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Modernity, Capitalism, and War: Toward a Sociology of War in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914

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Modernity, Capitalism, and War: Toward a Sociology of War in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914 University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-2010 Modernity, Capitalism, and War: Toward a Sociology of War in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914 Eric Royal Lybeck University of Tennessee, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the European History Commons, International Relations Commons, Military History Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, and the Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons Recommended Citation Lybeck, Eric Royal, "Modernity, Capitalism, and War: Toward a Sociology of War in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2010. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/728 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Eric Royal Lybeck entitled "Modernity, Capitalism, and War: Toward a Sociology of War in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Sociology. Harry F. Dahms, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Steven P. Dandaneau, Paul K. Gellert Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Eric Royal Lybeck entitled “Modernity, Capitalism, and War: Toward a Sociology of War in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914” I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in Sociology. Harry F. Dahms , Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Paul K. Gellert Steven P. Dandaneau Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official student records.) Modernity, Capitalism, and War: Toward a Sociology of War in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1914 A Thesis Presented for the Master of Arts Degree University of Tennessee, Knoxville Eric Royal Lybeck August 2010 ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank Dr. Harry F. Dahms for his continued support and advice during the process of writing this thesis, and during my tenure as a Graduate Fellow in the Sociology Dept. at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. I would also like to thank Dr. Steven Dandaneau and Dr. Paul Gellert for serving on my thesis committee and for their advice regarding themes and content on this project. I am grateful to the Seventh Global Conference on War and Peace in Prague, Czech Republic, the Southern Sociological Society, and the University of Tennessee Dept. of Sociology Graduate Colloquium for allowing me to present early analyses of the material that made its way into this essay. I am especially grateful to my parents and my partner, Amelia Caron, who provided unending support throughout the research and writing of this project. Any errors contained herein are wholly my own. iii Abstract The academic discipline of Sociology has rarely broached the subject of war and its recursive relationship with society. This paper addresses three major approaches in several disciplines that can be deemed ‘economically deterministic’: Marxist, Liberal, and Realist. These approaches can be useful for certain questions, but also leave out, or cloud other non-economic variables in understanding war – notably culture and military variables themselves. By using Karl Polanyi’s thesis regarding the “Myth of the Hundred Years’ Peace” (1815-1914) as a foil, the historical case of war in the nineteenth century is used to highlight the nature of war in European modernity and capitalism. iv Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 1. War, Modernity, and Capitalism ............................................................................................. 6 2. Economistic Theories of War and Modernity ....................................................................... 11 2.1. Marxist Perspectives ...................................................................................................... 12 2.2. Realist Perspectives ........................................................................................................ 27 2.3. Liberal Perspectives ....................................................................................................... 41 2.4. A Synthetic Critique of Marxist, Liberal, and Realist Perspectives ............................... 54 3. The Myth of the Hundred Years’ Peace: War in the Nineteenth Century ............................. 63 3.1. Polanyi’s Hundred Years’ Peace .................................................................................... 66 3.2. Measuring War and Peace in the Nineteenth Century ................................................... 74 4. Culture, Ideology, and War in the Nineteenth Century ....................................................... 126 Conclusion: “Capitalism” vs. “Civilization” .............................................................................. 166 References ................................................................................................................................... 173 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................. 192 Vita .............................................................................................................................................. 207 v List of Tables 3.1 Wars Involving Great Powers 75 3.2 Great Power Wars According to Polanyi’s Criteria 77 3.3 Armies (in 000s) 90 3.4 Navies (In Number of Battleships) 93 A.1 Wars, Revolutions and the Bond Market, 1830-1914 192 A.2 Wars between “Western” Powers, 1815-1914 193 A.3 Wars by “Western” Powers against Lesser States, 1815-1914 194 A.4 Wars Involving “Western” States and Non-State Actors, 1815-1914 195 A.5 Wars and Issues, 1815-1914 196 A.6 Issues that Generated Wars, 1815-1914 199 A.7 Progress of Railway Building 200 A.8 Density of Railway Network, 1880 201 A.9 Wars, New Technology and Weapons, 1800-1914 202 A.10 Central State Expenditures in Current Prices, 1800-1910 205 A.11 Land of the British Isles Held in Estates of 1,000+ Acres, 1880 206 vi List of Figures 3.1 Three Economically Deterministic Theories of War 63 3.2 Four Pillars of Nineteenth Century Civilization 66 3.3 Magnitudes of Great Power War by Century, 1500-1975 76 3.4 Wars by Western Powers, 1815-1914 79 3.5 Key Issues in War, 1715 – 1914 81 3.6 Military Expenditure by the Great Powers, 1880-1914 97 3.7 Relative Concentration of Capital and Coercion as Determinants of States’ 105 Paths of Growth. 3.8 Increase in Territory per State, 1876-1915 115 3.9 Export of European Capital to 1914 118 4.1 Merits and Weaknesses of Theories in Relation to Nineteenth Century War 128 1 Introduction The origins of this project stemmed from research I had begun in 2008 dedicated to understanding the American military-industrial complex and the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the course of this research I discovered a number of fascinating sociological theories of war, including Baran and Sweezy’s Monopoly Capitalism and the world- systems theory of Immanuel Wallerstein.1 Though these perspectives provided insight into the role of the economy and its relationship to war in the twentieth century, I soon realized these frameworks had limits. For example, how does one explain the strange sense of obliviousness within U.S. culture to the fact that we are at war? If the wars in Iraq were truly about oil, or reactions to over-accumulated surplus capital, why did President Bush have to frame the endeavor in terms of national security and spreading democracy? Why did the public buy and support this agenda? Could these not legitimately be the reasons to go to war held by the administration and the public, and not simply cover for ulterior economic motives? As I tried to find other sociological theories of war, I discovered a number of perspectives, such as that of Charles Tilly, which highlighted the role of war in generating the nation state in early modern Europe. Max Weber, Stanislaw Andreski, Norbert Elias, and others noted the role of military organization in bureaucracy and court society around the same period.2 However, I found that between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in the early nineteenth century and the beginning of total war in 1914, there was a considerable gap in terms of understanding 1 P Baran and P Sweezy, Monopoly Capital; an Essay on the American Economic and Social Order, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1966; I Wallerstein, World-Systems Analysis, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, 2004. 2 S Andreski, Military Organization and Society 2nd edn., Routledge & K. Paul, London, 1968; N Elias et al., The Civilizing Process : Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic
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