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Class Struggles Across Europe
The last few decades of the 19th century saw the emergence of the masses as a serious force in national politics. In Britain, the working classes that had been the backbone of the Industrial Revolution clamored to be heard by the ruling elite, eventually throwing their support behind the Labour Party, a political party based on trade unions that advocated the creation of the government welfare state.
A similar development took place in Germany, where the Social Democratic party emerged as a force to contend with despite the numerous attempts by the ruling elite to destroy its power.
In Austria-Hungary, the power of the bourgeoisie, who had identified their interests with those of the aristocracy, began to weaken as the entire outsider population—ethnic minorities, students, and radical right-wing groups—began to emerge in Austrian politics.
France’s Third Republic Thrives
In France, the modernized and centralized state that emerged in the Third Republic united the nation and allowed a mass media culture to emerge. The entire population, receiving the same information and the same interpretation of the news, was galvanized by various events, such as the Dreyfus Affair, which cut right to the heart of French society.
Imperialism in African and Asia
Foreign policy throughout this era was generally dominated by imperial conquest. At the 1884-1885 Berlin Conference, the European powers codified the exploitation Africa, and by 1914, nearly the entire continent of Africa was colonized by Europeans. China and Southeast Asian countries also generally succumbed to European invasion. Only the Japanese, after years of modernization and westernization, were able to become imperialists themselves and exert their own interests on the Chinese mainland.
The Triple Alliance and the Tripple Entente
By the end of the 19th century, the political balance of power that had kept Europe at a moderate level of peace since 1815 began to unravel. With the consolidation of the German Empire, new alliances and new balances had to be formed, but the new models would not succeed. The balance of power became a polarization of the European world—namely, the separation of alliances into two groups, the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) and the Triple Entente (Great Britain, France, and Russia). With an arms race developing and the breakdown of peace in the Balkans, Europe was racing toward utter destruction and World War.
