The History Of Eastern Europe Essay, Research Paper
Course Background
Dominant Civilizations
1. The dominant civilization at the time was the Roman Empire.
2. Western Europe was right behind the Roman Empire in civilization.
3. With the fall of the Roman Empire, Western civilization fell.
The split of civilization
1. Western Europe began to slit in to seperate counries.
2. Less people used Latin as a form of communication.
3. This made international communication difficult.
4. Many different languages emerged.
5. Christianity split up with the rise of Protestantism.
6. Religeon began to decline.
A. There were lees religeous wars.
B. The last religeous war was in 1648 (The 30 yrs. war)
1) Millions of people died.
2) Approxmiatley 1/3 of the population perished.
Science and TEchnology
In the early 1830’s Faraday discovered the relationship between electricity and magnetism
This allowed for the abilit yot generate electrcity
Samuel Morse developed the telegraph
By the late 1800’s radios and x-rays were developed
Chemistry took off in the 1860’s
Scientists discovered that there were such things as elements
The periodic table was invented
Synthetic chemicals took off
Biology took off in the 1850’s
Pastuer discovered what bacteria were
Charles Darwin worked out the relationship between the species
He came up with the theory of evolution and Natural Selection
The development of Nationalism
France
In France Napoleon III harnesses Nationalism as a motivator tio get thim elected as president.
THis of course worksmand the people later grant him the status of Emperror.
TO make the people happy he held frequent votes in the National Assembly but kept little power with them
Italy
People wanted to unite
The government was run by Cavour
Garribaldi holds a revolution and conqueres the southern parts of Itlay then just hands them over to Cavour
order toi unite Itlay
Germany
THey also wanted to be united
Prussia was the dominant government
Bismark was running the governemnt for the King
HE was a conservative Aristcrat and hated the idea of a democracy
Prussia wars with the Danes, Austria and France and wins them all
This brings the people of Germany together and they unite under Nationalism
GErmany becomes the strongest power in Europe
“Absolutist” Governments in the seventeenth century
Background
1. Previous kings had more restrictions.
2. The church had separate power then the government.
3. The “Nobles” or Aristocrats usually had more armed forces than the kings did.
4. The Estates or Parliament represented certain groups in society.
5. There was a lack of government officials.
6. The less number of bureaucrats there were meant less control over the general population.
Spanish government
1. The Spanish had more power during this period.
2. They had begun to expand over the Atlantic Ocean to Mexico and Peru.
3. The Spanish used the gold and silver found in the new land for buying a bigger and better army.
4. This big army made Spain the most powerful nation during the early 1600’s.
5. After a few generations the gold and silver depleted and Spain lost its power.
6. The nation was later left to be ruled by a member of the French royal family.
French government
1. In the late 1500’s the French was split between the Catholics and the Protestants.
2. There was non-stop fighting between the two for the crown of France.
3. In the 1580’s, Henry Burbon began winning battles and was sought top be the next ruler of France.
A. Henry Burbon was Protestant.
4. Henry soon became king of France.
A. He converted to Catholicism for political reasons
B. He gained the title, Henry IV king of France
5. Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes.
A.The Edict of Nantes stated that the king had converted to Catholicism and that he officially gave Protestants the right to have private armies.
6. Eventually Henry IV died.
7. The next king in line for the throne was too young.
8. His name was Henry V.
8. Being too young, his mother let the Cardinal Richelieu control the government.
10. Richelieu was noted for really starting the “absolutist” movement of the governments.
11. He worked to cut the power of the Nobles.
12. Richelieu also spent a large amount of time destroying Protestant castles and ridding the Protestants of their private armies.
13. He was also responsible for creating a bureaucracy by assigning Intendants.
A. Intendants had power over certain sections of the state.
B. They ruled in the name of the king.
14. Richelieu also raised the taxes in France as much as possible.
15. King Henry V and Richelieu die at almost the same time.
16. The Nobles do a major grab at the king’s power.
17. Louis XIV was next in line to inherit the throne.
18. He was too young and his mother assigned Cardinal Mazarin to control the government.
19. Mazarin was not as good as Richelieu at obtaining power from the Nobles.
20. Louis XIV grows up and rules for 72 yr.
21. Louis XIV later build Versailles in an effort to distract the Nobles.
A. By holding meetings at Versailles, the king put the Nobles in socially distracting situations.
B. With the Nobles occupied with their social lives, Louis IV was able to gain a small amount of power.
22. Louis IV was also responsible for strengthening the power of the Intendants and creating a larger bureaucracy.
23. He built the strongest government France had ever seen.
24. However there were some weaknesses in his system of government.
A. Louis IV was not able to collect enough taxes.
B. He spent too much on luxury.
C. Louis IV spent too much money supporting his army in fighting foreign wars.
D. In short he did not do enough long-term financial planning.
25. France was a Mercantilist country.
A. They believed in a large amount of industrial production.
B. This made France very successful.
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe generally had more freedom than Western Europe.
The language barriers of the area did not coincide with the governmental boundries.
The two most important governments in Eastern Europe were Austria and Prussia.
The Turks
The Turks came from Central Asia.
They conquered most of the Middle East.
In 1453 they wiped out the last remnants of the Roman Empire.
The Turkish government was very autocratic.
At the time they were a major military threat to Austria.
Austria
Austria struggled with the Turks back and forth an eventually won.
Austria ended up taking over a large majority of the Turkish Empire.
Austria’s government tried to be “absolutist” but was to diversified to do so.
Prussia
Prussia started out very weak.
Armies would simply march over them in an effort to reach some parts of Eastern Europe.
Prussia was split up into two chunks of land ruled by one man.
The ruler of Prussia was Frederick William the Great Elector.
Frederick went to the Estates and said he needed money to keep the armies from marching over him.
The Estates granted him the money and he began forming an army.
Soon enough Frederick’s army became so great that he used it to force tax collection among the people.
This tactic of collecting taxes led to and dramatic increase in Prussia’s power.
Soon it became a major power in Eastern Europe.
Frederick then was given the title “King.”
In Prussia, the King and the Nobles banded together and ground the common people into the dirt for money and power.
Russia
The first leaders of Russia were the Princes of Moscow.
They were kept restricted by the already present Mongols.
In the early 1500’s the title Tzar or Czar came about.
The first man to receive this title was Ivan the Terrible.
He was called that because of his ruthless ways of collecting taxes and treating all the people under him.
After Ivan died the people rebelled and demanded fair rule.
Later in 1682, Peter the Great come to power.
He decided Russia needed to be Westernized and he set forth a great campaign to collect technologies from the West.
Peter also built St. Petersburg (the new capitol of Russia)
The Westernizaton of Russia made it considerably stronger.
Economic Expansion
Most people in the time were agricultural.
Many starved to death in bad-winter weather.
There simply was not enough food to go around.
Famine was a common thing.
Sometimes towns lost 1/3 or 1/4 of their population.
Different aspects of agriculture
The most common system was the Three-field system.
Later the better Open-field system was introduced.
A field that did not yield a crop during that year was considered fallow.
The potatoe was a great crop to be introduced to society in this time.
It had more vitamins and minerals and also gave more back to the soil in comparison to the previous wheat.
Disease
The plague or “black death” ran rampant throughout this time period.
It originated in small woodland animals from Northeast Asia.
Later the disease ran its course and began to die off.
The small pox vaccine was discovered adn the disease tapered off.
Employment
The population was continuing to grow and eventually became a problem.
The Putting-out system was a way of letting people work in industry while staying at home.
This allowed employers to focus more on the product and not having to constantly worry about the employees.
Merchantalism meant that the people did not import from outside countries but rather they focused all their attention to exporting and making money from foreign countries.
Adam Smith said that the governemnt should back off and let the people decide what should be made and exported.
This allowed for the government to make less mistakes in deciding what the best export would be.
The End of World War I
After the Germans had decidedly defeated the Russians in World War One they successfully moved their troops over to the western front of Germany to fight the French and British. The Germans made some very impressive advances into the western front on in to France and Belgium. However, the Germans had a hard time getting reinforcements and supplies to the front line seeing as how they had to travel across the previously defeated enemy territory known as nomad’s land. The other side, France, had well-developed roads and railroad to help transport their war needs. Later on in the war the Germans forces tapered off and began to die as the American Army finally decided to join in on the war. With newly replenished troops on a monthly basis, the allied forces were able to begin pushing Germany back to where it came from. By late summer of 1918 Germany was pushed back significantly, and they decided that they had ultimately lost the war.
Now the Germans needed to make peace and make peace fast. The allied forces would soon topple Germany over its own border and Germany would have no room with which to negotiate. A revolution broke out in Germany and the former Kaiser was overthrown. A new democratic government formed and they made peace with the allies promptly. However, peace put a large handicap on the democrats of Germany. The right Winged conservatives exclaimed to all that Germany had won the war based on the current territorial map of Germany. It did in fact look as though they won, they did have more land than what they started with. But, the conservatives also went on to say it was the fault of the democrats in Germany that the German army was being forced to stop fighting and discontinue territorial gain. The people chose to believe this fairy tale and went on with shady feelings toward the democracy of Germany. In November 1918, a cease-fire was issued called the Armistice that required all sides to stop fighting. It also required that Germany give up most of its weapons in order to make sure that they did not start the war again without any notice. After negotiations, the Treaty of Versailles was written and put Germany in some very tough situations. It required that Germany pay a very high rate of repartitions so that it would indefinitely be economically crippled. It also took away some territory from eastern Germany that split the country in two. Also, Germany was not allowed to have an Airforce, submarines, battle ships tanks or large amounts of infantry. With these hindrances and a new policy on peace the League of Nations was born.
Imperialism
AFRICA
Some European powers grew so strong that they could spread their influence across many nations.
In the 19th century Western Europe spread wildly into Africa and Asia (India).
There were only two countries in Africa that escaped the colonization of Europeans.One was Libya. It was home to many black Americans that were ancestors of the first slaves brought over by American ships, which were sent back to the coast of Africa. The other was Ethiopia. It simply was too hard to conquer due to its location in the highest mountains of Africa.
There was not often serious resistance to the colonization by the Europeans.
However there was a group of Africans who was very difficult to colonize. They were known as the Boers or Afrikaners. They were Dutch settlers who had blended in with the society but stayed in close contact with European ideas of politics and technology. With the technology of modern Europe the Boers stood a very good chance at preventing the Europeans from colonizing. However, the wealth of the gold and diamond mines in the area they lived kept the moral and spirits of the Europeans high, which was enough to lead them to victory ver the Boers.
This was known as the Boer War 1899-1902
INDIA
India was a more unified target than Africa.
It had a structured government and was beginning to develop.
But circumstances led to the fall of India’s central rule and the nation fell apart.
The British turned the Indian’s against eachother.
India became a very divided society.
Nationalism
This was the concept that held nations together in times of struggle. India had not developed a sense of Nationalism yet. They implemented a caste system in which society was split up into the wealthy and the no so wealthy. Within the two groups there was intermarriage or sometimes-even interaction.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
Europeans conquered this entire area. The Vietnamese put up the strongest fight with the French. There was a tradition of anti-foreign rule that the Vietnamese followed. This was the closest to Nationalism that they ever saw. Napoleon III kept putting French soldiers into Vietnam to gain the support of the people back home in France. In 1916 the Vietnamese revolted. They charged up to the enemy but had only swords and spears and the French dominated the radicals with their firepower.
There was no single motive for imperialistic expansion. Some did it for the money. Some did it for the glory. But all over, practically everyone in Europe had a colony elsewhere in a foreign land.