European modernity Flashcards
I/ The century of European modernity
Overview
a) Origin of the word
- Initially comes from literature
- aesthetic battle between ancients and moderns
“ La modernité c’est le transitoire, le fugitif, le contingent” -Charle Baudalaire - Specific to an era, it is change
- Orientated toward the future/ fond of change / relationship with time
b) An unprecedented economic and social transformation
“Le transformation du monde”
-steam engine end of 18th century led to development of railway 1830 north englend from machester to liverpool
- Universal exhibition- fist 1851 in england - celebration of new industrial machines and economic power of the hosting state - crystal palace glass and 560m long was built in Hyde park to host occasion
- Eiffel tower for fourth exposition universelle in 1889
-Modernity is not simply cultural
- Historian Kenneth Pomeranz called the industrialisation of the time “une grande divergence” entre l’Europe et l’asie.
- trans siberian railway 1896
-Eiffel tower as immense useless thing but stirred pride and competition for nice things - cult of modernity
- Suppremacy of Europe - 40% of world economy at the time
- Transformation is intense - industrialisation and goes hand in hand with living environments / unequal growth of living standards / levels of medicine and hygiene
- If we include Russia - European population increases between 1800 and 1900 from 188 - 404 million inhabitants.
-Population growth along with the need for labor in workshops and factories causes major urbanization dynamic.
-Major cities of Europe -Naples Rome and Venice are overtaken by cities such as Manchester Birmingham and Hamburg
-This phenomenon leads to the emergence of new social, urban and working classes, which become leading political and social actors. – -Some sing praises of the progress to come, while others witness the disappearance of a social world in which their lives took on meaning. Redefining relationships of past present and future.
Opposition of modernity and limits of the concept
Criticism for Ugliness and pollution it generates. Pollution is a problem that is taking hold at this time and which we have not yet been able to get rid of.
Social evil - Paupérisme and urban slums etc behind impression of global wealth growth.
Emmanuel Fureix and Francois Jarrige have uncovered in their book - La modernité Désenchantée Criticism of the damage to the environment also shows the “enthusiasm for progress has always aroused as much anxiety as hope, nostalgia as projection into the future, as much disenchantment as hope.” “l’enthousiasme pour le progrès a toujours suscité autant d’inquiétude que d’espoir, autant de nostalgie que de projection dans l’avenir, autant de désenchantement que d’espérance”
Distruction of European ecosystems. Example- the eruption of Tambora 1815 - effects sunshine precipitation and temperatures for many years - The year without summer.
The impoverishment of the working class with the advent of factories poses serious social problems. Even things representing modernity like the cotton industry are based on really modern concepts like slavery.
concept of “discordance of times” by Christophe Charle. Modernity makes us lose sight of the social reality of the time. In 1900, only the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands were more than 50% urbanized, so rurality still held a major place at that time. There are large gaps (example of the literacy rate which experiences large disparities (25% in Spain and 92.5% in Prussia in 1860). Here, “modernity” is thus less an abstract and unequivocal historical process than a field of struggles and tensions between various groups of society.
Tensions and anxieties from ideas around modernity in europe as the cultural/ religious (trust in science/new forms/spread of global religions)/geographical boundaries are not familiar. fragmented and very diverse territory.
In 1884, while universal male suffrage had existed in greece for 20 years, only 60% of british men had the right to vote.
Irish famine. Kingdom of Italy 1861 became aware of singularities of Mezzogiorno region
Europe, laboratory of political modernity
Human rights, democracy and freedom are a part of political modernity, but they are above all the consequence of the birth of the nation state, the strengthening of the state and its distance from the citizen. The advent of political modernity is the nation state. In exchange for some freedoms, you have to pay a lot more taxes and spend a certain amount of time in military service. A modern state is ideally a nation state to restore cohesion.
The construction of nation states
Before political modernity, the “Ancien Régime”. It was indeed an unequal state, but it had many other characteristics. “The state is me” said Louis XIV. This is true because everywhere there is a total interweaving of the public State and private society.
Comparison with Leviathan.- With Hobbes, Leviathan, a biblical monster, becomes an allegory of the State. The power of this State has, just like the monster, something both divine and terrifying: “the fear it inspires allows it to shape the will of all” But with the “new regime” we are centralizing much more (establishing departments for example). Many reforms to strengthen the state, but revolutions follow and affirm them (example with the reforms of Turgot in France which precede the French revolution). Constitutions and elections of representatives (very majority voting at the start) are concepts that were born at this time. At the end of the century the SUM established itself. (Politics is a serious matter, it is first entrusted to the rich then to men). Louis XIV of France creates an absolute monarchy; France emerges as the dominant power in Europe. Peace of Westphalia cements the legal status of the nation-state as sovereign. The French Revolution begins; it creates the modern French nation-state and sparks nationalism around Europe. Germany first became a country in 1871 when most of the German-speaking nations of Europe were unified under the Prussian crown. However, Germany was split in two after World War II ended in 1945 and put back together in 1990 during the reunification.
Forgotten and unsaid
The main limit to the idea of the nation-state, and therefore of political modernity, is the concept of Empire which was very important in the 19th century.It is century.
InEmpires, Jane Burbank and Fred Cooper define the Empire as an opposite of the nation state. And in the 19thIt is century, almost all “nation-states” are empires or aspire to become one (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Japan, etc.). These empires carry modernity and do not completely invalidate the notion of “nation-state”. There is always some form of “discrepancy of times”. The empire can be seen as a persistence of the old world in the nation-state. There are hybrids between nation-state and empire. This link between modernization and the birth of a nation state also exists further East, in Greece, Japan, Latin America and the Arab world.
Perhaps there is a sort of schizophrenia, a contradiction between the desire to develop a strong nation-state without renouncing the power of imperialism? Perhaps imperialism can also be a tool for strengthening the nation-state, the metropolis.
The place of women is not obvious in the 19th centuryIt is. There is a sort of “separate spheres regime”, where women are placed away from the public and political sphere. Women highlight themselves in moments of revolution, but it is frowned upon so it is little or not told, or even hidden.
Eurocentrism is also very present at this time, which biases the angles of analysis. However, Europe is still the center of the world at this point.that moment (and is also built quite a bit on a more or less fantasized and fixed vision of “the orient”).
La principale limite à l’idée d’Etat-nation, et donc de modernité politique, c’est le concept d’Empire qui est très important au XIXe siècle.
Dans Empires, Jane Burbank et Fred Cooper définissent l’Epmpire comme un opposé de l’État nation. Et au XIXe siècle, presque tous les “états-nation” sont des empires ou aspirent à le devenir (France, Royaume-Uni, Allemagne, Belgique, Japon…). Ces empires sont porteurs de modernité et n’invalident pas complètement la notion d’”état-nation”. Il y a toujours une certaine forme de “discordance des temps”. L’empire peut être vu comme une persistance de l’ancien monde dans l’état-nation. Il y a des hybrides entre état-nation et empire. ce lien entre modernisation et naissance d’état nation existe aussi plus à l’Est, en Grèce, au Japon, en Amérique Latine et dans le monde Arabe.
Peut-être y-a-t il une sorte de schizophrénie, de contradiction entre la volonté de développer un état-nation fort sans pour autant renoncer à la puissance de l’impérialisme ? Peut-être que l’impérialisme peut aussi être un outil de renforcement de l’état-nation, de la métropole.
La place des femmes n’est pas évidente au XIXe. Il y a une sorte de “régime des sphères séparées”, où l’on place les femmes à l’écart de la sphère publique et politique. Les femmes se mettent en valeur dans les moments de révolution, mais c’est mal vu donc c’est peu ou pas raconté, voir occulté.
L’eurocentrisme est aussi très présent à ce moment là, ce qui biaise les angles d’analyse. Pourtant, l’Europe est quand même le centre du monde à ce moment-là (et se construit d’ailleurs pas mal sur une vision plus ou moins fantasmée et fixe de “l’orient”).
Causes
traditional explanation of this awakening: the “awakening of the nations”. The advent of the nation state is explained by an awakening after the oppression experienced for centuries, often imposed by foreigners and which calls for a desire to free oneself within the framework of a cultural unity.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte: German philosopher of the nation state.This idea is not false because many states like Belgium were born this way.
see below history on the state of Belgium, but historians question this vision of a “pre-existing” nation. The state can be constructed by constructing the imagination of the nation. Even in France, the prototype nation-state, the “end of the territories” (Weber’s concept) did not come to fruition before the end of the 19th century.It iscentury. The idea of nation is not awakening, it is being constructed. The state receives pressure to exploit its colonies which push it to renew itself.
