Scramble for Africa in the 1880s
Scramble for Africa in the 1880s: For what reasons did the nations of Western and Central Europe undertake the “Scramble for Africa” in the 1880s? Which countries participated? Who were the biggest winners?
2. How were women’s roles in society changing in late nineteenth-century Europe?
3. What was Sigmund Freud’s model of the human mind? Why were his ideas on the psychosexual development of human beings so controversial in 1900?
4. Explain the rise and growth of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the last decades of the century. What strategies and tactics did it adopt? How did it grow into a mass party?
5. In what ways were the processes of Italian and German national unification similar? Which persons and parts of the country led each process? What similar obstacles did they face?
6. What was Haussmannization? What were some of the political motivations behind it?
7. What were the two major crises faced by Russia in 1905? What was their importance for Russian history?
Part II – Essay (30%)
Please choose ONE of the following. Write a structured, organized essay that responds to all parts of the question. Your essay should be at least 500 words. Be sure to incorporate the texts in your answer (using whatever citation method you wish).
1. The century between the Congress of Vienna (1814-5) and the First World War was a time of relative peace in Europe. What changed to make World War I happen? What broke down? What new dynamics emerged to provoke a continent-wide war in 1914? Why were the Balkans at the center of the crisis? Be sure to address political, social, economic, and diplomatic considerations.
2. Write an essay comparing the “Manifesto of the Paris Commune’s Federation of Artists” with F.T. Marinetti’s “Futurist Manifesto” (1909). What are the similarities and differences between these manifestos? What do they tell us about the social and political circumstances in which they were written? What had changed between 1871 and 1909 to give these documents a different sensibility? Feel free to draw on some of the artistic and cultural movements we discussed in class, and to bring in any other texts you feel are relevant.
Requirements: requirement | .doc file
Answer preview
Part I
Question 1
The scramble for African between Western and Central European nations, including France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Britain, and Belgium, resulted from economic, religious, and political reasons. While focusing on economic reasons, the countries wanted a share of the African resources, such as rubber and oil, to establish new markets to create wealth for their nations (Collins, 2021). Further, the European missionaries who explored the African continent aimed to promote religion, particularly Christianity, while preaching spiritual salvation to laborers. These European nations wanted to become superpowers from a political angle by colonizing African countries. Notably, during the scramble, the big winners were Great Britain, which got countries from Egypt to South Africa, and France, which had a vast share of West Africa.
Question 2
Earlier in the 18th and 19th centuries, women did not have the right to vote, own property, acquire higher education, or even sue. Women had limited occupational choices considering most stayed at home to take care of their families. The low-class women worked in poorly paid jobs as domestic servants, peasants on farms, or factory laborers. However, there was a gender revolution contributed by industrialization, leading to a change in women’s roles in the late 19th century (Collins, 2021). In this case, reforms through associations, such as the Women’s Suffrage Movement among African Americans, strengthened the women’s voices. The women’s roles started changing such that they could own property, have the right to choose their leaders by voting, get higher education and seek well-paying jobs as teachers, nurses, civil servants.
Question 3
Sigmund Freud came up with the psychodynamic or psychoanalytic theory of the human mind, which posits that the interactions in three components in the human mind, mainly the id, ego, and superego, influence human behavior. A significant part of the psychoanalytic theory helps explain personality development. In this case, Freud argued that children experience different psychosexual stages that influence their adult personality. These phases are the oral, anal, phallic, and latent stages. However, this perspective was controversial based on arguments that Freud’s theory focuses not on female psychosexual development but the male perspective. Hence, the aspect of bias based on sex was prevalent.
Question 6
Baron Haussmann helped modernize France. During the modernization period, the citizens nicknamed him the demolisher in a process known as Haussmanization, meaning the renovation of Paris, which left many displaced. Haussmann went about demolishing neighborhoods causing overwhelming dissatisfaction among the citizens (Collins, 2021). While he demolished, he erected new buildings, sewer systems, axial systems, and a healthy environment with clean water and wonderful nature. Notably, the leadership of Napoleon III influenced the Haussmanization of Paris because he envisioned having an embellished city, considering Paris was the center of France. Based on a coup d’etat that had occurred, Haussmann did not have to wait for parliamentarians’ decisions on making the changes. New regulations at the time allowed him to promote Paris’s renovations.
Question 7
Russia experienced several unrests directed towards the active government. The first crisis was the Bloody Sunday when thousands died in opened fire targeted towards them as they headed to present a petition to the rule, Tsar Nicholas II. Still, the industrial workers’ strike was another crisis that hurt Russia’s economy. Notably, these events had a significant impact on Russian history due to influencing substantial changes in government, including the shift in governance from autocracy to a constitutional monarchy. Furthermore, these events led to the historical Russian revolution where the peasants fought for fair working conditions and reasonable wages since they experienced oppressive working conditions and low wages.
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