Mass Society and Democracy Part 3

Mass Society and Democracy

The National State and Democracy

Western Europe and Political Democracy
• By the late nineteenth century, especially in Western Europe, there were many

signs that political democracy was expanding.

• First, universal male suffrage laws were passed.
• Second, the prime minister was responsible to the popularly elected legislative body, not to

the king or president.
•This principle is called ministerial responsibility, which is crucial for democracy.

• Third, mass political parties formed.

•As for men, and later women, could vote, parties created larger organizations and found ways to
appeal to many who were now part of the political process.

• Great Britain

• Before 1871, Great Britain has a working two-party parliamentary system.

• These two parties-the Liberals and Conservatives-competed to pass laws that

expanded the right to vote.
• Reform acts in 1867 and 1884 increased the number of adult male voters.

• With political democracy established, social reforms for the working class soon

followed.

• The working class in Great Britain supported the Liberal Party.

• Two developments made Liberals fear losing the support.

•First, the trade unions grew, and they favored a more radical change of the economic system.

•Second, in 1900, the Labour Party emerged and dedicated itself to the interests of workers.
• To retain the workers’ support, the Liberals voted for social reforms, such as, unemployment

benefits and old age pensions.

Multiple Select

What were the THREE examples that political democracy was expanding in Western Europe

• Universal Male Suffrage

• Prime Minister Had A Great Role

• Mass Political Parties Formed

• Religious Freedom

Multiple Select

What TWO social reforms did the Liberals vote on to retain worker support?

• Shorter Hours

• Unemployment Benefits

• Old Age Pensions

• Better Conditions

Western Europe and Political Democracy

• France

• In France, the collapse of Louis-Napoleon’s Second Empire left the country in

confusion.

• Finally, in 1875, the Third Republic gained a republican constitution.

• The new government had a president and a legislature made up of two houses.

•The upper house, or Senate, was conservative and elected by high-ranking officials.
• All adult males voted the members of the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies.

• A premier(or prime minister), who led the government, was responsible to the Chamber of

Deputies, not the president.

• France failed to develop a strong parliamentary system.

• The existence of a dozen political parties forced the premier to depend on a coalition

of parties to stay in power.
• Nevertheless, by 1914, the Third Republic had the loyalty of most voters.

• Italy

• Italy emerged by 1870 as a united national state.

• However, there was little national unity because of the great gulf between the

poverty-stricken south and the industrialized north.
• Constant turmoil between labor and industry weakened the social fabric of the nation.

•Even universal male suffrage, granted in 1912, did little to halt the widespread government
corruption and weakness.

Multiple Choice

Which country emerged as a universal national state in 1870?

• Germany

• France

• Italy

• Great Britain

Central and Eastern Europe: The Old Order
• Central and eastern Europe had more conservative governments than did

Western Europe.

• Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Russia were less industrialized, and

education, was not widely available.
• It was easier, then, for the old ruling groups to continue to dominate politics.

• Germany

• The constitution of the new imperial Germany that Otto von Bismarck began in

1871 set up a two-house legislature.

• The lower house, the Reichstag, was elected on the basis of universal male suffrage.

• Ministers of government, however, were responsible not to the parliament, but

to the emperor, who controlled the armed forces, foreign policy, and the
bureaucracy.

• As chancellor(prime minister), Bismarck worked to keep Germany from becoming a

democracy.

• By the reign of William II, emperor from 1888 to 1918, Germany had become

the strongest military and industrial power in Europe.

• With the expansion of industry and cities came demands for democracy.

Multiple Choice

What is the name of the lower house in the German government?

• Grandia

• Reichstag

• Holvvert

• Calaway

Central and Eastern Europe: The Old Order

• Germany Cont.

• Conservative forces-especially the landowning nobility and big industrialists-

tried to thwart the movement for democracy by supporting a strong foreign
policy.

• They believed that expansion abroad would increase their profits and would also

divert people from pursuing democratic reforms.

• Austro-Hungarian Empire

• After the creation of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867, Austria

enacted a constitution that, in theory, set up a parliamentary system with
ministerial responsibility.

• In reality, the emperor, Francis Joseph, largely ignored this system.

• He appointed and dismissed his own ministers and issued decrees, or laws, when the

parliament was not in session.

• The empire remained troubled by conflicts among its ethnic groups.

• A German minority governed Austria but felt increasingly threatened by Czechs,

Poles, and other Slavic groups within the empire.
• Representatives of these groups in the parliament agitated for their freedom, which

encouraged the emperor to ignore the parliament and govern by imperial decrees.

Multiple Select

What were the THREE ethnic groups that threatened Austria?

• Hungarian

• Poles

• Czechs

• Slavic

Central and Eastern Europe: The Old Order

• Austro-Hungarian Empire Cont.

• Unlike Austria, Hungary has a parliament that worked.

• It was controlled by landowners who dominated the peasants and ethnic groups.

• Russia

• In Russia, Nicholas II began his rule in 1894 believing that the absolute power of

the czars should be preserved.

• “I shall maintain the principle of autocracy just as firmly and unflinchingly as did my

unforgettable father.”
• Conditions were changing, however.

• By 1900, Russia has become the fourth largest producer of steel.

• With industrialization came factories, an industrial working class, and pitiful working

and living conditions.
• Socialist parties developed, including the Marxist Social Democratic Party, but government

repression forced them underground.

Multiple Select

What THREE things came with industrialization in Russia?

• Factories

• New Businesses

• Industrial Working Class

• Poor Working/Living Conditions

Central and Eastern Europe: The Old Order

• Russia Cont.

• Growing discontent and opposition to the czarist regime finally exploded.

• On January 22, 1905, a massive procession of workers went to the Winter Palace in

St. Petersburg to present a petition of grievances to the czar.
• Troops opened fire on the peaceful demonstration, killing hundreds.

•This “Bloody Sunday” caused workers throughout Russia to call strikes.

• Nicholas II was eventually forced to grant civil liberties and to create a

legislative assembly, called the Duma.

• By 1907, however, the czar had already curtailed the power of the Duma and again

used the army and bureaucracy to rule Russia.

Multiple Choice

What is the name of the protest in Russia where troops opened fire on the protestors?

• Moscow Massacre

• St. Petersburg Slaughter

• Bloody Sunday

• Treacherous Tuesday

The United States
• Civil War had not destroyed the national unity of the United States.

• Between 1870 and 1914, the country became an industrial power with an empire.

• Aftermath of the Civil War

• Four years of bloody civil war had preserved the American nation.

• However, the old South had been destroyed.

• In 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed, abolishing

slavery.

• Later, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments gave citizenship to African

American males.
• New state laws in the South, however, soon stripped African Americans of the right to vote.

•By 1880, supporters of white supremacy were back in power everywhere in the South.

• Economy

• Between 1860 and 1914, the United States shifted from a farm-based economy

to an industrial economy.

• American steel and iron production was the best in the world in 1900.

• Carnegie Steel Company alone produced more steel than all of Great Britain.

•As in Europe, industrialization in the United States led to urbanization.
• By 1900, the United States had three cities with populations over 1 million, with New York

reaching 4 million.

Multiple Choice

Which Amendment abolished slavery in the United States?

• 12th Amendment

• 13th Amendment

• 14th Amendment

• 15th Amendment

The United States

• Economy Cont.

• In 1900, the United States was the world’s richest nation, but the richest 9

percent of Americans owned 71 percent of the wealth.

• Many workers labored in unsafe factories, and devastating cycles of unemployment

made them insecure.
• Many tried to organize unions, but the American Federation of Labor represented only 8.4

percent of the labor force.

• Expansion Abroad

• In the late 1800s, the United States began to expand abroad.

• The Samoan Islands in the Pacific were the first important U.S. colony.

• By 1887, Americans controlled the sugar industry on the Hawaiian Islands.

• As more Americans settled in Hawaii, they wanted political power.

• When Queen Liliuokalani tried to strengthen the monarchy to keep the islands under

her people’s control, the United States sent military forces to the islands.
• The queen was deposed and the United States annexed Hawaii in 1898.

• In 1898, the United States defeated Spain in the Spanish-American War.

• As a result, the United States acquired the former Spanish possessions of Puerto

Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.
• By the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States, the world’s richest nation,

had an empire.

Open Ended

What is your opinion on how the United States annexed Hawaii?

International Rivalries

• Otto von Bismarck realized that Germany’s emergence in 1871 as the more

powerful state in continental Europe had upset the balance of power
established at Vienna in 1815.

• Fearing that France intended to create an anti-German alliance, Bismarck made a

defensive alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1879.
• In 1882, Italy joined this alliance.

• This Triple Alliance thus united the powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and

Italy in a defensive alliance against France.

• At the same time, Bismarck maintained a separate treaty with Russia and tried to

remain on good terms with Great Britain.

• New Directions: William II

• In 1890, Emperor William II fired Bismarck and took control of Germany’s

foreign policy.

• The emperor embarked on an activist policy dedicated to enhancing German power.

• He wanted, as he put it, to find Germany’s rightful “place in the sun.”

Multiple Select

Which THREE countries made up the Triple Alliance?

• Germany

• Austria-Hungary

• Italy

• Russia

International Rivalries

• New Directions: William II Cont.

• One of the changes William made in foreign policy was to drop the treaty with

Russia.

• Almost immediately, in 1894, France formed an alliance with Russia.

• Germany thus had a hostile power on her western border and on her eastern border-

exactly the situation Bismarck had feared.

• Over the decade, German policies abroad caused the British to draw closer to

France.

• By 1907, an alliance of Great Britain, France, and Russia-the Triple Entente-stood

opposed to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy.

• Europe was not dangerously divided into two opposing camps that became

more and more unwilling to compromise.

• A series of crises in the Balkans between 1908 and 1913 set the stage for World War I.

• Crises in the Balkans

• During the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire that had once been strong

enough to threaten Europe began to fall apart.

• Most of the Balkanprovinces were able to gain their freedom.

Multiple Select

Which THREE countries made up the Triple Entente?

• Spain

• Great Britain

• France

• Russia

International Rivalries

• Crises in the Balkans Cont.

• As this was happening, however, two Great Powers saw their chance to gain

influence in the Balkans: Austria and Russia.

• Their rivalry over the Balkans was one of the causes of World War I.

• By 1878, Greece, Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro had become independent.

• Bulgaria did not become totally independent but was allowed to operate

autonomously under Russian protection.
• The Balkan territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina were placed under the protection of

Austria-Hungary.

• In 1908, Austria-Hungary took the drastic step of annexing Bosnia and

Herzegovina.

• This step led to a controversy with international complications that threatened to

end in a general European war.
• This controversy was known as the Bosnian Crisis.

• Serbia was outraged.

• The annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, two Slavic-speaking territories, dashed

the Serbians’ hopes of creating a large Serbian kingdom that would include most of
the southern Slavs.

Multiple Choice

The rivalry over what area was one of the causes for World War I?

• Austria

• Spain

• Netherlands

• Balkans

International Rivalries

• Crises in the Balkans Cont.

• The Russians, self-appointed protectors of their fellow Slavs, supported the

Serbs and opposed the annexation.

• Backed by the Russians, the Serbs prepared for war against Austria-Hungary.

• At this point, Emperor William II of Germany demanded that the Russians accept Austria-

Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina of face war with Germany.

• Weakened from their defeat in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the Russians

backed down but vowed revenge.

• Two wars between Balkan states in 1912 and 1913 further embittered the

inhabitants and created more tensions among the great powers.

• The Serbs blamed their inability to create a large Serbian kingdom on Austria-

Hungary.

• At the same time, Austria-Hungary was convinced that Serbia and Serbian

nationalism were mortal threats to its empire and must be crushed at some point.

• As Serbia’s chief supporters, the Russians were angry and determined not to

back down again in the event of another confrontation with Austria-Hungary or
Germany in the Balkans.

• Finally, the allies of Austria-Hungary and Russia were determined to support their

respective allies more strongly in another crisis.
• By the beginning of 1914, these countries viewed each other with suspicion.

•It would not take much to ignite the Balkan “powder keg”.

Multiple Choice

Who did the Russians back in the war against Austria-Hungary?

• Slavs

• Serbs

• Spanish

• Basque