Europe 1880-1945

by Roberts,J.M.

• ISBN13: 9780582357457
• ISBN10: 0582357454
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-10-06
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Europe 1880-1945 surveys the continent when it was at the apogee of its power. In these sixty five years Europe's political and economic domination of the globe came to a climax and then crumbled. Europe's internal divisions and failure to solve internal problems brought it twice to the brink of self destruction. European quarrels detonated two World Wars and the struggle to dominate Europe dictated the course of both. Europe 1880-1945 is the classic survey of the period. Social, economic and cultural history are integrated within a firm framework of political narrative and the major themes around which the text is organised are presented through sharp and striking detail. These general themes link together the history of individual countries; it is a true history of Europe as a whole. For this new edition, John Roberts has revised the text in the light of the latest scholarship and added a new guide to further reading. John Roberts taught for twenty five years at Oxford, before becoming Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton and then returning to Oxford to become Warden of Merton College. He is the author of many successful books, including History of World and wrote and recorded a thirteen part television series for BBC, Triumph of the World.

Table of Contents

List of abbreviations and acknowledgements	x
Preface	xi
Maps	xiii
What this book is about	1	(7)
European and world history	1	(4)
Perspectives	5	(3)
Europe in 1880	8	(33)
States and peoples: Europe's political organization	8	(3)
Population structure and trends	11	(2)
Mortality	13	(3)
Towns	16	(1)
The economy before 1914: its foundations	17	(2)
Agriculture	19	(2)
Industry	21	(1)
The movement of the economy 1880-1914	22	(2)
Overall expansion	24	(3)
The `advanced' economies	27	(2)
Transport	29	(2)
The machinery of capitalism	31	(1)
Europe and the world: the domination of her culture	32	(1)
Colonies	33	(2)
Europe's place in the world economy	35	(1)
Revolutionary influences spreading from Europe	36	(4)
Vitality of European civilization	40	(1)
The ancien regime	41	(19)
Society: institutions and assumptions, `market' and `status' societies	42	(1)
Elites and masses	42	(2)
The diffusion of bourgeois ideas and standards	44	(2)
Politics: acceptance of the sovereign state	46	(1)
Monarchy	47	(2)
Nationalism	49	(1)
Racialism	50	(1)
Antisemitism	51	(1)
Spread of formal democracy	52	(1)
Increase of legislation	52	(1)
Religion	53	(2)
Anticlericalism and Roman Catholicism	55	(1)
Leo XIII	56	(2)
Protestantism	58	(1)
Jewry	59	(1)
International competition, 1880-1991	60	(37)
The setting of international relations: the sources of rivalry	60	(1)
Armies	60	(3)
Navies	63	(1)
The roots of policy in the great powers	64	(3)
Common assumptions	67	(2)
Public opinion and foreign policy	69	(1)
Bismarck's Europe: the Berlin settlement	70	(2)
Bismarck's alliances	72	(2)
The Egyptian questions	74	(1)
Balkan troubles	75	(1)
Austro-Russian rivalry	76	(2)
The beginning of imperial rivalry, 1880-90: the new imperialism	78	(3)
Anglo-French rivalry	81	(1)
The `scramble for Africa'	82	(4)
Anglo-Russian tension in Central Asia	86	(1)
Popular feeling	87	(1)
Imperialism and capitalism	88	(1)
Realignments in the 1890s: the Franco-Russian alliance	89	(3)
Austro-Russian relaxation	92	(1)
Great Britain's isolation	93	(1)
The Far East	94	(2)
Fashoda	96	(1)
Before 1914: Constitutional states	97	(47)
The United Kingdom: political institutions and ideas	98	(4)
Party struggles	102	(2)
Ireland	104	(2)
Social legislation	106	(2)
The labour movement	108	(1)
Queen Victoria dies	109	(1)
The House of Lords struggle	110	(2)
Social unrest and suffragettes	112	(1)
Ireland again	113	(1)
France: social foundations of the Republic	114	(2)
Political institutions	116	(2)
Divisions	118	(3)
Boulanger	121	(1)
The Ralliement	122	(2)
Dreyfus	124	(1)
Church and state	124	(3)
Spain and Italy: their similarities	127	(1)
Contrasts	128	(1)
Spanish politics	129	(2)
The growth of social unrest	131	(1)
Catalonia	132	(2)
Italy's divisions	134	(1)
The problem of the south	135	(2)
Depretis and Crispi	137	(4)
Giolitti	141	(3)
Autocracy and conservatism	144	(34)
Imperial Russia: the peasants	144	(2)
The tsars	146	(1)
Officialdom and arbitrary rule	147	(1)
Terrorism and repression	148	(1)
Industrial change	149	(1)
Social Democracy	150	(2)
The 1905 revolution	152	(2)
The Dumas	154	(1)
Stolypin	155	(1)
The Habsburg Monarchy: the dual structure	156	(1)
National problems	157	(1)
Hungary	158	(4)
Franz Joseph and the politicians	162	(1)
Taaffe	162	(3)
The South Slav problem	165	(2)
Imperial Germany: its achievement	167	(1)
Prussia	168	(1)
Sham constitutionalism	169	(1)
Bismarck	170	(2)
The SPD	172	(1)
William II	173	(2)
German chauvinism and conservatism	175	(3)
Anti-traditional forces	178	(22)
Intellectual and cultural: the natural sciences	178	(3)
Relativity	181	(2)
Psychology	183	(1)
Popular education	183	(1)
Innovation in the arts	184	(1)
Irrationalism	185	(2)
Political and social: anti-parliamentarianism	187	(3)
Political violence	190	(1)
Anarchism	191	(1)
Socialism and the Second International	192	(5)
Feminism	197	(3)
International relations, 1901-14	200	(20)
Arbitration and factors mitigating competition	200	(1)
The United States in world affairs	201	(3)
The crystallizing of the Entente: the Anglo-Japanese alliance	204	(1)
Anglo-French agreement	205	(1)
The Russo-Japanese war	206	(1)
The first Morocco crisis	207	(1)
Anglo-Russian rapprochement	208	(2)
German naval expansion	210	(2)
The re-emergence of Balkan issues: the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina	212	(1)
The outbreak of war: The second Morocco crisis	213	(1)
The Italo-Turkish war	214	(1)
The Balkan wars	215	(2)
Sarajevo	217	(3)
The Great War	220	(33)
The character of the war: nationalist fervour	220	(1)
The new scale of warfare	221	(1)
The new military technology	222	(2)
Fighting at sea	224	(1)
Economic demands	225	(3)
The spread of the war 1914-1917: Turkey	228	(3)
Italy	231	(2)
Gallipoli	233	(1)
Rumania	234	(2)
The crisis of the war, 1916-1917: peace attempt	236	(3)
American entry to the war	239	(1)
The Russian revolution	240	(2)
The revolutionary war of 1918: the Russian collapse	242	(1)
Brest-Litovsk	243	(3)
Habsburg misgivings	246	(2)
New nationalities	248	(1)
The last German effort, March 1918	249	(1)
Bulgaria sues for peace	250	(1)
The break-up of the Habsburg monarchy	251	(1)
The German armistice	252	(1)
Postwar Europe	253	(32)
Europe in 1918: economic and spiritual exhaustion	253	(1)
Peace-making, 1919-23: The Peace Conference and the treaties	254	(6)
New states	260	(1)
Reparations	261	(2)
Intervention in Russia	263	(2)
The Polish settlement	265	(1)
The Turkish settlement	266	(2)
Pacific problems	268	(2)
The search for stability: revisionism	270	(1)
Italy's demands	271	(1)
Russian foreign policy	272	(3)
The League of Nations	275	(1)
The Saar	276	(1)
Vilna	276	(1)
Upper Silesia	277	(1)
France and Germany	278	(4)
Locarno	282	(1)
The last years of optimism	283	(2)
Economy and society, 1918-39	285	(29)
Economic maladjustments	285	(1)
Destruction of the prewar structure of trade	286	(2)
Inflation	288	(1)
Recovery in the later 1920s	289	(1)
World economic collapse	290	(1)
Partial recovery	291	(1)
Structural change: population trends	292	(3)
The family	295	(2)
Urbanization	297	(1)
Agriculture	297	(1)
Land distribution in eastern Europe	298	(1)
Russian collectivization	299	(2)
Industrial stagnation	301	(1)
Energy	302	(1)
Transport	303	(1)
The industrial countries: the United Kingdom	303	(1)
Germany	304	(1)
France and Italy	304	(1)
Russia	305	(1)
The withering of laissez-faire	306	(1)
Europe and the world	307	(1)
Anti-European movements	308	(2)
The rise of Japan	310	(1)
Colonial difficulties	310	(1)
The Muslim world	311	(3)
Democratic Europe	314	(22)
Democracy between the wars: its prestige in 1918	314	(1)
Its failure by 1939	315	(1)
The smaller democratic states	315	(1)
France: society and the political system	316	(2)
Poincare saves the franc	318	(1)
The new right	319	(1)
The Popular Front	320	(1)
Social reform	321	(2)
The United Kingdom: wartime politics	323	(1)
Lloyd George and the end of the old Liberal party	324	(4)
The General Strike	328	(1)
1931	329	(2)
Long-term social trends	331	(1)
Foreign policy and domestic politics	332	(4)
Totalitarianism and dictatorship	336	(46)
Russia: the background to the Revolution	336	(4)
The crisis of 1918-21	340	(3)
NEP and famine	343	(1)
Stalin	344	(2)
Collectivization and the Five Year Plans	346	(1)
The Terror	347	(2)
Authoritarians and Fascists: some distinction	349	(2)
The drift to the right	351	(1)
Eastern Europe	352	(1)
Spain and Portugal	353	(4)
Franco	357	(1)
The failure of democracy: Italy	358	(1)
Postwar Italy	359	(2)
Mussolini takes power	361	(2)
Fascism	363	(2)
The Lateran treaties	365	(1)
Fascist economic policy	366	(1)
The failure of democracy: Germany	367	(1)
The SPD divided	368	(1)
The army	369	(1)
Cultural decadence	369	(2)
Political violence	371	(1)
Hitler	372	(2)
Bruning's chancellorship	374	(1)
The Nazis come to power	375	(1)
The 1934 purge	376	(1)
The nature of the regime	377	(2)
Relations with the army	379	(1)
Racial policy	380	(2)
Social and cultural change, 1918-39	382	(22)
Ways of life: major trends	382	(1)
Education and mass communications	383	(1)
Material improvement	384	(1)
New attitudes to the family and sex	385	(4)
New strains	389	(1)
Self-conscious Europe: the natural sciences	390	(2)
Anti-liberalism and anti-objectivism	392	(1)
Philosophy	393	(2)
The arts: the cinema	395	(1)
Architecture	395	(1)
Painting	396	(1)
Surrealism	397	(1)
Music	398	(1)
Literature	398	(1)
The shaking of liberal society: violence and irrationalism	399	(2)
Communism	401	(3)
The approach to the second world war	404	(39)
Power politics, 1930-36: response to economic collapse	404	(1)
Manchuria	405	(2)
The disarmament failure	407	(1)
German rearmament	408	(1)
Italian foreign policy	409	(1)
Ethiopia	410	(3)
The German problem, 1935-38	413	(3)
The remilitarization of the Rhineland	416	(1)
The Spanish Civil War	417	(3)
British policy and appeasement	420	(2)
The Axis	422	(1)
Russian policy	423	(2)
The Anschluss and Munich: Austrian policy	425	(4)
The Anschluss	429	(1)
Neville Chamberlain	429	(1)
The Sudeten question	430	(4)
The Munich agreements	434	(1)
Hitler's Europe 1938-41: elimination of Czecho-Slovakia	434	(1)
British guarantees to Rumania and others	435	(2)
The Nazi-Soviet pact	437	(1)
Poland invaded and second world war begins	438	(1)
German victories in 1940	439	(1)
Italy's defeats	440	(1)
Yugoslavia and Greece invaded	440	(2)
The launching of Barbarossa	442	(1)
Europe and the second world war	443	(23)
The nature of the war in Europe: the Blitzkrieg	443	(1)
Air warfare	444	(1)
Economic and social demands of the war effort	445	(3)
Inter-Allied cooperation	448	(2)
1942 the turning point	450	(1)
Wartime Europe: the United Kingdom	451	(2)
Occupied Europe	453	(1)
Extermination policy	453	(2)
The Resistance	455	(2)
Europe and the world in 1945: new political divisions	457	(1)
Eastern Europe	458	(1)
Greece	459	(1)
The end of Fascist Italy	459	(1)
De Gaulle and the recovery of France	460	(3)
Germany in defeat	463	(1)
The crumbling of European empire	463	(1)
American policy	464	(2)
Beyond this book: reading further	466	(22)
Some problems	466	(5)
Aids to study	471	(3)
The useful and the stimulating	474	(14)
Appendix	488	(3)
1. Estimated population of European countries 1880-1940	488	(1)
2. Production of basic industrial materials	489	(2)
Index	491