Restoration and Revolution, 1815 - 1848

Congress System❖Congress of Vienna (1815), major powers sought to restore “legitimate” rulers. ❖Period after 1815 is known as the Restoration. ❖Major powers also wanted to establish a “balance of power” and “collective security” against future revolutionary upheavals.

Congress System❖Period between 1815 and 1848 was characterized by conservatives (slow change), and reactionaries (return to old regime). ❖Restoration meant a return to absolute rule and revival of institutions abolished by French. ❖Spain, King Ferdinand VII abolished the Constitution of 1812.

Congress System❖Not all rulers aimed to undo the work of the French. ❖Napoleon’s great achievement was the creation of strong centralized states. ❖Victorious powers then established the “Congress system,” to maintain status quo.

❖November 1815, Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia signed Quadruple Alliance. ❖Agreed to meet periodically to maintain peace. ❖First meeting, September 1818, agreed to end occupation of France and admit it as member of Congress system.

Congress System

❖Thus creating a Quintuple Alliance. ❖Conservative monarchies of eastern Europe, Russia, Austria, and Prussia formed Holy Alliance in September 1815. ❖Officially dedicated to the protection of Christian principles of “religion, peace, and justice.” ❖England refused to join.

Congress System

❖Spain’s King Ferdinand VII, after series of military revolts, he was forced to bring back the Constitution of 1812, making Spain a constitutional monarchy. ❖1823, French force of 100 000 soldiers entered Spain and made it possible to abolish constitution. ❖1820, revolutionary year in Portugal.

Congress System

❖Civil war broke out in Spain, by 1840, resulted in definitive victory for constitutional monarchy. ❖Italian peninsula, uprisings occurred in Kingdom of Naples in 1820.

Congress System

❖Posed a threat to Austrian authority. ❖Britain and France opposed intervention by the Congress, but Russia and Prussia backed Austria. ❖Austrian forces crushed the uprising. ❖Governments of small north-central Italy collapsed and government of Papal States found itself in great danger when its army disintegrated.

Congress System

❖First successful nationalist revolution took place in Greece. ❖Greeks formed part of the Ottoman Empire. ❖Rebelled in 1821; Greeks were Orthodox Christians fighting Muslim rulers. ❖Greece was considered cradle of Western civilization.

Congress System

❖Many believed Greek glory would rise again. ❖English poet Lord Byron went to Greece and joined the independence struggle. ❖Greeks had support of Britain, France and Russia (which saw Greek revolt as opportunity to gain influence in Balkans).

Congress System

❖1827, three powers signed a treaty to guarantee Greek independence. ❖Ottomans had no choice and Greece became independent in 1830.

Congress System

❖France after 1815: Louis XVIII ruled until his death in 1824 as a constitutional monarch. ❖All people had civil rights and were equal before the law, but political rights were restricted to males of the propertied and landed classes (bourgeoisie).

Restoration of France

❖His brother, Charles X (1824-1830), issued an edict that dissolved parliament and suspended the freedom of press. ❖Government was overthrown and the king went into exile. ❖Revolution of 1830 confirmed that the people of France still supported the principles of 1789.

Restoration of France

❖New king, Louis Philippe, King of the French, reflected this spirit. ❖The fleur-de-lis was abandoned for the tricolour flag of the Revolution.

Restoration of France

❖Not a political ideology, but a way of looking at life. ❖Influenced all doctrines and attitudes of the time, including socialism, liberalism, conservatism, and nationalism.

Romanticism

❖Reaction against the ordered rational mode of thought of the Enlightenment. ❖Romantics emphasized the emotions and truth to be found in feelings and sentiments.

Romanticism

23

❖For Romantics, movement and change, ever part of nature, were more important than order and harmony. ❖In England, William Wordsworth (1770-1850), pictured nature as idyllic, beautiful, and ever-changing:

Romanticism

I heard a thousand blended notes, While in a grove I sate reclined, In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

Romanticism

To her fair works did Nature link The human soul that through me ran; In much it grieved my heart to think What man had made of man.

Romanticism

❖Romantics reintroduced religion and mysticism to European intellectual scene. ❖They embraced the unknown and glorified faith based on feelings. ❖Also had a new interest in the Middle Ages.

Romanticism

❖While Enlightenment thinkers had viewed the Middle Ages with disdain (because life was dominated by the Church and there was little scientific progress), Romantics viewed the Middle Ages as a creative period when true feelings and emotions could find expression, people had a sense of order and community, living close to nature and the soil.

Romanticism

❖Tradition and custom, which were sneered any in the Enlightenment period, were revered by Romantics because of people’s long adherence to them. ❖Romantics respected established political institutions and the beauty of custom.

Romanticism