Labor Movements, Suffrage, and Artistic Trends in the 19th and 20th Centuries
U4 Labor
Workers were learning to distinguish between machinery and its employment, and to withdraw their attacks from the machinery itself. Union laws were broken because associations and the Combination Acts limited rights. The low cultural level and need provoked violent ideas and riots. The stimulus served to first unions to emerge in hiding for mutual aid, justice, and protection. The English Parliament passed the right of association.
Chartism
They directed their activities towards parliamentary political action. The actions consisted of campaigns and demonstrations. The first manifestation, the People’s Charter, produced a large failure. The causes of failure were Parliament’s rejection of their demands and confrontation. The second wave had supporters of radical and violent methods. The last campaign proposed an agenda with more workers and intended to get a 10-hour workday. British workers showed the way forward.
The Suffrage Movement
In the 19th century, the situation of inferiority of women gave no conflict. When talking about universal suffrage, it was only for men. The first protests occurred in Britain and the United States to achieve the right to vote and equality, including child custody in divorce cases and education. In the United States, voting rights included Black people. In 1869, the first pro-suffrage association for women was created. The first World War, after the contribution of women to the war effort, recognized their rights. In 1920, women voted in Great Britain. The Society of Women’s Social and Political Union and its counterpart, the Anti-Suffragist League, were founded. Norway granted women’s suffrage in 1913, Britain in 1928, France in 1946, and Spain in 1931.
Cultural Trends
Romanticism exerted influence on the nationalist revolutions. Realistic literature reflected the social problems of the Industrial Revolution. Romance, passion, and feeling were exalted by authors like Victor Hugo, Scott, Alexandre Dumas, and the Spanish Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, José Mariano Espronceda, or Larra. Surrealist literature described daily life with meticulous observation. The novel was used by Dickens, Balzac, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Blasco Ibáñez in Spain to relate work or social problems. Finally, naturalism was represented by Émile Zola. In music, Schubert, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, and Korsakov exalted patriotism, as did the German and Italian Verdi. Beethoven and Wagner had a revolutionary message.
Artistic Trends
It was an era of great artistic development.
Architecture
The Empire style began with neoclassicism. With Napoleon’s restoration, the Industrial Revolution began, and iron and crystal started to be applied. This changed aesthetics. Examples include the Crystal Palace by Paxton in London, Les Halles in Paris, and the National Library in Paris. Labrouste used classical building forms, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque. Neoclassical, Gothic, Neo-Renaissance, and Neo-Baroque styles were recognized as historicism, such as the Paris Opera by Garnier. The mix of styles led to eclecticism. The Chicago School had revolutionary architects with the invention of the elevator, leading to skyscrapers. Chicago was the birthplace of Art Nouveau, called Jugendstil in Germany, Secession in Vienna, and Modernism in Catalonia. The most important architect in Spain was Gaudí, who used iron and functional architecture with ceramics, new materials, and forms. It evolved towards the rationalism of Le Corbusier at the Bauhaus by Gropius. Open spaces are closed but open outward, looking for integration with the environment. Projects aimed for comfort and roominess.
Sculpture
Antonio Canova filled the revolutionary era of the Empire and Restoration. D’Angers was a Romantic sculptor. Carpeaux discovered the soul of his characters through motion. Belleville was a Realist sculptor. In Spain, The Fallen Angel is a notable work. Benlliure was anecdotal. Rodin used realism, understanding sculpture as impressions of light and shadow, as seen in The Burghers of Calais or The Kiss. In the 20th century, iron, concrete, and plastic appeared with modernist sculptors focused on decorative objects and distorting forms. Gallardo and Picasso were Cubist sculptors, using geometric volumes. Moore created pure and surreal sculptures, and Chillida created abstract mobile sculptures.