Notes on the history of the Twentieth Century, Part 1

Notes on the history of the Twentieth Century, Part 1


Important Influences from the Nineteenth Century:

During the last third of the Nineteenth Century Europe exploded into strong and rapid economic development because of the continuing Industrial Revolution, which kept on going until the first years of the Twentieth Century. This economic progress occurred irregularly with alternating periods of acceleration and economic depression (boom and bust). It is convenient to divide this unique period in the history of human civilization into the first and second industrial revolutions.

The first industrial revolution originated in England in the Eighteenth Century with the mechanization of the textile industry and the invention of the steam engine, and afterwards it was extended to the other parts of Europe and America, principally the United States.

With the evolution of techniques of mechanization, a growing number of products previously made by artisans were now made more cheaply by industrial processes, and the artisans who had previously made them found themselves without work. Both they and the surrounding rural population then had to work in industrial factories, which appeared to offer them a more secure way of making a living.

During the second industrial revolution these tendencies increased. Other idustries started evolving, especially the chemical industry, developed principally by Germany. Another important factor was the development of new forms of mechanical energy, such as electric motors and internal combustion engines.

The use of electricity, which could be produced only with batteries in the first part of the Nineteenth Century, had been limited to the telegraph. But with the invention of the dynamo by Gramme in the last part of the Nineteenth Century it was possible to use electric motors for every industrial machine and eliminate the need for complicated and inefficient systems of mechanical transmission to operate them. Progress in the chemical industry also produced improvements in the production of steel and of other metallic alloys.

The construction of railroads was also a very powerful factor in the economic development of the second industrial revolution. In the last part of the Nineteenth Century, the principal European countries had completed their railroad networks. The construction of tunnels extended these networks, providing France, Switzerland, and Italy with a rapid and unified system of transportation. There were also some very spectacular projects, such as the completion in Russia of the Transiberian Railroad, a line some 9.900 kilometers long that reached Vladivistok in 1902.

The application of steam and afterward diesel engines to the propulsion of ships accelerated progress in maritime navigation, which became safer with the invention of radiotelegraphy by Marconi. During this period, 79% (seventy-nine percent) of the tonnage transported was from European and 12% (twelve percent) from American sources.

The perfection of internal-combustion engines made practical the use of automobiles as a medium of transportation, and with them came the expansion of a new system of roads, which provided even denser transportation networks for the industrialized countries.

The invention of the telephone made much easier instant electric communication, producing denser commercial communication networks, which facilitated the consolidation of commercial enterprises.

European industry found new consumers in colonial territories annexed to Europe during the second half of the Nineteenth Century. Among these empires, the biggest was the British Empire. Because of all these activiites, the value of international commerce doubled in the first part of the Twentieth Century.

During this period, European countries dominated international commerce. When the First World War started in 1914 (nineteen fourteen) 65% (sixty-five percent) of the total value of world exports originated in European countries. But American commerce expanded from 12% (twelve percent) of the world total to 39% (thirty-nine percent). This commerce started with condiments and products of the European colonies and of Europe itself. But when the Twentieth Century started, importing minerals and other raw materials became more important.

During the first period of the Industrial Revolution, the European countries exported principally articles for consumption. But afterwards the exportation of machinery for the construction of railroads and factories in other industrializing countries became more important.

The Great Economic Powers:

England, which started the first industrial revolution, was the greatest power in the world during the Nineteenth Century. But when the Twentieth Century started, the English had three important competitors: Germany, France, and the United States.

The American Civil War provoked in the United States great economic progress, which grew slowly but accelerated during the last ten years of the Nineteenth Century, laying the foundation of world-wide American hegemony after the Second World War.

England, Germany and France were the most powerful countries of Europe, and they dominated the other European countries whose industry was still at its beginning stages and whose agricultural production was low and badly planned.

Between 1890 and 1913 the annual gross-national-product growth rate was 3.9 (three point nine) in the United States, 2.9 (two point nine) in Germany, 1.7 (one point seven) in England, and 1.4 (one point four) in France. These figures allow us to verify, on the one hand, the spectacular progress of the United States and, on the other hand, the growing development of Germany, which became the largest among the great European industrial powers because of its production of really good steel, industrial machinery, and a wide variety of chemicals, relegating England to and France to third place. Despite the industrial leadership of Germany, London continued its economic pre-eminence because of the world dominance of the pound sterling.

Outside the Euro-Atlantic area, there was only one country that had industrialized enough to be able to compete with the Euro-American powers: Japan, which a half century earlier emerged from its feudal system and started an aggressive program of occidentalization and industrialization. Japan did not have much capital or many natural resources, but its population was very skilled and intelligent.

The Japanese became industrialized in the sectors manufacturing arms, marine shipping, heavy industry, and textile and architectural technology, imitating occidental models of production. The central government levied heavy taxes on its rural sector and invested them in new factories, which quickly produced spectacular economic results.

In 1894 Japan declared war against China and conquered it. Both Japan and Russia wanted to occupy Manchuria. To resolve this conflict, Japan declared war against Russia and defeated the Russians in a naval battle. This war reduced the power of the Russian Czar and indirectly contributed to the Bolshevik revolution. The Euro-Atlantic countries now realized that they had a new competitor in the Orient whose power was constantly growing.

Prosperity and Misery among the Industrialized States:

The economic system that accompanied the Industrial Revolution, capitalism, continued concentrating wealth into the hands of the owners of commercial and industrial enterprises. This tendency grew gradually in the Nineteenth Century and accelerated during the Twentieth Century.

The proprietors of these enterprises wanted to increase their profits as much as possible and paid their workers only enough to keep them alive in miserable circumstances. Their economic condition often did not give them access to even the most basic food and hygiene products. Their shifts at work weakened them physically to the point of illness. They did not have any access to education. And if they had it, the physical demands of their hours at work would not enable them to apply themselves to their studies. Even women and children of the less privileged classes had to work to the point of physical exhaustion to maintain their familes in these miserable circumstances.

Because of these problems, the workers of the industrial countries tried to defend their interests by establishing labor unions, which gradually united and organized large demonstrations starting in 1905 (nineteen-oh-five). These unions were not able to establish themselves in the economic sectors where working conditions were at their worst, and they had to limit their political action to sectors where industrialization was most heavily concentrated. In England and Germany these unions had some 4,000,000 (four million) members, a much higher number than in France, where only about 1,000,000 (one million) were able to organize themselves into unions.

The Development of Socialism:

Along with the organization of labor unions, ideologies for reorganizing industrial society kept on gradually growing. The most important current of European socialism had its inspiration in the doctrine of Karl Marx, who, together with Friedrich Engels, published in 1848 the "Communist Manifesto," which urged the workers of Europe to liberate themselves with the command, "Workers of the world unite!" In its form of social democracy, Marxism became strong enough to elect a solid number of representatives to the principal European parliaments--20% (twenty percent) in Germany, 25% (twenty-five percent) in in Norway, 20% (twenty percent) in Belgium, and 15% (fifteen percent) in France. In England the Labor Party drew 42% (forty-two percent) of the popular vote in 1910.

In Russia the socialdemocratic parties, founded in 1898 (eighteen ninety-eight) split up into Menshevik and Bolshevik factions in (1903 [nineteen-oh-three]). The Bolsheviks organized a rebellion in 1905, which, together with the Russo-Japonese War, weakened the Czarist government. In 1917 (nineteen seventeen) they established in Russia the first socialist regime in the world.

Anarchism, a more radical political movement, wanted to eliminate all authoritarian organizations, including governments in any form. They had their greatest influence in Russia, France, Italy, and Spain. The anarchists organized some violent attacks of historical importance in the first part of the Twentieth Century.

Nationalism and Imperialism:

During the last part of the Nineteenth Century, the great European powers, driven by their economic ambitions, competed among themselves to enlarge their markets and obtain secure sources of raw materials. Fortified by the nationalist ideology of the European countries, they divided among themselves all of Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

The division of Africa into European colonies was accomplished completely without paying attention to the interests of the colonized populations and without regard to ethnic, cultural, or historic differences among them. Often the geographic divisions of the European colonies produced artificial borders marked by arbitrary parallels and meridians on political maps.

Here are the colonial divisions among the great powers before the First World War:

ENGLAND, a country with a territory of only 245,000 (two hundred forty-five thousand) square kilometers, had in 1914 an empire of 33,000,000 (thirty-three million) square kilometers spread througout the five continents--in other words 126 (one hundred twenty-six) times the size of England itself. Its princpal area of expansion was Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

FRANCE controlled an empire of some 10,000,000 (ten million) square kilometers, twenty times larger than its national territory, with 55,000,000 (fifty-five million) inhabitants, principally in Africa but also in Indochina and the Pacific islands.

GERMANY, which had started its colonial expansion rather late because Bismark wanted to conquer only European territories around Germany, undertook with Wilhelm II a policy of colonial conquest throughout the world. At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Germany had colonies in Africa, Asia, and Oceania with a territory of 2,000,000 (two million) square kilometers and 8,000,000 (eight million) inhabitants.

HOLLAND, after occupying the Indonesian archipelago, extended its reach to Sumatra and other island territories, attaining an empire about sixty times larger than its metropolitan territory.

PORTUGAL maintained its African colonies, Angola and Mozambique. Portugal wanted to unite both territories, one at the east and the other at the west, but England frustrated this ambition.

BELGIUM did not develop its empire by collective national initiatives but through the personal ambitions of its king, Leopold II, who created the ironically named "Free State of the Congo" independent of Belgium but under his personal control. Though the king assured everyone that his ambitions were scientific and humanitarian, his exploitation of this immense territory of 2,500,000 (two million five hundred thousand) square kilometers was inhumane and diabolic. Because of international criticism, he transferred this territory to his country in 1908 (nineteen-oh-eight).

SPAIN controlled a very extensive territory but also had colonial ambitions in certain parts of Asia, which conflicted with the ones held by other European countries, which frustrated many of these ambitions.

RUSSIA had conquered an immense territory surrounding Moscow but also had colonial ambitions in the south of Asia up to the borders of Afghanistan and Iran. Russia also wanted to control Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, and China. These ambitions conflicted with those of other European countries.

JAPAN, the only Asian nation with imperialist ambitions, opposed the penetration of the Russians into Manchuria and weakened the Czarist government after its war with Russia (1904-1905 [from ninteen-oh-four to ninteen-oh-five]), providing a big surprise to the European governments. After establishing its dominance over Korea and some islands in the Pacific, the Japanese were able to satisfy their colonial ambitions up to the Second World War.

THE UNITED STATES, which had conquered all its territory on the American continent toward 1890 (eighteen ninety), started a policy of expansion and militaristic colonialism during the McKinley administration (1897-1901 [from eighteen ninety-seven to nineteen-oh-one]), invading Cuba and leading Spain into a war that the Americans easily won.

Because of this war, the United States exercised a sort of protectorate over Cuba and annexed Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The American government also conquered Guam, a part of Samoa, and the Hawaiian Islands, which eventually became the fiftieth state of the United States.

To construct the Panama Canal and control the territory on its sides, the United States divided Colombia into two parts, artificially creating a new state, Panama, which submitted completely to American ambitions to control the new canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

INTERLINGUA: Notas sur le historia del seculo XX, Parte 1