Cover Slide
A History of Western
Society
Chapter 23
Ideologies and
Upheavals, 1815-1850
Ideologies and Upheavals 1815-1850
• The Dual Revolutions
– Economic / Political revolutions combined after the
Industrial Revolution into one / reinforcing each other
continent wide
• The Peace Settlement
– No Revenge /
– Checks and Balances against France (Belgium and
Netherlands)
– Prussia Bigger / Sentinel on the Rhine
– Strong Defense / protect everyone
– No National self determination for people
The Congress of Vienna attempted to
restore the old order upset by the French
Revolution.
• Congress of Vienna (like the UN of Europe)
–
–
–
–
Guided by the principle of “Balance of Power”
It sought to restore conservatism and absolute monarchies.
It established a balance of power among European nations.
Holy Alliance by Austria, Prussia and Russia was formed to
check future liberal and revolutionary activity.
• The Congress of Vienna also initiated the “congress
system” to settle international crises.
– It was believed that an international equilibrium (Balance) of
power would preserve peace in Europe.
– Fashioned a General Peace through the use of --– No revenge / No Super Power / Keep each other in check to politics
Conservatism
• Although liberalism and nationalism flourished,
these tendencies were checked by the
conservative reaction of the Great Powers.
– Conservative monarchical states wanted to prevent
revolutions in their own states.
• Klemens von Metternich is viewed as the symbol
of the age of reaction against the ideas of the
French Revolution.
– Metternich presided over the Congress of Vienna and
towered over European politics in the first third of the
nineteenth century.
Liberalism was reflected in
economic thinking
• Liberalism / liberty and equality was the principal idea
– Wanted representative government / equality before the law of all classes /
specific individual freedoms
• Freedom of press / speech / assembly and arbitrary arrest
• The principle of laissez-faire formulated by Adam Smith in the
Wealth of Nations .
– laissez-faire sometimes called classical liberalism in America
– Modern Liberalism is Government involvement in Economic and social
issues
– Smith was critical of mercantilism and argued that a free economy would
bring wealth for all, including workers.
– The laissez-faireists believed that the economy should be left unregulated.
• Liberalists tended to protect themselves
– Businessmen used rights against labor / protected themselves
– Right to vote tied to owning land = class distinction = snobbery
– Equated to middle class = cut out workers led to radicalism and Marx
Liberal and
Conservative
Ideas in the
1800s
Male property
owners
Monarch and
nobles
Protect basic
rights to liberty
and property
Stability and
order
Republic with
constitution and
separation of
powers
Monarchy
Laissez faire
Controlled by
nobles
Freedom of
religion
Established
church
Nationalism/radical idea after 1815.
• Nationalism helped engender feelings of cultural unity.
– Modern nationalism had its roots in the French Revolution.
• Nationalism created the desire to match state boundaries with
cultural boundaries.
– Nationalists believed that common language and traditions would bring
about unity and common loyalties.
– Nationalists sought to turn cultural unity into political reality by using
common language / history and territory.
– Nationalism also encouraged ideas of racial and cultural superiority.
• Political Reality and the nationalist Vision
– Political Reality equaled / defined territory = people = language = Nation
state
– Nationalism Long term success based on: complex industrial society / new
workers required a common national language to communicate / push for
separate nation state
– Pride led to “National Mission” and “National Superiority”
– The We vs. They led to aggression and conflict
Socialism
• French Utopian Socialism
– Saw capitalism (laissez-faire) and the Industrial Revolution as selfish
and destructive to society
– Believed in economic planning / equal economic conditions for all /
property regulated by the state or abolished all together.
• Socialism was a desire to reorganize society to establish
cooperation and a new sense of community.
– The early French socialists proposed a system of greater economic
equality planned by the government.
– Saint-Simon (wanted improved conditions for the poor) and Fourier
(wanted women freed / anti-marriage / crazy)
– Louis Blanc wrote Organization of Work and pushed agitation for voting
rights and a peaceful takeover of the government
– proposed a planned economy and socialist communities.
Marxist Socialism
• Karl Marx created an additional form of socialism.
– Beliefs based on philosophy of Georg Hegel that history had purpose and
dominate ideas (one idea led to another (opposite) through change. This is
also know as the Communist Dialectic
– Marx believed that class warfare was an integral part of historical
evolution.
– Class struggle for economic hegemony formed a chief principle of Marxism.
– Violent revolution (the Key) was advocated to achieve socialist ends.
– A proletarian victory over the capitalists would bring about the perfect
society.
– Thought the French Utopian Socialists were naïve because they believed
that they could get the wealthy to help the poor
• Wrote the Communist manifesto
–
–
–
–
Wanted the emancipation of women and abolishment of family
Workers and middle class were enemies and in a class struggle
The Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat were natural enemies
The end was near / revolution and the end of the middle class would be the
new age
Photograph of Marx
Photograph of Marx
This sepia photograph
depicts Karl Marx (18181883) in a dignified and
confident pose.
Interpreting history in
economic terms, Marx
predicted that socialism
would replace capitalism.
In his Communist
Manifesto (which he
published with Friedrich
Engels) he called for the
proletariat to overthrow
capitalism and to establish
a classless society.
The Romantic Movement
• Literary movement against Classicism and the
enlightenment
– Believed in emotions / imagination / spontaneity of
art and life
– Led weird lives Bohemian outlook
– Believed in personal fulfillment was supreme
purpose in life
– Rejected materialism
• Nature was the battleground / not controlled or
orderly
• Industrial revolution was: ugly / Bleak sought
escape for betterment
Friedrich, Traveler Looking over Sea of Fog
Friedrich, Traveler
Looking over Sea of Fog
Caspar David Friedrich
(1774-1840) was Germany's
greatest romantic painter,
and his Traveler Looking
over a Sea of Fog (1815) is a
representative masterpiece.
Friedrich's paintings often
focus on dark silhouetted
figures,
silently
contemplating an eerie
landscape. He came to
believe that humans were
only an insignificant part of
an all-embracing higher
unity.
The Romantic Movement
• Literary Romantic Giants
– William Wordsworth / Samuel Taylor Coleridge
brought nature into poetry
– Walter Scott brought romantic history alive
– Germaine de Stael influenced many writers
– Victor Hugo
– George Sand (Female)
– Brothers Grimm
– Alexander Pushkin
The Romantic Movement
• Art
– Delacroix = master of dramatic colorful
scenes that stirred emotions
• Music – free expression and emotional
intensity
– Beethoven
Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People
Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People
Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) has been called the first political painting
in modern art. As an allegory, the painting idealizes and glorifies the idea of liberty. Lady Liberty, the
seminude woman, holds a musket in one hand and waves the tricolor flag of the French Revolution in
the other, leading the people in their armed revolt. Of special note are the menacing figure with the
sword, on the left, who represents the underclass, and the street urchin brandishing pistols.
Reforms and Revolutions
• National revolts in Greece, France, and the
Netherlands achieved some of their aims.
• Greece
– The congress of Vienna (Metternich) did not support
Greece because of upsetting the balance of power in
Europe
• Greek nationalists fought for freedom from Turkey
• Supported by US and many Europeans
• Greece became independent in 1830.
– Eventually won the support of GB / France and
Russia so succeeded
Delacroix, Massacre at Chios
Delacroix, Massacre at Chios
Eugene Delacroix (17981863) based his important
painting, Scenes from the
Massacres at Chios, on an
actual event. In 1822, during
the
Greek
War
of
Independence,
Turks
massacred 20,000 Greeks on
the
island
of
Chios.
Delacroix's portrayal focuses
attention on both the victims
in the foreground (some
already dead and others
dejectedly awaiting their
fate) and those in the
background, also waiting to
be slaughtered. The vibrant,
rich, contrasting colors and
the luminescent sky became
a staple of his work.
Liberal Reform in Britain
• Political and social reform swept Great Britain.
– The British aristocracy feared liberalism.
– The Corn Law (1815) is a good example of how the British
aristocracy protected itself from liberal ideas.
• Designed to regulate foreign grain trade (Protectionism against cheap
grain from Europe)
• 1815 law prohibited imports almost entirely / after war cheap imports
were available / Nobles did not like it / hurt the poor / kept grain high
amid unemployment and starvation
– The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846.
– St. Peters field (Battle of Peterloo) demonstrated Governments
willingness to repress liberal freedoms (Manchester protests)
– Commercial middle class / new wealth wanted more freedom
and a greater say in the government
• Won many over / led to change
"Peterloo" Massacre
"Peterloo" Massacre
This engraving from the Public Record Office, London, depicts the events of August 1819 at
St. Peter's Fields, in Manchester, when a crowd demanding parliamentary reform was
charged by government troops, leading to bloodshed. Using military force against the
people as if against the French at Waterloo was seen as wrong, and the confrontation was
branded "the battle of Peterloo."
Liberal Reform in Britain
• Political and social reform swept Great Britain.
– The political competition between the aristocracy and the
middle class was the key for peaceful reforms
– The growth of the middle class and its desire for reform led to
the Reform Bill of 1832.
• House of Commons emerged and the legislative body in GB / Made the
House of Lords get in line
• Redistributed seats to where the population centers are (more
democratic)
– Major reform without riots and blood letting / proved peaceful
reform was possible
– The Chartist movement (Radical reform)
• Combined economic and political reform
• Attempt at universal male suffrage failed.
– 10 hours act to protect women and children
Ireland and the Great Famine
• Ireland was occupied and controlled by GB absentee
landowners
– Irish population grew quickly
• Extensive cultivation of the potato (Would support many on little land)
• Early marriage (Marry anyway no point in waiting and life does not get
better)
• Exploitation of the peasants by landowners Peasants starve and no one
knew or cared.
– Population grew dependent on the potato
• Famine brought it all down
• Government did not care / help
• People starved still paid taxes
– Aftermath
• Left hard feelings against British ever since
• Many left to USA and the world / great migration
McDonald, Discovery of Potato Blight
McDonald, Discovery of Potato Blight
In this painting, The Discovery of the Potato Blight in Ireland, 1847, Daniel McDonald
depicts an Irish family that has dug up its potato harvest and has just discovered to its
horror that the blight has rotted the crop. Like thousands of Irish families of the time, this
family now faces the starvation and the mass epidemics of the Great Famine.
Continental Revolutions (France)
• Revolution of 1830 in France
– Socialists did not initially believe in violent class
warfare
– Constitutional Charter of 1814 was a Liberal
Constitution
– Success based on the artisans, shopkeepers and
workers of Paris
– Protected gains by middle class and peasantry
during the revolution
– King tried to go back / did not work abdicated Louis
Philippe took over
– Accepted the Tri Colour / and the 1814 charter
– Winners were the Notables in this revolution
1830 Revolution in Belgium
1830 Revolution in Belgium
After the 1830 uprising that overturned the restored monarchy in France, Belgians rose up to declare
their independence from Holland. In Poland and Italy similar uprisings, combining nationalism with a
desire for self-governance, failed. This painting by Baron Gustaf Wappers (Flemish historical and
genre painter, 1803-1874) romantically illustrates the popular nature of the Belgian uprising by
bringing to the barricades men, women, and children from both the middle and the working classes.
Triumph of Democratic Rights, France
Triumph of Democratic Rights, France
This French allegorical lithograph constructs a joyous, optimistic vision of the initial
revolutionary breakthrough in 1848, but it no longer has passionate immediacy and sense of
urgency. A procession of peoples of Europe, joined together around their respective national
banners, file past the statue of liberty, now rigid in marble. The conventionality of the
figures and the exaggerated gestures of triumph somehow convey only tepid convictions;
revolution is just a word. (Archives of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milan)
Continental Revolutions (France)
• Democratic Republic (2nd Republic)
– Ran off the Monarchy /
– Many hated competition and capitalism wanted
craft unions and control by the Government
– Socialist Louis Blanc was part of Government and
wanted Socialist the right to work in laws
– Set up national workshops for jobs
– Revolution was a failure France limped along
Constitutional Government, Denmark
Constitutional Government, Denmark
On March 21, 1848, 15,000 Danes, inspired by the example of Paris, marched on the palace
to demand constitutional rights. Unlike in the French capital, however, this event was
peaceful and led to the establishment of constitutional government. This painting honors
the new parliament that came into being after the liberal constitution was adopted in 1849.
Continental Revolutions
• The Austrian Empire faced uprisings from Hungarian
and Czech nationalists.
– Liberals wanted constitutions / peasants followed Urban
workers /students protested looked as if would change
– Began in Hungary due to nationalism / autonomy / civil
liberties / suffrage
– Hungary wanted territory but Serbs / Croats / Romanians did
not like nationalism as they also live in the territory
– The Austrian Hapsburgs played ethnic groups against each
other / won in the long run
– Monarchy won with the army Took back Vienna from the
students / bombed Prague / invaded Hungary with Russia
– Ruled Hungary as a conquered territory / suppressed all
nationalism
Revolutionary Justice in Vienna
Revolutionary Justice in Vienna
As part of the conservative resurgence, in October 1848 the Austrian minister of
war ordered up reinforcements for an army that was marching on Hungary. In a
last defiant gesture, the outraged revolutionaries in Vienna, as shown in this
engraving, seized the minister and lynched him from a lamppost for treason. The
army then re-conquered the city in a week of bitter fighting.
Revolutions in Transylvania
Revolutions in Transylvania
This is a detail of a larger painting from the National Historical Museum,
Bucharest, depicting Ana Ipatescu, of the first group of revolutionaries in
Transylvania against Russia. (National Historical Museum Budapest/The Art
Archive)
Continental Revolutions
• Liberals, artisans, and factory workers
struggled against monarchy in Prussia
• Nationalism was the key factor / motivated the
middle class
– Frankfurt National assembly left out labor leaders
but all other groups were represented
• German Confederation re-established
– Germany had to wait for unification
– No-one wanted an emperor in Germany
Map: Europe in 1815
Europe in 1815
Europe's leaders re-established a balance of political power after the
defeat of Napoleon. Prussia gained territory on the Rhine and in
Saxony and consolidated its position as a Great Power.