Chapter 5 focuses on the rise of the working class in the political spectrum. Increased industrialization opened up countless jobs, further transforming the working force from rural farmers to urban factory workers. Oppression of these unskilled factory workers caused the meme of socialism to spread through them. The laboring public had almost pushed socialist parties into the majority in many European nations by the beginning of the 20th century. In chapter 6, the spread of nationalism throughout Europe is covered by Hobsbawm. In the early 1900s many Europeans believed their country's ethnicity to be superior to the rest, placing the blames for their problems on others. The effects of nationalism eventually snowballed into the first World War. The 7th chapter shifts its central topic from common workers to the Bourgeoisie, or the upper and upper-middle class. But Bourgeoisie can be more than just a social status, it is also a lifestyle. It became very difficult to determine where exactly the line between Bourgeoisie and the lower-middle class should be drawn. Chapter 8 focused on the advancement of women's rights and the evolutions of women's roles in society. Women marrying at a later age and the greater desire for new consumer lifestyle lowered the birth rate of developed countries. Women began to first spread their influence by slowly making their way into the workforce and by making most family purchases.
I find it interesting that nearly all European rulers were not natives of the country that they ruled, but were rather related to each other, and of German descent. I would think that they would have noticed the sweeping democratic changes and banded together in an attempt to preserve their sovereignty. For discussion, to what extent do you think nationalism played in setting the stage for the first World War?
-Derek Leidemann
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Nationalism was probably the catylist for world war 1. Before this time most countries consisted of small kingdoms and an all out conflict was very unlikely but when nationalism lead into patriotism it was easy to get the masses of people involved in a war.
ReplyDeleteWhat Lou said.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, nationalism was a big contributing factor to the war, but it was definitely not the most important one. Not nearly as big as in the WW2.
Nationalism was certainly one of the factors that lead to WW1. Nations were trying to dominate each other in Europe, which lead to the formation of national rivalries. Once Germany became united in 1871, they established their dominance on the mainland and did everything they could to keep their hegemony. France wanted to take that hegemony from Germany and reclaim it for themselves. Britain was determined to make sure neither of them became too powerful. This desire for nations to dominate the others led to an inevitable WW1
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