The
1880s saw a great expansion of European power overseas and much of tropical Africa
was divided between the great European nations. Asian colonies were also
established - at the expense of the Chinese empire - drawing the United States
into the expansionist tide. Britain fought a bitter war with the Boer republics,
and a newly industrialized Japan inflicted a harsh defeat on Russia, provoking
the futile revolution 1905. Ancient rivalries between Russia and Austria-Hungary
combined with German ambitions and nationalist strife in the Balkans to fuel
European tensions. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by a Serbian patriot
sparked off a brutal conflict that swiftly engulfed the continent.
In France, art became involved in a fruitful period of controversy, with Impressionist painters making major advances in the use of colour and technique to capture light and atmosphere, Traditional forms were profoundly challenged, and by the early 1900s abstract art had appears
The later nineteenth century witnessed some
remarkable scientific achievements - the beginnings of atomic physics, the
discovery of X-rays, and Pasteur's work on micro-organisms, as well as
Einstein's theories of relativity. Technological innovation was vigorous - the
phonograph and electric light bulb made their first appearances - to I followed
by the motor car, aeroplane and wireless.
In music, nationalism remained a potent source of inspiration; British, Czech and
Russian composers drew on native songs and folk music, as did Grieg in Norway
and Bart6k in Hungary. From the United States came ragtime - highly popular and
also rooted in indigenous tradition Composers
