The Age of Metternich
1815 – Congress of Vienna
 Lead by Metternich – Austrian minister
o Conservatism!!!!
o Wants to limit nationalism – why?
 Lord Castlereagh – England
o Balance of Power – surround France with powerful countries to check it
 Alexander I – Russia
o Wants “free and independent” Poland with Alexander I as the King
 Tallyrand – France
 Prussia (different representatives)
o Wants land back
 Decisions
o Let’s pretend it did not happen!
 Legitimacy – everyone who should be the monarch is now the monarch!
 Balance of Power – no one will have more power than anyone else –
give back some land and redistribute other
 Conservatism – old order desired
 Nationalism declared an enemy (main problem of Austria)
 Switzerland will always be neutral
 Sweden got Norway
 Russia got Poland and Finland
 Great Britain got naval bases in Malta and Cape of Good Hope
o
What stayed the same?
 German Confederation
Concert of Europe (1815 – 1850s)
 From the Congress of Vienna to the Crimean War
 Crusade against nationalism and conservatism
 Quadruple Alliance (ia countries and Great Britain)
 Collective Security (think little UN)
 1822 Britain left after the Congress put down a Spanish revolt
 “Replaced” by the Holy Alliance proposed by Alexander I – more attacks on liberalism,
but fails
Conservatism
 Age of Metternich
 Nobles good, bourgeoisie bad!
 Stay the same – religion major role
 Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France showed the bad things that
happen with people get liberal ideas
 Carlsbad Decrees – Metternich crack down on liberalism in universities in Austria
Great Britain becomes Conservative:
 Great Britain’s passed the Corn Laws in 1815 – halt the importation of cheaper grains –
benefited wealthy landowners
 Great Britain repealed habeas corpus
 Peterloo Massacre of 1819
o Pro-liberals listened to anti-corn law speech were attacked by the police – 11
died and 400 wounded
o Press brought under control
o Mass meetings were outlawed
France





and Conservatism:
Charter of 1814 – Louis XVIII is back!
White Terror – royalists massacred
1816 elections – moderate royalists returned to power
French troops went into Spain in 1823 and restored Bourbon rule
1829 – Douphin murdered – more conservative policies – reduce suffrage and increase
censorship
Russia




and Conservatism:
Alexander I died in 1815
Nicholas I becomes Czar but
Decembrists Revolt (junior military officers) opposed czar – suppressed and…
Nicholas becomes very reactionary
o Russia becomes a police state (Third Section)
o No representative assemblies
o Limited education
o University teaching monitored
Liberalism!!!
 Individual has self-worth and freedoms
 Speech, religion, press, limited democracy
 Classical Liberalism – capitalism – led by Adam Smith and constitutional monarchy
o Laissez Faire – opposed government intervention
o Invisible Hand will self-regulate the market
o Opposed mercantilism
o David Ricardo – iron law of wages
o Thomas Malthus – population will outstrip the food supply
Utilitarianism:
 Jeremy Bentham – greatest happiness for the greatest number
 John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (1859) – absolute freedom of opinion; rights for women On
the Subjection of Women (1867)
Nationalism!
 Unity based upon language, ethnic group, and religion
 Don’t like others ruling them (France, Austria)
 Want to be together (Italy, Germany)
 Greatest force for revolutionary change from 1815 to 1850
o Hungarian and Bohemian revolts in Austria
o Greek independence from Ottoman Empire
o Belgium finally officially free forever from Netherlands
o Poland attempted to get independence from Prussia and Russia (failed)
o Britain and Russia did NOT have any
 Johann Gottfried Herder (1744 – 1803) regarded as the father of nationalism – every
cultural group is unique and has its own national character – Volksgeist
 Johann Gottlieb Fichte – father of German nationalism; Germans were superior to all
others
 National Revolutionary Movements – chart in computer lab
Romanticism:
 Artwork and literature that glorified emotion, faith, and nature (more in seminar)
Socialism:
 Important in addressing the abuses of the Industrial Revolution