History Department      

History 309 – Contemporary Europe – August 29, 2005  

EUROPE IN 1914  

Note:  How do you go about understanding a whole society?  How, in particular, can we understand Europe in 1914, on the brink of the First World War?  Note how W & H proceed:  the “freeze frame” Europe at, say, 1914, and then try to tease out the key TRENDS in certain THEMATIC CATEGORIES.  They say: “O.K., what were the KEY TRENDS in CATEGORIES like in politics … in economics … in culture … in society?”  Keep this method in mind – we’ll use it often!  

I.                    EMPIRICAL DATA.  Be sure you can define the following:  

From: W & H:

  1. Nation-state.
  2. Aristocracy
  3. Middling classes
  4. Working class/Proletariat
  5. Peasantry
  6. 1898 Spanish-American War
  7. 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War
  8. Concert of Europe
  9. Paris Exposition of 1900
  10. Industrial Revolution
  11. “Second” Industrial Revolution
  12. “New respect for human life”
  13. “New standards of physical well-being”
  14. Emmeline Pankhurst
  15. Hague Conference of 1899
  16. “ideology”
  17. Right/Conservatives
  18. Center/Liberals
  19. Left/Radicals
  20. Revolutionaries/Socialists
  21. Three conservative Empires
  22. Era of High Imperialism
  23. Popular Militarism
  24. Syndicalism
  25. Nationalities Problem
  26. Alliance System

 

From Perry:   

  1. Hobhouse
  2. Spencer
  3. Mill
  4. Pankhurst
  5. Bernstein
  6. H. S. Chamberlain
  7. Rhodes

 

II.                CRITICAL THINKING.  

  1. Note the very first sentence in this chapter: “Europe was the center of the world” in 1914.  What gave Europe such tremendous power and influence?  What do W & H say?  What do YOU say? (Note: this is a kind of “Cause/Effect” question – what CAUSED Europe to be so powerful in 1914?
  1. Take just one category: POLITICS.  Politics is all about POWER – who has it , who doesn’t, who does what with it.  What was Europe’s political situation around 1914.  Specifically: (a) was Europe “democratic”?;  (b) how did people THINK about politics – what were the leading “ideologies”? 
  1. Europe in 1914 – the “center of the world” – seemed, all in all, to be in great shape.  But – return to the Trends/Categories W & H identify.  What were the “bad trends,” the “symptoms” that something bad might happen.  Where did these “bad symptoms” come from anyway?

 

 

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