The age of the masses - democratisation and nationalisation Flashcards
syllabus
Arno Mayer, The Persistence of the Ancien Régime. Europe from 1848 to the Great War. The resistance of the old empires: the nobility remained part of the state apparatus and communicated their values to civil servants of commoner origin. Land remained the main source of income and wealth. The old aristocracy allowed the bourgeoisie to enrich itself, which in turn enriched it. The only people accepted into the elite had to pass competitive exams +++, and the bourgeoisie wanted to adopt the behaviour of the nobility as soon as they could.
Charle, Discordance des temps. A brief history of modernism. Agricultural crisis that belies the promises of free trade, symbolism in art that seeks to escape time (≠ naturalism) + theme of socialist “great evening” = collapse of capitalism. Pessimism: Schopenhauer, Syllabus (1864 = intransigent Catholic), Crowd Psychology = anti-modernism no longer focused on tradition but on modern arguments themselves & science used against the grain (on women for example), decadentism of poets, The Work = impossible avant-garde, doctors’ interest in hysteria ect… Anarchists = provoke their own moment themselves
Deluermoz, Histoire du monde au XIXème siècle. Latin American Constitutions inspired by European Constitutions. Rural populations very un-European.
Zweig, Le monde d’hier. Golden age of security, first for the wealthy, then for the masses thanks to insurance. Assurance of being on the road to the best of all possible worlds. The Jewish bourgeoisie’s contribution to this era of progress + a working bourgeoisie that saves, refuses to speculate and “thinks about the future”.
plan
The politics of the masses
The extension of the right to vote
The birth of political parties
Mobilisation and social protest
Reforms and revolutions
Criticism of parliamentary liberalism
Social reform policies
The constitutional revolutions (1905-1911)
Fin-du-siècle Europe: a time of doubt
Global wealth and social inequality
Nationalism and policies of exclusion
Modernity and anti-modernism
dates
1838-1848: Chartist movement
1848: universal male suffrage France & Switzerland
1856: Australia secret ballot
1867: Reform Act (extension of the right to vote in England)
1867: Capital, Marx
1868: Creation of the Trade Union Congress in England
1871: Universal male suffrage Germany
1872: Secret Ballot Act (England)
1875: Gotha Congress (German socialism)
1882: League of Patriots founded by Paul Déroulède (France)
1883: Death of Marx
1883: Health insurance funds in Germany
1884: Industrial accident insurance funds in Germany
1884: Reform Act 2
4 May 1886: Martyrs of Haymarket = police violently repress a demonstration
1889: old-age insurance funds in Germany
14 July 1889: foundation of the Young Turks movement
1889: Hull House founded
1890: Suspension of the law restricting the right of assembly, etc.
1st May 1891: Fourmies massacre
1892: Panama scandal
1893: Auguste Vaillant’s attack on Parliament
1893: Women’s right to vote in New Zealand
1893: Anti-Italian riots in Aigues-Mortes
1894: Pangermanist League
1894: Social Museum in France
1895: Psychology of crowds, Gustave Le Bon
1895: Creation of the CGT
1898: Compensation for accidents at work in France
1900: Paris Universal Exhibition = apogee of European modernity.
1904-1905: Ruhr strikes
1905: Creation of the SFIO
9 January 1905: Russian Revolution (in front of St Petersburg Palace)
14 June 1905: Mutiny on the battleship Potemkin
17th October 1905: manifesto in which Emperor Nicholas II promises to adopt a Constitution for Russia.
1906: women’s right to vote in Finland
1906: Amiens Charter (mistrust of political parties by trade unions)
1906: Creation of the Labour Party
24 April 1906: fundamental laws promulgated by Nicholas II
9th July 1906: Duma dissolved
1908: Constitutional revolution in the Ottoman Empire
21 June 1908: monster rally in Hyde Park (250,000 to 500,000 people)
1909: Sultan deposed
1909: Lloyd George’s People’s Budget Acts
1910: Italian Nationalist Association
1911: The Great Labour Unrest
1911: Possibility of overriding the Lords veto on the Budget vote
1911: Unemployment insurance passed in the UK
1913: Polling booth in France
1913: Triumvirate in the Ottoman Empire
1914: Home Rule voted
1915-1916: Armenian genocide
1928 : women’s right to vote in England
characters
Emmeline & Christabel Pankhurst, campaigners for women’s right to vote = suffragettes who organised demonstrations and sometimes violent actions (frequent prison sentences between 1908 and 1914)
Hubertine Auclert, French feminist activist who proposed a tax strike, a marriage contract with separation of property, feminisation of dictionary words & broke a ballot box in 1908 = symbol
Sidney & Beatrice Webb, a couple of reformist economists = they supported workers’ demands but thought that this had to go through the electoral process & joined the Labour Party
August Bebel, SPD leader, Women and Socialism, neither revolutionary nor reformist
Rudolf Hilferding, SPD member, Austromarxist theorist
Gaetano Mosca & Vilfredo Pareto, elitist theories = oligarchies that dominate regardless of the form of the regime (political class theory/elite theory)
Auguste Vaillant, militant anarchist responsible for the attack on Parliament in 1893
Gladstone, leader of the Liberal Party in the 70s and 80s + several times PM
Disraeli, leader of the Conservative Party = made conservatism the +++ values of the British Empire
Joseph Chamberlain, political leader who mobilised against free trade (imperialist & protectionist) = Liberal Party but split over the Irish question
Jane Addams, a wealthy Chicago heiress who opened Hull House = aid for the poorest in working-class neighbourhoods
Charles Booth, social surveys to illustrate precariousness in London
Bismarck, introduced social protection laws to contain the expansion of trade unions and socialist parties
Alexander III, tsar who strictly controlled the population
Nicholas II, Tsar from 1894 = Russia enjoyed good economic and cultural growth but was unable to manage unrest and political change + constitutional laws to remove them in 1906
Ahmed Riza, leader of the Young Turks party in exile in Paris, who organised the 1908 rev const
Paul Leroy-Beaulieu, liberal convinced that the 19th century would lead to less inequality: “The social question […] will resolve itself”.
Paul Déroulède, founder of the Ligue des patriotes + revanchism towards Germany + anti-colonialism & no anti-Semitism BUT supporter of General Boulanger
Arthur de Gobineau, rereading history through racial theories
Herbert Spencer, theorist of social Darwinism = reading grid for social conflicts
Francis Galton, founder of eugenics
Gustave le Bon, The Psychology of Crowds, 1895, social psychology
notions
Notions
Universal suffrage - suffragettes - social democracy - “meetings” - Labour Party - trade unions - Haymarket martyrs - anti-parliamentarianism - Panama scandal - Home Rule - “reformist nebulas” - Hull House - anti-socialist laws - constitutional revolutions - Young Turks - People’s Budget - persistence of old elites - Pangermanism - irredentism - racial theories - modernity - decadentism/pessimism
Analyses by historians
George Mosse, “nationalisation of the masses”, in particular through universal suffrage
Thomas Piketty, inequalities in the distribution of resources were never as great as they were at the end of the 19th century, before World War 1
Arno Mayer, we underestimate the persistence of Ancien Régime societies & structures in the 19th century (thanks to land, economic, political & social power = aristocratic elites did not disappear & resisted the 1st World War)
Carl Schorske, fin-de-siècle Vienna = cultural history, with both cultural elites, often Jewish, liberating themselves (Klimt, Freud…) and manipulation of the masses towards anti-Semitism.
quotes
“The social question […] will resolve itself” Leroy-Beaulieu, lecture at the Collège de France
summary
The politics of the masses
The extension of the right to suffrage
Universal male suffrage: 1848 = France, 1871 = Germany, 1867 & 1884 = Reform Acts + strong mobilisation (started with Chartism 38-48)
Secrecy of the vote: guaranteeing the individuality of the vote = begins in Australia, 1856: “Australian ballot”, England (1872) & France (1913 with the polling booth)
Women’s right to vote: 1893 = New Zealand, 1906 = Finland + suffragism, with Emmeline & Christabel Pankhurst = spectacular actions, sometimes violent + meetings +++ = 21 June 1908 (Hyde Park, 250-500,000 people) BUT it wasn’t until 1928 in the UK that the right to vote was granted.
The birth of political parties
Socialist parties: 1880s = rise of the social democrats (Marxist insp) before being hunted down. Mainly Germanic and Scandinavian countries. 1875: Gotha Congress = social-demo with Bebel, Hilferding
1912 All: 35% of votes, ¼ of seats = schools, libraries by the Party
1905: SFIO to put an end to divisions (Fra), 1906: Labour Party which eventually supplanted the Liberals (Ang), 130,000 SAP members (Sweden)
Mobilisation for political campaigns: meetings to present the party’s programme to the public (and the opportunity for the public to participate). Press, poster campaigns, role of tribune…
Mobilisation and social protest
Power of trade unions: 1868 = Trade Union Congress (1st UK); Germany from 1890 = 40% trade unions, 2 million union members; France = less than 10%, 1895: CGT & major separation of trade unions and politics (Charte d’Amiens, 1906)
Age of strikes: Ruhr strike (1904-1905), 1911: The Great Labour Unrest = general strikes, 1 million strikers
1st May: commemorate May 1886 (for the 8 a.m. day: demonstration on 1st then 4th May police repression & 4 sentenced to death = Haymarket martyrs) + Fourmies in 1891
Reforms and revolutions
Criticism of parliamentary liberalism
Panama scandal: criticism of politics = corruption and cronyism. 1892: Panama scandal (corruption over canal loans) = reported in newspapers
Illusory democracy? Mosca & Pareto = elites stay in power regardless of democracy (born of Italian transformism = stay in power through alliances regardless of votes).
Attacks: anarchists +++, 1893: Auguste Vaillant at the Palais Bourbon = scurrilous laws
In GB: bi-partisan (Gladstone/Disraeli) BUT mob against free trade (Made in Germany) = social reforms (People’s Budget, 1909) BUT Irish question
Social reform policies
Reform nebulae: defusing social criticism & keeping revolution at bay (civil servants, clerics, associations, etc.) = promoting social reform
Jane Addams: Hull House, 1889 = getting involved in working-class neighbourhoods (housing, hygiene…), inspired by Charles Booth’s surveys (street by street…)
In Germany: against liberal non-intervention = Bismarck against socialists = 1883: health insurance; 1884: accidents at work; 1889: old age = state-run & compulsory BUT criticised by liberals (infringement of individual freedom)
Elsewhere: 1898 = accidents at work (Fra) = no longer due to individual fault BUT to risk; England, People’s Budget = debate & unemployment insurance in 1911
The constitutional revolutions (1905-1911)
In Russia: emergence of revolutionary parties under Alexander III, 9 January 1905: demonstration suppressed by the police, 14 June: Potemkin mutiny, 17 October: manifesto granting a Const & the Duma BUT 9 July 1906: dissolution of the Duma = conservative
Ottoman Empire: Young Turks organised from Paris, 1908: uprisings = const; 1909: the sultan is deposed; 1913: triumvirate = revolution becomes authoritarian; 1915-1916: genocide
Structured +++ around the army
Fin-du-siècle Europe: a time of doubt
Global wealth, social inequalities
Inequalities: liberals convinced that inequalities would diminish (Leroy-Beaulieu) BUT concentration +++ of capital (cf Thomas Piketty)
Persistence of elites: Arno Mayer, the old elites found ways of retaining their supremacy (land, administration, codes dictated to the bourgeoisie, etc.) + e.g. Prussia of the 3 classes = greater political weight for the richest.
The Lords & Conservatives: until 1911, the Lords blocked BUT reform + Fra = opposition to income tax & conservative coalitions
Nationalism and exclusionary policies
Aggressive nationalism: military & constituency crises + becomes illiberal against the sense of 1848; Fra: Ligue des patriotes, Déroulède, 1882; All: pangermanism, Aryan race, bring together all German-speakers in Europe; Italy: irredentism, Italian Nationalist Association (1910) to claim terr
1893: anti-Italian demonstration in Aigues-Mortes
Economic and commercial protectionism re-established to some extent (Chamberlain against free trade)
Racism based on “science”: Arthur de Gobineau, racial rereading of history; Herbert Spencer, social Darwinism; Francis Galton, eugenics
Modernity and anti-modernism
Apogee of modernity: Paris World Fair + the heart of science, etc.
Intellectuals distancing themselves from modernity: pessimism, decadentism (mal du siècle) + questioning criminality + psychology of crowds, Gustave Le Bon, crowds are irrational, beware of collective passions
Paradox of Vienna: a city at the forefront of art, architecture and science (Klimt, Sezessionstil, Freud…) is also affected by anti-Semitism +++ = election of Karl Lueger
