The Nineteenth Century.
Throughout the century, conservative kings and their aristocratic advisors
remained in power in most European states. But the 19th century was also a
century of progress, peace, and tremendous social change. The Industrial
Revolution which had begun in England during the second half of the 18th
century, spread to the Netherlands and France; from there to Germany, Northern
Italy, the United States, and Japan. By the end of the century, it was beginning to
have an impact on Russia. The substitution of machine labor for human and
animal labor constituted the most important social change, in my opinion, since
the Neolithic or Agricultural Revolution some 10,000 years ago. The Industrial
Revolution has undergone a number of stages or phases and is still evolving.
The first phase was from about 1750 to 1850. Coal and the steam engine were
were the dominant driving forces of this phase. During the second phase, steel,
oil, turbines, electricity, and internal combustion engines replaced the simpler
technologies. Wooden sailboats were replaced by diesel powered steel ocean
liners and battleships.
Between 1815 and 1914, no major world war disrupted the general progress of
economic development. There were many minor wars of which the more
significant ones were those connected with the unification of Italy in 1861 under
the leadership of Piedmont-Sardinia and Germany under Prussia in 1871.
After 1870, there was a second wave of European colonization which led to the
subjugation of almost all of Africa to the European powers. By 1914 almost all the
world was under European domination either directly as colonies or indirectly as
colonial offshoots which had been founded by Europeans and gained their
independence from their mother country like the United States and the South
American republics. Chinese, Japanese, and the Ottoman Empires, while
remaining independent, were under tremendous pressure to modernize or be
subjected to European domination. Japan was the only non-Western state which,
by the end of the century, had become industrialized.
Within the European states, industrialization was producing new social classes:
the industrial bourgeoisie and the industrial proletariat. The forces of democracy,
initiated by the American and French Revolutions, continued to demand an end
to aristocratic rule. Class conflict and mass ideologies were prominent features of
the 19th century. Nonetheless, the traditional monarchies and their landed
aristocratic allies continued to rule in most countries of Europe at the end of the
century. But everywhere, the bourgeoisie was gaining economic strength and
demanding its share of political power. Unsuccessful revolutions had broken out
repeatedly throughout the century. Monarchs and aristocrats were being forced
slowly to make accommodations not only to the bourgeoisie but also to the rising
working class. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom symbolized a prissy, smug
kind of conventional morality. Working class poverty existed side by side with
great wealth. The ideas of Charles Darwin on human evolution challenged the
Christian sensibilities of Biblical infallibility. These domestic tensions and a
growing sense of nationalism helped to bring about World War I.
LIBERIALISM
Classical liberalism (also known as traditional liberalism[1] and laissez-faire
liberalism[2], or, in much of the world, simply called liberalism) is a doctrine stressing
individual freedom. This includes the importance of human rationality, individual
property rights, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, constitutional limitations of
government, free markets, and individual freedom from restraint as exemplified in the
writings of Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill[3], Montesquieu, Voltaire[4], Thomas Paine and
others. As such, it is seen as the fusion of economic liberalism with political liberalism.[2]
The "normative core" of classical liberalism is the idea that laissez-faire economics will
bring about a spontaneous order or invisible hand that benefits the society,[5] though it
does not necessarily oppose the state's provision of a few basic public goods.[6] The
qualification classical was applied in retrospect to distinguish early nineteenth-century
liberalism from evolutions in liberal thought during the 19th and early 20th centuries,
especially the "new liberalism" associated with Thomas Hill Green, Leonard Trelawny
Hobhouse,[7] and Franklin D. Roosevelt,[8] which grants the state a more interventionist
role in the economy, including a welfare state. Classical liberalism is not to be confused
with the ideology that is commonly called "liberalism" today in the United States, as
"classical liberalism" is actually closer to being a tendency of "conservatism" in the U.S.,
albeit only in economic matters.[9]
Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman are credited with a revival of
classical liberalism in the 20th century after it fell out of favor beginning in the late
nineteenth century and much of the twentieth century.[10][11] In relation to economic
issues, this revival is sometimes referred to as neoliberalism, although it must be said that
many prominent neoliberals, like Alexander Rüstow and Wilhelm Röpke have tried to
distance themselves from laissez-faire liberals.[12][13]
Libertarians of a minarchist persuasion use the term "classical liberalism" almost
interchangeably with the term "libertarianism",[14] while the correctness of this usage is
disputed (see "Classical liberalism" and libertarianism, below). Nevertheless, if the two
philosophies are not the same, classical liberalism does resemble modern libertarianism
in many ways.[15]
IMPERIALISM
The last of the "isms" springing from the revolutions of the late 18th and 19th centuries
was imperialism. Imperialism grew out of the Industrial Revolution and its effect on the
economies of the European states and the United States. It was intensified by the surge of
nationalism during the 19th century which made states rivals for power and prestige. It
was also influenced in some ways that are more elusive by the Darwinian Revolution.
Social Darwinists, as we saw in the last session, saw imperialism as the natural struggle
among nation states for survival, a struggle in which an empire gave a state a competitive
edge over its rivals.
What is imperialism? In broad terms, it means the conquest, exploitation, or
extermination of one people by another. In the period we are talking about in this session,
1870-1914, it means the domination by the countries of Europe and the United States of
the undeveloped areas of Africa and Asia. The industrialized countries of Europe and the
United States possessed what Asia and Africa did not: industry, military power and
national discipline. The control exerted by the imperial powers over Asia and Africa
varied from commercial control to outright political domination. But imperialism was not
new to the 19th century. So we need to look first at an earlier form of imperialism. Then
we will examine the imperialism of 1870-1914 and the reasons why it occurred. Finally,
we will summarize the way imperial powers took control of Asia and Africa.