TMAO2

There was no uniformity in the way in which states were ran in the late 19th and early 20th century each state created its own way to live. However before the start of the first world war there were similarities in the ways that the states were governed. This can be seen between three of the largest powers in Europe, Britain, Germany and France. This essay will discuss the similarities and differences that Britain had with both Germany and France in order to determine if Britain was in fact more like Germany than France. The comparisons put forward will be those of economy with industrialisation, social reform and national homogeneity.

Economically Britain was one of the stronger powers throughout Europe before 1914. It had close relationships with America and was the first power to adopt the gold standard as a monetary form across the world; this helped to achieve its status as a strong power.
Britain was a fairly urbanised country, in which over 2.5 per cent of its population by 1900 lived in just six of its largest cities. (table 1.1, 2013 p20) Since Germanys unification it progressed to becoming the largest industrialised power throughout Europe. Within just Berlin itself 15% of people were employed within just metal and electrical industrial words (Winter, 1997) Unlike Britain and Germany, French economy was not focused on industrialisation. Only 0.98% of the population of France in 1910 lived within the three main industrial cities of France. (table 1.1, p20)
Within the economy it can be seen that Britain and Germany are more alike. Britain and German out-put of steel and pig iron in 1910 was 16.7 million tonnes and 28.5 million tonnes compared to frances 7.4 million tonnes. (table 1.4, 2013, p23) Both Britain and Germany seemed to have moved away from their individual farming days and onto large industrialised movements. However that is not to say that agriculture still didn’t need to play its part in the countries Britain benefited from cash cropping for a number of years (Emsley, 2013 p25) The success and high productivity of this due to the fact that Britain were using mechanised farming and had created distribution chains and markets for sale (Wardley, 2005, p 8). France was one of the only countries that still had a high number of small holding farms in 1893 with 85% of landowners holding less than 10 hectares of land (table1.2, p21).
Within economy it seems that Britain is in fact more in line with Germany in terms of scale of urbanization, industrialisation and

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Each of the three states had their own constitutional hierarchy which in turn caused a number of social reforms throughout the states. Once again there were similarities and differences between all of the three.
Britains 1906 election saw the introduction of a liberal government. (Emsley, 2013, p12) The constitution was made up of the House of Lords; non-elected hereditary peers and noble men and the house of commons; ministers by election. The state still had a monarchy, but they were not involved in the decision making politics of the day anymore. There was no universal male suffrage and no women were allowed to vote at this time. The ministers were held accountable for their actions and should there be any loss in faith or disagreement between the ministers then proposals could be rejected, such as Lloyd Georges’ 1909 budget plans which were rejected through the House of Lords. (Waldron, 2005)
France was similar in that it was also a liberal government, in 1906 the constitution was made up of the chamber of deputies and the senate, both were elected bodies, and unlike Britain there was universal male suffrage at this time throughout France. France however was a republic and did not have a monarchy throughout their state at all anymore.
Germany had a completely different administrative structure from both France and Britain. The body of ministers were in the Reichstag, however instead of answering to the people or other ministers these had to answer to the monarchy. The German Kaiser did not have full control, like in Britain with the House of Lords, the Reichstag could block movements. Germany like France however did have universal suffrage which as we have seen Britain did not.
Within politics Britain and France seem to have the more factors in common they are both liberal governments where as in Germany the state is ran in a more authoritarian way. All three saw their fair share of instability in government. Germanys main government change was the dismissal of Bismark in 1871 and the upheaval of the administration towards a much more authoritarian one due to the Kaisers unwillingness to let anyone have as much authority as was allowed of Bismark (chap 11 p 5) Constant government changes occurred in France between 1870 – 1914, 108 different administrations were placed and then removed. (Reference) . In Britain there was strong competition between liberals and conservatives and the powers that the House of Lords held, especially with the Irish Home Rule debate.(reference)

All attacked their countries social issues with their own reform acts. Germany was the first of all three to make any significant schemes in which to help their industrial workers. Between 1883 and 1889 they introduced insurance schemes to benefit workers that had accidents, became sick and also those who suffered from invalidity and old age. (reference) Germany was the first to introduce such measure but Britain followed in 1908 with their own old age pension scheme and then in 1911 they were the first state that introduced compulsory unemployment insurance. Frances social reforms started in 1906 when they attempted to pass a bill in which they made compulsory 8 hour working days, accident insurance and even the regulation of trade bodies in protection to their workers . (reference)

National homogeneity and nationalism played a large part in the states pre-World War One and it is something that can differ substantially through each country and their circumstances.
The British state of 1914; made up of England, Scotland Ireland and wales; was a long standing state, with all countries being unified into one by the completion of the unification of Dublin’s parliament and Westminster in 1801. (Emsley, 2013, p. 32) France like Britain was a long unified state that had a seemingly united people. Germany was the once again completely different from both Britain and France. It was a newly created state that unified 25 pre-existing states into one “Germany”, created after Prussia’s exertion of force in the Franco-Prussian war 1871 (Emsley, 2013, p. 34). All three states had their own languages that bound them together also.
Even though they were all now named as a state it did not mean that each person within the state wanted to be a part of it. This can be seen with two examples one from Britain and one from France.
In Britain there was a fierce struggle with a number of predominantly catholic nationalists in Ireland who wished to return their country to a home rule in the early 20th century. Not only did this cause tension for Westminster but also to protestant Ulstermen within Ireland who wished to remain British. Similarly in France there seemed to be a lack of unity. One argument that has been put across to show that France may not have been as unified as it seemed was the lack of people that decided to move from Alsace back to France after it was annexed by Prussia at the end of the Franco Prussian war. (Emsley, 2013,p. 33).
Within both Britain and Germany there were nationalist pressure groups that attempted to create a wider national interest within certain aspects of life. Britain had the British naval league, and the Imperial Maritime League (Emsley, 2013, p. 40) T hat believed the navy was the main way for Britain to maintain its status throughout the empire and against its European competitors. (http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00253359.1978.10659063#.Upoc9cRdX3Q) Germany too had the pan-German league, there main aim was to create a unified Germany, where every person who was German or spoke German would be unified into; “lebensraum (greater living space)” (Emsley, 2013, p. 40)

There were however similarities in one form on national homogeneity across all three of the states. Womens rights were something that was in constant public scrutiny pre world war one and in fact afterwards. The women’s place was seen to be in private at home running the home and raising the children. In Germany up until 1908 there was even a ban on women in politics (hannam, 2005 p 3)This meant that women across all three states were not even allowed to vote for who ran the country that they lived in. The British suffragette movement is one of the most well known due to the efforts of suffragettes hunger strikes in ___ (reference) However in Germany there was also a large number of women, 9000, in membership of their womans suffrage group (the german union for womans suffrage (Hannam, 2005, p 3). However French women were allowed a small win within womens suffrage battle before 1914, when in the 1890s women were allowed to vote in the conseils des prud’hommes. (Emsley, 2013, p 3)It may have been a small win but it was further than both Britain and Germany had come by 1914

Weighing up all of the evidence it is hard to put a pin exactly on who Britain is more like. Economically Germany and Britain are of course closer in nature than that of France. Both were highly urbanised and were focused on industrialisation whereas France, even though did industrialise, it was nowhere the same extent as the other two and still remained very agricultural pre-World War One. Constitutionally France and Britain were more similar with their liberal governments and elected ministerial bodies compared to Germanys monarchical authoritarian rule. Though the social reforms were all on par with one another, each took different time scales to reach and different routes but all three had, at least, basic workers’ rights by the start of the War. National homogeneity was an issue all three of the states seemed to have. Britain struggled with memebers of the state not wanting to be British anymore and France lost members of its state to Germany whom had the option to move back but chose not to, showing a lack of unity throughout the French states. Womens suffrage and rights were similar in all three states, however French women did atleast have one more opportunity than that of the other two states. . From all of the evidence I do not agree that Britain was more like imperial Germany than France.