Belle Époque
Belle Époque | |||
---|---|---|---|
1871/1880–1914 | |||
Georges Boulanger, Raymond Poincaré | |||
Chronology
|
History of France |
---|
Topics |
Timeline |
France portal |
The Belle Époque or La Belle Époque (French:
The Belle Époque was so named in retrospect, when it began to be considered a continental European "Golden Age" in contrast to the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars and World War I. The Belle Époque was a period in which, according to historian R. R. Palmer, "European civilisation achieved its greatest power in global politics, and also exerted its maximum influence upon peoples outside Europe."[1]
Popular culture and fashions
Two devastating world wars and their aftermath made the Belle Époque appear to be a time of
It was not entirely the reality of life in Paris or in France, however. France had a large economic
Those who were able to benefit from the prosperity of the era were drawn towards new forms of light entertainment during the Belle Époque, and the Parisian bourgeoisie, or the successful industrialists called the nouveaux riches, became increasingly influenced by the habits and fads of the city's elite social class, known popularly as Tout-Paris ("all of Paris", or "everyone in Paris").[6] The Casino de Paris opened in 1890. For Paris's less affluent public, entertainment was provided by cabarets, bistros and music halls.[7]
The
The Eiffel Tower, built to serve as the grand entrance to the 1889 World's Fair held in Paris, became the accustomed symbol of the city, to its inhabitants and to visitors from around the world. Paris hosted another successful World's Fair in 1900, the Exposition Universelle. Paris had been profoundly changed by the Second Empire reforms to the city's architecture and public amenities. Haussmann's renovation of Paris changed its housing, street layouts, and green spaces. The walkable neighbourhoods were well-established by the Belle Époque.
Cheap coal and cheap labour contributed to the cult of the
Large public buildings such as the
Politics
The years between the
The Belle Époque featured a
Meanwhile, the international workers' movement also reorganised itself and reinforced pan-European, class-based identities among the classes whose labour supported the Belle Époque. The most notable transnational
France enjoyed relative political stability at home during the Belle Époque. The sudden death of President
European politics saw very few regime changes, the major exception being Portugal, which experienced a republican revolution in 1910. However, tensions between working-class socialist parties, bourgeois liberal parties and landed or aristocratic conservative parties did increase in many countries, and it has been claimed that profound political instability belied the calm surface of European politics in the era.[11] In fact, militarism and international tensions grew considerably between 1897 and 1914, and the immediate prewar years were marked by a general armaments competition in Europe. Additionally, this era was one of massive overseas colonialism, known as the New Imperialism. The most famous portion of this imperial expansion was the Scramble for Africa.
Conflicts and wars
Most of the great powers (and some minor ones such as Belgium, the Netherlands, or Denmark) became involved in imperialism, building their own overseas empires especially in Africa and Asia. Although there were numerous revolutions, civil wars and colonial insurrections, the most notable are: the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), the War of the Pacific (1879–1884), two Boer Wars (1880–1881 and 1899–1902), the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), the First Italo-Ethiopian War (1895–1896), the Greco-Turkish War (1897), the Spanish-American War (1898), the Philippine-American War (1899–1902), the Russo-Japanese War (1905), and the Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912).
The First Balkan War (1912–1913) and the Second Balkan War (1913) are considered prologues to the First World War (1914–1918), whose level of material and human destruction at the industrial level marks the end of the Belle Époque.
There were also notable diplomatic conflicts that could provoke world wars such as the 1890 British Ultimatum, the Fashoda Incident (1898), the First Moroccan Crisis (1905–1906), and the Second Moroccan Crisis (1911).
Science and technology
The Belle Époque was an era of great scientific and technological advancement in Europe and the world in general. Inventions of the
are also Belle Époque inventions.A number of French inventors patented products with a lasting impact on modern society. After the
France was a leader of early
Although the
It was during this era that biologists and physicians finally came to understand the
Art and literature
In 1890,
Art Nouveau is the most popularly recognised art movement to emerge from the period. This largely decorative style (Jugendstil in central Europe), characterised by its curvilinear forms, and nature-inspired motifs became prominent from the mid-1890s and dominated progressive design throughout much of Europe. Its use in public art in Paris, such as Hector Guimard's Paris Métro stations, has made it synonymous with the city.
Prominent artists in Paris during the Belle Époque included post-Impressionists such as
Although
Many successful examples of Art Nouveau, with notable regional variations, were built in France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Austria (the Vienna Secession), Hungary, Bohemia, Serbia, and Latvia. It soon spread around the world, including Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and the United States.
Among poets, the Symbolists such as Charles Baudelaire remained at the forefront. Although Baudelaire's poetry collection Les Fleurs du mal had been published in the 1850s, it exerted a strong influence on the next generation of poets and artists. The Decadent movement fascinated Parisians, intrigued by Paul Verlaine and above all Arthur Rimbaud, who became the archetypal enfant terrible of France. Rimbaud's Illuminations was published in 1886, and subsequently his other works were also published, influencing Surrealists and Modernists during the Belle Époque and after. Rimbaud's poems were the first works of free verse seen by the French public. Free verse and typographic experimentation also emerged in Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard by Stéphane Mallarmé, anticipating Dada and concrete poetry. Guillaume Apollinaire's poetry introduced themes and imagery from modern life to readers. Cosmopolis: An International Monthly Review had a far-reaching impact on European writers, and ran editions in London, Paris, Saint Petersburg, and Berlin.
Paris's popular bourgeois theatre was dominated by the light farces of Georges Feydeau and cabaret performances. Theatre adopted new modern methods, including Expressionism, and many playwrights wrote plays that shocked contemporary audiences either with their frank depictions of everyday life and sexuality or with unusual artistic elements. Cabaret theatre also became popular.
Musically, the Belle Époque was characterised by
Modern dance began to emerge as a powerful artistic development in theatre. Dancer Loie Fuller appeared at popular venues such as the Folies Bergère, and took her eclectic performance style abroad as well. Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes brought fame to Vaslav Nijinsky and established modern ballet technique. The Ballets Russes launched several ballet masterpieces, including The Firebird and The Rite of Spring (sometimes causing audience riots at the same time).
Belle Époque by country
Africa
- In Isma'il Pasha, Tewfik Pasha, and Abbas II Helmy.
- In Ethiopia, with the reigns of Yohannes IV and Menelik II.
Americas
- In Argentina, with the period of the Generation of '80.
- In Brazil, it began with the end of the Paraguayan War, during the reign of Pedro II.
- In Canada, it coincided with the beginnings of Canadian Confederation.
- In Chile, it coincided with the Liberal Republic.
- In Honduras, it coincided with the Liberal Reform.
- In Mexico, the period was known as the Porfiriato.
- In Peru, with the period of the Aristocratic Republic.
- In the United States, emerging from the panic of 1873, ushering in the period known as Gilded Age and Progressive Era.
- In Uruguay, the period was known as Batllism.
Asia
- In China, with the reigns of Tongzhi, Guangxu, and the beginning of Puyi.
- In Korea, with the reign of Gojong.
- In Japan, with the reign of Meiji.
- In Nepal, with the reigns of Surendra Bikram Shah, Prithvi Bir Bikram Shah, and the beginning of Tribhuvan Bir Bikram Shah.
- In Persia, with the reigns of Naser al-Din Shah, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah, Mohammad Ali Shah, and the beginning of Ahmad Shah.
- In Thailand, with the reign of Chulalongkorn and the beginning of Vajiravudh.
- In Turkey, with the reigns of Abdulaziz, Murad V, and the beginning of Abdul Hamid II.
- In The Philippines, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States.
Europe
- In Franz Joseph I.
- In Belgium, with the reign of Leopold II and the beginning of Albert I.
- In Bulgaria, at the beginning of Ferdinand I.
- In Frederik VIII.
- In France, with the French Third Republic.
- In Wilhelm II.
- In Greece, with the reign of George I.
- In Umberto I, and the beginning of Victor Emmanuel III.
- In Luxembourg, with the reigns of Adolphe and William IV.
- In Montenegro, at the beginning of the reign of Nicholas I.
- In the Netherlands, with the reigns of William III and Wilhelmina.
- In Portugal, with the last period of the Kingdom of Portugal and the First Portuguese Republic.
- In Romania, with the reign of Carol I.
- In Nicholas II.
- In Serbia, with the reign of Peter I.
- In Spain, with the reigns of Alfonso XII and Alfonso XIII.
- In Sweden-Norway, with the reign of Oscar II.
- In Switzerland, it coincided with the beginnings of the Swiss federal state from 1848.
- In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with the Victorian era and Edwardian era.
- In the Vatican, with the reign of Pope Leo XIII and the beginning of Pope Pius X.
Oceania
- In Australia, it coincided with the period known as the Australian gold rushes.
- In Hawaii, with the reigns of Lunalilo, Kalākaua, and the beginning of Liliʻuokalani.
Gallery
-
Art Nouveau building in Paris by architect Jules Lavirotte, sculptures by Jean-François Larrivé (1875–1928)
-
La charmeuse de Serpents (The Snake-Charmer) (1907) by Henri Rousseau
-
Modern dance (and modern stage lighting) innovator Loie Fuller
-
Le mage, premiered at the Opéra-Comiquein Paris on 16 March 1891
-
Autochrome Lumière was invented in 1907 as a pioneering method for color photography. Here the Giza pyramid complex photographed in 1914.
See also
- Paris in the Belle Époque
- Paris architecture of the Belle Époque
- Charles Ayrout, Belle Époque architect in Cairo, Egypt
- Second Industrial Revolution
- Fin de siècle
- Gay Nineties
- Gilded Age
- Edwardian era
- Succès de scandale
- Années folles
Notes
- )
- ^ Julie Des Jardins (October 2011). "Madame Curie's Passion". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on 27 November 2012. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
- ^ Reader, K. (2020). The Marais: The Story of a Quartier. United Kingdom: Liverpool University Press.p.74
- ^ Shaw, M. (2015). War and Genocide: Organised Killing in Modern Society. Germany: Wiley. p.10
- ^ Martin, B. F. (1999). The Hypocrisy of Justice in the Belle Epoque. United States: LSU Press. passim.
- OCLC 34960131.
- S2CID 144101254.
- ^ Source: Le Frou Frou 1900 Page 128
- ^ "Incontestably the favorite flowers of the Belle Époque were orchids and Calla," (Gabriele Fahr-Becker, Art Nouveau 2007, p. 112; the fashion for orchids is narrated in Eric Hansen, Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy, 2000.
- ^ A. J. P. Taylor, English History 1914–1945, and The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848–1918
- ^ Arno J. Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War
- ^ The first Ford Model T, a car for the masses, rolled off the assembly line in 1908.
- ^ Mario d'Angelo (2013) La musique à la Belle Époque. Paris: Éditions du Manuscrit.
- ^ Nectoux, Jean-Michel (2009). "Grieg. The Paris Stay of 1903" (PDF). Griegsociety.com.
Further reading
- Kalifa, Dominique. The Belle Époque: A Cultural History, Paris and Beyond (Columbia University Press, 2021).
- La Belle Époque. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1982. ISBN 0870993291.
- McAuliffe, Mary. Dawn of the Belle Époque: The Paris of Monet, Zola, Bernhardt, Eiffel, Debussy, Clemenceau, and Their Friends (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011).
- McAuliffe, Mary. Twilight of the Belle Epoque: The Paris of Picasso, Stravinsky, Proust, Renault, Marie Curie, Gertrude Stein, and Their Friends Through the Great War (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014) online.
- Rudorff, Raymond. Belle Epoque: Paris in the 1890s (Hamish Hamilton, 1972).
- Wires, Richard. "Paris: La Belle Époque". Conspectus of History 1.4 (1977): 60–72.
External links
- The Belle Époque in Europe – many pictures of Art Nouveau architecture (in German, English, French, and Italian)
- Paris1900.lartnouveau.com – The Belle Époque in Paris through postcards and documents
- Dijon1900.blogspot.com – The Belle Époque in Dijon through postcards
- French Actress Postcards