Age of “Isms”

Nationalism

• 10 ingredients of Nationalism

• 1. Certain defined unit of territory

• 2. Common cultural characteristics

• 3. Common dominant social and economic institutions

• 4. Common independent/sovereign government

• 5. Belief in common history/origin.

• 6. Love or esteem for fellow nationals.

• 7. A devotion to the entity called a nation.

• 8. Common pride in achievements or common sorrow in tragedies.

• 9. Disregard for or hostility to others.

• 10. Hope that the nation will have a great and glorious future.

Liberalism

1. Efficient government prepared to acknowledge the value of commercial and industrial development

2. A government in which their interests would be protected by their direct representation in the legislature; a constitutional monarchy, not a democracy

• 3. Foreign policy of peace and free trade

• 4. belief in individualism and the doctrines of the classical economists, Thomas Malthus and David Ricardo:–Economic individualism: individuals are

entitled to use for their own best interests the property they inherited/acquired by any legitimate method.

• People must be allowed to do what they like as long as they do not trespass upon the equal rights of others to do the same.

• Laissez-faire: the functions of the state should be reduced to the lowest minimum consistent with public safety. Gov’t should shrink itself into the role of a modest policeman, preserve order and protect property

• Obedience to natural law: there are immutable laws operating in the realm of economics as in all universal spheres: supply and demand; law of diminishing returns; etc. These laws must be recognized and respected.

• Freedom of contract: individuals should be free to negotiate the best kind of contract the can from other individuals:

• The liberty of workers and employers to bargain with each other as to wages and hours should not be hampered by the laws or by the collective power of labor unions.

• Free competition and free trade: competition keeps prices down, eliminates inefficient producers, and ensures maximum production according to public demand;

• No monopolies should be tolerated; no price-fixing laws for the benefit of incompetent enterprises;

• In order to force each country to engage in the production of those things it is best fitted to produce, all protective tariffs should be abolished.

• Free international trade will keep prices down

Thomas Malthus: Essay on Population

• Nature set limits to the progress of mankind

• Natural tendency for population to increase more rapidly than the food supply

• Poverty and pain were inescapable;

Malthus’ Theory

• Even if laws were passed distributing all wealth equally, the condition of the poor would only temporarily improve;

• Poor would raise larger families, and again become poor.

• Malthus advocated later marriage as a means of relief, but stressed population would outrun any possible increase in the means of subsistence

• Due to this theory, middle class began the destruction of older society that made some attempt to care for its poor–England had instituted a system of doles

and subsidized wages to help sustain laborers and their families when unemployed; this failed to prevent distress and was met with resistance from taxpayers

• According to Malthus, such ideas damaged both rich and poor alike;

• Malthus shifted the responsibility for poverty from society to the individual; this appealed to the middle class

David Ricardo

• Iron Law of Wages: Wages seek a level which is just sufficient to enable workers to “subsist and perpetuate their race, without either increase or diminution”

• If wages should rise temporarily above the subsistence standard, man and women would be encouraged to marry earlier and produce more children;

• The population would increase, and the ensuing competition for jobs would force the rate of pay down to its former level;

• Ricardo’s law of rent and wages:• Rent is determined by the cost of

production on the poorest land that must be brought under cultivation; as a country’s population increases and more land is cultivated, higher rents

• Charged for more productive land and an ever-increasing proportion of the national income is absorbed by the landlords.

• These arguments helped the middle class: law of wages gave employers a useful weapon to protect themselves from worker petitions for higher pay;

• Law of rent justified middle-class opposition to the continuing power of landed interests: classes that derived their income not from hard work, but from its role as rent-collector profited unfairly at the expense of the rest of society and deserved to have its profit-making curtailed.

Utilitarianism & Jeremy Bentham

Overview of Utilitarianism

• Proposed as a secular moral basis for legislative decision making; all institutions, all laws must be measured according to social usefulness;

• Consequentialist: the end justifies the means {1}{2}

• Economic (spreadsheet) model of moral calculation: {3}

• calculate the probable costs v.    benefits -- "the utility" of each available policy or course of action

• choose the course which yields the greatest utility, for all affected.

• unlike economic calculation in two respects

* the costs & benefits not monetary but intrinsic

• the calculation is nonegoistic: not just private gain but the general welfare at issue. {4}

• Hedonism: pleasure is the only intrinsic good {5}{6}

• only quantity matters {7}• valuation of individual pleasures'

quantities {8}

• counts: intensity & duration

• discounts: uncertainty & nonproximity

• further consequences to be considered

• fecundity of productivity (of further pleasure or pain)

•  purity (absence of admixed pain/pleasure)

• Issue: a "morality fit for pigs"?

•   Is pleasure a good thing at all?: "Pain don't hurt" (G. Anderson)

• The only good thing?: what of truth, beauty, & justice?  

• Are there qualitative differences between pleasures?

•   ignoble low-brow pleasures: pushpin 

•   elevated high-brow pleasures: Pushkin

• Connected issue: To what extent is moral concern for animals warranted? {9}

• How did this affect the middle class?

• Individual is important

• Interests of community= sum of interests of selfish egos living in it.

• Individuals should pursue their own interests

• Entrepreneurs—pursue industrialization b/c it gave happiness to most people

• Favored laissez-faire; favored government intervention;

• Provided theoretical basis for reforms: revised poor law in Britain;

• Expanded educational system in France;

• Fortified business position to proceed with the industrial revolution

Auguste Comte & Positivism

Name derived from the assertion that only knowledge of any current value was “positive,” or scientific, knowledge

• Humankind’s ability to analyze society scientifically and to predict the future had reached a point that it would enable Europe to achieve a “positive” society, organized not in terms of belief, but facts;

• This achievement would happen only through struggle

• Compte's Aim: to make a science of sociology {1}

• to put the study of human social relations & institutions and especially development on a scientific footing 

• as Galileo had done for physics by his determination "merely to investigate . . . some of the properties of accelerated motion, whatever the cause of this acceleration may be." {2}

• an empirical science based on observation & experiment yeilding positive knowledge: contras Hegel's abstract rationalistic approach.

Law of Three Stages {3}• Theological: "In the theological state,

the human mind, seeking the essential nature of beings, the first and final causes (the origin and purpose) of all effects --in short, Absolute knowledge -- supposes all phenomena to be produced by the immediate action of supernatural beings." {Positive Philosophy, Ch.1)

        

•   Metaphysical: "In the metaphysical state, which is only a modification of the first, the mind supposes, instead of supernatural beings, abstract forces, veritable entities (that is, personified abstractions) inherent in all beings, and capable of producing all phenomena. What is called the explanation of phenomena is, in this stage, a mere reference of each to its proper entity." (Positive Philosophy, Ch.1)

• Positive: {2}

• Practical application to European History

• Feudal theological stage of socio-political thought: dogma of "divine right"

• Metaphysical liberal democratic stage: dogma of liberty of conscience & of the sovereignty of the people

• Postivistic stage of scientific social management {4

• Through his declaration that achievement of the highest stage was impossible w/out the turmoil of industrialization, Comte assured the middle class of its leading role in the better world that was to be.

Critics of the middle-class worldview

• Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist, Hard Times, Dombey and Son—he sympathized w/the industrial workers against the tyranny of the new rich

• Honore de Balzac: The Human Comedy: exposed stupidity, greed, baseness of middle class

• Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary—depicted the banal, fatal nature of the bourgeois existence for women

• John Stuart Mill: rejected the universality of economic laws;

• Insisted that distribution of wealth could be regulated by society for the majority of its members

• Mill advocated radical departures from Laissez-faire; favored legislation for shorter work days; state could take steps to redistribute wealth by taxing inheritances and appropriating the unearned increment of land

• In his Principles of Political Economy

• Urged abolition of wage system; encouraged producer cooperatives

• Mill distrusted the state; His producers’ cooperatives were designed to give workers the fruits of their labors, not to exalt their power.

• 1859 On Liberty—he attacked the tyranny of the majority; it was a defense of individualism, but it was against middle-class conformity and the threat of state control

• Utopian thinkers: Robert Owen and Charles Fourier

• Owen—re-organized his own cotton mills to provide free schooling and a system of social security for his workers

• Society was reorganized on basis of cooperation, communities rewarded workers as a result of their labor

• Fourier urged the abolition of the wage system and complete equality of the sexes

• Both men had numerous followers, who founded idealistic communities based on the principles of their leaders; all attempts failed over time due to faulty leadership and for Fourier, moral turpitude due to his sexual doctrines

• Louis Blanc, of France, campaigned for universal male suffrage, giving working-class men control of the state; once in charge, the workers would make the state the “banker of the poor” and institute “Associations of Production” a system of workshops governed by workers, thereby guaranteeing jobs and security for all

• These briefly were implemented in 1848

Conservativism

After 1815, most countries tried to stem the advances of liberalism

Most governments did not want revolutionary upheavals that they had experienced from 1776 to 1815.

• Aftermath of the Congress of Vienna:• Restoration of legitimate monarchs in

Spain, France and Italy• Balance of Power in Europe: no one

power would dominate• Policy of French containment & non-

vindictive boundary settlement• Holland made strong, united

w/Austrian Netherlands; Austria given N. Italy; Prussia--Rhineland

• Plans to have frequent meetings—Concert of Europe; disagreements made this redundant

• 1818—1st Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle: 4 powers removed troops from France; France re-admitted to good standing;

• Conservative political and Social order restored in Europe; Conservative monarchies, conservative religion and landed aristocracies become allies

• This is a new union, which sparks much reaction in the near future

• Liberal forces begin to act

• 1820: attacks against reactionary governments in Spain and Naples

• Spain: Bourbon king Ferdinand VII of Spain (r. 1814-1833) promised to govern according to the written constitution

• He ignored this pledge; dissolved the Cortes and ruled alone

Ferdinand’s other policies:

* Foreign books/newspapers confiscated at the frontier

• Only 2 newspapers permitted

• Attempted to restore powers of pre-revolutionary church, monarchy, and nobility

• A group of army officers rebelled, demanding that Ferdinand adhere to Constitution of 1812, which he abolished in 1814.

• Ferdinand backs down for a while

• In Naples, also 1820, the Carbonari, a secret brotherhood of young liberals, revolted against the king; he was forced to accept the constitution

• Both constitutions were modeled after the liberal French constitution of 1789-1791

• 1820: Congress of Troppau in Austria brought together Austria, Prussia, Russia,Great Britain and France

• Protocol of Troppau: Stable govt’s could intervene in countries experiencing revolutions

• A,R,P pledged to come to each other’s aid to suppress revolution

• F/GB declined to endorse the pledge—did not want detailed international treaties

• Metternich proceeded to repress the Carbonari rebels via imprisonment or exile

• 1821: Congress of Laibach: allowed Austria to restore the King of Two Sicilies to non-constitutional government

• 1822: Congress of Verona: called to deal w/continuing liberal threat to Spanish stability, the revolutions occurring in Spanish South American colonies and the insurrection in the Near East

• GB balked at joint action and withdrew from continental affairs

• A/P/R agreed to support French intervention in Spain: France dispatched 200,000 man army to the Iberian Peninsula in 1823. This force put an end to Spanish liberals opposing King Ferdinand VII’s attempts to undermine representative government

• 1823—French Army invades to support Ferdinand;

• Ferdinand tortured and executed hundreds; thousands imprisoned or exiled.

• France helped Ferdinand restore his authority and he ruled as he wished

• The conservative governments were unable to stem the movements of independence and liberalism in South and Central America.

• Taking advantage of upheavals in Spain/Portugal, colonists from Mexico to Argentina rebelled.

• Simon Bolivar, son of a slave owner, educated in Europe—studied Voltaire/Rousseau

• Considered himself Latin American Napoleon

• Led series of independence movements between 1821-1823

• Mexico, United Provinces of Central America, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia; Santo Domingo

• Other countries became independent either just before, or just after Bolivar

• The US recognized these new states:

• 1823: President James Monroe issued the “Monroe Doctrine” declaring that any European intervention in the Western hemisphere would be considered unfriendly acts toward the US;

• GB supported this with neutrality; they looked forward to new trade

• Independence movements against the Ottoman Turks:

• Began with Serbia

• 1817, Serbs revolted and won their independence;

• This leads to other uprisings

• 1821: Alexander Ypsilanti, a Greek Soldier attempted to encourage the formation of a Greek ‘empire’ constructed on vaguely liberal principles.

• He engaged his band of armed followers against the Ottoman Turks

• Ypsilanti was soon defeated, but his movement lived on

• Five years later, the goal of an independent Greece was hatched

• Because the allies (GB,F,R) saw that Greek independence would be advantageous to them, the supported the Greek rebels with naval intervention and Russian invasion of the Balkans. This time, the rebels succeeded.

• Metternich and other reactionaries could no longer preserve the status quo, and GB in particular was not reliable.

• By the late 1820s, the liberal movement was gaining momentum very quickly.

• In Russia:

• Aspirations for a constitutional government surfaced upon the death of Alexander I December 1, 1825

• Constantine, next in line for the throne, publicly renounced the title.

• He had been married to a German Princess for 19 years, most of this time, they were separated

• his divorce and subsequent marriage to a Polish princess, Joanna Grudzińska, caused him to renounce the Russian throne, but remain the de facto viceroy to the king of Poland

• Since he had supported liberal reforms in Poland, he had many followers in Russia

• On December 14, 1825, troops assembled in Senate Square in St. Petersburg to swear allegiance to Nicolas I, Alexander’s youngest brother;

• The royal officers refused to swear allegiance to Nicolas I. The rebellion lasted until January 3, when it was finally subdued by Nicolas I’s troops.

• The leaders were sent to St. Petersburg to stand trial, where they were interrogated, tried, and convicted. Most were exiled to Siberia, or other remote gulags.

• five Decembrists were hanged and something unusual happened. The ropes split before any of them actually died.

• According to tradition, the officers should have been set free, having survived the execution.

• Nicolas ordered new rope and they were subsequently hung.

• This was the last public execution in imperial Russia.

• Nicolas proclaimed the goal: “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality”

• Russia did have some modernization, however; Bureaucracy grew more centralized and efficient;

• Laws were codified in 1832

• Estates were reorganized for better production; railways built

• In England, 1815, rioting broke out, a result of depression and unemployment

• Repressive gov’t measures adopted: and spies hired

• At Manchester, 80,000 workers demonstrated for political reform in St. Peter’s field

• The gov’t sent soldiers, who fired on the crowd

• The “Peterloo” massacre killed 11 and injured 400, including 113 women

• 1819: Six Acts passed, outlawing ‘seditious and blasphemous’ literature; levied a stamp tax on newspapers; allowed search of houses for arms; restricted public meeting rights

• Liberals began to change some laws in Great Britain: it retreated from the Quintuple alliance; abolished capital punishment for hundreds of offences; liberalized Corn Laws (tariffs levied to increase the price of imports, keeping domestic grain prices artificially high), abolished laws that kept various religious groups from participating in political life

• House of Commons did not reform the system of representation: traditionally, it represented the interests of the landed nobility; 2/3 of house were directly nominated or owed their election to rich landowners

• Many electoral districts were controlled by the money of landowners: pocket/rotten boroughs

Industrial middle class insisted that landowners’ interests not always the best for the nation

• Corn Laws hurt everyone but landowners (in opposition to Bentham’s theory) Reform Movement intensifies;

• Lord Grey and Whigs become party of reform, starting w/bill to modify electoral structure of England

• Middle-class industrialists allied w/artisans and tradesmen in many large cities;

• Engaged in bloody clashes w/police and army;

• Intention to withhold taxes declared

• Form national guard if necessary

• King William IV agreed to legal change

• 1832: Reform Bill: vote given to middle class, not workers;

• no equal districts;

• 140 seats redistributed, increasing representation for industrial areas

• France:

• Louis XVIII—granted “constitutional charter”:

• legal equality

• Careers open to talent

• Two-chamber parliamentary government

• Vote to property owners and age

• Those born after 1789 could not vote

• 1824: Louis XVIII dies; succeeded by Charles X—his brother

• Zealous monarchist and enemy of liberalism, modernization and Napoleonic legacies

• French assembly issued indemnities to emigres whose land had been taken by the state

• Church allowed to teach in French Classrooms

• Upper middle class led rebellion against these policies

• March 1830: Chamber of Deputies (bankers) vote of No confidence in the government

• Charles dissolved the Chamber

• Called for new elections

• Elections went against Charles’ candidates

• Charles issued ordinances on his own authority:

• 1. Dissolved new chamber before it met

• 2. Strict censorship on press

• 3. Restricted suffrage to exclude upper middle class almost completely

• 4. Called for new elections

• Revolution occurs:

• Parisians took to streets

• Constructed barricades and fought army and police

• Intense fighting lasted for days

• Charles abdicated

Conflict of interest arose: street fighters wanted republic; those w/power wanted constitutional monarch

• King Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848)• Installed as King of the French; not

King of France• Must abide by 1814 constitution• Franchise extended from 100,000 to

200,000 males• Right to vote based on ownership of

property• Middle class benefited from this

change

• Other revolutions:

• Belgium: liberal and national sentiment ended union of Belgium and Dutch

• European countries strengthened its position and eventual independence w/accession of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg as king;

• Poland:

• Nationalists moved to overthrow Russian Tsar, Nicholas I; West did not intervene;

• Russian troops crushed Polish rebels

• Poland merged into tsarist empire

Liberalism in Britain and France

1830-1848

• Britain:• First Parliament after 1832 passed

new law dealing w/poor• Doles were ceased• Those who could not support

themselves were confined to workhouses

• Workhouse conditions were so severe that it compelled those to find outside work, no matter the wage

• Parishes grouped into more efficient unions

• Law was administered by central board of commissioners in London

• Economic depression of early 1840s proved these conditions impossible; doles were re-established and taxes increased

• 1846: Repeal of Corn Laws

• Even after 1820 modification, bread prices were artificially high; employers had to pay wages high enough to allow workers money for food

• Corn Laws symbolized privileges of landowners over middle class

• Anti-Corn Law League formed to abolish this

• Other legislation passed reflected middle class concerns: individual salvation:

• 1833: Slave trade in British colonies abolished

• Series of Factory acts, limiting working hours for child labor

• 1847: workday in some trades limited to 10 hours

• Government grants to schools established by the Church of England increased after 1830;

• No form of state education was established until 1870, however

• France: slower pace of reform

• Expanded educational system: highlighted their belief in meritocracy

• 1833: French law established elementary schools in all villages

• Children of indigent parents received free education

• All others paid modest fee

• Large towns were to provide training schools for trade and industry and teacher training

• Result: number of pupils increased from 2 million in 1831 to 3.25 million in 1846.

• The Rest of Louis Philippe’s reign accomplished little

• Politicians engaged in schemes to enrich themselves via modernization of Paris and construction of railways

• Louis did nothing to curtail this• He was easily caricatured by his

enemies and amassed a fortune to “provide for his 5 sons and 3 daughters”

• Radicals in both France and Britain grew dissatisfied with their efforts to propel liberalism

• Reform Bill in Britain did little for their political participation

• Turned to trade unionism• Luddites (Ned Ludd) attacked

machines in factories• Believed that machines caused

unemployment

• No unions were organized effectively before 1850

• One attempt, Grand National Consolidated Trades Union of Great Britain and Ireland, to lead a general strike, caused government to end unions—the leaders were sent to penal colonies in Australia

Workers turned to political means

Chartist movement established.

People’s Charter circulated across the country; signed by millions

Six demands:

Universal manhood suffrage;

institution of the secret ballot;

• abolition of property qualifications for membership in House of Commons

• Annual parliamentary elections

• Payment of salaries to members of the House of Commons

• Equal electoral districts

• The success of this movement depended upon economic conditions: it spread w/unemployment and depression, and its leaders had differing views

• 1848 revolutionary outbreaks on the continent inspired Chartists to plan major demonstrations in London

• 500,000 workers planned a march on Parliament w/petition signed by 6 million demanding the 6 points

• Confronted w/open class conflict, special army units called up

• Fewer than 50,000 showed up

• Rain, poor management, lack of willingness to battle armed forces ended Chartists’ campaign

• Increasing prosperity ended movement after 1850

• France: radicals who manned barricades in 1830 unhappy w/results

• Opposed to constitutional monarchy• Radicals were primarily writers,

students, working-class leaders• Conspiracy of Equals, written by

Gracchus Babeuf became their bible• Led by Auguste Blanqui, they voiced

victimization of workers by middle class

• Organized secret societies that became leaders of 1848 insurrection

• Launched campaigns in the press and caricatured Louis Philippe

• They also took to the streets

• 1834: Louis Philippe’s government passed a law making radical political organizations illegal

• Rioting in Lyon and Paris ensued as a result

• Over a span of 2 days, government troops massacred hundreds and arrested 2000 leaders

• 1835—assassination attempt on Louis Philippe resulted in increased censorship

• Repressive measures increased dissatisfaction w/regime

• By 1847, general campaign of agitation spread throughout France

• February 22, 1848: giant protest meeting was announced

• On Feb. 21, Louis Philippe had forbidden the meeting;

• Rioting and barricading followed and resulted in abdication of Louis Philippe

• Provisional government established:

• 7 republicans and 3 socialists

• Government established workshops which were really program of public works in and around Paris

• High unemployment increased initial number of 10,000 to 66,000 by April and 120,000 by June

• Paris attracted radicals from all over Europe

• 170 new journals emerged and 200 new clubs formed in weeks

• Delegations claiming to represent all oppressed Europeans converged in Paris and moved about the city freely

Universal manhood suffrage was implemented in the April elections

Result: few radical socialists were elected; moderate republicans and monarchists were returned to government

Conservative demeanor of the elected body tried to suppress the radicals

• By late spring, majority in government believed workshop system was unbearable financial drain and threat to social order

• By end of May, workshops were closed to new enrollment

• Barred from those residing in Paris less than 6 months

• Sent those 18-25 to army

• Thousands lost state-financed jobs

• June Days:

• Desperate workers threw up barricades across Paris

• June 23-26, workers defended themselves in hopeless military battle against armed forces from provinces, wishing to repress urban working class

• After the fighting ended, 3000 were killed and 12,000 arrested and deported to Algerian labor camps due to their revolutionary threat to the government

• As a result of the June days, the government called for the immediate election of a president to bring order to France

• Of the four candidates : Lamartine—moderate republican

• General Eugene Cavaignac—commander of the June troops

• Alexander Ledru-Rollin—socialist

• Louis Napoleon Bonaparte—nephew of emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who returned twice as many votes as others combined

• Louis Napoleon spent most of his life in exile; in 1830, he was arrested in France, and escaped to England in 1846.

• He secured many funds from reactionaries in both countries and returned in 1848, welcomed by all classes

• Louis Napoleon dreamed of emulating his uncle, Napoleon, and used the power he had as president to gain more power:

• Catholics regained control of schools and he sent an expedition to Rome to restore to the pope temporal powers denied him during the 1848 struggles

• He introduced old-age insurance and laws for the encouragement of business to court workers and middle class

• 1851: he proclaimed need for extraordinary measures to protect rights of masses and established temporary dictatorship, inviting the people to grant him the power to draw up a new constitution

• December 21, 1851, this was authorized by a vote of 7.5 million to 640,000;

• New constitution, put into effect in January 1852, made the president an actual dictator

• After one year, Louis Napoleon ordered another plebiscite; with approval of 95% of voters, he assumed title Napoleon III, emperor of the French

• Significance of 1848?• Pivotal role of middle class: denied

political voice under Louis Philippe, it allied w/radicals

• After his abdication, middle class swung right, to support Louis Napoleon;

• Louis Napoleon realized the need to cater to middle class interests to survive

• Louis Napoleon assisted middle class in its economic goals, but made it forget its political liberties

• Class consciousness could not be ignored by governments;

• Workers moved to edge of political power; their revolts could be ignored, but it would risk the stability of the state; their needs must be addressed