Industrial, Social, and Political Shifts in the 19th and 20th Centuries

Posted on Dec 10, 2024 in History

The Agrarian Revolution

  • Transition from subsistence to a market economy.
  • Improvements: mechanization, new crops and techniques (rotation, chemicals), private property, farms, etc.
  • Support for the development of other productive sectors.
  • Allows labor to feed the industrial city.

The Demographic Revolution

  • Tremendous growth in the European population in the 19th century (population explosion).
  • Caused by a huge decrease in mortality due to increased agricultural production and progress in medicine and hygiene (which reduced famine and contagion).
  • Allowed a huge increase in manpower demand necessary for work.

The Transportation Revolution

  • Transition from traditional transport to rapid mass transportation.
  • Driven by the need for raw materials and, crucially, commerce-adapted transport machinery and energy from the Industrial Revolution.
  • In addition to improving roads, it included:
    • The railroad, which became the engine of development.
    • Sea transport, aided by the opening of the Suez Canal (1869) and Panama (1914).
    • Subsequently, the development of the automobile and the airplane.
  • Also, notable advancements in communications: telegraph, telephone, radio.

Capitalism

Capitalism consolidated in the late 18th century from the ideas of economic liberalism on the freedom of productive factors.

  • It can be defined as an economic system characterized by private ownership of capital (= money, goods) and the means of production, as well as free enterprise and trade without interference from the State.
  • Core elements:
    • Goal: To obtain maximum personal benefit.
    • Capital: Without it, this system would not be possible. Hence the crucial importance of financial companies.
    • Market: Production is for selling. The larger the market, the greater the profits.
  • Two basic types of capitalism:
    • Industrial capitalism: Dedicated to the production of goods and services.
    • Finance capitalism: Dedicated to the generation of benefits that do not come directly from production (such as banking, credit societies, the stock market, etc.).
  • Main consequences:
    • Great development of wealth, despite the cyclical crises it generates.
    • Great social inequality between the owner and the working class, and between developed and undeveloped countries.
    • Colonial imperialism and resulting international tensions.

Socialism

Socialism is an ideology that sides with the lower classes, becoming available since the Industrial Revolution. It tries to defend their rights and organize them so they can leave the situation where they are.

  • The basis of this ideology:
    • Natural equality among people (inherited from the Enlightenment).
    • Collective ownership of the means of production, as the real way to eliminate social inequalities.
  • The first socialism was called Utopian Socialism, that is, ideal and impractical.
    • It advocates a peaceful solution to the problems of the workers, who achieve an end to exploitation and achieve equality.
    • It does not analyze the causes of the problem or identify the means to solve it.
  • It basically proposes:
    • Collective ownership, achieved through:
      • Cooperatives (Fourier).
      • Self-sufficient communities (Owen) – part of his reform experience: increased wages, reduced working hours, use of production incentives.
    • Federalism as a way of organizing society and economy (Proudhon).

Marxism

  • Main ideologist: Karl Marx. In his major works, Communist Manifesto (1848) and Capital (1876), he outlines the main points of his doctrine.
  • Ideas:
    • Historical materialism:
      • Throughout history, individuals and companies have moved exclusively by the pursuit of wealth.
      • This has led to social conflicts between those who continued to reach for wealth and those without.
    • Class struggle:
      • The working class must seek the destruction of the oppressive bourgeoisie to break free.
      • Revolution and struggle are the means to achieve it.

Anarchism

  • Proudhon begins this doctrine, calling private property theft, and Bakunin’s theories stand out.
  • Essentially, the ideological foundations are:
    • Exaltation of the individual and their liberty.
    • As a result, the elimination of all power, especially the State (then led by the bourgeoisie).
  • This idea underlies the use of violence to achieve it.
  • It also stresses the action of trade unions (as opposed to political parties).
  • The forms of action are similar to those proposed by early socialism:
    • Self-management of communes.
    • Federation of communes.

The Revolution of 1917

A history should be added as the immediate cause: the negative consequences of the Great War (defeats, financial difficulties, adverse effects on the population). All this makes it grow, rejecting the War.

Stages

February (Democratization)

  • Given the situation in Petrograd, protests and strikes occur.
  • The parliament (Duma) is closed upon applying for a new government.
  • Troops joined the strikers, and the government resigns.
  • In the vacuum of power, an interim government is created, supported by liberals and the Soviet.
  • Tsar Nicholas II abdicates (the night of March 2-3).
  • The government’s objective: to form a democratic regime (amnesty, individual and political freedoms) through a Constitution.
  • The decision to continue the war and postpone social problems led to an increase in the power of the Soviets, despite the new Menshevik government of Kerensky.

July (Radicalization)

  • Lenin returned from exile and outlined his ideas in the April Theses: immediate peace and government of the Soviets.
  • In July, the 1st Congress of Soviets explains its revolutionary program: end of the war, distribution of land, workers’ control of production and trade, nationalization of banks and large industry.
  • As a result, new disorders and an attempted coup by General Kornilov.
  • Resistance to the coup, led by the Soviets, increases their prestige among the population.

October (Imposing Marxist)

  • Lenin proposed a coup to take power (from his idea of power to the Soviets), and Trotsky was responsible for its organization.
  • On the evening of the 24th, they took control of Petrograd.
  • Power is given to the Second Congress of Soviets, which elects a new government of People’s Commissars with Lenin as chairman. A Marxist revolution had taken place.

Consequences in Europe

  • Immediate policy revolutions: 1917, 1918, 1919 in Germany.
  • Socioeconomic consequences: land reforms, labor reforms.
  • Political consequences: universal suffrage, a trend toward authoritarianism.
  • Creation of the Third International (1919):
    • Goal: extension of the communist revolution.
    • Largest division in the labor movement.
    • In 1935: creation of the Popular Fronts against fascism.
    • Dissolved by Stalin (1943) in cooperation with the Western allies.

The New Russia: The USSR

Lenin’s Stage

  • Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918).
  • Imposition of Marxism:
    • Political organization: Soviets > dictatorship of the proletariat > Council of Commissioners.
    • Economy: war communism.
  • The Civil War (1918-1921).
  • The NEP: a mixed economy.
  • Formation of the USSR (1922):
    • Control: Communist Party.
    • Parliament: Supreme Soviet.
    • Executive: Presidium.

The Stalin Era (1927-1953)

  • Foreign Policy:
    • Popular Fronts.
    • Restraint.
    • League of Nations.
    • With Allies in WWII.
  • Domestic Policy:
    • Suppression: purges.
    • Economic planning: Five-Year Plans, nationalized.

Totalitarianism: Fascism

Causes

  1. The crisis in democracy after the disappointment caused by the war.
  2. The widespread economic crisis: the Great Depression.
  3. The fear in European countries of a possible revolution, such as the events in Russia.
  4. Radical nationalism, exacerbated by the negative experiences of the war.

Ideology

Political

  • Antiliberal / Undemocratic:
    • The state is above individual rights (totalitarianism).
    • Worship of the leader, who represents the State and has all the power.
    • Single-party system.
    • Elimination of any political or trade union opposition.
    • No separation of powers.
  • Recourse to violence: ideas are imposed, not offered.
  • Imperialism: Nationalist drift toward dominance over others.

Social

  • Importance of the elite (the dominance of the best), which denies equality.
  • Indoctrination, particularly of youth.
  • Ideas of racism: one race/culture should be imposed on the rest.

Economic

  • Economy directed from the state.
  • Autarky: self-sufficiency.
  • Based on public works and the arms industry.

Methods of Action

  1. Paramilitary forces.
  2. Propaganda as a means of mobilizing the masses.
  3. State resources to serve the party that manages the entire life of the citizen (totalitarianism).

The Nazi Dictatorship

  • In 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor by the President and called for general elections.
  • During the election campaign, the burning of the parliament occurred, blamed on the Communist Party, and following this, great powers were granted to the police.
  • Concentration of all power in his person:
    • Disappearance of political parties except the Nazi Party (1933) and prohibition of trade unions.
    • Accumulation of the functions of chancellor and head of government after the death of Hindenburg (1934).
    • Appointed head of the army, which must swear loyalty to him.
  • Purges:
    • Opponents in the administration and in his own party (left wing) > Night of the Long Knives (1934).
    • Censorship of cultural and intellectual life.
  • Creation of instruments of repression:
    • First concentration camps (1933).
    • Gestapo (secret police) and SS (party police).
  • Persecution of the Jews, held responsible for the German situation:
    • Deprived of German citizenship.
    • Excluded from social life (economic, administrative, intellectual, etc.).
    • Night of Broken Glass (1938), a prelude to the Holocaust.
  • Economic recovery based on:
    • Large public works.
    • Armament industry.
    • The big winners were the banking industry and large corporations.
  • The expansion of Nazi nationalism led to the outbreak of World War II.