantly conceded full civil liberties across the Russian Empire, a national legislature replaced the older Estates. In 1906 it introduced universal adult suffrage for men and women. Over the next few years, Nicholas II withdrew many of his concessions, but in 1909 equal rights for women were enshrined in the Finnish constitution. But this was exceptional.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">‘Female suffrage was democracy’s final frontier, but though the feminists had made some advances as democracy’s challenge to existing political systems mounted, there still seemed a long way to go by the time the war came.’ Richard J. Evans, <i>The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914</i> (Penguin, 2016), 547.</span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">However in many areas women were gaining more rights. By 1914 there were women doctors and university graduates. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Technology opened new occupations for women as typists and telephone operators. The expansion of primary education provided another significant career opening for women. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">From March1911 women celebrated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women's_Day">International Women's Day</a>. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJYVGdmjVAu-lDZRqYcB3ygd0cyvAT9Fu59HMNUDg20v4WjaDDX_v-3LYlr2Fz7CFMPe9U_mfNOOALP07y7LaCVvSFCRfSD1yjk-WhAd3oUp4dxX_Qkfmbnv_IORX9lvr-5qgwA4d79xu-/s1600/386px-Frauentag_1914_Heraus_mit_dem_Frauenwahlrecht.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJYVGdmjVAu-lDZRqYcB3ygd0cyvAT9Fu59HMNUDg20v4WjaDDX_v-3LYlr2Fz7CFMPe9U_mfNOOALP07y7LaCVvSFCRfSD1yjk-WhAd3oUp4dxX_Qkfmbnv_IORX9lvr-5qgwA4d79xu-/s200/386px-Frauentag_1914_Heraus_mit_dem_Frauenwahlrecht.jpg" width="128" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">German poster for International<br />
Women's Day, 1914<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-weight: bold;"><br /><span style="color: #cc0000;">Socialism</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The term emerged as popular usage during the 1830s when the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Henri_de_Rouvroy,_comte_de_Saint-Simon">count de Saint-Simon</a> (1760-1825) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fourier">Charles Fourier </a>(1772-1837) proposed an idealistic solution to the harshness of industrialisation. They envisaged a new type of society organised along collectivist and communal lines. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> These thinkers were labelled ‘Utopians’ by the two founders of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism">‘scientific socialism’,</a> Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In his works, notably <span style="font-style: italic;">The Communist Manifesto </span>(1848) and <span style="font-style: italic;">Das Kapital</span> (1867) Marx argued that the nature of society was determined by man’s relationship to the means of production. Through the process known as the dialectic, aristocratic society is replaced by bourgeois society, but this is overthrown by the proletarian revolution. Marx believed that as Britain was the most advanced bourgeois capitalist society at the time, it would be the first to fall to the proletarian revolution. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">The First International:</span></b> In 1864 delegates from across Europe founded the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workingmen%27s_Association">First International</a>, an attempt to organise international co-operation among working-class organisations. Although it included liberals as well as socialists, it soon came under the influence of Marx and Engels and became more openly socialist. In 1872 it transferred to New York and ceased to be effective in Europe. It was formally dissolved in 1876, the victim of internal dissention and the repression following the Paris Commune.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Socialism in Germany:</span></b> From 1873 the European economies suffered a series of slumps and this enabled socialist ideas to gather support among the working classes, especially in Germany. On 23 May, 1863 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Lassalle">Ferdinand Lassalle</a> founded a party under the name <span style="font-style: italic;">Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein</span> (ADAV, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_German_Workers%27_Association">General German Workers' Association</a>). In 1869, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Bebel">August Bebel</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Liebknecht">Wilhelm Liebknecht</a> founded the <span style="font-style: italic;">Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei </span>(SDAP, Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany), which <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany">merged with the ADAV in 1875</a>, taking the name Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> The party was outlawed in 1878 by Bismarck’s anti-socialist law which outlawed socialist newspapers, shut down socialist societies and arrested leading socialists. But its thriving subculture of reading groups, sports and leisure societies ensured its survival in strongholds such as Berlin, Frankfurt and Leipzig. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In 1890 the laws were relaxed and at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erfurt_Program">Erfurt Congress in 1891</a> the now legalised party adopted the name Social Democratic Party (SPD) and committed itself to a Marxist analysis of society and the pursuit of revolutionary goals. But the revolution would not be brought about by violence. Following the logic of Marxist economic determinism, the revolution would come of its own accord.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ykA4ZPkOEl71l1VX4lLT0bccWDWEZDn3AXQYYTyXJOXdKyYSr1V9_cqo5uvgcIA_NrI3eQoxoD71AXAxsUS-LDrl89TxnqanJmy7z37dHP0ynF5DHZltI-LKrN3YTCjhLLa67_eXddkf/s1600/Protokoll_des_Parteitages_der_SPD_in_Erfurt_%252814._bis_20._Oktober_1891%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-ykA4ZPkOEl71l1VX4lLT0bccWDWEZDn3AXQYYTyXJOXdKyYSr1V9_cqo5uvgcIA_NrI3eQoxoD71AXAxsUS-LDrl89TxnqanJmy7z37dHP0ynF5DHZltI-LKrN3YTCjhLLa67_eXddkf/s200/Protokoll_des_Parteitages_der_SPD_in_Erfurt_%252814._bis_20._Oktober_1891%2529.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Erfurt Programme, 1891</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In 1890 it attracted close to 1.5 million votes and elected 35 representatives to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_%28building%29">Reichstag</a>.
In 1912 it had over a million members and the support of a third of the electorate, making it the largest party in the Reichstag with 110 seats. By this time it was the largest socialist party in the world. This seemed to show that socialists could reach the threshold of power by legal means. By 1914 also Germany had the largest trade union movement in the world, with a quarter of the workforce unionised. Not all unions were socialist – some were Catholic.
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Socialism in France:</span></b> In France the first socialist was elected to the National Assembly, which had a 12-strong labour group by 1889. Socialists were able to work with radicals in promoting secularisation and income tax reform. But following a wave of strikes in 1900-2 the Socialists split again.
The dispute was between reformists under<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Jaur%C3%A8s"> Jean Jaurès</a> and revolutionaries. But in 1905 Jaurès managed to unite the socialist factions as the French Section of the Workers' International.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSelqnte0g1tG4BJ7TH_XULknEEcUoOIiugYj4NFkzQXmaiNNjyqtq3_JUfuZTRlgtZnP6eP8wPl9AGSvfYUj70g8gdZXa5kL89cSUrJvyN645bQlQt5Xewy5QFMEwzH48PqIQtacvpHzh/s1600/Jean_Jaure%25CC%2580s%252C_1904%252C_by_Nadar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSelqnte0g1tG4BJ7TH_XULknEEcUoOIiugYj4NFkzQXmaiNNjyqtq3_JUfuZTRlgtZnP6eP8wPl9AGSvfYUj70g8gdZXa5kL89cSUrJvyN645bQlQt5Xewy5QFMEwzH48PqIQtacvpHzh/s200/Jean_Jaure%25CC%2580s%252C_1904%252C_by_Nadar.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jean Jaurès, Socialist opponent<br />
of the First World War<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">As a result, French Socialists doubled their membership to more than 90,000 by 1914, though this was less than a tenth of the membership of the German SPD. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">The movement faced its greatest crisis in 1914 when Jaurès tried to adopt the anarcho-syndicalist tactic of the general strike in order to stop the war - and was assassinated by an extreme nationalist. His pacificism contrasted with the nationalist enthusiasm of most of the Socialist deputies in Germany who voted to support the war, which they saw as a crusade against repressive Tsarist Russia. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Socialism in Russia:</span></b> Russia’s main socialist party was the peasant-based <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist-Revolutionary_Party">Socialist-Revolutionaries</a>. But they were challenged by Marxists, many of them in exile. In 1903 Russian Marxists held a conference in London. The delegates split between those who advocated a broadly based party (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menshevik">Mensheviks</a> –' minority') and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolshevik">Bolsheviks</a> ('majority') who argued for a small cadre of committed revolutionaries. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> From 1912-14 the Mensheviks played a role in organising a wave of strikes in the Lena gold fields. On the eve of war St Petersburg workers demonstrated against the brutal suppression of a strike in the Baku goldfields. The strike was defeated by lock-outs and police action in the middle of July. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><b style="color: #cc0000;">The Second International: </b>Socialism was becoming a Europe and North-American internationalist movement. On 14 July 1889 the socialist parties across Europe gathered in Paris to found the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_International">Second International </a>(a title given to it by historians), which continued to meet every year until July 1914. For the history and an an English translation of the Socialist anthem, the <i>Internationale</i> see <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Internationale">here</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">From 1889 to 1914 socialist parties grew in strength in every country, benefiting from the expanding trade union movement and the extension of the franchise.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Europe was hit by a series of strikes. The miners' strike of 1889 was the greatest stoppage in German history. In Britain in 1911 the dockers, seamen, and railwaymen went on strike. One of the most militant areas was South Wales. In 1912 there was a successful <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_coal_strike_of_1912">national miners' strike</a> over a minimum wage. In the same year Russian miners went on strike in the Lena goldfields - after which <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lena_massacre">many were shot</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidzX8ctgkEg5BjgcYmhrVxGyty4etAphrUINeoJjcLwiRm9yqJgiz3Dauy-6h2iipwl2LgI3TnEnfQCZLsJ-J_YzffriY7eiT1jyaDON1F63DdtbxgoCa8MyUcnV05vzZq-zQcKG-fdJ4I/s1600/After_Lena_Massacre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidzX8ctgkEg5BjgcYmhrVxGyty4etAphrUINeoJjcLwiRm9yqJgiz3Dauy-6h2iipwl2LgI3TnEnfQCZLsJ-J_YzffriY7eiT1jyaDON1F63DdtbxgoCa8MyUcnV05vzZq-zQcKG-fdJ4I/s200/After_Lena_Massacre.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Lena Massacre, 1912<br />
Wikimedia Creative Commons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">Anarchism</span></span></h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggYT1VjmzYFkdgJu5pvndKzN6ESyGTkjkN1NymJPUFm8wlj2AIksju-9_VxLJiahTmxrEPeNZKxo3oB63cfV2S9C6BhXA0M8XY8MD8Kg5zUMmU0991a7CXo1ONYKKZzX0y1nC8f6z7rn8E/s1600/McKinleyAssassination.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggYT1VjmzYFkdgJu5pvndKzN6ESyGTkjkN1NymJPUFm8wlj2AIksju-9_VxLJiahTmxrEPeNZKxo3oB63cfV2S9C6BhXA0M8XY8MD8Kg5zUMmU0991a7CXo1ONYKKZzX0y1nC8f6z7rn8E/s200/McKinleyAssassination.jpg" width="187" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Artist's conception of the shooting of </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">President William McKinley, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">September 1901</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">Public Domain</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-weight: bold;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism">Anarchism</a> is the theory that conceives of society without government. Late nineteenth-century anarchism was the product of a debate about the inherent nature of man: did he need government in order to restrain his unruly impulses or did government disrupt the naturally harmonious relationships between people? Although it came to be associated with bomb-throwing and terrorism, in essence it sprang from the optimistic belief that human beings were innately good and peaceful. Two of its leading exponents were the Russians, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kropotkin">Prince Peter Kropotkin </a>(1842-1921) and the novelist, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Tolstoy">Leo Tolstoy</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVR8YjM2Y8tFjCWMf72PyHSMOnkqO2LJJtK70iOsy_ukuUlJKyfIUTYWHJ3cufCPQAfrHutYUo29h2WRzNUQw2-nuduwRc-Ok2OU_uOasiGm0cc3sNmhGH-zA7GlRfdbxTJ4c79IZgx6B/s1600/L.N.Tolstoy_Prokudin-Gorsky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLVR8YjM2Y8tFjCWMf72PyHSMOnkqO2LJJtK70iOsy_ukuUlJKyfIUTYWHJ3cufCPQAfrHutYUo29h2WRzNUQw2-nuduwRc-Ok2OU_uOasiGm0cc3sNmhGH-zA7GlRfdbxTJ4c79IZgx6B/s200/L.N.Tolstoy_Prokudin-Gorsky.jpg" width="140" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tolstoy in 1908, the first<br />
colour photograph in Russia<br />
Wikimedia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Anarchists differed from liberals because they did not believe in market forces or private property. Like socialists, anarchists rejected capitalism but they did not share the socialist belief that the state was a necessary agent of social and political emancipation. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Divisions between socialists and anarchists were to divide the left at the end of the 19th century.
The revolutionary strain in anarchism was represented by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin">Mikhail Bakunin</a> (1814-1876), who argued that the control of the state could only be broken by violence. In his <i>Reaction in Germany</i> (1842) he coined the anarchist slogan: ‘The passion for destruction is also a creative one’. He had played a leading part in the 1848 revolutions, had been arrested and sentenced to death, had been exiled in Siberia from where he escaped via Japan and America to western Europe. In 1868 he quarrelled with Marx and was expelled from the First International. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">At the end of the century <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-syndicalism">anarcho-syndicalists</a> argued the necessity of direct action and general strikes. France saw a wave of strikes in the early years of the twentieth century. Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau responded to the general strike threat in May 1906 by massing 35,000 troops in Paris and arresting the leaders of the syndicalist CGT (Confédération géneral du travail). Following this membership of the anarcho-syndicalist unions declined. This was only partly due to government action. France was still a country of farmers and small shopkeepers and traders and trade unionism was weaker than in the more highly industrialised Britain or Germany. But anarchists mounted bomb attacks in Paris in 1893 and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Fran%C3%A7ois_Sadi_Carnot">assassinated President Carnot</a> at Lyon in 1894 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"> Anarchism was especially strong in Italy where many artisans drew inspiration from the Paris Commune. In 1878 there was a failed assassination attempt on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_I_of_Italy">King Umberto</a> and two people were killed by a bomb in Florence. In 1900 Umberto was finally assassinated.
In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_Spain">Spain </a>more than twenty people were killed at a theatre bombing and ten at a religious procession. In Barcelona’s ‘Tragic Week’ in 1909 anarchists burned 50 churches, monasteries and Catholic schools. Government troops restored order killing over 100 people and arresting 2000. Seventeen people were executed. In June 1912 the Spanish Prime Minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Canalejas">José Canalejas</a> was assassinated. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Violent anarchists advocated the ‘propaganda of the deed’. A good example was the attempt to bomb the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. This was immortalised in Joseph Conrad’s <a href="http://ductape.net/~steveh/secretagent/"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Secret Agent</span></a>, the first novel I know of to figure a potential suicide bomber.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">A prominent victim of the ‘propaganda of the deed’ was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_of_Bavaria">Empress Elizabeth of Austria</a>. On September 10, 1898, she was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_of_Bavaria">stabbed to death in Geneva</a> with a needle file by a young anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. who afterward said,
</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">‘I wanted to kill a royal. It did not matter which one.’</span></blockquote>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibttnQ5s112KMrJZQXXwxPRChYDYGHRt1KuBzQ3srp-cSSJcLkHAiMThHRBiBWPAKLGKV3YQoLigesaUkOUN4_EiHRaJSZQq5yre8LNP8JXDxCvt0crLtGy3jH6Fn62Cquk4Cx-bhgKGjO/s1600/Assassinato_luigi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibttnQ5s112KMrJZQXXwxPRChYDYGHRt1KuBzQ3srp-cSSJcLkHAiMThHRBiBWPAKLGKV3YQoLigesaUkOUN4_EiHRaJSZQq5yre8LNP8JXDxCvt0crLtGy3jH6Fn62Cquk4Cx-bhgKGjO/s200/Assassinato_luigi.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An artist's rendition of the stabbing of Elisabeth <br />
by the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni<br />
in Geneva, 10 September 1898<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In September 1901 President <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley">William McKinley </a>was shot by the Polish anarchist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Frank_Czolgosz">Leon Frank Czolgosz</a> while attending the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He died on 14 September eight days after the attack. The newly-developed X-ray machine was displayed at the fair, but doctors were reluctant to use it to search for the bullet because they did not know the side effects. The assassin was executed by the electric chair. His last words were
</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people – the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime.'</span></blockquote>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #e06666; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Europe before 1914 was a troubled continent. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Education and living standards were improving but many women and working-class people felt excluded from the political process.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">However, women had gained many rights they had not possessed in 1800, and new left-wing parties had been formed to represent working people.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Political leaders were threatened by violent anarchists. </span></li>
</ol>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-1649351422540869712017-02-18T17:00:00.000+00:002017-02-20T06:50:07.900+00:00Religion and secularisation<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Sacre_Coeur_2009-02-28.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Sacre_Coeur_2009-02-28.JPG" width="150" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Church of Sacré Cour, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Montmartre</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Religion under threat?</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Historians and sociologists have been interested in the phenomenon of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularization">‘secularisation’,</a> which had usually been linked with ‘modernisation’. The nineteenth century saw a continuous conflict (and sometimes attempts at reconciliation) between the forces of religion and those of ‘modernity’. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Conflicts arose when the state began to assume the functions that had traditionally belonged to the Church over matters like marriage and education. As the Church lost its monopoly, the working classes seemed to be increasingly indifferent to religion.</span></span></h3>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Many saw the findings of science and the growth of biblical criticism as attacks on religion. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Charles Darwin (1809-82) argued that humans and apes shared a common ancestor. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The German theologian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Strauss">David Strauss</a> (1808-74) scandalised orthodox Christians with his </span><span style="font-size: large;">his </span><span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">Life of Jesus Critically Examined</span><span style="font-size: large;"> (1835). He argued that the New Testament should be read as any other historical text rather than as the divinely inspired word of God.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But it can also be argued that Europe was still fundamentally Christian. </span><span style="font-size: large;">For people such as the Irish, the Poles, and the Russians, religion was tied up with national identity. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Christian missionary work expanded in Asia and Africa. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Popular religious movements often caused problems for the authorities.</span><br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Pius IX</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The papacy of Pius IX (1846-78) saw powerful counter-blasts</span><span style="font-size: large;"> to the secularising trends of the age. In 1854 he proclaimed the doctrine of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaculate_Conception">Immaculate Conception</a> of the Virgin Mary. I</span><span style="font-size: large;">n 1864 he issued the <i><a href="http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9syll.htm">Syllabus Errorum</a></i>, </span><span style="font-size: large;">which condemned most trends in the </span><span style="font-size: large;">modern world and declared it a heresy that ‘the Roman pontiff can and ought to reconcile and harmonise himself with progress, with liberalism and with modern civilisation’. Napoleon III responded by banning it in France. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPZxS8nl9o0IDRH4Nj46Z84iugilK5Mr0Ai3bo4eRZzM2sLY23zzKmMx2v7bMIaEsbpAOcqZoJzs8dYQ54MgKeqrrnZbZkihVt6aI_zod94Ws_9hFUqPJld6rQ2CwFWxrwLiCwtDAekClE/s1600/428px-Popepiusix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPZxS8nl9o0IDRH4Nj46Z84iugilK5Mr0Ai3bo4eRZzM2sLY23zzKmMx2v7bMIaEsbpAOcqZoJzs8dYQ54MgKeqrrnZbZkihVt6aI_zod94Ws_9hFUqPJld6rQ2CwFWxrwLiCwtDAekClE/s200/428px-Popepiusix.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pius IX ('Pio Nono')<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The pope was deeply alarmed by the unification of Italy in 1861. Most of the Papal States, the territory in central Italy that had historically been part of the Holy See, had been annexed, leaving Rome itself dangerously exposed. Only a French garrison stood between Rome and the Italian army. He issued an interdict forbidding Italian Catholics to vote or to stand in elections. The Italian state responded in 1867 with the expropriation of church land, the closure of religious orders, a ban on pilgrimages, civil marriage and the extension of equal political and civil rights to non-Catholics. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKOmhmois-DNI-zxWP1YrnzqwCwlVNPbxzgt3snGHpBoQXawsFTVwfa-V_GXPz0YN1Zajz4Me2dxZWncoWCOpjENguw_5Y7ghekAQdeKkcmo9kZ7fI_6VUBLXrOClZTBli9KD4WNuyPHdK/s1600/first-vatican-council.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKOmhmois-DNI-zxWP1YrnzqwCwlVNPbxzgt3snGHpBoQXawsFTVwfa-V_GXPz0YN1Zajz4Me2dxZWncoWCOpjENguw_5Y7ghekAQdeKkcmo9kZ7fI_6VUBLXrOClZTBli9KD4WNuyPHdK/s200/first-vatican-council.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The First Vatican Council, 1870<br />
On 18 July it proclaimed the doctrine of papal infallibility<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the summer of 1868 Pius summoned the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Vatican_Council">Vatican Council</a>, the first General Council of the Church for over three hundred years. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Over 700 bishops convened at St Peter’s on 8 December 1869. In May 1870 the Council promulgated a constitution containing fundamental statements of faith. A separate constitution setting out the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_States">doctrine of papal infallibility</a> in matters of faith and morals, was voted through on 18 July, though a minority of 150 refused to assent to the doctrine regarding it as either inopportune or untrue. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The following day France declared war on Prussia and the last French troops were withdrawn from Rome. Following the defeat of the French at Sedan, Italian troops under General Rafaele Cadorna launched a successful assault on Rome, which was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. Pius retreated into the Vatican and its great gates were closed. It was not until 1929 that an agreement was reached and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City">Vatican City became an independent state</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The pontificate of Pius IX, therefore, saw two major developments: the strengthening of the Pope's religious authority and the ending of his political power.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Germany: the<i> Kulturkampf</i></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulturkampf">term</a>, meaning ‘struggle of cultures’ was coined in Prussia and subsequently adopted by historians to describe the conflict between the Roman Catholic Church and the Prussian and imperial German governments. But what is called the <i>Kulturkampf</i> arose in every country that had a substantial Catholic population. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the newly united Germany, Catholics formed a third of the population. They reacted to unification by forging the Centre Party in 1870 to protect the Church and Catholic schools. Under its shrewd leader <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Windthorst">Ludwig Windhorst,</a> it also prompted social reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMJ4adcZI1LaekUGyUd2SaRKILvMhlPGRu3jEOE3gXU0xzaiH-WyD3bOchCfxzFsZaTKAMtzoynuYe9K-AUH4r1jJyALkSMdGkmF-eN-bLSKpjiWjS_0c-R76RnfseBRN9Ndu3egMnKjr/s1600/366px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2007-0214%252C_Ludwig_Windthorst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcMJ4adcZI1LaekUGyUd2SaRKILvMhlPGRu3jEOE3gXU0xzaiH-WyD3bOchCfxzFsZaTKAMtzoynuYe9K-AUH4r1jJyALkSMdGkmF-eN-bLSKpjiWjS_0c-R76RnfseBRN9Ndu3egMnKjr/s200/366px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2007-0214%252C_Ludwig_Windthorst.jpg" width="121" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ludwig Windhorst<br />
Reichstag Deputy and Centre<br />
Party leader who outmanoeuvred<br />
Bismarck<br />
Commons: Bundesarchiv</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For Bismarck, Catholicism was bound up with the regionalism of the south, potential separatism in Alsace and Lorraine and nationalism in the Prussian-ruled parts of Poland. When he failed to persuade the Pope and the German bishops to withdraw their support from the Centre Party, he stepped up his campaign against the Church. Across the Reich, the Jesuits were expelled. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In Prussia the government claimed exclusive rights to inspect schools and the May Laws of 1873 obliged trainee priests to attend state universities; church appointments were to be vetted by the state and the registration of births, deaths and marriages was put under state supervision. In 1875 Prussia outlawed all religious orders. It was a situation reminiscent of the persecution of the Catholic Church during the French Revolution.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">‘By the end of 1878 more than half of Prussia’s Catholic bishops were in exile or in prison. More than 1,800 priests had been incarcerated or exiled and over 16 million marks’ worth of ecclesiastical property seized. … As late as 1881 a quarter of all Prussian parishes remained without priests.' Christopher Clark, <i>Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600-1947 </i>(Penguin, 2007, 568)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> But the <span style="font-style: italic;">Kulturkampf </span>failed to destroy Catholicism as a political and social force and in the Reichstag elections of 1874 the Centre Party doubled its vote. In 1878 Pio Nono died and was replaced by the more conciliatory Leo XIII, causing Bismarck to abandon most of his anticlerical legislation, in spite of his previous declaration that he would never '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_to_Canossa">go to Canossa'</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">France: the Catholic revival</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The bloodshed of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune">Paris Commune</a>, especially <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04168a.htm">the execution of the Archbishop of Paris and other priests by the Communards</a>, revived the Catholic Church and led to a semi-revival of ‘throne and altar’ politics. In 1873 the right-wing National Assembly decreed that the basilica of the <a href="http://www.parisdigest.com/monument/sacrecoeur.htm">Sacré Coeur</a> should be built in Montmartre to atone for the crimes of the Commune and the sins that had led to France’s defeat by Germany. But this inspired a fierce anti-clerical revolt. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> The Third Republic saw a clash over education between Church and State. In the 1880s the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Ferry_laws">Ferry laws</a> which made primary education free (1881) and compulsory (1882) replaced the teaching of the catechism with ‘moral and civic education’ in the primary schools. By the law of 1886 teaching staff at primary schools for boys were to be laicized within five years. In 1901 a law on associations led to the banning of all religious orders not authorized by the state. This led to the closure of thousands of schools.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">From 1890 a Catholic movement, the Ralliement, led by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie and encouraged by Leo XIII, worked for reconciliation with the Republic. But this was ruptured by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_Affair">Dreyfus affair</a>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1902 the anti-clerical radical, Emile Combes, became Prime Minister. In 1903 Leo XIII was replaced by the less conciliatory Pius X. In December 1905 the French government passed the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1905_French_law_on_the_separation_of_Church_and_State">Law of Separation</a>. This abandoned the concessions made by Napoleon’s Concordat, and brought about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laicit%C3%A9"><span style="font-style: italic;">laïcité</span></a>, the complete separation of Church and state. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">The Churches and social reform</span> </span></h3>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixFLBiNU-mAavWYRVku0nY5JDoE2zCjHSnhLVCWwD4MgDu7qG4T3r_TRhH96uLC3xkxKgSh5wRjC1LX-gO0ONuv63jggxyNrL5_JLaAvd2S2yYKxz8g3ADWGe0JEcy82iNNLtY5aKSitVT/s1600/426px-XIII.Leopa%25CC%2581pa1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixFLBiNU-mAavWYRVku0nY5JDoE2zCjHSnhLVCWwD4MgDu7qG4T3r_TRhH96uLC3xkxKgSh5wRjC1LX-gO0ONuv63jggxyNrL5_JLaAvd2S2yYKxz8g3ADWGe0JEcy82iNNLtY5aKSitVT/s200/426px-XIII.Leopa%25CC%2581pa1.jpg" width="141" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leo XIII, the Pope who<br />
propounded Catholic<br />
social teaching<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Faced with the problems of industrial society and the growth of socialism, the churches responded with projects for social reform: Protestant working men’s associations in Germany, Christian socialism in England. In 1889 Cardinal Manning successfully mediated in the London Dock Strike. The Salvation Army established food depots, night shelters and rescue homes for ‘fallen’ women. </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIII" style="font-size: x-large;">Leo XIII's</a><span style="font-size: large;"> encyclical </span><i style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_le13rn.htm">Rerum Novarum</a></i><span style="font-size: large;"> set out Catholic teaching on social reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">Secularisation</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the nineteenth century the power of the state advanced at the expense of the Church, particularly in education. In France, the chief educator was no longer the <span style="font-style: italic;">curé</span>, but the <span style="font-style: italic;">instituteur</span>. All the mainstream churches worried about declining numbers.
But it is difficult to generalise because religious practice varied from country to country and region to region. Men tended to be more anti-clerical and less inclined to attend church. For many women, religion, though institutions such as religious orders or the Anglican <a href="http://www.themothersunion.org/historyofmu.aspx">Mothers’ Union</a>, provided a semi-public role outside the home. In Britain in the 1890s most children attended Sunday school at some time in their lives.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Visions of the Virgin</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Possibly as an unconscious response to secularism, spontaneous local cults grew up, notably many manifestations of the Virgin to poor peasant girls (including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_La_Salette">La Salette</a>, 1847; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Lourdes">Lourdes</a> (left) 1858; Marpingen, 1876; Knock, 1879). The clergy’s attitude was ambivalent; it instinctively distrusted these manifestations of popular piety, but it saw that, once in male, clerical hands, they could be used to restore the Church’s authority. In 1908, three years after the Law of Separation in France, over a million people went on pilgrimage in Lourdes. See <a href="http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/76">here</a> for a review of Ruth Harris's magisterial book <i>Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age</i>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span></b></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Conclusion </span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The 'secularisation narrative' is highly contested and not all historians or sociologists see a straightforward linear progress towards a secular society.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">As the state moved into areas of life previously the monopoly of religion, a degree of conflict was inevitable.</span></li>
</ol>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-7540021254947012782017-01-28T16:00:00.000+00:002017-02-05T12:18:44.610+00:00Russia: autocracy, war, and terrorism<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The extent of the country</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">At the beginning of the nineteenth century Russia was geographically the world’s most extensive country and its empire was expanding. From 1809 it controlled Finland and in 1815 the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was subsumed into Russia. In 1800 Georgia was annexed. In 1859 the rest of the Caucasus was conquered and the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imam_Shamil" style="font-size: x-large;">Chechen hero Imam Shamil</a><span style="font-size: large;"> captured. In 1860 the Amur and Maritime provinces were acquired from China and Turkestan from Persia in 1875. Turkmenistan was annexed in 1881. The Pacific port of </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladivostok" style="font-size: x-large;">Vladivostok</a><span style="font-size: large;"> was founded in 1860. The only territory lost was Alaska, which was sold to the United States in 1867 for $8 million.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzfHf_0NJ4cmEvjtxTsic48SjTMZHcJD3ZkC2nxKhUcjlltCYdyDnrBHGAIkpy2uyIIEY0Fu3C48iAfy47rJhqN9RkamiHyP69nMZ1RVxArkhB4TnKRrpSXiOSfX0jc5HDTQ5s-nInKfeI/s1600-h/LocationRussianEmpire1914.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308903407811084898" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzfHf_0NJ4cmEvjtxTsic48SjTMZHcJD3ZkC2nxKhUcjlltCYdyDnrBHGAIkpy2uyIIEY0Fu3C48iAfy47rJhqN9RkamiHyP69nMZ1RVxArkhB4TnKRrpSXiOSfX0jc5HDTQ5s-nInKfeI/s320/LocationRussianEmpire1914.png" style="display: block; height: 141px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Russian Empire, 1914</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a name='more'></a></span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">The economy</span><span style="color: #b45f06;"> </span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">This vast area was sparsely populated with only two major cities, St Petersburg the capital, and Moscow but the population grew from 68 million in 1850 to 124 million in 1897 and nearly 170 million in 1914 (compare with just under 143 million in 2006).
Agriculture remained primitive with the three-field system still the norm, though Russia was exporting grain to pay for the manufactures she needed. The Russian iron-smelting industry dated from the eighteenth century. The second major industry was cotton-spinning.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Russia was one of the few countries to retain <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom_in_Russia">serfdom</a>. Serfs were not slaves, and they had rights as well as duties, but they were not free agents. Fundamentally, it obliged the peasant farmer to work without pay on certain tasks or for a specific number of days per week, on the landowner’s estate. In some areas these obligations had been commuted to an annual rent, but they were not free to marry whoever they pleased and they were still subject to corporal punishment. They could be bought and sold along with the land they rented or owned.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Repression</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Russia was officially an autocracy headed by a tsar who ruled by divine right. There was no tradition of opposition or protest. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Russia">Alexander I </a>(1801-25) was for a while greeted as a reforming tsar. He founded a state school system, granted a constitution to Poland, abolished torture and lessened censorship. But towards the end of his reign he revoked many of his reforms.
He was succeeded by his younger brother, Nicholas I (1825-55), who savagely put down the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decembrist_Revolt">Decembrist </a>and Polish uprisings. He increased the powers of the police and tightened censorship, though he also alleviated some of the conditions of the serfs by prohibiting their sale without land. He died in the middle of the Crimean War. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Siberia</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The vast territory of Siberia was opened to Russia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It came to serve two purposes: as a source of minerals and as a prison. In 1880 there were 8,000 people in ‘administrative exile’ there. By 1897, out of a Siberian population of 5.7 million, more than 300,000 were exiles.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">From the prison in Tobolsk, prisoners would walk for twelve weeks without a rest day the 1,560km to Tomsk. It was another 590km from Tomsk to Krasnoyarsk, 1,050 more to Irkutsk and a further 1,600 to the silver mines at Nerchinsk. Some exiles took two years to reach their destination. Their sentences began from their time of arrival rather than departure. The prisoners included mass murderers, ‘vagabonds’, political dissidents, the wives of dissidents. (These grim details are taken from Daniel Beer, <i>The
House of the Dead</i>, reviewed in <i>The Times</i>, 9
July 2016. But for another, less gloomy, view of Siberia, see <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/29/house-of-dead-siberian-exile-under-tsars-daniel-beer-review">this review</a> in <i>The Guardian</i>.)</span><br />
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
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<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Reform</span></span></h3>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih6NCslguwEktx2KAi4erPpqSCk36jI4dKiRb5lEN8OFsQiW4UwTl4Pky3SKo58sxmiwdPdSEW-SPuc-3sROws4uHnKRnxcPbg-_DEhdYWlb5hvojmU6N8vXq0gVzZCFc6NRGY7pzGlkoI/s1600-h/Cartetsar.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308906425752806354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih6NCslguwEktx2KAi4erPpqSCk36jI4dKiRb5lEN8OFsQiW4UwTl4Pky3SKo58sxmiwdPdSEW-SPuc-3sROws4uHnKRnxcPbg-_DEhdYWlb5hvojmU6N8vXq0gVzZCFc6NRGY7pzGlkoI/s200/Cartetsar.JPG" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" width="127" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alexander II, photographed with his wife<br />
the Empress Maria, and his son<br />
the future Alexander III</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_II_of_Russia">Alexander II </a>(1855-81) succeeded his father during the war. His reign witnessed wide-ranging attempts to modernise and reform Russia.
In 1856 he resolved to emancipate the serfs, telling the nobility of Moscow in March 1856,
</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘it is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait until the serfs begin to liberate themselves from below’.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The main work of reform was carried out in the ministry of the interior, where the most able officials, headed by the deputy minister Nikolay Milyutin, were resolved to get the best possible terms for the peasants. But the bulk of the landowning class was determined, if it could not prevent abolition of serfdom, to give the freed peasants as little as possible. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The settlement, proclaimed on Feb. 19 (March 3, New Style), 1861, was a compromise. Peasants were freed from servile status, and a procedure was laid down by which they could become owners of land. The government paid the landowners compensation and recovered the cost in annual ‘redemption payments’ from the peasants.
In many respects, the terms were unfavourable. In the north, where land was poor, the landowners were compensated not only for the loss of their serfs and also for the loss of the share that they had previously enjoyed of the peasants’ earnings from non-agricultural labour. In the south, where land was more valuable, the plots given to the peasants were very small, often less than they had had for their own use when they were serfs. Emancipation was a huge reform but at the same time it fell short of the hopes of the idealists. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> Further important reforms followed the emancipation. A new system of local elected assemblies (zemstvos) was introduced in 1864. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zemstvo">zemstva </a>were empowered to levy taxes and to spend their funds on schools, public health, roads, and other social services, but their scope was limited by the fact that they also had to spend money on some of the tasks of the central government.
In 1864 Russia also received a system of law courts based on European models, with irremovable judges and a proper system of courts of appeal. Justices of the peace were instituted for minor offences; they were elected by the county zemstvos. A properly organised, modern legal profession now arose.
During the first years of Alexander II's reign there was some demand from a liberal section of the nobility for representative government at the national level. The tsar and his bureaucrats refused to consider this: there was to be no challenge to the principle of autocracy. The decision against a national assembly deprived Russia of the possibility of public political education such as that which existed, for example, in contemporary Prussia, and it deprived the government of the services of hundreds of talented men. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Foreign policy</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Alexander II’s foreign policy was a continuation of his father’s, with the advance into Asia proceeding. After Austria’s refusal to help Russia in the Crimean War relations were very strained. However the friendship seemed restored when Bismarck secured the foundation of the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_the_Three_Emperors"> Three Emperors’ League</a> (Dreikaiserbund) in 1873. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Russo-Turkish War</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Twenty years after defeat in the Crimea, Russia was back in the Balkans. The opening was provided by three simultaneous revolts in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Bulgaria. In May 1876 following the murder of 136 Ottoman officials in Bulgaria over 20,000 Christians were massacred by soldiers in what became known as the Bulgarian Horrors. This inspired a furious pamphlet from the British politician <a href="http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRgladstone.htm">W. E. Gladstone, </a>who demanded that the Turks depart ‘bag and baggage’ from the provinces they had profaned. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNIut95G9SWdRcIQ7OsHsB05rLGR7YS3aJIu0eQTNqaRvzOmgRD3mZ_Mx4q-iL-TL5chf2pUIOLht18VRx5fB3BPjXtGqGP37l4ihmjQzDZ7GBGzWjAUQqSq52qQhGpWKk9wWkpZyvmPq-/s1600-h/Ahamid.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308907009360062914" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNIut95G9SWdRcIQ7OsHsB05rLGR7YS3aJIu0eQTNqaRvzOmgRD3mZ_Mx4q-iL-TL5chf2pUIOLht18VRx5fB3BPjXtGqGP37l4ihmjQzDZ7GBGzWjAUQqSq52qQhGpWKk9wWkpZyvmPq-/s200/Ahamid.jpg" style="float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 154px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abdul Hamid II</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Under pressure from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Slavism">pan-Slavs</a> at his court, Alexander II felt he had to protect the Christians of the Balkans. On 8 July 1876 Alexander and the Austrian Emperor, Franz Joseph <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstadt_Agreement">met at Reichstadt</a> near Berlin and agreed to divide the Balkans in the event of a collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
In October 1876 he new sultan, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Hamid_II">Abdul Hamid II </a>promised a constitution. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Nevertheless in April 1877 the Russians <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Turkish_War_%281877%E2%80%931878%29">invaded Ottoman territory</a> on the Danube and in Armenia. By January 1878, in spite of stiff Turkish resistance, they had reached Constantinople. The Turks were forced to accept the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_San_Stefano">Treaty of San Stefano </a>which created an independent ‘Big Bulgaria’ which would clearly be under heavy Russian influence.
The terms of the treaty alarmed Britain, where there was an outbreak of ‘jingoism’, and Austria. In response the Congress of Berlin was called, with Bismarck as ‘honest broker’ to revise the treaty and curtail Russian ambitions. It was the last occasion when the great met to settle their differences. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Berlin,_1878">treaty’s terms</a> were:</span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Bosnia and Herzegovina were handed over to Austrian occupation.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Bulgaria was split in three. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The independence of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania was recognised. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">In a secret agreement with Turkey Britain was allowed to occupy Cyprus.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Congress postponed war for a generation but helped to create the tensions that led to the First World War. Russia was humiliated and the aspirations of the Balkan peoples were not fully realised. The Austrian occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina was to be a hugely significant event. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">More repression</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Alexander’s reforms aroused fierce opposition from conservatives and revolutionaries while the suppression of the Polish revolt in 1863 alienated liberals. In 1866 there was an unsuccessful attempt on his life which led to a clamp down on reforms. On 1 March 1881 Alexander was assassinated by a terrorist group called the People’s Will. You can hear a discussion of this on Melvyn Bragg's '<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003k9b2">In Our Time'</a>. All the main leaders of the group were caught by the police, and five of them were hanged.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="clear: left; float: left; font-size: large; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx_ipTEWbprEGhmxNTUmmo9jPza-jNKdRTiqA3kaoLvR8VbNGgy6dHPMpPjkFBmcLdasHm3KLqXfVwsAiUyyX_iyB0r8gbJzsAz5NA7Ibr1A6uZbbpDTKxaY5mEU3Cu8AMKmtOU09mXrH3/s200/St._Petersburg_church.jpg" width="150" /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The magnificently restored Church of the Spilt Blood stands on the site of Alexander's assassination in St Petersburg. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> His son, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_III_of_Russia">Alexander III </a>(1881-94) was a reactionary, devoted to autocracy, Russian nationalism and the Orthodox Church, who undid his father’s policies. The universities lost their autonomy, the independence of the courts was sapped and the zemstvos were remodelled and lost many of their powers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This reactionary policy was continued by his son <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II_of_Russia">Nicholas II</a> 1894-1917).
The census of 1897 revealed that there were over 100,000 policemen and 50,000 men in the security gendarmerie, deploying a formidable range of spies and informers. In 1880 there were 8,000 people in ‘administrative exile’ in Siberia. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivuYBn4brlY5VNQddXUV6joeic_XJUNYnpK1xfHl_6FXE42vMtn7Htp2iGiCwXOPk3qNR2BSDf5VEWvc5hFgVsb8AI9E_I0dfZmWqPSY_Y44gF1QSMZJzGGDIzh0HLC-e-OpqFKMp42N2B/s1600-h/Irving_Berlin_Portrait2.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308907705067346562" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivuYBn4brlY5VNQddXUV6joeic_XJUNYnpK1xfHl_6FXE42vMtn7Htp2iGiCwXOPk3qNR2BSDf5VEWvc5hFgVsb8AI9E_I0dfZmWqPSY_Y44gF1QSMZJzGGDIzh0HLC-e-OpqFKMp42N2B/s200/Irving_Berlin_Portrait2.jpg" style="float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 164px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Irving Berlin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">All religious minorities came under attack, but the Jews most of all. In 1880 about 4 million of them lived in the Pale, the tract of Poland and western Russia to which they were confined by law. 700.000 more were driven into it in the next ten years. In the last two decades of the nineteenth century 2 million Jews left Russia. A series of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogrom">pogroms</a> between 1903 and 1906 left 2,000 Jews dead and increased the number of emigrants.
In 1891 Leah and Moses Baline left for the United States with their three year old son <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Berlin">Israel Isadore.</a> He became very famous! </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Industrial growth</span> </span></h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglVRkbJcWp7fLnNHUVxCAE-JoSrcaNq-XrPOfRQDT-IeyIyZjksuX4Yn09Y-dRTZLgdUO97rugFC_QvE-87oAlC49cXEEG4mTpYZasHvrAFdBaaR36oSw_c58MnAGDvewSPmn5t2UcO0pm/s1600-h/Sergei_Yulyevich_Witte_1905.jpeg.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308905745136449186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglVRkbJcWp7fLnNHUVxCAE-JoSrcaNq-XrPOfRQDT-IeyIyZjksuX4Yn09Y-dRTZLgdUO97rugFC_QvE-87oAlC49cXEEG4mTpYZasHvrAFdBaaR36oSw_c58MnAGDvewSPmn5t2UcO0pm/s200/Sergei_Yulyevich_Witte_1905.jpeg.jpg" style="float: right; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 135px;" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1892 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Witte">Sergei Witte</a> became Finance Minister. Believing that ‘a great power cannot wait’ he abandoned liberal economics for direct state intervention in order to prime the country’s industrialisation. Between 1894 and 1902 two thirds of government expenditure went into economic development. Russia’s industrial production increased dramatically becoming the fifth largest in the world by 1914. The government encouraged private banks and its decision to adopt the gold standard kept the economy stable. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> In 1891 construction began on the 5,000 mile long <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Siberian_Railway">Trans-Siberian Railway</a>. This enabled Russia to export cheap grain to the west.
Much of the money for investment came from abroad. In 1900 one third of the capital of private industry in Russia was in foreign hands. By 1914 French investors held 80 % of government debt securities. The British invested most heavily in mining and new oilfields.
In spite of this, most Russians grew poorer. There was a famine in 1891-2 followed by a series of crop failures. There was widespread discontent in the countryside and in the industrialised areas. And with no indigenous liberal tradition in Russia many of the disaffected intelligentsia turned to extreme parties like the Marxist Social Democrats.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Nicholas II</span> </span></h3>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4NhPby3zWwBtFPEsnCId_jWjYjEP4WpN4wZCmewu-PrXVQXemS5qvcw3TIFfOMUH2uvTwrWj11rXYcxsdxxs0tAiUrxix_Hq8AgkHa77W5mF0_C3yPnQLTZSVtoB4N2huYI2hqTERKnQT/s1600/NicholasII.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4NhPby3zWwBtFPEsnCId_jWjYjEP4WpN4wZCmewu-PrXVQXemS5qvcw3TIFfOMUH2uvTwrWj11rXYcxsdxxs0tAiUrxix_Hq8AgkHa77W5mF0_C3yPnQLTZSVtoB4N2huYI2hqTERKnQT/s200/NicholasII.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nicholas II (1894-1917)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Nicholas succeeded his father in November 1894. Later that month he married the German princess Alix of Hesse (Tsarina <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_of_Hesse">Alexandra Feodorovna</a>). His reign was a disaster for himself and for Russia.
In 1904 she gave birth to a male heir after four daughters - but the longed-for son was a haemophiliac. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The Russo-Japanese War</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In January 1904 Russia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War">went to war with Japan</a>. The most dramatic event of the war the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tsushima">Battle of Tsushima,</a> 27 May–28 May 1905 when the Japanese fleet under <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dg%C5%8D_Heihachir%C5%8D">Admiral Togo,</a> numerically inferior but with superior speed and firing range, shelled the Russian fleet mercilessly, destroying all eight of its battleships.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeNdk1rZk7hYbt9fzDPyPXr7JKqmFJEw7EuFKAGraHMKLe9f2H6BLI-qhyphenhyphenp4BWQhvHDlJQK9krcVCkMYY6XLU4q3y6U8_pc7IlVAY_bMsOmSvlWRMVBQxBfA0IfEq7ODEXiO-YTYlCBHuf/s1600/800px-Retreat_of_the_Russian_Army_after_the_Battle_of_Mukden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeNdk1rZk7hYbt9fzDPyPXr7JKqmFJEw7EuFKAGraHMKLe9f2H6BLI-qhyphenhyphenp4BWQhvHDlJQK9krcVCkMYY6XLU4q3y6U8_pc7IlVAY_bMsOmSvlWRMVBQxBfA0IfEq7ODEXiO-YTYlCBHuf/s320/800px-Retreat_of_the_Russian_Army_after_the_Battle_of_Mukden.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Russian soldiers retreat after the Battle of Mukden, February 1905</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Bloody Sunday</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The news of the fall of Port Arthur in January 1905 led to a strike in St Petersburg, which in turn led to a petition to the tsar asking for political as well as economic reform. On 9 January the security forces opened fire on a peaceful crowd, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905)">killing 130 people.</a> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWW5H1E5DEWp2FA7vcYYCjMLoy_PK9O2Z6ArAqs_qXGI-cGDavZNDopt5FWFhsYccb17_GebjooqLBzdMTmvroBG42HazCZ1JKygEbZsWMvo9-DhSs75IO1y4xW-cpbMim0tjeVu5qKdNR/s1600/BloodySunday1905.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWW5H1E5DEWp2FA7vcYYCjMLoy_PK9O2Z6ArAqs_qXGI-cGDavZNDopt5FWFhsYccb17_GebjooqLBzdMTmvroBG42HazCZ1JKygEbZsWMvo9-DhSs75IO1y4xW-cpbMim0tjeVu5qKdNR/s200/BloodySunday1905.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Soviet reconstruction of Bloody Sunday</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The Dumas</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The result of ‘Bloody Sunday’ (was a series of riots and strikes which forced Nicholas into concessions. On Witte’s advice he issued on 17 October a manifesto announcing a Duma (Parliament) the extension of the franchise and the granting of real civil liberties. Witte became Chairman of the Council of Ministers. A constitution was issued on 23 April, providing for two chambers, but it came from the tsar who retained ‘supreme autocratic power’. Witte was kept on until he had secured a huge international loan to bail out the government and then dismissed before the Duma. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that the Dumas were a disappointment. The first two were dissolved by the tsar because he saw them as too radical. After the 1907 electoral reform the third Duma, elected in November 1907, was largely made up of members of the upper classes and radical influences in the Duma had almost entirely been removed. The fourth Duma was in session at the outbreak of war.
Whatever their limitations, however, the Dumas introduced the idea of constitutional and representative government. Russia was less repressive and more economically advanced in 1914 than in 1800.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #e06666; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Russia was governed by an autocratic tsar who believed he was divinely appointed to rule. He accepted representative government grudgingly and did his best to undermine it.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Nicholas II continued the repressive policies of his father, Alexander II, but his government was unable to stamp out revolutionaries.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Nevertheless the Russian economy was expanding rapidly, and foreign investors were pouring money into the country.</span></li>
</ol>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-1940902022317965402017-01-21T11:00:00.000+00:002017-01-21T11:01:02.333+00:00Books on the period: update <span style="font-size: large;">The <i>New York Times</i> has <a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/books/review/pursuit-of-power-richard-j-evans.html?_r=1&referer=https://t.co/9WVLWbQTyy">an interesting review</a> of the latest book on nineteenth-century European history - Richard Evans' <i><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pursuit-Power-Europe-1815-1914/dp/0713990880">The Pursuit of Power</a></i>. The review gives a useful oversight of the main themes of the period. There is another <a href="https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsfilmtv/books/book-reviewthe-pursuit-of-power-europe-1815-1914-440019.html">very positive review</a> in the <i>Irish Examiner.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Evans' approach is thematic and this might not suit readers who are relatively new two the period. Two more conventional histories are </span><span style="font-size: large;">Robert Gildea, <i>Barricades and Borders: Europe 1800-1914</i>, 3rd edn. (Oxford, 2003) and </span><span style="font-size: large;">Michael Rapport, <i>Nineteenth-Century Europe</i> (Palgrave, 2005). </span>Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-40128172478166914492017-01-21T10:21:00.000+00:002017-01-21T10:21:14.332+00:00Austria-Hungary<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310128629677525090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCM87QIaBfoVMRnGIAztuTKYomqipcVPWo4_8v62bJRLG9Mzt-MvBFHQqNtQMKBAFfoBvl52ZoqN2tFgDlX4JFHdpdEW0u6Kp_4q0C9vrhDf6KB0R9zpBdnJJT-MRkc8jY3J5Lr-19ICwJ/s200/Franz_Joseph,_circa_1915.JPG" style="display: block; height: 200px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 189px;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emperor Franz Joseph<br />
photographed, 1910</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">Before 1867</span> </span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">In 1806 the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire">Holy Roman Empire</a> was brought to an end following Napoleon’s victories over the Austrians. The last of the Holy Roman Emperors, Francis II, was now Francis I of Austria. After the fall of Napoleon (1814-15), Austria became once more the leader of the German states but following the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_War">Austro-Prussian War of 1866</a> she was expelled from the German Confederation. In the same year she lost her remaining Italian territories when Venetia became part of the Kingdom of Italy. It was an alarming picture of decline from great power status.</span></span></h3>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Ausgleich</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Austria’s defeat at the hands of Prussia caused <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_I_of_Austria">Emperor Franz Joseph</a> to reorient his policy toward the east and to consolidate his multi-national empire. Austrian liberals, too realised that the dream of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gro%C3%9Fdeutschland"><span style="font-style: italic;">Großdeutschland</span></a>. was over. Even before the war the Hungarians had been restive; now they had their opportunity. In May and June 1867 the <a href="http://www.genealogy.ro/cont/1_1867.htm">Ausgleich</a> (‘Compromise’) was ratified by the Austrian and Hungarian Parliaments. This brought into being the new state of Austria-Hungary, also known as the <a href="http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/austhung.htm">Dual Monarchy</a>. The other peoples of the Empire were never consulted.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
The new state consisted of Hungary and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisleithania">Cisleithania</a> ('the lands outside the kingdom of Hungary'). Hungary received full internal autonomy, together with a responsible ministry, and, in return, agreed that the empire should still be a unitary state for purposes of war and foreign affairs. Franz Joseph thus surrendered his right to decide Hungarian domestic policy including his earlier responsibility to protect the non-Magyar peoples of Hungary in exchange for the maintenance of dynastic prestige abroad. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixoULfQYfhsuNSeOC7SSreADJKFMXnSqVWpdAuiYI36u4LBCHiRdPSKR5e9dYBGJGk2NDggNJx3ClGI0k8wskOmxGgSbYFVVykRsL9LcghyphenhyphentFXfzoU1m7nGXfoTVdHkIlbpYk4P-bqhtc7/s1600/Austria_Hungary_ethnic.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixoULfQYfhsuNSeOC7SSreADJKFMXnSqVWpdAuiYI36u4LBCHiRdPSKR5e9dYBGJGk2NDggNJx3ClGI0k8wskOmxGgSbYFVVykRsL9LcghyphenhyphentFXfzoU1m7nGXfoTVdHkIlbpYk4P-bqhtc7/s320/Austria_Hungary_ethnic.svg.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ethnic map of Austria-Hungary, 1910</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The so-called common monarchy consisted of the Emperor and his court, the Foreign and Finance Ministers and the War Minister. There was no common Prime Minister (other than the Emperor himself) and no common cabinet. The common affairs were to be considered at the Delegations, composed of an equal number of representatives from the two parliaments. There was to be a customs union and a sharing of accounts, which was to be revised every 10 years.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The arrangement suited Hungary, which was now an equal partner with Austria. The kingdom was expanded to include Transylvania while the old Croatian-Slavonian military frontier was abolished and absorbed by Hungary. Franz Joseph was crowned King of Hungary on 8 June 1867. The Hungarians always insisted that he was not their Emperor and that his official title was <span style="font-style: italic;">Kaiser und König</span>. But the rest of the Empire had no clear unity and was technically known as ‘the kingdoms and lands represented in the Reichsrat’ or, more shortly, as ‘the other Imperial half’. All that united these scattered lands and varied ethnic groups was the House of Habsburg. The justification for the monarchy was foreign policy. </span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ethnic tensions</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Austria formed the northern borders of the monarchy. Its major peoples were Germans, Czechs and Poles. The Germans believed they possessed a superior culture and their attempts to ‘Germanise’ other races brought them into conflict with the Czechs and Poles. The Czechs, the inhabitants of the old Kingdom of Bohemia, were the only Slav peoples within the monarchy. They resented the dominance of the German language and the favourable treatment given to the Hungarians. In Illyria in the southern borders of Austria there were Italians, Croats and Slovenes.
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5lMV0UqFapfFtUzczN8k0uo8ow81K9GGFhooDuNrKyNdEHhiu2SsEigt1mXoBJMhlKOxMISJZVQW6C-ewMrKFyHt3mi0sBY1FC9aPqbpzsBm9wyBcpsrOgvEEkOozK_L7G_mFn7b_cZl0/s1600-h/Benczur-andrassy_gyula.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Racial divisions were more embittered in Hungary where the Magyar ruling class insisted on maintaining their ascendancy. The Hungarian minister, Count <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyula_Andr%C3%A1ssy">Gyula Andrássy</a> declared,
</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">'the Slavs are not fit to govern; they must be ruled.' Quoted Michael Rapport, <i>Nineteenth-Century Europe</i> (Palgrave, 2005, p. 210).</span></blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjATgzBB59Te9VkBgxKXv_0P9kTIbrxTLV4hwgHIk1dw2Zn1mgpFvBhFvm3Gzna4upTjg8R4FT77MEWMW0cwHseuOp3wtwYhH3VNpRuLWIkr-mussCGmJlClY6HD7LPNeyc8o9bx3uKsUIr/s1600/394px-Gyula_Graf_Andra%25CC%2581ssy_-_ungarischer_Magnat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjATgzBB59Te9VkBgxKXv_0P9kTIbrxTLV4hwgHIk1dw2Zn1mgpFvBhFvm3Gzna4upTjg8R4FT77MEWMW0cwHseuOp3wtwYhH3VNpRuLWIkr-mussCGmJlClY6HD7LPNeyc8o9bx3uKsUIr/s320/394px-Gyula_Graf_Andra%25CC%2581ssy_-_ungarischer_Magnat.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Count Gyula Andrássy (1823-1890)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Nationality Law, passed by the Hungarian Diet in 1868 made Magyar the official language of state. In the old Hungarian kingdom, there were minorities of Rumanians, Ruthenes, Slovaks and Germans, all ignored by their Hungarian rulers. Hungary also included Croatia-Slavonia, with their majority Croat and Serb populations. In 1913 less than half the total Hungarian population was Magyar, but over 80% of all students graduating from high school in Hungary were Magyars and over 95% of government officials. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">[Note: I have received the following email from a Mr<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Péter Tófalvi, </span>someone who knows far more about this subject than I do, so I will give it in full. It represents a different point of view that needs to be taken into account.</span><br />
<div style="font-size: 16px;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">'This Nationality Law was the most modern in Europe at that time. It granted wider local autonomy to e.g. the Romanians than Hungarians living in Romania today now have. For example, in the Hungarian-dominated Transylvania there were more Romanian schools (more than 3,000) than in Muntenia and Moldova (two Romanian provinces united in 1859 and 1864 under the name of of Romania altogether. These facts are not evident for Western historians because of the strong anti-Hungarian propaganda that started to work from the second half of the nineteenth century and is still working.']</span></blockquote>
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Economic life</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The reign of Franz Josef was the golden age of Vienna, the most visible sign being <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Ring_Road#History">the construction of the Ringstrasse.</a> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRm4RPKHhaVUoNRhVyV0KXWU7Cr2YYkws4rF_kQ5xgL_O_oHXuv1N6T1dbO0tyTTBSjHCayPEQ6TB1UdYdX3AT24JmHK8-15fVgCo138VTqo7KVnk9cEFcZmZRZMUgU_7nODOxCmv0Wlk/s1600/800px-Schottenring_Wien_1875.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlRm4RPKHhaVUoNRhVyV0KXWU7Cr2YYkws4rF_kQ5xgL_O_oHXuv1N6T1dbO0tyTTBSjHCayPEQ6TB1UdYdX3AT24JmHK8-15fVgCo138VTqo7KVnk9cEFcZmZRZMUgU_7nODOxCmv0Wlk/s200/800px-Schottenring_Wien_1875.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Schottenring section of the Ringstraße<br />
in 1875. Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Budapest became a modern thriving city with the creation of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Metro">first metro system </a>in continental Europe.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-NnwcXoUV2FrkDLX97r92tzKKPShtejLrZJF4kqTMDHyoV98rhggXKc1G_KS11u2zi7jvOg8JJY_oDtWjE8idJVqBbuIaLf2UhVGNldFugeFsVkq2lFuLbU-GnmK2yWOj7YNTCmtn5y7q/s1600/Foldalatti_Andrassy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-NnwcXoUV2FrkDLX97r92tzKKPShtejLrZJF4kqTMDHyoV98rhggXKc1G_KS11u2zi7jvOg8JJY_oDtWjE8idJVqBbuIaLf2UhVGNldFugeFsVkq2lFuLbU-GnmK2yWOj7YNTCmtn5y7q/s200/Foldalatti_Andrassy.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part of the Budapest Metro, begun<br />in 1894. Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Outside the sophisticated cities of Vienna, Prague and Budapest, however, the Dual Monarchy was an agrarian society, almost as backward as Russia, with extreme contrasts of wealth and poverty. In Hungary most peasants were landless wage labourers on the great estates of the nobility. They were technically free, but their lives were no better than those of serfs. Illiteracy was the norm and infant mortality was high. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Politics</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">As a major concession to the German liberals and as a reward for their co-operation, the Fundamental Laws had been adopted in December 1867. They became known as the December Constitution and lasted until 1918. They guaranteed an independent judiciary, freedom of belief and education. However ministers were answerable to the Emperor rather than to the Reichsrat (the Austrian Parliament). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> To many foreign observers, Hungary with its lively Parliament, looked like a proper constitutional monarchy – more so at least than Austria. In 1873, the old capital Buda and Óbuda were officially merged with the third city, Pest, thus creating the new metropolis of Budapest. But the appearance of constitutionalism was a façade. The Hungarian Parliament had the right to initiate legislation but the monarch had to give his assent to a bill before it was debated. The rights of minorities in Hungary were ignored, the freedom of the press was often under attack and judges lacked independence. In both halves of the Dual Monarchy, ministers served the Crown rather than the constitution.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIku_EbiPCGn6Q6zEWaSVv6-961hug1_CmoBNqRcUXEiwhmURH68f8fAWwWNdWA1Fxcdr9ze28R8MQZ1R7ZCR78qgCJVZLzF58aqiRO6WzsxMLuY_76D6yGoaKiD8bBmw3BO1iw5c_Mfmp/s1600/345px-Mayerling10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIku_EbiPCGn6Q6zEWaSVv6-961hug1_CmoBNqRcUXEiwhmURH68f8fAWwWNdWA1Fxcdr9ze28R8MQZ1R7ZCR78qgCJVZLzF58aqiRO6WzsxMLuY_76D6yGoaKiD8bBmw3BO1iw5c_Mfmp/s320/345px-Mayerling10.jpg" width="184" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Crown Prince Rudolf<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Franz Joseph had come to power in the turmoil of 1848. He believed in the need for a strong monarchy and as he grew older he lost what little touch he had ever had with his people. His reign saw three personal tragedies: the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilian_I_of_Mexico">execution of his brother Maximilian</a> in Mexico; the suicide of his son and heir <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf,_Crown_Prince_of_Austria">Rudolf</a> </span><span style="font-size: large;">and his mistress at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayerling_incident">Mayerling</a> in 1889</span><span style="font-size: large;">; and the assassination of his wife, Elisabeth, in 1898. From 1889 his heir was his nephew, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria">Franz Ferdinand</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">(If you feel like taking a stroll down one of history's little by-roads, you may like <a href="https://mimimatthews.com/2015/10/05/the-beauty-rituals-of-19th-century-empress-elisabeth-of-austria/">this account</a> of Elisabeth's beauty regime. It sounds like hard work!)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The most successful of his ministers was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Taaffe,_11th_Viscount_Taaffe">Eduard von Taafe</a>, who governed from 1879 to 1893. He saw himself as the Emperor’s man and controlled the Reichsrat through patronage and compromises. He placated the Czechs by making Czech as well as German the administrative language of Bohemia, though this did not satisfy the radical splinter group, the Young Czechs, who in 1891 won all the Bohemian seats in the Reichsrat. In October 1893 he resigned, having failed to stem the tide of Czech nationalism. By 1900 the Reichsrat was paralyzed by the Czech-German conflict, with government functioning through the bureaucracy. Pressure from the various groups within the Empire led to the adoption of manhood suffrage in Austria in 1907. In the elections of that year Ruthenians, Poles, Czechs and Slovenes all won more seats. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">Foreign policy</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Foreign policy was dictated by the attempt to preserve the Dual Monarchy. From the 1870s Austria-Hungary saw itself as under threat from the South Slav nationalism of the Croats and Serbs. Hungary in particular believed it had to crush this nationalism whether the South Slavs were in the Ottoman or Habsburg Empires and the Foreign Minister Andrássy began reluctantly to contemplate the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to prevent future trouble.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The Dual Monarchy came into being after Austria was expelled from the German Confederation. It was a response to military defeat and to the declining power of Austria from its days as a great power in 1815.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The Hungarians were now equal partners, though the other nationalities in the Empire were often restive.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The Dual Monarchy survived until 1918, which might suggest that in spite of its problems it was reasonably stable.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span>Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-58804118975772765922017-01-14T11:16:00.000+00:002017-01-15T13:34:11.844+00:00France: the Third Republic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnWlZYRYoBS9Xc-aG4XXlhIV_m3yFlmqQ3tQDyUYlhbPrTSdD8Lb6AGLnQappGQ_6gqhPlxkHdUfqIQpU6qRSUY63y6UPFrdoRdOJJdgWXWV74LoUWgidBwUit2FOifOAYr4hDfMjNYfa9/s1600/776px-Francecoatofarms1898-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnWlZYRYoBS9Xc-aG4XXlhIV_m3yFlmqQ3tQDyUYlhbPrTSdD8Lb6AGLnQappGQ_6gqhPlxkHdUfqIQpU6qRSUY63y6UPFrdoRdOJJdgWXWV74LoUWgidBwUit2FOifOAYr4hDfMjNYfa9/s320/776px-Francecoatofarms1898-2.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The Republic proclaimed</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">When the news of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sedan">French surrender at Sedan</a> reached Paris on September 4, crowds filled the streets and demanded the proclamation of a republic. The imperial officials put up no serious resistance; the Revolution of September 4 was the most bloodless in French history. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The siege of Paris</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">A provisional Government of National Defence was set up. It refused to accept the surrender terms and vowed to continue the war against the invaders. The new government's most charismatic member was the new Minister of the Interior, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Gambetta">Léon Gambetta</a> hero of the radical republicans. He doubled the size of the <a href="http://www.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ip/natguard.htm">National Guard</a> bringing its numbers up to 360,000 men (virtually the whole male able-bodied population of Paris). However by 23 September the Prussian forces had surrounded Paris, having already occupied all of France north and east of Orléans. The new government was deprived of its contact with the rest of the country. On 7 October Gambetta left the city by balloon to join several members of the government at Tours, where he assumed the functions of Minister of War as well as Minister of the Interior. During the next four months, Gambetta's makeshift armies fought a series of indecisive battles with the Prussians in the Loire valley and eastern France. These battles took the Prussians by surprise and greatly enhanced the prestige of the republicans, but the French forces were no match for Moltke’s army and the delegation at Tours was forced to withdraw to Bordeaux.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Resistance was now concentrated in Paris where the National Guard manned the defences of the city. But the Prussians had no intention of taking Paris by storm when it was easier to starve the city. This was the beginning of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(1870%E2%80%9371)">humanitarian catastrophe</a>. Soon the Parisians were eating the animals from the zoo and cutting down the trees in the Champs Élysées for firewood. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilKT9LU_psBIQDq-ulgkM8szWmS6iO5YfyrBdt0KLm7Vnu_N3PGpDPwurUVvfSPP1GAAvQ3Psfipb7Nqf0kvHS-4ynWgvp7FQHMDrvlXhBm9ieUDyXmZ8lMhnyVKVrbeqZQFaXw4j5AYux/s1600/401px-Menu-siegedeparis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilKT9LU_psBIQDq-ulgkM8szWmS6iO5YfyrBdt0KLm7Vnu_N3PGpDPwurUVvfSPP1GAAvQ3Psfipb7Nqf0kvHS-4ynWgvp7FQHMDrvlXhBm9ieUDyXmZ8lMhnyVKVrbeqZQFaXw4j5AYux/s320/401px-Menu-siegedeparis.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christmas menu, of zoo animals<br />
but also fine wine!<br />
Public domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">On 5 January in the middle of a terrible winter, the Prussians began to bombard Paris. By this time left-wing leaders were accusing the government of treachery. While still at war with the Prussians, the Parisians were beginning to fight each other. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The armistice</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">On January, having defeated an abortive left-wing rising, the government accepted the inevitable armistice which was signed on 28 January over Gambetta's angry protests. By its terms Paris was to capitulate and there was to be a three-week suspension of hostilities to allow for the election of an assembly that would negotiate a peace. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> The election, held on February 8, produced an assembly dominated by monarchists, more than 400 of them, compared to only 200 republicans and a few Bonapartists. Overwhelmingly, it was a vote for peace, though Paris and certain provinces, such as Alsace, voted heavily for republicans. On 13 February the National Assembly convened in Bordeaux and chose <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolphe_Thiers">Adolphe Thiers</a> as ‘chief of the executive power of the French republic’. He set out at once to negotiate a settlement with Bismarck.</span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The Treaty of Frankfurt</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">On March 1 the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Frankfurt">Treaty of Frankfurt</a> was ratified by a large majority of the Assembly. The terms were severe: </span><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">France was charged a war indemnity of five billion francs plus the cost of maintaining a German occupation army in eastern France until the indemnity was paid. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Alsace and half of Lorraine were annexed to the new German Empire. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The German army was authorised to stage a victory march through the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile in Paris. </span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">After the assembly ratified the treaty, the deputies of the lost provinces (including Léon Gambetta) resigned their seats in protest. </span><br />
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">The Commune</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">A few days later, the assembly transferred the seat of government from Bordeaux to Versailles, twelve miles from Paris. This in itself was a provocation to many Parisians. Poorer Parisians were further angered by the assembly’s decision to end the wartime moratorium on debts and rents and the cutting off of further payments to the National Guard. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> The crisis came on 18 March when Thiers ordered the 400 guns of the National Guard to be removed from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmartre">butte (mound) de Montmartre</a>. A crowd gathered; a bloody encounter ensued; two generals were caught and lynched by the mob. As violence spread through the city, Thiers hastily withdrew all troops and government offices from Paris and went to Versailles to plan his strategy. He appealed successfully to Bismarck to release French prisoners of war in order to form a siege army that could eventually force Paris to capitulate. During the next two months, this governmental force was slowly assembled. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Within Paris, meanwhile, initial chaos gradually gave way to an improvised experiment in municipal self-government.
On 26 March the Parisian rebels elected a municipal government known as the <a href="http://www.marxists.org/history/france/paris-commune/index.htm">Commune</a> (a name that went back to the Jacobin Terror), an event that even today inspires fierce controversy - see the discussion on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune">Wikipedia entry</a>. Was the Commune, as Karl Marx promptly declared, the first great uprising of the proletariat against its bourgeois oppressors? Or was it a much more varied movement comprising varied strands of left-wing and revolutionary thought? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> On 2 April (Palm Sunday) the second siege of Paris began, as under the noses of the Prussians, the (initially) poorly equipped Versailles army surrounded the city. On 8 May a general bombardment began. In the course of 'Bloody Week' (May 21-28) the Communards resisted, street by street, but were pushed back steadily to the heart of Paris. The Versailles army were initially far more ruthless than the Communards, systematically shooting their prisoners. In retaliation, the Communards executed a number of hostages (including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Darboy">Georges Darboy, the archbishop of Paris</a>) and in the last days set fire to many public buildings, including the Tuileries Palace and the Hôtel de Ville. A final stand was made in Père-Lachaise Cemetery, where the last resisters were shot down against the Mur des Fédérés--ever since, a place of pilgrimage for the French left. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Thiers’s government took a terrible vengeance. Twenty thousand Communards were killed in the fighting or executed on the spot (as opposed to 1,000 Versaillese); thousands of survivors were deported to the penal islands, while others escaped into exile. An assembly of monarchists headed by a conservative republican had ‘first provoked and then put to fire and the sword the people of Paris’. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6pO6a86ntFKMFaSNvqvwhQe8j9QweQlPanNYdiWywneI5qv3N5Zi9RQ87EjrEzOnSCwTkSY_eLA4BFg1TPLDNpqiz77P7Fq9SYpywn8lqvnS_2L2L_FdkNtBfVm7W35ELYIYMDCU1AEaG/s1600-h/Communards_in_their_Coffins.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305561959538024290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6pO6a86ntFKMFaSNvqvwhQe8j9QweQlPanNYdiWywneI5qv3N5Zi9RQ87EjrEzOnSCwTkSY_eLA4BFg1TPLDNpqiz77P7Fq9SYpywn8lqvnS_2L2L_FdkNtBfVm7W35ELYIYMDCU1AEaG/s320/Communards_in_their_Coffins.jpg" style="display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Communards in their coffins<br />
Public domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The results of the Commune</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The repression of the Paris Commune left its mark on the emerging republic. The various socialist factions and the newly organised labour movement were left leaderless and Thiers’ ruthless law and order policies probably won many rural and small-town voters to his brand of conservative republicanism. In the by-elections to the assembly in July 1871 republicans won 99 of 114 vacancies. The voters were clearly willing to accept a republic so long as it was run by a 'safe' man like Thiers. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The failure of the monarchists</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The monarchists, however, still held a comfortable majority in the assembly and continued to hope and plan for a restoration. There were two candidates for the throne, the Legitimist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri,_Comte_de_Chambord">Count de Chambord</a> (the ‘miracle child’ born posthumously after the assassination of his uncle the duc de Berri in 1820) and the Orleanist pretender, Philippe, Count of Paris. Chambord was childless but the Count de Paris was young and had a family. A compromise solution was proposed: Chambord was to be restored but the Count of Paris was to be successor. But in July 1871 Chambord issued a manifesto stating that he would never abandon the Bourbon <span style="font-style: italic;">fleur de lys</span> for the republican <span style="font-style: italic;">tricolore</span>. This seemed to rule out the prospect of monarchy and Thiers’ position was accordingly strengthened. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> During the next two years, Thiers reorganized the army and worked to restore national morale; he successfully floated two bond issues that permitted the war indemnity to be paid off in 1873, thus ending the German occupation ahead of schedule. Late in 1872, however, he renounced his long-held <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orl%C3%A9anist">Orleanist faith</a> and declared his conversion to republicanism. The monarchists forced his resignation as provisional president (May 1873) and hastily substituted the commander of the army, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_MacMahon,_duc_de_Magenta">Marshal Patrice de MacMahon.</a> They hoped that this would give them the breathing space needed to secure the restoration of the monarchy. But in January 1875 the Assembly voted 353/352 (one vote!) to accept the existing republican government. The disheartened monarchists fell back on waiting for the Bourbon line to die out. But when Chambord died in 1883, it was too late for a restoration. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">The republican constitution</span> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Third Republic never had a constitution, but there were <a href="http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr_third.html#con">a number of constitutional laws</a> which provided the framework of government. There was a two-chamber legislature (with an indirectly elected Senate as a conservative check on the Chamber of Deputies); a Council of Ministers (Cabinet), responsible to the Chamber; and a president, elected for seven years by the two houses, with powers resembling those of a constitutional monarch. Because there was no formal constitution, there was always the theoretical possibility that the monarchy could be restored. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> The constitution left untouched many aspects of the French governmental structure, notably the centralised administrative system inherited from Napoleon I, the hierarchy of courts and judges, and the Concordat of 1801, governing church-state relations. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">At the end of 1875 the National Assembly at last dissolved itself, and the provisional phase of the Third Republic came to an end.
When the first Chamber of Deputies was elected in 1876, the republicans won more than two-thirds of the seats. A period of severe friction between MacMahon and the Chamber followed. But in January 1879 partial elections gave the republicans control of the Senate, and MacMahon shortly found an excuse to resign. He was replaced by a ‘safe’ republican, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Gr%C3%A9vy">Jules Grévy</a>. The balance of the constitution had shifted in favour of the Chamber and against the Senate and the office of the President, who has been described as an elderly gentleman whose function it was to wear evening dress in the day-time. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> The years 1877 to 1881 mark the real foundation of the Third Republic, with republicans winning local elections. Some of the characteristics of modern French life came into being. In 1879 the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies returned to Paris from Versailles. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Marseillaise">La Marseillaise</a></i> became the national anthem and the 14th July a national holiday. In 1881 an amnesty was granted to the surviving Communards. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><b>The Dreyfus affair</b> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">French public life continued to be obsessed by <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revanchism">revanchism</a></i>, the desire to recover the lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. The Right in particular developed an ideology of extreme nationalism. The writer Paul Déroulède formed a League of Patriots, which engaged in vaguely conspiratorial activities and was on the look-out for scapegoats, in particular Protestants, freemasons and Jews.
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1889 the journalist Edmond Drumont founded the Anti-Semitic League. Its journal, <i>La Libre Parole</i> was founded in 1892. <i>La France Juive</i> was published in 1886.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The conspiratorial atmosphere intensified in 1889 when the radical populist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Ernest_Boulanger">General Boulanger</a> came near to mounting a coup against the government. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_scandals">Panama Scandal</a> of 1892, in which government ministers and many other parliamentarians were found to have taken bribes, was the largest corruption scandal of the nineteenth century. Two Jews were shown to have been in charge of distributing the money.
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/J_accuse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/J_accuse.jpg" width="150" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The most notorious incident of this period is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair">Dreyfus affair</a>. In 1894 a Jewish army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was dismissed and in the following year he deported to the French penal colony of Devil's Island off Guyana for allegedly passing classified military information to the Germans. In 1898 the writer Emile Zola published in the radical newspaper <i>L'Aurore</i> an open letter entitled <i>J'Accuse</i> to the president of the Republic, in which he attacked the army and asserted Dreyfus' innocence. In the poisonous debate that followed, France split into Dreyfusards and anti-Dreyfusards. Dreyfus was pardoned in 1899 but only finally cleared in 1906.
See <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/13/dreyfus-affair-devils-island-ruth-harris">here </a>for a review of the latest scholarly book on the subject, Ruth Harriss' T<i>he Man on Devil's Island.</i>
<i>
</i><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n1l95">Listen to the discussion</a> on Melvyn Bragg's <i>In Our Time</i>. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Education</span></b> </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Republic faced a bruising conflict with the Roman Catholic Church over education. Between 1881 and 1886 the education minister, Jules Ferry, introduced free primary education for children between six and thirteen and for the first time provided public secondary schooling for girls. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The school programme was a major success. The profession of primary school teacher became firmly established and in many rural communities the teacher was an alternative source of authority to the parish priest. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> In the early twentieth century the government stepped up its campaign against the Church's role in education. In 1901 it was decreed that all teaching orders had to be authorised by the state. In 1904 religious congregations were prohibited from teaching and in 1905 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1905_French_law_on_the_Separation_of_the_Churches_and_the_State">Church and State were formally separated</a>, establishing the cherished French principles of <i>secularité </i>and <i>laïcité</i>. Thousands of religious schools were shut down.
For all its problems, the Third Republic survived until 1940. However its underlying tensions did not go away and were to re-emerge during the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vichy_France">Vichy regime</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The Third Republic was founded in defeat and humiliation. The humiliation was compounded by the bloodshed of the Commune.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Nevertheless France showed remarkable powers of recovery. The reparations were paid quickly and a republican government came into being.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">However, the Dreyfus case and the disputes over education showed that France was also a deeply divided country.</span></li>
</ol>
Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1313466676276151661.post-81082200282853763092017-01-02T13:41:00.000+00:002017-01-02T13:41:08.295+00:00The German Empire<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihHJYi4OpOPjKtYSqJpR5811IHBjxJvM0gHBlBSQKngX-mxzTq3vNFqKsv5hJnn8FFVF6_WwImctHOH1Rs9jDMLAVb9RIthvkyLedsscHd76CrThKc2xTCUhBLUuLxM4Bm1BifqX86emZ1/s1600/Wernerprokla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihHJYi4OpOPjKtYSqJpR5811IHBjxJvM0gHBlBSQKngX-mxzTq3vNFqKsv5hJnn8FFVF6_WwImctHOH1Rs9jDMLAVb9RIthvkyLedsscHd76CrThKc2xTCUhBLUuLxM4Bm1BifqX86emZ1/s200/Wernerprokla.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Proclamation of the German Empire<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h3>
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><br /></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">New Germany, new Europe</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The German Empire (<i>Reich</i>) was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, on 18 February 1871, with Wilhelm I, the King of Prussia, as its Emperor (<i>Kaiser</i>) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck">Otto von Bismarck</a> as its Chancellor.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrNPBEFeSG3MXZdlmfqUaiDNYPgbgfYveW02aJC3vi9ofBUFOb08a2NxHawiTmj0EmPc2f63LzXp9kpRR3v3m3QLnxB6VbNxInm9sORPKMu3YPWobGn-2XWjmE2swK1mKJCEf3xI9gpG3F/s1600/509px-Otto_von_Bismarck.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrNPBEFeSG3MXZdlmfqUaiDNYPgbgfYveW02aJC3vi9ofBUFOb08a2NxHawiTmj0EmPc2f63LzXp9kpRR3v3m3QLnxB6VbNxInm9sORPKMu3YPWobGn-2XWjmE2swK1mKJCEf3xI9gpG3F/s200/509px-Otto_von_Bismarck.JPG" width="169" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bismarck, Prime Minister of Prussia<br />
and Chancellor of German<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The Kingdom of Prussia had been transformed into the German Empire through three wars: against Denmark, Austria, and France. Contemporaries had no doubt that a new Europe, dominated by Germany, had come into being. The British politician, Benjamin Disraeli wrote: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">‘The war represents the German revolution, a greater political event than the French. There is not a single diplomatic tradition that has not been swept away.’</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Not all Germans were happy with this. Wilhelm I had only reluctantly assumed the title of Emperor (Kaiser). His liberally-minded son, Crown Prince Friedrich, had grave misgivings.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">‘We are no longer looked upon as the innocent sufferers of wrong, but rather as the arrogant victors…Bismarck has made us great and powerful, but he has robbed us of our friends, the sympathies of the world, and – our conscience.’</span></blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_j14MMgZnK6nqhgOnt01gbUlQlY4p-X0X6EjKZr39R911z9zW9ib3xKeIPxDH3M6PjEf4RkD_VEW7OXXwxhFWbmqzKWyCN97PMiylGQTfh0AAVB1IKWtNgDaN2dRB8sEibVKgX_GGfyfm/s1600/Deutsches_Reich_%25281871-1918%2529-de.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_j14MMgZnK6nqhgOnt01gbUlQlY4p-X0X6EjKZr39R911z9zW9ib3xKeIPxDH3M6PjEf4RkD_VEW7OXXwxhFWbmqzKWyCN97PMiylGQTfh0AAVB1IKWtNgDaN2dRB8sEibVKgX_GGfyfm/s320/Deutsches_Reich_%25281871-1918%2529-de.svg.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The German Empire, 1871-1918</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">The constitution of the Empire</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_German_Empire">constitution of the Empire </a>came into being on 16 April 1871. It was a federal system, though in practice it was dominated by Prussia, which contained sixty per cent of the population of Germany. However, larger states such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria">Bavaria</a> and Saxony remained separate kingdoms with their own governments and military forces.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Empire had a two-chamber parliament. The lower house, the Reichstag, was elected on manhood suffrage. The upper house, the Bundesrat, was composed of deputies from the twenty-seven states. Imperial laws were enacted with the simple majority of both Houses and took precedence over the laws of the individual states.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Executive power was vested in the Emperor, who was also King of Prussia, the head of the Hohenzollern dynasty. He appointed, and could dismiss, the Chancellor, who was answerable only to him. For most of the Empire’s existence, the Chancellor was usually also the Minister-President of Prussia. The Reich was always Prussian-dominated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Gsm6Bb_riGYXQeujR6xXqhryqgoCYtUcGEx__pLD22VtCPmMSjzoYa11GqfiWZR1sqrWjeGstqk37vqXpJbvka7pPzFh0BQVpmbrh_0gJF1Rud-PRGzGLfuXJwR1B7i0EQ6Jig30r6TK/s1600/Kaiser_Wilhelm_I._.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Gsm6Bb_riGYXQeujR6xXqhryqgoCYtUcGEx__pLD22VtCPmMSjzoYa11GqfiWZR1sqrWjeGstqk37vqXpJbvka7pPzFh0BQVpmbrh_0gJF1Rud-PRGzGLfuXJwR1B7i0EQ6Jig30r6TK/s200/Kaiser_Wilhelm_I._.JPG" width="145" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emperor Wilhelm I<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the formal sense, the Empire did not have a national government, merely civil servants. In practice the government needed the Reichstag, and political parties were quickly formed. In the early years, the dominant party were the pro-Bismarck National Liberals. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The powers of the Reichstag gradually increased, as it took over the responsibility for the railways, the administration of the national debt, the post office, justice, and colonial affairs. The State Secretaries who administered these functions became, in effect, ministers in a national government, even though they were not elected, and power drained away from the states. Germany was increasingly governed from Berlin.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Empire was a complex body, with many potential tensions. The Catholic states of the south were frequently unhappy at the dominance of Protestant Prussia. Germany’s rapid industrialisation turned her into the economic powerhouse of Europe, it threw up social and political problems for the Reich government. Two rapidly growing parties came into existence to reflect these concerns: the Catholic Centre Party in 1870 and the SPD (Social Democrats) in 1875.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">How democratic?</span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">There were many attempts to rig the system by putting obstacles in the way of opposition parties. In the early years, voters had to bring their own ballot papers, and increasingly these were supplied by the parties. Landlords and factory owners could examine these papers and penalise those who voted the wrong way. </span></span></h3>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But after 1903, following a long campaign, the voters were supplied with opaque envelopes. In 1913 standardised ballot boxes were introduced. By then German elections were conducted with reasonable fairness and with less corruption than in many other parts of Europe. In many ways, Wilhelmine Germany was an authoritarian state, but it was not a dictatorship.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">Where did power lie?</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Germany had manhood suffrage (unlike Britain) and a Reichstag that could be assertive. </span><span style="font-size: large;">However, power was increasingly centred in Berlin. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In any potential battle of wills between Emperor and Chancellor, it was not always clear where power lay. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Until 1888 Bismarck was in more or less undisputed control of Germany, </span><span style="font-size: large;">the weakness of his position was exposed when he was dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890. To her great regret, Wilhelm's grandmother, Queen Victoria, did not the power to dismiss ministers she did not like!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">The German economy</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">Even before unification the German economy was growing, with the Rhineland (acquired by Prussia in 1815) the power-base of its industrialisation. The pharmaceutical company Bayer was founded in Wuppertal in 1863. Siemens & Halske was founded in Berlin by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens">Werner von Siemens</a> and Johann Georg Halske on 12 October 1847. </span><span style="font-size: large;">In 1848, the company built the first long-distance telegraph line in Europe; 500 km from Berlin to Frankfurt am Main. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">With the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, Germany gained more industrial resources. By the end of the nineteenth century, industry was dominated by metallurgy, electronics, engineering, and chemicals. For example, i</span><span style="font-size: large;">n 1881 a Siemens AC Alternator driven by a watermill was used to power the world's first electric street lighting in Godalming. The company continued to grow and it diversified into electric trains and light bulbs.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbIZPaWV3kgS9M4I8y4DIoi8zFbxPYBhUBJXO10z4sdm5U2vriAbWYEGAGO-dxUTzhaeoWSZE0mPRnmB8IfVZ-GUs8-UoAduRBm4eKlvnYGJ8NcWvYNW4TWBy3AH7gIhual_ZJCZEKgGUh/s1600/PEZ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbIZPaWV3kgS9M4I8y4DIoi8zFbxPYBhUBJXO10z4sdm5U2vriAbWYEGAGO-dxUTzhaeoWSZE0mPRnmB8IfVZ-GUs8-UoAduRBm4eKlvnYGJ8NcWvYNW4TWBy3AH7gIhual_ZJCZEKgGUh/s320/PEZ.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First electric locomotive, built in 1879 by company founder <br />
Werner von Siemens.<br />
Public Domain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The German economy differed in one fundamental respect from the British: German banks were ready to finance industry in the long term. To safeguard their assets they set up </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartel" style="font-size: x-large;">cartels</a><span style="font-size: large;">, such as the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate founded in 1893. By 1904 it controlled 98 per cent of Germany’s coal production. By 1900 there were 275 cartels in operation. In 1887 </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emil_Rathenau" style="font-size: x-large;">Emile Rathenau</a><span style="font-size: large;"> founded Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), funded by the Deutsche Bank. No British bank lent to industry on such a scale.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1913 German chemical companies were producing 28 per cent of the world’s exports in that field and a massive 90 per cent of synthetic dyestuffs. Between them Siemens and AEG accounted for 75 per cent of Germany’s elector-technical production.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></h3>
<br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The German Empire was founded on war and in its early years it believed it had a great deal to fear from potential enemies. (This theme will be explored later.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">Germany was a new country, built up of older states with long histories of acting independently. For this reason, the Empire had a federal system of government.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">There were always tensions – between Prussia and the rest of Germany, between Catholics and Protestants, and between workers and employers.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: large;">The German economy was growing fast. German industrialists were the most innovative and best-educated in Europe.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<div>
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Anne Stotthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18296864856365981820noreply@blogger.com0