33.3 Europe: a.d. 1801 to 1900

Europe

Back to Europe: A.D. 1701 to 1800

The population of Europe increased in this century from about 190 million to over 400 million. Industrialization of continental Europe followed England's examples and appeared early in the century basically in the regions of available coal, as in northern France, Belgium and the Ruhr Valley in Germany. Many of the industries and the necessary railway transportation systems were built and operated by governments, because of a lack of private capital. McNeill (Ref. 279 ) says that the industrialization of war began in the 1840s when railroads and semi-automated mass production together with Prussian breech-loaders and French naval steam efforts began to transform the previous military establishments. Western scientists (including Russians) tried to find the secret of damask steel (see pages 342, 348 and 643) and in so doing really initiated the field of metallography. (Ref. 260 ) The technology for using this metallurgy and other rapidly developing new fields in armaments actually started in the United States, by 1870. Russia, Spain, Sweden, Denmark and even Turkey and Egypt, were all following the original English example of importing American milling machinery for gun making. (Ref. 279 )

The decline in oversea transportation costs made possible by the development of the steamship allowed an era of migration from Europe to the Americas, Oceania, Africa and Siberia. Railroads and steamships alike also extended the area from which bulky crops such as grains and minerals could be marketed and refrigeration allowed food and meat to be brought in from America, China, Australia and India. After 1871, although Europe was heavily armed, there were no wars for the remainder of the century. Ireland, England and all northern Europe, including Russia, had been badly hurt in mid-century, however, by the potato crop failure caused by the establishment of a Peruvian parasitic fungus, which implanted itself in European potatoes. The resulting famine in Irish, Belgian and German populations, along with typhus fever and other diseases, produced millions of deaths. (Ref. 8 , 211 )

Southern europe

Eastern mediterranean islands

By 1829 the Cyclades had become part of Greece, rather than Turkey. The Greek Cretans revolted against the Turks in the Greek-Turkish War at the end of the century and Crete became independent. (Ref. 38 ) The authorities then allowed Sir Arthur Evans to start excavations at Knossus. (Ref. 127 ) The Italian Frederico Halbherr had done some excavation work on the south shore of the island as early as 1884. Britain occupied Cyprus in 1877

Greece

Led by Alexander Ypsilanti, the Greeks rose against the Muslim overlordship of the Turks in 1821 and in the following year declared their independence. The war was a savage one and also had elements of civil conf lict within Greek groups, themselves.

Great Britain, Russia and France finally helped Greece by def eating the Egyptian Muslim, Muhammad Ali, who had taken control of Greece, along with Crete and part of Syria. The victory came in a great naval battle of Navarino, in 1827 and an independent Greek kingdom was established in 1830 under Otto I, who had been a Bavarian prince. A constitution was forced upon the unwilling king in 1844 and by 1862 he was forced to abdicate in favor of Prince George of Denmark. After that Greece gradually gained more territory, acquiring the Ionian islands and Thessaly.