The Year 1900

Podcast Transcript

The year 1900 was a pivotal year in world history. It was the end of the 19th century and on the cusp of the 20th century.

Many of the technical advances that would come to define the next 100 years were just being unleashed.

Social and economic changes were unfolding that would revolutionize the world. The changes that the world had seen in the 19th century were only a taste of what would come over the next century.

Learn more about the world in the year 1900 and how the world had changed over the last 50 years on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Before I get into what the world was like in the year 1900, I want to explain something that has confused many listeners of this podcast.

The year 1900 was the last year of the 19th century, not the first year of the 20th century. The 20th century and the 1900s overlap by 99%. The exception is the year 1900.

The reason why 1900 is the last year of the 19th century is that there was no year zero. Under our calendar system, the first year of the first century was the year one. The last year of the first century was the year 100.

As such, the last year of the 19th century was 1900, the last year of the 20th century was 2000, and the last year of the 21st century will be 2100.

So, with that out of the way, the year 1900 was a landmark year in history. It was a turning point marking the end of the 19th century and giving a taste of what was to come in the 20th century.

The last episode, where I reviewed the state of the world in 1850. In the fifty years that have passed, an incredible amount has changed.

So let’s step back and take a look at the state of the entire world in the year 1900.

The population of the Earth in 1900 was about 1.6 billion.

Asia had roughly 900 million to 1 billion people, Europe about 400 million, Africa about 120–130 million, the Americas about 140–160 million, and Oceania about 6–7 million.

Urbanization was concentrated in Europe and North America. Global life expectancy sat near 30–35 years, higher in rich cities and lower in colonized or rural regions.

Railways spanned continents. Steamships dominate ocean trade, with the Suez Canal shortening Eurasian routes.

Subsea telegraph cables create near-real-time communications, allowing imperial administration and the birth of global finance. Electricity spreads through large cities for lighting, and streetcars and internal-combustion engines began to emerge.

Telephones were becoming standard in the United States and parts of Europe. Wireless radio was experimental but was showing promise. Armies use magazine rifles, smokeless powder, and the Maxim gun.

The gold standard was the default among leading trading states. The world was effectively working on a single monetary system, with individual currencies representing different amounts of gold..

Let’s start our trip around the world in the Pacific.

In Australia, six British colonies were on the eve of federation, which would occur in 1901. Wool, gold, and wheat drive exports, yet rail gauges were still not standardized among the colonies. Cities such as Melbourne and Sydney had become modern, developed metropolitan areas.

New Zealand was a self-governing colony with progressive social legislation, with wool, meat, and dairy exports, enabled by new refrigerated shipping. M?ori communities continue to navigate land loss and engaged in political negotiations.

Islands in the Pacific had mostly been divided between European powers and the United States at this point.

Africa had changed radically since 1850. There was only a minor European presence on the continent fifty years earlier. Since then, the Scramble for Africa divided up the continent via the 1884 Berlin Conference, which I’ve covered in a previous episode.

Britain de facto controlled Egypt and pushed south through Sudan toward the Cape. France consolidated French West and Equatorial Africa. Germany held colonies in the east, southwest, and Cameroon.

Belgium’s king personally controlled the Congo Free State, where rule was exceptionally brutal. Portugal controlled Angola and Mozambique. Italy held Eritrea and part of Somaliland, but was defeated by Ethiopia in 1896, which secured Ethiopian sovereignty. Liberia remained independent. The Boer Republic fought Britain in South Africa.

The political map of Africa had been completely redrawn by European powers who often showed little regard for existing ethnic, linguistic, or political boundaries. This arbitrary division would create lasting problems for African development.

China, despite being the world’s most populous country with over 400 million inhabitants, was in severe decline. The Qing Dynasty was weakening under internal rebellions and external pressures from European powers and Japan.

The Boxer Rebellion of 1900 represented Chinese frustration with foreign influence, but its suppression only further demonstrated the country’s military weakness. Economically, China remained largely agricultural, with traditional handicraft industries being undermined by imported manufactured goods.

Japan presented a striking contrast to China. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, Japan embarked on a remarkable program of modernization and westernization. By 1900, the country had developed modern industries, built railways, and created a powerful military.

Japan’s victory over China in 1895 announced its arrival as a regional power, and the country was preparing for an even more significant challenge to Russian power in Manchuria.

The Indian subcontinent, under British rule since 1858, contained roughly 300 million people living under colonial administration. While the British had built extensive railway networks and introduced modern administrative systems, the vast majority of Indians remained poor agricultural workers.

However, an educated Indian elite was emerging, increasingly critical of British rule and laying the groundwork for the independence movement that would define much of the 20th century.

Southeast Asia was largely under European colonial control, with the Dutch controlling Indonesia, the British dominating Burma and Malaya, and the French ruling Indochina. These colonies primarily served as sources of raw materials and tropical agricultural products for European markets.

The Russian Empire ruled Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and much of Central Asia and Siberia. The Trans-Siberian Railway was nearing functional completion, tying European Russia to the Pacific. Politics were autocratic under Nicholas II. Industrialization was advancing in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Rural poverty and peasant unrest simmered, preparing to be unleashed in the decades ahead.

The Ottoman Empire still existed, but it was in its final stages. Sultan Abdul Hamid II presides over a strained state spanning Anatolia, parts of the Balkans, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Arabia.

European creditors and advisors exerted significant influence over the empire while rail projects, such as the Hejaz line, symbolized modernization attempts.

National movements began fomenting among Armenians, Arabs, Greeks, Bulgarians, and others.

Qajar Persia was fiscally weak, dependent on Russian and British concessions, but formally independent. Afghanistan stood as a buffer between Russian Central Asia and British India after two Anglo-Afghan wars.

Europe in 1900 represented the pinnacle of what historians call the “European century.”

The major powers had settled into what seemed like a stable balance after the unification of Germany in 1871, though beneath this surface lay growing tensions that would eventually explode.

Politically, Europe was dominated by a handful of great empires and emerging nation-states. The British Empire controlled roughly a quarter of the world’s landmass and population, while the newly unified German Empire was rapidly challenging Britain’s industrial supremacy. France, despite its defeat in the Franco-Persian War in 1870, remained a major colonial power, particularly in Africa and Indochina.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was struggling to manage its diverse ethnic populations, foreshadowing the nationalist conflicts that would define much of the 20th century.

Technologically, Europe was experiencing what we might call the “Second Industrial Revolution.” While the first wave had been about steam and textiles, this new phase centered on electricity, steel, and chemicals. German companies like Siemens and AEG were pioneering electrical technologies, while new chemical processes were revolutionizing everything from photography to explosives.

The internal combustion engine was just beginning to transform transportation, though horse-drawn vehicles still dominated city streets.

Demographically, Europe was undergoing a crucial transition. The population had roughly doubled during the 19th century, but birth rates were beginning to decline in the more industrialized nations.

This demographic shift was accompanied by massive urbanization. Cities like London, Paris, and Berlin were swelling with industrial workers, creating new social dynamics and political pressures. Life expectancy was improving due to better sanitation and medical knowledge, though significant class disparities remained.

Latin America in 1900 had been independent from European colonial rule for roughly three-quarters of a century, but the region was struggling to achieve genuine economic and political stability. Most countries remained heavily dependent on exporting agricultural products and raw materials to European and North American markets.

Politically, many Latin American countries were dominated by strongmen representing landed interests. Democratic institutions existed on paper but often functioned poorly in practice.

Countries like Argentina and Brazil were experiencing significant European immigration, which was changing their demographic composition and creating new social dynamics. Argentina in 1900 was actually one of the richest countries on Earth.

The region’s economy was increasingly integrated into the global system dominated by European capital and North American markets. Coffee from Brazil and Colombia, beef and wheat from Argentina, nitrates from Chile, and sugar from Cuba were all major export commodities.

Canada, meanwhile, was still finding its identity as a self-governing dominion within the British Empire, having confederated in 1867. The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885 had helped unite the vast territory, but the country remained heavily dependent on agriculture and natural resource extraction.

We’ll conclude by focusing on the country that underwent the most significant changes over the last 50 years and was most poised to shape the world over the next century: the United States.

The United States in 1900 was emerging as a true global power, having recently demonstrated its military capabilities in the Spanish-American War of 1898. This conflict marked America’s entry onto the world stage as an imperial power, acquiring territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.

Some time around 1895, the United States surpassed Great Britain as the world’s largest economy, a title it has retained to the present day. London was still the center of world finance at this point, but much of the energy in terms of growth and innovation had moved across the Atlantic.

Domestically, the country was still healing from the Civil War’s aftermath while experiencing unprecedented industrial growth.

The American political system was grappling with the challenges of rapid industrialization and urbanization. The Progressive Era was just beginning, as reformers sought to address the social problems created by industrialization. Labor movements were gaining strength, sometimes violently clashing with industrial interests, as seen in events like the Pullman Strike of 1894.

Technologically, America was becoming increasingly innovative. The country was leading in mass production techniques, with companies like Carnegie Steel pioneering new methods of industrial organization. Thomas Edison’s inventions were transforming daily life, while the Wright brothers were just three years away from their historic flight.

The transcontinental railroad had been completed in 1869, but now a vast network of rail lines was knitting the country together economically and culturally.

The American population in 1900 stood at about 76 million, with massive immigration from Europe fueling growth. This influx of diverse populations was creating new cultural tensions but also providing the labor force necessary for industrial expansion.

The frontier was officially declared closed in 1890, marking the end of westward expansion and the beginning of a more settled continental society.

By the year 1900, many of the things that we take for granted as part of our modern world, such as electricity and automobiles, existed, but were not widely adopted.

The next several decades would see massive transformations in society as current technologies expanded, new technologies were developed, and war became more deadly than at any point in human history.