Social Classes and Conflicts

Tushar Jois
AP European History
Kinberg
January 14, 2013
 P
M
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a d
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• Nobles and Upper Gentry s
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• Upper level administrators l
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• Power dependent on a e
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population dynamic n c
C
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• Bankers, Merchants, s a
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Professionals c
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• y
Not a majority s
• Believed themselves to be a
self made n (
d b
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• The Majority of the
u
Population t r
• Peasants: tied to land
h g
• Hungry for land, e
power e o
• Resistant to change i
• Workers: tied to employers s
W
• Meager Wages i
• Inhumane Conditions o
A Social Class Hierarchy
e
r )

k
During this time period, a person’s or family’s social class and lifestyle was
i
implied by the source of income (Chambers 683).
n
g
Click on a Social Class name to go to
that section of the presentation…
The Aristocracy: Overview
 Included all nobles (with special formal titles – Lord/Lady/Sir
etc.) and their blood relatives, along with the upper gentry
(landowners)
◦ In the Low Countries and in the north: also the wealthy patrician
families of the cities (jonkheers)
 Aristocracy on the decline because of threats to their privilege
◦ France: French Revolution (1789) abolished all hereditary titles, and
the ones created by Napoleon were considered void (Smith)
 Members of French Parliament consider aristocrats as those who “consume
without producing” (Richardson 4)
 Aristocracy still prevalent in upper-level governmental
functions – diplomats, generals, advisors/councilmembers
◦ Were strongest in the least industrial areas = Russia, Eastern Europe
 Still stuck in the past – honor and chivalry still considered important
(Sherman 87)

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Hierarchy
The Rich and Powerful
 Centered in the least industrial places: the South and Eastern portions of Europe
◦ In addition, the most powerful aristocrats comprised less than 5% of a nation’s population
 Russia: three hundred seventy thousand aristocrats (1%) governing thirty-three million
three hundred thousand serfs (90%) at the turn of the century (“Estimated”)
◦ The tsar of Russia used the aristocrats as a way of subjugating the peasant masses
 Most land was state-owned, but administered by nobles
 This gave the aristocratic class exceptional control over local affairs, making them autonomous over their
own land and tyrants to their serfs (Chambers 683)
 Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Kingdom of Naples): 87,000 (1%) aristocrats managing
5,221,800 (60%) manorial peasants (“Estimated”)
◦ After Napoleon was exiled, the aristocrats of Naples helped in reclaiming the lands for the original
king
 As a result, their puppet king, the Bourbon Ferdinand IV, allowed them to be a part of administration
(Pappas)

A Russian noble court.

Note the affluence in
type of clothing.
(Russian)

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Hierarchy
The Poor and Submissive
 If the nobility composed a greater part of the population,
the pattern was different
◦ In Poland, Spain, and Hungary, most nobles were poor
 Their indecisive position shifted constantly from supporting the
government (usually for a title of some sort) or sympathizing with
radicals and rebels
 The Magyars of Hungary
◦ Proud history as the founders and settlers of Hungary, with a
long (and bloody) history (“Magyars”)
◦ Sought to the reinforce their influence through representative
government and decentralization
 Cooperated with political/economic reformers
 Similar patterns in northern Italy and Belgium
 The most open-minded were the British aristocrats
◦ Proved willing to accept liberal programs in exchange for political
power
◦ 1832-1867: 64/100 cabinet members were sons of nobles, and (Magyar Noble)
80% of Parliament considered of nobles or their representatives
 The younger nobility were closely tied to the middle class, however
(Chambers 683)

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Hierarchy
National Differences
 The Junkers held the most influence in Prussia
◦ Powerful because of their unwavering position
through times of change
 Crude by Europeans standards of elegancy, retaining a
medieval-esque form of culture from the Middle Ages
◦ Proud tradition of fierce loyalty and service to their
king and the realm
 Their actions and values, which were prevalent in
Prussian society, were emulated by the common folk
 France is the only European nation where the
old aristocracy was reduced to a minor role in
politics due to the revolutions of 1830
◦ However, the retained their former status in social
life and local affairs
 All over Europe, the source of the aristocracy’s
power was being put under question
◦ Lineage was once a matter state, but now it was only A typical Prussian Junker, outside
a private matter (Chambers 684) his average home (Junker).

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Hierarchy
The Middle Class: Overview
 The most confident and emphatic class was the middle class
◦ The greatest of the bankers, industrialists, and merchants made up the top of the
pecking order
 Office clerks, schoolteachers, and shopkeepers made up the bottom
 These two extremes formed the social division known as the bourgeoisie
◦ The most important part of the middle class: most merchants, upper bureaucrats,
and professionals
 Professionals included doctors, lawyers, managers, engineers, and professors
 These peoples attempted to sever their ties to the aristocracy, opposed to their privilege
and unearned wealth
 Saw themselves as the beacons for social welfare and change (Chambers 687)
 Their occupations tended to be based in cities, and as a result the middle
class was an urban class
◦ Made up almost 25% of the taxpaying citizens of Paris in the 19th Century
 In smaller cities, they formed around 15% of the general population (Smith)

A bourgeoisie
with his
attendants
(Bourgeoisie).

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Hierarchy
Middle Class Ideology
 The middle classes did not necessarily make up a majority
of the population, so their true power was in economics
and in society
◦ The people who comprised the ranks of the middle class controlled
much of the trade and commerce that took place within the urban
centers of the time
◦ Their values and styles set the tone for the rest of society (aka the
lower classes)
 The Big Idea: The middle class of this time period all
believed that they were self-made (Chambers 688)
◦ They valued hard-work, judiciousness, resilience, and self-reliance
 They despised the aristocracy for their laziness and contempt for
work (Smith)
 Because of the intermediate social position of this class, it was
possible to fall out of it
◦ The middle class had a distinctive social style A middle class woman.
 The Home contained ornately crafted furniture and colorful wall Note the ornamental frills
decorations of her gown (Woman).
 Rise of the factory system allowed women of the time to purchase
more dresses with ornamental frills and with different colors
 All middle class men work the same, plain garb – a symbol of unity
(Chambers 687-688)

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Hierarchy
The Lower Classes: Peasants
 More than seventy percent of all Europeans were still peasants
◦ They reflected the lower half of traditional society
 Their fates were intertwined with that of the aristocracy
 The most important social change of the 19th century was the emancipation of peasants
and serfs from manorial obligation
◦ Manorial Obligation included certain concessions given to the lord as rent, like labor on the lord’s
land or payment to the lord for use for the mill
 These changes were set in motion with the French Revolution (August 4, 1789) and spread to the rest of
Europe with the conquests of Napoleon and the later revolutions of 1848
◦ However, this prevented peasants from accessing traditional means of protection against hardship
 No manor meant no common land to farm in case of harvest failure and famine and no common wood to
forage for firewood
◦ Allowed peasants to enter the commercial market for the first time
 Peasant farmers started to produce food for surplus/commerce, not just subsistence for the family
 Utilized better machinery and cultivation techniques that allowed for maximum crop output (Chambers 684)

Poorer
peasants
working in
the field
(Millet).

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Hierarchy
Peasant Mentality
 The peasants were the most
tenacious social group, as they
clung on to their old ways
◦ Opposed to reformers and change,
unless it yielded them with immediate
benefits
◦ Resented government control: taxes and
military service
 They hungered for land and political
power
 The government knew that the peasantry’s
sheer size could be the deciding factor in
revolutions and wars – the French
Revolution, Spanish resistance, etc.
(Chambers 684)
 Galician Slaughter: an example of
Polish peasants and Austrian
troops in Galicia exchanging
booty for money (Lewicki).
the peasant violence that rocked
Europe from 1820-1848
◦ Centered around the city-sate of
Krakow in the Austrian partition of
Poland in 1864
 They were set to lead an insurrection
against the government, resulting in
independence
◦ Instead of combating this violence
directly, the Austrians gave information
to the power-hungry peasants of the
region
 In exchange for their fighting, the
peasants were promised land and gold
 The insurrection ultimately failed as a
result, but helped add to the kindling
toward the revolutions of 1848 (Benarz)
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Hierarchy
Peasants and Change
 Fusion of the agrarian and industrial sectors was ongoing
c. 1850
◦ In Britain: the peasantry was eliminated due to enclosures
reducing the peasants to free agent laborers
◦ In France: the peasants owned ≈30% of arable land, and gradually
gaining more
◦ In Central Europe: Larger farms were consolidated, also reducing
them to peasants
 In Germany: Freedom from feudal obligations included a fee to the
nearby lord
◦ Meanwhile, in Russia…
 Landowners still held claims to unpaid labor and total control over
their serfs
 This system was abolished circa 1860 to allow for administrative
efficiency (Chambers 684 – 685)

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Hierarchy
The Lower Classes: Workers
 The workers, a minority (even in Britain), were the most notable class of
this time
◦ They indicated a new age, where the employer (who sets the wages) held control
over the tasks done and the length of said tasks
 French workers had a special restriction, a passport known as a livret which recorded the
past jobs of a person
◦ An entire family would have to be employed because wages were meager
 The workday was long and hard, with occupational hazards (machinery) and fines for the
smallest error
◦ The only free of the working class were the artisans
 They were free from guild restrictions after 1848 (Chambers 685-686)

Industrial
Workers
(Factory).

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Hierarchy
Early Labor Movements
 Workers were usually uneducated and too exhausted to
concentrate energy on reform
◦ Anyway, after 1824, trade unions were banned everywhere but
England
 Local originations did form for mutual help, though
 Confraternities (France)/Friendly Societies (Britain)
◦ Skilled workers that met in secret with elaborate rituals
 Its members would help one another in times of illness or disaster
 Cooperatives began to spring up
◦ Attempted to increase the workers’ control over their lives
 Labor movements (i.e. strikes) usually petered out after
some weeks due to the defenselessness of the working
class The banner of a local friendly
◦ In Britain, many trade unions formed because of this condition society (Tuthill).
 Origination against their common enemy was the only way to defeat it
◦ Newspapers, pamphlets calling workers to action became more
prevalent during this time (1830s)
 Common themes: natural rights, pride in work, social justice
◦ The millions of employed rallied behind radical reformers as hope
for the future (Chambers 686-687)

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Hierarchy
Links for Further Research
 An informative website about 19th Century
Paris
 More information on friendly societies
 The Role of Women in Urban Society
 A Pictorial view of English Society

All Links Used Under a Fair-Use Licence

Works Cited
Benarz, Dennis, and Karen Wisniewski. "1846 - The Peasant Uprising." 1846 - The Peasant Uprising. SPUSCIZNA,
n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
Bourgeoisie. Digital image. Louis XIV and France. University of Wisconsin, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
Chambers, Mortimer. The Western Experience. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2007. Print.
"Estimated World Population, 1800 - 1950." World Population by Continents 1800. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
Factory Workers. Digital image. The Factory System: An Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
<http://www.uni.edu/schneidj/webquests/adayinthelife/factorysystem.html>.
Junker. Digital image. Western Civilization, Reformation to the Present. Cal Poly, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
Lewicki, Jan. Rzeź Galicyjska. 1871. Polish Army Museum, Warsaw. File:Galician Slaughter in 1846.PNG.
Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Jan. 2009. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
Magyar Noble in Gala Dress. Digital image. FIDM Museum. FIDM, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
"Magyars." Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
Millet. Les Glaneuses. Digital image. Eponine Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
Pappas, Dale. "Joachim Murat and the Kingdom of Naples." Joachim Murat and the Kingdom of Naples: 1808 –
1815. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
Richardson, N. J. The French Prefectoral Corps, 1814-1830,. Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1966. Print.
Russian Nobility. Digital image. ПРЕДВОДИТЕЛЬ ДВОРЯНСТВА КАЛУЖСКОЙ ГУБЕРНИИ. Калужский областной
краеведческий музей, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.
Sherman, Dennis, and Mortimer Chambers. A Study Guide and Map Supplement for The Western Experience
Volume II: Since the Sixteenth Century. New York: McGraw Hill, 1995. Print.
Tuthill, C. Bottesford banner. Digital image. The Friendly Society Banner. Bottesford History, n.d. Web. 14 Jan.
2013.
Woman in Gown. Digital image. Reigns. Wordpress, n.d. Web. 14 Jan. 2013.

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