CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. Introduction

II. The German Empire, 1871–1914

III. The French Third Republic

IV. Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain

V. Imperial Russia on the Eve of Revolution

VI. Belle Époque Democracy around Europe

VII. The Rise of Trade Unionism and Socialism

VIII. The Growth of Women’s Rights Movements

IX. European Culture During the Belle Époque

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CHAPTER 26

EUROPE IN THE BELLE ÉPOQUE, 1871–1914

T

urn-of-the-century Europe is known as the

Belle Époque (the beautiful era) because it

was a period of unusual peace and prosperity

compared with the preceding century or the

following generation. For nearly half a century, be-

tween the Paris Commune of 1871 and the beginning

of World War I in 1914, no European wars broke out

among the great powers, no wave of revolutions arose.

A long recession troubled people during the 1870s and

1880s, but the Belle Époque experienced nothing so

severe as the great depressions of the 1840s or 1930s.

Chapter 26 examines Europe during this era of rela-

tive tranquility. It surveys the four greatest powers (the

German Empire, the French Third Republic, Great

Britain, and the Russian Empire) and draws some com-

parisons with other states. Each of the great powers

made progress toward democratic societies, but the at-

titudes and institutions of the Old Regime still per-

sisted. The chapter shows how reforms such as the

creation of universal education in France by Jules Ferry,

and the foundation of social security in Germany by

Otto von Bismarck marked this democratic trend; how-

ever, it also shows a less democratic context, such as

the Bismarckian attack on the Catholic Church during

the Kulturkampf,the outbreak of the anti-Semitic Drey-

fus affair in France, and the British refusal of home rule

to the Irish. The final sections of the chapter discuss

two of the major issues confronting European democ-

racy during the Belle Époque: the growth of the labor

movement and socialist political parties and the emer-

gence of feminism as a mass movement. Workers,

women, and minorities all demanded a share in the

emerging democracy.

The German Empire, 1871–1914

The Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War en-

abled Bismarck to bring the south German states

(Baden, Bavaria, and Württemberg) into a union with

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