Reaction, Revolution, and Romanticism, 18151850

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Chapter 21

• Reaction, Revolution, and Romanticism, 1815-1850

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The Conservative Order

• Congress of Vienna
• before Napoleon was defeated, his 4 main enemies
  G.B., Austria, Prussia Russia agreed to remain
  united after the war to ensure peace
• after Napoleons defeat, this Quadruple Alliance
  met at a congress in Vienna, Sept. 1814
• led by Austrian foreign minister, Prince Klemens
  von Metternich
• claimed he was guided by the principle of
  legitimacy
• necessary to restore the legitimate monarchs to
  preserve the traditional institutions
• had already been done in France Spain w/
  Bourbons some Italian kingdoms
• ignored in Poland when the Congress gave part of
  the land to Prussia Austria and created a
  kingdom controlled by the Romanov Dynasty of
  Russia
• created a new balance of power with no one
  country dominating Europe
• Prussia Austria to serve as a barrier for any
  monarch of France or Russia trying to conquer
  Europe
• Sanctions placed on France (borders pushed back,
  buffer states created, had to accept an occupying
  army for 5 years)
• Avoided general European conflict for nearly 100
  yrs

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• results of the Con. of Vienna was a conservative
  reaction to liberal nationalistic forces
  fostered by the French Rev.
• Conservatism dates to 1790 Edmund Burkes
  Reflections on the Revolution in France
• The Concert of Europe
• European leaders conservatism fear of
  revolution led to develop the Concert of Europe
• 4 congresses met between 1818 1822
• 1818 Aix-la-Chapelle, agreed to withdraw
  occupation from France
• 1820 Troppau, called to deal w/ revolution in
  Spain Italy
• Metternich saw revolution in Italy as threat to
  Austrias control of peninsula
• Proposed principle of intervention at Troppau
• revolution in dangerous to neighboring rulership
• revolutionary govts. expelled from European
  Alliance
• if an immediate threat to neighbors, the issue
  will be acted upon by the Powers through
  diplomacy or by force if necessary
• Britain opposed, but Austria, Prussia, Russia
  agreed to send troops to Naples to end the
  Italian revolt in 1821
• 1822 granted permission for French invasion of
  Spain to end revolt against Ferdinand VII
• Britain failed to keep Continental powers from
  interfering in Spain, but succeeded in keeping
  the Concert out of revolts in Latin America

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• Intervention in the Italian States Spain
• Con. of Vienna established 9 states in Italy,
  ruled by Italian families Austria, but Austria
  dominated much of the peninsula
• nationalistic secret societies (like Carbonari)
  developed
• In Spain the Bourbon line reestablished in
  Ferdinand VII in 1814
• revolt broke out against Ferdinand, France
  invaded in 1823 forced the revolutionaries out
  of Madrid
• Repression in Central Europe
• The Congress also established the Germanic
  Confederation in 1815
• 39 states, varying in size
• Prussia Austrian Empire were the powers
• no unifying leader, only central organ was the
  federal diet (all states must agree to take
  action)
• virtually powerless (Metternichs way of
  repressing revolution)
• Prussia, largest of the German states, had a
  well-organized govt. a strong economy
• Neither Austria nor the small German states
  wanted a united Germany
• Austria feared the competition from Prussia, the
  smaller states feared domination by Prussia

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• The Prussian military stopped the efforts of
  liberals to unite Germany in the 1840s, but in
  the 1850s conservatives looked to Prussia to lead
  the unification movement
• Liberal students began to organize Burshenshaften
• dedicated to student societies fostering the goal
  of a free, united Germany
• After a deranged student killed a reactionary
  playwright, the diet passed the Karlsbad Decrees
  of 1819.
• closed the Burshenshaften
• censored the press
• placed universities govt. supervision
• The Austrian Empire was a multinational state
• Empire contained Germans, Czechs, Hungarians,
  Slovaks, Romanians, Slovenes, Poles, Serbians,
  Italians
• strong nationalistic sentiments
• held together by the Habsburgs, the imperial
  army, imperial civil service, the Catholic
  church

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• Russia Autocracy of the Tsars
• Early 1800s - Russian Empire stretched from
  Europe to the Pacific Ocean
• more than 60 nationalities (using 100 languages)
  populated the empire
• due to high dependency on agriculture,
  industrialization remained lower than the rest of
  Europe
• Alexander I (ruled 1801- 1825)
• convinced himself after the Napoleonic Wars he
  was the savior of Europe
• started to reform, but quickly lost interest in
  reforming Russia
• before Alexander died in December of 1825,
  Constantine secretly abdicated putting Nicholas
  in line to ascend the throne
• Not realizing it was a legitimate succession,
  nobles objected to Nicholas
• In the ensuing chaos, several secret societies
  joined together Decembrist Revolt took place
• Nicholas I (ruled 1825 - 1855)
• did everything he could to strengthen the
  autocracy suppress all opposition
• during his rule, secret police had unlimited
  power to arrest imprison people w/o trial
  censor the press
• though the 1830s 40s, Nicholas did everything
  he could to resist reform
• After Russia was defeated in the Crimean War,
  Nicholas knew change was needed, but now he was
  too ill to begin reforms

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Ideologies of Change

• Liberalism
• fostered by the success of the American French
  revolutions
• became more significant as the middle class grew
  during IR
• basic belief people should be as free from
  restraint as possible
• Economic Liberalism
• primary concept of laissez-faire economics
• Thomas Malthus (p599) Essay on the Principles of
  Population
• population increases at a rate much greater than
  food supply
• nature imposes restraints on population, govt.
  shouldnt interfere
• David Ricardo Principles of Political Economy
  (1817)
• iron law of wages
• 1. pop. rises, 2. increase in of workers, 3.
  lowers wages, 4. misery starvation, 5. of
  workers decline, 6. wages rise, 7. workers have
  larger families, repeat cycle
• against raising wages arbitrarily -- it would
  perpetuate the cycle

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• Nationalism
• nationalism arose from the desire to be part of a
  community that shares institutions, traditions,
  language customs
• the community constituted a nation that would
  be an individuals primary political loyalty
• became a popular force for change after the
  French Rev.
• threatened to upset the political order,
  nationally internationally
• united Germany or Italy would upset balance of
  power from 1815
• Independent Hungarian state would break up the
  Austrian Empire

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• Early Socialism
• term became associated w/ Karl Marx his
  analysis of human society
• product of political theorists or intellectuals
  that wanted equality in social conditions
• believed human cooperation superior to
  competition
• later Marxists considered this impractical
• these people were labeled utopian socialists
• Utopian socialists against private property
  competition of early capitalism
• early socialists proposed new ways to build a
  better social environment
• Charles Fourier (1772-1838)
• proposed small communities called phalansteries
• self-contained cooperatives w/ 1,620 people
• communally housed, lived worked together, jobs
  rotated occasionally

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• Robert Owen (1771-1858)
• cotton manufacturer
• believed people would reveal good nature if they
  worked in cooperative environment
• transformed poor factory in New Lanark, Scotland
  into a healthy, productive community
• attempted to create a self-sufficient
  agricultural commune in New Harmony, IN in 1825
• bickering between members caused the project to
  fail
• started in April 1825, by May 1827 10
  sub-communities on the estate
• town still exists today, but not a commune
• Louis Blanc (1813-1882)
• wrote The Organization of Work
• believed social problems could be solved by
• believed competition was cause of all economic
  evils
• called for establishment of workshops that would
  manufacture goods for public sale
• the state would finance the workshops, workers
  would own operate them

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Revolution Reform (1830-1850)

• Another French Revolution (sigh)
• July 26, 1830 Charles X issued the July
  Ordinances
• severe censorship of the press
• dissolved the legislative assembly
• reduced the electorate in preparation for an
  election
• led to immediate revolution on the part of the
  French people
• a govt of moderate, propertied liberals took
  control appealed to Louis-Philippe (kings
  cousin) to become the constitutional king of
  France
• Charles fled to Britain
• Louis-Philippe became a friend of the upper
  middle class
• known as the Bourgeois Monarch
• Chamber of Deputies split by two parties
• Party of Movement (Adolphe Thiers) favored active
  foreign policy limited expansion
• Party of Resistance (Francois Guizot) felt France
  had achieved the perfect form of government
  needed no further change
• 1830s 40s French govt dominated by the
  Resistance party

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• Reform in Great Britain
• 1830 Whigs gained control of Parliament after
  election
• After the July Revolution in France, politicians
  realized that reform was preferable to revolution
• Reform Act of 1832
• recognized changes brought by IR
• disenfranchised 56 boroughs enfranchised 42 new
  towns
• gave new industrial towns voice in govt.
• of voters increased from 478,000 to 814,000
• Mainly helped the upper middle classes,
  industrial workers still had no voice
• The Poor Law of 1834
• govt. aid no longer given to poor (this
  encouraged laziness sloth)
• conditions would be so bad, the paupers would
  want to find work
• Repeal of The Corn Laws (1846)
• the Corn Laws (1815) placed extremely high taxes
  on foreign grain
• lowered bread prices, helped workers
• also supported by middle class liberals that
  desired free trade

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The Revolutions of 1848

• Another _at_!_at_ French Revolution !!!!!!!!
• Industrial agricultural depression hit in 1846
• 33 unemployment by 1847
• Louis-Philippes govt refused to make changes
• illegal for agitators to hold rallies, so they
  held political banquets
• 70 such banquets held 1847-48
• after increasing pressure, Louis proposed reform
  but unable to enact
• he abdicated Feb. 24, 1848
• Another provisional govt. established, led by
  Louis Blanc
• Blanc proposed cooperative workshops run by
  workers
• provided jobs for the unemployed (basically
  ditch-digging leaf-raking)
• didnt work out the way he intended, drained the
  treasury as more people signed up March to June
  1848 (10,000 workers increased to 120,000)
• Moderate republicans shut down the workshops in
  June rioting broke out
• 4 days of fighting to crush the worker revolt,
  thousands killed
• 4000 prisoners sent to the French colony of
  Algeria in North Africa
• Nov new constitution, new legislature,
  universal male sufferage, a new president
  Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleons
  nephew)

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• Germany
• Upheaval in France spread throughout Europe
• King William Frederick IV (Prussia) abolished
  censorship, established new constitution worked
  for a united Germany
• Each state sent delegates to an all German
  parliament to prepare a constitution for a united
  Germany
• Frankfurt Assembly split over the proposition
  of Grossdeutsch (Big German) to include Austria
  or Kleindeustch (small German) exclude Austria
  and make the Prussian king their emperor
• Austria withdrew from the assembly, leaving
  supporters for Kleindeustch with the upper hand
• William IV refused the title of emperor ordered
  Prussian delegates home in March 1849
• attempt by German liberals to create a German
  state failed

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• Austrian Empire
• Hungarian liberals proposed keeping Habsburg
  monarch but wanted separate legislature, national
  army control of foreign policy
• Austria made concessions to Hungary, but planned
  to reestablish control later
• caused Czechs to demand their own govt
• revolts were crushed in Vienna Prague in 1848
• a Hungarian revolt was crushed w/ help of Russia
  in 1849
• Italian States
• Giuseppe Mazzini founded an organization called
  Young Italy in 1831
• goal was for united Italy
• Venice Milan rebelled against Austrian rule,
  both unsuccessful
• France helped Pope Pius IX regain control of Rome
• Failures of 1848
• 2 reasons
• unity of revolutionaries made them possible, but
  divisions soon broke them apart
• divisions among nationalities proved disastrous
  for all groups seeking autonomy (Hungarians
  pushed autonomy, but refused the right of other
  minorities)

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The Mood of Romanticism

• Characteristics
• emphasized emotion, sentiment, inner feelings
• important model for Romantics was The Sorrows of
  the Young Werther, by Goethe (later rejected
  Romanticism for Classicism)
• set standard for later novels plays where a
  young woman was taken by disease to the dismay of
  her male lover
• Individualism an important characteristic in
  Romantic lit.
• unique traits of the main characters in a story
  now important
• long hair, beards, outrageous clothes rebelled
  against middle-class conventions
• Heroism also an important trait
• Romantic heroes willing to defy the world give
  life for a great cause
• Thomas Carlyles heroes transformed society, in
  his historical writings also stressed that
  historic events are shaped by real heroes
• possessed passion for history
• Germany the Grimm Bros. collect publish local
  old fairy tales
• Denmark Hans Christian Anderson did the same
• Some Romantic attraction to the bizarre unusual
  led to Gothic literature
• Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley
• some even pursued their own extreme states of
  experience through use of cocaine, opium hashish

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Romanticism in Art

• Visual arts were deeply affected by Romanticism.
• Romantic artist shared 2 fundamental
  characteristics
• reflection on the artists inner feelings
• deliberately rejected principles of Classicism
• Caspar David Friedrich
• focused on landscapes, work conveyed feeling of
  mystery mysticism
• Joseph William Turner
• produced more than 20,000 works
• not realistic, more impressionistic
• Eugene Delacroix
• most famous French Romantic
• largely self-taught
• fascinated by exotics bold color

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Romanticism in Music

• Probably the most Romantic of the arts
• composers could probe deep into human emotions
• Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827)
• served as bridge between Classical Romantic
  eras
• one of few composers that single-handedly changed
  music
• influenced by Mozart Hayden, but broke through
  to Romanticism with his 3rd Symphony
• emotionally charged music
• slowly lost hearing, wrote his 9th Symphony when
  totally deaf
• Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
• son of a French doctor, rebelled against family
  to become a composer
• famous in Germany, Russia, Britain but never
  gained much fame France
• Founder of program music
• used instrumental music sound effects to depict
  actions emotions inherent in a story to enhance
  the feel
• most famous piece was the first complete program
  symphony, Symphonie Fantastique