Chapter 21 - Reaction, Revolution, and Romanticism

Delacroix

*Eugene Delacroix was the most famous French Romantic artist. Largely self-taught, he was fascinated by the exotic and had a passion for color, both characteristics visible in *The Death of Sardanapalus.* Significant for its use of light and its patches of interrelated color. He believed "a painting should be a feast to the eye."

Tristan

*Flora Tristan* attempted to foster a *utopian synthesis of socialism and feminism. She traveled through France preaching the need for the liberation of women. Her *Worker's Union* advocated the application of Fourier's ideas to reconstruct both family and work. She envisioned absolute equality as the only hope to free the working class and transform civilizations. Although criticized for their impracticality, the utopian socialists laid the groundwork for later attacks on capitalism that would have a far reaching result. In the first half of the 19th century, socialism remained a fringe movement largely overshadowed by liberalism and nationalism.

Owen

British cotton manufacturer, *Robert Owen* also believed that humans would reveal their true natural goodness if they lived in a cooperative environment. At New Lanark in Scotland, he was successful in transforming a squalid factory town into a flourishing, healthy community. But his second attempt in New Harmony, Indiana, failed due to bickering within the community and eventually destroyed his dream.

Yet Another French Revolution

A severe industrial and agricultural depression beginning in 1846 brought great hardship to the French lower middle class, workers, and peasants. One-third of the workers in Paris were unemployed by the end of 1847. Scandals, graft, and corruption were rife, and the government's persistent refusal to extend the suffrage angered the disenfranchised members of the middle class. Radical republicans and socialists, joined by the upper middle class under the leadership of *Adolphe Theirs* used political banquets to call for reforms since they were forbidden by law to state political rallies. Almost seventy banquets were held between 1847-1848, and a grand culminating banquet was planned for Paris. When the government forbade it, people came anyway. Although Louis-Phillips now proposed reform, he was unable to form another ministry and abdicated the throne. A provisional government was established by a group of moderate and radical republicans; the latter even included the socialist *Louis Blanc.* The provisional government ordered that a constituent assembly be convened to draw up a new constitution; the members of the assembly were to be elected by universal manhood suffrage. The provisional government also established national workshops under the influence of Louis Blanc. The workshops were to be cooperative factories run by the workers. The cost of the program became increasingly burdensome to government. The result was a growing split between the moderate republicans, who had the support of most of France, and the radical republicans, whose main support came from the Parisian working class. The number of unemployed enrolled in the national workshops rose from 10,000 to 120,000, emptying the treasury and frightening moderates, who responded by closing the workshops. The workers refused to accept this decision and poured into the streets. Four days of bitter and bloody fighting by government forces crushed the working class revolt. The new constitution established a republic with a unicameral legislature of 750 elected by universal male suffrage for three years and a president, also elected by universal male suffrage for four years. In December 1848, Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte became president.

The Revival of Religion in the Age of Romanticism

After 1815, Christianity experienced a revival. Catholicism had lost its attraction for many of the educated elites as even the European nobility flirted with the ideas of the Enlightenment. The restoration of the nobility brought a new appreciation for the Catholic faith as a force for order in society. This appreciation was greatly. reinforced by the Romantic movement. The Romantics' attraction to the Middle Ages and their emphasis on emotion led them to their own widespread revival of Christianity.

Repression in Central Europe

After 1815, the forces of reaction were particularly successful in Central Europe. Metternich's spies were everywhere, searching for evidence of liberal or nationalist plots. Although both liberalism and nationalism emerged in the German states and the Austrian Empire, they were initially weak as Central Europe tended to remain under the domination of aristocratic landowning classes and autocratic, centralized monarchies. The Vienna settlement in 1815 had recognized the existence of 38 sovereign states in what had once been the Holy Roman Empire. Austria and Prussia were the two great powers; the other states varied considerably in size. Together these states formed the Germanic Confederation, but the confederation had little power. Nevertheless, it also came to serve as Metternich's instrument to repress revolutionary movements within the German states. Initially, Germans who favored liberal principles and German unity looked to Prussia for leadership. In response to Prussia's defeat to Napoleon, King Frederick William III instituted political and institutional reforms. The reforms included the abolition of serfdom, municipal self-government through town councils, the expansion of primary and secondary schools, and universal military conscription to form a national army. It did not include the creation of a legislative assembly or representative government. Though reforms had made Prussia strong, it remained largely an absolutist state with little interest in German unity. Liberal and national movements in the German states were limited to university professors and students. *Burschenschaften* were student societies dedicated to fostering the goal of a free, united Germany. From 1817 to 1819, the Burschenschaften pursued a variety of activities that alarmed German governments. An assembly held at the Warburg Castle, marking the 300th anniversary of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses, the crowd burned books written by conservative authors. Metternich had the diet of Germanic Confederation draw up the *Karlsbad Decree* of 1819 which closed the Burschenschaften, provided censorship of the press, and placed the universities under close supervision and control. The Austrian Empire was a multinational state which contained eleven groups. The Germans, though only a quarter of the population, were economically the most advanced and played a leading role in governing Austria. Essentially, the Austrian Empire was held together by the Habsburg emperor, the imperial civil service, the imperial army, and the Catholic Church. Its national groups, especially the Hungarians, with their increasing desire for autonomy, acted as forces to break the empire apart. Still Metternich managed to hold it all together. The liberal belief that each national group had the right to its own system of government could only mean disaster for the multinational Austrian Empire. While the forces of liberalism and nationalism grew, the Austrian Empire largely stagnated.

The Revolt of Latin America

Although much of North America had been freed of European domination in the 18th century by the American Revolution, Latin America remained in the hands of the Spanish and Portuguese. By the end of the 18th century, the ideas of the Enlightenment and the new political ideals stemming from the American Revolution were beginning to influence the Creole elites. The principles of equality of all people in the eyes of the law, free trade, and a free press proved very attractive. Sons of Creoles attended European universities where they imbibed the ideas of the Enlightenment. These Latin American elites, joined by a growing class of merchants, especially resented the domination of their trade by Spain and Portugal. When Bonaparte toppled the monarchies of Spain and Portugal at the beginning of the 19th century, the authority of Spanish and Portuguese in their colonial empires was weakend and between 1807 and 1824, a series of revolts enabled most of Latin America to become independent. *Simon Bolivar,* long regarded as the George Washington of Latin America, was one of the leaders of the independence movement. Born into a wealthy Venezuelan family, he was introduced to the Enlightenment ideas as a young man. While in Rome to witness the coronation of Napoleon as king of Italy, he committed himself to free his people from Spanish control. Bolivar began to lead the bitter struggle for independence in Venezuela as well as other parts of northern South America. Although he was acclaimed as the "liberator" in 1813 by the people, it was not until 1821 that he definitely defeated Spanish forces there. He went on to liberate Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru and had become president of Venezuela in 1819. *Jose de San Martin* was another leader of the independence movement. Son of a Spanish army officer in Argentina, San Martin went to Spain and pursued a military career in the Spanish army. After serving 22 years, he abandoned his military career after learning of the liberation movement in his native Argentina and returned to his homeland. Argentina had already been freed of Spanish control but San Martin believed that the Spaniards must be removed from all of South America if any nation was to remain free. In 1817, he led his forces over the Andes Mountains. Two-thirds of his pack mules and horses died during the difficult journey. But the arrival of San Martin's troops in Chile surprised the Spaniards. In 1821, San Martin move on to Lima, Peru, the center of Spanish authority. Convinced he was unable to complete the liberation of all of Peru, San Martin welcomed the arrival of Bolivar and his forces. Bolivar crushed the last significant Spanish army at Ayacucho in 1824. In 1823, the Central American states became independent, and in 1838-1839, they divided into five republics - Guatamala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. The Continental powers, flushed by their success in crushing the rebellions in Spain and Italy, favored the use of troops to restore Spanish control in Latin America. Eager to gain access to an entire continent for investment and trade, the British proposed joint action with the United States against European interference in Latin America. Distrustful of British motives, President James Monroe acted alone in 1823, guaranteeing the independence of the new Latin American nations and warning against any further European intervention in the New World in the *Monroe Doctrine.* British ships were more important to Latin American independence than American words. Britain's navy stood between Latin America and any European invasion force, and the Continental powers were reluctant to challenge British naval power. Although political independence brought economic independence to Latin America, old patterns were quickly reestablished. Instead of Spain and Portugal, Great Britain now dominated the Latin American economy. Because Latin America served as a source of raw materials and foodstuffs for the industrializing nations of Europe and the United States, exports--especially wheat, tobacco, wool, sugar, coffee, and hides--to the North Atlantic countries increased. At the same time, finished consumer goods, especially textiles, were imported in increasing quantities, causing a decline in industrial production in Latin America. The emphasis on exporting raw materials and importing finished products ensure the ongoing domination of the Latin American economy by foreigners.

The Ideologies of Change

Although the conservative forces were ascending from 1815 to 1830, powerful movements for change were also at work. These depended on ideas embodied in a series of political philosophies or ideologies that came into their own in the first half of the 19th century.

Turner

Another artist who dwelt on nature and made landscape his major subject was Englishman *Joseph Malford William Turner.* Turner's concern with nature manifested itself in innumerable landscapes and seascapes, sunrises and sunsets. He sought to convey nature's moods by using a skilled interplay of light and color to suggest natural effects. In allowing his objects to melt into their surroundings, Turner anticipated the impressionist painters of the second half of the 19th century.

Russia: Autocracy of the Tsars

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian tsar was still regarded as a divine right monarch. Alexander I had been raised in the ideas of the Enlightenment and initially seemed willing to make reforms. He relaxed censorship, freed political prisoners, and reformed the educational system. He refused, however, to grant a constitution or free the serfs in the face of opposition from the nobility. After the defeat of Napoleon, Alexander became reactionary, and his government reverted to strict and arbitrary censorship. Soon opposition to Alexander arose from a group of secret societies. One of these societies, known as the *Northern Union*, included both young aristocrats who has served in the Napoleonic wars and become aware of the world outside Russia and intellectuals alienated by the censorship and lack of academic freedom in Russian universities. The Northern Union favored the establishment of a constitutional monarchy and the abolition of serfdom. The sudden death of Alexander in 1825 offered them their opportunity. Although Alexander's brother Constantine was the legal heir to the throne, he renounced his claims in favor of his brother Nicholas. The military leaders of the Northern Union rebelled against the accession of Nicholas. This so-called *Decembrist Revolt* was soon crushed by troops loyal to Nicholas and its leaders were executed. The revolt transformed Nicholas I from a conservative into a reactionary determined to avoid another rebellion. He strengthened both the bureaucracy and the secret police. The political police were given sweeping powers over much of Russian life. They deported suspicious or dangerous persons, maintained close surveillance of foreigners in Russia, and reported regularly to the tsar on public opinion. Matching Nicholas's fear of revolution at home was his fear of revolution abroad. Contemporaries called him the Policeman of Europe because of his willingness to use Russian troops to crush revolutions.

Culture in Age of Reaction and Revolution: The Mood of Romanticism

At the end of the 18th century, a new intellectual movement known as Romanticism emerged to challenge the Enlightenment's preoccupation with reason in discovering the truth. The Romantics tried to balance the use of reason by stressing the importance of intuition, feeling, emotion, and imagination as sources of knowing.

Beethoven

Beethoven is one of the few composers to singlehandedly transform the art of music. For Beethoven, music had to reflect his deepest inner feelings. During his first major period of composing, his work was largely within the classical framework of the 18th century, and the influence of Haydn and Mozart are apparent. But with his Third Symphony, *Eroica,* which was originally intended for Napoleon, Beethoven broke through to the elements of Romanticism in his use of uncontrolled rhythms to create dramatic struggle and uplifted resolutions. Betthoven went on to write a vast quantity of work, but in the midst of this productivity and growing fame, he struggled with his growing deafness.

Revolution and Reform (1830 - 1850)

Beginning in 1830, the forces of change began to break through the conservative domination of Europe, more successfully in some places than in others. Finally, in 1848, a wave of revolutionary fervor moved through Europe, causing liberals and nationalists everywhere to think that they were on the verge of creating a new order.

*Conservative Domination: The European States*

Between 1815 and 1830, the conservative domination of Europe evident in the Concert of Europe was also apparent in the domestic affairs as conservative governments throughout Europe worked to maintain the old order.

*Prison Reform*

By the 1820s in most countries, capital punishment was increasingly viewed as ineffective and was replaced by imprisonment. By the 1830s, European governments were seeking ways to reform their penal systems. Motivated by the desire not just to punish but to rehabilitate and transform criminals, the British and French sent missions to the US to examine the American systems. Both the British and French constructed prisons based on the American model with separate cells that isolated prisoners from one another. Solitary confinement forced prisoners to examine their consciences, led to greater remorse, and increased the possibility they would change their evil ways.

*The Revolution of 1848*

Despite successes of revolutions in France, Belgium, and Greece, the conservative order remained in control of much of Europe. But liberalism and nationalism continued to grow. In 1848, these forces of change erupted once more.

Economic Liberalism

Economic liberalism had as its primary tenant the concept of laissez-faire, the belief that the state should not interrupt the free play of natural economic forces, especially supply and demand. Governments should restrict itself to defense of the country, police protection of individuals, and the construction and maintenance of public works. Governments should not restrain the economic liberty of the individual. If individuals were allowed economic liberty, they would bring about the maximum good for the general welfare of society. The case against government interference in economic matters was greatly enhanced by *Thomas Malthus.* In Essay on the *Principles of Population*, Malthus argued that population, when unchecked, increases at a geometric rate while the food supply increases at a much slower arithmetic rate. The result will be severe overpopulation and ultimately starvation for the human race. According to Malthus, nature imposes a major restraint through bad working conditions, extreme poverty, disease, famine. Thus, misery and poverty were simply the inevitable result of the law of nature; no government or individual should interfere with its operation. Matthus's ideas were further developed by *David Ricardo.* In *Principles of Political Economy* (1817), Ricardo developed his famous "iron law of wages." Ricardo argued that an increase in population means more workers, more workers in turn cause wages to fall below the subsistence level. The result is misery and starvation, which then reduce the population. Consequently, the number of workers declines, and wages rise above the substance level again, which in turn encourages workers to have larger families as the cycle is repeated. According to Ricardo, raising wages arbitrarily would be pointless since it would accomplish little but perpetuate this vicious cycle.

The Emergence of an Ordered Society

Everywhere in Europe, the revolutionary upheavals of the late 18th and early 19th centuries made the ruling elites nervous about social disorder and the potential dangers to their lives and property. At the same time, an influx of large numbers of people from the countryside into the rapidly growing cities had led to horrible living conditions, poverty, unemployment, and great social dissatisfaction. A rise in property crimes in Britain, France, and Germany provoked a severe reaction among middle-class urban residents, who feared that the urban poor posed a threat to their security and possessions.

Restoration in France

In 1814, the Bourbon family was restored to the throne of France in the person of Louis XVIII. Louis understood the need to accept some of the changes brought to France by the revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. He accepted Napoleon's Civil Code with its principle of equality before the law, the property rights of those who had purchased confiscated lands during the Revolution were preserved, and a bicameral (two-houses) legislature was established, consisting of the *Chamber of Peers*, chosen by the king, and the *Chamber of the Deputies*, chosen by an electorate restricted to fewer than 100,000 wealthy people. Louis's grudging moderation was opposed by liberals eager to extend the revolutionary reforms and by a group of *ultraroyalists.* The ultras hoped to return to a monarchical system dominated by a privileged landed aristocracy and to restore the Catholic Church to its former position of influence. In 1824, Louis XVIII died and was succeeded by his brother, who became Charles X. Charles X granted indemnity to aristocrats whose lands had been confiscated during the Revolution. In addition, the king pursued a religious policy that encouraged the Catholic church to reestablish control over the French educational system. Public outrage, fed by liberal newspapers, forced the king to compromise in 1827 and accept the principle of *ministerial responsibility*--that the ministers of the king were responsible to the legislature. But in 1829, the king violated his commitment. A protest by the deputies led the king to dissolve the legislature in 1830 and call for new elections. France was on the brink of another revolution.

Great Britain: Rule of the Tories

In 1815, Great Britain was governed by the aristocratic landowning classes that dominated both houses of Parliament. Suffrage for elections to the House of Commons, controlled by the landed gentry, was restricted and unequal, especially in light of the changing distribution of the British population due to the Industrial Revolution. Large industrial cities had no representatives, while landowners used pocket and rotten boroughs to control seats in the House of Commons. There were two political factions in Parliament, the Tories and the Whigs. Both were still dominated by members of the landed classes, although the Whigs were beginning to receive support from the new industrial middle class. Tory ministers largely dominated the government until 1830 and had little desire to change the existing political and electoral systems. Popular discontent grew after 1815 due to severe economic difficulties. The Tory government's response to falling agricultural prices was the *Corn Law of 1815,* which imposed high tariffs on foreign grain. Those tariffs benefited landowners, the price of bread rose substantially, making conditions for the working classes more difficult. Mass protest meetings at Saint Peters Fields in Manchester in 1819 took a nasty turn at the *Peterloo Massacre* when a cavalry attacked demonstrators and 11 were killed This led government to restrict large public meetings and the dissemination of pamphlets among the poor. At the same time, by making minor reforms in the 1820s, the Tories avoided meeting the demands for electoral reforms until 1830.

*Reform in Great Britain*

In 1830, new parliamentary elections brought the Whigs to power in Britain. The Industrial Revolution had led to an expanding group of industrial leaders who objected to the corrupt. British electoral system, which excluded them from political power. The Whigs, though also members of the landed classes, realized that concessions to reform were superior to revolution; the demands of the wealthy industrial middle class could no longer be ignored.

*The Peace Settlement*

In March 1814, even before Napoleon had been defeated, his four major enemies--Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia--had agreed to remain united, not only to defeat France but also to ensure peace after the war. After Napoleon's defeat, this Quadruple Alliance restored the Bourbon monarchy to France in the person of Louis XVIII and agreed to meet at a congress in Vienna in September 1814 to arrange a final peace settlement. The leader of the Congress of Vienna was the Austrian foreign minister, Prince *Klemens von Metternich*. An experienced diplomat who was also conceited and self-assured.

A New Balance of Power

In making these territorial rearrangements, the diplomats at Vienna believed they were forming a new balance of power that would prevent any one country from dominating Europe. For example, to balance Russian gains, Prussia and Austria had been strengthened, avoiding a great danger. Considerations of the balance of power also dictated the allied treatment of France. France had not been significantly weakened; it remained a great power. The fear that France might again upset the European peace remained so strong that the conferees attempted to establish major defensive barriers against possible French expansion. To the north of France, they created a new enlarged kingdom of the Netherlands composed of the former Dutch Republic and the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) under a new ruler, King William I of the house of Orange. To the southeast, Piedmont was enlarged. On France's eastern frontier, Prussia was strengthened by giving it control of the territory along the east bank of the Rhine. The British expected Prussia to be the major bulwark against French expansion in Central Europe, but the Congress of Vienna also created a new league of German states, the Germanic Confederation, to replace the Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine. Napoleon's escape from Elba and his return to France for 100 days in the midst of the Congress of Vienna delayed negotiations but did not significantly alter the overall agreement. To punish the French people for their enthusiastic response to Napoleon's return, France's borders were pushed back to that of 1790, and the nation was forced to pay an indemnity and accept an army of occupation for five years.

*Early Socialism*

In the first half of the 19th century, the pitiful conditions found in the slums, mines, and factories of the Industrial Revolution gave rise to socialism. *Socialism* was the product of political theorists or intellectuals who wanted to introduce equality into social conditions and believed that human cooperation was superior to the competition that characterized early industrial capitalism. To later Marxists, such ideas were impractical dreams, and they labeled the theorists *utopian socialists.* Utopian socialists were against private property and the competitive spirit of early industrial capitalism. By eliminating these things, they thought that a better environment for humanity could be achieved.

*Liberalism*

Liberalism owed much to the Enlightenment of the 18th century and to the American and French Revolutions. It became more significant as the Industrial Revolution made rapid strides because the developing industrial middle-class largely adopted the doctrine as its own. All liberalism began with the belief that people should be as free from restraint as possible.

The Principle of Legitimacy

Metternich claimed that he was guided at Vienna by the *principle of legitimacy.* To reestablish peace and stability in Europe, he considered it necessary to restore the legitimate monarchs who would preserve legitimate institutions. This had already been done in France and Spain with the restoration of the Bourbons, as well as a number of Italian states where rulers had been returned to their thrones. Elsewhere, the principle of legitimacy was largely ignored and completely overshadowed by more practical considerations of power. The congress's treatment of Poland, to which Russia, Austria, and Prussia all laid claim, illustrates this approach. Prussia and Austria were allowed to keep some Polish territory. A new, nominally independent Polish kingdom was established with the Romanov dynasty of Russia as its hereditary monarchs. Although Poland was guaranteed its independence, the kingdom remained under Russian control. As compensation for the Polish lands it lost, Prussia received two-fifths of Saxony, the Napoleonic German kingdom of Westphalia, and the east bank of the Rhine. Austria was compensated for its loss of the Austrian Netherlands by being given control of two northern Italian provinces.

*Nationalism*

Nationalism rose out of an awareness of being part of a community that has common institutions, traditions, language, and customs. This community constitutes a "nation," and it, rather than a dynasty, city-state, or other political unit, becomes the focus the individual's primary political loyalty. Nationalism did not become a popular force until the French Revolution. From then on, nationalists came to believe that each nationality should have its own government. Thus, a divided people such as the Germans wanted national unity in a German nation-state with one central government. Subject peoples, such as the Hungarians, wanted the right to establish their own autonomy. Nationalism threatened to upset the existing political order, both internationally and nationally. A united Germany or Italy would upset the balance of power. But an independent Hungarian state would mean the breakup of the Austrian Empire. Because many European states were multinational, conservatives tried hard to repress the radical threat of nationalism. At the same time, in the first half of the 19th century, nationalism and liberalism became strong allies. Most liberals believed that liberty could be realized only by peoples who ruled themselves.

*New Police Forces*

New police forces soon appeared to defend the propertied classes from criminals and social misfits. A number of European states established civilian policy forces--groups of well-trained law enforcement officers who were to preserve property and lives, maintain domestic order, investigate crime, and arrest offenders. It was hoped that their very presence would prevent crime.

Revolution in the Germanic States

News of the revolution in Paris triggered upheavals in central Europe as well. Revolutionary cries for change caused many German rulers to promise constitutions, a free press, jury trials, and other liberal reforms. In Prussia, King Frederick William IV agreed to abolish censorship, establish a new constitution, and work for a united Germany. The last promise was matched throughout all the German states as governments allowed elections by universal male suffrage for deputies to an all German parliament to meet in Frankfurt. Its purpose was to fulfill a liberal and nationalist dream--the preparation of a constitution for a new united Germany. Well-educated, articulate, middle-class delegates, many of them professors, lawyers, and bureaucrats, dominated the Frankfurt Assembly. From the beginning, the assembly aroused controversy by claiming to be the government for all of Germany. Then it became embroiled in a debate over the composition of the new German state. Supporters of a *Grossdeutsch* (big German) wanted to include the German province of Austria, while proponents of a *Kleindeutsch* (small German) favored excluding Austria and making the Prussian king the emperor of the new German state. Austria withdrew but Frederick William IV refused the assembly's offer of the title of "emperor of Germans* and ordered the Prussian delegates home. The attempt of the German liberals at Frankfurt to create a German state had failed.

*Another French Revolution*

On July 26, 1830, Charles X issued a set of edicts (the July Ordinances) that imposed rigid censorship on the press, dissolved the legislative assembly, and reduced the electorate in preparation for new elections. Charles's actions produced an immediate rebellion-- the *July Revolution.* A provisional government led by a group of moderates, propertied liberals was hastily formed and appealed to Louis-Phillips, the duke of Orleans, a cousin of Charles X, to become the constitutional king of France. Louis-Phillipe was soon called the bourgeois monarch because political support for his rule came from the upper middle class. Constitutional changes that favored the interests of the upper bourgeoisie were instituted. Financial qualifications for voting were reduced yet remained sufficiently high to ensure that only the wealthiest people would vote. To the lesser bourgeoisie and the Parisian working class, who had helped overthrow Charles X, the new bourgeois monarchy was a disappointment because they had been excluded from political power. The rapid expansion of French industry in the 1830s and 1840s gave rise to an industrial working class concentrated in certain urban areas. Terrible working and living conditions and the periodic economic crises that created high levels of unemployment led to worker unrest and sporadic outbursts of violence. Even in the legislature, the Chamber of Deputies, there were differences in opinion about the bourgeois monarchy and the direction it should take. The *Party of Movement* favored ministerial responsibility, the pursuit of an active foreign policy, and limited expansion of the franchise. The *Party of Resistance,* believed that France had finally reached the "perfect form" of government and needed no further institutional changes. After 1840, the Party of Resistance dominated the Chamber of Deputies and worked with Louis-Phillips in suppressing ministerial responsibility and pursuing a policy favoring the interests of the wealthier manufacturers and tradespeople.

Fourier

One group of early socialists sought to create voluntary associations that would demonstrate the advantages of cooperative living. *Charles Fourier* proposed the creation of small model communities call phalansteries. Communally housed, the inhabitants would live and work together for their mutual benefit. Fourier was unable to gain financial backing for his phalansteries so his plan remained untested.

Spread of Police Systems

Police systems were organized throughout the Western world during the 19th century. After the revolutions of 1848 in Germany, a state financed police force called the Schuzmannschaft was established for the city of Berlin. The Schutzmannschaft began as a civilian body, but had become organized along military lines and was used for political purposes. Its military nature was reinforced by the use of swords, pistols, and brass knuckles.

Political Liberalism

Politically, liberals came to hold a common set of beliefs. *The protection of civil liberties or the basic rights of all people, which included equality before the law; freedom of assembly, speech, and press; and freedom from arbitrary arrest.* All of these freedoms should be guaranteed in a written document such as the American Bill of Rights or the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. *In addition to religious toleration for all, most liberals advocated separation of church and state.* *The right of peaceful opposition to the government in and out of parliament and the making of laws by a representative assembly (legislature) elected by qualified voters." Many liberals, then, believed in a constitutional monarch or constitutional state with limits on the powers of government to prevent despotism and in written constitutions that would help guarantee these rights. Many liberals also advocated ministerial responsibility, which would give the legislative branch a check on the power of the executive branch because the king's ministers would answer to the legislature rather than the king. Liberals in the first half of the 19th century also believed in limited suffrage. Although people were entitled to equal civil rights, they should not have equal political rights. The right to vote and hold office should be open only to men who met certain property qualifications. Liberalism was tied to middle-class men, especially the industrial middle-class men, who favored the extension of voting rights so they could share power with the landowning classes. They had little desire to let the lower classes share that power. One of the most prominent advocates of liberalism in the 19th century was *John Stuart Mill.* In *On Liberty,* Mill argued for an "absolute freedom of opinion and sentiment on all subjects" that needed to be protected from both government censorship and the tyranny of the majority. Mill was an enthusiastic supporter of women's rights. Mill published an essay titled *On the Subjection of Women,* which argued that differences between women and men were not due to different natures but simply to social practices. With equal education, women could achieve as much as men.

*Romanticism in Art*

Romantic artists shared at least two fundamental characteristics: All artistic expression was a reflection of the artist's inner feelings; a painting should mirror the artist's vision of the world and be the instrument of his own imagination. Romantic artists deliberately rejected the principles of Classicism. Beauty was not a timeless thing; its expression depended on one's culture and one's age.

Love of Nature

Romantic poetry gave full expression to one of the most important characteristics of Romanticism: love of nature. To *William Wordsworth,* nature contained a mysterious force that the poet could perceive and learn from. Nature served as a mirror into which humans could look t learn about themselves. Other Romantics carried this worship of nature further into *pantheism* by identifying the great force in nature with God. The Romantics would have nothing to do with the deist God of the Enlightenment, the remote creator of the world machine.

*The Characteristics of Romanticism*

Romantic writers emphasized emotion, sentiment, and inner feeling in their works. An important model for the Romantics was the tragic figure in *The Sorrow of the Young Werther*, a novel by German writer *Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.* Misunderstood and rejected by society, Werther continued to believe in his own worth through his inner feelings, but his deep love for a girl who did not love him finally led him to commit suicide. Another important characteristic of Romanticism was *individualism,* an interest in the unique traits of each person. Long hair, beards, and outrageous clothes served to reinforce individualism that young romantics were trying to express. Sentiment and individualism came together in the Romantic's stress on the heroic. The Romantic hero was a solitary genius who was ready to defy the world and sacrifice his life for a great cause. Many Romantics possessed a passionate interest in the past. In Germany, the *Grimm brothers* collected and published local fairy tales (Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella). The revival of medieval Gothic architecture left European countrysides adorned with pseudo-medieval castles, and cities bedecked with grandiose cathedrals, city halls, parliamentary buildings, etc. To the history-mindedness of the Romantics could be added an attraction to the bizarre and unusual. In an exaggerated form, this preoccupation gave rise to *Gothic literature,* chillingly evident in the horror short stories of the American Edgar Allen Poe and in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

Other Approaches to the Crime Problem

Some believed that the increase in crime was related to the dramatic increase in poverty. Strongly influenced by the middle-class belief that unemployment was the result of sheer laziness, European states passed poor laws that attempted to force paupers to either find work on their own or enter workhouses designed to make people so utterly uncomfortable that they would choose to reenter the labor market. Meanwhile, another group of reformers was arguing that the real problem was poverty resulted in the moral degeneracy of the lower class, increasingly labeled the "dangerous classes" because of the perceived threat they posed to middle-class society. This led one group of secular reformers to form institutes to instruct the working classes in the applied sciences in order to make them more productive members of society. Organized religion took a different approach. British evangelicals set up Sunday schools to improve the morals of working children, and evangelical Protestants in Germany established nurseries for orphans and homeless. The Catholic Church attempted to turn young male workers away rom the moral vices of gambling, and drinking, and female workers from lives of prostitution.

*Revolutionary Outbursts in Belgium, Poland, and Italy*

Supporters of liberalism played a primary role in the July Revolution in France, but nationalism was the crucial force in three other revolutionary outbursts in 1830. In order to create a stronger, larger state on France's northern border, the Congress of Vienna had added the area once knows as the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) to the Dutch Republic. The merger of Catholic Belgium into the Protestant Dutch Republic never sat well with the Belgians, and in 1830, they rose up against the Dutch and succeeded in convincing the major European powers to accept their independence. A new king was designated and a new Belgian national congress established a constitutional monarchy for the new state. The revolutionary scenarios in Italy and Poland were much less successful. Metternich sent Austrian troops to crush revolts in three Italian states. Poland, too, had a nationalist uprising in 1830 when revolutionaries tried to end Russian control of their country. But the insurgents failed to get support from France and Britain, so the Russians crushed the revolt and established an oppressive military dictatorship over Poland.

Protestantism

The "awakening" had already begun in the 18th century with the enthusiastic emotional experiences of Methodism in Britain and Pietism in Germany. Enthusiastic evangelical preachers found that their messages of hellfire and their methods of emotional conversion evoked a ready response among people alienated by the highly. educated establishment clergy of the state churches.

The Greek Revolt

The *principle of intervention,* designed to prevent revolution, could also be used to support revolution if the great powers found it in their interest to do so. In 1821, the Greeks revolted agains their Ottoman Turkish masters. Although under Muslim control for 400 years, the Greeks had been allowed to maintain their language and their Greek Orthodox faith. A revival of Greek national sentiment added to the growing desire for liberation. In 1827, a combined British and French fleet went to Greece and defeated a large Ottoman armada. A year later, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire and invaded its European provinces. The *Treaty of Adrianople* in 1829, ended the Russian-Turkish wars and gave Russia protectorate over the two provinces and the Ottoman Empire agreed to allow Russia, France, and Britain to decide the fate of Greece. In 1830, the three powers declared Greece an independent kingdom, and two years later, a new royal dynasty was established. Until 1830, the Greek revolt was the only successful one in Europe.

Upheaval in the Austrian Empire

The Austrian Empire also had its social, political, and nationalist grievances and needed only the news of the revolution in Paris to encourage it to erupt in March 1848. The Hungarian liberals, under *Louis Kossuth* agitated for "commonwealth" status; they are willing to keep the Habsburg monarch but wanted their own legislature. In March, demonstrations in Buda, Prague, and Vienna led to Metternich's dismissal. In Vienna, revolutionary forces took control of the capital and insisted that a constituent assembly be summoned to draw up a liberal constitution. Hungary was granted its wish for its own legislature, a separate national army, and control over its foreign policy and budget. Although Emperor Ferdinand I and Austrian officials had made concessions to appease the revolutionaries, they awaited an opportunity to reestablish firm control. As in the German states, the conservatives were increasingly encouraged by the divisions between radical and moderate revolutionaries and played on the middle-class fear of a working-class social revolution. Feeble minded Ferdinand I agreed to abdicate in favor of his nephew Francis Joseph I who worked vigorously to restore the imperial government to Hungary. The Austrian armies were unable to defeat Kossuch's forces, and it was only through Nicholas I, who sent his Russian army to aid the Austrians, that the Hungarian revolutions were crushed. The revolution in Austria had also failed. Autocratic government was restored and emperor and propertied classes remained in control.

British Bobbies

The British, fearful of the powers exercised by military or secret police in authoritarian Continental states, had long resisted the creation of a professional police force. Britain depended on a system of unpaid constables who were often incapable of keeping order, preventing crimes, or apprehending criminals. The failure of the new constables led to a new approach. Between September 1829 and May 1830, 3,000 uniformed police officers appeared on the streets of London. They came to be known as bobbies. Their primary goal was to prevent crime. The municipal authorities soon found that the police were also useful for imposing order on working-class urban inhabitants.

Intervention in the Italian States and Spain

The Congress of Vienna had established 9 states in Italy. Much of Italy was under Austrian domination, and all the states had extremely reactionary governments eager to smother any liberal or nationalist sentiment. Secret societies, known as the *Carbonari,* who were motivated by nationalistic dreams continued to conspire and plan for revolution. In Spain, another Bourbon dynasty had been restored in the person of Ferdinand VII. Ferdinand had agreed to observe the liberal constitution of 1812, which allowed for the functioning of an elected parliamentary assembly know as the Cortes. But the king soon tore up the constitution, dissolved the Cortes, and persecuted its members which led a combined group of army officers, upper-middle class merchants, and liberal intellectuals to revolt. The king promised to restore the constitution and Cortes, but Mettermich's policy of intervention came to Ferndinand's rescue. In April 1823, a French army moved into Spain and forced the revolutionary government to flee Madrid by August of that year, the king had been restored to his throne.

*Conservative Domination: The Concert of Europe*

The European powers' fear of revolution and war led them to develop the Concert of Europe to maintain the status quo they had constructed. This grew out of the reaffirmation of the Quadruple Alliance in 1815 where Great Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria renewed their pledge against any attempted restoration of Bonapartist power and their agreement to meet periodically in conferences to discuss their common interests. Four congresses were held between 1818 and 1822. The first. held in 1818 at *Aix-la-Chapelle* was by far the most congenial. The four great powers agreed to withdraw their army from France and to add France to the Concert of Europe. The Quadruple Alliance became the quintuple alliance. The next congress proved far less pleasant. The session at *Troppau* in 1820 was called to deal with the outbreak of revolution in Spain and Italy. Metternich proposed the *principle of intervention* at Troppau. The *principle of intervention* meant that the great powers of Europe had the right to send armies into countries where there were revolutions to restore legitimate monarchs to their thrones. Britain refused to agree to the principle, arguing that it had never been the intention of the Quadruple Alliance to interfere in the internal affairs of other states, except France. Ignoring the British response, Austria, Prussia, and Russia met in a third congress at *Laibach* in 1821 and authorized sending Austrian troops to Naples. These forces crushed the revolt, restoring Ferdinand I to the throne. At the fourth postwar conference, held at *Verona* in 1822, the same three powers authorized France to invade Spain to crush the revolt against Ferdinand VII. French forces restored the Bourbon monarch. Although Britain had failed to thwart allied interventions in Spain and Italy, they were successful in keeping the Continental powers from interfering with the revolutions in Latin America.

Berlioz

The Frenchman *Hector Berlioz* was one of the founders of program music, which was an attempt to use the moods and sound effects of instrumental music to depict the actins and emotions inherent in a story, an event, or even a personal experience. This development of program music was evident in his most famous piece, the first complete program symphony, known as the *Symphonic Fantastique.*

Blanc

The Frenchman *Louis Blanc* offered yet another early socialist approach to a better society. In *The Organization of Work,* he maintained that social problems could be solved by government assistance. Denouncing competition as the main cause of the economic evils, he called for the establishment of workshops that would manufacture goods for public sale. The state would finance these workshops, but the workers would own and operate them.

The Reform Act of 1832

The Reform Act disenfranchised fifty-six cotton boroughs and enfranchised forty-two new towns and cities and reapportioned others, giving the new industrial urban communities some voice in government. A property qualification for voting was retained which meant that only one in every thirty people were represented in Parliament. Thus, the Reform Act of 1832, mostly benefited the upper middle class; the lower middle class, artisans, and industrial workers still had no vote. Moreover, the change did not significantly alter the composition of the House of Commons. Nevertheless, a significant step had been taken. The industrial middle class had been joined to the landed interests in ruling Britain.

French Police

The new approach to policing made its first appearance in France in 1828. The new police, known as *serjents* appeared appeared on Paris streets. They were dressed in blue uniforms to make them easily recognizable. They were also lightly armed with a white cane during the day and a saber at night, underscoring the fact that they were a civilian, not military, body. Initially, small in numbers. Paris had 85 in 1829, 500 in 1850 and 4,000 by the end of the century.

*The Maturing of the United States*

The US Constitution committed the US to liberalism and nationalism in the first half of the 19th century. Initially, divisions over the power of the federal government over the individual states challenged this constitutional commitment to national unity. The Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, favored a strong government. The Republicans, let by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, feared centralization and its consequences for popular liberties. European rivalries intensified these divisions because the Federalists were pro-British and the Republicans were pro-French. The War of 1812 against Britain brought an end to the Federalists, who had opposed the war, while the surge of national feeling generated by the war healed the nations divisions. Another strong force for national unity came from the Supreme Court. Under John Marshal, the Supreme Court contributed to establish the supremacy of the national government by curbing the actions of state courts and legislatures. The election of Andrew Jackson as president in 1828 opened a new era in American politics, the era of mass democracy. The electorate was expanded by dropping traditional property qualifications; by the 1830s, suffrage had been extended to almost all adult while males. American developed detention schools for juvenile delinquents and new penal institutions both motivated by the liberal belief that the right kind of environment would rehabilitate those need of it.

New Reform Legislation

The aristocratic landowning class was usually the driving force for legislation that halted some of the worst abuses by instituting government regulation of working conditions in factories and mines. The industrialists and manufacturers now in Parliament opposed such legislation and were usually the driving forces behind legislation that favored the principles of economic liberalism. The Poor Law of 1834 was based on the theory that giving aid to the poor and unemployed only encouraged laziness. The Poor Law tried to remedy this by making the paupers so wretched they would choose to work. The *Anti-Corn Law League* was established to help workers by lowering bread prices. But abolishing the Corn Laws would also help the industrial middle classes, who, as economic liberals, favored the principles of free trade. Repeal of the Corn Laws came in 1846. The middle class had largely been satisfied by the Reform Act of 1832 and the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846.

Friedrich

The early life experiences of the German painter, *Caspar David Friedrich* left him with a lifelong preoccupation with God and nature. Friedrich painted. landscapes. His portrayal of mountains shrouded in mist, gnarled trees bathed in moonlight, and the stark ruins of monasteries surrounded by withered trees all conveyed a feeling of mystery and mysticism. For Friedrich, nature was a manifestation of divine life, as is evident in *The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog.*

Revolts in the Italian States

The failure of revolutionary uprisings in Italy in 1830-1831 had encouraged the Italian movement for unification to take a new direction. Giuseppe Mazzini, a dedicated Italian, was now in charge of Italy's *risorgimento,* a group who set as its goal the creation of a unified Italian republic. In "The Duties of Man,* Mazzini urged Italians to dedicate their lives to the Italian nation. A number of Italian women took up Mazzini's call. These dreams seemed on the verge of fulfillment when a number of Italian sates rose in revolt in 1848. Beginning in Sicily, rebellions spread northward as ruler after ruler granted a constitution to his people. But the Austrians, the church and Italian rulers eventually reestablished power throughout Italy.

The Conservative Order (1815 - 1830)

The immediate response to the defeat of Napoleon was the desire to contain revolution and the revolutionary forces by restoring much of the old order.

*The Ideology of Conservatism*

The peace arrangements of 1815 were the beginning of a conservative reaction to contain the liberal and nationalist forces unleashed by the French Revolution. Metternich was representative of the ideology known as conservatism. Conservatism dates from 1790 when *Edmund Burke* wrote his *Reflections on the Revolution in France* in reaction to the French Revolution, especially its radical republican and democratic ideas. He believed the state was a partnership and no one generation has the right to destroy this partnership; each generation has the duty to preserve and transmit it to the next. Burke advised against the violent overthrow of a government by revolution. Sudden change was unacceptable but that did not mean that there should never be gradual or evolutionary improvements. The Frenchman *Joseph de Maistre* was also an influential spokesman for a counterrevolutionary and authoritarian conservatism. De Maistre espoused the restoration of hereditary monarchy because only an absolute monarchy could guarantee "order in society" and avoid the chaos generated by movements like the French Revolution. Despite their differences, most conservatives held to a general body of beliefs: -*They favored obedience to political authority* -*They believed that organized religion was crucial to social order* -*They hated revolutionary upheavals* -*They were unwilling to accept either the liberal demands for civil liberties and representative governments or the nationalistic aspiration generated by the French revolutionary era* After 1815, the political philosophy of conservatism was supported by hereditary monarchs, government bureaucracies, landowning aristocracies, and revived churches, be they Protestant or Catholic. The conservative forces appeared dominate after 1815, both internationally and domestically.

Critique of Science

The worship of nature also led Wordsworth and other Romantic poets to critique the mechanistic materialism of 18th century science. To Wordsworth, the scientists' dry, mathematical approach left no room for the imagination or for the human soul. Many Romantics were convinced that the emerging industrialization would cause people to become alienated from their inner selves and the natural world around them.

Catholicism

There were many conversions to the Catholic faith, especially among German Romantics. Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand's *Genius of Christianity,* was soon laced the "Bible of Romanticism."

The Failures of 1848

Throughout Europe in 1848, popular revolts had initiated revolutionary upheavals that had led to the formation of liberal constitutions and liberal governments. How could so many successes in 1848 be followed by so many disasters only months later? Two reasons: 1) The unity of the revolutionaries had made the revolutions possible, but divisions soon shattered their ranks. Except in France, moderate liberals from the propertied classes failed to extend suffrage to the working classes who helped achieve the revolutions. As radicals pushed for universal male suffrage, liberals everywhere pulled back. Concerned about their property and security, they rallied to the old ruling classes for the sake of order and out of fear of social revolution by the working class. All too soon, established governments were back in power. 2) Nationalities everywhere had also revolted in pursuit of self-government. But here, too, little was achieved as divisions among nationalists proved utterly disastrous. Though the Hungarians demanded autonomy from the Austrians, they refused the same to their minorities. Instead of joining together against the old empire, minorities fought each other.

*Romanticism in Music*

To many Romantics, music was the most Romantic of the arts because it enabled the composer to probe deeply into human emotions. Although music historians have called the 18th century the age of Classicism and the 19th the era of Romanticism, there was much carryover of classical forms. Ludwig van Beethoven served as a bridge between Classicism and Romanticism.

*Romantic Poets*

To the Romantics, poetry ranked above all other literary forms because they belived it was the direct expression of one's soul. Their incredible sense of drama made some of the most colorful figures of their era, living intense but short-lived lives. *Percy Shelley* expelled from school for advocating athleticism, set out to reform the world. His *Prometheus Unbound,* (1820), is a portrait of the revolt of human beings against the laws and customs that oppress them. He drowned in a storm in the Mediterranean. *Lord Byron* dramatized himself as the melancholy Romantic hero that he described in his work, *Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.* He participated in the movement for Greek independence and died in Greece fighting the Ottomans.

Female Supporters

Utopian socialists attracted a number of female supporters who believed that only a reordering of society would help women.