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Emergence and Ideals of
Nationalism and Liberalism
Nationalism
The idea of a nation consisting of people unified by common
culture, language, and/or religion, who should all be ruled by one
government
Reaction against Cosmopolitanism
• Enlightenment ideal that all human beings belong to one
family.
Enlightenment culture had emphasized

A common language

The universality of Reason.

Common intellectual world of the educated middle class and
nobility.
Opposition to the Congress of Vienna,
• Principle of states based on monarchies and dynasties,
• Disregarding the ethnic makeup of countries as a factor for
boundaries




First phase
(first half of the 1800s)

Small nationalist groups


Intellectuals (historians, professors, teachers, and other
scholars)
Imparted cultural history, bonds, and language on the
people
Meanings of Nationhood

Some nationalists



Argued that uniting ethnicities into one group would
help economic and administrative success
Thought that nationhood was imposed by God, or
compared nationhood to divinity
Difficulties in classifying nations



Which ethnic groups could be considered nations with
legitimacy to claim political and territorial
independence?
Would nationhood only be classified on which groups
managed to create a stable economy and culture?
Would ethnic uprisings be viewed as legitimate
grasps for independence?
The Impact of the French Revolution:
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity

French revolutionary ideas stressed the rights of
the people. The people come to have their own
significance as a unit.
 Reaction to French Revolution
 French spread their ideals all over Europe.


dominated the other countries.
Other countries took up the ideals of the French Rev.
and applied them to their own situation, especially in
Germany.
• Never been a united German state, but Germans saw what
power a united France had achieved.
Centers of European Nationalism
 Ireland

Ireland became directly governed by the
British Crown after 1800,
• Irish people elected members to the Parliament
• Nationalists demanded either independence or
autonomy

Nationalism would persist in Ireland well into
the 20th century
Polish Nationalism

Since the loss of Polish independence in the
Partitions, Polish nationalists,urged for armed
struggle to regain independence from Austria,
Prussia, and Russia
 Most disturbances in the Russian portion of
Poland November Insurrection of 1830-1831
 January Insurrection of 1863-1864)


Both doomed by bad military leadership or disunity
Nationalist groups survived in Poland,


After 1864, no uprisings occurred
All social classes and sectors of Polish economy must
be improved and equalized before independence
Liberalism

Roots in Enlightenment, English liberties, and
principles of the French Declaration of the Rights
of Man and Citizen


Less autocratic government




Establishment of legal equality, religious tolerance,
and freedom of press
Government relied on the consent of the people
Parliament would represent the people
Ministers in government should be responsible to the
legislature rather than the monarch
Sought democracy limited to the propertyowners
• Had contempt for the lower class
• Aristocratic liberty was thought by liberals to be a concept of
privilege based on wealth and property rather than birth
Economic Goals
 Sought
the removal of mercantilism and
regulated economy


Promoted capitalism
Favored removal of international tariffs and
internal trade barriers
 France
and Great Britain flourished with
liberal establishments

Germany was full of anti-liberal nobility
Conservative Order in Europe
 Conservatism

Pillars of Support
• Absolute Monarchies
• Landed Aristocracies
• Established Churches
Conservative Views

Only aristocratic and/or upper-bourgeois governments
could be trusted



Aristocrats felt that their power was threatened by representative
governments
Conservatives would not agree to constitutionalism unless they
created the documents
Clerics only supported popular movements if they were
based around the Church
 Clerics supported the status quo, and detested ideas
of the Enlightenment
 Upper classes felt surrounded by enemies and gave up
some former privileges
 Post-Vienna Europe confronted internal problems after
external ones seemed to disappear
Hungarian Nationalism

Since Maria Theresa granted concessions to the
Magyar nobility of Hungary


Nobility persisted in gaining and retaining privileges
Hungary troubled the stability of the Habsburg
Empire until its end in World War I

Nationalists launched several uprisings, and participated
in the "Spring of Nations" in the Revolutions of 1848
• Agitations led to the eventual Compromise of 1867

Austria and Hungary became virtually separate nations in
a personal union under the Habsburgs
Threat of Nationalism to the Establishment
 Nationalists,
sought to redraw Europe along
ethnic lines

Would effectively dissolve the Ottoman, Austrian,
and Russian empires
 Nationalism
and liberalism sometimes worked
together, adding to the concern of absolutists
and ultraroyalists
 Nationalism eventually succeeded,

United the German and Italian states into unified,
strong countries, challenging French and Austrian
ambitions
Reaction in Austria and Germany

Austria

Prince Klemens von Metternich
• Architect of the Congress of Vienna settlement,
• Symbol of conservative political reaction against nationalism and
liberalism



Austria was threatened as the most multi-ethnic country in Europe
Recognition of aspirations of any ethnic groups = Dissolution of
the empire
Representative government was feared - national groups could
gain their ambitions legally through parliaments

To prevent success of nationalism and liberalism even further, the
Austrians wanted to dominate the states of the German
Confederation,

Replaced the HRE

Loose organization of 39, nominally independent kingdoms and
principalities

Moves toward constitutional government in each of the states of the
Confederation were opposed and blocked by Austria
Prussia
 King
Frederick William III promised
constitutional government in 1815, but went
back on his word in 1817

Council of State was formed, which was not

constitutionally-based, but effective
1819-1823 - Further steps away from liberalism
had been undertaken by the King,
• Establishment of eight Junker-dominated provincial
estates (diets),
• Reaffirmed link between Prussian monarchy, army,
and landholders
German Confederation

Constitutional Governments established in three
south German states of Baden, Bavaria, and
Wurttemberg,
• Did not recognize popular sovereignty
• Confirmed powers of the monarchs

Young Germans were loyal to the nationalism and
liberalism that emerged from the Napoleonic
occupation

University students circulated nationalist writings and
formed the Burschenschaften (student associations)
• Sought to sever old provincial loyalties and replace them
with national loyalty to a greater German state
Student Uprisings

1817 Jena



Bonfires and celebrations were organized for the
anniversaries of the Battle of Leipzig and Luther's Ninetyfive Theses
Nationalist celebrations accentuated the rise of the
movement throughout Germany
March 1819

Karl Sand,
• Member of one of the student clubs,

Assassinated the conservative dramatist August von
Kotzebue and was tried and executed
• Became a martyr for the young nationalists

Metternich used the Sand incident to suppress the
societies
July 1819
the Carlsbad Decrees

Metternich persuaded
 Dissolution of the Burschenschaften
 Press and university censorship
 Final Act limited the subjects discussed in
the constitutional assemblies of Bavaria,
Wurttemberg, and Baden
 Right of monarchs to resist
constitutionalist demands
• Led to the constant harassment of potential
dissidents by the German monarchs
Repression in Britain

Prime Minister Lord Liverpool



1815 - Corn Law


Unprepared for the emergence of the internal
problems after the Napoleonic wars
Tory ministry sought to placate and protect
the interests of the landed and wealthy
classes
Maintain high prices for domestic grain
through import duties on foreign grain
1816 - Parliament abolished the income
tax for the wealthy,

Replaced it with excise taxes on consumer
goods paid by the wealthy and the poor
English Discontentment

Lower classes began to doubt the wisdom of
the rulers


Calls for reform were intensified
Radical newspapers formed
• Demanding change of the political system, including
William Cobbett's Political Registrar

Government
• Feared workers as possible repetitions of France's sansculottes ready to murder the elites
• Regarded the radical leaders, including Cobbett, John
Cartwright, and Henry Hunt as demagogues betraying
national allegiances

December 1816 - Discontent mass meeting
occurred at Spa Fields;
• Government reacted by passing the Coercion Act of
March 1817,

Suspended habeas corpus and extended laws against
seditious gatherings
"Peterloo"
After temporary stability, radical
reformism grew again

August 16, 1819 - Radicals met in
Manchester at Saint Peter's Fields
• Royal troops were called to keep order
• Panic broke out, making the massacre famed
as the "Peterloo Massacre"

Liverpool supported the Manchester
administration's decision
• Became determined to stop the radical
movements

Radical leaders were arrested
The Six Acts

December 1819 - Six Acts passed







Forbade large unauthorized public meetings
Raised the fines for seditious libel
Sped up the trials of political agitators
Increased newspaper taxes
Prohibited training of armed groups
Allowed local officials to search homes in certain disturbed
counties
February 1820- the Cato Street Conspiracy was
discovered



Under the leadership of a man named Thistlewood, extreme
radicals plotted to assassinate the entire British Cabinet
Leaders were arrested and tried, four of them being
executed
Conspiracy served only to discredit the reform movement
Bourbon Restoration in France

Louis XVIII returned to power
• Louis XVI's son, though he never formally
ruled France, was regarded as Louis XVII

Permitted a constitution, but it was
largely his own creation - the Charter
• Hereditary Monarchy
• Bicameral legislature - royally-appointed upper
house; lower house (Chamber of Deputies)
elected on a very narrow franchise with high
property requirements
• Guaranteed the rights of the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and Citizen
• Religious toleration, with Roman Catholicism
as the official religion
• Property rights of current owners of land
would not be challenged
Rise
of
Ultraroyalists
 Count of Artois (the King’s brother) led the extreme royalists in
demanding revenge against former revolutionaries and
Napoleonic supporters
• After “Waterloo” a "White Terror" occurred in the
southern and western regions

Extreme royalists also controlled the Chamber of
Deputies,
• Louis XVIII dissolved the chamber

February 1820 - Duke of Berri, son and heir
of Artois, was assassinated

King persuaded the murder was the result of the
royal concessions to liberals
• Issued repressive measures



Electoral laws were revised to give the wealthy two
votes
Press censorship and arrest of suspected dissidents
Secondary education was given to control of the
Roman Catholic clergy
Reversed much of the appearance of liberal
constitutionalism in France
Challenges to the Conservative Order

Spanish Revolution of 1820

1814 - Bourbon Dynasty restored to Spain following
Napoleon's defeat
• Ferdinand VII, promised to rule constitutionally


Dissolved the Cortes, the Spanish Parliament
1820 - Group of army officers rebelled
• March 1820 - King Ferdinand restored the constitution

July 1820 - revolution broke out in the Italian states
• Outside the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples and
Sicily), the revolutions failed to establish constitutional
governments

Austrians were frightened by the Italian
insurrections
• Hoped to dominate the peninsula as a buffer against
spread of the revolution into its southern domains

Britain opposed intervention
October 1820 - Congress of Troppau and
the Protocol of Troppau

Meeting between Austria, Prussia, Russia,
Britain, and France

Stable governments can intervene to bring back
rule of law in unstable and revolutionary countries
• Powers were hesitant, however, to sanction Austrian
intervention in Italy

January 1821 - Congress of Laibach authorizes
Austria's intervention
• Austrian troops marched into Naples and abolished the
constitution, making the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
absolutist again
• Metternich attempted to foster policies that would improve
administration of the Italian governments to give them
more direct local support
1822 - Congress of Verona
 Met
to resolve the Spanish conflict
• Britain refused to sanction joint action and
withdrew from continental affairs
• Austria, Prussia, and Russia supported French
intervention in Spain
• April 1823 - French troops enter Spain and
within months suppress the Spanish
Revolution, occupying the country until 1827
Significance of the Spanish situation

French intervention was not an excuse to expand
territory or power


No other interventions of the era were undertaken to
increase power at another country's expense
New British Foreign Minister George Canning, who
led Britain out of continental affairs, was interested
in British commerce and trade
• Sought to prevent political reaction from
seeping into Spanish Latin America
• Sought to exploit the revolutions in Latin
America to crush the Spanish monopoly on
trade
 Britain recognized the Spanish ex-colonies
as independent nations
Balkan Nationalism
 Numerous
ethnic groups wanted
independence, including Greeks, Serbs,
Albanians, Romanians, and Bulgarians


Serbs and Greeks gained independence in
1830 and 1821, from the Ottoman Empire
Serbs envisioned a "Greater Serbia",
including Ottoman and Austrian controlled
Serbs
• Most immediate cause of World War I
Greek Revolution of 1821

Attracted liberals and Romantics from all over Europe as a "rebirth of
ancient Greek democracy"


Ottomans could hardly hold on to its European holdings



Many fought among the revolutionaries
European powers wanted Balkans
Could not determine what to do if Ottoman’s fell apart
Britain, France, and Russia




An independent Greece would benefit them strategically and maintain
domestic status quo
1827 - Treaty of London signed, demanding Turkish recognition of Greek
independence
1828 - Russia sent troops into Ottoman Romania
1829 - Treaty of Adrianople
• Russia gained control of Romania
• Ottoman Empire would have to allow Britain, France, and Russia to decide the
fate of Greece

1830 - Second Treaty of London affirms an independent Greek
Kingdom

Otto I, the Bavarian King's son, becomes the first king of Greece
Serbian Independence

1804-1813 – Kara George waged a guerilla war
against the Ottoman Empire



1815-1816 Milos negotiated greater
administrative autonomy for some Serbian
territory,



Built national self-identity
Attracted attention of the great powers
few Serbs lived within the autonomy
1830 - Serbia formally given independence
1833 - Milos becoming hereditary prince

Pressured the Ottomans to extend Serbian borders
• Serbs would seek more territory, creating tension with Austria
and the other minority groups in Serbia

1856 -Serbia became under collective protection
of the great powers

Deeper relationship had begun between Serbia and
Russia
Revolutions in Latin America

Haiti



Started by a slave revolt led by Toussaint
L'Ouverture and Jean-Jacques
Dessalines in 1794
Popular uprising of a repressed social group,
rather than discontented Creoles
Haiti became independent in 1804


Success of the Indians, blacks, mestizos,
mulattos, and slaves in Haiti haunted the
Creoles in Latin America
Creoles became determined that revolutions
not threaten their own power
Reasons for Creole discontent

Wanted to trade freely within the region and with North
America and Europe

Detested increase of taxes by the Spanish monarchy

Resented the peninsulares who were favored for
political and military promotions,
 Elites readand adopted the ideas of the Enlightenment
philosophes,
 Napoleon's overthrow of the Portuguese (1807) and
Spanish (1808) governments started rebellions

Disappearance of Bourbon monarchy provided an opportunity
and political vacuum for the Creoles in Latin America
• Feared the liberal Napoleonic monarchy in Spain would try to
implement reforms endangering their own power
• Feared Napoleon would drain the resources and economies of Latin
America to fund his war effort
1808-1810
 Creole


political committees (juntas)
Claimed the right to govern regions of the
continent,
Claiming they ruled in the name of the
deposed Bourbon monarchy
 Juntas
did away with the privileges of
the peninsulares
 Spain was permanently ousted from
Latin America
Rio de La Plata (Argentina)

Started with a revolt in Buenos Aires,
 1810 - Junta overthrew Spanish authority and sent troops
into Paraguay and Uruguay to liberate the two regions

The armies were defeated, but Paraguay became
independent on its own, and Uruguay eventually
became part of Brazil

After the failure in Paraguay and Uruguay, Buenos
Aires junta was determined to liberate Peru
• A stronghold of royalism and loyalism in Latin
America



1814 - Jose de San Martin,
• General of the Rio de La Plata forces
• Led an army across the Andes Mountains
1817 - San Martin occupied Santiago, Chile,
• Allowed Chilean independence leader Bernardo
O'Higgins to become dictator
• San Martin organized a naval force and by 1820
set out to attack Peru by sea
By 1821, San Martin defeated the royalists in Lima and
declared himself Protector of Peru

Venezuela
1810 - Simon Bolivar organized a junta in Caracas


Bolivar advocated republicanism
1811-1814 - Civil war broke out between royalists
and their supporters (slaves and llaneros Venezuelan cowboys) and the republican
government
• Bolivar forced into exile in Colombia and Jamaica

1816 - With help from Haiti, Bolivar invaded
Venezuela
• Captured Bogotá, the capital of New Granada (Colombia,
Bolivia, and Ecuador), securing a base for attack on Venezuela


1821 - Bolivar captured Caracas and became
president
July 1822 - Bolivar joined San Martin to liberate
Quito,

Disagreed on the political future of Latin America, since San
Martin was a monarchist
• San Martin soon retired and went into exile,
• Bolivar established control over Peru in 1823
New Spain
(Mexico,Texas,California)


A junta was organized
Creole priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla called for
rebellion to the Indians in his parish
• Indians and other repressed groups responded
• Father Hidalgo proposed social and land reform,
• Controlled a loose organization of 80,000 followers,
capturing several major cities and marching on to Mexico
City

July 1811 - Hidalgo was captured and killed,

Leadership went to mestizo priest Jose Maria Morelos y
Pavon,
• Called for an end to forced labor and much more radical
land reform

1815 - Morelos was executed, and the uprising
ended

United Spanish and Creole conservative groups in
Mexico
• Determined to halt all kind of reform
New Spain continued. .

1820 - Conservatives' power was challenged,

from the Bourbon monarchy in Spain
• forced to adopt a liberal constitution

Conservatives rallied behind royalist general
Augustin de Iturbide
• Declared independence in 1821
• Supported his declaration as emperor

Imperial government did not last long, but
Spain was never again in power in Mexico
Brazil

Brazilian independence was peaceful

Portuguese royal family came to Brazil and
transformed Rio de Janeiro into a court city
• Prince regent Joao addressed local complaints
and expanded trade

1815 - Brazil became a kingdom, no longer being a
colony of Portugal

1820 - Portuguese revolution demanded that Brazil be
restored to colonial status and Joao return to Portugal
• Joao left his son Dom Pedro as regent as he
returned to Portugal, encouraging him to be
sympathetic to the Brazilians

September 1822 - Dom Pedro embraced Brazilian
independence and became Emperor of Brazil, the
imperial government surviving until 1889
Consequences
 New
Latin American countries, except for f
Brazil, were often economically and
politically unstable



Disaffected populations threatened the
stability of the new post-Spanish republics
Economies plunged and trade suffered
Wealthy peninsulares fled to Spain or Cuba,
causing the Latin American governments to
seek trade relations with Britain
Russia
Army Unrest and Dynastic Crisis

Russian officers were exposed to ideas of the
French Revolution
• Radicals, in the Southern Society

Advocated representative government and abolition of
serfdom
• Moderates, in the Northern Society,



Advocated constitutional monarchy, abolition of serfdom
Protection of the aristocracy
Death of Tsar Alexander I caused two crises
• Unexpected death occurred when he had no direct heir
• Constantine, his brother, married a commoner and was
excluded from the line of succession
• Eventually, Nicholas, his younger brother, became Tsar
• Legality of Nicholas's claim was uncertain, until a
suspected conspiracy made Nicholas declare himself
Tsar
Decembrist Revolt

Junior officers plotted to rally the troops under
their command to reformism
• December 26, 1825 - most of the army swore loyalty to
Nicholas,

less popular and more conservative
• Moscow regiment marched into the Senate Square in St.
Petersburg,



Refused to swear allegiance
Called for a constitution
Demanded that Constantine become Tsar
• Peaceful negotiation failed
• Nicholas ordered the cavalry and artillery to attack the
insurgents, and 60 people were killed in the melee

1826 - Nicholas presided over the sentencing of
the Decembrists, executing or sending the
plotters to exile in Siberia
Absolutism of Nicholas I after the
Decembrist Revolt


Nicholas I came to symbolize extreme
absolutism
Knew economic and social improvement was
necessary, he feared change
• Abolition of serfdom would undermine aristocratic
support of the monarchy
• State repression and censorship flourished
Official Russian Nationality

Program presided over by Count S. S. Uvarov
 Slogan was "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and
Nationalism"

Russian Orthodox Church
• Basis for morality, education, and intellectuality
• Part of the secular government
• Russian youths were taught to oppose social mobility


Autocracy championed absolute monarchy and absolute
power of the Tsar
Nationality glorified the Russian nationality and urged
Russians to see religion, language, and customs as
source of wisdom separating them from the West
November Insurrection in Poland

Since the Congress of Vienna,




Grand Duke Constantine controlled the government,
Tsar was the official King of Poland
Polish aristocrats and Sejm fought with their Russian overlords
for the Russians' constant violation of the Polish Constitution
Liberal revolutions in France and Belgium encouraged Polish
nationalists but had the reverse effect on the Russian Tsar


The Russians planned to use the Polish Army to crush the
revolutions
The Poles protested and a riot in Warsaw on November 29 soon
spread to revolution across the country

December 13, 1830 - Sejm declared a national uprising and
officially dethroned Nicholas I on January 25, 1831

Neither Britain, nor revolutionary France, supported the
Insurrection

Prussia and Austria deliberately made it hard for the rebels

By the end of 1831, the Insurrection had fallen, the troops
disarmed in Prussia

February 1832 - The Tsar issued the Organic Statute, making
Poland a part of Russia
July Revolution in France

Louis XVIII died in 1824



Count of Artois became Charles X
Very ultraroyalist
First action was to have the Chamber of Deputies in 1824
and 1825 assist aristocrats who lost property in the
revolution by lowering interest rates on government bonds
• Middle-class bondholders resented the measure



Restored the rule of primogeniture
Enacted a law that punished sacrilege with imprisonment or
death
Elections of 1827 - liberals gained majority in
Chamber of Deputies and forced conciliatory actions
from Charles, who appointed a less conservative
ministry
• Laws against the press were eased, but liberals were not
satisfied
• 1829 - Charles decided his appeasement policy failed and
appointed a new ultraroyalist ministry
• Liberal opposition, in desperation, negotiated with the liberal
Orleanist branch of the Bourbon family
Outbreak of revolution

1830 - Charles called for new elections, and liberals again won a
vast majority

King decided to attempt a royalist political coup and sent
a fleet to Algeria, taking control of the pirate government
• Reports of the victory reached the capital by July 9, and
Charles took advantage of the euphoria to enact the Four
Ordinances,
 Restricted freedom of the press,
 Dissolved the Chamber of Deputies,
 Restricted the franchise,
 Called for new elections under the new royalist,
conservative franchise

Liberal press called on national opposition to the Four
Ordinances
• People of Paris erected barricades in the street,
Battles with royal troops took more than 1,800 lives
 Troops were unable to crush the uprisings
• August 2 - Charles abdicated and fled into exile in Britain
• Chamber of Deputies appointed a new ministry which
supported constitutional monarchy


Louis Philippe, the Duke of Orleans, as the new King of
France
The Monarchy of Louis Philippe

Political developments
• New constitution was regarded as a right of the people rather
than privileges of the monarch
• Catholicism became the religion of the majority, but not the
official state religion, the new government being strongly
anticlerical
• Censorship was abolished
• Voting franchise was extended moderately
• King had to cooperate with the Chamber of Deputies

Social order
• Revolution did not improve the standards of the lower class
 Money was the only method of influence in government
 Plight of the poor was ignored
• late 1831, the troops suppressed a workers' uprising in Lyons
• July 1832, more than 800 people were killed in an uprising that
happened during a Napoleonic general's funeral
• 1834 - Another disturbance in Lyons was brutally crushed
International development

King Louis Philippe retained control of Algiers,
the city that Charles X conquered, and began to
expand the territory beyond just the coastal city
• Occupation of Algeria opened new markets for France
• Structures of the Ottoman government were dismantled in
Algeria
• French empire in Africa expanded further and flourished,
French settlers coming in to Algeria in large numbers
• Immigration of French people into Algeria compelled the
French government to regard Algeria as a province rather
than colony of France
• The ethnic integration would pose a problem in the postWorld War II decolonization later on
Belgian Revolution

Causes

Since 1815, Belgium had been merged with the
Kingdom of Holland
• Two countries differed in culture and economy
• Belgians refused to accept Dutch rule


Encouraged by the July Revolution in France
Outbreak

August 25, 1830 - Riots broke out in Brussels
• Municipal authorities and property-owners formed a
provisional government
• Attempt at compromise failed and troops sent by King
William of Holland were defeated by November 10

National congress wrote a liberal constitution, which
was put into effect in 1831
International Reactions

Major powers saw the Belgian Revolution as a distortion of the
borders set by the Congress of Vienna, but none were willing to act

Russia was fighting the Polish rebels

Prussia and the German Confederation were crushing
insurgencies in their own land

Austria was crushing disturbances in Italy

France favored Belgian independence in the hopes of
dominating it

Britain would tolerate Belgian liberalism as long as it was not
influenced by other nations

December 1830 - Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Minister,
gathered the major powers in London to persuade them to recognize
Belgium as a neutral independent state


July 1831 - Leopold of Saxe-Coburg became King
Convention of 1839 guaranteed Belgian neutrality
Great Reform Bill of 1832
Great Britain

1830 - House of Commons considered the first major bill to reform the
British political system

Catholic Emancipation Act
• Britain was determined to maintain control of Ireland
• In the 1820s, the Irish nationalists agitated for Catholic emancipation
• Catholics could now become members of Parliament, ending Anglican
monopoly of British politics


Measure alienated Anglican supporters of the Duke of Wellington, the
Prime Minister,
King William IV turned to the leader of the liberal Whigs,
Earl Grey, to form a new government

The Whig ministry
• Riots broke out when the Whig's attempt at passing a massive reform
bill was blocked by the House of Lords
• To stop the riots, William IV agreed to persuade a majority in the House
of Lords to pass the Great Reform Bill
 Expanded the size of the electorate by almost 50% while keeping
a property qualification and keeping it only for men
 Some franchise rights were taken away and actually
disenfranchised some working class people
 Act laid the foundations for further reform
Liberal vs. Conservative
Nationalism
the first half of 19th c. nationalism and
liberalism went hand in hand
 In


Liberal nationalists believed love of country led to
love of all humanity
Liberal ideals included equality, freedom, and
representative government
 By 2nd
half of 19th c. extreme nationalism
subverted liberal values, contributed to World
War I, and led to the rise of fascism.