Victorian Era: Alliances, Capitalism & Imperialism
The Victorian Era
In Europe, the United Kingdom continued to be the strongest commercial and financial power in the world for 63 years (1837-1901).
European Alliance System
Bismarck Alliance System: (a very important person in Germany) These were a set of alliances, based on secret diplomacy, promoted by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Their objectives were to isolate France, at enmity with Germany due to the loss of Alsace and Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War, and to prevent its alliance with Russia against Germany.
Peace Through Strength: Peace was maintained during these years but, anticipating war, the European countries rearmed and formed two alliance blocs: the Triple Alliance, formed by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, and the Triple Entente, formed by France, Russia, and Great Britain.
Taylorism and Fordism
Taylorism, applied by Frederick Taylor, aimed to achieve maximum work efficiency. To this end, the exact way of carrying out each task was determined, the time needed for each task was clocked, and production incentives were granted.
Fordism, applied by Henry Ford in his automobile factory, initiated mass production and the need for enormous factories. In these factories, work was organized in assembly lines: each worker performed only one task in the manufacturing process of the product, which was placed in front of him by a conveyor belt. By avoiding the movement of workers, performance was increased and the products could be sold at a lower price.
The Birth of Finance Capitalism
The Birth of Finance Capitalism
The increasing size of companies and the large sums of money needed for financing brought about a new period in Capitalism called “Finance Capitalism.” Its basic features were financial and corporate concentration.
Financial concentration: led to the emergence of large banks like the Credit Lyonnais (France), Deutsche Bank (Germany), and Lloyd’s Bank (Great Britain). These institutions intensified their relationship with industrial enterprises, granting them loans or participating in them as shareholders.
Corporate concentration: set out to dominate the market by eliminating competition amongst companies. To this end, different kinds of concentration were created: the cartel, the trust, and the holding. As a result of this, antitrust laws had to be created.
Social Developments
The Development of the Labour Movement
The labor movement gained affiliates when the states recognized freedom of assembly and association and legalized workers’ associations. Over time, laborers’ parties emerged, whose aim was to access political power and promote democratic and social reforms. The first and most important of these was the German Social Democratic Party (SPD), founded in 1875, soon followed by others in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain.
Labor internationalism was revived by the formation of the Second International or Socialist International (Paris, 1889), conceived as a federation of socialist and labor parties based on Marxist principles. In this federation, the Marxist purists who supported the idea of accessing power through revolutions clashed with the revisionists who advocated reaching power by participating in elections. The International also condemned Capitalism, Imperialism, and war.
Imperialism
Imperialism and Its Causes
Unlike the previous form of Colonialism, whose main objective was to dominate the economic resources of the colonies, Imperialism implied the military, political, and economic control of the European minority over the dominated territories.
The new colonial momentum was due to different causes:
- Political and strategic: The possession of colonies assured the power and the international prestige of countries or allowed trade routes and strategic territories to be controlled.
- Demographic: The colonies provided territories where excess population could be sent in order to reduce unemployment and relieve internal social tensions.
- Economic: Increased production brought about by the Second Industrial Revolution required having territories which could supply raw materials for industry and purchase the manufactured products without customs barriers. Furthermore, colonies provided cheap labor and places to invest capital.
- Ideological: Certain ideologies manipulated the ideas of Darwin (social Darwinism) and proclaimed the superiority of the white race along with its ‘mission’ to ‘civilize’ the rest of the world.