Part Two: the Modern
What actually is the Modern?
Civilization? Being Civilized? Urbain? Cosmopolitan? Having etiquette, table manners, and upbringing? Educated and literate? Wealthy with opulent style and luxury? Industrialized? Bourgeois? Imperial and Despotic or Liberal and Democratic? Traditional or Novelty and the New? Critique?
Or is it Colonization? Genocide? Racism? Slavery? Sexism? Endless War? Raping and Pillaging? Is it the Domination over Nature? Wealth Extraction? Is it Hierarchies of Power and Domination? The Police State and Control? Inequality and Hunger for some while others live in Luxury?
While the Modern Age can be framed by Globalization, Urbanization, and Colonialism, with the Modern we are looking at the Imperial Culture & Urban Society, Science, the Academy, the Enlightenment & Technological Development, as well as Systems of Control.
In framing this, one must again first look at what had already developed in the East prior to the rise of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. These other regional powers - Ming China, Edo Japan, both Mughal and South India, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire - would all develop sophisticated societies and the Cultures which we now identify today as the ‘High Culture’, or the ‘Traditional’ Cultures of those regions. I will concentrate on the four largest urbanized regional powers of 1789 and their respective cultural patrimonies: Ming China, Edo Japan, Mughal India, and the modernized Imperial Europe of the Enlightenment.
— First, the order of (Early) Imperial Modernity (16th & 17th c.) with developing/modernizing European Feudal Monarchies and established Asian Empires, defined by the inclusion of the Americas in the new Global Maritime Trade Network, Urbanized Asia, and the spread of Chinese inventions such as (just to name just a few): gun powder, paper money, banking, capitalism, industrial processes, the printing press, the compass, coal coke and gas energy, state development projects, agricultural revolution, public schools, and scholar bureaucrats.
— and the joining of (Early) Bourgeois Modernity (18th c.) in the West, seen as the formalization of Neoclassicism in Europe, the rise of the Bourgeois/Middle Class, the Urbanization of Europe, the rise of Imperial Russia, the Enlightenment and the rise of Freemasonry, Parliament, Empirical Science, Secularism, Constitutional Law, Liberal Democracy, Capitalist Oligarchs, the steam engine and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
Imperial Culture & Urban Society
Ming & Qing Dynasties
In 1522 the greatest urban city in the world was Beijing with a population of 680 thousand people, over three times the size of Paris. 16th century Beijing benefited from two great periods of development. Before Italian Renaissance of the 15th century, and Leonardo Da Vinci, there was the classical Tang and the Chinese Enlightenment of the 10th to 13th century Song Dynasty (960–1279), and Shen Kuo who like Da Vinci would make discoveries across multiple disciplines. Literacy was widespread in men (less so for women who did not attend school but learned at home) with public schools in every county, and later expanded with Military, Law, and Medical schools; as well as State examinations for Bureaucrat positions.
The Mongol Invasions would bring a 100 year decline but in the late 14th century the Ming Dynasty would overthrow the Mongol invaders and start a new Golden Era of China, the Renaissance Era of the Great Ming Dynasty (1368-1664).
Neo-Confucianism, Taoism and Chan Buddhism were the primary philosophies and religions in China, but the extensive trade networks meant that Tibetan Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and Jesuit missions were also present. Neo-Confucianism would be the main state philosophy and guide to proper actions of government, business and personal life; it would also be the guide to the development of the state bureaucracy and the development of exams and meritocracy in the placement of state positions; as well as concern with the well being of the people by providing for public burial of the poor, old folks homes, and hospitals for the poor.
Starting with the Song Dynasty, the aristocracy and military were removed from the state Bureaucracy in favor of Scholar Civil Servants. This would partially revert back to a more despotic rule with ‘eunuchs’ or ‘Mandarins’ in charge under the supreme rule of the Emperor, but still with Civil Servants running the majority of the state, and all of the local government. The government was organized around the Secretariat, operating as a coordinating agency for the Six Ministries of: Justice, Personnel, Public Works, Revenue, Rites, and War. The Ministry of Public Works detailed architectural and design styles, developed first in the Song but with many new technological and cultural developments, would lay the foundation of Ming Society and go on to influence the development of government and state bureaucracies in Europe. The Song and later Ming dynasties would practice a State led Command Economy with Private Enterprise and entrepreneurship.
The earlier invention of gun powder led to firecrackers, flares, fuses, hand held canons, land mines, exploding cannonballs, naval mines, multistage rockets, and artillery camps. In naval technology there were dry docks, the double-action piston pump, the propeller, the sluice gate, canals, and the pound lock, snorkeling gear, the compass, and the massive 3100 ton multi hulled, multi mast ships, of the Treasure Fleet of Zheng He (1405-1433 CE). Despite its advanced position and capabilities over the Europeans, China would decide to scrap its great fleet ceding control of trade to select trade missions run by foreign powers, exporting vast amounts of luxury goods to Europe, for Gold and Silver.
Other Chinese Inventions were: wood block and movable type printing, banking system, finance, capital, joint stock companies, middle managers, paper money, self-operating automata, mechanical clocks, division of labor, production lines, warehousing, mechanized mass production, water powered belt drives, continuous chain drive, advanced metallurgy — blast furnaces using coal and coke fuel, steel production and cast iron, chrome plating, toilette paper, bristle toothbrush, matches, the suspension bridge, the parachute, bore-hole drilling, natural gas fuel, gas lighting, gas cylinder tanks, oil refining, seismometer, field mill, iron mold-board plow, rotary fan, gimbal, fishing reel, stirrup, horse collar and harness, the raised-relief map, India ink; and there were studies such as archeology, geology, geography, medicine, pharmacology, immunology, acupuncture, dental amalgam, hormone treatments, forensics, astronomy, agriculture, botany, zoology, climatology, mineralogy, metallurgy, chemistry, economics; sports and games such as Hockey, Golf, Football, Polo, Chess, Checkers, Dominoes, Suit Cards (modernized in Mamaluk, Egypt), and Rock-Paper-Scissors (modernized in Japan).
Wealthy Chinese could not only enjoy fine architecture but also the luxury of embroidered silks, blue and white porcelain, carved lacquer ware, carved jade, ivory, cloisonné, and rosewood furniture. And the urban dwellers could enjoy extensive urban trade shops and services, tea houses, restaurants, hotels, brothels, merchant bankers, and entertainment.
In the arts there were the classic Chinese novels such as the Water Margin, Journey to the West, and in theater The Peony Pavilion, the travel writing by Xu Xiake, Travel Diaries, the moral guide to business ethics, and the first private newspaper in Beijing (1582), Peking Gazette. In Painting there were the four masters Shen Zhou, Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming, and Qiu Ying; with landscape painting and calligraphy being the dominant forms. In music Zhu Zaiyu, discovered equal temperament tuning, and the Peking Opera becomes an established form. The Ming and the later Qing dynasties would be the height of civilized society until the developments of the European Enlightenment.
Detail from "A Thousand Li of River and Mountains" (千里江山) hand scroll in ink and color on silk. 11.91 meters x 55.8 cm. (3d part) Located in Palace Museum, Beijing.
Japanese Edo Period
By 1700, after a hundred years of civil war and post contact development, Edo (Tokyo) would become the largest urban center in the world, following the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate who took power after years of civil war in Japan. During the Edo period, 1603 to 1887, Japan had 250 years of stability under the Shogun, and the return of prestige for the Emperor. A centralized bureaucracy controlled regional Feudal Governors. Japanese society was hierarchical with the Emperor at the top of society but not in power, followed by the Shogun as leader, the regional Daimyo, the Samurai, peasant farmers, craftsman, and at the bottom were the merchants, who were seen as parasites; below this even was the underclass including prostitutes.
During the 16th century Portuguese traders and Jesuit missionaries first entered Japan and with this Christianity began to spread. Modern European galleon-type war ships were outfitted with canon and 720 three-masted trade ships were put into service. However the increasing influence of Christianity was seen as destabilizing to traditional Japanese society, and eventually lead the Shogun to expel the Spanish, and limit the Dutch trade mission to a small island in Nagasaki harbor, and prohibit the Japanese people from traveling outside Japan with the Closed Country Edict of 1635; by 1660 Christianity was eradicated from Japan.
Domestic production was concentrated on rice production with 80% of the population being feudal peasants. Urbanization progressed during the Edo period and by 1700 Japan was the 2nd most urbanized country in the world at 10-12%, with Kyoto and Osaka the primary trade and handicraft centers, and Edo producing food and urban consumer goods. A thriving merchant, arts, and crafts sectors developed including the introduction of currency and credit systems, all driven by increased rice production allowing for rice to become a cash crop, and for a time bringing Samurai wealth and the desire for luxury goods and entertainment.
Japanese society was guided by Buddhism, and Shintoism, with Neo-Confucian state academies, and local temples teaching history, basic literacy, classical literature, mathematics, and the arts. There was also an “Institute of (Chinese) Medicine”. Literacy was high and thus the need for a diverse literature, with romance novels, satire, comics, poetry, travel-guides, cooking, gardening, art books, and scripts for Bunraku puppet theater being very popular.
In the arts there was lacquer ware, ivory and metal working, Samurai swords, silk painting, wood block printing, calligraphy, ornate architecture, and gardens. Entertainment flourished with Kabuki Theater, Banraku Puppet Theater, and the development of professional female entertainers, the Geisha. Urbanization and wealth which the Edo stability established also brought a profusion of styles and forms in all of the arts, and the flourishing of restaurants with all the traditional Japanese foods known now to westerners, saki and wine bars, and tea houses; there was also “high-class” restaurants catering to the elite, fashion, pleasure districts, and sport with Sumo wrestling becoming popular.
Mughal India
By 1700 Mughal India would be unified and the 2nd largest economy (through much of the 17th century it was the largest economy by GDP) in the world with 25% of world GDP. Local governments would be managed, infrastructure development would take place, education would be widespread, trade centers would flourish, and agricultural reforms would be undertaken producing cash crops. Public Works Department would administer the development of road networks. A uniform currency would be instituted with gold and silver acquired through the extensive trade imbalance with Europe.
In previous centuries India produced several inventions that would return under the Mughal, the worm gear and hand crank for roller cotton jin’s, and the Indian spinning wheel (exported to Britain where it would take part in the Industrial Revolution) would be reintroduced fostering greater production. Mulberry and sericulture (silk) production would be begun as luxury cash crops between 1600-1650 as part of agricultural reforms. India would become the center of muslin, jute, cotton, and silk trade. Mughal India would also be a major exporter of spice, steel, salt, ornaments, fruits, metals, grain, liquors and wines. In 1893 Hatha Yoga and Meditation would be brought to the West by Swami Vivekananda.
Mughal India, influenced by Persia, would also flourish in the arts with miniature painting, clothing, cuisine, gardening, water works, Turkish baths, architecture, and Music. Hindustani Classical Music would be revitalized and diversified with new instruments such as the Sitar (13th c), the modern Tanpura (16th c), the Tabla (18th c), and the arrival of the Harmonium. The famous Taj Mahal would be built between 1632 and 1653.
Dhaka would be the largest ship building center, producing ships for European clients, having invented the “flushed deck” design, far superior to European stepped decks; this would be duplicated by the British. During this period Islamic Astronomy would be integrated with Indian Mathematics producing several Astronomical observatories. In chemistry various alkali, soaps, and shampoo would be introduced. This would all end and India would be de-industrialized as the British East India Company would conquer Dhaka and West Bengal at the battle of Plassey in 1757.
The Modernity of these three (among others) Empires can be defined as: Imperial rule of law according to a State Religion, state bureaucracy, state craft training and exams, education system, large Urban population centers, Urban planning, infrastructure development, monetary systems, Cosmopolitan interaction with foreigners, ports and trade hubs, import export mercantile class, cash crops, taxation, light industry and manufacturing, warehouses, technology development, specialists, scientific research, history and philosophy, literacy and popular literary forms, public sport and entertainment, fashion and personal grooming, cafes, restaurants, salons, bars, hotels, entertainment industry, luxury goods, and the development of new cultural traditions in the arts (painting, writing, theater, dance, music, architecture, craft).
This would be the same in Europe - the progressive development of culture and society within an Urban environment.
Royal Houses of Europe & ‘High Culture’
It would not be until 1826 that any city in Europe would be the worlds largest urban center in the world. London would surpass Paris as the largest European city, and while Paris may have held on as the cultural capital, London would become the de-facto World Capital - despite the loss of the American Colonies - as Britain of the 19th century ruled the seas, dominated much of Asia, and colonized parts of Africa, and all of Australia and New Zealand.
Following the Italian Renaissance, the opening of global maritime trade routes, and the Colonization of the Americas, the European Royal Houses would develop what may be called the traditional or ‘classical’ arts that we know today. As we think of Peking Opera, The Tea Ceremony, Noh Theater, Kabuki Theater, Imperial Architecture, Mogul Miniature Painting, Ming Porcelain, Silk Scroll Paintings, Haiku, Bonsai, Gardens, etc. (the Benin Bronzes) as traditional culture of the East, the West would develop similar features. And like in the East these were at first amassed by the Aristocracy, and then by an urban Bourgeoisie, feeding their taste for power, prestige, luxury, comfort, and entertainment. This would be developed through the Patronage system where wealthy Houses would fund Artisans, Scientists, and their ‘schools’ or Academies, and later Royal Institutes and urban Salons.
These Academies & Royal Institutions develop what we think of as the Classical Western Arts (Neoclassicism): The Globe Theater in 1599, Proscenium Arch in 1618, the Teatro San Cassiano in 1637, Ballet and the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661, the Paris Salon in 1667, the Paris Opera in 1669, Even Temperament (China first) and the Modern Orchestra in 1700, Classical Sculpture, Realist Portraiture, History Painting, Lyric Poetry, Baroque & Neoclassical Architecture all developed in the period proceeding the Industrial Revolution. They are however in no way ‘classical’ as they are all modern synthetic developments; they are classical only in so far as artists were reading Greek and Latin literature, and taking holidays in Rome, to draw inspiration from the former glory of the fallen Roman Empire, in what would be called “The Grand Tour.” All of this is enjoyed by the aristocracy in grand art palaces sponsored by Kings and later by Oligarchs, and are well established by 1789.
By the time Marie Antoinette is alleged to have said “let them eat cake,” the French Aristocracy was, like all Aristocracies of the World, living in high opulence. ‘Madam Deficit’ and Louis XVI ruled Imperial France from the Tuileries Palace (burnt in the Commune of 1871), next to the Louvre which would become the High Palace of Art for all the world to this day, this was truly the age of “Haute Couture”. Paris was the 5th largest urban center with 589 thousand people and London was the 2nd largest with 788 thousand.
By 1826, when London became the largest urban center in the world, formal styles would follow the British Aristocracy, and then the Victorian Era. For men the “dandy” Beau Brummel, who promoted a more restrained wardrobe than the French, would set the fashion that would last to this day; fitted and tailored garments, the three piece suit, full length trousers, linen shirts, cravats, Tuxedo, Tails, Top Hat and White Gloves. The aristocracy of the 19th century would fit right in at The MET Gala of 21st century America.
With the urbanization of the 18th and 19th centuries we see similar cultural and political developments as there were in the East during the previous centuries - urban shops, goods and services; restaurant and cafe culture, literacy and novels, arts and entertainment; infrastructure development, bureaucracy and specialists. Urban planning would appear in the west and in 1863 Charles Baudelaire would write of the Modern Flaneur, strolling the grand Boulevards in Paris, the New Impressionist painting, the arcades of goods, and the urban styles of the women.
This High Culture in Europe and its Colonies being: Palaces, Mansions, Cathedrals, Universities, Libraries, Museums, Royal Gardens, & Salons; Court sponsored Artists, Court Craftsman & Luxury goods, Court Doctors, Court Astrologers, Court Scientists, Court Games, Health Spas; Haute Couture Gowns for women, frilly ornate clothing for men, courtly dances, and regal cuisine, Gardens, Etiquette, Galas, & Formal Balls with the Red Carpet, Tennis, Casinos, Clubs, and Societies (some Secret); Titles, Doctors, Tutors, Servants, Slaves, Wet Nurses; Sovereignty held by the Aristocracy; Land Ownership, Merchants, Bureaucrats, Bankers, Lawyers, Insurance, Corporations, Stock Markets, Penal Systems, Police State, Standing Armies, and Nationalism; Gambling, Tennis, Cricket, Horse Raising, and elite boarding schools.
Western Enlightenment & Technological Development
In the centuries that followed direct contact with the east, and the stability that followed the Black Death and invasions from the Mongols and Islam, two influences would be pivotal in the development, growth, and knowledge in Europe: the importation of Islamic and Asian scholarship and technology, and Colonial Wealth Extraction.
Following the Crusades the Knights Templar brought back knowledge obtained from Sufi and Muslim scholars, and Muslim Spain would see a tremendous flowering, as Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars would for a short time find a freedom of expression and a mixing of traditions. This would fuel the rise of the Rosicrucian Enlightenment and the contribute to the revolutions and reformations in religious thought and science.
The Silk Road, Jesuit missions and Marco Polo (among others) would bring an array of scientific, technological, philosophical, medical, cultural, and artistic influences to Europe. Most notably would be the Four Great Chinese Inventions: gun powder, the compass, paper, and the moveable type printing press. The moveable type printing press is attributed to Gutenberg but the first mass produced book using this technology was that of Wang Zhen’s, the Nong Shu (The Book of Farming) of 1313, which was imported to Italy. The Jesuits missions would continue to bring back to Europe many other influences beyond that of Silk, Porcelain, Tea, and Spice; and many books of philosophy and medicine would arrive in the hands of many notable European scholars such as Leibniz. Leibniz who was influenced by Chinese math in his development of his calculator, their education system and bureaucracy, noting that the most educated held power not a Noble class. He would write his Novissima Sinica (Latest News from China), in 1697 heralding the many positive attributes of Chinese culture and thought.
Imports that changed Europe: Chinese medicine and Philosophy, noodles, ice-cream, tea, gun powder, printing press, paper money, magnetic compass, porcelain, jade, lacquer ware, silk, modern plow; the Indian spinning wheel, the worm gear and hand crank for roller cotton jin’s, the “flushed deck” ship design, spices, shampoo, fertilizer, Indian philosophy and math, Indian numerals and the zero; Islamic (Sabaen) astronomy, math, and coffee; American critique of European ‘Civilization’, gold and silver, tobacco, tomatoes, and potatoes - just to name a few.
The Protestant Reformation and the (Rosicrucian) Enlightenment across Europe, would transform thinking and the Academy'. Rosicrucianism, in Bohemia, would arise out of the Renaissance with Religious Reform and Scientific advancement challenging tradition. At the same time the first “speculative” Masonic Lodges were being founded, whose members founded the Royal Society 1660, Parliament and the Bill of Rights 1689, and the formation of Great Britain, with a united Scotland and England, in 1707.
In the 18th century cafes and salons would become meeting places for the urbanites, and news papers, gazettes, periodicals, and magazines would begin organizing and influencing the literate. Enlightenment philosophers, influenced by the critique of European culture by Native Americans, would spur radical changes to society leading to changes in government, civil rights, rational humanism, atheism, and liberal philosophy.
By 1760 two developments would propel Great Britain into the forefront of power on the world stage: the Steam Engine, and the Maritime Chronometer & Compass. While the new liberal philosophy would shatter the “old regime” in France, and bring Independence to the North and South American colonies over the course of a 100 years of revolution, which would spread around the world in the 20th century.
Industrialization of cotton manufacturing would begin the Industrial Revolution and the new Maritime Supremacy would bring the defeat and de-industrialization of Bengal (1757), the colonization of Australia (1788), and New Zealand (1840), the Opium Wars and control of China and its trade (1842), the defeat of the Mughal Empire (1858), and “New Imperialism” and the “Scramble for Africa” (1880), Perry’s Black Ships and the opening of Japan (1887), and finally the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire following WWI (1918).
The defining attributes of Western Academic Modernity in the Arts and Sciences are: humanism, the scientific method, empiricism, materialism, dualism, reductionism, the canon, progress, realism, professionalism, journals, specialization, patronage, art academies, schools of thought, exclusiveness, composure, the maintenance of ‘tradition’ at odds with the “the new” and CRITIQUE.
Hierarchies Of Control
The Hierarchies, Control mechanisms and organization principles of the West, like other Imperial powers, centered on maintaining Royal Dynasties, land rights, taxation, the defense of borders, colonial expansion, defense of trade networks from piracy, and the development of National Identity.
By the 19th century with the further development of technology, the specialization in science, and the development of trade and law, college, and royal offices would develop systems to restrict who was accredited with the powers to operate within these systems - the gate keepers: Judges, Deans, Doctors, Bureaucrats, Lawyers, degrees, trade guilds, peer review, the patent office, publishing rights, the control of a ‘free press‘ as a means of propaganda - among others. Most important though is that sovereignty is despotic, wealth is protected, and the elite are isolated from harm.
The Western Hierarchy of 1789 - The Imperium
1- The Sovereign, and the Pope
2 - Aristocracy & Clergy
3 - Land Holders
4 - Bourgeois Academy and Middle Class working at the service of the Aristocracy/Elite (judges, bureaucrats, merchants, royal offices, artists & scientists)
4 - The Police and Military apparatus
5- Peasants and workers to be controlled like children
6 - Women are property and subservient to men
7 - Non western-christen empires to be conquered
8 - Black Slaves
9 - Indigenous ‘savages’ and their lands to be colonized
10 - Nature to be mastered and used
Royalty of 1789
The Modern World of 1789
— First, the order of (Early) Imperial Modernity (16th & 17th c.) with developing/modernizing European Feudal Monarchies and established Asian Empires, defined by the inclusion of the Americas in the new Global Maritime Trade Network, Urbanized Asia, and the spread of Chinese inventions such as (just to name just a few): gun powder, paper money, banking, capitalism, industrial processes, the printing press, the compass, coal coke and gas energy, state development projects, agricultural revolution, public schools, and scholar bureaucrats.
By 1789, the beginning of what has been called Classical Modernity, the world looks like:
Imperial World Order - Rule by an Emperor, a Sultan, a Shogun, a King, or Queen within an Aristocratic or Oligarchic Order having strict hierarchical and membership control.
Imperial “Haute Couture” - Luxury goods, “Classical Arts,” entertainment, and isolation from the poor in pleasure palaces.
Landed Gentry - Control of the use of the land by peasant lease holders whose rights would be lost as the feudal system falls to industrial cash crop agriculture in the west; cash crop agricultural had already been extent in China since the Song, and Edo Japan.
Urbanization - Stability leads to wealth, trade and population growth centered in urban cities. Beijing (largely through much of the common era) is the largest city in the world with a population of 1,054,000, and London is the largest city in Europe with a population of 819,000.
Middle Class - Leading State Bureaucracies, merchants, specialists in commerce, technology, education, law, and the development of luxury goods produced by artisans, craftsman, literati, entertainers - the new Bourgeois Urban Middle Class. Again this had been true in China since the Song 400 years earlier.
Patriarchy - Women were subservient and subordinate, considered property with few rights in all regions.
Bureaucracy - All urbanizing empires would develop bureaucracies to control and manage state affairs, foreign affairs, and regulate trade; starting with the Song Dynasty 400 years earlier.
Academy and Higher Learning - All urbanizing empires would develop education systems and literacy programs to serve the state apparatus and development, starting with China in 1044.
Publishing - Mass produced publications begun in Song Dynasty between the 11th and 13th centuries, and in Europe in the 15th century.
The Scientific Method - First developed by Moslem scholar Ibn al-Haytham (c. 965 – c. 1040), and in Song Dynasty China by Shen Kuo (1031–1095). The Ming Dynasty Yongle Emperor would commission the Yongle Encyclopedia of 1408. In the west Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, René Descartes, Galileo Galilei, and Issac Newton would stand out as leading the move away from church dogma and superstition towards the Scientific Method. The Royal Society, founded in London in 1660, is the first scientific institution in the west.
Technological Development - All urban empires would develop technology to further military expansion, Imperial pleasure, wealth extraction, and prosperity to ensure unrest is suppressed. In 1789 the Qing Empire would have a GDP twice that of the British East India Company, and seven times that of the closest European country, France.
The Industrial Revolution - Industrialization, mass production, and the division of labor had begun in China with Porcelain, Silk, Paper, and Steel; and Mughal India, particularly in Bengal and its large ship yards. With the development of the steam engine the Industrial Revolution would take off in Britain between 1780 and 1830.
Control - The larger the state the more that State Control of all affairs becomes desired by those in power. This manifests as Standing Armies, Naval Armadas, and Penal Colonies and Jails.
Christianity vs. Islam - Ottoman Empire takes Constantinople (1453), the Reconquista of Islamic Spain (1492), the Inquisition and the persecution of Muslims (and Jews).
West vs. East - As greater contact occurs and the western empires gain power the differences in culture, philosophy and religion are highlighted and the interactions between the West and the East manifest in racist and hegemonic actions by the West. At the same time the Eastern Empires would look down on the West as Barbarians.
Rural Peasants/farmers - Cash crops (12th century China and 17th century Japan) producing wealth for the empire but the producers held very few rights; though in the East they would have higher status as producers of wealth, versus merchants who were seen as parasites on production. In Europe during the 18th century Peasants would begin to be thrown off the land adding to the increase of Urban centers.
Worker Class - The industrialization of manufacturing (begun in Asia) greatly increases with the successful application (1712) and improvement (1764) of the Steam Engine (invention 1606). By 1820 workers in Scotland would be the first to agitate for greater rights, higher pay, and protections.
Colonization - China colonizes Manchuria, Mongolia, Xi Xian, Tibet, Taiwan; Russia colonizes the far east; Islam colonizes parts of southern Europe and south eastern Europe, north Africa, central Asia, India, South Asia; Europe colonizes north and south America, Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific, and Africa.
Racism - All Imperial powers held racist views towards outsiders and neighbors whom they sought to dominate and seek tribute from.
Slavery - Slavery is everywhere to some extent - Islamic North African and Indian Ocean Slave Trade, and European Colonial Atlantic Slave Trade.
Genocide - European colonialism would have genocide as a major part of clearing the land for white Christian Europeans; part of this includes death for those who refuse to convert which would also be a feature of Islamic expansion.
Witch Burning - The suppression of Pagan Women.
Domination of Nature - Particularly in the West, Wealth Extraction both Human and Natural without restraint.
So back to where we began - What actually is Modern?
Civilization? Being Civilized? Urbain? Cosmopolitan? Having etiquette, table manners, and upbringing? Educated and literate? Wealthy with opulent style and luxury? Industrialized? Bourgeois? Imperial and Despotic or Liberal and Democratic? Traditional or Novelty and the New? Critique?
Or is it Colonization? Genocide? Racism? Slavery? Sexism? Endless War? Raping and Pillaging? Is it the Domination of Nature? Wealth Extraction? Is it Hierarchies of Power? The Police State and Control? Inequality and Hunger for some while others live in Luxury?
I believe we can say, All of the Above.
Modernity can be defined by this Imperial World Order of 1789. We can argue about the correctness of ‘civilized’ but the cultural practices and forms that remain today as Formal Society and high ‘classical’ or ‘traditional’ arts of the former Imperial orders are the dominant manifestations of Modern Civilization.
This High Culture being: Palaces, Mansions, Cathedrals, Universities, Libraries, Museums, Royal Gardens, & Salons; Court sponsored Artists, Court Craftsman & Luxury goods, Court Doctors, Court Astrologers, Court Scientists, Court Games, Health Spas; Haute Couture Gowns for women, frilly ornate clothing for men, courtly dances, and regal cuisine, Gardens, Etiquette, Galas, & Formal Balls with the Red Carpet, Tennis, Casinos, Clubs, and Societies (some Secret); Titles, Doctors, Tutors, Servants, Slaves, Wet Nurses; Sovereignty, Land Ownership, Merchants, Bureaucrats, Bankers, Lawyers, Insurance, Corporations, Stock Markets, Penal Systems, Police State, Standing Armies, and Nationalism; Cricket, Horse Raising, and elite boarding schools.
Change and the New is an ongoing addition to these already established characteristics not a replacement of them. What has changed is the nature and reach of the Aristocracies who have largely been replaced by Presidents, Dictators and Capitalist Oligarchs. The Court Academies and Patronage have been replaced with National Academies, Grants and Awards; the cultural manifestations have only broadened to feed the same desires, but now also those of the Populace not just the Aristocrats and Bourgeoisie.
In 1789 the French Revolution would rise against inequality between the fabulously rich aristocracy and the lower class who were being left behind to fight for the scraps. As with the Song Dynasty of China, of the 10th century, the operation of the State would transfer from the Aristocracy to Civil Servant Bureaucracy. The great change that would come in the west would be the move from the despotic rule of Sovereigns to Parliamentary Liberal Democracies over the course of the next two centuries. The American Constitution, would seek to throw off the Imperial control of the Colonies and like the French embrace the radically new ideas of Liberalism, Freedom and Bill of Rights, in the new USA and French Republic. While in the Caribbean colony of Haiti we would see the modern worlds first Slave Revolt and emancipation in 1791.
With the advent of factories, mass production, sweat shops, and Urban squalor we would see the advent of Socialism, Unionization, Communes, Idealism, Utopias, Mutual Aid societies. The Masses would rise up amidst the same power and oppression, servitude, poverty, slums, and riots around the world for the next 200+ years. The Modern world, as it became ever more Urban and Populated, would become more and more about Critique, Revolution, the Liberation of oppressed peoples, and the Freedom of the Individual.
This would be an ongoing struggle as all the same ills of racism, sexism, classism, poverty, dehumanization, slavery, genocide, and war would continue; carried out by both despotic Empires and ‘democratic’ Nation States. Not to forget the ongoing threat of Nuclear War and Environmental destruction.
Modernization would spread from the East to the West from the 15th to 18th centuries. Joseph Needham, in Science and Civilisation in China, suggested that Western Knowledge surpassed that of China in 1600, but it took the following 200 years of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment for Europe to surpass them in material production, infrastructure, and population. In 1789, Japan was isolated and China was stagnant, while Europe was transforming. Since the age of the Song Dynasty, China had been in a constant state of “proto-modernity” but lacked the consistent development and critique from it’s middle class, which in Europe produced the Industrial Revolution.
This new Modern World would transform between 1789 and the mid 19th century as the United Kingdom replaces its lost American Colony with colonies in India, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. The Opium Wars would lead to the the fall of the Qing Dynasty in China, and the British Raj in India would see the transfer the Wealth of India to England. With the forced opening of Japanese ports this Imperial power would awaken as a Colonial and Military Empire until its defeat in WWII. In the Americas the USA would transform the continent through military might, genocide, slavery and its own Colonial expansion according to the Philosophy of “Manifest Destiny”.
With urbanization, capitalism, industrialization, and consumerism the multiplication of outlets for the production of novelty rises - the NEW - and Modernity changes; Ezra Pounds proclamation in 1937 that the Modern is “Make It New,” and it is only speeding up with Hyper Modernity.
I will now address these issues of Critique and Revolution, Novelty and the Avant-garde that manifest in the 19th century in part 3, Modernity, now what? - Dialectics.
— First, the order of (Early) Imperial Modernity (16th & 17th c.) with developing/modernizing European Feudal Monarchies and established Asian Empires, defined by the inclusion of the Americas in the new Global Maritime Trade Network, Urbanized Asia, and the spread of Chinese inventions such as (just to name just a few): gun powder, paper money, banking, capitalism, industrial processes, the printing press, the compass, coal coke and gas energy, state development projects, agricultural revolution, public schools, and scholar bureaucrats.
— and the joining of (Early) Bourgeois Modernity (18th c.) in the West, seen as the formalization of Neoclassicism in Europe, the rise of the Bourgeois/Middle Class, the Urbanization of Europe, the rise of Imperial Russia, the Enlightenment and the rise of Freemasonry, Parliament, Empirical Science, Secularism, Constitutional Law, Liberal Democracy, Capitalist Oligarchs, the steam engine and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
— Third, the order of (Classical) Modernity (19th to mid 20th c.) with expanded colonization by Europe into Asia and Africa, the urbanization of the Americas and other former Colonies, the rise of Colonial Japan, the rise of the United States of America and Manifest Destiny, and increasing technology development - commercialization, programming, electricity, photography, communication systems, machinery, and air travel.
— and the critique of (Classical) Modernity (19th to 21st c.) seen as Critique, Hegelian Dialectics, popular revolutions, Anti-colonialism, Freedom Movements, Marxism, Socialism, Workers Rights, Abolition of Slavery, Universal Suffrage & Women’s Rights, Civil Rights, LGTBQ Rights; Bohemianism and the Counterculture, Nihilism, Nietzsche, and “the death of god”; the Avant-Garde, Modern Art, the creation of Western Popular Arts & Entertainment, and creation of Country/Western & Black Culture in the USA.
— Fifth, the order of Advanced or Hyper Modernity (late 20th to 21st c.) with the ending of Colonial Empires (though many colonies would remain or become Nations), Nuclear Weapons, the Cold War, the United Nations, the European Union, Communist China, the Partition of India, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Bretton Woods Agreements (International Monetary Fund, and World Bank), the International Court of Justice, the Digital Revolution, Space Travel, Transnational Corporations.
— and the joining of “New World Order,” (21st c.) with Gene Technology, the World Wide Web, Neoliberalism, Bitcoin, Digital Ubiquity, Crisper, Ubiquitous Surveillance, Space Tourism & Colonization, and the rise of China as a Super-Power.