Did the developed industrial countries in Europe enter a period of economic prosperity in the 19th century?

In the 19th century, the developed industrial countries in Europe entered a period of economic prosperity.

Beginning in the mid-1890s, developed European industrial countries emerged from the global crisis of the 1970s and entered a period of economic prosperity. The World Expo held in Paris in 1900 also emphasized that the progress of science and technology and traditional craftsmanship from various places showed the height of European-led civilization. The Electric Museum illuminated by countless electric lights announced the arrival of the electrical age.

Following London and Budapest, a subway also appeared in Paris, namely Metro Line 1, which is still in use today. On the one hand, the Paris World Expo was held to show the prestige of the colonial empire France; on the other hand, it was also to stimulate the French economy, which was surpassed by the United Kingdom, even the United States and Germany. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, as a representative of economic structural transformation or economic development, it was Germany that France intended to confront.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Germany not only surpassed Britain in the steel industry, but also had overwhelming advantages over other countries in the electrical and chemical industries that were in line with the progress of new science and technology. This development has greatly changed the face of the labor market. The population is moving rapidly to cities, and there is even a shortage of agricultural labor.

New changes have also occurred in the socialist forces in Europe. Revisionists emerged from the German Social Democratic Party, which had the largest political power in parliament, and from the labor movement, which was the base of its support, and criticized the mainstream faction that advocated relying on revolutionary means to achieve change. Presuming that there is a higher degree of possibility for ongoing structural adjustments in capitalism, they argue that the goals of social change should be achieved primarily through parliamentary struggle.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the era before the outbreak of World War I was often called the Belle Epoque. This French just means "good times, happy times", but after going through a hellish experience like the world war, people looked back and thought this era was very good. Indeed, in the era seen in Chapter 6, popular culture and consumer culture based on cities began to develop greatly. But it is absolutely not the case if everything goes smoothly and brings prosperity and stability to society, without dissatisfaction and doubt. Wherever there is light, there is shadow.

In Western Europe, where the economy and society are constantly developing, it can indeed be said that material, cultural and living conditions have improved. Despite this, the class differences and social strata are very different. In France, which coined the term "Belle Epoque", the average life expectancy in 1850 was 38 years old for men and 41 years old for women. By 1913, the average life expectancy for men had increased to 48 years old.

Women raised to fifty-two. The reason why the average life expectancy is lower than today is still the high infant mortality rate, which has been mentioned in Chapter 5. Let's then take a look at the numbers after taking occupation into account. Average data from 1870 to 1914 show that the male mortality rate for forty-year-olds was 90 per 10,000 business owners, compared with 130 for office workers, shop assistants, etc. people, while the death toll among frontline workers was one hundred and sixty. There are still clear class differences in the possibility of survival.

Except for a few exceptions, the unemployment rate during this period was not that high. On the contrary, it can be said that the labor market is constantly expanding and there are many opportunities to change jobs. But for the working population without advanced skills, this also has the consequence of instability, which requires frequent job changes. There are not many direct testimonies that reflect the thoughts of workers at that time, but the avoidance of the term "seniority" among young workers shows that at least some people have aversion to industrial labor.

Perhaps it can be said that this is also a feeling similar to the occlusion of an era with no way out. In fact, from the end of the 19th century to the "Beautiful Era", there were also frequent strikes by workers in various countries. Their goals are diverse, but not as general as Japan's Haruto (Editor's Note: Japan's labor movement held every spring to improve working conditions and raise wages, usually through negotiation), which is sometimes accompanied by fierce violence. Conflicts will also occur with police, military and other repressive forces, as well as casualties.

The reality is that there are undeniable social instability factors in the shadow of urban consumer culture. At first glance, it appears to be an era of optimism and celebration of civilization. It is also an era in which organizationalization and the enlargement of existing organizations have begun simultaneously in many aspects.

However, due to opposition and hatred of the current system, bombs, terrorist attacks and collective crimes also appeared in extreme cases. On the other hand, at the end of the 19th century, including the experiments of artists known as Decadent, people attempted unprecedentedly diverse challenges in literature and plastic arts. These include things that are in sync with the times, but there are also things that clearly express the lamentation of the poverty of imagination amid material abundance, and the attitude of rebellion against authoritative and conservative social norms.

The Arts and Crafts Movement that emerged in the UK, the Art Nouveau movement in France, and the Jugendstil in Germany and Austria used medieval craftsman techniques and curves to create objects that highlight the tension of life. The design attracts attention.

But it also contains an ambivalence.

On the one hand, they thoroughly criticized the uniform and vulgar living environment produced by industrial civilization; but on the other hand, they entered the realm of painting in terms of architecture, furniture, advertising, and daily handicrafts. Different from the academic school centered on sculpture, it has become the darling of the times in terms of artistic charm. This is the result of the continuous promotion of decoration in urban culture from the end of the 19th century to the Belle Epoque. This trend continued to develop and also spun off modern design trends such as Art Deco in the 20th century.

Despite this, there are also areas in Western Europe, including Germany, that can be called the "Belle Epoque". This is more profoundly demonstrated in Eastern and Southern Europe. In these regions, such as Tsarist Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy and other countries, we can indeed see some development of industrialization and the expansion of national political participation.

However, the poor peasants, who still constitute the majority of the population, are dissatisfied with their subordinate status and poverty and have no outlook for the future. On one side are the increasingly developing cities and the ruling class, on the other side are the farmers and the working people. The gap between the rich and the poor on both sides is very large. Among those who immigrated to the United States in search of a new world, in the first decade of the 20th century alone, there were 1.5 million Russians, 200,000 Austro-Hungarians, and 1.9 million Italians.

No matter which set of figures, the total number of people in the last two decades of the 19th century was more than twice that of the whole population. After the mid-19th century, especially from the end of the 19th century, the struggles among European countries around power competition, colonial competition, or economic hegemony, on the one hand, prompted the competition for military expansion in parallel with the further development of industrialization, and on the other hand, it also brought about a sense of crisis in war. .

This sense of crisis has prompted countries to increase their armaments and strengthened the concept that even if they want to eliminate other countries, they must gain a position that is beneficial to their own national security, ensure rights and expand territory. From 1877 to 1878, a military conflict broke out between the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia surrounding the movements of the Slavic peoples in the Balkan Peninsula. However, within Europe alone, from the 1870-1871 war in which Germany and France faced direct confrontation, until the outbreak of World War I in 1914, no major country had ever experienced a war.

Furthermore, although the Franco-Prussian War had absorbed the fruits of industrial development, the war ended in a short period of time due to the capture of Napoleon III, and both sides did not experience the cruelty of modern war. There were also wars around the colonies at this time, but most of the wars were not only local wars with local resistance forces as opponents, but they were also far away from Europe and did not become a personal experience for Europeans.

Going further, the same was true for the American Civil War that broke out from 1861 to 1865. The Civil War, which occurred after a high degree of industrialization, began to use modern weapons, including high-performance Mauser guns and machine guns, including early submarines. However, during the four-year civil war, the formation of soldiers still followed the old method of warfare, that is, a large number of soldiers formed a formation on a vast battlefield and launched an attack together with weapons.