Unit 5 Vocab Paragraph

During the time period of 1750-1900, there were many changes being made globally in
the way people and states interacted with each other and saw the world. The Industrial
Revolution, beginning in Great Britain in around 1760, saw much technological advancement
and the increased use of factories to create products. The Industrial Revolution had great
effects on the world, especially in the West, with many concepts rising from it with one being
division of labor– the separation of jobs which allowed for workers to be paid less as they
required less knowledge. Mass production became possible with the rapidly improving
technology and grew incredibly common to appeal to consumerism, with one example of a
process that led to mass production being the Bessemer process for steel. With worsening
conditions for workers that came as a result of industrialization and mass production, labor
unions began forming to assist laborers with receiving better wages and conditions. New ideas
also began developing and growing, with one of the biggest ways of thinking becoming known
as communism. Labor unions inspired the working class to fight for their rights to vote, leading
all men regardless of property ownership to be allowed to vote. The Seneca Falls Conference
was one way that women fought for their equality and suffrage as well. Karl Marx’s ideas about
the social classes, including the bourgeoisie who owned the means of production and the
proletariat who were exploited for work, was that the proletariat would take control of the means
of production and end class division. The same thinking that originated from the Enlightenment
which inspired change and more depth of thinking philosophically like this also led to the growth
of empiricism, which is the belief that one’s knowledge comes from personal experience.
There was also great change occurring in other parts of the world. Otto von Bismarck, a
Prussian statesman and diplomat, became the first chancellor of Germany after leading Prussia
to defeat France in war and leading the German unification. Similarly, Italian unification brought
multiple states on the Italian peninsula together into the Kingdom of Italy. These unification
efforts were caused by nationalism, a strong loyalty to a nation over anything else, because
people were beginning to feel a stronger bond with others who shared their cultural traits which
drove people to unite under one political state. Ottomanism was another example of
nationalism, a principle in which Ottomans pledged loyalty to the Ottoman state. Other changes
were less unifying and had a common theme of the less privileged challenging those in charge.
The Meiji Era Restoration in Japan began with revolution and resulted in the end of the
Tokugawa Shogunate, but ultimately led to its modernization and Westernization, which had
positive effects on the country. On the other hand, the French Revolution began similarly with
the revolt of the citizens against the rulers and highest classes and resulted in changes to the
political structure of the country, but its end didn’t see positive changes for many years as there
was the Reign of Terror and events such as the Dreyfus Affair which proved that there was still
injustice and corruption occurring despite the Revolution attempting to get rid of it. However, it
did also spread the idea of revolution, and the specific ideals introduced during the French
Revolution– including its violence– and the Enlightenment inspired many leaders of the Haitian
Revolution, including Toussaint L’Ouverture.