The Modern Period (1750-1914)

Period Definition

• Also known as the “Long 19th Century”
• Not entirely new themes as compared to early-modern period (1450-1750) but some significant changes
• Two major themes from early-modern period continue
  • The rise of European military power and brief world dominance
    • The Scientific Revolution contributed to superior military technology on sea and land
• A new world economy taking shape
  • The Industrial Revolution introduced new economic form that is different from agriculture as agriculture was different from hunting and gathering
  • Many regional manufacturing was displaced by European imports
• Two themes from early-modern period no longer having impact
  • Decline or disappearance of land-based empires (e.g. gunpowder empires: Ottomans, Safavid, Mughal)
  • The Colombian Exchange is no longer a major factor in world affairs.
    • The exchange was widespread transfer of animals, plants and population from the old world to the Americas

Social Themes

• Human productive power increased mostly due to fossil fuel and industrialization
• Increasing urbanization: people became concentrated in factories and cities due to industrialization
• Childhood used to be focused on work in agricultural societies, now it is marked by schooling
• Increased exploitation of the bulk of the world by core societies (European and American)
• Gap between core societies and peripheral societies widen (World System Theory)
  • Industrialization was becoming a global force even if it was dominated by Europe early on
  • De-Industrialization of local industries.  E.g: n Latin America and India
    • In favor of cheap imports from Europe and America (e.g. textile)
    • Many domestic workers became out of work
• Many   peripheral   societies switched to export cheap raw materials and food to core societies
• The question of how to respond to this rising European power was a global theme
  • Should societies resist the West?
  • What aspects of Western development could be imitated?
  • How to regain or preserve some degree of regional independence?

Western Military Edge

Mobile artillery, steam ships, the machine gun and other technologies on land and sea

• 1798: Napoleon invades and conquers Egypt
  • The ease by which European forces conquered one of the Islamic world heart land left a mark
  • Later, Muhammad Ali took the path of modernization and hoped to bring industrialization and economic reforms 
• 1839: First Opium War in China
  • Britain had trade imbalance with China
    • European wanted silk, tea, porcelain. 
    • China did not need much from Europe
• China resisted British demands to open their market.
• British and other Western troops easily overcame Chinese forces
  • Forcing trade of opium to fix imbalance
• 1853: American sailed into Ito Bay in Japan to demand their markets open to Western goods
• 1854–1855: Russians seize additional Ottoman territory
  • Britain and France objected to Russian expansion
    • Britain worried about interruption of access to India
• The West won against Russia in the Crimea.
• Later, Russia started a path of reform
• Afghanistan was one of the few examples not penetrated by Western military power
• No major society could stay isolated from this new global force (military and economy)
• Not all societies were impacted in the same way
  • Colonies in India and Africa
  • Interference in China
• Not all societies re-acted the same way

Atlantic Revolutions

• 1770-1849: Series of uprisings took place in parts of the Atlantic world
  • North America (American Revolutionary War)
  • Western Europe (French Revolution)
  • Latin America (wars of independence 1810–1820)
• These movements brought some new political ideas to the world stage
  • The impact of these ideas on Asia and Africa would lag until the 20th century

Internationalization

Global theme that marks the rise of global organizations and movements

• 1850s: New international organizations rose: Universal Postal Union and International Red Cross
• International agreements introduced to allow technological developments like laying undersea cables.
  • A facet of imperialism, but hint to emerging international political structure
• Transportation arrangements included the cutting of the Suez and Panama Canals.
• 1880s: Emergence of NGOs dealing with issues such as women’s right and white slavery
• Internationalization of some western sports as soccer and American baseball show potential for what we could call global consumer culture

Other Global Themes

• Abolition of Slavery and Serfdom
  • With slavery abolished in the Americas, labor needs were met through immigration
  • Sources of immigrants were southern and eastern Europe, Asia and India
• Modernization and Nationalism
  • Modernization is not the same as Westernization 
  • Significant changes in educational systems occurred in most societies due to needs of industrialization
  • As opposed to earlier traditional types of loyalty to religion or locality, nationalism is a modern phenomenon
  • Nationalism started in Europe as objection to Enlightenment thinking that all people were the same
  • Nationalists often assert that their nation’s culture is better than others and culture should be connected to the state
• Formation of the Latin American Civilization
  • The economies of Latin America faced growing peripheralization and dependence on Western countries
  • A common phenomenon was caudillismo: selection of dictators whose rule promises to end instability
  • “New nations” problems during the 1820s–1840s emerged:
    • Independence leaders were excluded from participation in government
    • People with experience running a state were not available
    • Brief period of economic dislocation: with economic change, certain jobs are no longer needed
• China and Japan
  • Japan demonstrated possibility of modernization without Westernization
  • China resisted the pressure and lagged behind in modernization
  • The different reaction by China and Japan to Western interventions might be due to internal social stability and political situation at the time  

Sources: Lectures 24-28 “A Brief History of the World” by Professor Peter Stearns of George Mason University (TheGreatCourses.com)