Unit 7: The Long Nineteenth Century (1750 to 1914 CE)
This unit covers just 164 years of history. Previous units have covered hundreds and thousands of years. In comparison, this unit is incredibly short. What happened during the period of 1750 to 1914 to justify an entire unit?
From the start of the Industrial Revolution to the start of the First World War, great changes occurred globally. They helped to create today’s world.
These changes included:
- Using fossil fuels for energy.
- New political systems with democratic features.
- The economic systems of capitalism, socialism, and communism.
- Enormous growth of factories and cities and the pollution and consumer culture that came with them.
- Rapid communications through steamships, railroads, and the telegraph, and then, the automobile and telephone.
- Modern imperialism and colonialism (and ideas about race and gender that excused these systems).
- More people migrating to new places.
- The scientific method and the changing worldviews supporting it.
We sometimes call these changes revolutions. They were enormous changes. When combined, they created the “modern” world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Liberal revolutions and national revolutions
A salon, or political discussion, in the Paris home of Madame Geoffrin, one of many wealthy women who sponsored discussions at the heart of the Enlightenment. Public domain.
By 1750, more people believed in the idea of individual liberties. Being free and having rights are two examples of liberties. This idea helped start liberal revolutions. People fought for new rights, better lives, and liberty for enslaved people.
From these revolutions, a set of ideas called nationalism arose. Nationalism says that a people should govern a state of their own. It encouraged revolutionaries everywhere to fight for their own nation-states.
Industrialization
Before the Industrial Revolution, products were made and moved by humans and animals using wind, water, and burning wood for energy. By 1750, people had started burning coal, a fossil fuel, to make steam. It powered faster, more complicated machines that changed how people worked.
Through steam engines, making clothing became faster because machines did the work. More clothes and other items could be made more quickly and sold at lower prices. This allowed more people to buy them.
Industrialization began in the Atlantic, particularly northwest Europe, but Japanese companies and authorities also embraced it enthusiastically in the late nineteenth century. This is a silk-spinning factory. © Getty Images.
The Industrial Revolution changed travel and communication. With steam-powered trains and ships, people could travel further and move to new places. New ways to send messages helped people communicate over long distances. Unfortunately, the Industrial Revolution also polluted the environment.
Imperialism
Industrialization had good and bad effects. So did revolutions. Countries like Britain and France supported democracy, or government by the people. But, using ships and guns, they took over other lands. They claimed to be civilizing and improving people’s lives. However, they actually conquered countries and built empires through discrimination and mistreatment. The U.S. also built a kind of empire during this time.
Nationalism encouraged competition between empires. They fought to take over regions and use up their natural resources. Some people thought it was okay to take over other lands because they wanted to “improve” the people living there. But instead of asking, “How can we help?” they were mostly thinking, “How can we make you do things our way?” Many thought their own race was better, so they treated people in colonies as if they didn’t matter as much.
Part of the Tonkin campaign (1883–1886), in which the French fought against both Vietnamese and Chinese forces to conquer this region of Vietnam. © Getty Images.
People in these new colonies had little or no rights. They lived under colonialism. Their lives were controlled by a foreign country.
Many people resisted colonialism. Often, they did this through quiet ways.
Reform movements
Industrialization made business owners wealthy. It also changed the type of work people did. Capitalism helped increase productivity. But, it made working conditions harder. Workers—including children—labored long hours on farms or in factories to increase profits.
Many pushed for reforms. They wanted to end child labor, bad working conditions, and enslavement. They wanted women’s rights. They proposed an economic system called socialism. It gave workers more power and distributed wealth more equally.
Young knitters during working hours in London Hosiery Mills. By Lewis Hines, London, December 1910. By US National Archives, public domain.
Conclusion
Were the revolutions of the long nineteenth century good or bad? For some, revolution brought new freedoms and economic opportunities. For others, it brought suffering. But we shouldn’t treat each revolution separately. They were part of a wider struggle to shape the future—the society we live in today!
Trevor Getz
Trevor Getz is a professor of African and world history at San Francisco State University. He has been the author or editor of 11 books, including the award-winning graphic history Abina and the Important Men, and has coproduced several prize-winning documentaries. Trevor is also the author of A Primer for Teaching African History, which explores questions about how we should teach the history of Africa in high school and university classes.
Image credits
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 except for the following:
Cover Image: Attack and take of the Crête-à-Pierrot (4 - 24 March 24, 1802). Original illustration by Auguste Raffet, engraving by Ernst Hébert. Public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Haitian_Revolution.jpg
A salon, or political discussion, in the Paris home of Madame Geoffrin, one of many wealthy women who sponsored discussions at the heart of the Enlightenment. By Ministry of Culture, France, public domain. https://pop.culture.gouv.fr/notice/joconde/00000095103
Industrialization began in the Atlantic, particularly northwest Europe, but Japanese companies and authorities also embraced it enthusiastically in the late nineteenth century. This is a silk-spinning factory. © by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images.
Part of the Tonkin campaign (1883–1886), in which the French fought against both Vietnamese and Chinese forces to conquer this region of Vietnam. © Universal Images Group Editorial/Getty Images.
Young knitters during working hours in London Hosiery Mills. By Lewis Hines, London, December 1910. By US National Archives, public domain. https://www.loc.gov/resource/nclc.02004/
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