19th Century History Question; also, Historical Determinism
Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2022 3:01 pm
I've got the impression that most people who care about history these days don't think much of historical determinism, and I'm not generally that impressed by it myself. But there's one thing about 19th century history that gives me pause on that matter, and it's this:
Around the middle of the 19th century and a bit later, there were five different countries that had internal violent conflicts in which, to some extent or another, the forces a a centralized industrial state won over the forces of decentralized agrarian feudalism: there was the Sonderbund War in Switzerland, there were the Wars of the Risorgimento in Italy, there was the Civil War in the United States, there was the Austro-Prussian War in Germany, and there was the Boshin War in Japan. I'd say it would have been a bit weird if, somehow, things had gone one way in one of these cases and the other way in the other four cases.
(I also find it interesting that about one human lifetime later, three of the five countries in question formed the core of a fascist alliance that tried to take over the world, another one ended up as one of the most important members of the alliance that stopped them, and only the smallest one stayed mostly out of the whole matter. Perhaps a comparative history of all that might be interesting - but ideally, it would have to be written by a historian who, in addition to having the necessary interests and specializations, would also have to be fluent in at least four languages, which seems unlikely.)
Anyway, my question is: was there any case I haven't heard about yet at that period in history in which, in a comparable conflict, the agrarian feudalists won?
Around the middle of the 19th century and a bit later, there were five different countries that had internal violent conflicts in which, to some extent or another, the forces a a centralized industrial state won over the forces of decentralized agrarian feudalism: there was the Sonderbund War in Switzerland, there were the Wars of the Risorgimento in Italy, there was the Civil War in the United States, there was the Austro-Prussian War in Germany, and there was the Boshin War in Japan. I'd say it would have been a bit weird if, somehow, things had gone one way in one of these cases and the other way in the other four cases.
(I also find it interesting that about one human lifetime later, three of the five countries in question formed the core of a fascist alliance that tried to take over the world, another one ended up as one of the most important members of the alliance that stopped them, and only the smallest one stayed mostly out of the whole matter. Perhaps a comparative history of all that might be interesting - but ideally, it would have to be written by a historian who, in addition to having the necessary interests and specializations, would also have to be fluent in at least four languages, which seems unlikely.)
Anyway, my question is: was there any case I haven't heard about yet at that period in history in which, in a comparable conflict, the agrarian feudalists won?