History Essay on the topic "The Long European 19th century: the century of the individual?"

Cleon Orina
Professor's Name
History
18th December 2020
THE LONG EUROPEAN 19TH CENTURY: THE CENTURY OF THE INDIVIDUAL
The 19th century which spanned from 1800 to 1900, saw a raft of political, social, and economic changes in Europe. It was a period when Europe had just moved from the old world of enlightened monarchy, despotism, and archaic preindustrial revolution modes of production. It was closer to the old enlightenment era than the modern world at the beginning of the century.
The social changes that marred Europe during the 19th century, like abolishing slavery, which was extensively championed by Great Britain, the two industrial revolutions; first and second, saw the world achieve massive urbanization progress. The industrial production ensured an increase in output more than double, and there was profit maximization and growth. Most of the dominant Islamic empires, apart from the Ottoman, got dissolved and replaced with European Imperialism to bring about the new order.
The industrial revolution ended numerous political, economic, and political ideologies practiced in Europe for several centuries. The Renaissance period, which spanned from the 14th century to the 17th century, was replaced with modern ways. It was a rebirth of European Middle Ages artistic, cultural, economic, and political practices. The era encouraged the reestablishment of classical literature, art, and philosophy.
Before the beginning of the 19th century, the dominant economic and political ideologies, Socialism, Classism, and Renaissance, saw a rise to the new approach of the Individual. As Europe struggled to stamp its foot on industrialization, territorial dominance, and a transparent and stable political governance, individuals emerged who felt to occupy the vacuum and champion the lead. There were numerous revolutions and wars across Europe as countries formed alliances to fight political dominance. During this period, ranging from France, Britain, Germany, Russia, Austria, Prussia, and even the Ottoman Empire produced individual leaders who championed individualistic interests instead of national interests that they had posed to defend initially.
Although a leader might have pure intentions initially at the beginning of the rule, absolute power corrupts the mind absolutely as it is widely known. In "The Prince (1513)", Niccolò Machiavelli portrays a grim world in which the Individual must exploit the weakness of others unless he falls victim to its indignities. The 19th century marked a survival period for the fittest; the strong would take over power, rule and dominate their subjects with total submission.
It became a new normal during the long, illustrious 19th century in Europe for individuals to champion economic and political courses for their countries and benefited themselves. Indeed, the 19th century was a century of the Individual in Europe. The Individual did not only mean the literal meaning of a person, but the individual approach also referred to autonomous and sovereign countries trying to forge ahead and gain selfish dominance and selfishly accrue more wealth. The subsequent paragraphs give chronological analysis and accounts of the various situations that the Individual dominated the culmination of the 19th century.
During this industrial revolution period, many European countries were in the frontline charting their way to superpower status. Every country in the region wanted to dominate over its neighbors and expand territorial boundaries. The French Empire was in the fore fighting with its neighbors, forming alliances with equally rich countries to thwart and dominate other countries. Its numerous conquests saw a succession of many leaders championing her to wars, which most of them were successful and resulted in victories.
Napoleon Bonaparte was an individual who was very instrumental in all the French conquests and its regional dominance. In fact, at some stage, France became synonymous with Bonaparte. A charismatic, fearless, and dedicated leader who saw France outdo her neighbours and gain political dominance over her peers to become a regional powerhouse as compared to his predecessors.
The Great war shaped French, Europe, and the entire world's geopolitics for several years to follow. The European war between 1956 and 1763 and spanning to other five continents was fought among the significant European superpowers apart from the Ottoman empire. The aftermath of the war saw a divided Europe pitting Europe into two regional factions-France and its allies on one side and Britain and its allies. Britain allied with Prussia while France with Russia and Austria. Albeit the war manifested in Europe in 1756, that conflict had been fueled in 1754 in North America. There had been tensions between France and Britain regarding their colonies, which were overseas. The European war, which ended with no clear winner, indicated political and military changes worldwide in their colonies. It marked the beginning of a new era of imperial war and expansion.
The overseas ideological differences between the two powerhouses, Britain and France, precipitated the 1756 great war. Both had colonies in North America, and French colonies were scantily populated, most of them occupying modern-day Canada and most of the remaining territories inhabited by the red Indians. Conversely, British colonies were flourishing with agriculture and stable population distribution. Thus, the different colonization methods between the two resulted in animosity towards each other, which escalated the war.
The differences in ideologies resulted in alliances with other autonomous countries between the two warring factions. The battle in Jumonville Glen of 1954 between France and Britain resulting in ten casualties saw a series of battles fought on North American soil. It led to the declaration of war between Britain and Europe in 1756. The allies to the two colonies were busy forging their paths in Europe, Prussia under the leadership of Frederik II, who was the leading figure in the German confederation. Britain's George II, who doubled in as Hanover's Elector, meant that he could opine in the German confederation's Parliament. It was a plus to Britain as that meant it expanded its European territorial presence. By this time, east Russia was also on the rise and strived to expand its regional dominance. Prussia having close geographical proximity with Russia feared its security, which necessitated Westminster's Treaty with Britain. It was a constant competition between the two warring factions; in 1756, France signed the Treaty f Versailles with Russia and Austria. The signing of the treaties perhaps signalled the beginning of a war that would last seven years. By the end of 1756, when Prussia invaded Saxony and was advancing towards French ally Austria, a stage was set for the seven-year war.
Although Britain had won by the end of the war, it left Europe in a stalemate. The war left behind a fiscally inefficient Europe, Britain with a struggling monarchy with no money, and France, on the other hand, with a dysfunctional governance system in place. France had multiple parliaments in every province, with every Parliament with an absolute autonomy to negotiate its taxes. It was an uncertain and unstable taxing system where the King taxed the provinces in a system known as "abonnement" where the bourgeois class was spared from the taxing. It saw an unrealistic tax collection system, which resulted in the loss of more revenue in the collection and an inefficient fiscal system which incapacitated her militarily for some time as compared to prior years.
King Louis XVI was in the French realm during this challenging transition period. The young King portrayed a weak demeanour and out of touch with the French people. The situation was aggravated by Jacques Necker and Charles Alexandre de Calonne, his ministers of finance, and his counsellors on the accurate picture of the country's fiscal situation. There was frequent much borrowing instead of fixing financial reforms and working on the debt limit. The nobles thwarted the reforms fronted by the two ministers. The weak position of the King and lack of any knowledge matters governance led to the imminent Frenc...