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Summary  At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Era, Europe's leaders worked to reorganize Europe and create a stable  balance of power. After that Congress, The Austrian diplomat Metternich would call several more congresses to try and preserve

European stability: the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818), the Congress of Troppau (1820),and the Congress of Verona (1822). The Congress System that Metternich established wasReactionary , that is, its goal was to preserve the power of the old, monarchical regimes inEurope. Revolution was brewing, however. In Britain, the Industrial Revolution continued toaccelerate, causing economic transformations that had serious political and socialimplications. All across Europe, and especially in France and Britain, the rising Bourgeoisieclass challenged the old monarchical Reactionaries with their Liberal ideology. "Isms"abounded. Ideologies such as Radicalism, Republicanism, and Socialism rounded intocoherent form. In response to events like the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, worker consciousnessof a class struggle between Proletariat and Bourgeoisie began to emerge. The Bourgeoisie wasclearly the ascendant class between 1815 and 1848; the Proletariat began to gain a sense of similar unification. Another "Ism" coming into its own at this time was Romanticism, theintellectual response to the French Enlightenment rationalism and emphasis on Reason. At

the same time, Romantic thinkers, artists, and writers posed powerful challenge to theEnlightenment emphasis on rationalism and reason. Such artists and philosophers asHerder, Hegel, Schiller, Schinckel, Percy Bysshe Shelley , Mary Shelley, John Keats,  William

 Wordsworth, and Delacroix, to name a few, achieved remarkable intellectual and artisticheights and gained a wide following throughout Europe, particularly in Germany, Prussia,England, and to a lesser extent France. Of all the "Isms" competing in this period, perhapsthe greatest was Nationalism, an ideology, like Romanticism, which reacted against theuniversalist claims of French enlightenment thought. Whereas Romanticism often focusedon intellectual and artistic matters, Nationalism, which proclaimed the unique character of ethnic and linguistic groups, was more overtly political. The Nationalist movements inGermany and Italy, which involved an effort at national unification, and those in the AustrianEmpire, which involved efforts to carve the Austrian Empire into ethnically or linguistically defined states, created a great amount of instability in Europe. In 1830, the variousideological beliefs resulted in a round of revolutions. These revolutions began when the ParisMob, manipulated by the interests of the Bourgeoisie, deposed the Bourbon monarchy of Charles X and replaced him with Louis Philippe. In the rest of Europe, the French exampletouched off various nationalist revolts; all were successfully quelled by conservative forces.Britain notably escaped any outbreak of violence, but it by no means escaped change: the

 battle between the formerly dominant landed aristocracy and the newly ascendantmanufacturers led to the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832, which partially remedied theRotten Boroughs and gave the manufactures an increased amount of Parliamentary representation. The working class benefited from the growing class rivalry betweenaristocracy and middle-class. Often the aristocrats would ally with the working class to actagainst the manufacturers, forcing the manufacturers, in turn, to ally with the workersagainst the aristocrats. Although the working class did not yet have the vote in England, they 

 were pushing for universal adult male suffrage in the late 1830s and early 1840s via theChartist Movement. While this movement failed in the short- term, its demands wereeventually adopted. In the rest of Europe, political change would not happen so peacefully. In1848, the February Revolution  broke out in Paris, toppling Louis Philippe and grantinguniversal suffrage to adult French men, who elected Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (NapoleonIII) solely on name-recognition. Europe once again took its cue from Paris, and revolutions

 broke out nearly everywhere in Europe during 1848. Rebellion in Germany led to theestablishment of the Frankfurt Assembly, which was plagued by internal squabbling and wasunable to unify Germany. In the Austrian Empire, the various ethnicities revolted, and the

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Magyar nationalists led by Louis Kossuth pushed for an independent Hungary. Rioting in Vienna frightened Metternich so much he fled the city. All of the Eastern European rebellions were ultimately put down, a triumph for the reactionaries. However, the events of 1848frightened the rulers of Europe out of their complacency and forced them to realize thatgradually, they would have to change the nature of their governments or face futurerevolutions.

ContextThe years from 1815 to 1848 provided a much-needed respite from the endless wars of theNapoleonic Era. From 1799 to 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte rampaged through Europe,conquering a vast empire and spreading the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment and laws

 based on them (the Napoleonic Code). When a coalition of European powers finally managedto defeat Napoleon for the last time, all the rulers wanted to do was return Europe "tonormal". They didn't want Napoleon-style emperors marching their armies all over Europe,they didn't want legal equality among the classes, and they didn't want revolutions every few 

 years. In short, they wanted stability, and the reorganization of Europe undertaken at theCongress of Vienna was aimed at creating that stability. However, as much as the monarchsof Europe and their advisors wanted stability, there were several historical dynamics at thetime that ensured that Europe could not "stay the same". In Great Britain, the enclosure movement of the early 18th century had created a large, socially mobile labor force, leadingto the Industrial Revolution in British manufacturing during the 18th and 19th centuries. The

 years from 1815 to 1848 marked a period of particular industrial acceleration. Whiledramatically increasing the general power and wealth of England, the industrial revolutionalso particularly brought new wealth to the Bourgeoisie class of entrepreneurs andmanufacturers. With their wealth came both influence and a desire for greater influence; themiddle class demanded increased political representation and power. The middle class alsodeveloped a liberal ideology involving laissez faire economics, which they tried to make thedominant ideology in England. The battle between the once dominant aristocracy and therising Bourgeoisie would open a floodgate of reforms, and this process would soon bereplicated in the rest of Western Europe. Also during this period, a young intellectualmovement called Romanticism, which was a response to French Enlightenment Rationalism,held sway in Germany, Britain, and to an extent France. Romanticism challenged the ideal of 

universal standards for all mankind, and led to the glorification of the unique "nationalgenius" of each ethnic and linguistic group. Thus, it was also during 1815 to 1848 that themodern phenomenon of nationalism was explicitly formulated. Tired of existing as a loosefederation, many people in the fragmented German states hoped for German unification. The

 various Italian states sought Italian unification. Numerous groups within the ethnically diverse Austrian Empire dreamed of forming their own nation. The possibility of nationalistsachieving their goals greatly frightened the reactionary rulers of Europe, who knew how destabilizing these changes might be. Thus, the years from 1815 to 1848, though not plagued

 by rampant wars, can be seen as a more subtle battle between conflicting worldviews. On oneside were the powerful and entrenched members of the Old Regime, who opposed change of any kind. On the other side were the forces of change: the bourgeoisie created by thedynamics of the Industrial Revolution, liberals, socialists, republicans, radicals, romantics,and nationalists. The struggle of ideas erupted in the form of various small-scale revolutions,

first in 1830 and then on a more widespread scale in 1848, the year of revolutions. Althoughthe revolutionaries were disappointed by results of 1848, ultimately change was on the way.

 And what would replace the old guard? The new systems, which are the "old regime" in ourown time, owe a great deal to the then-revolutionary concepts developed in the eraimmediately following the Napoleonic Wars. The period from 1815 to 1848 was an importantcrucible in which were forged many modern ideologies, from classical "liberalism" (today'sconservatism) to communism. In some respects, the result of this battle between ideologiesthat reached fever pitch in the early 19th century is still being resolved today.

Important Terms, People, and Events

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TermsBourgeoisie - Term used to refer to the "middle class." In the 19th century concept of classstruggle, the bourgeoisie were those who owned the means of production and the proletariatconsisted of their workers.Bund - A confederation of the various fragmented German states in the period after theCongress of Vienna (1815).

Burschenschaft - Student political groups that formed at German Universities beginningaround 1815. These groups were expressions of German nationalism.Capitalism - Generally middle-class economic ideology emphasizing free markets, theownership of private property , and the accumulation of  wealth by enterprising

 businesspeople.Carbonari - Liberal, Nationalist secret society in Italy in the first half of the 19th century.They sought a unified Italy under governments different from those the Congress of Viennahad imposed on them.Cato Street Conspiracy  - Conspiracy of British Radicalism, plotting to assassinate theTory cabinet. When the conspiracy was discovered in 1820, several conspirators wereexecuted.Chartist Movement - Reform movement in Britain of the 1830s and 1840s that demandedprogressive political reforms like universal adult male suffrage and the right of working- class

people to serve in Parliament. Although it failed at the time, the goals of Chartism wereeventually reached.Congress System - Term referring to the Reactionary method for maintaining politicalcontrol; Metternich called a series of congresses between conservative leaders during the

 years from 1815 and 1848. These congresses included the Congress of Vienna, the Congressof Aix-la-Chapelle, the Congress of Troppau, and the Congress of Verona.Conservatism - British reactionary philosophy supporting monarchy and old ways.Championed by Edmund Burke, who had been horrified by the French Revolution, Conservatism argued for prudent and gradual change.Corn Law  - First passed in 1815, these laws put high tariffs on grain coming into England.This protected the profits of the land-owning aristocrats, but also increased food prices,hurting both workers and their employers, who had to pay higher wages if the price of bread

 went up. It is important to realize that in the British usage here, "Corn" refers to grains ingeneral, not the kind of Corn (Maize) of which Americans usually think.Dialectic - Theory of thought and historical progress in which opposites are created, andthen reconciled to create a synthesis. This approach was pioneered by Hegel.Holy Alliance - In 1815, Alexander I started the Holy Alliance to uphold Christian values.However, it became a common name by which the reactionary Congress System was referredto as a whole.

 Laissez Faire  - In French, it means "allow to do". This economic philosophy suggests thatif government interferes in the economy as little as possible (takes a "hands off" approach)markets will equilibrate and the economy will run as smoothly as possible.Liberalism - 19th century ideology that sought self-government, increased male suffrage,and legal equality for all and free-market economic policies. 19th century "liberalism" is a farcry from what "liberalism" means today. Because 19th century "liberalism" ultimately 

triumphed in Western Europe and the United States, 19th century "liberalism" is actually closer to what is "conservative" in our own time.Manchester - Industrial city in Northern England, which greatly increased in populationduring the Industrial Revolution. Because of the Rotten Boroughs, its interests wereunderrepresented in Parliament during the early 19th century.Monroe Doctrine - American policy announced in 1823 in which President Monroedemanded that Europe not interfere with goings-on in the Western Hemisphere. Monroe's

 warning was initially followed not because of fear of the United States, but because the otherEuropean powers knew Britain's Navy would stop any further colonial adventurism in theNew World.

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Nationalism - Modern movement in which countries engineer a sense of unity andcommon purpose among a large nation. The people in these nationalist countries develop astrong sense of loyalty to their nation. Though it seems automatoc to most people in themodern world, nationalism really developed throughout Europe only in the early 19thcentury.Pan-Slavism - Movement that seeks to unify the Slavs, an ethnic classification in Eastern

Europe that includes Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs,Croats, Slovenes, and Macedonians.Proletariat - In the 19th century, a term developed to refer to the working class.Proletariats were employed by, and involved in class struggle with, the bourgeoisie.Radicalism - Anti-Church, anti-Monarchy reform group in 19th century England, largely 

 based on the ideas of Jeremy Bentham. Unconcerned by tradition, the British radicalschallenged the old ways.Reactionary  - Having to do with what is opposed to change and progress. In 19th century Europe, the Reactionary cause was championed by Metternich, who wanted the old regimesof Europe to stay in power.Republicanism - French equivalent of British Radicalism, Republicanism glorified thesocial leveling accomplished by the French Revolution.Romanticism - Intellectual movement begun in reaction to the dominance of 

Enlightenment Reason. Romanticism criticized Reason, suggesting that it could not answerall questions. Leading Romantic artists and writers included Hegel, Schiller, Schinckel,Keats,  Wordsworth, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Delacroix.Rotten Boroughs - In England in the 19th century, voting districts were so poorly drawnthat a city with half-a-million people like Manchester received only as much representationin Parliament as a small village. Though the Industrial Revolution rapidly changed thepopulation distribution in England, the voting districts lagged behind, giving advantage inParliament to wealthy landowners while under representing the new manufacturing cities.Socialism - Economic ideology, opposed to Capitalism and Laissez Faire, that holds thatkey industry and the means of production should be centrally controlled by the government,so that workers will not be abused by bourgeoisie factory owners.Textile - Threads, cloth and clothing. Early in the Industrial Revolution, textiles were themainstay of British factory production.

Tory  - 18th and early 19th century British political party, opposed to the Whigs. Althoughthe Tories comprised various factions, the party was opposed to Parliamentary reforms.Utility  - Utility is the measure of good or usefulness of something. It is often held thatsomething should be done if it will maximize the overall utility of society. This belief isformulated as "Utilitarianism," and is described in John Stuart Mill's book Utilitarianism.

 Volksgeist - German Romantic idea, suggested by Herder, that each nation has its ownparticular "special genius". Thus, what is right for one nation may not be right for anothernation, and, according to German Romantics and Nationalists, each "nation" should strive toexpress its individual Volksgeist. 

People Alexander I - Russian Czar from 1801 to 1825. He briefly allied with Napoleon  beforeturning against him. Though Alexander envisioned himself as an "enlightened despot",

Metternich managed to move him towards becoming a Reactionary after the Congress of  Vienna in 1815.Jeremy Bentham - English philosopher, a father of Radicalism and Utilitarianism. Oneexample of his unconventional nature: when he died in 1832, he had his body preserved andplaced on display in a cabinet in University College, London, where it remains to this day.Simon Bolivar - South American freedom fighter who led the liberation of several Spanishcolonies around 1820. He subsequently became a South American dictator, with hopes of uniting a South American empire.Louis Napoleon Bonaparte - After the February Revolution in Paris in 1848, LouisNapoleon was elected President in France simply on the basis of name recognition among the

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newly enfranchised voters. He soon declared himself Emperor Napoleon III. Franceprospered under him for two decades.Bourbon - European royal family, which had kings on the thrones of France, Spain, andNaples at various times during the early 19th century.Edmund Burke - 18th century thinker, statesman, and writer, whose 1790 work,

 Reflections on the Revolution in France, became the classic text of British Conservatism.

George Canning - British foreign secretary and champion of Liberalism in foreign affairsform 1822 to 1827. Canning briefly served as Prime Minister in 1827.Castlereagh - British foreign secretary from 1812-1822. Castlereagh was a major architectof the new European balance of power established at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.Charles X - Successor to Louis XVIII, Bourbon king of France from 1824 to his overthrow in the July Revolution of 1830. He believed in the divine-right of kings, and was unable tocope with the new, post-revolutionary realities of France.Eugene Delacroix - French Romantic painter, who painted exotic scenes, and whose useof color over line inspired the Impressionists.Ferdinand - Austrian Hapsburg Emperor who abdicated during the revolution of 1848,turning the throne over to Franz Joseph.Charles Fourier - French theorist of Socialism who wanted to reorganize society intocooperative "phalanxes".

Franz Joseph - Hapsburg Emperor of Austria from 1848 to 1916. In 1867 he divided theEmpire into Austria and Hungary, creating the "Dual Monarchy".Goethe - 18th and 19th century German writer, who worked in nearly every imaginablefield, from science to drama. Considered one of the greatest German writers, Goethe wasessential in the Nationalist construction of a German Volksgeist.Hapsburg - Perhaps the greatest royal family of modern European history, the Hapsburgdynasty once controlled Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire underone man. By the 19th century, they only really controlled the Austrian Empire. EmperorsFerdinand and Franz Joseph were both Hapsburgs.Hegel - G.W.F. Hegel was a 19th century Romantic German philosopher who held thatprogress is made through conflicting opposites being resolved, via the dialectic, in asynthesis. See Introductory Lectures on History .Louis Kossuth - Magyar (Hungarian) Nationalist who briefly controlled Hungary in 1848

and 1849, but was crushed by the Russian army.Louis Philippe - Also called the Duke of Orleans, Louis Philippe ruled France as King from1830 to 1848, when his government toppled in the February Revolution. Louis Philippe drew most of his support from the Bourgeoisie; he alienated and marginalized the growing French

 working class, leading to his overthrow in 1848.Louis XVIII - Bourbon king of France from 1815 to his death in 1824, during which time heproved moderately Liberal, allowing an advisory Parliament to meet.Magyars - Dominant linguistic and ethnic group in Hungary.Robert Malthus - Early British economist. His most famous idea was that increasing thefood supply would always increase the population, meaning that eradicating the suffering of the lower classes was impossible.Karl Marx - German economist and philosopher who, along with Friedrich Engels, wroteThe Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital while in living in England. The ideology of Communism draws its inspiration from Marx and Engels' work, which was influenced by thesocial environment in Western Europe during the first half of the 19th century.Joseph Mazzini - Italian Nationalist from Genoa who founded Young Italy in 1832, amovement that would inspire nationalist groups throughout Europe.Metternich - Austrian foreign minister, Metternich was Europe's arch-Reactionary. He

 was a leading architect of the balance of power developed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815,and he called the great powers to various Congresses throughout the coming decade to putdown European rebellions wherever they started. In 1848, during a revolution in Vienna,Metternich fled the city.

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Nicholas I - Succeeded Alexander I, serving as Russian Czar from 1825 to 1855. Nicholas'more liberal brother Constantine was favored as successor by Russian revolutionaries, butNicholas used the army to destroy this rebellion.Robert Owen - Manchester manufacturer who grew upset by the conditions endured by 

 workers in Industrial Revolution Britain, and became a reformer.Robert Peel - Britain's conservative prime minister from 1834 to 1835, and from 1841 to

1846. Peel oversaw the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, partially due to the ongoing IrishFamine.David Ricardo - Early British economist who helped develop "Classical" economics. He

 was responsible for formulating the "Iron Law" of wages, which stated that any attempt toimprove workers' lots would lead to such a population increase that the increasedcompetition for labor would ultimately bring workers' wages back down. This argument heldthat no improvement in workers' lives was possible, so the government should not botherlegislating wage increases.Saint-Simon - French theorist of Socialism, he developed a concept of "ChristianSocialism" emphasizing the brotherhood of all men. His conception included thecentralization of industry and equal sharing of its profits.Jose de San Martin - Much like Simon Bolivar, Jose de San Martin was a South Americanmilitary leader involved in the liberation of several South American countries from Spanish

colonial rule.Friedrich Schiller - German Romantic dramatist of the late 18th and early 19th century.Karl Friedrich Schinkel - German Romantic architect who worked both in classicalforms; a leader in the Gothic Revival.Percy Bysshe Shelley  - Influential British Romantic poet, married to Mary Shelley. Readthe SparkNote on Shelley's Poetry .Mary Shelley  - British Romantic writer, wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and author of Frankenstein (1818), a classic allegory of the flaws of Reason and Science.Slavs - An ethnic and linguistic classification in Eastern Europe and Western Asia thatincludes Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes,and Macedonians.

EventsCarlsbad Decrees - 1819 regulation in Germany that outlawed the Burschenschaft studentgroups, pushing them underground. It also established censorship, and government controlof universities. Metternich, from his position of influence in Austria, helped get this measurepassed in the German Bund.Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle - 1818 Congress in which the European powers agreed to

 withdraw their armies occupying France. Alexander I tried to convince the other powers toform an international military coalition to suppress Revolution, but Castlereagh refusedBritish participation.Congress of Troppau - 1820 Congress, dealing with collapse of the government in Naples.

 At the Congress, Metternich received permission to restore the old government using the Austrian army.Congress of Verona - Congress called by Metternich to deal with revolutionary stirringsin Spain and Greece. France sent an army into Spain to quell the rebellion there. Although

 Alexander I expressed an interest in putting down the South American revolutions of SimonBolivar and Jose de San Martin, Castlereagh promised British naval opposition. Verona wasthe last international Congress held in the period from 1815-1848.Congress of Vienna - 1814-1815 meeting of the Great powers that led to thereorganization of Europe in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars.Decembrist Revolt - The 1825 death of Czar Alexander I of Russian sparked a successiondispute between Alexander's two sons. Constantine, the younger brother of Nicholas,received some support because he was known to be the more Liberal of the two brothers. Therevolt in favor of Constantine was put down by the rightful heir, Nicholas I, and the army.

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Enclosure Movement - 18th century movement among wealthy British landed aristocratsto rationalize their farms. Using new farming technology and systems of crop rotation, they forced the agrarian poor off the old "village commons" that now became "enclosed" as privateproperty. The jobless poor ended up constituting the proletariat working class in theupcoming Industrial Revolution.February Revolution - 1848 Revolution in Paris, primarily by lower-class workers, who

overthrew Louis Philippe, established universal adult male suffrage, and elected LouisNapoleon Bonaparte president. Along with overthrowing Louis Philippe's regime, theFebruary Revolution sparked other revolutions throughout Europe.Frankfurt Assembly  - From 1848 to 1849, a group of German bourgeoisie intellectualsand professionals who attempted (and failed) to create a unified German state.Gothic Revival - 1830s movement in architecture when buildings in the Gothic (highmedieval) style became popular. It was in this period that the British Parliament building

 was built. This was the architectural manifestation of Romanticism. Where theEnlightenment had looked down on the Middle Ages as a "dark" period of ignorance, theRomantics celebrated the Medieval period for its spiritualism, depth, and sense of adventure.Industrial Revolution - 18th and 19th century development, beginning in Britain, in

 which manufacturing was increasingly done in factories by machines, rather than in small workshops by hand labor. The Industrial Revolution, in combination with the earlier the

Enclosure Movement, radically reshaped the world economy and social and politicaldevelopment.July Revolution - 1830 overthrow of Charles X's oppressive regime; ultimately, LouisPhilippe became the new French king.Peterloo Massacre - In 1819, manufacturers organized around 80,000 workers to protestthe Corn Laws. When some of the peaceful protesters were shot, the event was dubbed the"Peterloo Massacre", likening the British government's shameful use of violence on apeaceful crowd to the recent defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.Reform Bill of 1832 - This British bill simplified voting requirements, though it actually didn't enfranchise many new people. Most importantly, it partially corrected the problem of Rotten Boroughs, giving a much larger amount of Parliamentary power to previously under-represented manufacturers like those Manchester.

Timeline1814-1815: Congress of Vienna 1815: Corn Law in Great BritainDecember 1816: Corn Law riots in London1817: Buschenschaft holds congress at Wurtburg1818: Prussian Zollverein created1818: International Congress held at  Aix-la-Chapelle 1818: Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein 1819: Metternich initiates Carlsbad Decrees 1819: Peterloo Massacre 1820: Several members of Cato Street Conspiracy executed1820s: British Radicalism gets underway 1820: Louis XVIII's nephew (the Duke de Berry) assassinated

1820: Te Congress of Troppau 1822: The Congress of Verona 1823: Munroe Doctrine1824: Louis XVIII dies, Charles X  becomes French king1825: Decembrist Revolt put down in Russia, Nicholas I comes to power1825: Robert Owen founds New Harmony, Indiana1827: Anglo-French-Russian navy destroys Turkish fleet, helping Greek nationalists 1829: Nations of Europe recognize an independent Greece

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1829: First truly successful locomotive tested1830s: Gothic Revival in architectureJuly 1830: Charles X passes "Four Ordinances" in FranceJuly 1830: July Revolution in France. Charles X abdicates, Louis Philippe

 becomes French king1831: Mazzini founds Young Italy 

1832: Goethe completes Faust  1832: Parliament passes Reform Bill1833: Factory Act restricts child labor (Great Britain)1834: Poor Laws passed (Great Britain)1838: Anti-Corn Laws League1838: Chartist movement begins1839: Chartist movement gains 1 million signatures1840: Frederick  William IV comes to power in Prussia1840s: Corn Laws repealed1840s: Railway construction begins in England and Europe1842: Chartist movement gains 3 million signatures1847: Ten Hour Act limits women and child labor to ten hours a day (GreatBritain)

January 1848: Marx and Engels publish Communist Manifesto February 1848: February Revolution in Paris, barricades in the streets1848: Louis Napoleon Bonaparte becomes President of FranceMarch 1848: Metternich, terrified of unrest, flees ViennaMarch 15, 1848: Hungary granted independence within the Austrian Empire,revolutions begin throughout Eastern EuropeJune 1848: Pan-Slavic Conference held in PragueMay 1848: Frankfurt Assembly  December 1848: Ferdinand of Austria abdicates, Franz Joseph becomes emperor

Britain's Industrial Revolution (1780-1850)Summary 

 Although Western Europe had long had the basic trappings of  capitalism (private property ,

 wealth accumulation, contracts), the Industrial Revolution fueled the creation of a truly modern capitalist system. Widespread credit,  business corporations, investments and large-scale stock markets all become common. Britain led the way in this transformation.By the 1780s, the British Industrial Revolution, which had been developing for severaldecades, began to further accelerate. Manufacturing, business, and the number of wagelaborers skyrocketed, starting a trend that would continue into the first half of the 19thcentury. Meanwhile, technology changed: hand tools were replaced by steam- or electricity-driven machines. The economic transformation brought about the British industrialrevolution was accompanied by a social transformation as well. Population boomed, anddemographics shifted. Because industrial resources like coal and iron were in Central andNorthern England, a shift in population from Southern England northward took place.Northern cities like Manchester grew tremendously. These changes in social anddemographic realities created vast pressure for political change as well. The first act to

protect workers went into affect in 1802 (though in practice it did very little). Pressure toredress the lack of representation for the new industrial cities and the newly wealthy industrial manufacturers also began to build. Meanwhile, industrialists developed anideology called Laissez Faire  based on Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) and continued

 by  David Ricardo and Robert Malthus. Based on this, the discipline known as "economics"developed, largely to give the manufacturers a basis for arguing for little or no regulation of industry. Instead of government interference, these economists argued that a free market, in

 which everyone followed their own self- interest, would maximize the nation's utility .

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Britain, with its head start in manufacturing, its many world markets, and its dominant navy, would dominate industry for most of the 19th century. Towards the end of that century, theUnited States and Germany would begin to challenge Britain's industrial power.

Commentary  Among the Western European countries, Britain was the ideal incubator for the IndustrialRevolution because an "Agricultural Revolution" preceded it. After the 1688 "Glorious

Revolution", the British kings lost power and the aristocratic landholders gained power. Thelandholders tried to rationalize their landholdings and started the Enclosure Movement to

 bring more and more of their own land under tighter control, a process that went onthroughout the 1700s. This policy had two main effects: it increased the productivity of theland, and transformed the people who used to work land into an unemployed, labor class of poor in need of work. Thus, the first factories had a ready labor- supply in Britain that wasnot available in other nations. Important inventions like the "Spinning Jenny" to produce

 yarn began to be made in 1760s, and soon the British textile industry was booming, aided by Eli Whitney's invention of the "Cotton Gin" in America, which provided a ready source of cotton. The Industrial Revolution represented a shift in influence away from the traditionalpower-holders in England. Aristocratic rule was no longer supreme, for "upstart"manufacturers were now often more wealthy and more important to the nation's overall well

 being than the landed gentry. They also employed a far greater percentage of the national

economy. However, the aristocratic landholders did not entirely lose out: they maintainedsome power, and only grudgingly gave it up to business interests. Often, the aristocracy,trying to take power away from the manufacturers, would ally with the working class. As bothsides, aristocrats and manufacturers, competed for the support of the workers, reforms inBritain gradually took place through Parliamentary deal- making without the need for a

 bloody revolution. In its impact on human societies, the industrial revolution was probably the most important change in its era, more important, perhaps, than any events in the lastfew thousand years. The Industrial Revolution allowed increasing urbanization and greatly increased the overall wealth and production power of humanity, although not everyonealways shared in the benefits of industrialization equally. Though industrialization was mostprominent in Europe, its transformative powers must be seen as a theme through the periodof 1815-1848. Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution went hand-in-hand with the WesternEuropean countries' liberal traditions. Many of the same principles underlying the FrenchRevolution were being developed via the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Industrializingnations developed middle classes who began to wield political clout. Further, the IndustrialRevolution would give Western Europe the economic system and technology to dominatemuch of the world in the colonial period towards the end of the 19th century. The countriesthat did not transition to industrial systems very quickly got left behind, and often ended upas satellites to the major powers. It would be some time before workers developed a counter-ideology of their own. Yet as manufacturing brought hundreds of thousands of workers intothe cities, they started thinking about organizing to protect their own political interests. By 1825, the workers in the industrializing nations would become a social and political force of their own.

Europe After NapoleonSummary 

 After Napoleon's domination of Europe from around 1800 to 1814, the rulers of Europe wanted to insure that no one would ever be able to come so close to taking over all of Europeagain. To this end, the diplomats from all of the Great Powers met at the Congress of Viennato negotiate from 1814 to 1815. There they reorganized European boundaries in hopes of creating a stable Europe where coalitions of nations could always ally to defeat one nationthat got out of hand. The rulers after Napoleon were dedicated to stopping revolution (likethe French Revolution in their own countries. Louis XVIII, whose brother Louis XVI had

 been executed during the French Revolution, certainly didn't want another revolution inFrance. The Tory government in Great Britain was archconservative and greatly opposed

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social upheaval. Metternich, the foreign minister in Austria, was willing to do anything tostabilize Europe and preserve Hapsburg power.

FranceIn France, Louis XVIII did his best to balance the tense situation following Napoleon'sdefeat. On both sides, Louis granted amnesties, hoping to "start over" in France. The wealthy,however, remembering the leveling effects of the Revolution, became passionately anti-

revolutionary, or reactionary . The reactionary element only increased after the King'snephew, the Duke of Berry, was assassinated in 1820. In 1824, Louis XVIII died, and wasreplaced by the assassinated Duke's father, Charles X. Unlike the moderate Louis, Charles

 was a hard-core reactionary, and hated all the changes taking place in France, even the onesLouis had initiated. Charles believed himself to be a monarch appointed by God, and hestarted trampling on basic elements of liberalism like the French constitution.

PolandPoland was a state recreated by the Congress of Vienna and ruled by Czar Alexander I.Initially, its government was quite liberal; though ruled by  Alexander, Poland had aconstitution. Alexander considered himself an "enlightened despot" and spoke often of granting freedom to the people, but he soon found that when he did give the people someself-government, they didn't always agree with what he wanted them to do. Liking liberalreforms in theory more than practice, Alexander increasingly curtailed Poland's right of self-

government. As a result of its frustrated desire for self-rule, Polish Nationalism  began to rise.Secret societies developed, and a university movement (which Alexander put down in the1820s) got underway.

Germany In Germany, nationalists motivated by Romantic ideas such as the belief in a special German

 Volksgeist hated the results of the Congress of Vienna, since the ongress split up into a loosefederation called the Bund. Dissatisfaction centered among students and intellectuals, who

 began to form highly nationalist clubs called Burschenschaft. In 1817, the Burschenschaftheld a national meeting at Wartburg, convincing Metternich that German nationalism  was aforce to be reckoned with. When the German nationalists began assassinating reactionary leaders, Metternich intervened by pushing the Carlsbad Decrees through the Bund in 1819.The decrees outlawed the Burschenschaft and pushed them underground. Secondarily, the

decrees increased government regulation of the universities, limiting what was taught, andmade way for government censorship of German newspapers. The Carlsbad Decrees quietedthe German nationalist movement for about a decade.

Great BritainIn Great Britain, in 1815, the aristocrat-dominated Parliament passed the Corn Law, whichraised tariffs on grain to make imports impossible. The high tariffs also raised prices beyondthe reach of the working class. In December 1816, starving workers rioted in London.Meanwhile, in Manchester, the ascendant industrialists who dominated the city had beenhoping to get Parliamentary representation for some time. Realizing how discontented the

 workers were, the industrialists helped organize 80,000 workers to demonstrate at St. PetersField against the Corn Law and for universal male suffrage. The protest was peaceful, butBritish soldiers nonetheless fired into the crowd, killing several. The event became a nationalscandal, called the Peterloo Massacre. The Tory Parliament, frightened of the potential for

 worker revolts, passed acts in 1819 aimed at stopping mass political organization. Notappeased, a group of workers decided to try and assassinate the Tory cabinet. This group,known as the Cato Street Conspiracy, was discovered in 1820. Several members wereexecuted.

Commentary  After Napoleon, a period of Reactionary governments swept Europe. Having swung so farone way during the French Revolution and Napoleon's rule, the historical pendulum now swung back the other way, as rulers tried to prevent the "excesses" of the French Revolutionfrom happening again. Fear among the traditional rulers was not without basis, either.

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Revolution was brewing throughout Europe. Among the reactionary rulers and leaders of Europe in the post-Napoleonic era, only the liberal, progressive, and fervently Christian

 Alexander I, Czar of Russia, seemed a wild card when it came to change. He certainly wantedto rule, but he also wanted to change the world for the better. Highly educated, he saw himself as an "enlightened despot" or a "philosopher-king" able to foresee reforms that werein the best interest of all. In 1815, the rulers of Europe were all worried about what Czar

 Alexander might do. However, once Alexander found out that granting constitutions andself-government to people led to them doing things that he sometimes disagreed with, hisinterest in liberal reforms began to sour, and he fell further into the reactionary fold overtime.

 Why was Metternich so upset about possible German unification? He was afraid that apowerful and unified Germany might upset the balance of power, not to mention pose athreat to neighboring Austria. Although Austria did not have a tremendous amount of formalinfluence in the German Bund, it could put informal pressure on the German states, andMetternich did this heavily in the period to get the Carlsbad decrees passed.British Parliament designed the Corn Law (1815) to protect the profits of landed aristocratsin Britain. But the action demonstrates the degree to which Parliament was out of touch withthe social and political situation. The tariffs raised food prices, naturally affecting the poor.The raise in prices also affected the industrialist manufacturers, who had to pay their

 workers more to insure that they had people physically able to man the industrial factories. Whereas the poor had no political power, and little tendency to political action, the wealthy manufacturers had both. The teaming up of the manufacturers and poor demonstrated achanging reality in British social and political life. Parliament's eventual recognition of thischange can be seen in the Tory government's subsequent passage of a high tax onnewspapers as an attempt to limit the spread of ideas among workers. The Tory governmenteven went so far as to restrict the right of public assembly.

Metternich and his Congresses (1815-1822)Summary The Congress of Vienna established an international system of  reactionary  governmentsdedicated to maintaining a set of European boundaries, preventing revolutions and changesin government, and stopping any  one power from becoming too powerful. To this end, the

Congress powers agreed to meet whenever trouble should crop up in Europe to discuss how to fix it. The first meeting of the Congress System  was in 1818, at the Congress of   Aix-la-Chapelle. This meeting dealt with the coalition of European armies that had been occupyingFrance since Napoleon's defeat. At Aix-la-Chapelle, the powers decided to withdraw theirarmies. Alexander I, always a champion of "collective security", suggested the idea of aninternational military force, made up of troops from all nations, that would be available tosuppress revolutions wherever they appeared. The British foreign minister ViscountCastlereagh  vehemently opposed the suggestion. Alexander I's suggestion was not adopted.In 1820, as a reaction to the evident collapse of the government of Naples, Metternich calledanother meeting, the Congress of Troppau. Metternich  wanted to stop the revolution inNaples from spreading. At Troppau, Metternich met with Alexander I and managed theformerly liberal Czar to adopt a more reactionary stance. The Czar, who had seen that liberalreforms in Poland had inevitably led his subjects to disagree with him, did not need much

convincing. At Troppau, Austria, Prussia and Russia allied to restore the King of Naples.Britain, though anti-Revolutionary, did not want to be bound by continental commitments.Thus, Britain stayed out of intervention in Naples, as did France. Despite the congresses,revolutionary hotspots continued to crop up. In the early 1820s the Bourbon government of Spain seemed especially fragile. At the same time, Greek nationalists sought more actively toestablish a Greek nation in Turkey. To deal with these developments, Metternich called theCongress of Verona in 1822. The congress moved against the Greek revolutionaries, whoreally did not have the military power to take over Turkey at this time anyway. The Congress

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also allowed France to send an army into Spain to end the revolt and stabilize the Bourbon king. The revolution in Spain was quickly smashed.

Commentary The period of Metternich's congresses defined an era in which the governments in powerattempted to create a reactionary international system. This system came to be called theHoly Alliance, appropriating the name of the coalition of Christian values Alexander had

 wanted to set up at the Congress of Vienna. The Holy Alliance was also called the CongressSystem, and in general the powers involved saw revolution and change as diseases. Thereactionaries believed that if revolution cropped up in one part of Europe, it had to bedestroyed, or else would spread like some epidemic. Aix-la-Chapelle requires someexplanation. First of all, why, only three years after Napoleon, did the European powers soeasily agree to withdraw their forces from France? For one, they wanted the French to acceptLouis XVIII, and if he was backed by foreign armies, it was almost certain that the population

 would hate him. Furthermore, French banks had paid off the French war debt (France now owed the debt to its bankers, not the other powers), so there was less reason for Europeanarmies (costly to maintain in the field) to remain stationed in France. Second, why did theBritish oppose an international "peacekeeping" force to put down revolutions throughoutEurope? Were they pro-revolutionary? The answer is a resounding no. The Tory  governmentin Britain was highly conservative. However, they wanted to be able to decide British

intervention in military matters on a case-by-case basis. They did not want to commit forcesto future events that might spiral out of control. The Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle alsocontinued the discussions over ending the Atlantic slave trade that had began at the Congressof Vienna. Only Britain truly wanted to end the practice, and to that end Britain had built upa West African Squadron of ships patrolling for slavers. However, if the slavers ran up theflags of other countries, British naval vessels could not legally board them. At Aix-la-Chapelle, Britain negotiated for a "right of search" regarding European ships of othercountries, allowing them to stop slavers from falsely running a foreign flag to prevent

 boarding. The British efforts went primarily for naught: the slave trade would continuethroughout the period to 1848. Incidentally, very little of the slaves were shipped to theUnited States. Most slaves crossing the Atlantic in the 19th century were destined for Cuba orBrazil. Outside the sphere of Europe, the Spanish New World during the 1820s was in revolt,as those living in the colonies wanted increased say in their government. Simon Bolivar ledindependence movements in Venezuela and Colombia, while Jose de San Martin fought forindependence in Argentina and Chile. The two worked together in the liberation of Peru. Atthe Congress of Verona, Alexander I suggested intervening to stop the New World revolts.Britain, however, made clear it would use its sea power to oppose any such attempt. Britainknew that free New World colonies would be more likely to establish good trade relations

 with Britain than Spanish-dominated colonies, so Britain acted out of economic self-interestrather than political liberal support. And without British support, no intervention in the New 

 World could take place: the British Navy, which had established dominance since the battleof  Trafalgar, could easily prevent European troops from ever reaching South America.Furthermore, in 1823, the United States issued the Munroe Doctrine, promising to fightagainst any European power that attempted to intervene in the New World. The new Britishforeign secretary after Castlereagh, George Canning, was happy to accept this American

support, even though it was really British naval dominance that prevented the Europeanpowers from intervening in South America. The 1822 Council of Verona was the last of theinternational reactionary councils. Although the three councils subsequent to the Congress of 

 Vienna all met with short-term success, the institution of a large-scale anti-liberal systemnever materialized, largely because of the British refusal to bind itself into possible long-termcommitments. The congresses did help to create a clear definition of the forces at work inEurope leading up to 1848: Reaction versus Liberalism and Revolution.

Battling Ideologies (1815-1830)Summary 

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The years between 1815-1830 saw the rise of a number of related and competing ideologies,each holding a powerful influence in their own time. That influence often extended well intothe future, continuing to the present day. This section  will outline those ideologies.

Classical Liberalism

Beginning in Spain and France during the 1820s, liberalism soon spread to England.

Consisting of businessmen and professionals, the liberals wanted modern, efficient self-government, although they were not always for universal male suffrage. They wantedfreedom of the press and freedom of the assembly. They wanted constitutions, and LaissezFaire economic policies, such as free trade and low tariffs. They were generally againstunions.

Radicalism and RepublicanismRadicalism appeared in the 1820s in England as the "Philosophical Radicals". This principledand unconventional group, consisting partially of workers and partially of industrialists, hadits greatest leader in the colorful Jeremy Bentham. The Radicals were anti-church and anti-monarchy, and generally opposed the old ways. They were a force unto themselves until1832, after which they merged with the British Liberals. The European counterpart toRadicalism was usually referred to as Republicanism, which grew out of the FrenchRevolutionary tradition. Republicanism sought complete political equality in the form of 

universal suffrage. Republicanism opposed monarchy and the Catholic Church.SocialismCounter to liberalism was Socialism, which sought economic equality for all, and was very much against the Laissez Faire ideal of liberalism. Socialism looked at the free-marketeconomies of Western Europe in the midst of the Industrial Revolution and saw exploited

 workers leading miserable existences while manufacturers profited enormously. Socialistsfelt that with the rich profiting so much, the poor should get some of the benefits, since

 worker's labor supported the entire system. Socialists, therefore, wanted to nationalize partsof the economy, such as industrial and financial sectors, giving these areas of the economy over to government control. Thus, the benefits could be distributed more equally to the

 various members of society. For example, Robert Owen, a manufacturer in Manchester, grew upset at his worker's living conditions and began paying higher wages then other

manufacturers did, and he treated his workers well, counseling them against drinking andother vices. In fact, Owen did fairly well in business despite giving his workers a higher thanordinary wage. Owen wanted to continue reform, and eventually he became frustrated withthe slow pace of change in Britain. In 1825, he founded New Harmony, Indiana, anexperimental socialist community in the United States. Other leading socialist thinkersincluded the Frenchmen Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier. Fourier wanted to organizesociety into groups called "phalansteries", in which everyone would be able to do whatever

 work they wanted and all be paid the same wages. Some phalansteries actually were set up inthe United States.

NationalismNationalism was the most powerful of all the "isms" in this period. France and Great Britain'sstrong nation-states had inspired jealousy throughout the rest of Europe; other nations,disorganized as they were, wanted to unify. German intellectuals living in (and hating) the

loosely organized Bund provided much of the vocabulary for nationalism, stating that eachnation had a particular Volksgeist, or national spirit. Soon, just about every Europeanlanguage group wanted to have their own nation. Quickly outlawed by  reactionary  forces,nationalist groups formed secret societies such as the Italian Carbonari and GermanBuschenschaft. These societies distributed propaganda leaflets and plotted rebellions. Often,nationalism combined with other ideological issues, from liberalism to socialism.In 1831, Joseph Mazzini founded "Young Italy" as a nationalist group, which soon tried toorganize a coup in the Italian state of Sardinia. Soon exiled, Mazzini remained a leading

 writer on nationalist issues. Nationalism, though pushed underground by the Carlsbad

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Decrees, was still very much alive in Germany in the 1820s and 1830s. In Eastern Europe,the Poles wanted their own state, and in Austria, the Magyars wanted their own kingdom of Hungary. Throughout the Austrian Empire, the various language groups revived the study of their languages and hoped to carve their own nations out of the empire. A particularly potentnationalist force known as Pan-Slavism  began to circulate among various Slavs in Russia,Poland, and Austria. All of these Eastern European groups began a renewed interest in their

own cultures.ConservatismThe final important "ism" of the period was Conservatism, a reactionary philosophy supporting monarchy and the old ways. Championed by Edmund Burke, who had beenhorrified by the French Revolution, Conservatism argued for prudent and gradual change to

 be made as slowly as possible.

Commentary The period from 1815 to 1848 saw an explosion in new ideologies. These various "isms" arestill around today. Largely, the "isms" were reactions to or products of Enlightenment thinking, although they all went in a variety of different directions. Many of the new movements therefore dealt with ideas that had been around for a while; but it was only inthis period that the ideas gained formal, coherent structure. As new doctrines were born, thequestion arose: which would ultimately win out? The competition of "isms" still has not been

entirely resolved today. Liberalism in the early 19th century is not the same from what wethink of as "Liberalism" today. In fact, much of what was liberal in the 19th century (freetrade, keeping government out of business) is today considered conservative. Really,liberalism then was the ideology of the  bourgeoisie (the business and professional class), and

 was geared towards protecting bourgeois interests. Still, the liberals invariably argued that what was for their benefit was actually to the benefit of everyone. The liberal tradition of the19th century has confusingly become what is "conservative" today in the United States.Jeremy Bentham, the figurehead of the British Radicals, targeted various reforms in Britain,and did not care at all about customs or traditions. He argued against the preference given tothe Anglican Church and opposed monarchy in all forms. He wanted fair treatment of thepoor, and wanted to redistrict the Rotten Boroughs. The ultimate unconventionalist,Bentham had his body preserved and placed in a cabinet at University College, London,

 where it remains to this day. The socialist experiments of Owen (New Harmony, Indiana)and Fourier (his "phalansteries") in the United States were too marginal to have very mucheffect on events in Europe. Isolated and comprised of very committed socialists, thesesocialist experiments ended up, essentially, as dead ends. However, socialism itself helpedgive rise to one of the most powerful ideological forces of the twentieth century. SomeGerman exiles in France, especially  Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, combined the socialistideas of Owen, Fourier, and Saint-Simon with Republicanism in the 1840s to give rise to"Communism", an ideology aimed against the power of the liberal bourgeoisie. The idea thateach language group should have its own nation, to express its own volksgeist, especially frightened the Austrian Empire, of which Metternich  was foreign minister. Since Austriacontained dozens of subjugated language groups (including the Magyars, Czechs, Slovaks,Slavs, Rumanians, Serbs, Croatians, etc.), the upsurge in nationalism threatened to tear

 Austria to pieces. The Austrian government's position as prime reactionary was certainly due

in lart part to its fear of dissolution were nationalism to win out. Today, we often think of nationalism and patriotism as something that "just makes sense". "Of course everyone lovestheir country," we think, "it's always been that way." Not true. Modern nationalism on the

 wide scale it is seen today is actually a fairly new phenomenon, especially in Eastern Europe.The numerous ethnic groups there had been more or less happy to live under AustrianHapsburg rule for hundreds of years, and their languages and histories were being forgotten.Only the advent of the ideology of nationalism led to the creation of "national identities" anda "desire for self-government." Today, it is easy to think that people everywhere have always

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 wanted their own countries for their own ethnic groups. In fact, this modern conception of nationalism developed in large part between 1815 and 1848.

RomanticismSummary Romanticism, unlike the other "isms", isn't directly political. It is more intellectual. The termitself was coined in the 1840s, in England, but the movement had been around since the late18th century, primarily in Literature and Arts. In England, Wordsworth, Shelley , Keats, andByron typified Romanticism. In France, the movement was led by men like Victor Hugo, who

 wrote the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Although it knew no national boundaries,Romanticism was especially prevalent in Germany, spearheaded by artists like Goethe andthinkers such as Hegel. The basic idea in Romanticism is that reason cannot explaineverything. In reaction to the cult of rationality that was the Enlightenment, Romanticssearched for deeper, often subconscious appeals. This led the Romantics to view things witha different spin than the Enlightenment thinkers. For example, the Enlightenment thinkerscondemned the Middle Ages as "Dark Ages", a period of ignorance and irrationality. TheRomantics, on the other hand, idealized the Middle Ages as a time of spiritual depth andadventure. Looking wistfully back to the Middle Ages, the Romantic influence led to a GothicRevival in architecture in the 1830s. Gothic novels increased in popularity, and in art,

paintings of various historical periods and exotic places came into vogue. It would beimpossible to cover all of the Romantics in such a short space (and a disservice to them toattempt it), but representative examples can be given. Mary Shelley (the wife of  Percy ByssheShelley , published Frankenstein in 1818. Few would argue that it is the best work of theBritish Romantics, but it is indicative. In this story, a scientist is able to master life,animating an artificially constructed person. But this "miracle of science," far from a simplestory of man mastering nature through reason, ends up having monstrous results.In Germany art, Friedrich Schiller produced plays known for their sense of a German "Volk",or national spirit. Karl Friedrich Schinckel led the Gothic Revival movement, beginning hisfirst plans for Gothic structures as early as the 1820s. German romantic philosophy wasdominated by W.G.F. Hegel. He construed the development of the state as part of a historicalprocess, or "teleology". He is particularly famous for outlining a concept of the dialectic: themind makes progress by creating opposites, which are then combined in a synthesis. Hegel

tied his philosophy into nationalism by arguing for a German national dialectic that wouldresult in synthesis into a state. Hegel's work increased the emphasis people put on historicalstudies, and German history writing boomed. Partially as a result of Hegel's influence, theidea developed that Germany's role was to act as a counterbalance to France. Seeingthemselves as such, Germans began to feel that liberalism was not appropriate in Germany.The French had their Romantics too, though not in the same profusion as Germany. Forinstance, Romantic painting is always associated with Eugene Delacroix, who prized theemotional impact of color over the representational accuracy of line and careful design.Delacroix painted historical scenes, such as "liberty Leading the People" (1830) whichglorified the beautiful spectacle of revolution, perhaps construing it as part of the Frenchnational character. After 1848, Romanticism fell into decline.

Commentary Romanticism can be construed as an opposite to "classicism," drawing on Rousseau's notion

of the goodness of the natural. Romanticism holds that pure logic is insufficient to answer allquestions. Despite a founding French influence, Romanticism was most widespread inGermany and England, largely as a reaction to the French Enlightenment. It also was aresponse to French cultural domination, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. TheRomanticist emphasis on individualism and self-expression deeply impacted Americanthinking, especially the transcendentalism of Emerson. Instead of labeling, classifying,listing, tallying and condemning, the Romantics were relativist. That is, they looked less forultimate, absolute truth than did Enlightenment thinkers. Romantics tended to think thateverything had its own value, an "inner genius". Even in morality, the Romantics began to

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question the notion that there even was such a thing as absolute good and evil. Instead, eachsociety was seen to create its own standards of morality. Romanticism also fueled many "isms" with the basic idea that "genius" had the power to change the world. GermanRomanticism, with its idea of a Volksgeist unique to each nation (derived from Herder's

 writings), gave an intellectual basis to nationalism. The movement of Romanticismencompasses several contradictory aspects: several ideas are grouped into the movement,

and they do not always fit together. For instance, some Romantics utilized the ideology toargue for the overthrow of old institutions, while others used it to uphold historicalinstitutions, claiming that tradition revealed the "inner genius" of a people. Basically, as longas romantic intellectual passion, not rationalism and strict reason, were the basicunderpinning of an idea, than it can be classified as "Romantic." Interestingly, because of itsgeographical distribution, some historians argue that Romanticism was the secularcontinuation of the Protestant Reformation. Romanticism was most prominent in highly Protestant countries like Germany, England, and the United States. France, which had asignificant Protestant movement but which remained Catholic-dominated, had somethingless of a Romantic movement. Other solidly Catholic countries were even less impacted by Romanticism.

Change in the 1830s (1827-1832)

Summary Metternich's reactionary  Congress System began to fail in the late 1820s and the early 1830s.In Greece, nationalists  were pushing for independence from Turkey. Metternich  would haveliked to suppress this movement, but Czar Nicholas I supported the Greek movement withthe hope of increasing Russian influence in the region. Great Britain and France, hoping tostop Russian expansion in the Balkans, decided to join in. The result was an Anglo-French-Russian navy  that smashed the Turkish fleet in 1827. By 1829, an independent Greece wasinternationally recognized. In addition to the Greeks, several Balkan states gainedindependence and Egypt broke out of Ottoman rule. The stability in Europe that Metternichhad worked so had to preserve was starting to crumble. It would soon get worse. In France,the reactionary Charles X had reigned since assuming the throne in 1824. Charles X'sreactionary policies antagonized much of the French population, who were used to liberaland republican reforms. Charles thought of himself as divinely appointed to restore the "old

 ways", and he accordingly gave more power to the aristocrats and Catholic clergy. When theFrench Chamber of Deputies moved against these changes, Charles dissolved them, passingthe four "July Ordinances" in 1830. First, he dissolved the Chamber of Deputies. Second, hecensored the press. Third, he disenfranchised (took voting rights away from) the  bourgeoisie.Fourth, he called for a new election, with the bourgeoisie no longer voting. Charles actionssparked the advocates of  Republicanism into anger. The bourgeoisie and radical republicansfrom the lower classes quickly took to the streets of Paris in the July Revolution, rioting andsetting up barricades to stop the military and end traffic and commerce. Charles X quickly abdicated, and the bourgeois leaders of the rebellion moved quickly to install a constitutionalmonarchy. The revolutionary leaders brought in the Duke of Orleans, known as LouisPhilippe. He accepted constitutional monarchy and the principle of the July Revolution, andeven changed the official flag of France to the Republican tricolor. The July Revolutionrippled through Europe, starting revolutions in Belgium and Poland. Belgium's revolution

 was essentially successful. The country ended up with self-government as long as it remaineda neutral state, and the other powers agreed not to invade it. Polish nationalists, looking tothe successful revolutions in Belgium in France, also decided to revolt in 1830. Czar Nicholasquickly crushed the Polish rebellion. In Britain, the Tory  Party demonstrated an increasingsensitivity to the middle class. Foreign Minister George Canning and Robert Peel  becamemore "liberal" Tories, trying to satisfy the middle class, passing Laissez Faire laws, creating amore secular state, and even creating a police force. Problems remained, however. Mostcritical were the Corn Laws, which remained too high for manufacturers' tastes, and theRotten Boroughs, which furnished Southern England with far more political representation

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than it deserved while neglecting populous manufacturing cities like Manchester. In the1830s, a reform bill came up which would remedy these problems, but it was quashed by Prime Minister Wellington. Wellington's action led to rioting. Parliament realized it had topass the bill, which it reluctantly did in 1832. The Reform Bill of 1832 simplified voting,although maintaining a property requirement, and abolished the smaller boroughs, givingtheir seats to the large industrial cities like Manchester. As a result of the redistribution of 

British political power created by the Reform Bill of 1832, several reforms took place, beginning in 1833 with a Factory Act that limited child labor. In 1847, a Ten Hours Actpassed into law, limiting the number of hours women and children could work per day.

Commentary Spurred by the July Revolution in France, 1830 became a year of revolt. For the most part,however, those revolts resulted in little direct change. Though the revolution in Francedeposed a king, it also installed a new king: the revolution simply prevented the rights of the

 bourgeoisie from being trampled by Charles X. To the reactionary rulers of Europe the July Revolution of Louis Philippe (1830) seemed like a dire thing. To the French bourgeois, it wasmerely a necessary action to maintain the rights they considered naturally theirs, and whichthey had won nearly fifty years earlier. Working-class Republicans wanted more, and they 

 began to prepare for another revolt. The July Revolution, if sort of a disappointment toradical republicans, heartened revolutionaries throughout the rest of Europe. It sent a

message: the preemptive suppression of revolution by the Continental System was no longer working very well. Once the revolutions were in motion, however, the powers that be didoften have the strength to put them down. Russia had no problem crushing the Polishrebellion. Yet Russia's success stemmed in large part from the domestic factors limitingBritain and France from using the Polish rebellion as a lever to hurt the power of theRussians. Britain was facing its own reform movement, and Louis Philippe did not want toappear to have Napoleonic ambitions. In other words, of the conservative powers, only Metternich and Austria refused to intercede against the Russians on ideological grounds.Britain and France, had they been able, might very well have placed the contingencies of politics above the demands of conservative dogma. Surprisingly, it was in Britain, where norevolt happened, that the most change occurred. In large part this change resulted from thesocietal transformation created by the Industrial Revolution. Even so, the July Revolutioncertainly spurred the political process. The French July Revolution showed the British

 bourgeoisie that if there was a revolution by the lower classes, the bourgeoisie could quickly assume control and use a working-class revolution to middle-class advantage. The realizationthat the bourgeoisie was acquiring more and more power and could use that power to createa revolt led the Tory party to grant some concessions. The British Reform Bill of 1832 wasreally a compromise, since the reformers did not get everything they wanted. However, the

 bill was very important in that it made way for future reforms. Especially since themanufacturing cities of the North finally had substantial representation, the balance of powerin British politics changed. Wealthy businessmen became part of the political elite. Partiesreorganized, and the Whigs, a few radical Tories, and the radical industrialists formed theLiberal Party, while most of the Tories formed the Conservative Party. Under this new political configuration, and with the certain progression of the industrial revolution, furtherreforms were destined to take place. Interestingly, one aristocratic tactic to maintain power

involved allying with the workers to strike back at the wealthy liberal businessmen. Landedaristocrats now allied with the poor so they could overcome the Liberal industrialists who were coming to dominate Parliament. Soon, the liberal industrialists caught on to this ploy,and allied with workers on certain issues. In 1838, manufacturers encouraged workers toform an Anti Corn Law League, and in 1846, under Prime Minister Robert Peel, the CornLaws were abolished. Of course, the abolition of the Corn Laws were not only out of interestfor Laissez Faire, but also because of a horrible famine in Ireland. The emergence of apolitical system with two parties of generally equal power allowed the less powerful workersto play both sides against each other and thereby gain concessions such as the Ten Hours

 Act. Ultimately, these progressive concessions allowed the British to avoid revolution, since

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those least represented in British society still felt as if they had some means to bettering theirsituation.

Bourgeoisie and Chartism (1830s and 1840s)Summary The 1830s and 1840s were a time of great industrial progress and growth in Britain andFrance, but not everyone in the population shared in the new   wealth. In 1834, BritishParliament made a concession to the workers, passing a Poor Law that was aimed to protect

 workers from starvation in time of unemployment. Poor houses represented the beginningsof a welfare society, since they provided places for workers to go if they ran out of money and

 work. However, British lawmakers were concerned that the workers would stop working andflock to the poor houses, so they made the poor houses depressing and wretched. Instead of encouraging workers to find work, the wretchedness of the poor houses only further enraged

 workers against the " bourgeoisie" government. Though still illegal, workers formed laborunions to negotiate for better wages and conditions. Some started to seriously advocate theoverthrow of the wage-labor system, in order to replace it with Socialism. In France,Socialism was spreading rapidly, and the working public became more and more interestedin the memory of highly radical leaders like Robespierre. Writers like Louis Blanc began toglorify the act of Revolution. In Britain, where Revolutions were far more rare than France,

the workers sought reforms within the system, forming the Chartist Movement. A reform bill was drafted in 1838, called the Charter. The Charter demanded six reforms:1. Annual elections to the House of Commons2. Universal suffrage for adult males3. Secret ballots4. An end to the Rotten Boroughs5. Allowing poor workers to be elected to the House of Commons6. Salaries for members of the House of Commons, so any workers elected to that body couldafford to serve as a member.

 Although it did not pass, the unfazed Chartists started collecting signatures. By 1839 they had a million signatures, but the House of Commons still would not pass the Chartist bill. By 1842, the Chartists reached 3 million signatures, but despite the millions of signatures andthe possibility of violence, Parliament continued to vote against the Chartist reforms. After

the failure of Chartism, the British labor union movement began to swell in numbers.Commentary The revolutions of 1830 and the Reform Movement of 1832 in Britain provided more politicaland social power to the disenfranchised but wealthy bourgeoisie. The liberal ideal of the timeseemed to be that if you were wealthy, you deserved to vote. In Britain, even after reforms,only an eighth of adult males could vote. In France the percentage was even lower. However,in Britain, the landed aristocrats, though losing power to the manufacturers, could at leaststop them from being totally dominant. In England, the workers were be able to play thearistocracy and the bourgeoisie against each other. Thus, no violent revolution was needed inBritain for change to occur. In contrast, France, under Louis Philippe, was so utterly dominated by the bourgeoisie that the laborers had little hope of improving their lot outsideof violent rebellion. In both countries, industry was growing rapidly by the 1830s, ascapitalists made more and more money, reinvested it, and continued the growth cycle. New 

laws, particularly modern corporation laws, were powering industrial growth. Previously,corporations had to be "chartered" to serve the government in some way. Now, these new corporations helped businessmen structure their enterprises and reduce risk and liability 

 without having to get a specific charter from the government. Manufactures were alsochanging in emphasis at this time, from textile to iron production. Steamships services beganto appear, further accelerating trade. As workers continued to live in terrible conditions whilethe rich got richer, Laissez Faire economists argued that the world had to be this way,

 because if the workers had easier lives and higher wages, they would simply produce morechildren, glutting the labor market and driving wages down and unemployment up. Workers,

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and the thinkers who championed the cause of workers, found fault with this explanation of the system, and suggested other ways of organizing society. The idea of a totally disenfranchised, exploited proletariat class began to appear in the 1830s and 1840s.Observing the plight of workers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote their influential

 works on Communism. The Chartist Movement was very progressive, probably moreforward-looking than any other major movement at the time. In the late 1830s and early 

1840s, British political elites feared that if the uneducated "mob" was allowed to vote, they might destroy democracy by making bad decisions. Although it failed in its own time, thedemands of the Chartist movement nearly all became law in Britain eventually. While otheracts would soon be passed to satisfy workers, Chartism was simply too advanced for its time.The battle between the "isms" was continuing, and slowly the balance was turning towardsmore inclusive, equal societies. (At least in Western Europe) More and more, a division

 between the Liberal West and the Reactionary  East was developing, as the Western bourgeoisie class increased in power. The workers, who had only shared very little if at all inthe vast economic growth of the early 19th century, were now starting to enter the politicalfray.

1848 Revolution: ParisSummary 

In France, Louis Philippe's government remained a  bourgeoisie-dominated affair,disappointing to the workers who had manned the barricades in 1830. Only a thirtieth of adult males could vote, and Louis Philippe staunchly opposed enlarging the voting base.Popular discontent finally resulted in the February Revolution of 1848. The working classesagain put barricades up in the streets, and an unruly Paris mob frightened Louis Philippeinto abdicating. The Radical Republicans then managed to get the provisional government topass socialist programs. This included the creation of National Workshops, which werecentralized, state-owned manufacturing establishments where workers would be guaranteed

 work . In the National Workshops, however, there wasn't any real work for the workers to do,since the government did not take their establishment very seriously. The National

 Workshops, promising employment, soon became jam- packed with thousands of discontented workers, fermenting still more agitation. In May, the military turned against thelower class agitators. In late June, three days of especially violent class warfare broke out in

Paris. The army soon restored order, but the political landscape had changed. After June1848, the French began to draw up a new constitution. The constitution included provisionsfor a strong president, who would be elected via universal male suffrage (all adult males

 would vote). Four candidates entered the election, which was the first election most of theuneducated, newly enfranchised voters had ever experienced as active participants. The mostambiguous candidate was Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon I's nephew. He had no realplatform, and few knew his leanings. He merely said that his uncle, Napoleon, had beenliberal, and that he would be liberal. Since the name Bonaparte still resonated so strongly among the general population of France, Louis Napoleon won the election over the other,more experienced candidates. Though claiming to be liberal, the newly elected President wasmostly interested in reestablishing order. After gaining support by promising universal malesuffrage, he promptly got rid of socialists in the government. He encouraged religiousinfluence in school teaching, and then, after becoming confident of his support base, he

declared himself Emperor Napoleon III. The revolution in France ended with a new government, but once again a new dictator. Like the July Revolution of 1830, the February Revolution of 1848 reverberated throughout Europe, resulting in a series of revolutions, mostpowerfully in Germany and Vienna. In Britain, the French upheaval revived the ChartistMovement. In London, however, no barricades went up in London's streets. Instead, a new petition went to Parliament.

Commentary The years from 1815 to 1848, although free of major wars, were the site of a different conflict,

 between Reaction and Revolution. As 1848 approached, Revolution had been brewing, but

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the Reactionary  forces led by  Metternich had been successful in preventing any majorrevolutionary "disasters." The boundaries established by the 1815 Congress of Vienna, if alittle worse for the wear, remained for the most part standing by the opening of 1848.There have not been many years like 1848, for 1848 was the ultimate year of Revolutionthroughout Europe. The Revolutionary forces made a concerted push throughout thecontinent in even greater force than in 1830. Among the major European powers, only Great

Britain, where some reforms had blunted the wrath of the working class, and Russia, wherethe monarchy still held firm control, escaped from 1848 without undergoing a revolution. Was the simultaneity of the revolutions a product of an international conspiracy? Probably not, though the revolutionary groups throughout Europe were transnational and didcommunicate. More likely, Metternich's hypothesis that revolution could spread from onecountry to another was proven true. Revolution in Paris served as the signal for revolutionsthroughout Europe. In France itself, the February Revolution's radical socialist changes weredoomed from the start. Outside of Paris, the people in the countryside (the majority of France) were much more conservative than the workers in the city, and were generally anti-socialist. After the Paris reformers went beyond what the country was willing to accept, it wasonly a matter of time before their revolutionary changes were reversed. Furthermore, by 1848 France had had so many governments in the past 50 years that new governments wereeasy to bring down. This was very much unlike Britain, whose government had been so stable

for so long that discontented people were hesitant to overthrow it, merely because it had sucha long tradition behind it. In Britain, reforms would pass gradually within the system ratherthan by violent rebellions. Regarding the Paris barricades, it is interesting to note that anangry mob of civilians really could stand up against the French army. Today, in the age of tanks, civilians have no real hope fighting against tanks, bombs, and rocket- launchers. In1848, however, there were no tanks, and the army's victory over the Paris mob was no surething. Throughout Europe, rulers were tremendously frightened by the revolution in Paris.To many in the upper classes, it seemed as though civilization itself might be crumbling.Louis Napoleon appealed to the "Napoleon Legend" that was starting to take force in Francearound this time. In 1836, the Arch-de-Triumph had been completed, and in 1840,Napoleon's remains had been brought back to France from Saint Helena. All France now remembered Napoleon as a great hero, and Louis Napoleon cashed in on his family's "namerecognition" to gain control of France. With Napoleon's assumption

1848 Revolutions: The Austrian EmpireSummary 

 Vienna, the capital of the ethnically diverse Austrian Empire, was a leading cultural center inEurope. Full of artists, composers, writers, and intellectuals, Vienna was truly the jewel of the

 Austrian Empire, and the Austrian empire, led by Metternich, was the paragon of reactionary politics. Yet the various ethnic groups in Austria had become increasingly nationalist over thepreceding decades, and by now they all yearned to express their individual volksgeist andgain independence. Metternich had worked for years to hold the Austrian Empire together,

 but now, in the wake of the French February Revolution, the ethnic groups vehemently opposed assimilation. In March 1848, a radical Hungarian Magyar group led by  LouisKossuth began a vocal independence movement. Kossuth's fiery speeches were soon printedin Vienna, where they started a sensation and soon an uprising. Metternich, monitoring the

Revolutions throughout Europe, had become fearful. He decided to flee, and quickly snuck out of Vienna. The situation probably wasn't as bad as he thought, but once news got out thatMetternich had left, the Austrian revolutionaries got truly excited. Austrian Czechs andnumerous Austrian controlled Italian states followed the Magyars lead. Some of therevolutionary excitement also spilled into Prussia, where, to ease the pressure, the PrussianKing Frederick   William IV promised a constitution. On March 15, Kossuth's Hungary wasgranted independence under Hapsburg rule. The Czech movement in Bohemia soon receivedthe same status, and Italian states like Milan soon overthrew Austrian occupation.

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In June 1848, the revolutions in Austria began to run out of steam. After all, it was a non-industrialized country that did not have a well-developed middle class. Their revolution,largely led by intellectuals and students, could not marshal the same amount of popularsupport as the  bourgeoisie in Western Europe. In June 1848, in Prague, a group of Slavicnationalists held a Pan-Slavism conference in an attempt to stop Bohemia from beingswallowed by Germany. The conference soon became violent. Emperor Ferdinand of Austria

smashed the Prague insurrection using the army, and he also sent his forces against therebellious Italian states of Lombardy and Milan, which were soon reconquered. In Septemberand October of 1848, Louis Kossuth started a movement to make Magyar the officiallanguage of Hungary, even though only half of the population of Hungary spoke Magyar. TheSerbo-Croatians, who did not speak the Magyar language, rebelled and asked the Hapsburgsfor help. In December, another rebellion in Vienna led Emperor Ferdinand to abdicate,putting his son, Franz Joseph, into power. Franz Joseph quickly appealed to the Russians,

 who marched into Hungary and crushed the Magyars. The 1848 revolutions in Austria cameto an end, restoring order in the Empire.

Commentary The Austrian Empire was very large in 1848, and filled with around a dozen ethnicities, each

 with its own language. In some areas, certain ethnic groups dominated, while in other areas,other groups dominated. Austria itself had a German majority, while the Magyars were the

predominant ethnicity in Hungary. Czechs dominated Bohemia, and various groups of  Slavsmade up most of the remaining population of the Empire. With the first spark, these separatenationalist ethnicities exploded. However, like France, after a moment of nationalist promisethe revolutions of 1848 soon dissolved or were crushed. The big weakness of the Austrianrevolutionaries lay in the structure of Austrian society. Unlike Britain and France, with itslarge middle class buoyed by industrialized wealth and its urban working class, Austria hadno well-developed middle class. The Austrian revolutions, particularly in Vienna, thereforehad no powerful support base. The students and intellectuals couldn't sway the illiterate andrural peasants who had no notion of  nationalism and who primarily made up the army. Thearmy thus stayed loyal to the Hapsburgs and helped to suppress the revolution. With Viennaintact, the Hapsburgs were able to move out through their empire and reconquer it, with thehelp of the Russians. With all of the revolutions suppressed, Austria became an even moreautocratic state. While the other European countries were generally moved towards change

 by the revolutions of 1848, Austria's Reactionary state, even with the fall of Metternich, became even more conservative and repressive. Incidentally, during the revolutions of 1848,a small nationalist German minority in Bohemia, in the area called the Sudetenland, madeclear their desire to become a part of Germany. Though of minor significance in 1848, thisdesire would become important almost a century later when the Germans seized it as theirostensible reason for annexing the Sudetenland at the beginning of  World War II.

Germany and Prussia in 1848Summary PrussiaIn Prussia, the old king, Frederick William III, had always been opposed to giving thePrussian people a constitution. Frederick William IV, who was generally as weak andunskilled as his father, similarly feared giving the people a constitution. However, the success

of Prussia in the last few decades had been almost entirely due to the skilled group of  bureaucrats and administrators serving the government, and all of these administrators werepushing hard for a constitutional monarchy. In March 1848, rioting began in Berlin, as the1848 revolution fever crossed from Austria into Prussia. Frederick William IV quickly mobilized the disciplined Prussian army to suppress the revolution. However, he surprisedeveryone by taking a liberal stance and allowing an election to take place to elect a Prussianassembly. The elected radical revolutionaries wanted to unite Prussia with all of Germany tocreate a force that could challenge Russia. The Assembly also desired to grant the Polishminorities living in eastern Prussia a right of self-government. Deciding that the experiment

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in democratic government had gone on long enough, Frederick William IV changed his mindand dissolved the Prussian Assembly.

Germany The 1848 revolutions inspired a similar nationalist movement in Germany proper. In May 1848, a group of German nationalists met at the Frankfurt Assembly . The goals of theassembly included creating a unified Germany that was Liberal and constitutionally 

governed. The Frankfurt assembly argued over various topics, including the question of who(the Prussian or Austrian ruler?) should rule a unified Germany. In December of 1848, theFrankfurt Assembly issued the Declaration of the Rights of the German People, based on theDeclarations of the Rights of Man in France and the Declaration of Independence in theUnited States. Following the Nationalist rather than Enlightenment ideal, this declarationignored the universal rights of all mankind and simply proclaimed the rights of Germans.In 1849, the Frankfurt Assembly offered Germany to Frederick William IV. Though hecoveted the territory, Frederick William knew that an acceptance would lead to war with

 Austria and make him into a constitutional monarch, neither of which he desired. He turnedthe offer down. Thus, all the deliberation of the Frankfurt Assembly resulted in nothing.Germany remained fragmented after 1848, and the small rulers of the various small Germanstates came back to power.

Commentary  Wanting to maintain the power they held within the loose confederation of the Bund, theleaders of the small German states staunchly opposed revolution. Furthermore, Prussia and

 Austria, who combined to dominate Germany, liked a weak Germany, primarily because they feared the possibility of a united, powerful Germany on their borders. The Frankfurt

 Assembly consisted of a fairly bland group of liberal German professionals. They were notparticularly fiery revolutionaries, and were essentially unwilling to consider violentrevolution. The German bourgeoisie involved in the Frankfurt Assembly failed to unite broadlower-class support in Germany. Instead of harnessing the power of lower-class discontent,the Frankfurt Assembly made the mistake of alienating the lower classes, and this anti-proletariat attitude doomed the Frankfurt Assembly from the start. When lower-class riotsdid break out in Germany, the Frankfurt Assembly did its best to stop them. Furthermore,the Frankfurt Assembly was plagued by difficult questions that it could not resolve. Itsmembers debated whether Germany should contain only the Bund, or also include parts of 

 Austria or Prussia. The ownership of Schleswig-Holstein, officially the property of Denmark, was another contentious issue. Roughly split between a German and a Danish population,the Frankfurt Assembly wanted to annex Schleswig-Holstein, hoping to call on Prussia forhelp. However, they also knew that Russia and Great Britain would team up against Prussia if it tried to take over Schleswig-Holstein. In many ways, the Frankfurt Assembly can be seenas indicative of the larger context of 1848. Just as the Frankfurt Assembly was dominated by 

 various minor squabbles, the 1848 revolutions were filled with many nationalist groups, all of  whom had different visions of the future of Europe. Further, just as the Frankfurt Assembly disappeared with a whimper, turned down by the man it had selected as ruler of a unifiedGermany, so too did the revolutions of 1848 generally lead to little change: France was ruled

 by an Emperor, Austria was more autocratic than ever, and Germany remained a patchwork of minor states. But the ideas animating the revolutions did not die with the revolutions

themselves. Though the Frankfurt assembly ended in a sort of wounded embarrassment, thedesire to unify Germany remained strong, as did nationalism everywhere. The year of revolutions yielded little result, but in the following years the nationalist impulse to unify 

 would take on greater proportions, and the years between 1848 and 1871 could easily betermed an age of unification. Further, in 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published theCommunist Manifesto. Although the work did not greatly influence the revolutions of thetime, its authors were themselves influenced by the events of that year and the context of thatperiod. Future revolutions would begin to incorporate the ideology Marx and Engels

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developed, an ideology tempered by battle between reactionaries and revolutionaries in the years from 1815 to 1848.

 Which of the following ideologies has private ownership of property as a central tenet?(A) Socialism(B) Romanticism

(C) Capitalism(D) Radicalism

Modern "conservatives" would agree most with which 19th century group?(A) Liberals(B) Conservatives(C) Radicals(D) Socialists

 At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, which industry dominated Britishmanufacturing?(A) Microprocesser(B) Steel

(C) Textile(D) Iron

 Which of the following cities was a victim of the Rotten Boroughs?(A) Paris(B) Vienna(C) London(D) Manchester

 Which of the following terms is most associated with free-market "classical" economics?(A) Bon Voyage (B) Idee Fixe (C) Laissez Faire 

(D) Ressentiment  

 Who was the King of France directly following Napoleon's defeat?(A) Charles X(B) Louis XVIII(C) Louis Napoleon Bonaparte(D) Louis Philippe

In the early 19th century, which British party in Parliament was the opponent of the WhigParty?(A) Liberals(B) Royalists(C) Tories(D) Labour

 Which term most typifies conservatives like Metternich and Castlereagh?(A) Reactionary (B) Liberal(C) Radical(D) Nationalist

 Which of the following groups were ardent Nationalists in the period 1815- 1848?

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(A) Prussian Royalty (B) Austrian Peasants(C) German University Students(D) German Princes

 What was the loose federation of German states from 1815-1848 called?

(A) Volksgeist  (B) Burschenschaft  (C) Uebermensch (D) Bund  

 What was the term German Romantics used to refer to each nation's "special genius"?(A) Weltanschauung (B) Burschenschaft  (C) Volksgeist  (D) Bund  

 What good did the Corn Law restrict from import into Britain?(A) Grain

(B) Maize(C) Textiles(D) Bad comedy 

 What did the members of the Cato Street Conspiracy plan to do?(A) Bomb Buckingham Palace(B) Interrupt the coronation of Queen Victoria(C) Assassinate the cabinet(D) Make noise in the British Museum

 What was Alexander I's concept of a federation to unite the great powers of Europe called?(A) The Bund(B) Concert of Europe

(C) The Axis(D) Holy Alliance

 What is the rising "middle class" of the Industrial Revolution sometimes called?(A) Proletariat(B) Aristocracy (C) Bourgeoisie(D) Plebeian

 Which of the following was a founding father of British Radicalism?(A) John Stuart Mill(B) Jeremy Bentham(C) David Hume(D) David Ricardo

 What were the malapportioned voting districts in 19th century Britain called?(A) Crummy Districts(B) Gerrymanders(C) Rotten Boroughs(D) Broken Polls

 What was the French equivalent of British Radicalism?

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(A) Republicanism(B) Communism(C) Socialism(D) Conservatism

 Which 19th century group wanted centralized government control of industry?

(A) "Classical" Economists(B) Liberals(C) Socialists(D) Conservatives

Edmund Burke expounded what 19th century ideology?(A) Republicanism(B) Radicalism(C) Liberalism(D) Conservatism

 What was Romanticism an intellectual reaction to?(A) The Renaissance

(B) The Scientific Revolution(C) The Enlightenment(D) The Middle Ages

 What theory is Hegel best known for?(A) The Dialectic(B) The Categorical Imperative(C) The Argumentum ad Hominem(D) The Ignoratio Elenchii

 What is the urban, industrialized working class that appeared in the early 19th century sometimes called?(A) Patrician

(B) Bourgeoisie(C) Proletariat(D) Plebeian

 Which failed British reform movement involved the gathering of several million signatures?(A) The Congress of Nationalism(B) The Reform Bill of 1832(C) Radicalism(D) Chartism

 Which one of the following movements threatened the unity of the Austrian Empire around1848?(A) Republicanism(B) Chartism(C) Pan-Slavism(D) Dialectical Materialism

 Which economist and political philosopher formulated the "Iron Law of Wages"?(A) Robert Malthus(B) David Ricardo(C) David Hume(D) Adam Smith

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 What royal family were the Austrian Emperors Ferdinand and Franz Joseph from?(A) Hohenzollern(B) Bourbon(C) Hapsburg(D) Romanov 

 What did Russian Czar Alexander I most see himself as after 1815?(A) Enlightened Despot(B) Terror of the East(C) A Pillar of Democracy (D) Napoleon's Friend

 Who was the Austrian foreign minister in the early 19th century?(A) Castlereagh(B) Franz Joseph(C) Metternich(D) Talleyrand

 What royal family was Louis XVIII from?(A) Tudor(B) Hapsburg(C) Hohenzollern(D) Bourbon

 Which of the following was a freedom fighter and military leader in South America?(A) Sain-Simon(B) Francisco de Goya(C) Simon Bolivar(D) Ximenes

 Who succeeded Alexander I as Russian Czar in 1825?

(A) Nicholas(B) Constantine(C) Vladimir(D) Catherine

 Which of the following social theorists' bodies is preserved and on display at University College, London?(A) David Ricardo(B) John Stuart Mill(C) Jeremy Bentham(D) David Hume

 Which of the following was a British manufacturer who turned reformer, taking up the causeof the working class?(A) David Ricardo(B) Jeremy Bentham(C) Saint-Simon(D) Robert Owen

 Which was the majority ethnic group in Hungary in the 19th century?(A) Slovaks(B) Czechs

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(C) Magyars(D) Poles

 Who wrote Frankenstein in 1818?(A) Percy Bysshe Shelley (B) Mary Shelley 

(C) Friedrich Schiller(D) Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Of the following, who was a leading architect in the Gothic Revival?(A) Schopenhauer(B) Schiller(C) Schinkel(D) Goethe

 Which artist favored coloro (color) over designio (design and line quality?)(A) Delacroix(B) David(C) Ingres

(D) Holbein

 Which monarchy replaced the French King Charles X after the revolution of 1830?(A) Franz Joseph(B) Louis XVIII(C) Louis Philippe(D) Louis Napoleon

 Who are British policemen called "bobbies" after?(A) Robert Owen(B) Robert the Bruce(C) Robert Malthus(D) Robert Peel

 Who is most often associated with the philosophical-historical concept called the Dialectic?(A) Nietszche(B) Kant(C) Hegel(D) Schopenhauer

 Which archconservative Briton wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France?(A) Edmund Burke(B) David Ricardo(C) Robert Malthus(D) Robert Owen

 What helped make the Industrial Revolution possible in Britain?(A) The Corn Laws(B) The writings of David Malthus(C) The Enclosure Acts(D) The Reform Bill of 1832

 Which meeting (1814-1815) reorganized Europe's boundaries after the fall of Napoleon?(A) Congress of Troppau(B) Congress of Verona

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(C) Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle(D) Congress of Vienna

 Which event was named to parody Napoleon's final defeat?(A) Carlsbad Decree(B) Austerlitz Protest

(C) Peterloo Massacre(D) Frankfurt Assembly 

 Which Congress negotiated the withdrawal of European occupation forces from Louis XVIII'sFrance?(A) Congress of Troppau(B) Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle(C) Congress of Vienna(D) Congress of Verona

 What did the Frankfurt Assembly most want?(A) Universal Suffrage for all Adult Males(B) A Constitutional Monarchy 

(C) A Unified Germany (D) An Independent Poland

 Which of the following goals did the Chartist Movement NOT pursue?(A) Universal Suffrage for all Adults(B) Secret Ballots(C) No Class Restrictions on Holding Office(D) Salaries for Members of Parliament

 Which of the following realigned the Rotten Boroughs somewhat, giving more voting powerto Northern manufacturing cities in Britain?(A) The Enclosure Movement(B) The Corn Law 

(C) Reform Bill of 1832(D) The Factory Acts

 What month did the 1830 French revolution that overthrew Charles X occur in?(A) March(B) December(C) February (D) July