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Chapter 24
An Age of Modernity, Anxiety, and Imperialism, 1894 - 1914
Outline:
I.Toward the Modern Consciousness: Intellectual and Cultural Development
A. Developments in the Sciences: A New Physics
B. Toward a New Understanding of the Irrational: Nietzsche
C. Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis
D. The Impact of Darwin: Social Darwinism and Racism
E. The Culture of Modernity
1. Naturalism and Symbolism in Literature
2. Modernism in the Arts
II. Politics: New Directions and New Uncertainties
A. The Movements for Women's Rights
1. The New Woman
B. Jews in the European Nation-State
C. The Transformation of Liberalism: Great Britain
D. Growing Tension in Germany
E. Industrialization and Revolution in Imperial Russia
F. The Rise of the United States
G. The Growth of Canada
III. The New Imperialism
A. The Creation of Empires
1. The Scramble for Africa
2. Imperialism in Asia
B. Reponses to Imperialism
1. Africa
2. China
3. Japan
4. India
IV. International Rivalry and the Coming War
A. New Directions and New Crises
B. Crises in the Balkans, 1908-1913
V. Conclusion
Key terms and people:
- Issac Newton
- Albert Einstein
- Marie Curie
- Max Planck
- Atomic Age
- Sigmund Freud
- Repression
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Racism
- Modernism
- Emile Zola
- Impressionist
- Postimpressionism
- Cubism
- Pablo Picasso
- Florence Nightingale
- Women's Social and Political Union
- Progressive Era
- Federal Reserve System
- Imperialism
- Cecil Rhodes
- Captain James Cook
- Commodore Matthew Perry
- Imposed
- Inferior
- Meiji Restoratin
- Balkan War
- Social Darwinism
Chapter Summary:
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The period from 1894 to 1914 saw Europe expand its horizons, both with daring new intellectual and cultural developments
at home and with the creation of new empires abroad.
At home scientists worked on physical theories that in time surpassed
the old Newtonian worldview and ushered in a much more insecure and dangerous world. Sigmund Freud concluded that man’s
actions were directed by unconscious motivations. The teachings of Charles Darwin were applied to society and used to justify
racism and imperialism by saying that in the struggle of races and nations the fittest survive and make the world a better
place. Christianity did constant battle with forces that threatened it. Modern forms began to appear in literature, the arts,
and music, all of them rebellious against stale traditions, all of them exploring new ways for the future.
The old
empires in America and India had long either been lost or integrated into the European system when toward the end of the nineteenth
century the Western nations began a second round of modern empire building. In a quarter century, almost all of Africa was
carved up and portioned out to be colonies of European nations and Asia was divided into spheres of influence and trade. The
two old established Asian nations, China and Japan, remained independent; but they were also deeply affected and changed by
Western imperialism. China was opened to trade and to Western concessions, leading to a violent native rebellion and to a
revolution that toppled the Manchu Dynasty and established a Chinese republic. Japan opened up to the modern world to the
extent that it adopted Western military, educational, governmental, and financial ways, even to the extent of taking colonies
of its own in China and Korea.
Amid this ferment and expansion, the clouds of war gathered. The great nations of Europe,
competing with and fearing each other, formed defensive alliances and stockpiled weapons for a conflict that was made inevitable
by the certainty of combatants that it could not be avoided. |
Focus Questions:
- What developments in scienc, intellectual affairs, and the arts in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries "opened
the way to a modern consciousness," and how did this consciousness differ from earlier worldviews?
- What difficulties did women, Jews, and other working classes face in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, and how successful
were they in achieving thier goals?
- What were the causes of the newimperialism that arose afte 1880, and what effects did the European ques for colonies have
on Africa and Asia?
- What was the Bismarckian system of allainces, and how successful was it at keeping the peace?
- What issues lay behind the interntional crises that Europefaced in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries?
- What is the connection between the new imperialism of the late 19th Century and the underlying causes of WWI?
Chapter 25
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