Rachel Jourdan-Aufiery-The Age of Empire Ch 5-8

Important information to note in Chapter 5 is the increased rate of workers earning money by manual labor due in part by western capitalism. Jobs in water, gas, and sewage were prominent as well as manual labor work on ports and railways. By 1914, oilfields were being used in Central and North America, the Middle East, eastern Europe, and south-east Asia. At the end of that century, urbanization had developed much more and there were also many people migrating from places such as Great Britain. During this time of economic expansion, the number of proletariat greatly increased as well. There was also an advance in industrial specialization and populations of towns all over were expanding. Working class parties on the rise represented manual workers and their goal was to make a new society as they battled against the capitalists in society. In this new society, members of society, except for the exploiters would be emancipated.
Nationalism, which is discussed in chapter 6 can be described as a person emotionally identifying themselves with their nation. Furthermore, along with with emotional attachment ti one's nation is political mobilization and elections. This was a somewhat new idea because throughout the nineteenth century, nationalism was compared with the French Revolution along with liberal and radical movements. Also, nationalist movements were on the rise in the 1870s.
The emancipation of woman is such an important time period of history. Unfortunately, for women living in Africa, Asia, or Latin America did not have the same opportunities as women in places such as the United States. Also, important women throughout history mentioned are Marie Curie, Rosa Luxembourg, and Beatrice Webb.There have also been many fluctuations of birthing patterns in women. Declines in birth rates can be attributed to women marrying later, or more of them staying unmarried. Infant mortality rates differed in areas as well. For instance, during the 1870s, there were about 140 deaths per 1000 born. In Russia however there were about 250 infant deaths for every 1000 born. Changes in the economy affected the work life of women. The term proto-industrialization is used to describe one way in which women could work outside the home Some women were able to work in the manufacturing field with cotton performing jobs such as lace-making or straw-plaiting. This gave women a chance to earn a little money in order to gain a slight bit of independence from men. During this time, there is still a major division of labor between men and women.

What I found very interesting was that the new political parties emerging that were inspired by revolutionary socialism were sometimes lead by women. Also, these parties had not really existed in the past. For instance, there was a German Social Democratic Party in 1880, but not too many others. Also, again in 1914, there were many socialist parties in the United States. A socialist party in the United States won about one million votes. in countries such as Germany and Scandinavia, socialist parties were one of the largest growing political parties. For instance, the Belgian Labor Party consisted of about 276,000 members in 1911. I think an interesting topic for discussion would be comparing and contrasting the new freedoms women experienced throughout the nineteenth century around the world. Also, it would be important to discuss reasons why women in areas such as Africa and Latin America did not experience many new freedoms.