Nationalism, Imperialism, and the Second Industrial Revolution in Europe

Posted on Nov 6, 2024 in History

Item 5: Nationalism and Imperialism

1. French Unification

In 1851, the President of the Republic, Louis Bonaparte, staged a coup and appointed himself emperor, taking the name Napoleon III. The Bonapartist regime was a synthesis of liberalism and order, based on an aggressive foreign policy. Napoleon intervened in several crises involving the Great Powers:

  • He participated in the Crimean War to limit Russian expansion in the Black Sea.
  • He intervened in Italy, supporting Piedmont but later preventing the complete unification of Italy.
  • He attempted to establish a French satellite empire in Mexico.
  • He laid the foundations for French expansion in Indochina.
  • He supported Prussia against Austria but later declared war, jealous of Prussian hegemony.

Following the French defeat, the rule of Napoleon III fell.

2. German Unification

German nationalism was divided into two camps:

  • Supporters of a Greater Germany, grouped around Austria, a Catholic power whose monarch had been Holy Roman Emperor.
  • Those who preferred a Little Germany led by Prussia, the leading Protestant power.

The Prussian Chancellor Bismarck, a supporter of Little Germany, achieved unification through a series of wars:

  • War of the Duchies: Fought against Denmark, with Austria and Prussia vying for possession of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein.
  • Austro-Prussian War: Prussia prevailed after a short campaign, demonstrating its military superiority and achieving the unification of northern Germany.
  • Franco-Prussian War: An incident related to the Prussian candidacy for the Spanish throne led France to declare war on Prussia, which gained the support of other German states. Napoleon III surrendered at the Battle of Sedan, and the Prussians invaded France, leading to a peace treaty. The King of Prussia was proclaimed Kaiser in the Palace of Versailles. The Second German Reich, or empire, would have a federal structure. Germany annexed two French provinces, Alsace and Lorraine.

3. Italian Unification

The case of Italy was complex due to the Austrian occupation of northeastern Italy and the presence of the Papal States, which forced nationalists to confront the Pope’s temporal power. The state that channeled nationalist sentiment was Piedmont, whose monarch, Victor Emmanuel II, held the title of King of Sardinia. The protagonist of the unification was Cavour, who drew on the ideas of Mazzini and the exploits of Garibaldi. The unification process had several stages:

  • War against Austria: With French support, Lombardy was liberated, but Venice remained in Austrian hands.
  • National Uprising: Uprisings occurred in the duchies of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany, and the papal Romagna. Referendums sanctioned the annexation of these territories to Piedmont.
  • Garibaldi’s Campaign: An army of red shirts, led by Garibaldi, conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Meanwhile, the Piedmontese invaded Umbria and Marche. Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed King of Italy after annexing these territories.
  • Veneto and Rome: Allied with Prussia in the war against Austria, the Kingdom of Italy conquered Veneto. Taking advantage of the Franco-Prussian War, Italian troops entered Rome, while Pope Pius IX proclaimed himself a prisoner in the Vatican.

In the decades following unification, Italy faced several problems:

  • The gap between the industrial North and the rural South.
  • The Roman Question, complicating Italian political life.
  • Difficulties in establishing a colonial empire in Africa.

4. The Great European Powers

4.1. The Second German Reich

Germany was consolidated as the first continental power. After reconciling with Austria, Bismarck committed to diplomatically isolating France to prevent revenge for the loss of Alsace and Lorraine:

  • His first set of alliances, the Three Emperors’ League, failed due to the Eastern Question.
  • In the 1890s, he arranged the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy, while securing Russian support and British neutrality.

During these years, Berlin became the center of world diplomacy. In 1890, Bismarck was dismissed by the new Kaiser Wilhelm II, who dismantled the complex alliance system. Germany underwent rapid industrialization. Bismarck, a conservative but intelligent leader, had introduced social reforms to combat the influence of the German Social Democratic Party.

4.2. The Third French Republic

After the fall of the Second Empire, the Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris.

  • In foreign policy, Bismarckian diplomacy led to a dangerous isolation for France, which would not end until its rapprochement with Russia. At the same time, there was significant overseas expansion.
  • Domestically, there was a division between the secular republican left and the clerical and authoritarian right. At the end of the century, tensions exploded with the Dreyfus Affair, a scandal involving espionage and military corruption that divided society and highlighted the strength of anti-Semitism.

4.3. The Austro-Hungarian Empire

Austria’s double defeat marked the end of the Greater Germany dream and the loss of its last possessions in Italy. From then on, the Habsburg monarchy projected its ambitions towards the Balkans, where it rivaled Russia in the distribution of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire. The internal crisis was resolved through the Compromise of 1867: the empire was renamed the Austro-Hungarian Empire and became a dual monarchy, united in the person of the monarch, who was both Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. The greatest threat to the empire’s survival came from the nationalist and separatist movements of Slavs and other ethnic groups.

4.4. The Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a vast territorial and demographic entity that lagged behind in social, political, and economic terms:

  • It was the only great power that still lacked a parliamentary system.
  • Serfdom was not abolished until 1861.

At the end of the century, Russia began rapid industrialization, leading to serious social tensions. One example of this was the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, linking Moscow to the Pacific. The ambitions of the Russian Empire were directed towards Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Far East.

5. Imperialism

5.1. The New Imperialism

From the 15th century, Europeans built large colonial empires overseas, especially in America. This first wave of colonialism went into crisis after U.S. independence. Although a new phase of colonial expansion began in 1830, it was from 1870 that empires reached their peak.

5.2. The Economic Causes

The Industrial Revolution gave Europeans the means to consolidate their power globally, thanks to their superior technical, organizational, and economic capabilities. There were strong economic reasons for imperialism:

  • Colonies supplied raw materials and cheap labor to the metropoles and served as markets for manufactured goods.
  • Europeans sought territories in which to invest surplus capital for maximum profitability. Colonial and sovereign states also owed large amounts of capital to Europe.

5.3. The Demographic Factor

The transition to the modern era saw a population explosion among Europeans, whose population increased by 75% despite overseas emigration. Some colonies absorbed much of the surplus population of the metropoles, such as Canada or Australia for Britain, Algeria for France, or Cuba for Spain. But most immigrants settled in areas that were already independent, like the USA, Brazil, or Argentina. Increasing population pressure drove the conquest and colonization of territories occupied by indigenous peoples. The resulting enterprises became exporters of raw materials and food.

5.4. Political Reasons

  • Some colonies had no economic interest but held strategic locations that allowed the domination of sea routes, such as the British enclaves of Gibraltar, Malta, and Aden.
  • Colonies conferred prestige: it was felt that possessing an empire was a prerequisite for great power status.

6. Imperialism: European Empires and the New Powers

6.1. The European Colonial Empires

  • The British Empire: The largest and richest, it owned about a quarter of the Earth’s surface. Its largest colony was India, an inexhaustible source of wealth and prestige. But the empire also comprised diverse territories, from exploitative colonies in Africa to the white dominions of America and Australasia.
  • The Russian Empire: A vast, contiguous landmass stretching across Eurasia. Its weakness was the lack of warm-water ports. It sought to expand into the Indian Ocean and the Sea of Japan.
  • The French Empire: Spread across Africa, Indochina, and islands in the Indian, Pacific, and Caribbean. Its main colony was Algeria.
  • Germany and Italy: Latecomers to the imperial game. Germany acquired colonies in Africa and the Pacific, while Italy, after failing in Ethiopia, had to wait for the opportunity to take Tripoli from the Ottomans.
  • Spain: Lost the remnants of its empire in America and the Pacific and had to settle for small territories in Africa.
  • The Congo: A peculiar case, it was a long-held possession of a private company belonging to the King of Belgium before being transferred to the Belgian state.

With few exceptions, such as Japan and Ethiopia, the territories that remained independent in Asia and Africa in 1900 were:

  • Former empires like China, Persia, and Turkey, too large for the powers to allow them to be completely dismantled.
  • States like Japan and Siam (Thailand), which acted as buffers between the spheres of influence of the great powers, such as Siam separating British and French colonies in Indochina.

7. The Second Industrial Revolution

7.3. Big Capitalism

After decades of euphoria and economic growth, a Great Depression began in 1873 and lasted until 1898. Although economic growth did not entirely cease, there was a general decline in prices and profits, leading to rising unemployment and increased competition between countries and companies. Financial capitalism was characterized by:

  • Widespread business concentration: the bankruptcy of small and medium-sized enterprises led to the formation of large industrial and financial monopolies, such as trusts.
  • The introduction of new forms of work organization, such as Taylorism, which allowed for the reduction of production costs through mass production.
  • A shift away from the free trade that had characterized the early stages of industrialization towards protectionism.

Large-scale capitalism led to the emergence of a nascent consumer society in which mass-produced products became available to the middle classes. At the same time, techniques to stimulate consumption appeared, such as advertising aimed at broad audiences and hire purchase (installment plans).