Unit_9

Bursenschaften

(German: "Youth Association"), student organization at the German universities that started as an expression of the new nationalism prevalent in post-Napoleonic Europe. The first Burschenschaft was founded in 1815 at the University of Jena, and the movement spread all over Germany. The early groups were egalitarian and liberal and favoured the political unification of Germany. After joint student demonstrations at the Wartburg Festival in October 1817 and the assassination of August von Kotzebue (a German writer who served the Russian tsar) by the nationalistic Burschenschafter Karl Sand in March 1819, the alarmed German governments passed the Carlsbad Decrees (1819), which in part provided for the official suppression of the Burschenschaften. Thereafter, the clubs went underground until 1848, when they actively participated in the German Revolution. After German unification (1871), they adopted a new and aggressive nationalism that led many of them to subscribe to anti-Semitism and Pan-Germanism. Suppressed under Hitler, the Burschenschaften were revived in West Germany after World War II but no longer played a significant role in German politics.

Frederick William III

(born August 3, 1770, Potsdam, Prussia [Germany]—died June 7, 1840, Berlin), king of Prussia from 1797, the son of Frederick William II. His policy of neutrality in the Wars of the Second and Third Coalitions accelerated the decline of Prussia's prestige. Domestic reforms before the Battle of Jena foreshadowed later reforms without, however, altering the absolutist structure of the state. Until 1807 he clung to the traditional cabinet government, influenced by mediocre personages. After the military collapse of 1806-07 and the loss of all provinces west of the Elbe River, he finally realized that Prussia would have to make decisive changes. He therefore sanctioned the reforms proposed by Prussian statesmen such as Karl Stein and Karl von Hardenberg, but these amounted only to a reform of the higher bureaucracy, not of the royal prerogative. The king never lost his fear that reform might lead to "Jacobinism," and he could not tolerate outstanding men as advisers. Through the War of Liberation (1813-15) he remained remote from his people's ardour, being always subservient to the Russian emperor Alexander I and in harmony with the Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich. In the crisis of the Vienna Congress over the partition of Saxony, he sided with Alexander I, thus bringing Prussia to the brink of war against England, France, and Austria (January 1815). The final compromise allowed Prussia to acquire the Rhine province, Westphalia, and much of Saxony. In contrast to these territorial gains, the last 25 years of Frederick William's reign show a downward trend of Prussia's fortunes, to which his personal limitations largely contributed.

Victor Hugo

(born Feb. 26, 1802, Besançon, France—died May 22, 1885, Paris), poet, novelist, and dramatist who was the most important of the French Romantic writers. Though regarded in France as one of that country's greatest poets, he is better known abroad for such novels as Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) and Les Misérables (1862). With the Revolution of 1848, Hugo was elected a deputy for Paris in the Constituent Assembly and later in the Legislative Assembly. He supported the successful candidacy of Prince Louis-Napoléon for the presidency that year. The more the president evolved toward an authoritarianism of the right, however, the more Hugo moved toward the assembly's left. When in December 1851 a coup d'état took place, which eventually resulted in the Second Empire under Napoleon III, Hugo made one attempt at resistance and then fled to Brussels.

John Stuart Mill

(born May 20, 1806, London, Eng.—died May 8, 1873, Avignon, France), English philosopher, economist, and exponent of Utilitarianism. He was prominent as a publicist in the reforming age of the 19th century, and remains of lasting interest as a logician and an ethical theorist.

Charles X

(born Oct. 9, 1757, Versailles, Fr.—died Nov. 6, 1836, Gorizia, Friuli), king of France from 1824 to 1830. His reign dramatized the failure of the Bourbons, after their restoration, to reconcile the tradition of the monarchy by divine right with the democratic spirit produced in the wake of the Revolution. Ordered by his brother Louis XVI to leave France soon after the fall of the Bastille (July 14, 1789), Charles went first to the Austrian Netherlands and then to Turin in Piedmont, thus becoming the first member of the royal family to go into exile, in which he was not joined by his brother the Comte de Provence (later Louis XVIII) until 1791. When the Comte de Provence became titular king he made Charles lieutenant general of the kingdom. Until the Bourbon Restoration in 1814, Charles travelled to Austria, Prussia, Russia, and England. During this period he made an unsuccessful attempt to land in the Vendée to lead the royalist rising there. Returning to France in 1814, he became the leader of the Ultras, the party of extreme reaction during Louis XVIII's reign. Upon Louis XVIII's death in 1824, Charles became king as Charles X. His popularity waned as his reign passed through three reactionary ministries. During the first, former émigrés were compensated for their nationalized lands, largely at the expense of bourgeois holders of government bonds; greater power was granted to the clergy, and the death penalty was imposed for certain "sacrileges."

Nicholas I

1796-1855, czar of Russia (1825-55). Nicholas strove to serve his country's best interests as he saw them, but his methods were dictatorial, paternalistic, and often inadequate. One important achievement, however, was the codification (1832-33) of existing Russian law. The motto "autocracy, orthodoxy, and nationality," expressing the principles applied to a new system of education, was also used by Nicholas in suppressing liberal thought, controlling the universities, increasing censorship, persecuting religious and national minorities, and strengthening the secret police. Intellectual life was in ferment, the revolutionary movement took form, and the two schools of thought held by Slavophiles and Westernizers emerged. Under Nicholas, Russia gained control of part of Armenia and the Caspian Sea after a war with Persia (1826-28). A war with the Ottoman Empire (1828-29; see Russo-Turkish Wars) gave Russia the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the mouth of the Danube. Nicholas brutally suppressed the uprising (1830-31) in Poland and abrogated the Polish constitution and Polish autonomy. In 1849 he helped Austria crush the revolution in Hungary. His attempts to dominate the Ottoman Empire led to the disastrous Crimean War (1853-56).

Edmund Burke

British statesman, parliamentary orator, and political thinker prominent in public life from 1765 to about 1795 and important in the history of political theory. He championed conservatism in opposition to Jacobinism in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Charles Talleyrand

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, prince de Bénévent, then prince de Talleyrand was a French diplomat. He worked successfully from the regime of Louis XVI, through the French Revolution and then under Napoleon I, Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis-Philippe. Some regard him as one of the most versatile, skilled and influential diplomats in European history, and some believe that he was a traitor, betraying in turn, the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, Napoleon, and the Restoration. He is also notorious for leaving the Catholic Church after ordination to the priesthood and consecration to the episcopacy.

Political liberalism

Classical liberalism is a philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets. Classical liberalism developed in the nineteenth century in Western Europe, and the Americas. Although classical liberalism built on ideas that had already developed by the end of the eighteenth century, it advocated a specific kind of society, government and public policy required as a result of the Industrial Revolution and urbanization. Notable individuals who have contributed to classical liberalism include Jean-Baptiste Say, Thomas Malthus and David Ricardo. It drew on the economics of Adam Smith, a psychological understanding of individual liberty, natural law and utilitarianism, and a belief in progress. Classical liberals established political parties that were called "liberal", although in the United States classical liberalism came to dominate both existing major political parties. There was a revival of interest in classical liberalism in the twentieth century led by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. In the late 19th century, classical liberalism developed into neo-classical liberalism, which argued for government to be as small as possible in order to allow the exercise of individual freedom. In its most extreme form, it advocated Social Darwinism. Libertarianism is a modern form of neo-classical liberalism.[5

Concert of Europe

Concert of Europe, in the post-Napoleonic era, the vague consensus among the European monarchies favoring preservation of the territorial and political status quo. The term assumed the responsibility and right of the great powers to intervene and impose their collective will on states threatened by internal rebellion. The powers notably suppressed uprisings in Italy (1820) and Spain (1822) but later condoned Belgium's rebellion and proclamation of independence (1830).

Conservatism

Conservatism (Latin: conservare, "to retain") is a political and social philosophy that promotes retaining traditional social institutions. A person who follows the philosophies of conservatism is referred to as a traditionalist or conservative. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others, called reactionaries, oppose modernism and seek a return to "the way things were". The first established use of the term in a political context was by François-René de Chateaubriand in 1819, following the French Revolution. The term, historically associated with right-wing politics, has since been used to describe a wide range of views. There is no single set of policies that are universally regarded as conservative, because the meaning of conservatism depends on what is considered traditional in a given place and time. Thus, conservatives from different parts of the world—each upholding their respective traditions—may disagree on a wide range of issues. Edmund Burke, an Anglo-Irish politician who served in the British House of Commons and opposed the French Revolution, is credited as one of the founders of conservatism in Great Britain. According to Quintin Hogg, a former chairman of the British Conservative Party, "Conservatism is not so much a philosophy as an attitude, a constant force, performing a timeless function in the development of a free society, and corresponding to a deep and permanent requirement of human nature itself."

Corn Laws

Corn Law, in English history, any of the regulations governing the import and export of grain. Records mention the imposition of Corn Laws as early as the 12th century. The laws became politically important in the late 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, during the grain shortage caused by Britain's growing population and by the blockades imposed in the Napoleonic Wars. The Corn Laws were finally repealed in 1846, a triumph for the manufacturers, whose expansion had been hampered by protection of grain, against the landed interests. After 1791, protective legislation, combined with trade prohibitions imposed by war, forced grain prices to rise sharply. A bad harvest in 1795 led to food riots; there was a prolonged crisis during 1799-1801, and the period from 1805 to 1813 saw a sequence of bad harvests and high prices. From 1815, when an act attempted to fix prices, to 1822, grain prices fluctuated, and continuing protection was increasingly unpopular.

Ultraroyalists

French ultraroyaliste, the extreme right wing of the royalist movement in France during the Second Restoration (1815-30). The ultras represented the interests of the large landowners, the aristocracy, clericalists, and former émigrés. They were opposed to the egalitarian and secularizing principles of the Revolution, but they did not aim at restoring the ancien régime; rather, they were concerned with manipulating France's new constitutional machinery in order to regain the assured political and social predominance of the interests they represented. The ultras first emerged within the royalist movement in 1815. They controlled the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the French parliament) in 1815-16 and again from 1821 to 1827. They dominated the Cabinet in 1821-24 (i.e., the last years of Louis XVIII's reign), and in the latter year their leader, the Count d'Artois, succeeded to the throne as Charles X. During his reign the ultras continued in power and were able to partly fulfill their political program, which called for tightened restrictions on the press and increased power for the Roman Catholic church. Owing to the unpopularity of their policies, the ultras lost control of the Chamber of Deputies in 1827, and their ministry ended (along with Charles X's reign) in the July Revolution of 1830, after which the faction ceased to exist.

Zollverein

German customs union established in 1834 under Prussian leadership. It created a free-trade area throughout much of Germany and is often seen as an important step in German reunification. The movement to create a free-trade zone in Germany received great impetus from economists such as Friedrich List, its most active advocate in early 19th-century Germany. In 1818 Prussia enacted a tariff law abolishing all internal customs dues and announced its willingness to establish free trade with neighbouring states. A decade later Prussia signed the first such pact with Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1828 a customs union was set up in southern Germany by Bavaria and Württemberg, joined in 1829 by the Palatinate; also in 1828 the central German states established a similar union, which included Saxony, the Thuringian states, electoral Hesse, and Nassau.

Gothic literature

Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story". The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror, an extension of Romantic literary pleasures that were relatively new at the time of Walpole's novel. Melodrama and parody (including self-parody) were other long-standing features of the Gothic initiated by Walpole. It originated in England in the second half of the 18th century and had much success during the English romantic period with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the works of Edgar Allan Poe. A later well known novel in this genre, dating from the Victorian era, is Bram Stoker's Dracula. The name Gothic refers to the (pseudo)-medieval buildings in which many of these stories take place. This extreme form of romanticism was very popular in England and Germany. The English gothic novel also led to new novel types such as the German Schauerroman and the French roman noir.

Miguel Hidalgo Costilla

HIDALGO Y COSTILLA, MIGUEL (1753-1811). Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the priest known as the "father of Mexican independence," Until 1809 he pursued his priestly functions and exerted himself to introduce various forms of industry among his parishioners at Dolores. After Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808, the colonies, unwilling to accept a French ruler, loudly proclaimed Ferdinand VII as king. The societies they formed professed loyalty to Spain, but authorities suspected they were designed to prepare for the independence of Mexico. Hidalgo and several of his friends engaged in preparations which the authorities considered treasonable. Warned by the arrest of a friend, Hidalgo gathered several hundred of his parishioners, and on September 16, 1810, they seized the prison at Dolores. This action began the Mexican War of Independence. At first Hidalgo met with some success, but as many of his followers deserted, he lost heart and retreated. His forces were decisively defeated at Aculo on November 7, 1810, and at the bridge of Calderón on Río Santiago on January 17, 1811. Hidalgo was later captured and, after being degraded from the priesthood, was shot as a rebel on July 31 or August 1, 1811.

Holy Alliance

Holy Alliance, a loose organization of most of the European sovereigns, formed in Paris on Sept. 26, 1815, by Alexander I of Russia, Francis I of Austria, and Frederick William III of Prussia when they were negotiating the Second Peace of Paris after the final defeat of Napoleon. The avowed purpose was to promote the influence of Christian principles in the affairs of nations. The alliance was inspired by Alexander, perhaps under the influence of the visionary Barbara Juliane von Krüdener. It was eventually signed by all European rulers except the Prince Regent of Britain, the Ottoman sultan, and the Pope. Its importance was not great, but liberals and later historians believed it was a major force and symbol of conservatism and repression in central and eastern Europe. Both the Austrian prince Klemens von Metternich and Viscount Castlereagh of England, the leading figures in the diplomacy of the post-Napoleonic era, however, saw the Holy Alliance as an insignificant and ephemeral association.

July Revolution

July Revolution, French Révolution de Juillet, also called July Days, (1830), insurrection that brought Louis-Philippe to the throne of France. The revolution was precipitated by Charles X's publication (July 26) of restrictive ordinances contrary to the spirit of the Charter of 1814. Protests and demonstrations were followed by three days of fighting (July 27-29), the abdication of Charles X (August 2), and the proclamation of Louis-Philippe as "king of the French" (August 9). In the July Revolution the upper middle class, or bourgeoisie, secured a political and social ascendancy that was to characterize the period known as the July Monarchy.

June Days

June Days, (June 23-26, 1848) in French history, a brief and bloody civil uprising in Paris in the early days of the Second Republic. The new government instituted numerous radical reforms, but the new assembly, composed mainly of moderate and conservative candidates, was determined to cut costs and end risky experiments such as public works programs to provide for the unemployed. Thousands of Parisian workers—suddenly cut off from the state payroll—were joined by radical sympathizers and took to the streets in spontaneous protest. The assembly gave Gen. Louis-Eugène Cavaignac authority to suppress the uprising, and he brought up artillery against the protesters' barricades. At least 1,500 rebels were killed, 12,000 were arrested, and many were exiled to Algeria. See also Revolutions of 1848.

Karl Marx

Karl Marx, in full Karl Heinrich Marx (born May 5, 1818, Trier, Rhine province, Prussia [Germany]—died March 14, 1883, London, England), revolutionary, sociologist, historian, and economist. He published (with Friedrich Engels) Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (1848), commonly known as The Communist Manifesto, the most celebrated pamphlet in the history of the socialist movement. He also was the author of the movement's most important book, Das Kapital. These writings and others by Marx and Engels form the basis of the body of thought and belief known as Marxism.

Liberalism

Liberalism as a political movement spans the better part of the last four centuries, though the use of the word liberalism to refer to a specific political doctrine did not occur until the 19th century. Perhaps the first modern state founded on liberal principles, with no hereditary aristocracy, was the United States of America, whose Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. among these life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," echoing John Locke's phrase "life, liberty, and property". A few years later, the French Revolution overthrew the hereditary aristocracy, with the slogan "liberty, equality, fraternity", and was the first state in history to grant universal male suffrage. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, first codified in 1789 in France, is a foundational document of both liberalism and human rights. While liberal ideas were advocated by many early thinkers, including Marcus Aurelius, Cardinal Cajetan, and the School of Salamanca, most historians trace the beginnings of liberal political government to a reaction to the religious wars gripping Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in France. The Enlightenment, which challenged tradition, eventually coalesced into powerful revolutionary movements that toppled archaic regimes all over the world, especially in Europe, Latin America, and North America. Liberalism fully exploded as a comprehensive movement against the old order during the French Revolution, which set the pace for the future development of human history.

Louise Philippe

Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 - 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the Revolution of 1789 but was nevertheless guillotined during the Reign of Terror. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile. He was proclaimed king in 1830 after Charles X was forced to abdicate. Louis Philippe himself was forced to abdicate in 1848 and lived out his life in exile in the United Kingdom. He was the last king to rule France, although Napoleon III would serve as its last monarch.

Louis Napoleon Bonaparte

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (20 April 1808 - 9 January 1873) was the first President of the French Republic and, as Napoleon III, the ruler of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I. Elected President by popular vote in 1848, he initiated a coup d'état in 1851, before ascending the throne as Napoleon III on 2 December 1852, the forty-eighth anniversary of Napoleon I's coronation. He ruled as Emperor of the French until 4 September 1870. He holds the distinction of being both the first titular president and the last monarch of France. Napoleon III is primarily remembered for an energetic foreign policy which aimed to jettison the limitations imposed on France since 1815 by the Concert of Europe and reassert French influence in Europe and the French colonial empire. Napoleon stood opposed to the reactionary policies imposed at Vienna in 1815 and instead was an exponent of popular sovereignty, and a supporter of nationalism.[1] In the Near East, Napoleon III spearheaded allied action against Russia in the Crimean War and restored French presence in the Levant, claiming for France the role of protector of the Maronite Christians. A French garrison in Rome likewise secured the Papal States against annexation by Italy, defeating the Italians at Mentana and winning the support of French Catholics for Napoleon's regime. In the Far East, Napoleon III established French rule in Cochinchina and New Caledonia. French interests in China were upheld in the Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion; an abortive campaign against Korea was launched in 1866 while a military mission to Japan failed to prevent the restoration of Imperial rule. French intervention in Mexico was also unsuccessful, and was terminated in 1867 due to mounting Mexican resistance and American diplomatic pressure. Eventually, the French Empire was overthrown three days after Napoleon's disastrous surrender at the Battle of Sedan, part of the Franco-Prussian War, in 1870, which resulted in the proclamation of the French Third Republic and his exile in England, where he died in 1873.

Louis XVIII

Louis-Stanislas-Xavier, Comte (count) de Provence (born Nov. 17, 1755, Versailles, Fr.—died Sept. 16, 1824, Paris), king of France by title from 1795 and in fact from 1814 to 1824, except for the interruption of the Hundred Days, during which Napoleon attempted to recapture his empire.When the Revolution broke out in 1789, he remained in Paris, possibly to exploit the situation as a royal candidate; but he fled the country in June 1791. With little concern for the safety of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, who were held captive in Paris, the Comte de Provence issued uncompromising counterrevolutionary manifestos, organized émigré associations, and sought the support of other monarchs in the fight against the Revolution. After Napoleon's defeats in 1813, Louis issued a manifesto in which he promised to recognize some of the results of the Revolution in a restored Bourbon regime. When the Allied armies entered Paris in March 1814, the brilliant diplomatist Talleyrand was able to negotiate the restoration, and on May 3, 1814, Louis was received with jubilation by the war-weary Parisians. On May 2, Louis XVIII officially promised a constitutional monarchy, with a bicameral parliament, religious toleration, and constitutional rights for all citizens. The resulting Charte Constitutionnelle was adopted on June 4, 1814. Louis's constitutional experiments were cut short, however, by the return of Napoleon from Elba. After Marshal Michel Ney defected to Napoleon on March 17, 1815, the King fled to Ghent. He did not return until July 8, after Waterloo.

King Pedro I

Pedro I, (born Oct. 12, 1798, Lisbon, Port.—died Sept. 24, 1834, Lisbon), founder of the Brazilian empire and first emperor of Brazil, from Dec. 1, 1822, to April 7, 1831, also reckoned as King Pedro (Peter) IV of Portugal. When Napoleon conquered Portugal in 1807, Pedro accompanied the royal family in its flight to Brazil. He remained there as regent when King John returned to Portugal in 1821. Pedro surrounded himself with ministers who counseled independence. When the Portuguese Cortês (Parliament), preferring colonial status for Brazil, demanded that Pedro return to Lisbon to "complete his political education," he issued a declaration of Brazilian independence on Sept. 7, 1822. Within three months he was crowned emperor. Pedro's initial popularity waned, and in 1823, when the Brazilian Assembly was preparing a liberal constitution, he dissolved that body and exiled the radical leader José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva. On March 25, 1824, however, Pedro accepted a somewhat less liberal constitution drafted by the Council of State at his behest. Although adoption of that charter may have saved Pedro from deposition, it did not reestablish his popularity. His autocratic manner, his lack of enthusiasm for parliamentary government, and his continuing deep interest in Portuguese affairs antagonized his subjects, as did the failure of his military forces in a war with Argentina over what is now Uruguay. Strong opposition in the Brazilian Parliament and a series of local uprisings induced him to abdicate in 1831 in favour of his son Dom Pedro II, who was then five years old. Pedro I then returned to Portugal.

Peterloo Massacre

Peterloo Massacre, Peterloo Massacre [Credit: The Print Collector/Heritage-Images](Aug. 16, 1819), in English history, the brutal dispersal by cavalry of a radical meeting held on St. Peter's Fields in Manchester. The "massacre" (likened to Waterloo) attests to the profound fears of the privileged classes of the imminence of violent Jacobin revolution in England in the years after the Napoleonic Wars. To radicals and reformers Peterloo came to symbolize Tory callousness and tyranny. British radical political reformer who gained the nickname "Orator" Henry Hunt for his ubiquitous speechmaking in which he advocated universal suffrage and annual parliaments. Hunt's success as an orator came to national attention when he presided over an assembly of 60,000 people demonstrating for parliamentary reform at St. Peter's Fields, Manchester (August 16, 1819). The attempts to arrest Hunt and other leaders resulted in confusion and violence; about 500 of the unarmed demonstrators were injured, and 11 were killed. The incident became known as the Peterloo Massacre. It became a rallying point of popular radicalism.

King Frederick William IV

Reigned as King of Prussia from 1840 to 1861. Also referred to as the "romanticist on the throne", he is best remembered for numerous buildings he had erected in Berlin and Potsdam, as well as for sponsoring the completion of the gothic Cologne cathedral. In politics he was conservative and he crucially rejected the title of German Emperor offered to him by the Frankfurt parliament in 1849. Although a staunch conservative, Frederick William did not seek to be a despot and so he toned down the reactionary policies enacted by his father, easing press censorship and promising to enact a constitution at some point, but refused to enact a popular legislative assembly, preferring to work with the aristocracy through "united committees" of the provincial estates. Despite being a devout Lutheran, his Romantic leanings led him to settle the Cologne church conflict by releasing the imprisoned Archbishop of Cologne.

Revolutions of 1848

Revolutions of 1848, 1848, Revolutions of: coloured print depicting revolt in Paris, 1848 series of republican revolts against European monarchies, beginning in Sicily, and spreading to France, Germany, Italy, and the Austrian Empire. They all ended in failure and repression, and were followed by widespread disillusionment among liberals. The revolutionary movement began in Italy with a local revolution in Sicily in January 1848; and, after the revolution of February 24 in France, the movement extended throughout the whole of Europe with the exception of Russia, Spain, and the Scandinavian countries. In Great Britain it amounted to little more than a Chartist demonstration and a republican agitation in Ireland. The year of revolutions began in Sicily; soon all Europe was ablaze and Pius was faced with demands, both liberal and nationalist, much beyond what he had been prepared to grant (see Revolutions of 1848). On March 14 he was compelled to grant a constitution establishing a two-chamber parliament with full legislative and fiscal powers subject only to the pope's personal veto. On March 23 Charles Albert of Sardinia declared war on Austria. For a time Pius continued to endeavour to steer a middle course, claiming in his address to the cardinals of April 29 that he was a disinterested spectator of the revolutionary activities sweeping Italy and that his program of reform was merely the fulfillment of the program long pressed upon the papacy by the powers. In the atmosphere of the time such sentiments were judged as displaying absolute hostility to the national cause, and the papacy was never again able to appear in Italy as anything other than a bulwark of reaction. To prevent revolution from breaking out in Rome itself, Pius consented to the appointment of popular ministries, but none of the appointees was able to control the situation. A steadily deteriorating situation culminated in the assassination of one of them on November 15. A radical ministry was appointed; when the Swiss guards were disbanded the pope was a virtual prisoner. On November 24-25, with the aid of the French and Bavarian ambassadors, he fled to Gaeta in the kingdom of Naples. In his absence, elections were held for a constituent assembly; this, on February 9, 1849, declared the temporal power at an end and a democratic republic to be established. The papacy thereupon issued a formal appeal to the rulers of France, Austria, Spain, and Naples for assistance. Although it was generally considered that the pope's restoration could take place only with some sort of undertaking to maintain constitutional government in the Papal States, and although Louis-Napoléon, the newly elected president of France, was in favour of such a policy, Pius held out against any concessions and asserted his determination to exercise his temporal power without any restrictions whatsoever. The upshot of a period of military and diplomatic maneuvers on the part of France and Austria was the unconditional restoration of papal rule, and Pius returned to his capital on April 12, 1850.

Robert Castlereagh

Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, also called (from 1821) 2nd Marquess Of Londonderry (born June 18, 1769, Dublin—died Aug. 12, 1822, London), British foreign secretary (1812-22), who helped guide the Grand Alliance against Napoleon and was a major participant in the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe in 1815. He took a leading part in bringing together the alliance of great powers that finally overthrew Napoleon and in deciding the form of the peace settlement of Vienna. The concept of a Concert of Europe was largely his creation, and his influence did much to promote the practice of diplomacy by conference.

Decembrist Revolt

Russian Dekabrist, any of the Russian revolutionaries who led an unsuccessful uprising on Dec. 14 (Dec. 26, New Style), 1825, and through their martyrdom provided a source of inspiration to succeeding generations of Russian dissidents. The Decembrists were primarily members of the upper classes who had military backgrounds; some had participated in the Russian occupation of France after the Napoleonic Wars or served elsewhere in western Europe; a few had been Freemasons, and some were members of the secret patriotic (and, later, revolutionary) societies in Russia—the Union of Salvation (1816), the Union of Welfare (1818), the Northern Society (1821), and the Southern Society (1821). The Northern Society, taking advantage of the brief but confusing interregnum following the death of Tsar Alexander I, staged an uprising, convincing some of the troops in St. Petersburg to refuse to take a loyalty oath to Nicholas I and to demand instead the accession of his brother Constantine. The rebellion, however, was poorly organized and easily suppressed; Colonel Prince Sergey Trubetskoy, who was to be the provisional dictator, fled immediately. Another insurrection by the Chernigov regiment in the south was also quickly defeated. An extensive investigation in which Nicholas personally participated ensued; it resulted in the trial of 289 Decembrists, the execution of 5 of them (Pavel Pestel, Sergey Muravyov-Apostol, Pyotr Kakhovsky, Mikhail Bestuzhev-Ryumin, and Kondraty Ryleyev), the imprisonment of 31, and the banishment of the rest to Siberia.

Simón Bolívar

Simón Bolívar, byname The Liberator, Spanish El Libertador (born July 24, 1783, Caracas, New Granada [now in Venezuela]—died December 17, 1830, near Santa Marta, Colombia), South American soldier and statesman who led the revolutions against Spanish rule in the Viceroyalty of New Granada. He was president of Gran Colombia (1819-30) and dictator of Peru (1823-26). The idea of independence for Hispanic America took root in Bolívar's imagination, and, on a trip to Rome, standing on the heights of the Monte Sacro, he made a vow to liberate his country. In 1807 he returned to Venezuela by way of the United States, visiting the eastern cities. The Latin American independence movement was launched a year after Bolívar's return, as Napoleon's invasion of Spain unsettled Spanish authority. Bolívar himself participated in various conspiratorial meetings, and on April 19, 1810, the Spanish governor was officially deprived of his powers and expelled from Venezuela. A junta took over. To obtain help, Bolívar was sent on a mission to London, where he arrived in July. His assignment was to explain to England the plight of the revolutionary colony, to gain recognition for it, and to obtain arms and support. Although he failed in his official negotiations, he did foster the cause of the revolution by persuading the exiled Francisco de Miranda, who in 1806 had attempted to liberate Venezuela single-handedly, to return to Caracas and to assume command of the independence movement.

Frankfurt Assembly

The Frankfurt Assembly came as a result of the political unrest in Prussia and the German states during 1848. Both liberals and radicals were dissatisfied with the lack of freedom that the government offered them. The assembly in Frankfurt was a gathering of elected representatives from Prussia, Austria, and all the German states to discuss the creation of a unified German nation. Most of the delegates were lawyers, professors, or administrators, and most were also moderate liberals. The public had hoped that the Frankfurt Assembly could imitate what the French did at the Tennis Court Oath of 1789--draft a constitution for a liberal, but unified, German nation. However, the Frankfurt Assembly had no resources, no power to overthrow, and no legal code. For eleven months, these delegates worked in one public room in an old church, with no place to debate or decide on legislation. At the assembly, questions about nationality generated a lot of contention. Which Germans would be in the new state? Many delegates argued that all Germans were bound to unification by their language, culture, and geography. They believed that the German nation should include as many Germans as possible. On the other hand, there was a minority who wanted a "Small Germany" that left out all lands of the Habsburg Empire, like German Austria. After a long debate, the assembly went with the Small German solution and offered the crown of the new nation to Frederick William IV. But Frederick William refused the crown on account of the constitution being too liberal. Here, things started to fall apart. Some delegates fled to the United States, others sacrificed their liberal views for a seemingly more realistic goal of nationhood. In Prussia, the army of revolutionary forces was also dispatched. Some of the outcomes: political unrest spread across Germany. Moderates were now in fear of how radical this was becoming, since peasants and workers had already forced the king to make some sacrifices in the early spring of 1848. Moderates still wanted national unification and there was still much reform to be done after the Frankfurt Assembly.

Socialists

The Socialist Party traces its roots to the French Revolution. Its predecessor parties, formed in the 19th century, drew inspiration from political and social theorists such as Charles Fourier, Henri de Saint-Simon, François-Noël Babeuf, Auguste Blanqui, and Louis Blanc. Four dominant varieties of socialism were represented: utopian, syndicalist (see syndicalism), revolutionary, and reformist. France's first Marxist party, the French Workers' Party (Parti Ouvrier Français), founded in

Romanticism

The Spirit of Romanticism attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the mid-19th century. Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm, harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified Classicism in general and late 18th-century Neoclassicism in particular. It was also to some extent a reaction against the Enlightenment and against 18th-century rationalism and physical materialism in general. Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental.

Reform Bill of 1832

The first Reform Bill primarily served to transfer voting privileges from the small boroughs controlled by the nobility and gentry to the heavily populated industrial towns. The first Reform Bill was necessitated chiefly by glaring inequalities in representation between traditionally enfranchised rural areas and the rapidly growing cities of newly industrial England. For example, such large industrial centres as Birmingham and Manchester were unrepresented, while parliamentary members continued to be returned from numerous so-called "rotten boroughs," which were virtually uninhabited rural districts, and from "pocket boroughs," where a single powerful landowner or peer could almost completely control the voting. The sparsely populated county of Cornwall returned 44 members, while the City of London, with a population exceeding 100,000, returned only 4 members. The Representation of the People Act 1832, commonly known as the Reform Act 1832, was an Act of Parliament (2 & 3 Will. IV) that introduced wide-ranging changes to the electoral system of England and Wales. According to its preamble, the act was designed to "take effectual Measures for correcting divers Abuses that have long prevailed in the Choice of Members to serve in the Commons House of Parliament." Calls for reform had been mooted long before 1832, but perennially without success. The Act which finally succeeded was proposed by the Whigs led by the Prime Minister Lord Grey. It met with significant opposition from the Pittite factions in Parliament that had governed the country for so long (opposition was especially pronounced in the House of Lords). Nevertheless, as a result of public pressure, the bill was eventually passed. The Act granted seats in the House of Commons to large cities that had sprung up during the Industrial Revolution, and took away seats from the "rotten boroughs"—those with very small populations. The Act also increased the number of individuals entitled to vote, increasing the size of the electorate by 50-80%, and allowing a total of one out of six adult males to vote, in a population of some 14 million.

Self determination

The process by which a group of people, usually possessing a certain degree of national consciousness, form their own state and choose their own government. As a political principle, the idea of self-determination evolved at first as a by-product of the doctrine of nationalism, to which early expression was given by the French and American revolutions. In World War I the Allies accepted self-determination as a peace aim. In his Fourteen Points—the essential terms for peace—U.S. president Woodrow Wilson listed self-determination as an important objective for the postwar world; the result was the fragmentation of the old Austro-Hungarian

Radicalism

The term Radical (from the Latin radix meaning root) was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. Historically, it began in the United Kingdom with political support for a "radical reform" of the electdom of the press. Initially identifying itself as a far left party opposed to the right-wing parties; the Orléanists, the Legitimists and the Bonapartists in France in the nineteenth century, the Republican, Radical and Radical‐Socialist Party progressively became the most important party of the Third Republic (لالالتقبتلمف As historical Radicalism became absorbed in the development of political liberalism, in the later 19th century in both the United Kingdom and continental Europe the term Radical came to denote a progressive liberal ideology.

Economic liberalism

What today is called economic liberalism was developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Britain, most notably by Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, and David Ricardo. Economic liberalism was a product of the Enlightenment in its emphasis on universal laws governing economy and affirmation of self-interest. Like the Enlightenment, the formulation of "scientific rules" governing economy was against the absolute control of government over economy. These champions of economic rules believed that individual freedom was best safeguarded by the reduction of government powers to a minimum. They wanted to impose constitutional limits on government, to establish the rule of law, and to sweep away restrictions on individual enterprises, specifically, the state regulation of economy.

Abolitionists

also called abolition movement, (c. 1783-1888), in western Europe and the Americas, the movement chiefly responsible for creating the emotional climate necessary for ending the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery. With the decline of Roman slavery in the 5th century, the institution waned in western Europe and by the 11th century had virtually disappeared. Portuguese exploration of the west coast of Africa beginning in 1420, however, created an interest in slavery in the recently formed colonies of North America, South America, and the West Indies, where the need for plantation labour generated an immense market for slaves. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, an estimated total of 12 million Africans were forcibly transported to the Americas.

Juntas

junta, (Spanish: "meeting"), committee or administrative council, particularly one that rules a country after a coup d'etat and before a legal government has been established. The word was widely used in the 16th century to refer to numerous government consultative committees. The Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion (1808) was organized by the juntas provinciales; the national committee was the junta suprema central. In subsequent civil wars or revolutionary disturbances in Spain, Greece, or Latin America, similar bodies, elected or self-appointed, have usually been called juntas.

Nationalism

nationalism, ideology based on the premise that the individual's loyalty and devotion to the nation-state surpass other individual or group interests. Nationalism is a modern movement. Throughout history people have been attached to their native soil, to the traditions of their parents, and to established territorial authorities; but it was not until the end of the 18th century that nationalism began to be a generally recognized sentiment molding public and private life and one of the great, if not the greatest, single determining factors of modern history

German Confederation

organization of 39 German states, established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to replace the destroyed Holy Roman Empire. It was a loose political association, formed for mutual defense, with no central executive or judiciary. Delegates met in a federal assembly dominated by Austria. Amid a growing call for reform and economic integration, conservative leaders, including Klemens, prince von Metternich, persuaded the confederation's princes to pass the repressive Carlsbad Decrees (1819), and in the 1830s Metternich led the federal assembly in passing additional measures to crush liberalism and nationalism. The formation of the Zollverein (a German customs union) in 1834 and the Revolutions of 1848 undermined the confederation. It was dissolved with Prussia's defeat of Austria in the Seven Weeks' War (1866) and the establishment of the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation.

Prince Klemens von Metternich

rince Klemens von Metternich was the chief minister of the Austrian Empire and the leading conservative statesman in European politics from 1815 to 1848. He was the principal architect of the "Concert of Europe," the alliance of great powers that sought to maintain the the pillars of the old regime--monarchy, aristocracy, church, and privilege--against the forces of liberalism and nationalism. As minister of a German-led multi-national empire, Metternich had reason to fear nationalism as much as liberalism (which in any case tended to go hand in hand in the first half of the nineteenth century). Nationalists within the Austrian Empire threatened to establish small autonomous nation-states, thus ripping apart the empire, while German nationalists sought to unite the decentralized German states, thus jeopardizing Austria's status as the major power (along with Prussia) in German affairs.

Carlsbad Decrees

series of resolutions (Beschlüsse) issued by a conference of ministers from the major German states, meeting at the Bohemian spa of Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic) on Aug. 6-31, 1819. The states represented were Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Mecklenburg, Hanover, Württemberg, Nassau, Baden, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, and electoral Hesse. The occasion of the meeting was the desire of the Austrian foreign minister Klemens, Prince von Metternich, to take advantage of the consternation caused by recent revolutionary outrages—especially the murder of the dramatist August Kotzebue by Karl Sand, a member of a radical student organization—to persuade the German governments to combine for the suppression of liberal and nationalistic tendencies within their states. The conference agreed to Metternich's urgent disciplinary measures. He proposed that (1) the Diet of the German Confederation (Bund) should be asked to institute uniform censorship of all periodical publications; (2) the recently formed Burschenschaften (nationalist student clubs) should be disbanded and the faculties of schools and universities be placed under supervisory curators; and (3) a central investigating commission, armed with inquisitional powers, should be set up at Mainz with powers to ferret out conspiratorial organizations. These decrees were agreed upon by the representatives of the German states on Sept. 20, 1819. The repressive and reactionary Carlsbad Decrees were enforced with varying severity in the German states over the next decade. Although they were temporarily successful in suppressing liberal political activities, they failed in the long run to stifle German nationalism or to curtail liberal developments in the states.

Carbonari

singular Carbonaro, in early 19th-century Italy, members of a secret society (the Carboneria) advocating liberal and patriotic ideas. The group provided the main source of opposition to the conservative regimes imposed on Italy by the victorious allies after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. Their influence prepared the way for the Risorgimento movement, which resulted in Italian unification (1861). The origins and even the political program of the Carbonari are matters of conjecture. The group may have begun as a mutual aid society in France and spread to Italy with the Napoleonic army, or it may have been an offshoot of the Freemasons, an anticlerical, philanthropic secret society widespread in the 18th century. The first lodges of the Carbonari were formed in southern Italy in the early 1800s. They acquired a republican and patriotic character, opposing Joachim Murat, the Napoleonic ruler of Naples. The movement spread northward into the Marches and the Romagna by 1814. In general, the Carbonari favoured constitutional and representative government and wished to protect Italian interests against foreigners. But they never had a single program: some wanted a republic, others a limited monarchy; some favoured a federation, others a unitary Italian state. Their members were recruited mainly from the nobility, officeholders, and small landowners. After 1815 the lodges spread rapidly among those dissatisfied with the post-Napoleonic settlement, especially among the middle classes, which had been favoured under French rule. Although the Carbonari had lodges throughout Italy, their main centres were in central Italy (the Papal States) and in the south (Naples), where the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was restored in 1815 and where they took up a decisively anti-Bourbon attitude. With the help of the army, they led the successful Neapolitan revolution of 1820, which forced King Ferdinand I to promise a constitution. This was their most spectacular achievement, but Austrian intervention soon nullified it. Revolts in Bologna, Parma, and Modena in 1831 met with little success. In the same year, Giuseppe Mazzini founded a new movement, Young Italy, with an avowedly national and republican program, and the importance of the Carbonari began to wane.

Louis Kossuth

was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Regent-President of the Kingdom of Hungary during the revolution of 1848-49. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe. Kossuth's bronze bust can be found in the United States Capitol with the inscription: "Father of Hungarian Democracy, Hungarian Statesman, Freedom Fighter, 1848-1849".