Chapter 17: Restoration, Romanticism, and Revolution Flashcards
Forces of the Past (pre-19th century)
- Monarchy
- Aristocracy
- Patriarchal family
- Church
- Conservatism
Conservatism
- Believed in historic, national, and religious traditions.
- Change should be gradual.
- Appealed to those who were afraid of change, and scared of what happened in the French Revolution.
Forces of the Future
- Industrialization: new class, growing urbanization and middle class, Great Britain.
- Liberalism
- Nationalism
Liberalism
- Believed in natural rights.
- Written constitution.
- Constitutional monarchy, republic. BUT did not like full democracy.
- Economic individualism.
- Inspired the revolutions of 1848 and 1830.
- Civil liberties.
- Less concerned for urban workers.
Nationalism
- Believed that a nation consisted of a group of people connected under one language, ethnicity, culture, etc.
- All people are sovereign to the state.
- Stirred powerful forces to change (unifications, etc).
Metternich
Host of the Congress of Vienna. Austrian, and committed to conservatism. Saw liberalism and nationalism as threats to the peace Europe and multi-ethnic Austria were experiencing.
Legitimacy
Reinstating the ruling families that had been in power before Napoleon’s reign.
Louis XVIII returned to French throne, Bourbons in the Spanish throne, and House of Orange and House of Savoy in England.
Congress of Vienna
Created a balance of power for Europe. The leaders wanted to control France so that it couldn’t do another French Revolution, but not so far as to humiliate France. So, France had to pay reparations, but could keep its overseas territory and army.
However, the powers around France became more powerful, with Dutch + Netherlands, loose German confederation, Sardinia + Piedmont and Savoy. Switzerland was also named as neutral.
Overall: The Congress of Vienna created a new balance of power that lasted until the German unification in 1871, as well as was a temporary conservative win.
Concert of Europe
Russia, England, Austria, and Prussia (REAP) formed the “Quadruple Alliance” to keep the conservative order. So the Concert of Europe was the constant meeting of these four countries stop solve international crises and agree on foreign policy issues.
Revolts in Response to the Concert of Europe
Overall, the Concert of Europe disappointed liberalists and nationalists.
- Spain and Italy: Ferdinand VII was incredibly oppressive, so people wanted more representative government. The French came in and crushed this. Sardinia and Piedmont, Naples experienced similar uprisings, which were quickly crushed by Austrian Metternich.
- Germany: German liberalists wanted more liberal reforms and a unified Germany, so students formed little get togethers. However, this resulted in the Carlsbad Decrees, which completely took away many civil liberties.
- Russia: When Tsar Alexander I died, some military officers took part in the Decembrist Revolts. This was quickly and ruthless crushed by the autocrat Nicholas I.
Romanticism
First half of the 19th century. Inspired a desire for thoughts, emotions, actions.
Characteristics:
- Rejected reason.
- Very emotional
- Depicted God as loving, caring individual.
- Showed the beauty of nature, as opposed to the world is a machine view of the enlightenment.
- Inspiration from the medieval times.
Romantic Artists, Composers, and Writers
Writers: Wordsworth, Schiller
Composers: Beethoven, Wagner
Artists: Friedrich, Delacroix
Enlightenment vs. Romanticism
Enlightenment: reason, Deism, scientific, world depicted as a machine.
Romanticism: emotions, God is a loving individual, rejected reason, beauty of the world.
Reform Bill of 1832
Created because the House of Commons was very unrepresentative of the British people, and highly populated areas received little representation, where some lowly populated areas received lots of representation.
- Redistributed the electoral districts to be more equal.
- Enfranchisement to all middle aged men.
- House of Commons > Lords
Repeal of the Corn Laws
1832ish: Corn got really expensive due to high tariffs imposed by Parliament (Corn Laws), people got mad (namely middle class). People created the Anti-Corn Law League, which Parliament then repealed the initial act. This was a major victory for the urban working class, and free trade.
Chartist Movement
In this time, the working class proposed the People’s Charter, which included:
- Universal suffrage.
- Secret ballot.
- Equal representation of the districts.
- No property requirements for the House of Commons.
Parliament initially said no, but soon all of their demands were pretty much met.
Consequences of Britain’s Liberal Reforms
- British people saw that change was possible without bloody revolution.
- Experienced less internal unrest than the rest of Europe (ex: Britain did not experience any Revolutions of 1830 or 1848.)
French Revolution of 1830
Louis XVIII -> Charles X. Charles X was very anti-republicanism, liberalism, and constitutionalism, which made lots of people angry.
The proletariat and the bourgeoisie were both upset at Charles X and were united to overthrow the tyranny, however, the two groups wanted different things: proletariat wanted republic, and the bourgeoisie wanted a constitutional monarchy.
Bourgeoisie prevailed.
Belgium Revolution of 1830
Catholic Belgium and Protestant Netherlands had nothing in common, so Belgium wanted independence. Britain and France wanted nothing to do with this, so they acknowledged Belgium as independent.
Successful.
Italian Nationalism
Austria controlled North Italy. Carbonari (Italian nationalists) wanted independence, so they rebelled, but were quickly crushed by the Austrian troops.
Carbonari
Italian nationalists that rebelled in the Italian Revolution of 1830s. Key Carbonari is Giuseppe Mazzini.
Causes of the 1848 Revolutions
- Metternich Congress of Vienna was no longer that useful.
- Widespread crop failures, unemployment, rising prices called for change and revolution.
- Conservative leaders ignoring the pleas and demands for liberalism.
- Germans and Italians yearned for unification.
French Revolution of 1848
Louis Phillipe refused to give workers the franchise, and his government soon collapsed from all the upset people. There was then a power vacuum, until Louis Bonaparte took control of the Second French Republic.
Italian Revolution of 1848
Giuseppe Mazzini tried to start a liberal republic encompassing all of Italy, however, this failed due to the still strong presence of Austria within Italy.
German Revolution of 1848
Many Germans wanted unification. Many German states (except Austria) agreed to the Zollverein. Riots broke out in 1848, which resulted in the Prussian assembly creating a new constitution, and Frederick William encouraging a meeting in the Frankfurt Assembly.
However, Frederick William did a 180 and rejected the Frankfurt assembly.
Zollverein
A trade union of all the German states except Austria to eliminate all tariffs.
Austrian Revolutions of 1848
Austria had so many different ethnicities and languages. With the revolutions, Metternich resigned.
The robot was abolished, but the Austrian government soon regain control.
Revolution of 1848 Overall
The revolutions of 1848 largely failed due to the internal conflicts (groups all wanted revolution, but could not agree on the solution afterwards), lack of support from outside cities, and the continued strength of conservatism over liberalism.
Britain did not experience any revolutions, since it chose peaceful reforms instead. Russia was the complete opposite, as the oppressive laws stifled any type of reform.
Liberalism, nationalism, and unification all continued to grow.
The romantic spirit kind of died, and was replaced with political realism.
