European Conservatism

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European Conservatism Radical Ideologies

• AP European History
• Ms. Tully
• Unit 10

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I. European Conservatism
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The Dual Revolution

• Industrial Rev Economics
• Growth of industrial middle class drive for
  representative govt
• Revitalized conservatism
• Ideologies of change liberalism, nationalism,
  socialism

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Metternich

• Born into middle ranks of landed nobility
• Austrian foreign minister from 1809-1848
• Defended rights and privileges of nobility

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• Believed liberalism was responsible for
  bloodshed, war
• Blamed middle-class revolutionaries for
  instigating working class
• Nationalism was also threatening to Austrian
  Empire
• Made up of Hungarians, Czechs, Italians, etc..

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Ideology of Conservatism

• Championed by Metternich
• Obedience to authority
• Organized religion crucial to social order
• Community took precedence over individual rights
• Tradition remained best guide for order
• Supported by hereditary monarchs, govt
  bureaucracies, landowning aristocrats (nobility),
  revived churches officials

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Conservative Domination Concert of Europe

• Concert of Europe regular meetings of Quadruple
  Alliance
• International conferences diplomacy
• Sought to maintain conservative status quo
• Crusade against the ideas and politics of dual
  revolutions

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Principle of Intervention

• Greatest powers in Europe had to right to
  intervene in countries threatened by revolution
  to restore legitimate monarchs
• Britain refused to participate
• Holy Alliance Austria, Prussia, Russia (1815)
• Symbol of the repression of liberal and
  revolutionary movement in Europe
• End of official concert
• Intervened in revolutions in Spain and Italy
  (1820)
• Applied to German confederation
• Carlsbad Decrees (1819) spy networks
  organizations to combat liberal and radical
  organizations (esp. in universities)

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II. Early Radical Ideologies
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Liberalism

• Influenced by Enlightenment, American French
  Revolutions, Industrial Revolutions
• People should be as free from restraint as
  possible economic political liberalism
• Posed serious threat to revived conservatism

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Economic Liberalism

• Laissez-faire state should not intervene in
  natural economic forces, esp. supply demand
• Three primary functions of govt
• Defense of the country
• Police protection of individuals
• Construction and maintenance of public works too
  expensive for individuals to undertake
• Economic liberty brings about the maximum good or
  the maximum number and benefits the general
  welfare of society
• Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo

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Political Liberalism

• Protection of civil liberties
• Equality before the law
• Freedom of assembly, speech, press
• Freedom from arbitrary arrest
• Should be guaranteed by written document
• Religious toleration, separation of church and
  state
• Representative government elected by qualified
  voters
• Constitutional monarchies or states

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• Increasingly tied to middle-class
• Voting limited by property qualifications
  landowners, businessmen, professionals
• Left out working class lower middle class
• John Stuart Mill On Liberty (1859)
• Classical statement on liberty of the individual
• Protection from censorship tyranny of majority
• Enthusiastic supporter of womens rights

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Nationalism

• Immediate origins in French Revolution
  Napoleonic wars
• Being part of a community common institutions,
  traditions, language, customs nation
• Focus of the individuals primary political
  loyalty
• Cultural unity each nationality should have its
  own government
• National self-determination
• Increasing standardization of languages
• Creation of emotionally charged symbols and
  ceremonies, independence holidays, patriotism
  parades

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• Often closely tied with liberalism or democratic
  republicanism
• Idea that self-govt would only be possible if
  people were united by common traditions and
  identity
• Threatened to upset the existing political order
• United Germany or Italy would upset balance of
  power
• Potential breakup of Austrian empire
• Conservatives tried hard to suppress nationalism

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French Utopian Socialism

• Wanted to introduce equality into social
  conditions, believed that cooperation was
  superior to competition
• Argued for economic planning government should
  organize economy and not default to destructive
  competition
• Desire to help the poor rich and poor should be
  more equal economically
• Private property should be regulated or abolished
  

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• Count Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825)
• Parasites Doers doers should take over and
  run the economy
• Main goal improved conditions for poor
• Charles Fourier (1722-1837)
• Emancipation of women, abolition of marriage
• Louis Blanc (1811-1882)
• Advocated for govt backed workshops and
  factories
• Right to work a fundamental right

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• Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865)
• Property is theft
• Feared power of state supported anarchy
• F.U.S. championed by workers developed sense of
  class
• Favored collective action and government
  intervention in economics
• Genuine socialist movement in Paris in 1830s and
  1840s

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Marxian Socialism

• Karl Marx (1818-1883) Friedrich Engels
  (1820-1895) wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848)
  Bible of Socialism
• Argued that interests of middle class
  (bourgeoisie) and working class (proletariat)
  opposed each other

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• History of all previously existing society is
  the history of class struggles
• One class had always exploited another
• Marx believed the that proletariat would conquer
  bourgeoisie in a violent revolution
• Ever-poorer proletariat growing in size and
  consciousness
• Profits of industrialists were wages stolen from
  the workers
• Marxian socialism a synthesis of French utopian
  schemes, English classical economics, and German
  philosophy