Choose from the questions below for your second required essay. What nation was
ID: 107136 • Letter: C
Question
Choose from the questions below for your second required essay. What nation was the first to industrialize? What factors account for it being the first? What is the impact of industrialization on wealth production, wealth distribution, social class structure, urbanization, population growth, and other social factors? Justify your answers with examples from the history of industrialization in the 1800's. How did the French and the British build their world empires in the 1800's? Why were these nations able to conquer and dominate their vast and far-flung colonies? What was Marxist socialism's impact on the world in the 1800's? What was Marxist socialism's impact on the world in the 1900's? Discuss the impact of Darwin, Nietzsche, and Freud on modern Western culture. Describe the impact of American culture and social trends throughout the world since the early 1900's. Why did American culture become so influential?Explanation / Answer
2. Industrialization increased material wealth, restructured society, and created important new schools of philosophy. The social impact of industrialization was profound. For the first time since the Neolithic Revolution, people worked outside of the local environment of their homes. They arose every morning and traveled to their place of employment. This was most often in a workplace known as a factory. The new machinery of the Industrial Revolution was very large and sometimes required acres of floor space to hold the number of machines needed to keep up with consumer demand. As in all productive revolutions, skill greatly determined the quality of life. The most important aspect of this new economic order was the fact that the skills needed to succeed were in many ways different from those that had been needed in the earlier economy. Artisans had the easiest time transitioning to the new economic paradigm. The fact that they had highly developed manual skills enabled them to adapt to the new machinery much easier than their agricultural counterparts. This was also the case when it came to dealing with the new, enclosed work environment and strict schedules. The worker from the countryside had over the centuries constructed a cycle of labor that followed the seasons. There were times, especially during planting and harvesting, when he was expected to put in long hours, usually from sunrise to sunset. The term "harvest moon," which today is looked upon as a quaint metaphor for autumn celebrations, was in preindustrial Europe a much-needed astronomical occurrence that allowed the farmer extra time to harvest his crops. In turn, the long winter months were a relatively easy time. The lack of electricity and central heating kept most people in bed ten to twelve hours a day, affording them relief from the busy periods of planting and harvesting.
The industrial economy had a new set of rules and time schedules for the common laborer. The work environment not only moved indoors, but the pace of the work changed drastically. Instead of driving a horse that pulled a plow or wagon, the machines drove the worker. The seasons of the year were no longer relevant to the time spent at work. Adult males were now expected to labor twelve to fourteen hours a day, five-and-a-half days a week, all year long. This was a very hard transition to make. A great many people who had once been considered highly productive agricultural workers were unable to hold jobs because of their inability to adjust to this new regime
In many ways, women suffered more than men. In both the urban artisan economy and the rural agricultural world, women were traditionally regarded as playing an equally important role as men. They were full partners in the family's quest for economic success. Their status changed substantially as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Their labor became a commodity to be exploited. They were as a rule given the lowest-skilled, lowest-paying jobs. They were regularly bullied by both their bosses and their husbands. In many ways, their labor and responsibilities doubled. They were not only responsible for their jobs in industry, but they were also expected to continue their traditional roles at home. They labored for ten hours in the factory and continued for untold hours once they arrived home. It must be remembered that by law men still controlled their families. Women had no political, social, or economic rights outside the home. They were forbidden to vote or own property. The "rule of thumb" was still supported by most courts in the Western world. This "rule of thumb" referred to the fact that a man could beat his wife with a stick, as long as it was not larger than the width of his thumb. Women did make some strides in their ability to choose a marriage partner; traditionally, marriages had been arranged for the most part to establish economic connections between families. When young women moved to the cities to work in the factories, they most often chose a marriage partner from among the young men they came into contact with at their boarding houses or place of employment.
Child labor also changed as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Children were expected to help the family in the traditional economy, but usually, they had been assigned tasks that were commensurate with their age. Not unlike their mothers, young children began to be exploited by their bosses. The most dangerous assignment for children in the factories was unjamming the great textile machines that wove cloth. Since their hands and arms were so small, they could reach into small spaces where the fabric tended to jam. The foreman would not turn the machine off but would insist the child reach in to dislodge the jam. If he were not quick enough, his hand or arm would become caught in the mechanism, and this could result in severe damage to the child. All laborers, male, female, and children, were eventually looked upon as interchangeable parts. As technology increased and machines became more sophisticated, the employer began to value machinery more than his workforce. This would remain the case until the early 1830s when legislation was passed to protect the workers.
The Industrial Revolution also accelerated the growth of the urban population. One of the more important consequences of urbanization was a rapid increase in crime. This was the result of three factors that dominated the urban landscape. The first two were poverty and unemployment. There was no job security or social security for the factory worker. If someone was injured on the job or laid off, he had little chance to replace his lost income. The few charitable organizations that were available were so over-taxed their aid never matched their good intentions. Overcrowding was the third important source of crime. Industrialization drew thousands of people to the urban areas in search of employment. Cities such as Manchester, England, were completely unprepared for the great influx of workers. This overcrowding fueled social dysfunction that resulted in a rapid increase in crimes against property and people.
One major attempt to deal with these problems was the creation of a professional, full-time police force whose members were trained in the latest techniques of crime prevention. Secondly, there was a vigorous attempt to reform the prison system. It was accepted among most intellectuals of the time that prisons should not be solely places of punishment. There was a widespread acknowledgment of the belief that, through proper training and guidance, criminals could be reformed. Education would allow prisoners to find a productive place in the new urban industrial society.
The Industrial Revolution also accelerated change in the area of political and economic thought. The dominant economic model of the early industrial period was mercantilism, a command economy based on the belief that there are a finite number of resources in the world. The primary economic goal of each nation was to control as many of these resources as possible. Its trade policies were a form of eighteenth-century protectionism. Great Britain not only forbade its colonies to develop any domestic industry, but the government also controlled colonial trade. Everything was done for the betterment of the "mother country."
The Industrial Revolution increased the material wealth of humanity, especially among the nations of the West. It increased longevity and accelerated the growth of the middle class. It helped to create the modern world view that through the proper use of science and technology, a more fruitful quality of life could be achieved.
3. Fluid though the situation often is, various coastal regions of northwest Africa gradually become a particular sphere of interest of one nation or another. And by the 18th century, the main rivals are France and Britain, the two greatest colonial powers of the time.
The Senegal river becomes associated with the French, who build their first trading station on its estuary in 1638. Further along the coast, a 17th-century settlement at Ouidah begins a lasting French presence in Dahomey. Beyond this again, the Niger becomes of particular interest to the British - as evidenced in the late 18th century by the explorations of Mungo Park.
It is the 19th century which brings a consolidation of French and British interests in West Africa, and the reason is no longer slavery. It is the very opposite, the campaign to end slavery. The first early step in this direction is the British establishment of Freetown in Sierra Leone as a settlement for freed slaves. Subsequently the French adopt a similar scheme, and the same name, in founding Libreville on the estuary of the Gabon River in the 1840s.
Meanwhile, British merchants have been pressing inland from the Gold Coast (modern Ghana) and up the Niger river in search of economic ventures to replace the slave trade. The result, in both regions, is increasing British involvement at an official level - to protect the legitimate traders and to discourage the clandestine activities of the slavers.These various semi-accidental events create the final placing of the French and British pieces in the African board game. When the scramble begins (after the great explorations of Livingstone, Stanley, and others), each nation presses inland from its own sections of the coast to stake out its colonial claims.The French rivalry with Britain in West Africa intensifies from the 1880s. One element is the race to secure territories along the coast. To this end, France declares a protectorate in 1882 over part of Dahomey, by agreement with the local ruler (the rest of the territory is added by a military campaign in 1892-4).
Similarly, one of the African kings in Guinea is persuaded to accept French protection in 1881. His neighbors take rather longer to appreciate the advantages on offer. Not till 1918 does France fully subdue the whole of what becomes French Guinea. In the Ivory Coast French traders and military expeditions press north in tandem during the 1880s. By 1893 France is well enough placed to claim the area as a colony. Borders are agreed with other European powers in 1898. But again it is not until after World War I that the colony is fully secure from internal resistance.While these piecemeal annexations are continuing, a far greater race is taking place inland. With France already well established on the Senegal river, and Britain trading far up the Niger from the coast, there is intense competition as to which power will control the upper waters of the Niger - flowing in a great curve from near the source of the Senegal. This is a race in which the French make dramatic progress. As early as 1855 they establish a fort far up the Senegal River at Médine. By now a valuable crop of peanuts is already traveling down the Niger each year to Saint Louis (soon to be linked by rail, in 1885, to a deep-water harbor at Dakar).In the early 1880s, a combination of military force and local treaties brings the French sphere of influence steadily further inland until in 1883 the town of Bamako is captured to give France a presence on the Niger. Timbuktu is reached in 1894. By the end of the century, the southern Sahara is patrolled by a French camel corps. Mali, known at the time as French Sudan, now links up with French Algeria to the north.Meanwhile, the area to the south of Mali, below the great curve of the Niger River, has also become a French protectorate in successive stages between 1895 and 1897. Its southern border with the Gold Coast is agreed with Britain in 1898. It is subsequently known as Upper Volta.By this time all these French colonies are grouped together (since 1895) as French West Africa, a vast but unbroken territory administered by a single governor general with his headquarters in Dakar. To the six colonies already constituting French West Africa in the late 1890s - Senegal, French Sudan, Upper Volta, French Guinea, Ivory Coast and Dahomey - two more will soon be added.
During the first two decades of the new century French armies bring under control Mauritania (extending north to link with Morocco) and Niger (carrying the French writ further east to a point half way across the continent). This is an extraordinary swathe of land, stretching unbroken from the Mediterranean to the Bight of Benin and assembled in just two decades. It is about to be extended even further, to the Congo, with the addition of French Equatorial Africa.
When the scramble for Africa begins, in the mid-1880s, France is well placed to extend her influence inland between the Gabon and the Congo. There has been a French fort on the estuary of the Gabon since 1843. A settlement for freed slaves is established nearby in 1849 and is given the name Libreville. In 1880 Brazza acquires a valuable French foothold on the north bank of the Congo, at the place which becomes Brazzaville.
Between 1885 and 1891 French troops and political agents, operating from these bases, secure for France the regions now known as Gabon and the Republic of Congo. From here French pressure eastwards continues as part of a grand plan. Just as some British imperialists dream of an unbroken stretch of colonies from the Cape to Cairo, so the French see a distinct appeal in an African empire linking the Atlantic with the Red Sea.
In the 1890s this French vision seems far from impossible. A vigorous push up the Ubangi River (making this the continuation of the border between French territory to the north and the Belgian Congo to the south) brings the French by 1896 as far east as the Bahr el Ghazal. Between here and the Red Sea there remains only the Sudan, an area at the moment in turmoil and surely ripe for imperial control. A small French contingent reaches Fashoda in 1898.
Unfortunately, the Sudan is also a crucial piece of the jigsaw in Britain's grand strategy. If it can be brought back under control (after the disaster at Khartoum in 1885), Egypt will be linked with Uganda. The northern half of the Cairo to Cape blueprint will be in place.
French and British forces meet at Fashoda in 1898 in one of the tensest and dangerous confrontations between the imperial powers competing for Africa. In the event the French back off (see the Fashoda Incident). As almost everywhere else in the continent, the issue is resolved diplomatically. The Sudan becomes British. The French divert their attention to the northwest, where there remains a huge unclaimed area between the Sudan and the French colony of Niger. Almost continuous warfare over the following years brings gradual French control west to Lake Chad and north to the Sahara. Meanwhile, the French hold is consolidated over the forested regions south to the Ubangi river. This vast area is administered as one colony, called Ubangi-Shari-Chad. From 1910 it is grouped with Gabon and Middle Congo (previously known as French Congo) in the new French Equatorial Africa, with its capital at Brazzaville.In 1920 Chad is separated from Ubangi-Shari to become the fourth colony within French Equatorial Africa.
In 1827 the French consul in Algiers has an audience with the dey, the Turkish governor of the province. The subject under discussion is the bill for a consignment of wheat, payment for which is now overdue by some thirty years. An invoice was first submitted to the French government by two Algerian citizens in the 1790s. The dey threatens to withdraw certain French concessions in Algeria. The consul becomes heated in response, whereupon the dey flicks him with his fly whisk.Charles X, the French king, takes this as an insult to French national pride and orders a naval blockade of the Algerian coast. When this has little effect, a military expedition is prepared.
A French army, landing in June 1830, easily overpowers the forces of the dey. But this success brings France only a small region round Algiers, for the dey himself has long lost control of his subordinates in the provinces.
The city of Constantine, in the east, holds out against the French for seven years. Meanwhile, the invading force is also under threat in the west from the powerful emir of Mascara, Abd-el-Kader. In 1839 Abd-el-Kader proclaims a jihad, or holy war, against the Christian intruders. Not until 1847 does he finally surrender. He is promised a safe conduct to a Muslim country. Instead, he spends the next five years in French jails.
With Algeria now under a reasonable degree of control (though outbreaks of rebellion continue until the 1880s), the French government sets in place the process of colonization. European settlement is actively encouraged. By the 1880s the European population of Algeria is more than 350,000. Half a century later this figure has doubled.
In the same period, from 1830 to the mid-20th century, the Muslim population also increases greatly, from 3 million to about 9 million. As in any such situation, the settlers ensure that economic and political power is exclusively theirs. And as elsewhere, the underprivileged majority begins to make itself heard during the 20th century.
The early leaders of Algerian nationalism see a solution in integration rather than separation. Muslim Algerians, they argue, should enjoy equal status with the settlers as French citizens. Ferhat Abbas (a future president of an independent Algerian parliament) writes in 1931: 'Algeria is French soil and we are French Muslims.'
In 1936 the French socialist government of Léon Blum sees the force of this argument. The so-called Blum-Violette plan proposes that 21,000 Muslims should immediately have the vote on the same terms as European settlers. But this provokes an outcry from the settlers in Algeria. The proposal is dropped. The problems of the future, though postponed by World War II, are prefigured in this clash.
Tunisia as a French Protectorate: 1881-1934
French control over Tunisia, achieved in 1881, brings to an end several decades of diplomatic jockeying between three Colonials powers, France, Britain, and Italy. All three are officially involved in the region from 1869.
The local dynasty of beys (technically subordinate to the Turkish Sultan but in practice independent) has in recent decades spent lavishly to modernize their country, using funds borrowed in Europe. The program, accompanied by necessary attempts to increase taxes, creates profound local resentment. By 1869 it is clear that the province is bankrupt. France, Britain, and Italy are placed jointly, by international agreement, in control of Tunisian finances.
This arrangement is inevitably a platform on which three rival colonial powers jockey and trade for a position. France and Britain stand together in 1871 when the Italians begin to press vigorous claims justified in the sense that Italy has more investment and more nationals settled in Tunisia than either another contender.
By 1878 France and Britain come to a quiet agreement that the British will allow Tunisia to be a French sphere of influence in return for French acceptance of the recently established British presence in Cyprus. This still leaves the Italians as the chief claimants for a colonial presence in Tunisia, until the French make a pre-emptive strike in 1881.