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Age of Metternich
European Leaders try to repair Europe
Dual Revolution
 Economic Revolution: England’s Industrial Rev
 Political Revolution: France’s Revolution
 Had been separate until 1815
 Two countries, two different paces
 After 1815, these two forces began to fuse,
reinforcing each other
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Dual Revolution
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Example: industrial middle class drove the push for
representative government; sans-cullottes inspired socialist
thinkers
 Most of world history in last 200 years is about this
fusion
Congress of Vienna (1814-1815)
 International Congress whose statesmen met in
Vienna to determine the details of the peace
settlement
 The objective was to reestablish a conservative order
in Europe following years of upheaval and war as a
result of the French Revolution and Napoleon.
 Dominated by the figure of Metternich, the foreign
minister of Austria, thus. “Age of Metternich”
 He hated liberalism, nationalism, revolution, anything
that smacked of “republicanism”
Congress of Vienna (1814-1815)
 Blamed liberal middle class revolutionaries for stirring
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up the lower classes
Doubly dangerous since liberalism went hand in hand
with national aspirations
Liberalism, therefore supported the idea of national
self-determination
This threatened the aristocracy
Also would destroy Austrian Empire since most of the
Empire was composed of subject ethnic groups
Carlsbad Decrees: 1819
 Metternich’s policies dominated Austria,
Italian peninsula & German Confederation
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38 independent German states, including
Prussia and Austria
Met in complicated assemblies dominated by
Austria with Prussia, a willing junior partner
 1819: Metternich passed Carlsbad Decrees
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Required that all 38 member states root out
subversive ideas in their universities &
newspapers
Congress of Vienna
 Dominated by “conservatism”
 Wanted Europe to forget about Napoleon, the French
Revolution, and the Enlightenment
 Wanted to achieve a “balance of power” in Europe
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Power between Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia,
and France
 Wanted “legitimacy” to return rightful monarchs or
their heirs to their thrones
 Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolutions in
France spread conservative ideas throughout Europe
Austria:
Count Klemmens Von Metternich
Great Britain
Viscount Robert Castlereigh
Prussia
Karl August von Hardenberg
France
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
Russia
Alexander I
Congress of Vienna
 First Treaty of Paris (May 1814)
 France lost all its conquests of revolutionary and
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Napoleonic periods
Permitted to retain its frontiers of 1792
Regained almost all colonies; not required to pay an
indemnity
Napoleon’s 100 Days interrupted the proceedings
Second Treaty of Paris (November 1915)
After Waterloo, the allies imposed a more severe
treaty than the first one
Congress of Vienna
 Second Treaty of Paris
 France was reduced to the borders of 1790
 French required to pay an indemnity of 700 million
francs to the allies
 and to accept allied military occupation of 17 French
forts for 5 years.
The Holy Alliance: Sept. 1815
 Proposed by Tsar Alexander I
 Signed by rulers of Russia, Prussia, and
Austria
 Pledged to observe Christian principles in
both domestic and international affairs
The Quadruple Alliance: Nov.
1815
 Signed by Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and
Russia
 Agreed to maintain the alliance that had
defeated Napoleon
 To meet periodically in concerts to discuss
issues of mutual concern
 Concert of Europe: would lead to the
preservation of the balance of power and the
conservative order established in Vienna
Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle: 1818
 France had paid its indemnity
 Members of the Quadruple Alliance decided
that France should be freed from occupation
 France rejoins the ranks of the great powers
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Now the Quintuple Alliance
 Alexander I proposed they should support
existing governments and frontiers in Europe
 Castlereagh rejects this; first break in the
accord
Congress of Troppau: 1820
 Spain: revolutionaries rose up & forced the
kings of Spain & Kingdom of Two Sicilies to
grant liberal constitutions
 Metternich and Alexander I: principle of active
intervention in other countries to oppose
revolutions
 British objected to policy of intervention
Congress of Laibach: 1821
 Authorized Austria to suppress the revolution
in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
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She did so
 Breach between Britain and three
conservative powers widened at this
congress
Congress of Verona: 1822
 Last of the congresses
 Authorized France to intervene in Spain
 Spanish king reestablished absolute power
 Castlereagh’s successor, George Canning
finally withdrew Britain from the Quintuple
Alliance
Britain’s Opposition to Intervention &
the Monroe Doctrine
 Without Britain’s naval power, conservative
powers were unable to suppress the revolts
in Latin America
 British opposed intervention for 2 reasons:
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On principle, was unfair
Didn’t want any interference with their
profitable trade with Latin America
 Canning proposed Great Britain & U.S. join in
a declaration against any European
intervention in the Western Hemisphere
Britain’s Opposition to Intervention &
the Monroe Doctrine
 Americans acted independently
 Monroe Doctrine, 1823:
 The U.S. would oppose intervention and any
further colonization by the European powers
in the Western Hemisphere
 Great Britain endorsed Monroe Doctrine
 Both U.S. & Britain began to grant formal
diplomatic recognition to new L. A. republics
1815 Europe
Liberalism
 Metternich wanted conservatism
 Liberalism was dominant among the
commoners who didn’t benefit from noble
privilege
 Liberalism was defined by freedoms –
freedom of speech, religion, and the press
 Liberalism stressed constitutional monarchies
 Liberalism stressed meritocracy – value in
what you achieve, not who you were born to
Liberalism
 Only France with Louis XVIII’s Constitutional
Charter
 And Britain with its Parliament & historic
rights had realized much of the liberal
program in 1815
Economic Liberalism
 Opponents of liberalism criticized its
economic principles which called for
unrestricted private enterprise & no
government interference in the economy
 Known as Laissez-faire
 Often called Classic Liberalism in U.S. in
order to differentiate it from modern American
liberalism which usually favors more
government programs to meet social needs &
to regulate the economy
Economic Liberalism
 This type of classical (economic) liberalism,
was supported by business groups & became
a doctrine associated with business interests
 Businessmen used the doctrine to defend
their right to do as they wished in their
factories.
 Labor unions were outlawed because they
supposedly restricted free competition & the
individual’s “right to work”
Nationalism
 Hotbeds were in Ottoman Empire and
Austrian Empire
 Argued that each people had its own genius
& its own cultural unity
 Glorified the past and culture of unified
groups
 Sought to turn the cultural unity that they felt
into a political reality
Nationalism
 Complex industrial urban society requiring
better communications: standardized national
language
 When a minority population grew large, a
nationalist campaign for a standardized
language often led to a push for a
separate nation-state
Nationalism
 Between 1815-1850, people who believed in
nationalism, believed in either liberalism or
radical, democratic republicanism.
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Liberals & democrats saw the people as
ultimate source of all government
Early nationalists believed every nation,
like every citizen, had the right to exist in
freedom, to develop its own character and
spirit
Once this was achieved, then a symphony
of nations would promote the harmony and
unity of all peoples
Nationalism
 Early nationalists stressed differences among
peoples
 Strong sense of “We” & “They”
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A sense of national mission
A sense of national superiority
 Early nationalism: ambiguous
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Below the surface lurked ideas of national
superiority, national mission
These ideas could lead to aggression &
conflict
Utilitarianism
 The greatest good for the greatest number.
 Normally associated with liberalism – the greatest
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numbers were non-nobles
Jeremy Bentham – father of
Said government should only interfere in people’s
lives to bring order and harmony
John Stuart Mill said the role of the government is to
help people achieve happiness
Mill’s On Liberty and On the Subjection of Women
outlined utilitarianism and feminism
French Utopian Socialism
 They were aware that the political revolution
in France, the rise of laissez-faire, and the
emergence of modern industry were
transforming society
 They saw these as fomenting selfish
individualism & splitting the community into
isolated fragments
 Urgent need to reorganize society to
establish cooperation & new sense of
community
French Utopian Socialism
 3 principles of early French Utopian Socialism
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Economic planning (emergency measures of
1793-94)
Intense desire to help the poor; rich and poor
should be more equal economically
Private property should be regulated by the
government/or abolished and replaced by
state or community ownership
PLANNING, GREATER ECONOMIC
EQUALITY, STATE REGULATION OF
PROPERTY!
Count Henri de Saint-Simon
(1760-1825)
 Key to progress was proper social
organization!
 Parasites: court, aristocracy, lawyers,
churchmen must give way to the
 Doers: leading scientists, engineers,
industrialists
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Who would carefully plan the economy, guide
it forward with vast public works projects,
establish investment banks
Every social institution ought to improve
conditions of the poor
Charles Fourier (1772-1837)
 Self-sufficient communities of 1,620 people
living communally on 5,000 acres devoted to
combination of agriculture & industry
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Women should be totally emancipated
Critical of middle-class family life
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Marriages only another kind of prostitution
Young women “sold” to men for their dowries
Abolition of marriage/ Free unions based only on
love & sexual freedom
 The socialist link to liberation of women may have
hindered the women’s movement in future
Louis Blanc (1811-1881)
 Wrote Organization of Work
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Urged workers to demand universal voting
rights
Take control of the state peacefully
Government-backed workshops & factories to
guarantee full employment
Right to work as sacred as any other right
Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809-65)
 Wrote What is Property?
 Nothing but theft
 Property was profit stolen from the worker,
who was source of all wealth
 Different from socialists in that he feared the
power of the state
 Often considered an anarchist
Early French Utopian Socialism
 Message was linked to the experience of
French urban workers
 Memory of radical phase of French Rev.
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Its efforts to regulate economic life & protect
the poor
Skilled artisans who believed in guilds came to
oppose laissez-faire laws that denied workers
the right to organize and promoted brutal,
unrestrained competition instead
Marxian Socialism
Karl Marx: (1818-1883)
Karl Marx
 The Communist Manifesto: “the history of all
previously existing society is the history of
class struggles”
 Ridicules early socialists as naïve to appeal
to the middle-class and the poor
 Interests of these two classes were inevitably
opposed to each other
Karl Marx
 One class had always exploited the other
 With modern industry, society now clearly
more split
 Middle-class: bourgeoisie
 Modern working class: proletariat
 Bourgeoisie had triumphed over feudal
aristocracy
 Marx predicted that proletariat would conquer
the bourgeoisie
Karl Marx
 How would this happen?
 Bourgeoisie was tiny minority: they owned the
means of production
 As this tiny bourgeoisie grew richer, the
proletariat would continue to grow in size & in
class-consciousness
 Portion of the bourgeoisie would join the
proletariat as “they raised themselves to the
level of comprehending theoretically the
historical moment”
Karl Marx
 The critical moment of takeover of the means
of production by the proletariat was very near
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“The ruling classes tremble at a Communist
revolution. The proletarians have nothing to
lose but their chains. They have a world to
win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES,
UNITE”
Karl Marx
 Marx stressed that the bourgeoisie
historically, “has played a most revolutionary
part”
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During its rule of less than 100 years, it had
created more massive and more colossal
productive forces than all preceding
generations together.
Karl Marx
 Ideas united sociology, economics and all
human history together
 Combined French utopian schemes, English
classical economics, German philosophy,
Engels’ critique of the oppressive factory
system, Proudhon’s view of labor as the
source of all value
 His doctrines seemed to be based on hard
facts
Historical evolution
 Georg Hegel: (1770-1831) German
philosopher
 Each age is characterized by a dominant set
of ideas: thesis
 Opposing ideas challenge this: antithesis
 Eventually new idea is accepted: synthesis
 Synthesis evolves into new thesis
 Historical evolution will again challenge the
thesis and so on
Historical evolution
 According to Marx, it was now the
bourgeoisie’s turn to give way to the
socialism of revolutionary workers
 Thing about Marx’s theory: appeared the
irrefutable interpretation of humanity’s long
development
 In other words, revolution of the proletariat
was inevitable
 Created one of the great secular religions out
of the intellectual ferment of the early 19th c
Romanticism
 Early romantic German philosophers
 Sturm and Drang (Storm and Stress)
 Tremendous emotional intensity
 Suicides, duels to the death, madness,
strange illnesses all characterize leading
romantics
 Artists typically led bohemian lives, wore long
hair
 Rejected materialism
Romanticism
 Driven by sense of unlimited universe
 Yearning for the unattained, the unknown, the
unknowable
 Nature: they were enchanted by it
 “A blade of grass is always a blade of grass;
men and women are my subjects of inquiry.”
 Nature as beautiful and chaste
 Saw modern industry as ugly, brutal attack on
their beloved nature & human personality
Romanticism
 Fascinated by color and diversity
 Turned toward history with passion
 Key to universe was now organic & dynamic
 Not mechanical & static as the Enlightenment
had been
 Historical studies promoted growth of national
aspirations
Greece breaks free from Ottoman
Empire: 1830
 Alexander Ypsilanti: leader of Greek
independence against Ottoman Empire
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Metternich opposed even if it was against the
Turks
Romantics such as Byron, Shelley and liberal
intellectuals agitate for the liberation of the
“birth of western civilization” from the Turks
 1827: Britain, France & Russia pressured by
popular demands at home pay more attention
to the Greek problem
Greece breaks free from Ottoman
Empire: 1830
 1827: Great Britain, France, and Russia
intervened, and destroyed a Turkish-Egyptian
fleet in the Battle of Navarino.
 Russia declared war on Turkey in 1828,
invaded Bulgaria, and seized Adrianople,
where Turkey was forced to sign peace
terms.
 Treaty of Adrianople, 1830: granted
independence to Greece
 Romantics were happy!
Romanticism in Literature
 William Wordsworth
 Samuel Taylor Coleridge
 Lord Byron
 Percy Bysshe Shelley
 John Keats
 Walter Scott
 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 Germaine de Stael
 Victor Hugo
Romanticism in Literature
I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
 1804: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Romanticism in Literature
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunt about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
John Keats
Romanticism in Literature
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
Lord Byron
Romanticism in Literature
O WORLD! O life! O time!
On whose last steps I climb,
Trembling at that where I had stood before;
When will return the glory of your prime?
No more -- oh, never more!
Percy Shelley
Romanticism in Literature
“I am alone and miserable; man will not
associate with me; but one as deformed
and horrible as myself would not deny
herself to me. My companion must be of
the same species and have the same
defects. This being you must create.”
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The Revolutions of 1830 Belgium
 The Belgians (Catholics) inspired by the
French revolted against the Dutch
Protestants.
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Russian troops were sent to suppress this
revolution, but Poland got in the way.
England later suggested and got an agreement by
all the Great Powers to leave Belgium alone and
make her a neutral country. (Neutrality Agreement
1931)
 Belgium established a liberal constitutional
monarchy and became a prosperous small
country.
The Revolutions of 1830 Belgium
 The Belgians (Catholics) inspired by the
French revolted against the Dutch
Protestants.
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Russian troops were sent to suppress this
revolution, but Poland got in the way.
England later suggested and got an agreement by
all the Great Powers to leave Belgium alone and
make her a neutral country. (Neutrality Agreement
1931)
 Belgium established a liberal constitutional
monarchy and became a prosperous small
country.
The Revolutions of 1830 Italy
 Northern Italy—Modena, Parma, and Papal
States—saw outbreaks of liberal discontent.
 Italian nationalists called for unification.
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Guiseppe Mazzini and his secret revolutionary
society—Young Italy.
The Carbonari: secret nationalist societies
advocated force to achieve national unification.
Austrian troops under Metternich’s enforcement of
the Concert of Europe’s philosophy crushed the
disorganized revolutionaries.
Italian Risorgimento (“resurgence” of the Italian
spirit) continued—Mazzini’s dream
The Revolutions of 1848
 In 1848, liberal revolutions broke out
throughout Europe. Although, at first, they
appeared to be spectacularly successful, in
the end, all the revolutions failed.
 In general, revolutions occurred where
governments were distrusted and where the
fear and resentment fed by rising food prices
and unemployment found focus in political
demands.
Importance of The Revolutions of
1848
 In the end, the revolutions failed b/c the
revolutionaries found themselves divided, and
also, because the original governments still
had the power and will to survive.
 Sometimes 1848 is referred to as “the turning
point at which modern history failed to turn”
because it seemed as though the
revolutionaries were only so close to success.
Importance of The Revolutions of
1848
 Considered the watershed political event of
the 19th century.
 1848 revolutions influenced by romanticism,
nationalism, and liberalism, as well as
economic dislocation and instability.
 Only Britain and Russia avoided significant
upheaval
 Neither liberals or conservatives could gain
permanent upper hand
Importance of The Revolutions of
1848
 Resulted in end of serfdom in Austria and
Germany, universal male suffrage in France,
parliaments established in German states
(although controlled by princes & aristocrats),
stimulated unification impulse in Prussia and
Sardinia-Piedmont.
 Last of liberal revolutions dating back to the
French Revolution
States that saw Failed Revolutions
 France
 Austria
 Prussia
 Italy
The Effects of the Revolutions
 Although none of the revolutions succeeded,
they had a lasting impact on Europe.
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Never before or since has Europe seen so
truly universal an upheaval.
The revolutions strengthened the more
conservative forces that viewed revolution with
alarm.
Revolutionary ideas succumbed to military
suppression.
The Effects of the Revolutions
 Several gains in fact, did endure:
 peasants in Prussia and Austria were
emancipated,
 Piedmont and Prussia kept their new constitution
 monarchs learned they needed to watch public
opinion.
 Liberals learned that they couldn’t depend on the
masses to follow them w/out making demands
 They reevaluated their own goals
 Perhaps the old order was better than anarchy?
The Effects of the Revolutions
 Everyone realized that revolutions needed
power and armies to back them up but that,
nevertheless, nationalism was a powerful
new force in politics.
England in the Age of Metternich
 Rights of commoners actually is expanded
 England: Tories (had defeated Napoleon) still in
control.
 1815 Parliament only elected by wealthy
 Corn Law of 1815: halted importation of cheaper
foreign grains.
 Habeas corpus repealed for first time in English
history
 Peterloo Massacre” of 1819
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Pro-liberal crowd listening to anti-Corn law rhetoric attacked
by police.
Press brought under firm control and mass meetings
abolished
England in the Age of Metternich
 1820s – labor unions legalized
 Chartist Movement (People’s Charter) wanted
expanded voting rights
 1832 – Great Reform Bill – allowed 50%
more people to vote; redrew district
boundaries
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Big deal since it signaled the beginning of the end for
the gentry.
Middle class rising and gaining control of the
government.
England in the Age of Metternich
 After 1832 more reforms:
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Factory Act (limiting hours of child labor)
Poor Law passed
Law granting all resident taxpayers the right to vote in
municipal elections.
 1846 – Repeal of the Corn Laws
 Mostly achieved because both working class
and middle class worked together
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(final proof of the rising power of middle class).
More on England
 In 1866 – Whig party (liberal) Prime Minister
William Gladstone attempted to expand voter
registration.
 In 1867 – Tory Party (Conservative Party)
Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. 2nd Reform
Bill = gives right to vote to workers.
Back to England
 At the turn of the century Great Britain’s laws laid
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down the foundation of the social welfare state (but
first programs started in Germany)
All citizens guaranteed a free public education -compulsory
Unions were legalized
Secret ballots (Australian)
Government workers insurance
Unemployment insurance
Old age pensions
End of child labor; safety regulations in factories
Review English Eras
 Magna Carta – King has to
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follow the law
War of the Roses – leads to
Parliament supported a new
king
Henry VIII – religious
upheaval – power of the
monarch
Elizabeth – relied upon
Parliament for support
James I – absolutist
Charles I – English Civil
War; Parliament overthrows
monarch
 Charles II returns – at the
request of Parliament
 Glorious Revolution –
Parliament invites William
and Mary to return
 Bill of Rights – habeas
corpus and freedom of
speech
 Prime Minister gains power
during the reign of Queen
Victoria
France in the Age of Metternich
 Louis XVIII was the king – granted a new
constitution
 Charles X was a reactionary and make
people mad
 1830 – July Revolution – Charles overthrown
 Louis Philippe chosen as king of “the French”
 Louis had problems with workers – constant
uprisings
France in the Age of Metternich
 Impact of July Revolution: sparked a wave of
revolutions throughout Europe.
 Italy (1831-32)
 Belgium
 Poland
 Spain
Back to France
 Began the Revolutions of 1848
 July Revolution of 1830 was against Charles X
 Louis Phillip replaced Charles and gave a voice to
the “bourgeoisie” but no one represented the
proletariat (workers)
 February, 1848 Louis Phillip abdicates and a new
legislature is elected – dominated by conservatives –
riots break out between the government and the
workers
 Universal male suffrage approved and a constitution
that set up a one house legislature and had a strong
president.
Napoleon Again
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was elected president of
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the Second Republic (1st Republic was during the
French Revolution)
Goals: law and order; eradication of socialism and
radicalism; adherence to conservative groups:
Church, army, property owners and business.
1852 declares himself Emperor Napoleon III
Internal improvements – highways, canals, railroad
construction
Subsidized industry allowed organized unions
Everyone was doing well –
Liberal Empire – eased censorship and granted
amnesty to political prisioners
Mexican Empire
 Napoleon sets up an “Emperor of Mexico” – a
Hapsburg cousin who was to answer to
Napoleon – the Mexicans kill him and the
United States is outraged at the violation of
the Monroe Doctrine
Crimean War (1854-1856)
 French and English went to war to prevent
the Russians from establishing dominance
over Ottoman possessions
 Ended the peace set up after the Congress of
Vienna