Download Congress of Vienna (1814

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND 19TH
CENTURY EUROPE
The French Revolution (1789)
- In 1789, there were three class of people in
France: the clergy (First Estate – 1%), the
nobles (Second Estate – 2%), and the common
people (Third Estate – 97%).
- Great differences in way the estates lived.
- The king had total authority, and the king and
nobles lived very well and paid few taxes.
- The poor struggled and paid most of the taxes –
when taxes were raised, the poor often starved.
- The extravagance of the rich and the misery of
the poor were extreme.
- Fighting wars was expensive, and France went
into debt. King Louis XVI called a meeting of
representatives from each of the three estates
(Estates-General) to discuss raising taxes.
- The Third Estate (commoners, including the
bourgeoisie) tried to use this meeting to reform
the government. When the king refused to give
them any power, they formed the National
Assembly.
- They met at a tennis court and agreed that they
would demand a new constitution and stay
together till one was written – Oath of the Tennis
Court.
- On July 14, 1789, citizens took over the Bastille,
a storehouse of ammunition and the royal prison.
This sparked the beginning of the revolution.
- The National Assembly put forth the Declaration
of the Rights of Man. It was written by Marquis
de Lafayette, who had helped the Americans
with their revolution.
- The National Assembly declared France a
constitutional monarchy meaning France would
be ruled by a constitution and the power of the
monarch would be limited.
- The revolution went on for some years and
became more violent. The king and queen were
tried for treason and publicly executed at the
guillotine.
- France became a republic, but many things did
not improve.
- The summer of 1793 through the summer of
1794 was called the Reign of Terror because
many of the new leaders had begun to use fear
and violence, executing hundreds of people each
week.
- Only after the Reign of Terror and the death of
the most ruthless leaders did the revolution end.
The Age of Napoleon (1799-1815)
- If it weren’t for the chaos of the French
Revolution, Napoleon would probably never
have risen to power so quickly and absolutely.
- Napoleon Bonaparte was a military genius and
leader who created a French empire after the
chaos of the Revolution.
- He won so many battles that he became very
popular with the people of France.
- The French people hoped that a strong leader
like Napoleon would be able to stop the turmoil
that had engulfed the country since the start of
the Revolution.
- In 1799, at the age of 30, Napoleon overthrew
the French government. He prepared a new
constitution and became First Consul. He
eventually ruled as military dictator.
- Napoleon restored order to France. He changed
the tax system and instituted new laws, called the
Napoleonic Code.
- This code made laws the same all over France
and put an end to the special treatment of nobles.
- Napoleon then began a series of war in order to
gain new lands.
- In 1804, Napoleon changed the republic into an
empire and crowned himself Emperor Napoleon
I.
- At the height of his power, from 1810 to 1812,
France controlled much of Europe.
- Great Britain, Russia, and Austria became allies
in order to defeat Napoleon, succeeding in 1815
at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium.
- Napoleon was exiled to the small island of St.
Helena until his death.
Impact of Napoleon
- Despite his defeat, the ideas of the French
Revolution had been carried to the rest of Europe
by Napoleon.
- These ideas included constitutional government
and rule of law.
- Domination by the French during Napoleon’s
campaigns across Europe during the early 1800’s
caused nationalism (feelings of love and pride
for one’s nation) to develop in many areas under
foreign control.
- Long term, these ideas influenced the
development of stable democracies in much of
western Europe long after Napoleon was
defeated.
- Although he was a dictator, Napoleon’s civil
code and educational reforms were copied in
much of Europe.
Congress of Vienna (1814-1815)
- As Napoleon conquered more land in Europe, he
changed the rulers and borders of the different
countries he had conquered.
- After Napoleon was defeated, leaders from many
European nations met to change again the rulers
and borders in Europe.
- The leaders met in Vienna, Austria and these
meetings were called the Congress of Vienna.
- The leaders at the Congress of Vienna wanted
Europe to be the way it was before the French
Revolution.
- They wanted peace and they wanted to stop all
revolutions.
- Four important nations led the Congress of
Vienna – Quadruple Alliance – Great Britain,
Russia, Austria, Prussia, and later France.
- Klemens von Metternich, from Austria, was a
leader of the Congress of Vienna.
- He was against the ideas of the French
Revolution and thought the ideas of liberty,
equality, and fraternity would bring more wars to
Europe. He thought democracy led to wars.
- Metternich said that only strong kings could
keep peace. He wanted all laws to be made by
kings and said people should have less freedom
and should not be equal.
- The other leaders at the Congress of Vienna
agreed with Metternich. They began to take
away the freedom and equality that people had
won after the French Revolution.
- The Congress helped old kings become rulers of
their nations again (legitimacy).
- The leaders of the Congress of Vienna changed
the sizes of some nations in Europe (new
political map of Europe).
- They wanted a balance of power – meant that
one nation should not be strong enough to
conquer other nations.
- The leaders thought a balance of power would
keep peace in Europe.
- Russia became larger while France lost all land
that Napoleon had conquered.
- The nations around France (buffer states) also
became stronger to prevent France from trying to
take again the land of other countries.
- Also, Metternich sought to suppress all liberal
and radical ideas.
- Liberalism – in the 19th century, a person who
supported the ideas of Locke; wanted change,
freedom and limited government.
- Conservatism – in 19th century, a person who
wanted to keep things the same or return to the
past.
Legacy of the Congress of Vienna
- No big wars were fought in Europe for almost 40
years.
- Member of Quadruple Alliance tried to prevent
Revolutions from occurring – met from time to
time to deal with the threat of liberal and
nationalist revolts.
- But Congress of Vienna could not make people
forget the ideas of the French Revolution.
- The Congress of Vienna was an attempt to
restore power to the elite and bring order within
the lower classes.
- People began to want freedom and Revolutions
began to occur in many European nations (1830
and 1848).
- Nationalistic revolutions swelled with groups
such as the Germans and Italians (1848) who
wanted boundaries and nations to be based on
ethnicity and nationalistic commonality, not on
the political agendas of their leaders.
- Also leaders of revolutions sought to obtain
liberal constitutions.
Unification of Italy
- It was not easy for the Italian states to become
one nation.
- After the Congress of Vienna, there were nine
Italian states.
- Austria controlled many of the northern states of
Italy. Southern Italy was ruled by a king.
Between northern and southern Italy were the
Papal States which belonged to the Roman
Catholic Church.
- Count Cavour, prime minister of the Kingdom of
Sardinia, hoped that all the states of Italy would
unite.
- But he first knew that the northern states of Italy
had to be freed from Austria.
- France helped the Kingdom of Sardinia push the
Austrians out of most of northern Italy.
- Once the northern states has united, an Italian
named Guiseppe Garibaldi captured southern
Italy.
- Then Garibaldi and Cavour’s soldiers captured
the Papal States, except Rome which later joined.
Unification of Germany
- Like Italy, the 39 German states did not easily
become a nation.
- The 39 states had independent governments,
each ruled by a prince or a king.
- The two strongest German states were Austria
and Prussia.
- Otto von Bismarck led the unification of
Germany. He was the prime minister of the state
of Prussia who believed wars with other
countries would unite the German people and
help the growth of German nationalism.
- Bismarck’s actions were seen as an example of
Realpolitik, which justifies all means to achieve
and hold power.
- The rest of Europe became nervous at the idea of
a united Germany, especially France.
- Bismarck then provoked France into declaring
war on Prussia so that the rest of Europe
wouldn’t think that Prussia was aggressive.
- Bismarck then easily crushed the French in the
Franco-Prussian War, and Germany unified, with
Bismarck as the leader.
- Forced French to sign defeat treaty in Palace of
Versailles.
- The result was not only the restructuring of the
balance of power in Europe, but also the
development of a strong sense of nationalism in
Germany, which proved to be a very dangerous
force just decades later in both world wars.