19th Century Europe, 1815-1848, political and diplomatic history

transcript

Nineteenth Century EuropePART ONE1815-1850

Session IPolitical & Diplomatic History, 1815-1848

some preliminary remarks--”Back to the 19th Century!”

My list of “losses” last week after Hurricane “Ike”:1. connection to the outside world

a. Internetb. cable news

2. light for reading3. refrigeration4. cooking

How the 19th century brought these:1. “penny press”--daily papers, 1830s, telegraph, 1842, trans-Atlantic cable, 1867, “yellow press,”

1890s, telephones, 1880s-1920s, radio, 1900s-1920s, films, 1900s-1920s

2. gas illumination, 1820s-1860s (urban only); electricity, 1890s-1910s (urban only)

3. refrigeration, (urban private homes) ice delivery, 1880s, electric refrigerators, 1920s

4. food heating, tremendous variations, biggest move was from open hearth cooking to cast iron stoves, first urban, then rural

General Observations

there is no major conflict between the Great Powers

fewer Europeans die as a result of international war than in any

comparable period since 1848

compared to the twentieth century it seems “a golden age of

harmony”

Craig, Europe, 1815-1914, p. 3

The cause of this peace?The result of a happy combination of:

determination to avoid war

self-restraint when opportunities for unilateral aggrandizement

presented themselves

skillful diplomacy

war weariness

political tumultloyal son or destroyer of the

French Revolution?

Waterloo

the age of “isms”

the first to appear in English is “socialism”, 1827 (Robert Owen)

“capitalism” appeared in French first, 1832

followed in short order by “liberalism”, “conservatism” and “protectionism”

“communism” appears in 1840

Left versus Right

(traditional diagram)

Left versus Right

radicalism

Left versus Right

radicalism liberalism

Left versus Right

radicalism liberalism conservatism

Left versus Right

radicalism liberalism conservatism reaction

Left versus Right

radicalism liberalism conservatism reaction↑

moderation

Left versus Right

radicalism liberalism conservatism reaction↑

moderation

“Every little boy and gal who’s born into the world alive,Is either a little liberal, or else a conservative”

Gilbert & Sullivan

immovable object meets irresistible force

Industrial Revolution,

the bourgeoisie,constitutionalism,

republicanism

II. The Great Powersand the

Balance of Power

The Reconstruction of Europe1814-1815

the Congress of Vienna(1 October 1814 - 8 June 1815)

Principals & Principles

Metternich

Alexander I

Metternich

Alexander I

Castlereagh

Metternich

Alexander I

Castlereagh

Talleyrand

Metternich

Alexander I

Castlereagh

Talleyrand

Friederich Wm III

Metternich

Alexander I

Castlereagh

Talleyrand

Friederich Wm III

Metternich

Alexander I

Castlereagh

Talleyrand

Friederich Wm III

legitimacy

Metternich

Alexander I

Castlereagh

Talleyrand

Friederich Wm III

legitimacy

compensation

Metternich

Alexander I

Castlereagh

Talleyrand

Friederich Wm III

legitimacy

compensation

balance of power

Two challenges

deal with the defeated enemy, France

reduce the confusion and disorder resulting from the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire

Compensation

Court Dress, the Order of the Iron Crown, Vienna, 1815

Restoring the Old Order

Klemens Prince von Metternich

(1773-1859)

I say to myself twenty times a day how right I am and how

wrong the others are. And yet it is so easy to be right.

Tsar Alexander I(1777-1801-1825)

“Autocrat and ‘Jacobin’, man of the world and mystic, he appeared to his contemporaries as a riddle which each read according to his

own temperament.”

Robert Stewart Viscount

Castlereagh(1769-1822)

British Foreign Secretary, 1812-1822

bane of radicals

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord

(1754-1838)

the ultimate survivor

Friederich Wilhelm III

(1770-1797-1840)

“Unfortunately...he had all the Hohenzollern tenacity of personal power without the Hohenzollern

genius for using it.”

Wilhelm Freiherr von Humboldt

(1767-1835)

government functionary, diplomat, philosopher, linguist, founder of Humboldt Universität, friend of Goethe and Schiller, architect of the Prussian education system

Karl August Prince von Hardenberg

(1750-1822)

“...the new sentiment of nationality...in him found

expression in a passionate desire to restore the position of Prussia

and crush her oppressors.”

Count Karl Robert Nesselrode

(1780-1862)

head of Russia’s official delegation, but Alexander I

acted as his own foreign minister

British gains

Heligoland

British gains

Heligoland

British gains

Heligoland

the Ionian Islands

British gains

Heligoland

the Ionian Islands

Cape Colony

British gains

Heligoland

the Ionian Islands

Cape Colony

Ceylon

British gains

Heligoland

the Ionian Islands

Cape Colony

Ceylon

Ile de France (Mauritius)

British gains

Heligoland

the Ionian Islands

Cape Colony

Ceylon

Demerara (from Dutch Guiana)

British gains

Heligoland

the Ionian Islands

Cape Colony

Ceylon

St. Lucia

British gains

Heligoland

the Ionian Islands

Cape Colony

Ceylon

St. Lucia

Tobago

British gains

Heligoland

the Ionian Islands

Cape Colony

Ceylon

St. Lucia

Tobago

Trinidad

Austrian gains

Italian lands

Lombardy

Venetia

South Tyrol

Austrian gains

Italian lands

Lombardy

Venetia

South Tyrol

Polish lands

Teschen

Galicia

Ruthenia

Austrian gains

Italian lands

Lombardy

Venetia

South Tyrol

Polish lands

Teschen

Galicia

Ruthenia

Illyria (modern Croatia)

Russian gains

Finland (from Sweden)

Russian gains

Bessarabia (from Turkey)

Russian gains

Bessarabia (from Turkey)

desired all of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw (Poland) including

the Prussian and Austrian parts as a Russian satellite

the 18th century background

19th century Poland

Napoleon’s Grand Duchy of Warsaw, 1806

19th century Poland

Prussia’s gains

1811consists of Brandenburg, Silesia, Pomerania,and Prussia only

HUNGARY

Prussia now includes Rhenish (Rhineland) Prussia, the Polish lands of the 18th century partitions, gains from Saxony,and several central German states which had been on the “wrong [Napoleon’s] side”

Legitimacy

Bourbons replace Bonapartes in France and Spain

Italian dynasties replace the Bonapartist Kingdom of Italy

the House of Orange is restored in the Netherlands and given the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium)

France is expelled from the Rhineland but not Alsace and Lorraine

BUT the Holy Roman Empire is not restored

The German ConfederationDer Deutsche Bund

a loose confederation of 39 states

the Federal Assembly in Frankfurt/Main represents the sovereigns, not the people

Austria and Prussia the largest by far

three member states are ruled by foreign monarchs (DK, NL, GB) as Duke of Holstein, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and King of Hanover (until 1837). Each has one vote in the assembly

six other larger states have one vote each: the King of Bavaria, the King of Saxony, the King of Würtemberg, the prince-elector of Hesse, the Grand Duke of Baden, and the Grand Duke of Hesse

23 smaller and tiny members share five votes in the assembly

the four free cities Lübeck, Frankfurt, Bremen and Hamburg share one vote

the Hundred Days and the second Peace of Paris

as the Congress argues, Bonaparte acts

leaving his exile on the island of Elba 26 February, he marches north to Paris by 20 March collecting his old soldiers

Louis XVIII flees and the Grand Alliance mobilizes to face him down once again

after defeating him at Waterloo 16-18 June 1815, a second, more punitive, treaty is imposed upon France (20 November)

reduced territory by half a million subjects

imposes a war indemnity of 700 million francs--by contemporary standards a very heavy burden

France must support an occupation army for a minimum of three years

the Holy Alliance

conceived by Alexander I

attempted to replace traditional diplomacy with the principles of Christianity

Castlereagh wants nothing to do with it

Austria and Prussia support it

all the European sovereigns sign on except Britain, the Vatican, and the Sultan of Constantinople

They [the founding sovereigns, Alexander I, Francis I, and Frederick William

III] solemnly declare that the present Act has no other object than to publish, in

the face of the whole world, their fixed resolution, both in the administration of

their respective States, and in their political relations with every other

Government, to take for their sole guide the precepts of that Holy Religion, namely, the precepts of Justice, Christian Charity, and Peace, which, far from

being applicable only to private concerns, must have an immediate influence on

the councils of Princes, and guide all their steps, as being the only means of

consolidating human institutions and remedying their imperfections.

The Congress System“The Concert of Europe”

Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1818

evacuation of France agreed to, and military measures, if any, against another French outbreak discussed

rejection of Alexander’s memo to merge the Quadruple and Holy Alliance

secret protocol renewing the Quadruple Alliance “to keep the peace”

British proposals on suppressing the slave trade and the Barbary pirates rejected

Britain defeats discussing the revolt of the Spanish colonies

the first wave of revolutions1820s

Austria’s primary military focus

Metternich perceived Italy as both the linchpin of his European system and the empire’s most vulnerable sector. The local rebellions of the early 1820s further concentrated his attention across the Alps….Piedmont (the strongest of the Italian kingdoms) increasingly understood its relations with the empire as ultimately zero-sum : one could profit only by the other’s loss.

Dennis Showalter. The Wars of German Unification. p. 21

Congress of Troppau, 20 Oct-19 Nov 1820

the issues to be discussed are the Spanish and Neapolitan revolutions

the eastern powers are represented by their monarchs and foreign ministers

Britain and France send only observers; the division emerges

Alexander to Metternich: Today I deplore everything that I have said and done between the years 1814 and 1818 ... Tell me what you want of me. I will do it.

the outcomes--the Troppau Protocol and an early date to reconvene

the Troppau Protocol

States, which have undergone a change of government due to revolution, the result of which threaten other states, ipso facto cease to be members of the European Alliance, and remain excluded from it until their situation gives guarantees for legal order and stability. If, owing to such alterations, immediate danger threatens other states the powers bind themselves, by peaceful means, or if need be, by arms, to bring back the guilty state into the bosom of the Great Alliance.

Congress of Laibach, 26 Jan-12 May 1821

Alexander, Francis, and their ministers;Prussia and France by plenipotentiaries, but Britain by Castlereagh without full powers; of the Italian princes, Naples and Modena, the rest by plenipotentiaries

Britain distances herself from the Troppau Protocol

Metternich wants unanimity for Austrian intervention in Naples. Britain and France demure.

Austria intervenes in Naples and Piedmont

Congress of Verona, 20 October 1822

Alexander & Nestlerode, Metternich, Hardenberg, Chateaubriand, and the Duke of Wellington

the Italian, Turkish (Greek), and Spanish Questions

interventions or the end of the “Concert of Europe”?

Wellington

Alexander

Francis

ChateaubriandGerman liberal university

student

Italian liberalsFrederick William III beingrocked to sleep

Wellington

Alexander

Francis

ChateaubriandGerman liberal university

student

Italian liberalsFrederick William III beingrocked to sleep

Take care of that Bear, he has set his Mind on Poland& his voracious appetite will gorge both East & West, and he is only making you his Tools, to cut each others Throat that he may devour you all the more easily

the Spanish revolt, 1820

Spain’s new world colonies are in revolt and the cost of subduing them is bankrupting the country

Ferdinand’s rule is whimsical, cruel and incompetent

the Jesuits are a symbol of conservatism

an army revolt restores the Constitution of 1812 and imprisons Ferdinand until he accepts it

France intervenes in 1823 and defeats the “liberals”

Fernando VIII1784-1813-1833

the Carbonari

secret revolutionary cells in Italy, later Portugal and France

based their organization on Freemasonry

their “cover” was that of itinerant charcoal burners

began as resistance to Napoleonic occupation

continued to oppose the royalist restoration, anti-clerical

after 1831--La giovine Italia (Young Italy)Giuseppi Mazzini

1805-1872entered the Carbonari, 1830

the Greek war of independence(1821-1832)

Eugène Delacroix, The Massacre of Chios (1822)

επαναστασι (EpaNAStasi-Resurrection)

the Balkans had been under the Turks since the 15th century

the bloody events in Greece during the 1820s marked the beginning of a long series of disorders

they were the inevitable result of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire

Metropolitan of Patras, blessing the flag of Revolution, Theodoros Vryzakis, 1865,

Eugène Delacroix,“Greece expiring onthe ruins of Missa-longhi” (1827)

the Greek revival

European sympathy romanticized the Greek cause (“philhellenism” love of things Greek)

Byron famously died at Missalonghi inspiring thousands of other volunteers

American “Greek” college fraternities began to raise funds to support the cause

Southern plantation homes, banks and government buildings were modeled on Greek temples

naval battle of Navarino20 October 1827

the second wave of revolutions1830-1831

long range causes of the Belgian Revolution

the Vienna settlement had placed the Belgians under the Dutch crown without any consideration of the people’s desires

there were significant conflicts of interest:

Belgium=predominantly Catholic Netherlands=militantly Calvinist

=flourishing but young industry =agricultural and commercial

=protectionist =free trade

=young professionals found the civil service jobs filled with Dutchmen

during the late 1820s a series of bad harvests led to rural unrest

overproduction in the textile industries led to proletarian “immiseration”

all that was needed was the “spark” from Paris, the July Revolution

Episode of the Belgian Revolution of 1830Egide Charles Gustave Wappers (1834)

Palmerston in the well

Speaking for the Concert of Europe,a British foreign minister intervenes:

Henry Temple Viscount Palmerston

(1784-1865)

“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and

perpetual and those interests it is our duty to follow.”

--in Commons, 1 March 1848

Pam’s remarkable career

maiden speech in 1807, defending Nelson’s bombardment of Copenhagen

in government for most of the next sixty-three years! War Minister, Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, and twice, Prime Minister

the settlement of the Belgian crisis was his first great success

nicknamed “Pumice stone” for his abrasive qualities:

fondness for sensation, cocksureness, tendency to bully weaker opponents

BUT, quick & accurate judgment, rapidity of decision, force of will, incredible capacity for work, and great skill in negotiation

London Treaty of 1831, the famous “scrap of paper” of 1914

Polonia1830-1831

Poland--”Martyr Nation”

The November Uprising

III. The Eastern PowersAbsolutism and its Limitations

Metternich Euro2003

Joseph de Maistre(1753-1821)

“ ...a fierce absolutist, a furious theocrat, an intransigent legitimist, apostle of a monstrous

trinity composed of Pope, King and Hangman…”

Russia,1815-1848

St Petersburg under Tsar Nicholas I

Tsar Alexander I (1777-1801-1825)

imbibes liberal ideas from his grandmother Catherine the Great and his Swiss tutor La Harpe

comes to the throne at the murder of his father, Tsar Paul I (1796-1801)

unpredictably mixes reforms and religious idealism with conservative measures

by Alkruger, 1812

Count Alexey Andreyevich Arakcheyev

(1769-1834)general, War Minister

“That which ceases to grow begins to rot.”

military settlementsrepression

Decembrist Revolt1825, St PetersburgДекабристы

Tsar Nicholas I(1796-1825-1855)

“He is stern and severe--with fixed principles of duty which

nothing on earth will make him change; very clever I do not

think him…”Queen Victoria, 1844

Count Alexander von Benckendorff

(1783-1844)

warned of the Decembrists, created the secret police called

the Third Section(Третье Урок)

Sergei Sergeivich Uvarov(1765-1855)

Education Minister(1833-1849)

ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ (pravoslavieye)САМОДЕРЖАВИЕ (samoderzhavieye)

НАРОДНОСТЬ (narodnost)

OrthodoxyAutocracyNationality

by Orest Kiprensky, 1815-16

Pavel Petrovich Melnikov

(1804-1880)

Minister of Transport Communications,

the St Petersburg-Moscow Railroad(1842-1851)

the myth of the Tsar’s finger

the railroad was constructed in an almost straight line

through swamps, hills, valleys at great cost in human (serf) life

lamented by Nekrasov in his poem “The Railway”

the 17 km bend was [falsely] attributed to the tsar drawing a straight line with a ruler, the bump was caused by his finger

St Isaac’s Cathedral (1818-1858)

Prussia, 1815-1848

return to reaction

the period of resistance to Napoleon, 1807-1815, had produced reforms: emancipation of the serfs, army promotions by merit, promise of a written constitution

the influence of his fellow monarchs,Metternich, and the conservative Prussian aristocrats moved Fredrick William III to the right

liberal ministers were replaced by reactionary ones

Hegelianism replaced Humboldt’s educational reforms

Georg Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

German idealist philosopher

Volksgeist and Weltgeist

Hegelian dialectic: thesis vs. antithesis--> synthesis

University of Berlin, 1818-1831

Right and Left (Young) Hegelians

“progress toward freedom was possible within an authoritarian order”

Fredrick William IV (1795-1840-1861)

like his father, he first inspired hope among the liberal reformers

he was a romantic, perhaps the last true believer in divine right of kings

“devious methods and a habit of indecision in moments of crisis” ---Craig

“wanted to appear a wise and magnanimous ruler”--- Ibid.

“No power on earth will ever force me to transform the natural relationship...between prince and people into a constitutional one” (1847)

Austria, 1815-1848

Austrian Lands and Peoples

Austria proper

Bohemia & Moravia

Galicia

Hungary

Illyria

Lombardy & Venetia

Germans

Czechs & Slovaks

Poles & Ruthenians

Magyars &c

Slovenes, Croats & Serbs

Italians

“Govern, and change nothing”--Francis I

“indolent, but far from being a cipher” --Craig

“...the emperor knew exactly what he wanted, and he was autocrat enough to see that he got it” -- Metternich, 1820

Metternich tried to make the bureaucracy more efficient (not more liberal) but after 1826 was too busy protecting his own “turf” from arch rival, Czech Count Kolowrat

the chief of the secret police, Count Joseph Sedlnitzsky, ran a widespread network of informers, including the clergy, who controlled the press and the educational system, professors and schoolteachers

Ferdinand I (1793-1835-1848-1875)

as many as 20 epileptic seizures a day

often dismissed as feeble minded, “Ich bin der Kaiser und ich will Knödel”

a council of state: Metternich, Kolowrat, and Archduke Ludwig,”the least gifted of Francis I’s brothers” ran the bureaucracy

again,reforms were not on the agenda

Ferdinand was convinced to abdicate in favor of his nephew Franz Josef in 1848

the Austrian mission

One of Metternich’s foreign colleagues said on one occasion that Austria was Europe’s House of Lords, meaning, no doubt, that its function was to restrain the passions and undo the mistakes of the common run of petty states in Europe

Craig, p. 54

Germany, 1815-1848

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (1778-1852)

studied theology and philology at Göttingen

joined Prussian army after Jena, 1806

humiliated at Prussia’s defeat, taught gymnastics and nationalism to restore national pride

first Turnplatz in Berlin, 1811; invented parallel bars, balance beam, vaulting horse, and horizontal bars--> Turnvater Jahn

organized the Wartburgfest, 1817

WartburgfestStudentenzug, 18 Oktober 1817

terrorism19th century

styleAugust von Kotzebue(1761-1819)

(1795-1820)

Carlsbad Decrees(20 September 1819)

outlawed the Burschenschaften

provided for university inspectors

established press censorship

led to the expulsion of reformers throughout the Germanies

French war scare of 1840

“Here for the first time the Germans were one”--Heinrich von

Treitschke

Die Wacht am Rhein, Max Schneckenburger

Deutschland über Alles, Hoffmann von Fallersleben

IV. France, 1815-48

IV. France, 1815-48Restoration?

Louis XVIII (1755-1795-1814-1824)

“sober good sense … in the first years of his reign”

granted his subjects the constitutional charter

steered a middle course between democracy and absolutism

after the assassination of the Duc d’ Berry (1820) he became a reactionary

authorized the Spanish expedition (1823)

Le Charte (the Charter)(1814-1848)

insistence of the Allied Powers

Chamber of Peers and Chamber of DeputiesPeers = hereditary (House of Lords)

Deputies = limited franchise (100,000 of 28 million)

Chamber of Peers and Chamber of DeputiesPeers = hereditary (House of Lords)

Deputies = limited franchise (100,000 of 28 million)

civil libertiesequality before the law

freedom of religion and the press

civil and military “careers open to talent”

Charles X(1757-1824-1830)

younger brother to both Louis XVI and XVIII, comte d’ Artois,last king of the senior Bourbon

triumph of the “Ultras”

favors for the Church:

certain kinds of sacrilege punishable by death

University of Paris put under the archbishop, some courses suspended, “dangerous to morals”

favors for the nobility:

émigrés indemnified for losses during the Revolution

attempted to restore primogeniture

began the conquest of Algeria (1829-1830)

Jules Auguste Armand Marie, Prince de Polignac (1780-1847)

8th Prime Minister of France (August, 1829 - July 29, 1830)

Ultra-Royalist, former émigré

opponent of the Charter

visionary, claimed frequent conversations with the Blessed Mother

parliamentary crisis-->July Ordinances

Revolution of 1830

Eugène Delacroix, La Liberté guidant le peuple, 1830

Auguste de Marmont(1774-1852)

"Sire, it is no longer a riot, it is a revolution. It is urgent for Your Majesty to take measures for pacification. The honour of the crown can still be saved. Tomorrow, perhaps, there will be no more time... I await with impatience Your Majesty's orders."

--28 July 1830

France 1815-48the July Monarchy

NOTE-not King of France, King of the French

Louis-Philippe (1773-1830-1848-1850)

Prince du Sang (of the blood) of the Orleanist branch of the Bourbon line

his father had sided with the revolution, nicknamed Philippe Égalité, and Père du Peuple (Father of the People)

served in the revolutionary army until the Terror (1793-94) then exiled

travelled extensively, including four years in the U.S.

returned to court after 1815, but part of the liberal opposition

Freedom of the Press

François Guizot (1787-1874)

historian, orator, statesman

Minister of Education, 1832-37

Foreign Minister, 1840-47

Prime Minister, September 19, 1847- February 23, 1848

limited vote to men of property, advising those who wanted to vote, enrichissez-vous, (“get rich”)

his January ban on political meetings was the catalyst of the revolution of 1848

V. Great BritainSocial Unrest and Social Compromise

1815-1848

V. Great BritainSocial Unrest and Social Compromise

1815-1848

Houses of Parliament, built 1834-64

the Peterloo Massacre16 August 1819

St Peter’s Field, Manchester15 killed, 400-700 injured

the increasingly constitutional monarchy

the Great Reform Bill of 1832

“rotten” & “pocket” boroughs

Catholic Emancipation

Ireland and Poland, the two “martyr nations”

Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847)

opposed violent revolution

elected to Commons, 1828 after “monster” outdoor rallies

Catholic Relief Act, 1829

O’Connell Monument, Dublin

from 0.5% to 2%

reduced the number of “rotten boroughs”

increased the electorate

altered the balance between:

Lords and Commons

Tories and Whigs

advanced democratization

“squirearchy” vs commercial & industrial interests

“Tories” (Conservatives) vs “Whigs (Liberals)

Municipal Reform Act, 1835

repeal of the Corn Laws (grain tariffs)

Chartism and Republicanism

Anti Corn Law League (1839)

GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD

mass politics in the 1840s“the most effective propaganda machine that Britain had ever seen”

financed by contributions from the industrialists

the grain tariff was the heart of the protective system which the “Free Traders” wanted to dismantle

Tory landed interests held out against them until 1845 when the Potato Famine added its pathos to the demand for cheap food imports

Tory Prime Minister Robert Peel, “traitor to his party” and the Duke of Wellington, “traitor to his class,” led the fight to repeal

thus began government’s transition from an agricultural to a commercial and industrial economy

Anti-Corn Law Petition

Chartism

their demands

universal suffrage for all men age 21 and over

equal-sized electoral districts

voting by secret ballot

end of the property qualification for Parliament

pay for Members of Parliament

annual election of Parliament

Europe, East and West

on the eve of the Revolution of 1848 there were major differences

the farther east one went, the less:

representative government

urban, industrial development

the fewer individual liberties