Assignment Code: BHIC-111/ASST/TMA/2021-22

Course Code: BHIC-111

Assignment Name: History of Modern Europe -I (C. 1780-1939)

Year: 2021-2022

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Marks: 100

Note: There are three Sections in the Assignment. You have to answer all questions in the Sections.

Assignment - I

Answer the following in about 500 words each.

Q1. ‘The French Revolution marked the end of despotism and beginning of modern state’. Explain. 20

Ans) One of the most dramatic upheavals in world history was the French Revolution. Beginning in the summer of 1789, revolutionary enthusiasm swept over France, Europe, and beyond, challenging established institutions and traditions while embracing new ideals about government, liberty, and citizenship. Historian Alexander Mikaberidze investigates this watershed moment, which continues to inspire the best values of modern democracy while also serving as a cautionary tale about what may happen when idealism goes wrong.

The Old Regime's Crisis: On the eve of the revolution, France was a country energised by new ideas but ruled by tradition. Power and rank were defined by the monarchy, the church, and the nobility. However, deep social, financial, and political difficulties existed beneath the appearance of strength and continuity, contributing to the onset of the unrest in the summer of 1789.

Bringing Politics to the People: The revolution's first two years were a period of creativity and discovery. The movement brought about significant changes, including the establishment of a constitutional monarchy, the proclamation of essential rights and liberties, and the implementation of considerable administrative reforms. However, it highlighted deepening schisms in French society, as people disagreed over the scope and nature of these changes. Faced with tensions between the revolution's lofty idealism and the pragmatism of actual reforms by 1792, some revolutionaries resorted to more radical methods.

The Terror Has Arrived: From 1789 to 1792, the first stage of the revolution focused on growing concepts of freedom: the ability to express oneself, compete, own property, and achieve. The rallying cry of the second state, which began in the summer of 1792, was equality. This was a movement led by the lower classes, who felt left out of the revolution's gains and desired to establish a republic with significantly more democratic involvement. The revolution took a dark turn when France found itself at odds with monarchical Europe, and the guillotine became its symbol of justice.

Is the Revolution Finally Over?

On July 27, 1794, a new phase of the revolution began, ushering in a period of reconciliation and the search for stability. The new French government adopted a more moderate view of the revolution, but it was nonetheless beset by a war with Europe and a domestic crises. For many, the Reign of Terror's extremism meant that democracy had lost its credibility. Few, though, wanted the old government to return. In November 1799, France discovered in a man of war an answer to its requirements for order and stability in administration. Did Napoleon Bonaparte, who had said, "The revolution is over," agree? "I am the revolution."—do I fulfil or corrupt the revolution's goals? Mikaberidze, a revolutionary-era expert, holds the Ruth Herring Noel endowed chair for the curatorship of Louisiana State University-James Shreveport's Smith Noel Collection.

Q2. Analyse the process and challenges in industrialization in Russia. 20

Ans) The process of industrialization in Russia are:

In Russia, an industrial revolution came to a halt in the post-reform period. After 1861, all of the conditions for the eventual conversion of manufacturing to factory production were in place. By the early 1880s, the majority of industrial items were being manufactured in factories and plants employing steam-powered machinery and processes.

In all major industries, factory production based on civilian labour has been relegated to the background. At the end of the 1870s, 50 thousand mechanical looms produced 58 percent of the textile industry. Three-quarters of textiles, more than 80% of metal items, and nearly 90% of sugar production were produced in factories. Steam engines and turbines provided two-thirds of the energy required for metallurgy. Only the leather, furniture, and a few sections of the food industry relied heavily on manual labour.

Heavy industry grew at a tremendous pace from the late 1880s to the end of the century, with the volume of production increasing fourfold and the number of workers doubling. Large, automated firms were unusual in the 1980s among the vast mass of artisanal output, although they were common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Large and largest businesses dominated all key industries.

The 1880s saw substantial regional and sectoral disparities in industrial progress. It concluded with a new systemic crisis at the end of the decade, which was part of a global industrial output recession and was accompanied by an agrarian crisis.

The challenges in industrialization in Russia are:

Cities were swamped with workers by 1905. For the working class, life was tremendously difficult. Living conditions were poor in the major cities, and worker housing was typically tight, with only enough floor space for people to pass through. Factory workers were constantly in danger because of the dangerous, heavy, and unsecured machinery they worked with. Workers typically toiled for fifteen to sixteen hours every day, earning pennies on the dollar for their efforts. This resulted in low factory morale and, as a result of fatigue, preventable mishaps on the manufacturing floor.

The workers' demands were that their working hours should be decreased and that their pay be increased to a rouble per day. Better living and working conditions were also a priority for the workers. Workers wanted the law changed since they were unable to strike because trade unions were forbidden. Workers could not be represented in parliament because it had not yet been established.

The government's initiatives to expand industry had terrible impacts on the people, which was a grievance shared by workers, peasants, and the middle class. Despite the fact that oil and coal output tripled and iron production quadrupled, peasants who went to the cities soon realised that they would have been better off sticking in the countryside because their living conditions did not improve.

Assignment - II

Answer the following questions in about 250 words each.

Q3. Discuss the role of bureaucracy in modern European state. 10

Ans) The role of bureaucracy in modern European state is:

Since the introduction of the European Security and Defense Policy in 1999, a slew of new bureaucratic entities have sprung up in Brussels and national capitals. These organisations assist the European Union's crisis management efforts. This report summarises the current state of the art and identifies promising new directions for research. It does so not only to set the tone for the rest of this special issue, but it also to place the study of ESDP bureaucracy within the larger research agenda on the function of bureaucracy in the European Union. The study of bureaucracy dates back a long time.

Max Weber, who recognised professional bureaucracy as one of the building elements of the modern state, is one of the essential references. However, the political environment in which governments operate has altered dramatically since the publication of 'Economy and Society.' One significant development is the growing complexity of political challenges, which necessitate answers far beyond the capabilities of national governments and challenge territorial state sovereignty. Following the Second World War, a slew of international and regional organisations sprung up. In addition to day-to-day intergovernmental contacts between national public employees, all of these platforms have their own permanent bureaucracies.

Decisions are reached after extensive consultation and negotiation between politicians, civil servants, the private sector, and civil society representatives at all levels. The emphasis was on 'history creating decisions,' and there was no opportunity for the study of bureaucracies because states were seen as a black box. However, beginning in the 1990s, the EU was increasingly conceptualised as a polity analogous to other political systems, and the study of day-to-day policymaking became a primary focus of European research.

Q4. What led to the Revolutions of 1848? What was the outcome of the Revolutions? 10

Ans) France was not the only country to be engulfed in upheavals, revolts, and revolutions throughout the mid-nineteenth century. The 1848 Revolutions, as they are now known, were a series of political upheavals that occurred across the European continent. Many of these revolutions fizzled out and disintegrated within a year of their start date, despite their widespread nature.

France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Denmark, and the Austrian Empire were among the countries that experienced revolution. The main drivers of these revolutions were dissatisfaction with the monarchy in charge of each country. Citizens were fed up with being oppressed and controlled, and a popular desire for democracy over monarchy arose. Others were enraged by the monarchy's indifference to their country's needs as food shortages and economic upheaval swept across the country.

The outcome of the Revolutions is as follows:

1. The 1848 revolutions delivered significant social and cultural transformations, but little political change. Although the coalition of the middle and working classes had some initial triumphs, the majority of them failed.

2. Immediate accomplishments

3. Over the next few decades, Europe's middle class gained political and economic power.

4. Revolutionary philosophies clashed: moderate liberals feared radicalism, while radicals hated moderate liberals.

5. Nationalism became divisive rather than unifying due to a lack of organisation and a common revolutionary purpose.

6. The revolutionaries lacked leadership and administrative skills.

7. The European powers' ability to maintain the status quo was challenged after 1848. This demonstrated that revolutions had the ability to bring about great change, but that changing the monarchical system that had dominated Europe for hundreds of years would require collaboration and organisation.

Q5. Define nationalism and discuss the stages in the development of nationalism. 10

Ans) Nationalism is an ideology that stresses a nation's or nation-loyalty, state's devotion, or allegiance, and believes that such commitments above other individual or group interests. Nationalism studies is an interdisciplinary academic discipline that analyses nationalism and associated topics. While nationalism has been the subject of academic debate since at least the late eighteenth century, it is only since the early 1990s that it has gotten enough attention to become its own field.

Nationalism is a relatively new phenomenon. People have been attached to their native soil, their parents' traditions, and established territorial authorities throughout history, but it wasn't until the end of the 18th century that nationalism became a widely recognised sentiment moulding public and private life and one of, if not the greatest, single determining factors of modern history.

The stages in the development of nationalism are:

1. When nationalism initially evolved in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the majority of interest in it was intellectual.

2. The time span from the First World War to the Second World War, when nationalism became a legitimate academic topic.

3. From 1945 through the late 1980s, various sociologists and political scientists produced general conceptions of nationalism in the context of global decolonization and the West's "ethnic renaissance."

4. Following the fall of communism in 1989, there was a spike of interest in nationalism, which resulted in the emergence of nationalism studies as a field.

Assignment - III

Answer the following questions in about 100 words each.

Q6. Discuss the ideas of Utilitarian thinkers 6

Ans) In normative ethics, utilitarianism is a tradition originating with English philosophers and economists Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, according to which an action (or type of action) is right if it tends to promote happiness or pleasure and wrong if it tends to produce unhappiness or pain—not just for the performer of the action but for everyone else affected by it. Utilitarianism also contrasts from ethical theories that base the rightness or wrongness of an action on the agent's motivation—the utilitarian believes that the right thing can be done with a terrible motivation.

Q7. Write a note on the Reform Act of 1832. 6

Ans) The Representation of the People Act 1832, known as the first Reform Act or Great Reform Act:

1. In England and Wales, 56 boroughs were disenfranchised, while another 31 had only one MP.

2. 67 new constituencies have been created.

3. In the counties, the property qualification for the franchise has been expanded to include small landowners, tenant farmers, and shopkeepers.

4. In the boroughs, a uniform franchise was established, granting all households who paid a yearly rate of £10 or more, as well as certain lodgers, the right to vote.

Another alteration brought about by the 1832 Reform Act was the statutory prohibition of women from voting in Parliamentary elections, because the Act defined a voter as a man. Prior to 1832, there were a few, albeit infrequent, instances of women voting.

Q8. Explain the rise of Napoleon III. 6

Ans) He was elected President of the French Second Republic in 1848 after a stormy adolescence and multiple attempts to grab power during the July Monarchy. With a coup on December 2, 1851, he converted his presidency into an imperial title, crowning himself Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. The new rule was Napoleonic to the core, and it reignited France's past military glory and ostentation while simultaneously ushering in an era of enormous economic prosperity. His most significant accomplishment, however, was the reconstruction of Paris. The Radical Left's strongest weapon in taking power had always been Paris.

Q9. Write a note on Women movements for equal rights. 6

Ans) Women's rights movement, also known as women's liberation movement, is a broad social movement rooted mostly in the United States that sought equal rights and opportunities for women in the 1960s and 1970s. It was part of the "second wave" of feminism and is recognised as such. While first-wave feminism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries focused on women's legal rights, particularly the right to vote (see women's suffrage), second-wave feminism in the women's rights movement addressed every aspect of women's lives, including politics, work, family, and sexuality.

Q10. Discuss cultural roots of Italian nationalism. 6

Ans) Italian nationalism is a movement that promotes the cultural unity of Italy as a country by believing that Italians are a single nation with a single homogeneous identity. Italianness, according to Italian nationalists, is defined as claiming cultural and ethnic ancestry from the Latins, an Italic tribe that originated in Latium and eventually came to rule the Italian peninsula and much of Europe. Although Italian nationalism is generally attributed to the Renaissance, it did not emerge as a political movement until the 1830s, under the leadership of Giuseppe Mazzini. In the 1860s and 1870s, it was a rallying point for the Risorgimento. With Italian irredentist claims to regions held by Austria-Hungary during World War I, and throughout the era of Italian Fascism, Italian nationalism resurfaced.