History 121D3

In the early 19th century, merchants lived as good, or better lives

than the aristocrats

Most merchants and bankers made their fortunes from the

colonial trades
In the early 19th century, the economic life was in the class of this

mercantile plutocracy
The merchant class was really taking off in the areas that had an

entrenched industrialist aspect

Many of these merchants had little education and all-absorbing
ambition to increase the output of their machines, which

increased their wealth.

Most had no interest in leisure and were involved with stoic,

fundamentalist religious sects

These were the new captains of industry
Lawyers, apothecaries, government officials, etc. were some of

the professions that exploded in these areas

Much of the importance from the middle class arises from their

education and ambition

Many were employed in the state bureaucracy
These were the folk who played an active role in the French

revolution
Peasant merchants or wealthy artisans could transcend the

working class and reach the middle or upper classes

As we moved eastward, the proportions of the middle class

decreases dramatically
A substantial portion of the middle class worked in the state

governments
Many of these workers earned enough to support a family

But there were groups who could not afford to start a family, so

the solutions were to subsist, not start a family, or start one later
The age of marriage is steadily increasing in this period
There are very different aspects of the east and western parts of

Europe
There was an entrenched nobility in the east and there was a
difference between the peasants ties to the land (serfs vs. free

workers)
Citizens now belonged to a social class above anything else
Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic church and it was

still the language of colleges

In some areas with many languages, Latin still persisted
Latin was the de facto language of the Hungarian and Polish

areas since people could not readily speak to each other

French was the language of the nobility, chivalry, and began to

push aside Latin in diplomacy

The last treaty written in Latin was in 1738
There are not a lot of ethnic boundaries in Europe at this time
And in areas that had many ethnic groups, such as the Austrian

Empire, people needed to learn many languages

German speaking Berbers, according to Herder, were

consistently denied access to the state

Herder argued that you could succeed and still retain your

national identity
Language was the foundation of nationalism
Once language is entrenched, a national identity could be made

to form around it
Polish was developed in the early 19th century to resist

domination
By the late 18th and early 19th century, Russias elite begin to
resent the overarching use of French

This is the period of national awakening and romantic

nationalism
Criticism of the use of French begat the modernization of Russian
Russian was modernized to suit the vernacular instead of Old

Church Slavonic
The first Russian dictionary was in 1802
Greek was modernized as well to the vernacular instead of Old

Greek
Romanian and other literary languages were being written down

for the first time in the first half of the 19th century
Italy and Germany had widely different dialects
Italian and German were standardized
In many departments, much of the population didnt speak

French
Language was both a divisive and unifying factor
Austria-Hungary was a hodgepodge of Magyar, Czech, Slovak,

Bosnian, Serb, Ruthenian, and many other languages

Because of the language barrier, the military tactics of the
Austrian Empire was mainly to group everyone up and tell them

to charge
Education was defined by knowing Latin
Primary education was for the masses, secondary education was

for the elite

Teaching the peasants to read and write was dangerous because

it would ignite vain hopes and unrealistic expectations

Education = power for much of European history, therefore it
made sense to withhold education from those the nobility wished

to restrict power from

The elementary education for the masses was made compulsory
in the Prussian empire

Between 55-60% of the male population couldnt read, and up to

20% had no comprehension

Sweden had the highest literacy rates in all of Europe at 90% in

1850, but much of the continent was plagued by low literacy

Literacy rates decrease as you move south and east, with the

lowest found in the Balkans and in the Russian Empire

Russia had a male literacy rate of 14%
For the majority of the population, there is no reason to become

literate
Even in areas that had some form of education, school

attendance was erratic

There were not very many teachers around at the time
Teachers did not make much money and often had to take on

additional work to make ends meet

The curriculum was concerned with learning the catechism;

writing and arithmetic were not promoted

Central schools were most likely to be either Catholic or
Protestant so religious sects were not likely to get an education

suited to their denomination

This all changes with the industrial revolution
It created, for the first time, a society that was literate
States had enormous sums of money in their coffers
Educating the lower classes became desirable because of the

massive population shift due to industrialization

Many of these people were flooding into these huge urban

industrial centers
There were historically many local forms of control in each

respective fiefdom
That disappears in these teeming industrial communities which

are created in the wake of the industrial revolution

There was enormous worry about what these cities represent

The elites of Europe come to look at schools as potential

instruments to satiate the population

King Wilhelm III: children should be educated to become good

Christians, decent men, and good citizens

Schools were meant to retain class structures by maintaining

social order
The purpose was stability instead of liberation
The intent was not to educate the poor to the extent they would

become dissatisfied with life

Only in the 19th and 20th century would a wider view of education

be widespread
Labor conditions were horrendous in the early 19th century
Male voting rights were extended to a little less than of the

European population
There was a need to train loyal citizens who would vote properly
Compulsory elementary education was widely instituted in the

1870s
School attendance grew by 145% from the 1840s-1870s
Only Portugal, the Russian Empire, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Greece

did not have widespread education

The 19th century was defined by the rapid spread of

secularization
Religion, across the continent, continues to play a central role in

the lives of most Europeans

Any kind of civic events were mostly church related
Church revival meetings or protestant pilgrimages attracted

huge crowds
500,000 people traveled to see the Shroud of Turin in 1844
The priest was usually the only person in the community who

could read or write

Religion remains a powerful force in broad-group identity

It challenged nationalist movements unless it merged with them

It was a powerful instruments of social order and governments

added spiritual to physical force by making churches state-run

The founder of the Russian empire had established state control

over the very powerful Russian Orthodox Church

Lutheran churches in Prussia become state churches
Irish Catholics were oppressed by the Protestants and had to pay

special dues
Anyone not a member of the Orthodox population in the south

and east was controlled by the Ottomans

The Ottomans controlled the patriarchy of Constantinople
When Greece achieved independence, it proclaimed its church

autonomous from the one in Constantinople

Pope Pius XII returned to Rome from exile
The Catholics were actively teaching or preaching the restored

Jesuit order
Catholics were working to restore the papacy to its previous glory
Catholicism was favored by the nobility to restore the old

monarchies and themselves

The revolution was seen as punishment for turning away from

the faith
Ordinations were increased in order to increase the number of

catholic priests
Jewish settlements in Italy were ghettos
There was a wave of Protestant killings in the South of France