I.

Introduction

A century of peace and progress was enjoyed in Europe which was then the center
of the known world. This century saw the remarkable flowering of world civilization,
the expansion of trade and industry, the democratization of society, and the
blossoming of the arts and sciences.

We will study in this report on how the most civilized nations at the time made
the great strides in social progress, scientific studies, arts and letters, and movements
for world peace. The benefits from these developments have been felt even until
today.

II. Summary

Without the fears brought by war or rumors of war, people turned their thoughts
and energy to different kind of things such as the scientific progress, the progress in
arts and letters, the social progress, and the movement for world peace.

Social progress is the idea that societies can or do improve in terms of their
social, political, and economic structures. This was brought to three different
subtopics; Growth of Humanitarianism, Emancipation of Women, and the Popular
Education and Higher Learning.

The first subtopic tells us that with the awakening of man’s humanitarian spirit in
the 19th century, the barbaric practices and cruel customs of former centuries were
abolished. As early as 1815, the Congress of Vienna agreed to abolish the inhuman
slave trade which had long desolated Africa and degraded Europe and America, and a
lot more countries emancipated slavery. The growing humanitarian spirit of the 19th
century was also manifested in the treatment of criminals and the unfortunate. Better
treatment of prisoners in British jails was campaigned. Juvenile courts and
reformatories were established for young offenders. Asylums for insane persons, poor
houses for beggars, and schools for the deaf, dumb and blind were established in
European countries. Even animals received their share of attention. Various
humanitarian organizations were established, such as the Salvation Army, founded in
1880 by William Booth, the YMCA ( Young Men’s Christian Association), and the
International Red Cross organization.

Emancipation of Women is the second subtopic of social progress. Prior to the

th
19 century, a woman’s position in European society was the same as that in the
Middle Ages. A mere housewife and mother, without formal education and civil and
political rights were the treatment of women before. With the French revolution, the
fields of business, politics, and education were gradually opened to women. Suffrage
was granted to women. In 1893, Australian and New Zealand extended the right to
vote to women, being the first countries in the world to grant women suffrage. The
first country in Europe to grant women suffrage was Norway (1907). In the United
States, the women acquired the right of suffrage in 1920.

The last subtopic is the Popular Education and Higher Learning. The rise of
democracy led to the establishment of public schools. “Next to Bread”, said Danton,
“education is the first need of the people”. In 19th century, England, Prussia, France,
Japan and other nations established public elementary schools for the masses. Above
the elementary school system was establish a secondary schools, which prepared
young people for university education. This school was called lyceum in France,
gymnasium in Germany, and academy, highschool or middle school in other
countries. A great contribution to education was the kindergarten, which was
conceived by Friedrich Froebel, a German educator. He believe that a preschool age
child or a child below 7 years should be given special training to develop his
intellectual, spiritual, and physical faculties. The first kindergarten was established in
Prussia. It was really the United States which first gave poor students and women the
opportunities to obtain a university education.

The second topic is the Scientific Progress. The 19th century was marked by
scientific achievements. In no other period of world history did mankind make such
extraordinary advances in the natural sciences. This is also brought to different
subtopics, first is the Geology. Charles Lyell, an English geologist, revolutionized the
geological science with his uniformitarian theory. He contended that the earth’s
surface came into existence, not by means of the convulsions of nature, but as a result
of slow and gradual changes through the ages.
 Evolution is the next subtopic in the Scientific Progress which is the most
sensational scientific theory of the century and states that life is the result of gradual
development through successive forms. The one who popularized the evolution
theory was the English scientist Charles Darwin in his book, The Origin of the
Species by Means of natural Selection (1859). Hence, the evolution theory is often
called “Darwinism.” Chemistry is also one of the subtopics which progressed during
the early part of the 19th century after the discovery by John Dalton that matter is
composed of minute atoms. A lot of chemists contributed a large numbers of
inventions such as Joseph Louis Gay- Lussac, Friedrich Wohler and Justus von
Liebig, Dmitri Mendeleev, and Louis Pasteur who discovered the sterilization by
boiling to kill the germs. Another subtopic is Physics, during the 19th century and
early part of the 20th century contributed to human progress. This led to the
discoveries of many things such as the electric battery, electric dynamo, electric light
bulb, a new element which is radium, and many more. Albert Einstein, one of the
world’s greatest scientific geniuses, revolutionized the science of physics. His theory
of relativity gave man a new look into matter, time, space, and motion, which are
related to one another. His scientific studies paved the way for nuclear science.

Medicine and Surgery were also revolutionized during the 19th century such as
Elias Metchnikoff discovered the white blood corpuscles which fight germs, Robert
Koch who discovered the germ tuberculosis, and Emil von Behring invented antitoxin
against diphtheria. A great contribution to surgery was anesthesia. The antiseptic was
first introduced in 1876 by Joseph Lister and X-ray which was discovered by
Wilhelm von Roentgen. The last subtopic is the Exploration. The great geographical
explorations of the 16th century were continued in the 19th century. The wild regions
of the Amazon and Orinoco in South America were explored by a German scientist,
Alexander von Humboldt. The “Dark Continent” and Tiber were also explored. The
first attempts to explore the North and South Poles were made in the 19th century.

The third topic is the Progress in Arts and Letters which is also divided in five
subtopics. First is the Literature which was blossomed during the era preceding
World War I. In England, there was the Victorian Age in literature, whose firmament
was star-studded with brilliant men of letters. Lord Alfred Tennyson was the poetic
voice of this age. Robert Browning, Tennyson’s contemporary, was the foremost
philosophical poet in English literature. French literature saw the decline of the
Romantic Age and the rise of the Age of realism. Realism in literature is the style in
which the writer portrays the hard facts of life without emotion or without
romanticizing the story. The literature of the Italians was both nationalistic and
classical. Scandinavian nations also produced their great literature during the 19th and
early part of 20th centuries. The 19th century also saw the glorious development of the
Russian novel.

The second subtopic is the Philosophy. The 19th century saw the end of the
classical and rationalist philosophies, and the rise of empiricism. Empiricism is the
philosophy that truths can only be derived from concrete experience and scientific
explanations, rather than from abstract reasoning or beliefs. According to this
thinking, “To see is to believe, and to believe is to see.” Thus, man became more
materialistic and self-centered. And philosophy became closely connected with
science. Friedrich Nietzsche developed nihilism and the “superman” idea, which later
influenced the mad ambition of Adolf Hitler. Finally, William James, the American
philosopher championed the cause of pragmatism. History and the Social Science is
the next subtopic. Historiography, or the writing of history, developed at the start of
19th century in harmony with the progressive spirit of the times. It became more
scientific. Not only was it based on thorough researches in archives and other reliable
sources of information, but it was also studied in the light of other subjects, notably
geography, anthropology, ethnology, economics, political science, and ethics.
Spectacular success of the natural sciences encouraged scholars to apply scientific
techniques and principles to the study of man and society. The result was the birth of
two new social sciences namely, psychology, the study of human behavior, and
sociology, the study of man as a member of society. The greatest sensation in the new
science of psychology was the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, an Austrian
physician. Sociology was founded by the French man Auguste Comte, who gave the
social science its name. According to him, man and society are susceptible to
scientific investigation.

The fourth subtopic is the Music. Though romantic in mood, the music of the 19th
century was versatile. It expressed not only love of God, but also patriotism, joy,
sorrow, and other emotions. Never had a century produced as many as music masters
as did the 19th century. And the last subtopic is the Fine Arts. The three greatest
sculptors of the 19th century were Canova (Italian), Thorwaldsen (Dane), and Rodin
(French). Both Canova and Thorwaldsen specialized in classical sculpture while
Rodin excelled in realistic sculpture. A new type of painting called “Impressionism”
became popular in 19th century. As the name implied, the artists sought to give the
impression of movement and beauty in the luminous color of their works. The
architecture of the 19th century was characterized by the revival of Classical and
Gothic styles. Residential buildings in Europe and America were built along Classical
lines, while the government buildings and churches were of Gothic styles.

The Movement for World Peace is the last but a very important topic in this
report. To respect and nurture human rights with tolerance and understanding is one
of the methods in achieving a world peace. This will alleviate poverty and hunger,
and will help improve health, education, and any other living conditions of all people
on earth.

In Early Advocates of World Peace, after the religious wars in Europe, King
Henry IV of France advocated the notion called “Grand design” for the purpose of
preserving world peace. In the 19th century, the peace movement was promoted by
private benefactors. Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, left his fortune
for the establishment of international prizes, one of which was for world peace. An
American millionaire, Andrew Carnegie, gave millions of dollars as endowment for
the abolition of war, “the foulest blot on our civilization”.

The Hague Conference. The growth of international rivalries and militarism

among civilized nations toward the end of the 19th century accentuated the need for
preserving world peace. Alarmed by the ominous trend of the times, Czar Nicholas II
of Russia invited the powers to meet in an international conference in order to discuss
matters pertaining to the limitation of armaments and the maintenance of peace. In
response to the czar’s appeal, the First Peace Conference was held in The Hague,
Netherlands, from May 18 to July 29, 1899, attended by the 26 nations. This
conference failed in its basic purpose to limit armaments because of the strong
opposition of the German delegates. Nevertheless, it accomplished the following (1)
the establishment of a permanent court of arbitration, composed of world jurists, to
which nations were advised to go for the settlement of their disputes; (2) the
codification of the laws to warfare; (3) the prohibition of the used of poison gas,
“dumdum” bullets, and other destructive weapons of war; and (4) the adaption of the
rules of the Geneva convention of 1864 pertaining to the treatment of wounded
soldiers. The Second Peace Conference met in The Hague in 1907, upon the
invitation of Czar Nicholas II of Russia and President Theodore Roosevelt of the
United States. This time, it was attended by the delegates from 44 nations- 21
European, 19 American, and 4 Asian. The work of this conference was largely a
repetition of the First Peace Conference.
III. Analysis

In World History book, the author believes that the Industrial Revolution can be a
Blessing or Curse for the people. According to her, since 19th century, our world has
become more machine-oriented. There were many more discoveries and inventions
new systems and new gadgets, that benefited mankind. The industrial revolution has
been a great blessing to mankind. There is no doubt that machines and modern
products help to save lives, ease pain, make life more comfortable, faster and
profitable for modern man.

However, it has also been something of a curse. In many ways people have
become dehumanized and less caring with the use of modern machines. Human life
and labor have become cheap as compared to the value of machines and tools. Daily
and regular prayer, Bible study, good conversation and reading books have become
lost in our modern world’s fascination with machines.

Some philosophers say our modern world has become as cold and dead as the
machines we like to use. People are treated like machines and are not given the proper
dignity and care they need as God’s special creation. Clearly, our world has yet to
adjust to the changes brought by the 19th century Industrial Revolution.

On our own personal views based on what we have read and on our reference it
impacted very much on the modern society in terms of literature, art, music and a lot
more. Especially here in the Philippines like the use of bulb as a source of light giving
care to the ill. If we will analyze more on the world we are living today, we are living
with the contributions of western countries and if we will overlook on our society
most of the inventions, trait`s and character we have especially in technology and
terms of science are adapted from the other country.

For the reporter, the progress that was happened in our world brought a lot of
things to the modern society. Nowadays, almost everything we’re dealing with has a
concern to what happened in the past and most of these things were considered as our
benefits from the progress of previous centuries such as 19th and 20th centuries.

Examples of these were the gadgets that most of the children were playing, the
improved medical sciences, and any other products that we’re using in our daily
activities. Medicine and Surgery were improved which saved a lot of people but if we
will just reflect, most of our ancestors were healthier than the modern people or
specifically speaking is us. People now are so dependent on the machines, we’re
always associated on the machines for everything that we’re doing. A lot of children
now are playing gadgets such as PSP, computers, cell phones and many more which I
 think doesn’t improve their physical aspect. Because we’re always relying on the
machines, we are lacking of exercise that can bring us many diseases such as heart
and respiratory diseases.

The movement of world peace brought us a lot of good things. Due to the war that
happened for the past centuries, more people were killed and bring fears for so many
people. We will only overcome this by achieving peace for all nations. We know that
there still war that happening in different countries but I can say that most of the
nations have peace and we must be thankful for this.

IV. Significant Learning

Studying the century of progress and peace made me realized the importance of
peace and the real essence of progress in our society. I learned that without peace, we
will not achieve anything and we must start it in our own family. Could you imagine
every family was always fighting each other, what will happen to their children? This
will just bring fears for them or maybe, they will become a bad person. So we must
always have a peace in our home in order for our society to have a world peace.

Kitchen utensils help our mother to prepare foods, internet helps us in doing our
assignments and watching television makes us relax. These are a few examples of
modern machines that are really helpful for us and sometimes, we cannot work
without these things.

Nowadays people are so dependent on these things, especially for the students,
instead of researching their assignments in the library, they prefer to surf in the
internet because it is much easier and faster. And because of these machines, people
became lazy in everything, they’re always relying on these things.

We must be thankful for the progress that happened and are still happening in our
world but we must know how to handle properly on these things. And a good
example of this is not always doing recreational activities individually like watching
television, playing PSP, and surfing the net, instead, we must spend a lot of times
with our family by talking each other about what’s happening to each other.

On the analysis report we also learned about where did all of these amazing art,
literature and music came from, where did it started, and whom country we should be
paying for.
 As we all know, Filipinos are really fund of music, literature and art which
I think these were adapted traits that we`ve got to these countries. We should be
thankful to the countries who introduced these things to us and we must continue in
improving our skills for the never-ending progress that is happening in our world.

Republic of the Philippines

Central Luzon Doctor’s Hospital-Educational Institution

Nursing Department

San Pablo, Tarlac City

A WRITTEN ANALYSIS REPORT

A Century of Peace and Progress

In partial fulfillment of the requirements in Humanities 1:

World civilization and Literature

 Prepared by:

Ramos, Lady Mae Bernadette

III-B

Submitted to:

Christopher Ronn Pagco

Instructor