Download Chapter 11

Chapter 11
Industries, Ideas, and the Struggle for Reform, 1815-1848
Chapter Summary
In the three decades before 1815, two revolutions had swept through Europe. A political
revolution, associated with the French Revolution, affected the institutions of
government, law, and the relations between social classes on the continent. That
revolution appeared to halt with the defeat of Napoleon and the peace of Vienna in 1815.
However, the other revolution worked against the forces of reaction that had momentarily
triumphed. The Industrial Revolution first transformed England, and then spread to the
continent. It enlarged the middle and working classes, whose political demands
challenged the conservatism of monarchs, and led to the growth of large urban centers.
Together, these two revolutions sparked a proliferation of new movements and doctrines,
or “isms,” many of which continue to exert an influence in the present. The triumph of
the bourgeoisie left its mark on Europe, but the increasing estrangement of labor led to
fears of renewed revolution. Politically, the powers that had defeated Napoleon sought to
stem the tide of revolution, while making some concessions to liberalism both
domestically and internationally. A schism emerged between an increasingly liberal
western Europe and an autocratic eastern Europe, and instability was further exacerbated
by the lack of an international system. The tensions between the repressive atmosphere
established by the forces of reaction and the hopes still tied to notions of progress and
individual rights would lead to the Revolution of 1848.
Chapter Outline
11.52 The Industrial Revolution in Britain
a. The Agricultural Revolution in Britain
i. Agricultural experimentation
ii. The enclosure acts
b. Industrialism in Britain: Incentives and Inventions
i. Inventions in the textile industry
ii. The steam engine
iii. Transportation
c. Some Social Consequences of Industrialism in Britain
i. Manchester
ii. Unskilled labor
iii. The cotton lords
d. Classical Economics: “Laissez Faire”
i. Self-interest and free trade
ii. Working people’s experiences
11.53 The Advent of the “Isms”
a. Romanticism
i. Love of the unclassifiable
ii. Creative genius
b. Classical Liberalism
i. Liberal beliefs
c. Radicalism, Republicanism, and Socialism
i. Demands for radical reforms
ii. Republican ideals
iii. Socialist views
iv. Saint-Simonians and Fourier
v. The French working classes
d. Feminism
i. Egalitarian feminism
ii. English feminists
iii. French feminism
e. Nationalism: Western Europe
i. Volksgeist
ii. Secret societies
iii. Mazzini
iv. Hegel’s philosophy
v. List’s economics
f. Nationalism: Eastern Europe
i. Preservation of historic cultures
ii. The Slavic Revival
iii. Russian Slavophilism
g. Other “Isms”
i. Conservatism
ii. Humanitarianism
iii. Polish ambitions
11.54 The Dike and the Flood: Domestic
a. Reaction after 1815: France, Poland
i. The “white terror”
ii. Polish ambitions
b. Reaction after 1815: The German States, Britain
i. Metternich intervenes
ii. Economic crisis spurs radicalism
iii. The Peterloo massacre
11.55 The Dike and the Flood: International
a. The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1818
i. Alexander’s internationalism
b. Revolution in Southern Europe: The Congress of Troppau, 1820
i. Revolution in Spain and Naples
ii. A gap opens between East and West
c. Spain and the Near East: The Congress of Verona, 1822
i. Ypsilanti refused support
ii. The French invade Spain
d. Latin American Independence
i. Motives for revolt
ii. British favor Spanish American independence
iii. The Monroe Doctrine
e. The End of the Congress System
i. Liberalism advances
f. Russia: The Decembrist Revolt, 1825
i. Constantine and Nicholas
11.56 The Breakthrough of Liberalism in the West: Revolution of 1830-1832
a. France, 1824-1830: The July Revolution, 1830
i. Charles X abdicates
ii. The July Monarchy
b. Revolutions of 1830: Belgium and Poland
i. The benefits of the Dutch-Belgian union
ii. Revolution in Poland
c. Reform in Great Britain
i. The Tory regime
ii. Problems of representation
iii. The Reform Bill of 1832
iv. The ambiguous impact of reform
d. Britain after 1832
i. Liberals and Conservatives
ii. The Tory counteroffensive
iii. The Anti-Corn Law League
11.57 Triumph of the West European Bourgeoisie
a. The Frustration and Challenge of Labor
i. The labor market
ii. The Poor Law of 1834
b. Socialism and Chartism
i. The Charter of 1838
ii. Petitions and the defeat of the Chartists
Learning Objectives
Chapter 11 teaches students about:
1. the rise of industrial society within the capitalist system.
2. the innovations in agriculture, industry, and transportation that led to the
industrial revolution in Britain.
3. the social consequences of the industrial revolution.
4. the proliferation of doctrines and movements after 1815, most notably, laissez
faire political economy, Romanticism, liberalism, radical republicanism,
socialism, feminism, and nationalism.
5. the emergence of cultural nationalism as a program for political action, especially
where people of the same nationality were subject to foreign rule.
6. the fear of revolution after Napoleon’s defeat, which led to the entrenchment of
reactionary policies.
7. the congresses of the Great Powers, which were the initial experiments with a
system of international regulation by European countries.
8. the seeming containment of the revolutionary forces unleashed by the French
Revolution, some ten years after Napoleon’s defeat.
9. the successful resurgence of nationalism and revolution in France, Belgium, and
Poland after 1830.
10. the ambiguous impact of the Reform movement in Britain.
11. the golden age of the bourgeoisie and their influence upon Europe, especially
Britain.
12. the estrangement of labor during the bourgeois age, and the rapid spread of
socialism among the working classes.
13. the growing divide between western Europe’s liberalism and eastern Europe’s
autocratic monarchies.
Lecture/Discussion Topics
1. How are industrialism and capitalism not necessarily the same?
2. What were the consequences of the enclosure acts?
3. Why and how did Great Britain’s industrial revolution primarily involve the
textile industry?
4. Describe the new urban centers that arose in nineteenth century Britain. Why did
the Midlands become the focal point of British industrialization?
5. What were working conditions like in the new factories? What were the
disadvantages of those conditions? What benefits did factory work bring to the
working classes?
6. How did the new “cotton lords” relate to their workers? What ideas did they use
to guide their relationships to their workers?
7. What ideals did Romantics celebrate? Why do you think Romanticism emerged
during the industrial revolution?
8. What kinds of political systems did Liberals espouse? What kinds of economic
systems did they advocate?
9. What were militant republican ideals on the Continent? What kinds of people
were attracted to such ideas?
10. Describe Saint-Simon’s phalanasteries. Why do you think most of them failed?
Would you have liked to live in one?
11. What kinds of social constraints did women face in the nineteenth century? Do
you think those constraints were similar for working and bourgeois women?
12. Why did nationalist ideas differ in eastern and western Europe?
13. How did Hegel influence other currents of thought in Europe?
14. Why did eastern Europeans become interested in their own culture in the
nineteenth century?
15. How did conservatism remain strong in Europe? How had conservatism changed
since the eighteenth century?
16. What was the “white terror”? How did Louis XVIII react?
17. What did the Carlsbad Decrees achieve for Metternich?
18. What caused unrest in Britain in the early nineteenth century? How did the
government respond?
19. Why was Alexander considered an internationalist?
20. How did Metternich view the collapse of the governments of Spain and Naples?
21. What guarantees was the protocol of Troppau intended to provide for the Great
Powers? What were the underlying motives of the proposal?
22. Why did Alexander shift from liberal to reactionary views in response to
Ypsilanti?
23. Why did Creoles in Spanish America rebel against Spanish rule?
24. Why did the U.S. make a unilateral statement against both Great Britain and the
continental powers regarding Spanish America?
25. Why was the Decembrist rebellion considered the first truly revolutionary
movement in Russia?
26. Why were some observers shocked by the Orléanist regime in France?
27. Why was the Polish revolution of 1830 crushed? What were the consequences of
Polish defeat?
28. What reforms were the Tories able to push through in the 1820s? Which problems
were they unable to confront?
29. What were the changes instituted by the Reform Bill of 1832? Why was it
considered a very English measure?
30. On what grounds did different groups defend or oppose the Corn Law? How did
its repeal come about in 1846?
31. How did laissez faire economists explain working conditions in the nineteenth
century? How did workers respond to those explanations?
32. What were the points laid out in the Charter of 1838? Why did the movement die
down after 1842?
Multimedia Resources
Web Sources
1. The following site is dedicated to John Stuart Mill, with links to his
autobiography and other writings.
http://www.cpm.ll.ehime-u.ac.jp/AkamacHomePage/Akamac_Etext_Links/Mill.html
2. This site contains links to an impressive array of primary and secondary sources
on Romanticism.
http://vos.ucsb.edu/search-results.asp