Week 9 lecture Mass politics and nationalism in Europe, 1850-1914
Lecture Outline: Conservative Rule and the Problem of Authority and Legitimacy in Second Empire France and Imperial Germany
A. Second Empire France
I. Louis Napoleon as Authoritarian and as "Reformer"
LNB skillfully combined the following practices to hold on to power and maintain the image of political legitimacy:
Police-state tactics: the police spied on all opposition political organizations, the press was censored, no opposition political gatherings were permitted, and people were jailed for political dissent.
Propaganda: LNB expertly used the state-controlled press, mass rallies, holidays, and other means to portray himself as the protector of business, the friend of the worker, and the champion of the peasantry--he created an image of himself as standing "above" all class interests and representing only the good of the nation.
Imperialist foreign policy: France expanded its colonial empire in Africa and Asia, which not only brought it economic benefits, but allowed the government to point to France's victories in Africa and Vietnam as a source of national pride--LNB claimed to be responsible for these successes and equated France's "greatness" with his rule. The aim was to get people to "rally around the flag" and use patriotism to silence dissent.
Economic development programs: under LNB, the government directly aided big business. For instance, it provided subsidies to railroad developers which meant that they would make profit no matter what the situation. The government also promoted legal changes that encourage the growth of large corporations and the dominance of corporations over several aspects of the French economy.
Social welfare reforms: under LNB, unions were eventually restored to legality [in the 1860s--they were, however, infiltrated by police spies], and the government spent large sums of money to rip down urban slums and build new, improved housing. This policy was two-edged, however--as a result, the workers' neighborhoods were destroyed and workers were resettled in the suburbs, which dispersed and diminished any potential threat of workers' rebellions. The new neighborhoods in city centers were designed in part to allow the government to stop any unrest--they featured wide streets that could not be barricaded, for instance.
II. The Decline of the Second Empire
Support for Louis Napoleon began to disappear in the mid-1860s, due to conflicts with the Catholic Church and the small business community and the re-emerging radicalism of the workers movement.
In response, and facing opposition from liberals in the parliament, LNB made a series of concessions (e.g., he restored freedom of press and limited free public assembly in 1868 and accepted parliamentary review of government policies in July 1869)
Parliament then asserted its independence in January 1870 and introduced a new liberal constitution in April 1870. Parliament criticized LNB's "timid" foreign policy regarding issue of Spanish succession, which led to tensions with Prussia.
III. Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71
On 19 July 1870, France declared war on Prussia. The war was a disaster for France, and after several major military defeats, LNB removed the Premier appointed by parliament and again assumed control over all aspects of government. On 2 September 1870, LNB was captured at the front in yet another French defeat. On 4 September, the parliament declared France a Republic (the Third Republic) and formed a "Government of National Defense." But on 19 September, the Prussians placed Paris under a state of siege. The city was blockaded and starved.
On 2 January 1871, the French government capitulated to Prussia, and asked that it be allowed to hold new elections before signing the peace treaty. Elections were held on 8 February, and a National Assembly began meeting on 12 February. On 23 February 1871, the Assembly appointed an old Liberal leader (Thiers) to form a new government. On 26 February, Thiers signed a peace treaty with the German Empire that 1) gave Germany 500 sq. miles of economically important territory (Alsace and Lorraine), with a population of 1.5 million; 2 required that France pay an indemnity. Under the treaty, German troops were to occupy Paris on 1 March 1871.
IV. The Paris Commune
On 18 March, the remaining population of Paris and the Paris National Guard refused to disarm and allow the Germans to enter the city. When ordered to do so by the government, they rebelled and seized control over the city. Thiers and the government then fled. On 19 March the people of Paris began elections for the Paris Commune, an absolutely democratic self-government. All men voted, and in most districts women voted, too. The Commune began meeting on 28 March: in addition to organizing the defense of the city, the Commune also instituted a large number of democratic social reforms. On 6 April 1871, the French government and army attacked the Commune. The Communards defended the city successfully until 21 May, when the army broke its way into the city. A week of bloody fighting followed, and on 28 May 1871 the last fighters of the Commune were killed. Over 100,000 people were then arrested: many were executed, and thousands were exiled. This was the last major popular uprising in France until the 1960s.
On 31 August 1871, Thiers was elected President of the Third Republic.
B. Imperial Germany
I. The Prussian constitutional system after 1848
Government based upon constitutional monarchy, with a parliament with two "houses" (one for commoners, one for the Junkers), in which most important power of parliament is setting the budget. The King appointed a chancellor as the "executive branch," and the King held extraordinary powers--e.g., he controlled the military and foreign policy and could disband parliament at will.
II. Prussian political culture
Main features: Junkers as conservative aristocrats and agrarian capitalists; middle class timidity. Cultural factors adding to acceptance of monarchical power: Hegelian view of the state; Martin Luther's view of the monarchy; the Prussian concept of law; the experience of 1848.
III. Bismarck and German Unification
The death of King Fredrich Wilhelm in 1861 brought a new, more activist king to power in Prussia, Wilhelm I (1861-1888). Wilhelm I considered it Prussia's destiny to unify all of Germany around Prussian power. he say the military as key to this. But the parliament, which controlled the budget, refused to approve Wilhelm's request to increase military spending. This created a constitutional crisis, which Wilhelm "solved" by appointing Otto Von Bismarck as Chancellor of the government.
Bismarck in 1862 told the parliament that Prussia's great issues would be solved by "Blood and Iron." He disbanded parliament, held new elections, and divided the opposition. He then set about building up the Prussian army and the Prussian industrial economy.
Prussia's growing power, and Prussia's efforts to build a united Germany around itself, brought it into direct confrontation with Austria. In two wars in the late 1860s (ostensibly over the northern kingdom of Holstein), Prussia defeated Austria. But it still could not bring several important southern German principalities into its "North German Confederation." This was largely because of the cultural differences between the Protestant (and increasingly industrial) North and the Catholic (and mostly agricultural) South.
In 1870-71, Bismarck and King Wilhelm used the Franco-Prussian War to pull the remaining southern principalities (except Austria!) into a united German Empire. The German Empire was declared on 21 January 1871.
III. Social tensions in the united Germany
Cultural Tensions--between the Lutheran culture of the North and the Catholic culture of the South, made worse by Bismarck's policy of "Culture Wars" against Catholicism in the 1870s
Social tensions--The Junkers and other aristocrats were politically dominant but were increasingly economically threatened. In particular, free trade policies would have undermined their positions as agricultural capitalists. The Middle Class was of growing economic importance, but still lacked real political power. The Lower Middle Class was being "squeezed" by the growth of big business. The peasants, especially in the South, were threatened by the government's cultural policies and by trade policies that favored the Junkers. The Working Class grew in numbers as the economy industrialized, and workers in Germany were very politically active. Although in the South, the Catholic political parties and trade unions had much influence among workers, in the North the most important political organization among workers was the German Social Democratic Labor Party--the socialist party founded by Karl Marx.
Political tensions: The conservative political parties--mostly supported by the Junkers and some big industrialists--rallied around Bismarck and dominated politics, but they represented only a minority of the population. Most of the middle class supported various "centerist" and liberal parties. But the Social Democrats were by far the biggest political party. By the 1890s, the socialist party had more than 1 million members. This posed a potential threat to both the government and the middle class: The socialists had as their first goal the end of Germany's authoritarian system of constitutional monarchy and the establishment of a democratic republic; The socialists' longer term goal was ending capitalism and replacing capitalist society with a socialist society, in which there would be no private [or corporate] ownership of business, industry, or land.
IV. Policies to Promote Conservative Stability
Under Bismarck's leadership and even once Bismarck had been replaced in 1890, the German government followed a complex strategy to restrain social and political tensions and hold on to power. (When Emperor Wilhelm I died in 1888, the new Emperor, Wilhelm II, found himself at odds with Bismarck; after a series of disagreements, he pressured Bismarck to resign in 1890).
State support for big business: the government both became a major consumer of industrial goods (especially military industrial goods) and made legal changes that encouraged the growth of big corporate conglomerates. In particular, in made it easier to form corporations--these have the advantage of being able to raise large sums of capital by selling stock, and they protect investors from legal claims against them as individuals. In Germany, large "cartels" formed that integrated corporations vertically (so that a corporation might control all of the industries that provide it with goods and services, thereby reducing costs and increasing profits) and horizontally (so that a corporation can control many or all of the companies in a particular industry, thereby eliminating competition and increasing profits). This was in keeping with the wide-spread trend away from laissez-faire and towards "organized capitalism."
The Marriage of Iron and Rye: to protect the incomes and power of the Junkers, the state imposed high tariffs on imported grain. This raised the price of imported grain and gave an advantage to the Junkers; whose large estates specialized in crops like rye. But raising the cost of grain hurt industrialists--it meant that the cost of living for workers was higher, and that forced industrialists to pay higher wages. [It also hurt the dairy-farming peasants of the South...]. The government's pro-big business policies were in part a way of securing a "balance" between the aristocrats and the industrialists--a marriage of Iron (the industrialists) and Rye (the aristocrats).
Negative Integration: The German government and its conservative supporters used all means within their grasp to define "good Germans" as those who were loyal to the Emperor and the government. Newspapers, churches, schools, and other shapers of public attitudes all stressed that certain categories of people were "un-German"--Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other ethnic minorities, and also socialists, anarchists, and even liberals who were "too critical" of the government. The point was to pressure people to conform politically and socially.
Socialization: The institutions responsible for socializing people--for teaching individuals how to fit into society and how to behave, emphasized that one should act like a "good German"--which meant conform politically and socially and respect and accept the leadership of the conservative elites. These institutions included schools, churches, universities, fraternities, the army, etc.
Social Imperialism: The German government undertook a policy of colonial expansion in Africa and in Asia during the 1870s-1914. This "imperialism" was partly motivated by economic concerns, which we will discuss in a later lecture. But is had a domestic political goal as well--the government used Germany's various victories in the colonies and its growing influence in the world to "rally people around the flag." The idea was that they could use "patriotism" to silence political dissent.
Reforms: Bismarck (and the chancellors under Wilhelm II) understood that the socialists were popular among workers because the socialists' criticisms seemed to explain the great difficulties that workers faced in their daily lives. Bismarck outlawed almost all socialist party activities (the "anti-socialist laws" of 1878 and the anti-socialist trade union laws of 1879), but also introduced a number of social reforms designed to "take away the socialists' issues" by improving conditions for workers. These reforms included a medical treatment bill for industrial workers (1883), an accident insurance act for industrial workers (1884), and the extension of insurance to agricultural workers (1886). In 1890, when Bismarck resigned, the government lifted the anti-socialist laws. but it continued issuing social reform measures like the 1891 factory inspection act.
This combination of policies may have prevented social tensions in Germany from boiling over into revolution. But they also helped reinforce the authoritarian aspects of German political culture, promoted ultra-nationalism and intolerance towards minorities, and helped push Germany along the path that would lead to World War One, as we will see in a later lecture.
Study Question:
In both Second Empire France and Imperial Germany, fundamentally
authoritarian governments used a combination of repression and reform to
maintain conservative stability and make themselves seem "legitimate"
in the eyes of the public, despite the absence of real democracy. What types
of policies did these two regimes follow in common? Explain these policies and give specific examples.