The Period of Reforms is a general term referring to a period of social reforms that ocurred across Europe in the last twenty years of the XIX century, and first twenty of the XXth one. The Period of Reforms had several similar factors, but the term refers to several wide-ranging events:
Frederick IV of Germany was responsible for jump-starting the Period of Reforms in Germany.
In Germany, the Period of Reforms (Zeit den Reformer, literally Time of Reforms), also called the Sweeping Repeals (Kehr Aufebungen) refers to the period of repealing of Bismarckian law of Otto von Bismarck and William I, German Emperor after the succession to the throne of Frederick IV, German Emperor and the rise of the Liberal-dominated parliament. The Sweeping Repeals begin with the repealing of anti-Polish legislature in 1879, and pick up pace after Bismarck's dismissal next year.The Time of Reforms ended with the outbreak of the Great War in 1915.
In Eurasia, at the time the Russian Empire, the Period of Reforms (Vremya peremen, literally "Time of Change") is considered widely to range from much earlier, like the succession of Alexander II to the Russian throne in 1861; however, general consensus establishes it to be between Alexander II's dismissal of Nikolay Bunge in 1887 and the passing of the Eurasian Union's constitution in 1926, including the periods of the Great War.
Much reduced are the Periods of Reforms in the United Kingdom, Italy, the United States and other European nations; in these nations, the major reforms that are seen with widespread changes in institutional governance ocurred much later, during the Roaring Age. Instead, these periods of reform led to the very small origins of welfare states in all three countries.
Characteristics[]
There are several common characteristics that join the Period of Reforms together, despite their extremely wide range in time, events and results. The main characteristics common to all Periods of Reforms are:
Eugen Richter, father of the Liberal Union
General elections yielding a liberal government; liberal Parliaments were the key issue to the start of the Period of Reforms. The rise of liberalism throughout Europe in this period is astounding; for example, in Germany, the main parties that would later compose the Liberal Union (the NLP, DFP and DtVP) increased their representation of power incredibly, from 35.7% of the votes in the 1881 general elections to their highest ever margin, the 62.4% on the 1890 elections. Russia saw a majority held by the centre-liberals and radical-liberals (later the Decembrist and KD parties) between 1895 and 1905, and then again between 1906 and 1920. The British Liberal Party got its highest ever proportion of votes, with Gladstone recovering Prime Ministership in 1895 (and then replaced by Archibald Primrose in 1898 after his death). While they lost the election in 1900 to Lord Salisbury, a Conservative politician, the rise of Asquith would bring the golden age of liberalism.
Incredible growth of the Socialist parties - The liberal parties were not the only ones to rise throughout the times of the Period of Reforms. The socialist and labour movements also experienced incredible growth throughout this period; while they only got 7% of the national vote in 1881, they had swelled to almost 30% of it by 1900, becoming the Liberal Union's left-wing rival. Lab-Lib candidates throughout Britain grew into a formidable force within the Liberal Party before separating and merging with the Fabian Society to form the Social Democratic Party of the United Kingdom, one of the driving forces behind the Second International.
Economic growth - The quick industrialisation of Germany and Britain, and the slower industrialisations of Russia and Italy, led to a period of economic growth that was uninterrupted between 1893 and 1910, with the exception of a small recession in 1898-1902. This economic growth allowed for the liberal parties to be concentrated on political, rather than economic, reform.
Some common decisions established throughout these periods:
Establishment, or expansion, of the welfare state. The German state already had a successful welfare state that had helped extreme economic development throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. The results could already be seen in the 1880s; Germany was rapidly urbanising, and its GDP was exploding. The welfare state as a way to protect the rights of the citizen, very much liked by liberals and socialists; the adoption of the welfare state began in all major states but Austria, Turkey and Japan by the 1900s.
Political and economic liberalisation - These point in history saw the opening of these developing nations to the hands of the individuals. In Germany, the outdated constitutencies that were fair twenty years earlier, but now overrepresented rural boroughs, were abolished; the new Electoral Constitutency Organisation established dynamic boroughs that changed their representation and borders depending on the population changes every four years. The rights to speech, religion, language and belief began to be enforced in the rapidly democratising German Reichstag. While the Prussian provincial assembly retained their old three-class voting system, Saxony, Brunswick, Waldeck (and after the Cession of the West, Westphalia) abandoned the Prussian voting system in favour of universal suffrage. The last event universally considered part of the Period of Reforms was, indeed, the establishment of female suffrage for women aged 30 or above for German federal elections and for those states with suffrage as their form of election, ocurring in June 5, 1916 (to be applied in the first post-war elections).
