Comparing and Contrasting the Impact of Industrialization

WHAP/Napp

Cues: / Notes:
  1. Industrialization and the U.S.A.
  1. Industrialization progressed differently in different places
  2. Size of U.S.A. coupled with ready availability of natural resources, growing domestic market, and relative political stability combined to make U.S.A. the world’s leading industrial power by 1914
  3. But one-third of capital investment that financed U.S.A. growth came from Western Europe
  4. Yet overall economic strength of U.S. was sufficient to avoid dependency
  5. U.S. pioneered techniques of mass production, using interchangeable parts, assembly line, and “scientific management” to produce for a mass market
  6. Also generated a middle-class “culture of consumption”
  7. But class consciousness and class conflict were intense in the industrial America of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
  8. In 1892, the entire National Guard of Pennsylvania was sent to suppress a violent strike at the Homestead steel plant near Pittsburgh
  9. But no major political party emerged in U.S.A. to represent the interests of working classconservatism of major American union organizations, especially the American Federation of Laborfocused on skilled workers
  10. Also religious, ethnic, and racial divisions of American society contrasted sharply with the more homogeneous populations of Europe
  11. And a higher standard of living for American workers than their European counterparts experienced made socialism less attractive in U.S.
  12. But Populists denounced banks, industrialists, monopolies, political parties –saw as being controlled by the corporate interests – high point mid-1890s
  13. After 1900, Progressivesremedy the ills of industrialization through reformsPresidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson
  1. Russia
  1. Sole outpost of absolute monarchy
  2. Tsar, answerable to God alone, ruled unchecked
  3. In autocratic Russia, change was far more initiated by the state
  4. Peter the Great (reigned 1689-1725)newly created capital of St. Petersburg was to be Russia’s “window on the west”
  5. Catherine the Great (reigned 1762-1796), continued Peter’s efforts to modernize and westernize Russia was an Enlightened Despot
  6. Freeing of serfs in 1861, an action stimulated by military defeat at the hands of the British and French in the Crimean War (1854-1856)
  7. By the 1890s, Russia’s Industrial Revolution was launched
  8. By 1900, Russia ranked fourth in the world in steel production

Summaries:
Cues: / I.Although factory workers constituted only about 5 percent of Russia’s total population, developed an unusually radical class consciousness, based on harsh conditions and absence of any legal outlet for grievances
J. Until 1897, a thirteen-hour working day was common
K. Life in large and unsanitary barracks added to workers’ sense of injustice
L. In 1905, following Russia’s defeat in war with Japan, insurrection erupted
M. 1905 revolution was brutally suppressed tsar was forced to make reforms
N. A constitution was granted, trade unions and political parties were legalized, and the election of a national assembly, called the Duma, was allowed
O. In 1906-1907, Duma refused to cooperate with tsar’s new political system, Tsar Nicholas II twice dissolved elected body and changed the electoral laws
P. World War I provided revolutionary groups an opportunity
Q. Hardships of the war, coupled with the tensions of industrialization within an autocratic political system, sparked the Russian Revolution of 1917
R. Bolsheviks under the charismatic leadership of Lenin came to power
III. Other Regions
  1. Beyond Europe and North America, only Japan during Meiji Restoration (1868-1912) underwent a major industrial transformation
  2. Part of that country’s response to threat of European aggression (Commodore Perry’s arrival and the ending of isolationism in Japan)
  3. In Latin American, political instability after independenceconservatives favored status quo and liberals sought modest reforms
  4. Conflicts between these factions, often violent, enabled military strong men known as caudillos to achieve power
  5. Yet Latin America became closely integrated into world economy driven by industrialization in Western Europe and North America
  6. New technology of the steamship cut the sailing time between Britain and Argentina almost in half
  7. Rapid growth of Latin American exports to the industrializing countries
  8. In return for these primary products, Latin Americans imported textiles, machinery, tools, weapons, and luxury goods of Europe and U.S.A.
  9. Accompanying this commerce was large-scale investment of European capital in Latin America
  10. By 1910, U.S. business interests controlled 40 percent of Mexican property and produced half of its oil
  11. Much of this capital was used to build railroads, largely to funnel Latin American exports to the coast
  12. Vast majority of lower classes in rural areas working on haciendas (large farms) where they suffered most and benefitted least from export boom
  13. Yet only in Mexico didvast inequalities erupt into a nationwide revolution
  14. Overthrew dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1911)
  15. Huge peasant armies under charismatic leaders such as Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata helped oust Díaz
  16. When the dust finally settled, Mexico had a new constitution (1917) that proclaimed universal suffrage

Summaries:

Strayer Questions:

  • What were the differences between industrialization in the United States and that in Russia?
  • Why did Marxist socialism not take root in the United States?
  • What factors contributed to the making of a revolutionary situation in Russia by the beginning of the twentieth century?
  • In what ways and with what impact was Latin America linked to the global economy of the nineteenth century?
  • Did Latin America follow or diverge from the historical path of Europe during the nineteenth century?

  1. Which common trait helps to explain Russian and Japanese ability to modernize in the nineteenth century?
(A)Extensive experience with cultural imitation, Russia imitating Byzantium and the West, Japan imitating China
(B)Prior adoption and variation of Christian teachings, providing a basis for westernization
(C)Royal appreciation of the democratic tradition
(D)Presence of abundant natural resources, particularly coal and iron ore deposits, within traditional territorial confines
(E)Preexisting traditions of widespread public education and literacy
  1. Which of the following was the main reform put in place as a result of the 1905 Revolution in Russia?
(A)Unions were legalized.
(B)Freedom of the press was established.
(C)A national representative assembly, the Duma, was created.
(D)Czarism was abandoned in favor of representative democracy.
(E)Agriculture was collectivized.
  1. Among settler societies, which emerged as leading power by 1914?
(A)Australia
(B)The United States /
  1. Which pair of regional powers was able, by 1914, to initiate substantial industrialization and resist Western domination?
(A)Ottoman Empire and South Africa
(B)Russia and Japan
(C)South Africa and Russia
(D)Ottoman Empire and Japan
(E)Argentina and Ottoman Empire
  1. Which of the following was experienced by Russia but not Japan by 1914?
(A)Mass revolutionary upheaval
(B)Rapid urbanization
(C)State-directed industrial development
(D)Expansion of educational opportunity
(E)War for territorial acquisition
  1. In which Latin American nation did indigenous people play the most prominent political role during and after the winning of independence?
(A)Argentina
(B)Colombia
(C)Brazil
(D)Mexico
(E)Cuba

Excerpt fromphschool.com

Bolshevism: Communist doctrine based on the theories of Karl Marx as formulated by Lenin. These theories were outlined at the second congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party held in London in 1903. The divergent viewpoints of the delegates to the congress crystallized into two factions, the more radical faction being led by Lenin. He advocated a unified party of active, professional revolutionary members, willing to use any means to establish a Communist society. His opponents, on the other hand, proposed to admit all who declared general sympathy with the aims of the party, regardless of active participation. On this point the congress supported the latter plan, but on other matters and in the final vote that elected the party leadership, the congress favored Lenin. The faction led by Lenin was thereupon called Bolshevik (from the Russian word for "majority"), and the opposition, Menshevik (from the Russian word for "minority"). The names clung, although the Bolsheviks were not always thereafter the dominant group in the Russian revolutionary movement.

The essential differences between the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks appeared more clearly in subsequent years, when an apparent agreement on a Marxist program—theoverthrow of czarism, the establishment of constitutional government, and, finally, the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a Communist society—resulted in wide variations in practice. The Bolsheviks supported the immediate objectives only insofar as they led in the direction of the final revolutionary aim. The Mensheviks, however, believing that Russia was not ready for revolution, placed the emphasis on reform, especially the establishment of constitutional government. Neither faction played a dominant role in the revolution that followed the defeat of Russia in the war with Japan in 1905. The workers' soviets (legislative bodies) were formed spontaneously, and Lenin failed at first to realize their importance. Leon Trotsky, who, as chairman of the St. Petersburg Soviet, was the active leader of their revolution, was neither Bolshevik nor Menshevik, but stood between the two factions, striving to unite them…

As a result of increasing differences, a final split between the two factions occurred in 1912. Thereafter the two parties, together with others, competed for the leadership of the anticzarist revolution. The Bolsheviks used both legal and underground tactics to advance their program, building a membership, in accordance with Lenin's original specifications, of about 45,000 by March 1917, and 240,000 by July of that year. The Bolsheviks opposed World War I as an imperialist conflict in which socialists should have no part, but the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, placing national before class interests, supported and eventually attempted to take leadership in the Russian war effort. As a result of the collapse of the Russian armies and the growing awareness of the inefficiency of the government, a revolution broke out in February (March, New Style) 1917, resulting in the abdication of the czar and the introduction of parliamentary government…The Bolsheviks seized state power in October (November New Style) 1917. In 1918, under the new name of the Communist (Bolshevik) Party adopted from an earlier organization led by Marx, they began their career as the dominant, and later, by decree, the sole political organization in the USSR. The subsequent history of the theory and practice of bolshevism is indistinguishable from that of communism.

Thesis Statement: Comparative:Impact of Industrial Revolution on U.S.A. and Russia

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