History of the Modern World, 10th Edition (Palmer)

Chapter 14: European Civilization, 1871-1914: Economy and Politics

Chapter Overview

In the half century between national consolidation and World War I, Europe attained unprecedented economic prosperity. Europe’s population had expanded in the centuries after 1650, but then leveled off as small families became the norm. Europeans migrated in record numbers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, taking advantage of the new freedom of movement allowed by technological innovations and liberal ideas freeing them from former obligations. The industrial revolution spread from Britain and Belgium to other European countries. A world market was created for the first time as the rest of the world was drawn into Europe’s economic expansion by the demand for raw materials. The character of capitalism changed in this period, as large corporations increasingly dominated business. Politically, democracy advanced almost everywhere with the extension of universal male suffrage to the working classes. European countries confronted the challenges of labor’s growing strength and the appeal of socialism with varying degrees of repression and democratic reforms. Europe’s wealth and economic ascendancy in the world created the social stability for democracy to expand.