ABSTRACT
Fifty years separated the Polish January uprising and the Austro Hungarian Compromise from the First World War. The response of East Central Europe to the challenge of the Industrial Revolution was colored by the distinctive features of its economy. Industrial Revolution in the Czech lands resembled that in western and central Europe. Factory production was first predominant in textiles, and then it spread to other branches, especially food processing – flour milling, brewery, and distilleries – as was characteristic for the Industrial Revolution in East Central Europe. The poverty and hardship experienced by the landless agricultural workers and the industrial proletariat led to growing discontent, which was brutally checked, and to emigration. The Polish response to the shock of defeat was affected by the Industrial Revolution. Thwarted politically, society channeled its energies to economic and social endeavors. Nationalism was a weapon used against democrats, socialists, and radicals, and even the Catholic Church, in a Hungarian version of Kulturkampf in 1892–6.
