The West in the World, 4th Edition (Sherman)

Chapter 20: Mass Politics and Imperial Domination

Critical Thinking Questions

  1. Demands for Democracy


  1. What three developments became entwined with and fed demands for democracy during the 1870s and 1880s?


  2. After the reform bills were passed, how and why did politicians like Gladstone change the way they interacted with the public?


  3. What did the Paris Commune stand for and why did it form?


  4. How did French liberals bring the newly widened voting public into national politics?


  5. What types of reforms and restrictions did Bismarck initially institute?


  6. Explain why Bismarck decided to sponsor a comprehensive system of social insurance, making Germany a leader in the creation of social policies.


  7. How did liberalism fare in the Austro-Hungarian Empire?


  8. Describe the types of movements that the failure of further liberal reforms led to in Russia. How did Alexander II and Alexander III respond?


  1. Insiders and Outsiders: Politics of the Extremes


  1. In what ways did unions become more radical toward the end of the nineteenth century?


  2. What organizations and strategies did socialists turn to during the second half of the nineteenth century?


  3. How did anarchism differ from socialism?


  4. Conservative nationalism led to even more extreme ideas in certain places. What were those ideas? How did they build off of conservative ideology?


  5. Why did anti-Semitic politics have a mass appeal in some places? To which groups in particular did it appeal?


  6. How did anti-Semitism play out as a political strategy in central and eastern Europe? Was it successful at this time?


  7. In what ways did Jews respond to the anti-Semitism they confronted?


  8. What different arguments did groups fighting for women's rights use in support of their cause?


  1. Emigration: Overseas and Across Continents


  1. Why did so many Europeans leave Europe between 1870 and 1914?


  2. What types of situations did immigrants confront in reality?


  1. The New Imperialism: The Race for Africa and Asia


  1. How did imperialism open up opportunities for Europeans to make money?


  2. How could nationalistic sentiment be satisfied by imperialism?


  3. How did Westerners justify imperialism?


  4. What advances in science and technology facilitated imperial conquest?


  5. How was Britain able to exert increasing control over Egypt?


  6. How did Europeans rule African societies?


  7. How did Britain impose its own economic needs and standards on India?


  8. How was French rule of the Union of Indochina similar to British rule of India?


  9. How did the British make economic inroads into China?


  10. How did the landing of an American fleet in Tokyo in 1853 change Japan?


  11. What were the economic, social, political, and environmental legacies of imperialism?


  12. To what extent did imperialism cause conflict among European powers?


Sherman: The West in the World, Fourth Edition
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