The Age of Ideologies

1
The Age of Ideologies

• Part I- An Overview

2
A theme to keep in mind for the rest of our
course.
Dual Revolutions
3

• The Age of Ideologies
• 1815-1850
• Reactions to Post Industrial and Post French
  Revolutionary World (Dual Revolutions)
• Simmering Social Unrest
• The Revolutions of 1830 and 1848

4
Why were the French Revolution and Industrial
Revolution So Important to Intellectual Trends?

• French Revolution
• Ideas of the Enlightenment were spread throughout
  Europe by Napoleons armies
• Even though these ideas were bottled up by the
  Congress of Vienna, they were NOT destroyed
• Industrial Revolution
• Society was dramatically, if unintentionally,
  changed
• Power shifted increasingly from the aristocracy
  to the factory owning (bourgeois) class
• Proletariat concentrated (often unhappily) in the
  city
• (parallels the French Revolution)
• Factory working conditions are, in many ways,
  degrading
• Urban life is new and not carefully planned-
  crime, pollution, debauchery, etc.
• What does it all mean? ? new intellectual themes

5
The Age of Ideologies

• Part II- Start at the Beginning- The Congress of
  Vienna

6
The Congress of Vienna(September 1, 1814 June
9, 1815)

• Meeting of Conservative Leaders after Waterloo
• Intend to Erase the French Revolution

7
Key Players at Vienna
Foreign Minister, Viscount Castlereagh (Br.)
Tsar Alexander I (Rus.)
The HostPrince Klemens von Metternich (Aus.)
King Frederick William III (Prus.)
Foreign Minister, Charles Maurice de Tallyrand
(Fr.)
8
Congress of Vienna Represented Conservatism

• Tradition- ancien regime had been around for so
  long that it must be good and must match with
  Gods laws
• Religion is a bedrock of society
• Look what liberalism just caused!
• Revolutions were just bourgeois troublemakers
  inciting the good, peaceful, contented lower
  classes

9
Even Traditionally Liberal England Swung in a
more Conservative Direction After The French
Revolution

• Is this logical?
• Horrors of the French Revolution force the
  country to the right
• Corn Laws
• England cannot import wheat after the Napoleonic
  Wars
• Designed to keep profit of aristocratic land
  owners high
• Peterloo Massacre
• Poor are protesting laws like the Corn Law and
  demanding a wider franchise to get laws more
  supportive of the people
• St. Peters Field protestors are attacked by the
  British regular army
• Irony of naming after Waterloo?

10
(No Transcript)
11
Corn Laws Help to Explain the Rise of the
Chartists

• The reason laws are only for the rich is that
• only the rich can vote
• If workers can vote, politicians must court them

12
Key Principles Established at Vienna

• Balance of Power
• Ring France with Strong Countries
• Legitimacy
• Return hereditary monarchs
• Compensation
• France was occupied for 5 years
• Paid reparations
• Both of these punishments might have been
  avoided, but for the ______________________

13
Key Tension at Vienna

• Compensation
• the demands of the victors (especially the
  Prussians and the Russians) for compensation
  threatened the Balance of Power
• Arguments between Russia/Prussia and
  England/Austria almost resparked war

• Balance of Power
• preserve peace in Europe

V

• Solution
• Britain and Austria turned to France for support.
  
• Prussia and Russia were forced to compromise
• Why was this good for France?
• More lenient treatment

14
Changes Made at Vienna (1)

• France was deprived of all territory conquered
  by Napoléon.
• Bourbons restored to the French throne
• Russia was given most of Duchy of Warsaw
  (Poland).
• Prussia was given half of Saxony, parts of
  Poland, and other German territories. (sentinel
  on the Rhine)
• A Germanic Confederation of 30 states (including
  Prussia) was created from the previous 300, under
  Austrian rule.
• Austria was given back territory it had lost
  recently, plus more in Germany and Italy.
• The House of Orange was given the Dutch Republic
  and the Austrian Netherlands to rule. (why?)
• Why dont I have England listed here?

15
Europe After the Congress of Vienna
16
Was the Congress of Vienna Successful?

• Yes
• Congress System (what was this?)
• No general European war for 100 years
• Holy Alliance (what was it?)
• Carslbad Decrees (in Germany)
• United action to crush uprising in the Two
  Sicilies

• No
• Continuing struggle between the forces of
  conservatism and liberalism/radicalism
• Revolutions in 1830 and 1848
• Some Liberal Movements were successful
• Latin America wins its independence

17
Why Such Fear of Liberalism?

• The Usual
• stirred up the lower-classes and caused war and
  bloodshed
• Threatened tradition/status quo/hierarchy/ Great
  Chain, etc.
• A New Concern
• Liberalism was increasingly connected to
  nationalism
• nationalist aspirations in central Europe, which
  could lead to war and the breakup of the Austrian
  and Russian Empires
• Austria, for examples was dominated by the
  minority Germans, contained many ethnic groups,
  including Hungarians/Czechs
• So what does nationalism mean for Metternich or
  the Tsar?