AP EH: CHAPTER 21---Reaction, Revolution, and Romanticism ...



AP EH:  CHAPTER 21---Reaction, Revolution, and Romanticism, 1815-1850 

I. THE CONSERVATIVE ORDER (1815-1830)

A. The Peace Settlement

1. the immediate response to the defeat of Napoleon was the desire to contain revolution and the revolutionary forces by restoring much of the old order.

2. in March 1814, even before Napoleon had been defeated, his four major enemies—Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia(Quadruple Alliance)—had agreed to remain united, not only to defeat France but to ensure peace after the war.

3. After Napoleon’s defeat, the Quadruple Alliance restored the old Bourbon monarchy to France in the person of Louis XVIII.

4. the Congress of Vienna (1814)

a. set up to arrange the final peace settlement by the Quadruple Alliance following the Napoleonic War.

b. created policies that would maintain the “balance of power” among the members of the Quadruple Alliance

c. Prince Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian foreign minister and diplomat, dominated the Congress

d. at the Congress, Metternich pursued the policy of legitimacy, meaning he endeavored to restore legitimate monarchs on the thrones of every major European power to preserve traditional institutions and values

e. Metternich believed European monarchs shared the common interest of stability 

f. thanks in part to the work of French representative Talleyrand, France was not overly weakened by the Congress of Vienna and was allowed to remain a great power, albeit one encircled by strong neighbors

g. the Vienna peace settlement of 1815 is sometimes criticized for its failure to recognize the liberal and national forces unleashed by the French revolutionary and Napoleonic eras.

h. containing these revolutionary forces was precisely what the diplomats at Vienna hoped to achieve

i. Congress of Vienna is credited for establishing a European order that managed to avoid a general European conflict for almost a century

B. The Ideology of Conservatism

1. conservatism, the dominant political philosophy following the fall of Napoleon was best expressed in Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, emphasizing the dangers of radical and “rational” political change

2. at its most elementary level, conservatism sought to preserve the achievements of previous generations by subordinating individual rights to communal welfare

C. The Conservative Domination:  the Concert of Europe

1. the great powers’ fear of revolution and war led them to develop the Concert of Europe as a means to maintain the new status quo they had constructed

2. the Concert of Europe helped maintain peace in Europe for over a quarter of a century by successfully putting down revolutionary movements in Italy and Spain.

3. Metternich had been particularly disturbed by the revolts in Italy which were a threat to Austrian domination of the Italian Peninsula

4. The Revolt of Latin America

a. although the American Revolution had freed much of North America of European domination in the 18th Century, Latin America remained in the hands of Spanish and Portuguese.

b. when the Bourbon monarchy of Spain was toppled by Napoleon, Spanish authority in its colonial empire was weakened

c. from 1810 to 1825, nearly all of Latin America was freed from Spanish and Portuguese control through a series of revolutions led by men such as Bolivar and San Martin

d. continental European powers still posed a threat to these newly independent Latin American nations

e. the most important factor in preventing the European overthrow of these new independent countries of Latin America was British naval power (Spielvogel did not believe that Europe was that intimidated by the US Monroe Doctrine)

5. The Greek Revolt (1821-1832)

a. Greeks revolted against Ottomans

b. was successful largely due to European intervention

c. first successful revolt against the status quo which represented a victory for liberal and national forces that the great powers were trying to suppress

D. The Conservative Domination: the European States

1. Great Britain: Rule of the Tories

a. in 1815, Great Britain was governed by the aristocratic landowning classes that dominated both houses of Parliament

b. within Parliament there were two factions:

1. Tories

a. largely dominated the government until 1830

b. had little desire to change the existing political and electoral system

c. Napoleonic wars made them wary of radicalism

2. Whigs

a. opposition party

b. received support from the new moneyed interests generated by industrialization

c. popular discontent grew apace after 1815 because of severe economic difficulties

d. the Tory government’s response to falling agricultural prices was the Corn Law of 1815, a measure that placed extraordinarily high tariffs on foreign grain

e. Corn Law proved beneficial to landowners but greatly raised the prices of bread which led to unrest

f. when 60,000 protesters of high bread prices in Manchester, England clashed with government authorities, the resulting conflict was known as the Peterloo Massacre which resulted in deaths of 11 people and future repressive measures

g. eventually the Tory ministry was broadened by the addition of men who believed that some concessions to change rather than sheer repression might best avoid revolution

2.  Restoration in France

a. in 1814, the Bourbon family was restored to the throne in France in the person of Louis XVIII (1814-1824)

b. Louis kept Napoleon’s Concordat with the pope and accepted Napoleon’s Civil Code for judicial administration

c. Louis’s grudging moderation was opposed by liberals anxious to extend the revolutionary reforms and by ultraroyalists who criticized the king’s willingness to compromise and retain so many features of the Napoleonic era

d. upon Louis’s death the ultraroyalist won out when Charles X (1824-1830) became king

e. passed legislation that angered liberals such as:

1. granting an indemnity to aristocrats whose lands had been confiscated during the Revolution

2. encouraged the Church to reestablish control over French education

f. a protest by the deputies led the king to dissolve the legislature in 1830 and call for new elections

g. France was on the brink of another revolution

3. Intervention in the Italian States and Spain

a. by 1815, following the Congress of Vienna, the Italian Peninsula remained divided into nine states subject to the domination of northern European powers

b. much of Italy was under Austrian control, and all the states had extremely reactionary governments eager to smother any liberal or nationalist sentiment

c. the crushing of attempts at revolt in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies and Piedmont in 1821 discouraged opposition (Carbonari were an exception)

d. In Spain, another Bourbon dynasty had been restored in the person of Ferdinand VII in 1814

e. Ferdinand agreed to observe a liberal constitution but soon reneged

f. He dissolved the Cortes and persecuted its members

g. Actions caused a revolt; forced king to restore the Cortes and the constitution

h. Metternich sent a French Army into Spain which forced the revolutionary government to flee

i. Ferdinand began a policy of torture following the reinstatement of his full powers (against French advice)

1. Repression in Central Europe

a. after 1815, the forces of reaction were particularly successful in Central Europe

b. the Vienna settlement in 1815 recognized the existence of 38 sovereign states (Germanic Confederation) in what had once been the Holy Roman Empire

c. the purpose of the Confederation was strictly to provide a common defense from outside attack

d. the Confederation was dominated by Austria and Prussia and used by Metternich as a tool to repress revolutionary movements

e. Frederick William III (1797-1840)

1. King of Prussia

2. instituted a number of political and institutional reforms in reaction to Prussia’s defeat at the hands of Napoleon

3. reforms included: the abolition of serfdom, municipal self-government, expansion of primary and secondary schools, and universal military conscription

4. after Napoleon’s defeat, Frederick William grew more reactionary and was content to follow Metternich’s lead

f. liberal and national movements in the German states seemed largely limited to university professors and students

g. the Burschenschaften was a radical student society that advocated the spread of German nationalism and culture through a free, united German state

h. from 1817 to 1819, the Burschenschaften pursued a variety of activities that alarmed German governments

i. in 1819, Metternich had the diet of the Germanic Confederation draw up the Karlsbad Decrees which did the following:

1. closed the Burschenschaften

2. provided for censorship of the press

3. placed most German universities under close government supervision

j. Metternich, who was hostile to nationalist movements due to the multi-ethnic nature of the Austrian Empire, merely postponed the inevitable revolution against his government’s reactionary policies until 1848

2. Russia:  Autocracy of the Czars

a. at the beginning of the 19th Century, Russia was overwhelmingly rural, agricultural, and autocratic

b. Alexander I (1801-1825)

1. came to the Russian throne after a group of aristocrats assassinated his detested father, Czar Paul I

2. raised in the Enlightenment, Alexander seemed willing to make reforms

3. with the aid of his liberal advisor, Michael Speransky, Alexander relaxed censorship, freed political prisoners, and reformed the education system

4. however, he refused to grant a constitution or free the serfs, and he became more of a reactionary by reverting to a system of arbitrary censorship after the defeat of Napoleon

c. secret societies in opposition to the czar started popping up in Russia such as the Northern Union which favored a constitutional monarchy and the abolition of serfdom

d. Decembrist Revolt (1825)

1. started after Alexander I died and the heir to the throne, his brother Constantine, renounced his claim to the throne in favor of his brother Nicholas

2. Northern Union members in the Russian military revolted against Nicholas’ accession

3. crushed by troops loyal to Nicholas and rebellion leaders were executed

4. revolt transformed Nicholas from a conservative into a reactionary

e. Nicholas I (1825-1855)

1. nicknamed the “Policeman of Europe” because of his willingness to use Russian troops to crush revolutions

2. feared both internal and external revolutions

3. strengthened both the government bureaucracy and secret police

4. secret police given power to deport suspicious or dangerous persons, maintain close surveillance of foreigners, and report regularly to the czar about public opinion

II. THE IDEOLOGIES OF CHANGE

A. Liberalism

1. owed much to the Enlightenment of the 18th Century and to the American and French Revolutions

2. all liberals believed that people should be as free from restraint as much as possible

3. embraced most by members of the industrial middle class

4. economic liberalism had laissez-faire as its primary tenet

5. the case against government interference in economic matters was greatly enhanced by Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)

a. wrote Essay on the Principles of Population

b. argued that population must be held in check for any progress to take place

6. the ideas of Malthus were further developed by David Ricardo (1772-1823)

a. wrote Principles of Political Economy

b. developed the idea of the “iron law of wages” which was an unstoppable vicious cycle of economics related to workers’ wages

7. Political liberals believed in the protection of civil liberties above all else

8. Many liberals advocated a system in which the ministers of the king would be responsible to the legislature rather than the king

9. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

a. one of the most important advocates of liberalism in the 19th Century

b. wrote On Liberty (1859)

c. considered a classic statement on the liberty of the individual

d. Mill’s On the Subjection of Women advocated equal rights for women

e. Argued the legal subordination of females to males is wrong since men and women did not possess different natures

B. Nationalism

1. was based on an awareness of being part of a community that has common institutions, traditions, language, and customs

2. was fundamentally radical in that it threatened to upset the existing political order, both internationally and nationally by encouraging people to shift their loyalties away from kings

3. allied with supporters of liberalism

C. Early Socialism

1. ideology that rose out of the pitiful conditions found in slums, mines, and factories of the Industrial Revolution in the first half of the 19th Century

2. wanted to introduce equality into social conditions and believed that human cooperation was superior to the competition that characterized early industrial capitalism

3. later became associated with Marxism

4. utopian socialist were against private property and industrial competition (EX:  Charles Fourier’s plan for cooperative communities called ‘phalansteries’)

5. one female socialist, Flora Tristan (1803-1844), demanded absolute equality of the sexes (largely ignored by her contemporaries)

III. REVOLUTION AND REFORM (1830-1850)

A. Another French Revolution

1. the new elections Charles X had called in 1830 produced another victory for the French liberals

2. he believed that concessions had brought about the downfall of Louis XVI and was determined not to make the same mistake

3. on July 26, 1830, Charles issued a set of edicts (July Ordinances) that imposed a rigid censorship on the press, dissolved the legislative assembly, and reduced the electorate in preparation for new elections

4. his actions caused an immediate rebellion (July Revolution)

5. Charles X was forced to flee to Great Britain

6. a cousin of Charles X, Louis-Philippe, was persuaded to be the new king of France in a constitutional monarchy

7. Louis-Philippe (1830-1848)

a. called the “bourgeois king” because political support of his monarchy came from the upper middle class

b. instituted reforms in the constitution which favored the upper middle class

c. considered a severe disappointment to lower middle class and Parisian working class

d. in the Chamber of Deputies, the king cooperated with Francois Guizot and the more conservative Party of Resistance over the more liberal Party of Movement led by Adophe Thiers

e. backed by the Party of Resistance which constituted a large majority in the chamber, the king effectively suppressed reform until 1848

B. Revolutionary Outbursts in Belgium, Poland, and Italy

1. the primary driving force in the revolutions of Belgium, Poland, and Italy in 1830 was nationalism

2. the most successful nationalistic European revolution in 1830 was in Belgium (Belgians convinced European powers to accept an independent, neutral Belgium free from Dutch control)

3. the revolutionary scenarios in Italy and Poland were much less successful

a. Metternich sent Austrian forces to crush revolts in three Italian states

b. Russian forces crushed Polish efforts to break free after hoped-for assistance from France and Great Britain did not materialize for the Poles

C. Reform in Great Britain

1. in 1830, new parliamentary elections brought the Whigs to power in Great Britain

2. although members of the landed classes, the Whigs realized that concessions to reform were superior to revolution

3. Whigs enacted the Reform Act of 1832

a. the act disenfranchised fifty-six rotten boroughs and enfranchised forty-two new towns and cities

b. gave urban communities some voice in government

c. retained property qualification for voting so act benefited the upper middle class

d. number of voters increased from 478,000 to 814,000 (only 1 in 30 people in Great Britain was represented in Parliament)

4. Thomas Macaulay, historian and Whig member in Parliament, wrote a speech supporting reforms chiefly as a means of preventing the outbreak of more radical revolutionary movements

5. the Whigs also passed the Poor Law of 1834

a. written under the premise that giving aid to the poor and unemployed only encouraged laziness and increased the number of paupers

b. tried to remedy situation by making conditions of provision for state welfare intentionally miserable and degrading to encourage paupers to choose to work

6. Parliament also repealed the Corn Laws in 1846

7. reforms allowed Britain to avert revolution when most of Europe was engulfed by them by 1848

D. The Growth of the United States

1. the US Constitution, ratified in 1789, committed the United States to liberalism and nationalism in the first half of the 19th Century

2. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Marshall, Andrew Jackson all played significant roles in turning the fledgling republic into an emerging power

E. The Revolutions of 1848

1. Yet Another French Revolution

a. an economic depression along with numerous instances of government graft help bring down Louis-Philippe’s government as it steadfastly refused to accept reform measures

b. radical republicans, socialists, and the Party of Movement combined forces under Adolphe Thiers to force change

c. when the government could not halt their combined efforts, Louis-Philippe was forced to abdicate and flee to England on February 24, 1848

d. a new provisional government was established which called for a new constitution to be drawn up by universal manhood suffrage

e. government also established national workshops under the influence of Louis Blanc (despite high hopes, workshops became little more than unemployment compensation units through public works projects)

f. new constitution, ratified on November 4, 1848, established a 2nd Republic with:

1. a unicameral legislature of 750 members serving three year terms elected by male Frenchman universally

2. president elected to a four year term

g. Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon, was elected president and soon established an authoritarian order in France

2. Revolution in Central Europe

a. the social and political upheavals in central Europe through 1848-1849 led to mass demonstrations for political reform in Germany

b. the student response in Germany to the French Revolution of 1848was one of enthusiasm and optimism for potential reforms in France

c. demonstrations in Budapest, Prague, and Vienna led to Metternich’s ouster

d. Louis Kossuth led a movement within Hungary to gain autonomy from Austria in every way except the sharing of the same Hapsburg monarch

e. After much upheaval, new Austrian king Francis Joseph (1848-1916) was able to put down all revolutions within his empire with the invaluable aid of the Russians

3. Revolts in the Italian States

a. under the leadership of Giuseppe Mazzini’s nationalist organization Young Italy, Italian unification seemed to be on the verge of reality in 1848 with revolutions taking place all over Italy

b. Mazzini’s efforts to achieve risorgimento failed by 1849 due to opposition of the French, the Austrians, and the pope

4. Failures of 1848

a. throughout Europe in 1848, popular revolts had initiated revolutionary upheavals that had led to the formation of liberal constitutions and liberal governments

b. divisions among the revolutionaries shattered their ranks in most cases and ended up causing the collapse of the revolutions

IV. THE EMERGENCE OF AN ORDERED SOCIETY

A. The Development of New Police Forces

1. the rise in crimes of property caused a severe reaction by middle-class urban inhabitants who feared the threat of the urban poor posed to their security and possessions

2. new police forces soon appeared to defend the propertied classes from criminals and social misfits

3. a number of European states established civilian police forces whose job was to preserve property and lives, maintain domestic order, investigate crimes, and arrest offenders

4. French Police

a. first modern police force in Europe appeared in Paris in 1828

b. they were lightly armed with white canes during the day and sabers at night, underscoring the fact that they made up a civilian, not military, body

c. Paris had 85 policemen on the streets by August of 1829, 500 by 1850, and 4,000 by 1900

 

5. British Police

a. the British, fearful of the powers exercised by military or secret police in authoritarian continental European, states, had long resisted the creation of a professional police force

b. Britain traditionally depended upon a system of unpaid constables  recruited by local authorities

c. the eventual failure of the local constables led to a new approach

d. Robert Peel introduced legislation in 1829 to create a metropolitan police force

e. between September 1829 and May 1830, 3,000 uniformed police officers appeared on the streets of London

f. they were called “Bobbies” in honor of Peel

g. goal was to prevent crime

h. by 1856, the new police had become well established in all British cities

6. Crime and Social Reform

a. reformers believed that the existing poor laws failed to address societies problems

b. secular reformers formed institutes to instruct the working classes in the applied sciences in order to make them more productive members of society

c. organized religion attacked crime and poverty in a variety of ways

1. British evangelicals set up Sunday Schools to improve morals of working children

2. German evangelicals established nurseries for homeless and orphaned children

3. Catholic missionaries used spiritual instruction and recreation to turn young males away from the moral vices of gambling and drinking and female workers from lives of prostitution

B. The Reform of Prisons

5. by 1820, most European countries were turning away from the indiscriminate use of capital punishment in favor of imprisonment

6. the United States led the way in prison innovation with such prisons as Auburn Prison in New York and Walnut Street Prison in Philadelphia

7. after examining the American prisons, both the French and British constructed prisons on the Walnut Street model with separate cells that isolated prisoners from one another

8. as prison populations increased, solitary confinement proved expensive and less feasible

9. prison reform and police forces were geared toward the creation of a more disciplined society

V. CULTURE IN AN AGE OF REACTION AND REVOLUTION: THE MOOD OF ROMANTICISM

A. The Characteristics of Romanticism

1. the romantic movement had its roots in Germany

2. The Sorrows of the Young Werther, a German novel written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) served as a model for future romantic writing

3. Romanticism can be identified be the following characteristics:

a. a strong, pantheistic worship of nature

b. a preoccupation with sentiment, suffering, and self-sacrifice

c. reverence for history that inspired nationalism

4. the romantic movement can be viewed as a reaction against the Enlightenment’s preoccupation with reason

5. the romantic movement gave rise to the Gothic literature of such writers as American, Edgar Allan Poe, and Mary Shelley

B. Romantic Poets and the Love of Nature

1. the most important form of literary expression for the romantics was poetry

2. romantic poetry gave full expression to one of the most important characteristics of Romanticism: love of nature, especially evident in the works of William Wordsworth

3. the worship of nature also led Wordsworth and other Romantic poets such as Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley to a critique of the mechanistic materialism of 18th Century science, which they believed had reduced nature to a cold object of study

C. Romanticism in Art and Music

1. a major theme of Romantic artists were depictions of nature and landscapes

2. all artistic expression to Romantic artists was a reflection of the artist’s inner feelings

3. Painters

a. Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) painted many landscapes but with an interest that transcended the mere presentation of natural details (Man and Woman Gazing at the Moon)

b. Joseph Malford William Turner (1775-1851) was an English painter that also focused on nature (Rain, Steam, and Speed—The Great Western Railway)

c. Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) was the most famous French Romantic artist who was fascinated by the exotic and had a passion for color (The Death of Sardanapalus)

4. Composers

a. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German composer served as a bridge between Classicism and Romanticism in music (Eroica used elements of Romanticism)

b. Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was a famous French composer of the era (Symphonie fantastique used music to evoke the passionate emotions of a tortured love affair)

D. The Revival of Religion in the Age of Romanticism

1. religion experienced a Catholic revival

2. Protestant faith also experienced a revival known as the “Awakening”

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