Democracy,

Progress, and
Imperialism
1815-1914

 During the 1800s, Great Britain gradually allowed three

of its coloniesCanada, Australia, and New Zealand
greater self-rule. However, Britain maintained its tight
control over Ireland.
The United States expanded across the continent during
the 1800s and added new states to its territory to become
a great power.
The transcontinental railroad helped to link the United
States from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. It
was a triumph of 19th-century technology.

Main Ideas

SECTION 1: Democratic
Reform and Activism

 MAIN IDEA: Spurred by the demands of the people,

Great Britain and France underwent democratic reforms.
WHY IT MATTERS NOW: During this period, Britain
and France were transformed into the democracies they
are today.

Democratic Reform and

Activism

 Urbanization and industrialization brought sweeping changes to

Western nations. People looking for solutions to the problems
created by these developments began to demand reforms.
They wanted to improve conditions for workers and the poor.
Many people also began to call for political reforms.
They demanded that more people be given a greater voice in
government.
Many different groups, including the middle class, workers, and
women, argued that the right to vote be extended to groups that
were excluded.

 Britain became a constitutional monarchy in the late

1600s. Under this system of government, the monarch
serves as the head of state, but Parliament holds the real
power.
The British Parliament consists of a House of Lords, and
a House of Commons.
Traditionally, members of the House of Lords wither
inherited their seats or were appointed.

Britain Enacts Reforms

 However, this changed in 1999, when legislation was passed that

abolished the right of hereditary peers to inherit a seat in the House
of Lords.
Members of the House of Commons are elected by the British
people.
In the early 1800s, the method of selecting the British government
was not a true democracy. Only about five percent of the population
had the right to elect the members of the House of Commons.
Voting was limited to men who owned a substantial amount of land.
Women could not vote at all. As a result, the upper classes ran the
government.

 The first group to demand a greater voice in politics was the

was the wealthy middle class which were composed of
factory owners, bankers, and merchants.
Beginning in 1830, protests took place around England in
favor of a bill in Parliament that would extend suffrage,
or the right to vote.
The Revolution of 1830 in France frightened Parliament
leaders.
They feared that revolutionary violence would spread to
Britain.

The Reform Bill of 1832

 Parliament passed the Reform Bill of 1832. This law

eased the property requirements so that well-to-do men in
the middle class could vote.
The Reform Bill also modernized the districts for electing
members of Parliament and gave the thriving new
industrial cities more representation.

 Although the Reform Bill increased the number of British

voters, only a small percentage of men were eligible to
vote.
A popular movement arose among the workers and other
groups who still could not vote to press for more rights.
It was called the Chartist movement because the group
first presented its demands to Parliament in a petition
called The Peoples Charter of 1838.

Chartist Movement

The figure who presided over all this historic change was Queen Victoria.
She came to the throne in 1837 at the age of 18.
She was queen for nearly 64 years.
During the Victorian Age, the British Empire reached the height of its wealth and power.
Victoria was popular with her subjects, and she performed her duties capably.
However, she was forced to accept a less powerful role for the monarchy.
The kings who preceded Victoria in the 1700s and 1800s exercised great influence over
Parliament.
The spread of democracy in the 1800s shifted political power almost completely to
Parliament, and especially to the elected House of Commons.

Now the government was completely run by the

prime minister and the cabinet.

The Victorian Age

Remnants of the
Victorian Age

By 1890, several industrial countries had universal male suffrage.

No country allowed women to vote.
As more men gained suffrage, more women demanded the same.
During the 1899s, women in both Great Britain and the United States
worked to gain the right to vote.
British women organized reform societies and protested unfair laws and
customs.
As women became more vocal, however, resistance to their demands
grew.
Many people, both men and women, thought that woman suffrage was too
radical to break with tradition.
Some claimed that women lacked the ability to take part in politics.

Women Get the Vote

 After decades of peaceful efforts to win the right to vote,

some women took more drastic steps.
Though woman suffrage gained attention between 1880
and 1914, its successes were gradual. Women did not
gain the right to vote in national elections in Great Britain
and the United States until after World War I.

 While Great Britain moved toward greater democracy in the late

1800s, democracy finally took hold in France.

THE THIRD REPUBLIC:

In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War, France went through a
series of crises.
Between 1871 and 1914, France averaged a change of government
almost yearly.
A dozen political parties competed for power.
Not until 1875 could the National Assembly agree on a new government.
Eventually, the members voted to set up a republic. The Third Republic
lasted over 60 years.

France and Democracy

 During the 1880s and 1890s, the Third Republic was

threatened by monarchists, aristocrats, clergy, and army
leaders.
These groups wanted a monarchy or military rule.
A controversy known as the Dreyfus Affair became a
battleground for these opposing forces.
Widespread feelings of anti-Semitism, or prejudice
against Jews, also played a role in this scandal.

The Dreyfus Affair

 Inn 1894, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, one of the few Jewish

officers in the French army, was accused of selling military
secrets to Germany.
A court found him guilty, based on false evidence, and
sentenced him to life in prison.
In a few years, new evidence showed he was framed by
other army officers.
In 1898, Emile Zola published a letter in a French
newspaper, denouncing the army for the scandal.
Eventually, the French government declared his innocence.

 The Dreyfus case showed the strength of anti-Semitism in

France and other parts of Western Europe.
However, persecution of Jews was even more severe in
Eastern Europe.
Russian officials permitted pogroms, organized
campaigns of violence against Jews.
From the 1880s on, thousands of Jews fled Eastern
Europe. Many headed for the United States.

 By 1800, Great Britain had colonies around the world. These

included outposts in Africa and Asia.
In these areas, the British managed trade with the local peoples,
but they had little influence over the population at large.
In the colonies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, on the
other hand, European colonists dominated the native
populations.
As Britain industrialized and prospered in the 1800s, so did
these colonies. Some were becoming strong enough to stand on
their own.

Self-Rule for British

Colonies

 Canada was originally home to many Native American

peoples. The first European country to colonize Canada
was France.
The earliest French colonists in the 1600s and 1700s had
included many fur trappers and missionaries.
They tended to live among the Native Americans.
Some French intermarried with Native Americans.

Canada Struggles
for Self Rule

 Great Britain took possession of the country in 1763 after it

defeated France in the French and Indian War.
The French who remained lived mostly in the lower St.
Lawrence Valley.
Many English-speaking colonists arrived in Canada after it
came under British rule.
Some came from Great Britain, and others were Americans
who had stayed loyal to Britain after the American Revolution.
They settled separately from the French along the Atlantic
seaboard and the Great Lakes.

 Canadas first prime minister, John MacDonald,

expanded Canada westward by purchasing lands and
persuading frontier territories to join the union.
Canada stretched to the Pacific Ocean by 1871.
MacDonald began the construction of a transcontinental
railroad, completed in 1885.

Canadas
Westward Expansion

Nineteenth-Century
Progress

 Main Idea: Two powerful ideas, nationalism and reform,

helped reshape Europe politically during the mid-1800s.
What does the term self-rule mean to you? What does it
include? Who should have it?

Nationalism and Reform

 Nationalism is the desire of people with the same history,

language, and customs for self-rule. During the 1800s,
nationalism along with demands for political reform, led
to dramatic and important changes in Europe and the
Americas.
Democracy in Great Britain: As you know, Great Britain
became a democracy, more people had the right to vote.

 Main Idea: In the mid-1800s, two new countries, Italy

and Germany, were created.
Which do you think is more important for a nation:
democracy or a strong economy where everyone has a
job? Why?

The Rise of Italy and

Germany

 In the early 1800s, the countries we know today as Italy

and Germany did not yet exist. Instead, these areas were
divided into many small, independent states.
By the 1850s, the rise of nationalism in Europe
strengthened the desire of many Italians and Germans to
create united countries.

 In 1848 most of Italys states were dominated by Austria.

Piedmont, in northern Italy, was independent and was ruled by
King Victor Emmanuel and the prime minister Comillo di
Cavour.
Both of these men wanted to unite Italy.
After Piedmont helped Britain and France in a war with Russia,
France agreed to help Piedmont drive Austria out of Italy.
In 1858, with Frances help, Piedmont won a war against
Austria.
This victory was the first step toward uniting Italy.

How Did Italy

Become a Country?

 At the same time, nationalists led revolts in southern Italy. Their leader
was Giuseppe Garibaldi.
This revolutionary leader gained control of the island of Sicily in 1860.
Garibaldi was a master of guerrilla warfare, a form of war in which
soldiers make surprise attacks on the enemy and then go back into
hiding.
Garibaldis army landed on Italys mainland and gained control over
more territory.
People in the south then voted to join a united Italy.
In 1861, the Kingdom of Italy was set up as a constitutional monarchy
under Victor Emmanuel.
Two areas remained outside Italy.

 One was Rome, which was under the popes control.

The other was an area of northeast Italy, which remained
Austrian.
By 1870, wars had brought both areas into the new Italian
kingdom, and the unity of the country was complete.

 Nationalism was also strong in the German states.

Many of these states rules were not willing to give up their
political power though.
Nationalists, however, had strong support form the northern
German state of Prussia, which had grown powerful and
prosperous.
Prussia was ruled by William I, who dreamed of uniting all
German states under his leadership.
In 1862 he appointed Otto von Bismarck as his prime
minister.

Bismarck Unites Germany

 Bismarck was a deeply conservative Junker, or wealthy

landowner.
He vowed to govern Prussia by blood and iron rather than
by votes and speeches.
He quickly raised money and strengthened the army.
He used the army to easily defeat neighboring Denmark
and Austria in two short wars.
As Bismarck hoped, these successes helped him unite all
of northern Germany in Prussias new empire.

 The mostly Catholic southern German states feared the power of

Protestant Prussia.
They feared France more, however.
In 1870 Bismarck fought a war with France, known as the FrancoPrussian War.
This conflict was a great success for Prussia and a disaster for France.
Prussia gained two of Frances border territories.
More importantly, the southern German states agreed to unite with
Prussia.
On January 18, 1871, William was proclaimed kaiser, or emperor, of
a united Germany.

 Previously, we learned about the Industrial Revolution

and how it changed the lives of Europeans. By the 1800s,
industry had also changed Europes relationship with the
world.
Main Idea: European nations built empires to help their
economy and to spread their ideas.
Focus: A store owner with too many goods, on the shelves
must find new customers or he or she will lose money.
Think about it.

The New Imperialism

 Imperialism: a type of relationship between countries

in which one nation directly or indirectly controls the
government or the economy of another nation.
Imperial nations ruled other people in many different
ways. Sometimes they created a colony, which they ruled
directly. Sometimes they set up a protectorate. There the
local people had their own government but the imperial
government controlled the military and could tell the
local rulers what to do.

 In other cases, they set up a sphere of influence, a region

where only one imperial power had the right to invest or
to trade.

 As early as the 1500s, Europeans were drawn to

Southeast Asia for its spices.
They took control of many island groups, including the
Philippines and the East Indies.
During the 1800s, Europeans began taking over Southeast
Asias mainland.
There they grew crops, such as coffee and tea. They also
began to use the areas raw materials, such as petroleum,
rubber, and tin.

The First Empires:

Southeast Asia

 In 1819 a British official named Thomas Raffles founded a colony on a

small island known as Singapore or city of the lion.
It became an important port for ships going to and from China.
The French followed the British to mainland Southeast Asia. Both
countries soon competed for territory.
The British took control of the rest of the Malay Peninsula and Burma to
the north.
Meanwhile, French Catholic missionaries entered nearby Vietnam.
Fearing the British would move into Vietnam, the French sent in troops
and in 1884 Vietnam became a French protectorate.
In all of Southeast Asia, only Siamtodays Thailandkept its freedom.

 Main Idea: Control of India passed form the East India Company to
the British.
Britain took direct control of India from the company.
A viceroy, an official standing in for Britains Queen Victoria,
arrived to head the Raj, as a British Indias government was now
called.
The viceroys government both helped and hurt the Indian people.
The British brought unity to India. The government was well-run
and schools were founded. In addition, the British introduced
railroads, the telegraph, and a postal service throughout India.

Britains Empire in India

 British rule also brought great hardships. Cheap British

textiles flooded India and destroyed the local textile
industry. The British also forced many farmers to grow
cotton instead of food.
Soon India did not produce enough food to feed its
people. In the 1800s, millions of Indians died from
starvation.

 Main Idea: European nations ruled almost all of Africa by

1914.
Focus Question: Have you ever bought something just
because everyone else had it? Think about it.

Europe Divides Africa

 The first part of Africa to be conquered by Europe was

also the closest. In the early 1800s, Europeans crossed the
Mediterranean and took control of North Africa.
French soldiers seized control of the territories that are
today the counties of Algeria and Tunisia.
The last territory France claimed in North Africa was
Morocco, which it divided with Spain in 1904.

The Struggle for North

Africa

 At the eastern end of North Africa, European businesses

began operating in Egypt.
In 1869 they opened the Suez Canal. Built by Egyptian
workers and paid for with French funds, it linked the
Mediterranean and Red Seas.
The Suez Canal provided a shorter water route to India and
East Asia.
In 1875 the British took control of the Suez Canal.
After Egyptians rebelled, the British made Egypt a
protectorate.

 By 1900, only Tripoli, today known as Libya, remained

free from European control.
Then, in 1911, Italy defeated the Ottoman empire in a
brief war and was given control of Tripoli.

 Main Idea: The United States became an imperial nation

after defeating Spain and taking control the Philippines
and Puerto Rico.
In the late 1800s, the United States joined European
powers in the race for colonies.
By that time, the United States had become an industrial
nation. As its economic power rose, many Americans in
business and government came to believe that their
country needed raw materials and new markets overseas
to keep the economy growing.

The War of 1898

 America Defeats Spain: In its search for markets and raw

materials, the United States looked to Latin America and
islands in the Pacific.
In the late 1800s, Spain still ruled the Caribbean islands
of Cuba and Puerto Rico. However, in 1895 Cuba
rebelled against Spain.

 American newspapers printed vivid stories of killing and cruelty

in Cuba. As a result, US president William McKinley sent the US
Battleship Maine to protect Americans who lived and worked
there.
While anchored in the harbor of Havana, Cubas capital, the ship
exploded.
American newspapers blamed Spain and pressured the president
to take action.
In April 1898, McKinley asked Congress to declare war.
Four months later, the United States had won the war.
Spain lost much of its remaining empire.

 Spain lost much of its remaining empire.

Cuba became a republic under American protection.
Puerto Rico and the Pacific islands of Guam and the
Philippines became American territories.