The Modern World, Part One: Global History from 1760 to 1910 -- Week 7 Video Lecture Summary

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Video 1: The Second Industrial Revolution

The period between 1890-1914 is the most dynamic period in history: politically, socially, economically. There's a giant advance in all of these. The first Industrial Revolution was characterized by the steam engine. Now new technologies include electricity, the combustion engine, petroleum as fuel, cars, chemistry, and chemical products. Everything is accelerating more quickly than ever before: a situation causes a problem which leads to a technological solution and so on. We have machines that make machines. In addition, more raw materials than ever have to be sourced and imported.

Chemistry evolves and the field of physics emerges.

There are lots of advances in medicines: aspirin for instance. German universities were considered the best in the world and many medicinal advances are invented.

Breakfast cereals emerge. 

Coca-cola breaks as a consumer product. It is sold for the first time in thousands of locations. This means the production of soda water must be commonly available, as well as refrigeration which preserves carbonation better.

Chemical explosives are also invented like dynamite and TNT which are far more explosive than gunpowder. Nobel invented TNT and he funded the Nobel prizes.

X-rays are invented by Wilhelm Roentgen. He is a chemist/physicist working at a German university. Universities are cultivating knowledge for the sake of knowledge rather than commercial purposes. William Coolidge the American however is working at General Electric (founded by Thomas Edison) and he invents a tube that can channel these rays, the antecedents of which are used in modern x-ray machines today.

Electricity was used to generate power to power lights, dynamos equivalent to thousands of horsepower.

The internal combustion engine was also developed. This engine was smaller and more convenient than the steam engine and used liquid fuel. It enabled the invention of cars and airplanes. It is a very complex machine.

People live longer, stay up later, travel farther, and have more autonomy thanks to these inventions.

Japan, the US, and Germany are the main players in this revolution (as opposed to the UK in the first revolution). There's an enormous demand for rubber, tin, oil and so sources of these are also rising in importance. 

In 1900 US, people are still living in communities of 2000 people or fewer. In 1850-60 Chicago is a tiny town, but it's huge at the turn of the century. In 1910 it's the sixth-largest German city in the world due to the German immigration to Chicago. 40-70% of people around the world are now living in cities!

This necessitates utility infrastructure, water infrastructure, a sewage system, a police force. Cities are having bridges built, transportation systems. Civil engineering is emerging. Trolley systems are built. Cities used to be dangerous places to live due to poor sanitation, with cholera killing people due to the absence of clean water. 

Corporations are emerging. For instance, the Standard Oil Company of Ohio created petroleum products.

Most importantly, the rise of modern capitalism enabled these changes. Next time.

Video 2: Modern Capitalism

What's the difference between traditional trading/commerce and modern capitalism? Money and organization.

Traditionally, even in the 1850s-60s, money was gold or silver coin-based. Governments and companies issued money. In the 1870s, money begins to become standardized via the gold standard. The GS originates in England but is adopted by France and later Germany when Germany wins the Franco-Prussian war and makes France pay lots of reparations in gold. The US joins in too. Everyone else soon follows, which creates stability. Exchange rates stay fixed for years and international investments become common: the Golden Age of commerce. Tons of loans are given. Insurance booms. All of this comprises a huge and complicated financial enterprise.

Hard money meant there was a limited amount of money in the world. Because of this, there was a prolonged recession in the 1870s-1890s with a financial crisis in the early 1890s. Crop prices were dropping thanks to the global crop market opening up, but this meant that farmers were making less and less and having trouble paying loans. They lobbied for adopting a silver standard. An anti-gold standard presidential candidate loses in the US to McKinley who is pro-gold standard. Thankfully, more gold is discovered in South Africa and Alaska, relieving the depression in the 1890s and creating a boom.

Thus, modern capitalism is characterized by standardized money and a complex financial infrastructure to support it.

Between 1890-1914, world trade quadruples!! The demand for commodities rose to accommodate all of the industrial developments of the era. This is enabled by safe seas (thanks to the Pax Britannica?).

Steamships are now carrying much heavier cargo. Between 1880-1900 there's a huge leap in how much they're able to carry: from 600/700 tons to 10,000! 

Britain is the only major country the legislation of which supports free trade. To protect its industries, the US has tariff barriers that impose taxes on imports. Germany does too. In England free trade becomes controversial. Joseph Chamberlain is pro-protectionism and is supported by farmers in the UK and Africa (why?) and South America (why?) (maybe because they will also be protected rather than treated as colonies?). Protectionism has opponents: David Lloyd George the liberal politician, backed by the working classes who don't want to pay higher prices for consumer products. Global erection of tariff walls means a throwback to imperialism again (countries wanting to have more resources available within their empire so they can offer cheaper goods).

Industrial Society

Corporations as we know them today emerge in the 1870s and become powerful by the 1890s. A corporation has limited liability. This is as opposed to a small family-owned business where all the liability lies with the owner. Corporations are third-party entities in which people can invest and if it goes bust all the investors are the ones affected. They are supported by a legal structure and the infrastructure to sustain the corporation for generations.

People become fearful of the power of corporations.

The octopus was a symbol that represented the industrial monster: monopolies, ownership of transportation systems and electric and gas industries, and oil industries. There's a fear that these industries will also spill over into governance.

Corporations change the fabric of society. New roles were needed:

  • Managers
  • Professionals
    • Engineers
    • Lawyers (law schools were created during this period)
    • Doctors
    • Professors (to teach in universities)
    • Bankers
    • Insurance professionals
The modern office is created at the turn of the century.
Typewriters are invented.
Factories are rising in prominence.
The conflict of the working class versus the capitalist class becomes an increasingly central political issue.

The assembly line emerges, facilitating the creation of many basic products. Thousands and millions of workers are working in factories and they feel the need to organize in unions. There are lots of clashes between labor and management. Workers strike and the government needs to step in and become involved. Some strikes escalate to great violence. 

This acceleration is changing the lives of entire communities.

Video 3: The Dynamo and the Virgin

The perspective of Henry Adams on the difference between the traditional and the modern

Henry Adams is a historian and philosopher, a descendent of John Adams. After the Civil War, he became a political commentator, writing essays and histories. He was hired by Harvard to teach. The symbols he chose to contrast the traditional world with the modern world were the dynamo and the Virgin Mary. He wrote an autobiography bearing this title. These are the forces that moved the traditional world vs. the modern world.

In the old world, churches were the only tall, elegant buildings in sight. They, as well as the art within, were awe-inspiring. Building these took a lot of effort, and were driven by religion, which had enormous power in the traditional world. On the other hand, in the modern world, great buildings were erected for different reasons. For example, an electricity building that showed off the advancements in electric power. Exhibitions are showing off such achievements.

Adams is drawn to the dynamos in these exhibitions. He is impressed and inspired by all the power that the dynamo generates, and how quietly it does it (relative to the steam engine, for instance). However, he noted that artists didn't exactly feel the same.

The nature of the two forces is different: the Virgin force was trying to reconcile and unite people, versus the dynamo which was anonymous, indifferent, inhuman.

Adams recognizes that scientists are creating forces but have no plan or idea of where their inventions are headed. He recognizes that in the past, scientists seemed to have a grip on their discoveries, but now scientists don't really understand fully the things they're discovering. He equates this to the transition from unity to multiplicity and chaos in the move from the traditional to the modern. He tries to figure out how this transition happened. He writes that surely, the world is headed for additional fragmenting, disintegration, and disunity (a thought: the world was fragmented sooner, but humanity's awareness of it was lesser).

Video 4: Modern Nation-States

What modern nation-states can do
  • Better organization
  • Better communication
  • Better infrastructure
  • Regulation
  • Insurance
  • Social insurance (pioneered by the Germans)
  • Military power
    • Rise of uniforms, masculinity, masculine physical strength
  • Greater involvement in commerce
    • Trade infrastructure
      • Highways
      • Gas stations
      • Coaling stations around the world
      • Maintaining networks of global coaling stations
      • Mines
      • Ports
      • Railways
      • Infrastructure in weaker countries funded by investments from stronger countries with commercial interests
        • Various countries (Britain, France) are the dominant investors in various continents (Asia, Africa)
        • Maintaining a political relationship with these states
        • Weaker states borrow money to become more developed
        • War threatens when countries fail to repay debts
        • Europeans are bound by the Monroe Doctrine so the Americans get involved on their behalf. Another reason the Americans get involved is to keep imperialism from expanding to the US (?).
      • Telegraph lines laid across oceans
      • Standardized money
      • Corporations
      • Legal system
      • Laws regarding unions
      • National services
        • education
        • police
        • social services
        • lots of employment!
How do I feel about my state?

As the state became important in people's lives, people began questioning whether they agreed with what the state represented. For instance, in Austria-Hungary people spoke lots of different languages. A-H represented many different nations. Some people had a heroic image of the state. Other people focused on the materialistic aspect of it. Where is the nation going? Who is represented by the state? Which minorities? Is my language represented? Political issues were very important because they had real impact on people's lives: education, unions, wages.

Statishness: a mode of thinking in which you think about what the state can do.

People started planning states in 1860s-70s. Before then they emerged more organically.

The character of the state matter. The services provided by it.

Tensions between national vs. local states rise. Sometimes people were satisfied by local governance and less so by national governance.

Video 5: Revolutionary Nation-States

All modern states are revolutionary because everyone within them wants change. They have different agendas to enact dramatic change. They have to participate in transportation, education, policies. This leads to people creating huge political parties. In the 1880s-1890s-1900s, parties containing millions of members are formed to influence the organization of modern industrial societies and sway the process in one way or another. All modern states formed such parties in this era.

Between 1890-1990 there's a "hundred year war" between mass ideologies about the way in which countries should be structured.

Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona is a Catalonian city. In Catalonia, the historic language is Catalan. Catalonia is on French land but also on Spanish land.
  • What is the role of the local Catalonia governance vs. the national Spanish governance?
  • Who makes decisions about industry and commerce?
Barcelona businesspeople thrive because they get their cotton from Cuba in an imperialistic system to create cheaper textiles than the Brits.

People are growing unhappy with government decisions. They're unhappy with conditions in the cotton mills. Cuba gains independence which makes cotton more expensive, which makes businesspeople unhappy.

There is an artistic movement called modernisma which was about depicting the lives of ordinary people. For instance Picasso. Describing the alienation from the modern institutions. Anarchism was a transnational movement that arose. It wasn't organized in headquarters but rather characterized by charismatic exiles. They launch attacks in Spain, France, the US in the 1880s-1890s. Six different heads of state are assassinated.

The anarchists strike in Barcelona, too. They are executed in a garrote.

Workers who strike are beaten back by institutions of the state.

These tensions manifest in individual states, and in the first years of the 1900s the states will need to revolutionize and reinvent themselves to manage rising tensions within societies.

Video 6: Battle Lines

5 basic political movements

Ideologies or sets of ideas. These are scripts for followers, to help people decide what to think about situations.
  1. National traditionalists are in favor of:
    • Upholding national traditions, celebrating national values, racial or ethnic identities.
    • Established religions.
    • National purity.
    • Personified order/authority like a monarch.
    • Institutionalized order/authority like the army.
    • Imperial expansion/establishment for power/profit.
    • Attacking social revolutionaries.
    • Supporting farmers and landowners.
    • Popular among farmers who are suspicious of newer institutions.
    • Popular among landowners who benefit from the traditional institutions.
  2. National conservatives:
    • Are kind of like modern-day American republicans.
    • Otto von Bismarck.
    • Believe in a strong national government.
    • Are secular: separate church and state, control the power of the Church.
    • Are for a modern military.
    • Taxes to maintain a strong government.
    • Protectionists, protecting industries from foreign competition.
    • Spiritual civilizers.
    • Popular among businesspeople and the new professional classes.
  3. 19th century liberals:
    1. The democratic party in the US.
    2. Weak national government.
    3. Individual liberty.
    4. Religious tolerance.
    5. Wary of large army. More anti-military, pacifist.
    6. Anti-empire or pro-empire to bring enlightenment.
    7. Free trade and free markets, less government intervention.
    8. Oppose big government, big business, big worker unions.
    9. Support small farmers, businesspeople, craftspeople.
    10. More civil and political rights to women.
  4. Democratic socialists:
    • Strong central government as a counterweight to powerful businesses.
    • Less identification with the nation, more solidarity with the working classes.
    • Supporters of big business and big unions: convert private property into public gain.
    • Secular, oppose the intrusion of religious authority.
    • Protect the right to organize by workplace, job, class.
    • Internationalist, pacifist, anti-empire, anti-military (because they see empires and militaries as serving the interests of businesses).
    • Organize for self-help: create unions where people help similar people who may not be represented.
    • Organize to form political parties to get benefits from the state and other protections.
  5. Revolutionary socialists:
    • The existing order is intolerable.
    • Secular.
    • Anti-military.
    • Threaten the established order.
    • Organize, underground as needed, for mass action (violence if necessary).
    • Internationalist agenda.
    • Lenin emphasizes highly organized "Cells" (groups) for when the time comes for rebellion.

Video 7: The Battles Begin

Battles were being wages over the shape of revolutionary nation-states.

Chicago (late 1890s-early 1900s)

National conservatives vs. liberal socialists. Politics are becoming polarized. Centrist liberalism emerges, represented by John Dewey. He's hired by the University of Chicago. He's known as the father of American liberalism. His political philosophy included:
  • Pragmatism
  • Experimenting with governance (similar to Bentham)
  • Grassroots democracy (as opposed to Bentham who was top-down)
  • Founder of Laboratory Schools
  • Emphasis on education at all levels to reshape society. An idea that helps close class differences
St. Petersburg (early 1900s)

The Russian Empire is the epitome of National Traditionalists. There are some National Conservatives in government who try to make changes but who are frustrated by the Traditionalists at the top.

Russia is building railroads, borrowing money from France. A working class peasantry is created that feels increasingly threatened by the changes.

They're very anti-Jewish, wreaking pogroms. Millions of people, mostly Jews, flee the Russian Empire. Here's where they emigrate to:



Everyone in Russia except for the ruling elite is opposed to the Traditional Nationalists + their Conservative Nationalist buddies at the top.

Russia fights a war against the Japanese and loses. This feels horrible to the Russians because their empire is built on national purity. All of the dissident factions in Russia begin to explode. There are peasant revolts, strikes in urban areas, even military mutinies. Russia survives because the ruling elite compromises, mostly with the National Convervatives and a bit with the Liberals for a more constitutional rule. There's still loyalty to the Czar so that helps.

Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) (1908) 

Constantinople is the capital of the Ottoman Empire. The ruling elite (National Traditionalists) are weak. Their rule is toppled by National Conservatives who call themselves Young Turks or The Committee for Union and Progress. They want to bring back the constitution that was adopted in the 1870s that is pro minority representation. They also want to modernize and secularize. 

Barcelona 1909

National conservatives are trying to modernize from the top down. They are resentful over not being able to get their kids good education -- the government won't support public schools for the poor. In addition the government is trying to conscript citizens to fight an imperial war in Morocco to protect big business mining interests.

There's a week of riots in Barcelona. They attack convents and private schools. The army responds, putting them down. The propertied elite are horrified at the desecration, and Barcelona becomes even more polarized.

Peking (Beijing?) 1911

The Qing empire is barely holding on. It increasingly cooperates with National Conservative elites who support the monarchy. The military has had enough and revolts, taking over without much violence.

A Chinese republic is created headed by Sun Yat-sen. Elections are held. 5-6% of the population is eligible to vote. This is the only free election ever held in the history of China! There are two dominant groups: liberals who want a republic and National Conservatives who support the creation of a constitutional monarchy. The dominant groups calls on Yuan Shikaia, the most dominant general in China. He assumes power and declares himself the new emperor of China.

Latin America 1910

Mexico is ruled by National Conservatives. Porfirio Diaz the dictator has been ruling for 40 years but he's ready for a change. The NCs control large estates, mines, sugar plantations, railroads, scientists who work on growing more cash crops. They work closely with foreign investors.

Liberal politicians like Madero revolt against Diaz. Madero is executed. Pancho Villa leads a revolution against landowners and the government. Emilio Zapata represents the campesinos, the small farmers who liked their way of life and didn't appreciate their small villages being turned to factory towns. He leads them in revolution. By the 1920s Villa and Zapata are dead. millions of Mexicans die. In the 1920s there's a balance between NC and socialists. But in the 30s there's a movement towards socialism.

What do these six situations have in common?
  • State of constant flux
  • Domestic issues are affected by modern influences
  • Increased power of the state

Video 8: The Big Picture

What did we cover this course?

  • Contrast between the traditional world and the modern world
  • 1760
    • Commercial revolution
    • Military revolution
    • Democratic revolution
    • These revolutions reinforce each other
  • 1800s
    • The emergence of great powers
    • The rise of nation-states
    • New kinds of political structures
    • Rise of industrial and scientific power
    • Global Europe -- Europe is involved everywhere
  • 1870s -1880s A transition period
  • 1880s - 1890s A great acceleration
    • Rise of modern capitalism
    • Rise of modern nation-states
  • 100 years of Great Struggle 
    • How should we organize these modern societies?

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