Unit 5: Revolutions

"The introduction of the new method of making steel has completely revolutionized the metal trades. Steel, which was formerly a luxury, produced in small quantities by the costly crucible process, is now manufactured by the hundreds of tons in a single operation. This has not only reduced the cost of railway construction but has also enabled the building of larger steamships and stronger bridges."

— Scientific American, 1875

Based on the passage and your knowledge of world history, which of the following best explains how the technology described in the source differed from the technological innovations of the First Industrial Revolution?

Source: Louis Blanc, French socialist politician and journalist, *The Organization of Work*, 1839

'The government should be regarded as the supreme regulator of production, and endowed with great power for this purpose. Its task would consist in using the weapon of competition in order to destroy competition... The government would raise a loan, the proceeds of which would be applied to the creation of social workshops in the most important branches of national industry... In these workshops, the wages would be equal...'

Which of the following best explains how Louis Blanc's proposed solution to the social problems of industrialization differed from the perspective of revolutionary Marxists?

The following is an excerpt from a contract between the Government of Guatemala and the United Fruit Company, signed in 1904:

'The Government grants the concessionaire [the United Fruit Company] the right to construct, maintain, and operate a railway line... The Government also grants the concessionaire the exclusive right to use the ports and docks of Puerto Barrios, free of all taxes and duties... The concessionaire agrees to cultivate banana plantations along the railway line and to export at least one million bunches of bananas annually, utilizing its own fleet of steamships to transport these products to North American and European markets.'

Which of the following best explains how the contract described in the passage reflects a major trend in the global economy during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?

"The chemical works of this district, particularly those producing aniline and other coal-tar dyes, have grown to colossal proportions. By applying systematic scientific research in private laboratories, these firms have succeeded in producing artificial colors that have driven natural indigo and madder from the global market. The power required to drive these vast works is no longer just steam, but increasingly electrical dynamos, allowing for precise control of chemical reactions..."

—Excerpt from a report by a British consular official in Germany, 1888

The technological and organizational developments described in the passage most directly represent which of the following shifts between the First and Second Industrial Revolutions?

Source: Adapted from a letter written by Matthew Boulton, a British manufacturer and business partner of James Watt, to Watt concerning the production of the steam engine, 1769.

"I was excited by your proposal to construct a steam engine, and I see great promise in it. To carry it out, I would erect all the conveniences that might be necessary, as I have a love for system and organization. My manufactory is near to canal navigation, which links us to coalfields and ports. With the secure protections of our laws over patents and property, and the large amount of disposable capital seeking investment in our kingdom, we possess the means to manufacture these engines not just for a few local mines, but for the empire and the world."

Which of the following factors described by Boulton in the passage most directly represents a key political or economic precondition that favored Great Britain as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution?

Source: The Constitution of Hayti (Haiti), 1805

'Article 1. The people inhabiting the island formerly called St. Domingo, hereby agree to form themselves into a free, sovereign, and independent state...
Article 2. Slavery is forever abolished.
Article 3. The citizens of Hayti are brothers, at home; equality in the eyes of the law is acknowledged...
Article 12. No white man, of whatever nation he may be, shall put his foot on this territory with the title of master or proprietor, neither shall he in future acquire any property here.'

Which of the following best explains how the social and political goals expressed in the excerpt differed from the outcomes of the American Revolution?

“To the factory we go, to spin the silk thread.
The overseer is cruel, the work is never done.
We leave our parents in the countryside to earn yen for our family,
But the dust fills our lungs, and the dormitory is cold.”
— Traditional song of Japanese female silk-mill workers, late nineteenth century

Which of the following social developments in Meiji-era Japan is best illustrated by the sentiments expressed in the song?

"The general diffusion of manufactures throughout a country generates a new character in its inhabitants; and as this character is formed upon a principle quite unfavorable to individual or general happiness, it will produce the most lamentable and permanent evils, unless its tendency be counteracted by legislative interference and direction."

— Robert Owen, British factory owner and social reformer, *Observations on the Effect of the Manufacturing System*, 1815

Which of the following responses to the growth of industrial capitalism is most closely aligned with the views expressed by Owen in the passage?

Source: John Bowring, British diplomat and economist, *Report on Egypt and Candia*, addressed to the British government, 1840.

"The manufacturing state-run establishments of the Pasha [Muhammad Ali] are, for the most part, modern creations, which have arose out of his desire to make himself independent of foreign supplies... The cotton factories, the woollen manufactories, the iron foundries, the arsenals, have all been created by the government. In these, the machinery has been imported from Europe at a great cost, and European directors and artisans have been engaged to superintend them. But the difficulty of obtaining coal and the lack of native skilled labor, combined with the high cost of maintenance, have rendered many of these establishments unprofitable and dependent on continuous state subsidies."

Based on the passage, which of the following best explains why Muhammad Ali’s state-sponsored industrialization program in Egypt experienced limited long-term success compared to Western Europe?

"Mothers, daughters, sisters, female representatives of the nation, ask to be constituted as a national assembly. Considering that ignorance, neglect, or contempt for the rights of woman are the sole causes of public misfortunes and governmental corruption, they have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration these natural, inalienable, and sacred rights, so that this declaration, constantly present to all members of the social body, may ceaselessly remind them of their rights and their duties..."

— Olympe de Gouges, French writer and activist, *Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen*, 1791

The arguments in the passage are best understood in the context of which of the following historical developments?

The following is an excerpt from a report by a British consular official in China, written in 1845:

'The arrival of the steam vessel has altogether altered our relations with the interior. Where sailing ships were once at the mercy of contrary winds and strong river currents, the steamship now ascends the Yangtze River with ease, carrying manufactured cotton goods directly to inland markets and returning laden with tea and silk.'

Which of the following historical developments is best illustrated by the consular official's report?

"The introduction of the submarine telegraph cable has effectively annihilated distance. A message from London to Calcutta, which once required months to travel by sailing vessel, now arrives in a matter of minutes. This marvel of science not only facilitates the rapid transmission of imperial commands and market prices, but also binds the distant parts of the world into a single, synchronized economic system."
—Adaptation of a British journal article on telegraphy, 1870

Which of the following processes of the late nineteenth century is best illustrated by the developments described in the passage?

"In the older system, power was distributed from a single large steam engine through a complex network of shafts, pulleys, and belts running throughout the factory. If one belt broke, or the main engine failed, the entire mill fell silent. With the introduction of the electric motor, however, each machine can be equipped with its own power source. This not only increases safety and cleanliness by eliminating the overhead forest of whirling belts, but it also allows individual machines to be run independently, greatly improving efficiency and factory layout."

—Adapted from an industrial trade journal report on manufacturing technology, circa 1895

The transition described in the passage most directly reflects which of the following developments in the history of industrialization?

Source: Camillo di Cavour, Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia, letter to King Victor Emmanuel II, 1858

'The Emperor [Napoleon III of France] agreed that the Austrians must be driven out of Italy once and for all... We then examined what should be done with the rest of Italy. The Emperor proposed that Italy should be organized as a confederation of states under the honorary presidency of the Pope, a solution that I accepted because it would secure French military support against Austria, while leaving Piedmont as the dominant power in northern Italy.'

Cavour’s diplomatic strategies described in the passage best illustrate which of the following developments in nineteenth-century Europe?

"When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner. Again, there is no liberty, if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive. Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control; for the judge would be then the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with violence and oppression."

— Baron de Montesquieu, *The Spirit of the Laws*, 1748

Which of the following best explains how the ideas expressed in the passage influenced the political developments of the Atlantic Revolutions?

“In our old way of life, we were independent. We worked at our own pace in our workshops, and the family was united. The loom belonged to us, and we taught our children the trade under our own roof. Now, we must enter the factory gate at the sound of the bell and work under the watchful eye of an overseer. The family is scattered; my wife works in another room, and my children are employed in different mills. The home has ceased to be a place of shared labor and has become merely a lodging.”

— Testimony of a French weaver from Lyon, published in a government inquiry on working-class conditions, 1845

Which of the following social changes during the Industrial Revolution is most directly illustrated by the developments described in the passage?

"The expansion of our operations throughout the ports of China and Japan, as well as our newly established agencies in San Francisco and London, has facilitated a seamless flow of capital. The bank has not only provided the necessary exchange facilities for the tea and silk trades but has also begun negotiation for loans to the Chinese imperial government for railway construction. This integration of global capital demonstrates that our local interests are now indissolubly bound up with the wider currents of international commerce."

— Report of the Court of Directors, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), 1878

Which of the following best explains the historical significance of the developments described in the passage?

Source: Gabriel Jars, French metalwork engineer and state investigator, *Voyages Métallurgiques* (Metallurgical Travels), 1774.

"The high price of wood, which is felt throughout all of England, has obliged the inhabitants to search for a substitute. They have found it in mineral coal, which is so abundant in this island that they have been able to employ it for all their needs. The abundance of this fuel, and the ease of transporting it by sea and river, has given rise to the establishment of numerous manufactories. In France, where wood is still relatively plentiful, there is less incentive to undertake the costly and difficult task of mining coal from the depths of the earth."

Which of the following environmental or geographic factors described by Jars best explains why Great Britain industrialized before other European nations like France?

Source: Kume Kunitake, *Journal of the Iwakura Mission*, 1878, describing observations in Europe and the United States in 1872.

'The wealth and strength of a nation are not determined by the size of its territory or the number of its citizens, but rather by the industry of its people and the efficiency of its production. In Europe, the governments have taken the lead in establishing schools, building railways, and promoting manufacturing. If we in Japan wish to maintain our independence and compete with these Western powers, we must reform our traditional institutions and adopt these modern systems under the direction of the state.'

Which of the following historical developments in late nineteenth-century Japan is most directly reflected in the ideas expressed in the passage?

"The Suez Canal has become the grand highway of global commerce, and the rapid growth of European steamship fleets passing through it has generated unprecedented profits for our investors. The capital raised from shareholders in Paris, London, and Geneva has allowed us to finance continuous dredging and expansion projects. By integrating Asian resources with European industrial centers, our enterprise has established a permanent link in the global network of exchange."
— Report to the shareholders of the Universal Company of the Maritime Canal of Suez, 1879

Which of the following nineteenth-century developments is most directly illustrated by the operations and financing of the Universal Company of the Maritime Canal of Suez described in the passage?