Russia
Tsar Nicholas I died in 1855. His death was one reason behind the settlement of the Crimean War; Alexander II, his son, had better things to do than fight France and Britain.
Alexander was far different from his father. First, Alexander was educated in the liberal arts as well as in military matters. Alexander was the first Russian tsar to visit Siberia; he had traveled throughout Russia and Europe. His wife was German, and Prussia remained one of Alexander’s favorite countries. Alexander was well equipped to change Russia — and Russia needed changing.
First of all, Alexander had to address issues exposed by the Crimean War. Russia had no railroads south of Moscow, which hindered the Russian army during the war.
Alexander’s greatest reform was the emancipation of the serfs. Although the Russian nobility opposed this, Alexander told them, “it is better to begin to abolish serfdom from above than to wait until it begins to abolish itself from below.” Alexander prepared a secret committee to examine serfdom. Alexander prepared to abolish serfdom while giving land to the serfs so they could support themselves at their independence.
On 19 February 1861, Alexander signed the emancipation statues. Emancipation was set for the Sunday before Lent so the peasants wouldn’t have time for uprisings. Unfortunately, the peasants didn’t receive all the land they had worked immediately at emancipation; instead, the nobility retained ownership of the land while the peasants paid the owners the value of the land. Peasants had to accept standard-sized allotments of land; the allotments varied in size from region to region. In 1861, over 22 million Russians were freed from serfdom.
Alexander relaxed his father’s censorship rules on the press. The press law of 1865 abolished preliminary censorship by officials for books and so-called “thick” journals. Alexander allowed greater freedom in the universities than his father, leading to enrollment increases of 50% in 4 years. The Ministry of Education issued the Public School Statute in July 1864 to create a national system of primary schools. The zemstva assemblies in the provinces opened elementary schools in rural areas, while the city councils did the same in towns.
In January 1864, Alexander reformed the zemstvo system, which provided for elections of district and provincial assemblies. Urban self-government was allowed in 1870.
In 1862, Alexander decided to reform the judicial system. The resulting laws were signed in November 1864. Alexander also reformed and modernized the military. Prussia’s defeat of France spurred Alexander and Russia to further reforms, including universal military training and abolishing most corporal punishment.
Unfortunately, Alexander was willing to go only so far in his modernization. Alexander remained an absolute ruler in complete control of the empire. Furthermore, the Poles continued to cause trouble in the traditionally Polish areas. The Russians mercilessly crushed Polish rebellions in 1863. Russification policies were extended to Finland and Baltic German areas. Many Russian Jews emigrated from the empire to the U.S.
Alexander’s reforms didn’t assuage the revolutionaries. In March 1881, Alexander II was assassinated by a group calling itself the People’s Will (their sixth attempt). His son, Alexander III, would be as anti-reform as Alexander was pro-reform.
Alexander III was huge — 6’6” — and massively strong. Alexander III was also extremely conservative. His advisor vehemently opposed the Westernization policies of his father. Alexander expanded the police state of his grandfather Nicholas I; re-imposed censorship; tightened control over schools; and reversed Alexander II’s judicial reforms. Alexander III also expanded Russification. The zemstvo reforms were also reversed by restriction of voting rights.
If the revolutionaries hated Alexander II, they despised Alexander III. Uprisings became common in Russia. Marxists gained a foothold in Russian industrial centers when censors allowed Karl Marx’ Das Kapital to be published in Russian; they thought it was too boring to be a threat.
Alexander III died in 1894. His son, Nicholas II of Russia, was more sensitive than his father, but he was not as strong in his convictions. Nicholas’ best statesman, Count Sergei Witte, did his best to expand industrialization in Russia. Witte was known for his vigorous pro-Western policies; he firmly believed that without reforms and Westernization, Russia could not compete in the world arena.
Witte's huge problem was that Russia had lots of labor, but little of it was free. The serfs were still trying to repay their redemption bonds for the land they received at emancipation. Therefore, Russia had few factories. Even worse, Russian agriculture was bound by traditionalism and backward technology.
Witte also faced massive debt. Russia was still paying on loans taken from the Dutch in 1778 and 1815; nearly 27 percent of the Russian budget went toward loan payments. Nonetheless, Witte knew that Russia needed capital to fund industrialization. Witte took out new loans to fund a national railroad system (including the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Moscow to Vladivostok, over 5,000 miles) and state-owned factories. Side note on Lake Baikal:
Lake Baikal (pronounced by KAHL), also spelled Lake Baykal, is the deepest lake in the world. It also contains more water than any other freshwater lake. Lake Baikal lies in southeastern Siberia, a part of Russia. The lake is 5,315 feet (1,620 meters) deep at its deepest point and consists of more than 20 per cent of the world's unfrozen fresh water. Lake Baikal covers an area of 12,162 square miles (31,499 square kilometers). The lake measures about 395 miles (636 kilometers) long and about 49 miles (79 kilometers) wide at its widest point. Source: World Book Encyclopedia
Unfortunately, Witte’s programs were too expensive for the government to reform other areas.
Russia had no national parliament to allow the expression of discontent. Therefore, revolutionary activity increased, with assassination of government officials becoming a popular pastime. The man who introduced Das Kapital to Russia, George Plekhanov, created the Russian Social Democratic Party in 1898; agrarian radicals created the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1901.
In 1903, the Social Democrats held a party congress in London and split. The small party came under the control of a man who rejected the socialist ideal of a gradual implementation of socialist ideals and adopted the Communist ideal of a violent revolution: Vladimir Lenin. Lenin called his party the Bolsheviks; Plekhanov’s party was called the Menshiviks.
In 1905, major world events interrupted Witte’s program. The Russian empire was defeated by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War. The Japanese had rapidly modernized following the Meiji Restoration of 1867, adopting Western-style military weaponry and tactics. The Russian military was humiliated: the army had lost Port Arthur, and the Baltic Sea fleet lay at the bottom of the Tsushima Strait after sailing over 20,000 miles to reach the battle. Zemstvo delegates from around the nation assembled in St. Petersburg and asked Nicholas II to call a nationwide Parliament. Workers began striking in the factories. On Sunday 9 January 1905, Orthodox priest George Gapon led a march to deliver a petition to the tsar. Nicholas responded by calling out the military. The Bloody Sunday massacre changed Russian history. Before this, the tsar was known throughout Russia as “Little Father Tsar;” after the massacre, Nicholas was known as “Nicholas the Bloody.” The navy mutinied while demonstrations swept the country.
In 1906, Witte — no revolutionist — convinced Nicholas to grant a constitution to Russia. Nicholas created a Duma — a parliament — elected by near-universal suffrage, but the constitution enshrined absolute autocracy under the tsar. Nicholas hated the constitution, and although he agreed to it, he fired Witte.
Nicholas’ new minister, Peter Stolypin, quickly became even more unpopular than Nicholas. Stolypin decided to fight fire with fire, hanging large numbers of revolutionaries. On the other hand, Stoypin supported peasant land ownership and freedom of religion. Stolypin’s pros could not outweigh his cons in revolutionary eyes, and he was assassinated in 1911. The assassin could have shot the tsar but chose to kill Stolypin instead.
Germany, 1871-1914
Germany’s unification resulted in a state state stretch 900 miles from east to west with a population equalling France and Spain combined. The army was the most powerful on the Continent, and Germany’s industrial base was the greatest in Europe, even surpassing Britain’s.
Prussia’s king, Wilhelm I, was crowned emperor of Germany. The empire allowed separate states to retain their constitutions, laws, and taxes, but Prussia’s emperor held great power in the new state.
Wilhelm named Bismarck the chancellor of Germany. Bismarck ruled only at the pleasure of Wilhelm. The lower house of the German legislature, the Reichstag, was elected by universal manhood suffrage (age 25), while the upper house represented the separate states of the empire. The chancellor could conveniently ignore the Reichstag if necessary and retain the old budget in perpetuity.
Bismarck worked to defend the empire both inside and outside the borders. The first battle was with pope Pius IX, who insisted that all Catholics — regardless of nationality — owed their first allegiance to the Catholic Church. The empire was mostly Protestant, but a sizable Catholic minority remained. Bismarck responded by passing the “May Laws” between 1872 and 1875 which gave the state control over Church matters within Germany. By 1876, there were no Catholic bishops in Prussia. The battle ended when Pius died and was succeeded by the more liberal Pope Leo XIII.
Bismarck also fought socialism with the anti-Socialist Law of 1878. This law prohibited socialist meetings, closed socialist newspapers, and harassed SPD (the Social Democratic Party) leaders. When this failed to stem the tide of socialism and trade unions, Bismarck established nationwide health insurance, workers’ accident compensation insurance, and old age and disability pensions. Note: pensions were not available until age 65; the average life expectancy in Germany was 41.
Wilhelm I died in 1888. His son, Frederick III, reigned for only a few weeks before dying at the age of 57. Wilhelm II, Frederick’s son became kaiser at age 29. Wilhelm was the grandson of the British queen Victoria and the first cousin to the future rulers Russian emperor Nicholas II (who had married Wilhelm's first cousin Alexandra) and British king George V. Wilhelm was impulsive, arrogant, and aggressive, a bad combination for an emperor. Unfortunately for Wilhelm, one of his first acts of disaster was to retire Bismarck in 1890.
Wilhelm’s new advisors tried their best to keep him out of trouble. Under Wilhelm, the military spread the German empire overseas and started a major arms race with Great Britain. Wilhelm’s policies put Germany on the path to major trouble in the 20th century.
Great Britain
Britain continued its measured pace of reform in the face of continental unrest. In 1868, William Gladstone succeeded Benjamin Disraeli as prime minister and began a period of major political and social reform.
Gladstone led Parliament in passing:
Gladstone also reformed the military and judiciary. Gladstone ended the patronage system in the civil service. He also gave workers the right to strike and legalized trade unions.
Disraeli re-gained his post from 1874-1880. Disraeli shifted the focus outward, buying the Suez Canal from the French in 1875, naming Queen Victoria “Empress of India” with the Royal Titles Bill of 1876, and representing Britain at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 to support the Ottoman Empire against Russia.
Gladstone defeated Disraeli again in 1880. This time, Gladstone extended suffrage to rural voters. Gladstone also attempted to give Ireland home rule, but the issue split the Liberal Party.
During this time, the British Parliament had remained a bicameral legislature: the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the unelected upper house that represented the aristocracy and the Church of England. In 1909, prime minister David Lloyd George sent a budget to the House of Lords that taxed the wealthy to pay for social programs; the Lords vetoed it. Lloyd George turned to the king, George V, who reluctantly agreed to entitle enough commoners to overwhelm the conservatives in the House of Lords. The conservatives backed down, and in the Parliament Act of 1911, the House of Lords lost its claim to power over the budget and the ability to veto legislation.