Revolutions 1820’s-1840’s

An Evaluation of the Congress of Vienna

An Evaluation of the Congress of Vienna

4 The Congress of Vienna was criticized for ignoring the liberal & nationalist aspirations of so many peoples.

4 The leading statesmen at Vienna underestimated the new nationalism and liberalism generated by the French Revolution.

4 Not until the unification of Germany in 1870-71 was the balance of power upset.

4 Not until World War I did Europe have another general war.

Revolutionary Movements in the Early 19cRevolutionary Movements in the Early 19c

Independence Movements

in the Balkans

Independence Movements

in the Balkans

Wallachia & MoldaviaWallachia & Moldavia

Greek Revolution - 1821Greek Revolution - 1821

04/21/23 7

The Concert of Europe: The Greek Revolt

• In 1821, the Greeks revolted against their Ottoman Turk masters– The Greeks had been dominated for 400 years

– The Muslim Ottomans had permitted Greek religious orthodoxy

– Revival of Greek nationalistic sentiment beginning 19th century sparked desire for freedom from the “terrible yoke of Turkish oppression”

– Continental powers come to the aid of the Greeks

Greek IndependenceGreek Independence 4 The “Eastern Question”

4 Hetairia Philike a secret society that inspired an uprising against the Turks in 1821.

4 Pan-Hellenism

4 1827 Battle of Navarino

Britain, France, Russsia destroyed the Ottoman-Egyptian fleet.

4 1828 Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

4 1829 Treaty of Adrianople

4 1830 Greece declared an independent nation [Treaty of London].

4 Greek revolt the only successful revolt until 1830; thus conservative domination still intact

Greece on the Ruins of Missilonghi by Delacroix, 1827

The Decembrist Uprising - 1825

The Decembrist Uprising - 1825

The Decembrist Revolt, 1825The Decembrist Revolt, 18254 Russian upper class had come into contact with western liberal

ideas during the Napoleonic Wars.

4 Late November, 1825 Czar Alexander I died suddenly.

He had no direct heir dynastic crisis

• Constantine married a woman, not of royal blood.

• Nicholas named by Alexander I as his heir before his death.

• Russian troops were to take an oath of allegiance to Nicholas, who was less popular than Constantine [Nicholas was seen as more reactionary].

December 26, 1825 a Moscow regiment marched into the Senate Square in St. Petersburg and refused to take the oath.

The Decembrist Revolt, 1825The Decembrist Revolt, 18254 They wanted Constantine.

4 Nicholas ordered the cavalry and artillery to attack the insurgents.

Over 60 were killed.

5 plotters were executed.

Over 100 insurgents were exiled to Siberia.

4 Results:

The first rebellion in modern Russian history where the rebels had specific political goals.

In their martyrdom, the Decembrists came to symbolize the dreams/ideals of all Russian liberals.

Nicholas was determined that his power would never again come into question he was terrified of change!

The 1830 RevolutionsThe 1830 Revolutions

France: The “Restoration” Era (1815-1830)

France: The “Restoration” Era (1815-1830)

4 France emerged from the chaos of its revolutionary period as the most liberal large state in Europe.

4 Louis XVIII governed France as a Constitutional monarch.

He agreed to observe the 1814 “Charter” or Constitution of the Restoration period.

• Limited royal power.

• Granted legislative power.

• Protected civil rights.

• Upheld the Napoleon Code.Louis XVIII (r. 1814-1824)

The “Ultras”The “Ultras” 4 France was divided by those who had accepted the ideals of the French Revolution and those who didn’t.

4 Ultraroyalists criticized king for keeping so many of Napoleon’s policies

4 “Ultras” hoped to return to monarchy with landed aristocracy and an influential Catholic Church

4 The Count of Artois was the leader of the “Ultra-Royalists”

4 1815 “White Terror”

Royalist mobs killed 1000s of former revolutionaries.

4 1816 elections

The Ultras were rejected in the Chamber of Deputies election in favor of a moderate royalist majority dependent on middle class support.

The Count of Artois,the future King Charles X

(r. 1824-1830)

France: Conservative BacklashFrance: Conservative Backlash4 1820the Duke of Berri, son of Artois, was murdered.

4 Royalists blamed the left (liberals)

4 Louis XVIII moved the govt. more to the right (conservative)

Changes in electoral laws narrowed the eligible voters.

Censorship was imposed.

4 Liberals were driven out of legal political life and into illegal activities.

4 1823 triumph of reactionary forces!

4 French troops were authorized by the Concert of Europe to crush the Spanish Revolution and restore another Bourbon ruler, Ferdinand VII, to the throne there.

4 1824-> Louis XVIII dies and brother Charles X took the position of the ultraroyalists

King Charles X of France (r. 1824-1830)King Charles X of France (r. 1824-1830)4 His Goals:

Lessen the influence of the middle class.

Limit the right to vote.

Put the clergy back in charge of education.

Public money used to pay nobles for the loss of their lands during the Fr Revolution.

4 His Program:

Attack the 1814 Charter.

Control the press.

Dismiss the Chamber of Deputies when it turned against him.

Appointed an ultra-reactionary as his first minister.

What type of leader is he sound like?

4 1830 Election brought in another liberal majority.

4 July Ordinances

Charles dissolved the entire parliament.

Strict censorship imposed.

Changed the voting laws so that the government in the future could be assured of a conservative victory.

King Charles X of France (r. 1824-1830)King Charles X of France (r. 1824-1830)

To the Barracades Revolution, Again!!To the Barracades Revolution, Again!!

Workers, students and some of the middle class call for a Republic!

The Revolution of 1830

Liberals and Radicals • Radicals favored extreme change• In Paris, angry citizens threw up barricades across the narrow

streets. • They fired on the soldiers and pelted them with stones and roof

tiles. • Within days rebels controlled Paris. • The revolution tricolor flew from the towers of Norte Dame

cathedral. • Because of this Charles X got scared and fled to England. When

the King left, radicals wanted to set up a republic. • Liberals however insisted on a constitutional monarchy and chose

Louis Philippe as King. • He was Charles X’s cousin and was supported by the youth in the

revolution of 1789. • The French called Louis Philippe the “citizen king” because he

owed his throne to the people.

Louis Philippe The “Citizen King”Louis Philippe The “Citizen King”4 The Duke of Orleans.

4 Relative of the Bourbons, but had stayed clear of the Ultras.

4 Leads a thoroughly bourgeois life.

4 His Program:

Property qualifications reduced enough to double eligible voters.

Press censorship abolished.

The King ruled by the will of the people, not by the will of God.

The French Revolution’s tricolor replaced the Bourbon flag.

4 The government was now under the control of the wealthy middle class. (r. 1830-1848)

Louis Philippe The “Citizen King”Louis Philippe The “Citizen King”4 His government ignored the needs and

demands of the workers in the cities.

They were seen as another nuisance and source of possible disorder.

4 July, 1832 an uprising in Paris was put down by force and 800 were killed or wounded.

4 1834 Silk workers strike in Lyon was crushed.

Seething underclass.

Was seen as a violation of the status quo set down at the Congress of Vienna.A caricature of

Louis Philippe

Popular Press and Criticism of Louis-Philippe

• Growing literacy in France

– 1830: 50% of men and 40% of women

– 1848: 66% of men and 50% of women

• New technology of lithography made the reproduction of images much easier. Political cartoons and caricatures became important aspects of French political discourse.

• Public opinion was an increasingly salient aspect of politics, and the public was increasingly influenced by mass media.

Repression

Honoré Daumier, Rue Transnonian (July 1834). French troops massacred eleven people in an apartment building located near a street barricade in 1834 uprisings.

Belgium Wins independence

• In 1815, the Congress of Vienna had united the Austrian Netherlands (present-day Belgium) and the Kingdom of Holland under the Dutch King.

• They wanted to create a strong barrier to help prevent French expansion in the future.

• French-speaking Belgians and Dutch had different beliefs such as:– Different Languages

– Belgians were Catholic; Dutch were Protestant

– Belgians relied on manufacturing; Dutch relied on trade.

Belgian Independence, 1830Belgian Independence, 18304 The first to follow the lead of France.

4 Its union with Holland after the Congress of Vienna had not proved successful.

4 There had been very little popular agitation for Belgian nationalism before 1830 seldom had nationalism arisen so suddenly.

4 Wide cultural differences:

North Dutch Protestant seafarers and traders.

South French Catholic farmers and individual workers.

Belgium Wins independence• In 1830, news of the Paris uprising ignited a revolutionary

spark in Belgium.

• Citizens took up arms against the Dutch troops.

• Britain and France believed that they would benefit from the separation.

• In 1831, Belgium became an independent state with a liberal constitution.

Belgian Revolution - 1830Belgian Revolution - 1830

Rebels fail in Poland

• Nationalists in Poland also staged an uprising in 1830.• Unlike the Belgians, the Poles failed to win independence.• In the late 1700s, Russia, Austria, and Prussia had divided up

Poland.• The Poles hoped in 1815 that the Congress of Vienna would

restore their homeland.• Instead, the great powers handed most of Poland to Russia.• In 1830, Polish students, army officers, and landowners rose

in revolt.• They failed to gain widespread support.• Some survivors fled to Western Europe and the United States.

A Stirring of Polish Nationalism - 1830

A Stirring of Polish Nationalism - 1830

A Stirring of Polish Nationalism - 1830A Stirring of Polish Nationalism - 18304 The bloodiest struggle of the 1830 revolutions.

4 The Poles in and around Warsaw gain a special status by the Congress of Vienna within the Russian Empire.

Their own constitution.

Local autonomy granted in 1818.

4 After Tsar Alexander I dies, the Poles became restless under the tyrannical rule of Tsar Nicholas I.

4 Polish intellectuals were deeply influenced by Romanticism.

4 Rumors reached Poland that Nicholas I was planning to use Polish troops to put down the revolutions in France and Belgium.

4 Several Polish secret societies rebelled.

A Stirring of Polish Nationalism - 1830A Stirring of Polish Nationalism - 18304 Had the Poles been united, this

revolt might have been successful.

But, the revolutionaries were split into moderates and radicals.

4 The Poles had hoped that France & England would come to their aid, but they didn’t.

4 Even so, it took the Russian army a year to suppress this rebellion.

4 The irony by drawing the Russian army to Warsaw for almost a year, the Poles may well have kept Nicholas I from answering Holland’s call for help in suppressing the Belgian Revolt.

Europe in 1830Europe in 1830

The Results of the 1820s-1830 Revolutions?The Results of the 1820s-1830 Revolutions?1. The Concert of Europe provided for a recovery of Europe after the long

years of Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.

2. The conservatives did NOT reverse ALL of the reforms put in place by the French Revolution.

3. Liberalism would challenge the conservative plan for European peace and law and order.

4. These revolutions were successful only in Western Europe:

Their success was in their popular support.

Middle class lead, aided by the urban lower classes.

5. The successful revolutions had benefited the middle class the workers, who had done so much of the rioting and fighting, were left with empty hands!

6. Therefore, these revolutions left much unfinished & a seething, unsatisfied working class.

The Revolutions

The turning point at which history failed to turn…- George Macaulay Trevelyan, 1937

We are sleeping on a volcano... A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon.- Alexis de Tocqueville

Pre-1848 Tensions: Long-Term

• Industrialization– Economic challenges to rulers.

– Rapid urbanization.

– Challenges to the artisan class.

• Population doubled in the 18c

– Food supply problems Malthus

• Ideological Challenges– Liberalism, nationalism, democracy, socialism.

• Romanticism

• Repressive Measures– Carlsbad Decrees Prussia- banned nationalist fraternities

– Six Acts England- labeled all meeting of radical reform treasonable

– Secret police created in many European states.

Pre-1848 Tensions: Short-Term• Agricultural Crises– Poor cereal harvests• prices rose 60% in one year.

– Potato blight Ireland• Prices rose 135% for food in one year!

• Financial Crises– Investment bubbles burst railways, iron, coal.– Unemployment increased rapidly [esp. among the artisan

class, why do you think?].

Working & middle classes are now joined in misery as are the Working & middle classes are now joined in misery as are the urban and agricultural peasantry!urban and agricultural peasantry!

France: Prince Louis: Not Too Steady!

Victor Hugo & Miguel de Girardin try to raise Prince Louis upon a shield. [Honoré Damier’s lithograph published in Charavari,

December 11, 1848].

The Revolutions of 1848• Yet Another French Revolution

– Government is involved in scandals, corruption, and failure to initiate reform

– Radicals started forming secret societies for the French government.

– The bread prices increased

– Law forbade political rallies but political banquets were held instead

– Liberals denounced Louis Philippe’s for corruption–Working class and liberals unhappy with King Louis

Philippe, esp. his minister Francois Guizot (who opposed electoral reform).

– King dismisses Guizot, but riots break out.

The February Revolution• Reform Banquets used to

protest against the King.

– Paris Banquet banned.

– Troops open fire on peaceful protestors.

– Barricades erected; looting.

– National Guard [politically disenfranchised] defects to the radicals.

– King Louis Philippe loses control of Paris and abdicates on February 24 and flees to Britain.

The Provisional Government• Second French Republic declared by Chamber of

deputies.• Moderate republicans led by liberal Alphonse Lamartine

(allied w/ bourgeoisie)• Socialists led by Louis Blanc• national workshops, which were corporative factories run

by the workers, created by Blanc to provide work for the unemployed

• Reforms: abolished slavery in the empire, 10 hr workday in Paris, abolished death penalty.

• April elections for new Constituent Assembly resulted in conflict between moderate republicans (who won) and socialists

The Coalition Splits: Mar.-May• The conflicts between liberals & socialists over:

– The timing of elections to the Constituent Assembly.

– The costs of government social programs.

• Did they violate laissez-faire?

– The question of whether you could have liberty for all men and still have a system based on private property.

• Growing social tensions between the working class & the bourgeois middle class regarding:

– The nature of work.

– The right to unionize.

– Pay levels.

April Elections

• Resulted in a conservative majority in the National Assembly.

–They began debating the fate of social programs [like the National Workshops].

– In early June, the National Workshops were shut down. The number in the workshops had grown from 10,000 to 120,000, empting the treasury and scaring the moderates

• This heightened class tensions!

The “June Days”• Worker groups in Paris rose up in insurrection.

– They said that the government had betrayed the revolution.

• Workers wanted a redistribution of wealth.

• Workers sought war against poverty and redistribution of income.

– Barricades in the streets.

• Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables was based on this event.

• A new liberal-conservative coalition formed to oppose this lower class radicalism.

Paris: To the Barricades Again!

Insurrections against the July Monarchy• These insurrections were immortalized in Victor

Hugo’s Les Misérables

– “The barricade of Saint Antoine was monstrous; it was three stories high and seven hundred feet long.... It was the collaboration of the pavement, the pebble, the timber, the iron bar, the chip, the broken square, the stripped chair, the cabbage stump, the scrap, the rag.... Its crest was thorny with muskets, with swords, with clubs, with axes, with pikes, and with bayonets; a huge red flag fluttered in the wind; there were heard cries of command, songs of attack, the roll of the drum, the sobs of women, and the dark wild laughter of the starving. ... The spirit of revolution covered ... that summit whereupon growled this voice of the people which is like the voice of God; a strange majesty emanated from that titanic hodful* of refuse. It was a garbage heap and it was Sinai.”Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

*hod-a trough used for carrying bricks or mortar

The 2nd French Republic (1848-1852)

G General Louis Cavaignac assumed dictatorial powers & crushed the revolt.

10,000 dead. Four thousand prisoners deported

to Algeria in North Africa A victory for conservatives.

G November 1848 a new constitution provided for:

An elected President. A one-house legislature.

The RepublicThe Republicbyby

Jean-Leon GeromeJean-Leon Gerome

-When the revolutions of 1848 died down in France, there were four candidates for president. The Constituent Assembly wanted a strong executive—and they wanted the president to be elected by universal male suffrage.- Among the four candidates was a Napoleon—a second Napoleon, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte.

Who was he? He was the son of Napoleon’s brother, Louis, who had married Hortense,

Josephine’s daughter. So, in fact Louis-Napoleon was a descendant of both Napoleon

and Josephine.

He was helped by what historians call the “Napoleonic legend.” It is a fact that Napoleon’s reputation grew after his death---and after the memories of the

millions who died as a result of his policy faded away…

Twice this young Napoleon tried to seize power, in a way that would be similar to

Hitler’s Putsches in the 1920’s—

• In Strasbourg in 1836

• In Boulogne in 1840

Back to President Louis Napoleon

• The December election:– The “law and order” candidate, Louis Napoleon

Bonaparte, defeated Cavaignac.

– This was a big shift in middle class opinion to the right!

• The Results• 5,400,000 for Louis Napoleon

• 1,500,000 for Cavaignac

• 370,000 for Ledru-Rollin

• 18,000 for Lamartine

• The New President:

• He brought in a new constitution in May 1849

– Purged the government of all radical officials.

• Replaced them with ultra-conservative and monarchists.

– Disbanded the National Assembly and held new elections.

• Represented himself as a “Man of the People.”– His government regularly used forced against dissenters.

– Then, in a more aggressive move, he rescinded universal male suffrage—making sure that the poorest, or most republican voters, were disenfranchised

1851 Coup d’Etat

• 1852: Louis Napoleon consolidates power and becomes Emperor Napoleon III

• A national plebiscite confirmed this.– The official vote was

7,439,216 for Napoleon, 646,737 opposed. So now, twice, Napoleon had been elected by popular vote

A wave of Nationalist Revolutions spread over Europe…

What did the people want?

What do you think the Congress of Vienna did about it?

Revolution in the Germanic States• The Paris revolution caused many German rulers to

propose changes• Liberals demanded constitutional government and a

union or federation of German states.• Frederick William IV rejected liberal constitution;

imposed conservative one that guaranteed royal control of gov’t (lasted until 1918).– In Prussia, concessions were made to appease revolutionaries

• King Frederick William IV agreed to abolish censorship, establish a new constitution, and work for a united Germany

• The “united Germany” promise led to an all-German parliament to meet in Frankfurt

Revolution in the Germanic States

• The Frankfurt Assembly was dominated by well-educated, highly articulate men– Nationalism was on their minds and they were ahead

of the times when compared to their governments

– There ensued a debate about establishing a “Big Germany” or “Small Germany”

– The assembly disbanded, unable to agree on a German state

The Austrian Empire: 1830

Revolution in Austria, 1848

• Habsburg empire was vulnerable to revolutionary challenge• Ethnic minorities sought nationalistic goals: Hungarians, Slavs,

Czechs, Italians, Serbs, Croats, and others. (More non-Germans than Germans lived in the empire)

• Austrian government was reactionary; liberal institutions were non-existent.

• Social reliance on serfdom doomed masses of people to a life without hope.

• Corrupt and inefficient.• Competition with an increasingly powerful Prussia• “February Revolution” in France sparked rebellion for liberal reforms.

• March 13 rioting broke out in Vienna.– The Austrian Empire

collapsed.• Metternich fled.• Constituent Assembly

met.• Serfdom [robot] abolished.

– The revolution began to wane.• The revolutionary government failed to govern

effectively.• Ferdinand I abdicates, Habsburgs restored royal

absolutism under Franz Joseph (r. 1848-1916).

Vienna, 1848: The Liberal Revolution

The New Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I [r. 1848-1916]

The Hungarian Revolution

Hungary, 1848

• Louis Kossuth (1802-1894) Hungarian (Magyar nationalist) leader demanded independence.

• The Hungarian liberals were willing to keep the Hapsburg monarch but wanted their own legislature

• March laws provided for Hungarian independence.

• Austrians invade, Hungarian armies drove within sight of Vienna.

• Slavic minorities resisted Magyar invasion and Hungarian army withdrew

• Austrian and Russian armies defeated Hungarian army.

• Hungary would have to wait until 1866 for autonomy

Louis KossuthLouis Kossuth

Tsar Nicholas I (r. 1825-1855)

• He raised an army of 400,000 in response to a request from Franz Joseph.– 140,000 put

down the Hungarian revolt.

Upheaval in the Austrian EmpireIn Bohemia, the Czechs began to demand their own

government as wellEmperor Ferdinand I had made concessions but

waited for chance to take back controlConservative were please with division, as in the German

states, between moderates and radicalsConservative were heartened when a Czech revolt was

put down in PragueViennese rebels were later crushed as well

J

Bohemia, 1848• Prague Conference developed notion of Austroslavism: constitution and autonomy within Habsburg empire.

• Pan-Slav Congress failed to unite Slavic peoples in the empire.

• Austrian military ultimately attacked Prague and occupied Bohemia and crushed rebellion.

The Aftermath: Democrats Swept Out of Europe

Why did the 1848 Revolutions Fail?

• They failed to attract popular support from the working classes.• The middle classes led these revolutions, but as they turned

radical, the middle class held back.• Nationalism divided more than united.• Where revolutions were successful, the Old Guard was left in

place and they turned against the revolutionaries.• Some gains lasted [abolition of serfdom, etc.]• BUT, in the long term, most liberal gains would be solidified by

the end of the 19c:– The unification of Germany and Italy.– The collapse of the Hapsburg Empire at the end of World War

I.

The Bottom Line

• Resulted in end of serfdom in Austria and Germany, universal male suffrage in France, parliaments established in German states (although controlled by princes & aristocrats), stimulated unification impulse in Prussia and Sardinia-Piedmont.

• It looked like the Conservative forces had triumphed.• BUT…– Things had changed forever.– Economic/social problems continued to be constant

challenges to the ruling order.– Conservatives would have to make concessions in order to

stay in power.– Many of the limited Liberal achievements remained

permanent.