Industrial Revolution to Early 20th Century: A Transformation
The Second Industrial Revolution
The New Momentum of Industrialization
Industry entered a new phase called the **Second Industrial Revolution**. The most notable changes were as follows:
- New Energy Sources: Electricity and oil were introduced.
- New Industrial Powers: The United States, Germany, and Japan emerged as major industrial powers.
- Shifting Industries: The textile industry ceded ground to the steel industry, and new industries such as chemical and electrical manufacturing rose.
- New Means of Transport: Cars, planes, and electric locomotives appeared, and telecommunications developed, thanks to the radio.
The Era of Science and Progress
Research was the base of progress. There were unprecedented scientific advancements:
- Biology: Darwin formulated the theory of evolution.
- Medicine: Pasteur and Koch pioneered microbiology, achieving spectacular advances in antisepsis and anesthesia.
- Physics: Progress was made in the field of electricity.
- Chemistry: The periodic table of elements was described, and synthetic products revolutionized the industry.
- Social Sciences: There was great progress in the social sciences, the development of the economy, and the emergence of sociology.
Capitalism
In 1873, a Great Depression began and lasted until 1898. There was a general decrease in prices and profits, which led to the emergence of unemployment. The changes brought about by the Second Industrial Revolution led to the appearance of large financial capitalism, characterized by these features:
- Business Concentration: The failure of small and medium enterprises led to the formation of large industrial and financial complexes with monopolistic tendencies, such as trusts (concentration of companies to avoid competition).
- New Ways of Organizing Work: The introduction of new ways of organizing work led to the reduction of production costs through mass production.
- Protectionism: Faced with free trade that had characterized the early stages of industrialization, the trend toward protectionism beat it.
Capitalism led to the emergence of a consumer society in which mass-produced products were available to the middle classes. Techniques to stimulate consumption, such as advertising or hire-purchase, appeared.
Society in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
An Urban Society
The Second Industrial Revolution resulted in a society characterized by the predominance of urban over rural life and its peculiar composition:
- The revolutionary bourgeoisie of the Romantic era had become a conservative class.
- The service sector grew at a faster rate than the industrial sector. The middle classes, linked to this sector, gained weight.
- The peasantry had declined at an accelerated rate, while the proletariat increased. By 1900, the working class made up almost half the British population.
The State began timidly to deal with the welfare of the population. The first compulsory education laws were developed, and initiatives to implement health insurance and old-age pension systems arose.
The First International
Founded in London in 1864, the International Workingmen’s Association soon revealed two conflicting trends at its core:
- Marxists: Believed in the inevitable victory of the proletariat in its struggle against the bourgeoisie.
- Anarchists: Wanted to abolish all authority and rejected political struggle.
In 1872, the anarchists left the International, which would dissolve shortly thereafter.
The Second International
In 1889, the Second International was founded. It gave birth to a social-democratic tendency (*a trend that considered that the transformation of society could be achieved through reforms via the political action of the working class) that predominated in German socialism, the most powerful in Europe. The main reason was the dispute between supporters of the internationalist character of the working class and those who sought a compromise with nationalism. One of the basic objectives of the International was to unite the working class.
Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
Impressionism
The first Impressionist exhibition was held in Paris, and there was much fuss about the originality of the Impressionists’ proposals. The style was influenced by scientific and technical advances in the field of optics and photography and inspired by the discovery of arts hitherto unknown in Europe. The salient features of this movement are:
- Light: Light becomes the protagonist of the picture; outlines are blurred.
- Brushwork: The brushwork is looser and more complex. Artists tend not to use composite colors but spots of pure or complementary colors.
- Outdoor Painting: Artists left their studios to paint outdoors.
- Movement: Interest in movement is manifested through original frames.
Manet was the forerunner of the school and served as a bridge to Realism. Among the Impressionists, Monet and Pissarro stand out. In sculpture, there was a break with tradition; a good example is Rodin. Their surfaces appear unfinished; in bronze, they conveyed a huge dramatic contrast to the coolness of polished marble statues of academic art.
Post-Impressionism
The next generation of painters broke with tradition to its ultimate consequences, opening the way to the twentieth-century avant-garde movements. The “Post-Impressionists” tag includes a group of highly original artists:
- Paul Gauguin: With a passion for folk art and the exotic cultures of Africa and Polynesia, he introduced flat, vibrant, and processed colors into his paintings.
- Vincent van Gogh: Objects change their forms depending on the author’s subjective emotion.
- Toulouse-Lautrec: He was a precursor of Expressionism for his concern with form and movement.
- Paul Cézanne: His study of shapes and volumes portends the Cubist revolution.
Chicago School and Modernism
At the turn of the century, architecture developed very different currents: eclecticism and historicism.
- The Chicago School: Developed a utilitarian architecture to maximize the advantages offered by new materials. The high price of land in the inner city led to the construction of the first skyscrapers.
- Engineering: Achieved great success in building with wrought iron. The most important example is the Eiffel Tower.
- Art Nouveau: At the end of the century, a decorative style swept through Europe, dominated by plant motifs and wavy lines. Gaudí’s work stands out in this style.