HIEU390: Modern Europe Week 1
Chapter 15
● Congress of Vienna of 1815- reestablish peace and impose treaty with France
○ Blamed instability of French Rev & philosophies of liberalism
○ Met between September 1814 & June 1815
○ Actually only met once to sign the final treaty
○ Goals: redistribute territory (from French Rev & Napoleon Wars), have
balance of power, & make future revolutionary movements impossible.
● English poet, George Gordon/ Lord Byron (1788-1824) “That base pageant” the
Congress of Vienna provided an opportunity for the informal discussion that had
always been an important part of traditional European diplomacy.
● Liberalism and Nationalism were huge threats to affect the territorial settled made
by the Congress of Vienna.
● “Quadruple Alliance”- Prussia, Austria, Russia, & Great Britain
● Important People in Vienna:
○ Prince Klemens von Metternich (1773-1859), Austrian chancellor. Minister
of foreign affairs in 1809-1848
○ Viscount Robert Castlereagh (1769-1822), Britain, foreign secretary
○ Tsar Alexander I, Russia (1801-1825)
● The second Treaty of Paris (Nov. 1815) pushed France’s border back to those of
1790.
● Joseph de Maistre (1754-1821), France
○ Theorist of the alliance of throne & altar
○ Reject the concept of “natural rights” – Enlightenment, the power came
only from God
○ “The first servant of the crown should be the executioner”
● “Liberty” became the watchword for the liberal middle classes– equal before the
law. Born good, free & capable of improvement. “Laissez-faire”- operate freely
without state interference.
● Laissez-Faire
○ “That government is best which governs least”
○ Adam Smith (1723-1790) - author of The Wealth of Nations (1776)
○ The government should allow the invisible hand of supply & demand to
bring change.
○ Utilitarianism
■ Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)- that laws should be judged by their
social utility or by whether or not they provided “the greatest good
for the greatest number” of people. “Does it work?”-- most famous
standard question.
○ David Ricardo (1772-1823) – British economist, Principles of Political
Economy & Taxation. “Iron law of wages” In Parliament in 1819 became
hero for middle class.
● 1798 English poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge(1772-1834) & William
Wordsworth(1770-1850) penned a manifesto for poets to abandon the classical
style on Greek & Roman models. More of honest expressions of emotion.
● “I wept and I believed,” wrote the French Romantic writer François-René de
Chateaubriand (1768–1848), relating his re-conversion to Catholicism after the
turmoil of the revolutionary and Napoleonic eras.
● Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803) was a leader of the Sturm und Drang
(Storm & Stress) movement- young german writes against enlightenment
thoughts.
● Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) evoked the impassioned battle
raging in the mind of the heroic individual. Goethe’s hero in Faust (1790)
struggles to make his way against a society that fails to understand him.
● Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) – English poet, “Hymn of Apollo”
● Théodore Géricault (1791–1824) – French artist, Officer of the Chasseurs
Commanding a Charge (1812) The Raft of the Medusa (1818-1819)
● Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) he reflected the social, political, &
intellectual turmoil of the period. Bridged the classical & Romantic periods. He
popularized the piano.
● Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840) – Italian composer & violinist
● When King Ferdinand VII (ruled 1808-1833) returned to Spain in 1814 he said he
didn’t recognize the liberal constitution that was made by the Cortes in 1812.
○ Strict censorship, Jesuit religious order, & repressed Masonic lodges.
● Secret society – “Carbonari”/ “charcoal-burners”, originally fought against
Napoleon’s armies and now against the monarch.
● Russia, Prussia & Austria signed an agreement at the Congress of Troppau that
was based on the “principles of the Holy Alliance”
● Prince Alexander Ypsilantis (1792–1828) Russian former general, created a
secret nationalist organization in 1814 “Society of Friends”
● Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) – French painter The Massacre at Chios (1824)
● 1827 – Britain, France, & Russia signed the Treaty of London
● Victor Hugo (1802-1885) Hernani (1830 production)
● Benjamin Constant(1767-1830) Swiss novelist, political essayist, & member of
the French Chamber of Deputies. “A government of laws & not men”
● François Guizot, historian and
● prime minister (1787–1874, prime minister 1840–1848), to the middle class was,
“Enrich yourselves!” Known as the “July Monarchy,” after the month of its found-
ing, the Orleanist reign also came to be known and lampooned as “the bourgeois
monarchy.”
● “Society of the Seasons” – secret organization of revolutionaries
● Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) – ardent nationalism infused with his music, Polish
folk themes & dances
● Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) French Conditions
● Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) made explicit the close connection
between the develop-ment of German nationalism and the reverence for a strong
state as the embodiment of national sovereignty, which characterized German
liberal thought
● William Cobbett (1763–1835), whose weekly newspaper, the Political Register,
aimed at “journeymen and labourers,” spoke on behalf of the extension of the
electoral franchise to all men.
● William Lovett (1800-1877) – Britain cabinetmaker founded London
Workingmen’s Association for Benefiting Politically, Socially, & Morally the
Usefull Classes.
● Wheat was also known as corn
● John Bright (1811–1889) argued that the repeal of the Corn Laws would be a
major step toward political democracy. (British liberalism)
● Prime Minister Robert Peel had a smile like the gleam of a sliver plate on a coffin,
divided the Conservative party & was forced to resign.
● **PAGES 624-625 REVIEW HELP**
Chapter 16
● 1848 the year of barricades
○ Started in January in Palermo Sicily against King Ferdinand II of Naples
● Britain & Russia didn’t have revolutions
● Moderate political changes: lessen restrictions on press & expansion of electoral
franchise for more men to vote
● France suffered international humiliation in 1840 after misjudging a situation in
Egypt
● France had the Chamber of Deputies which headed by 9 republicans
○ Universal male suffrage & abolish slavery in French colonies
● Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1808–1873) Napoleon’s nephew, had a coterie of
supporters who honored his uncle’s memory.
● Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) –poet, complained that “France is bored,”
the legend of Napoleon remained strong among many former soldiers, peasants,
and students.
● George Sand (the pen name of Amandine Dudevant; 1804–1876), a writer and
activ-ist for women’s rights, could not get into her apartment, she discovered that
all three neighborhood locksmiths were at club meetings.
● Workday to 10 hrs in Paris & 12 hrs in the provinces. Also established
“Luxembourg Commission” to study working conditions.
●La Voix des femmes (The Women’s Voice) – newpapers
● “March governments” of 1848 formed out of fear of revolutionary contagion
● Prussian King Frederick William IV responded by convoking the United Diet
(Parliament). On March 18, 1848, he replaced his conservative cabinet with a
more liberal one. p.633
● Habsburg – Ferdinand I (ruled 1835-1848) could barely sign his name. The
people wanted constitutional reform, emancipation of peasantry, efficiency in
administration, freedom of press & electoral franchise. P.634
● Lajos Kossuth (1802–1894), a lawyer from a lesser noble family, emerged as the
leader of Hungarian liber-als, influenced by British and American constitutional
liberalism.
● Klemens von Metternich, the seventy-five-year-old Austrian premier, was not
optimistic: “I am not a prophet and I do not know what will happen, but I am an
old physician and can distinguish between temporary and fatal diseases. We now
face one of the latter.” p.635
● “March Laws,” under which the delegates to the Hungarian Diet were to be
elected by male property holders.
● Joseph Jelaciv (1801–1859) as the new governor-general for Croatia.
● March 18, 1848 – fighting in Milan “Five Glorious Days” p.637
● Pius IX (pope 1846–1878), had initiated a few modest reforms in his ter-ritories,
releasing some liberals jailed by his predecessor. p.638
● General Louis Cavaignac (1802–1857) put down the uprising with brutality, using
troops, the Mobile Guard, some of whose hurriedly admit-ted members were
unskilled workers, and National Guard units, some of which arrived from
conservative provinces by train and steamboat, symbols of a new age.
● On December 10, 1848, Louis Napoleon was overwhelmingly elected president
of the Second Republic. P.640
● Heinrich von Gagern (1799–1880) president, the delegates chose a man who
symbolized the liberal and nationalist idealism of 1848. He had been one of the
founders of the nationalist fraternities and a leader of the liberal opposition in his
native Hesse.
● Frankfurt Parliament proclaimed in December 1848 the Basic Rights of the
German People. Influenced by the American Dec-laration of Independence and
the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, it put forth
the equality of “every German” before the law; freedom of speech, assembly, and
religion; the end of seigneurial obligations; and the right to private property.
● Alexander Bach (1813–1893), a lawyer of noble origins who held, in turn, several
ministries, reformed the Habsburg legal system. At the same time, he
implemented a system of carefully coordinated bureaucratic surveillance, spying,
and repression—known as the “Bach system”—that helped root out political
opposition.
● Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882), a more strident—and organized—republican
nationalist than Mazzini (see Chapter 17), arrived with a corps of volunteers from
Lombardy to help the besieged republic. P.649
● Jeanne Deroin (1810–1894), a socialist seamstress and feminist, who in 1849
had tried to run for election despite the fact that women were ineligible for
election and could not vote. P.652
● Louis Napoleon proclaimed a new constitu-tion. On December 2, 1852, he took
the title Napoleon III, emperor of the French. Later that year, Karl Marx published
his scathing account of what had transpired: The Eighteenth Brumaire ofLouis
Napoleon Bonaparte.
● Daniel O’Connell (1775–1847), a barrister, had stimulated national awareness
among Irish peasants.
● REVIEW p.656-657
Chapter 17
● The Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich once whimsically remarked that
Italy was “a mere geographical expression.”
● In March 1854, France and Great Britain joined the Ottoman Empire in opposing
Russia in the Crimean War (1853–1856)
● On May 13, 1871, the Italian Parliament passed the Law of Papal Guarantees,
which reduced the holdings of the pope to the Vatican, barely larger than Saint
Peter’s Basilica and its adjoining ecclesiastical buildings.
● The Church had refused to accept the Law of Papal Guarantees of 1871, which
gave it title to the Vatican and the authority to make ecclesias-tical appointments
within Italy.
● The National Union (Nationalverein), the largest and most influential, wanted a
constitutional and parliamentary German state. P.674
● Count Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) “iron chancellor”, his politics – “Realpolitik”
● Bismarck’s first war was fought against the Danes in 1864 over Schleswig-
Holstein, duchies that included the Baltic port of Kiel p.676
● The Treaty of Vienna (October 1864) established the joint administration of
Schleswig-Holstein by Prussia and Austria—Austria would administer Holstein,
and Prussia would administer Schleswig.
● Superior military planning as well as the rapid mobilization, deployment, and
concentration of troops,talented officers, and more modern weapons—
particularly the breech-loading “needle gun”—brought the Prussian army
success.
● French resistance continued until January 28, 1871
● Krupp steel manufacturing, turning out powerful cannons, became increasingly
identified with German military might. The result of the unification of Germany by
“blood and iron” was a critical shift in the balance of power in Europe.
● The Catholic Center Party was founded in 1870 to lobby for the rights of
Catholics, who made up 35 percent of the German population, most living in
Bavaria and the Rhineland. p.682
● Kulturkampf “cultural struggle” against Catholics, Polish, French, Danish, & other
local languages within the German Empire
● Frederick III only reigned for 100 days (throat cancer) & wife was the eldest of
Queen Victoria of England.
● In 1888, Frederick’s son William II (ruled 1888–1918) became emperor. William
held that “a society is only strong if it recognizes the fact of natural superiorities,
in particular that of birth.” “We Hohenzollerns derive our crowns from Heaven
alone and are answerable only to Heaven.” William believed in his “personal
rule.”
● Liberalism continued to be closely tied to the defense of small-town interests
● The provinces that formed the Habsburg domains represented extraordinary
linguistic, cultural, and historical diversity p.685
● P.687 – architecture of germany & to get ahead in life
● Factors for unity in Austria
1. Tradition of Habsburg monarchy = important for cohesion
2. Depended on support of the middle class
3. Enjoyed the support of Austrian & Hungarian nobles & Croatian, Polish, &
Italian counterparts
4. Catholicism is the religion for majority of the peoples
5. The imperial army retained considerable prestige
● A contemporary cynically described the Bach system: “The administra-tion was
run by a standing army of soldiers, a kneeling one of those praying in church to
be acceptable to the government, and a crawling one of informers.”
● Anton von Schmerling (1805–1893), minister of the interior, drafted the February
Patent of 1861, a constitution that established a bicameral parliament in which all
the empire’s nationalities were to be represented.
● Review p.694-695
Folklore in Europe
● Perrault (French) – Cinderella, Puss & Boots, Blue Beard. Created tales, literary
& represented that period of literature in France
● Grimms – took some of Perrault’s examples and revamped them. *find the tales
that they heard their whole lives*
○ Going to neighborhood and collecting tales of people they know (Hessa)
○ Dorothy ve-mon- predominate role in collecting
○ True to telling the tales/as they were
○ 1812 & 1815 1st 2 volumes “Household tales for the family and children”
○ 1st tales were really dark, we know more of the 6/7th volumes
● They weren’t meant for children (fairytales)
● Anderson (theorist) - Imagine communities
○ People start to rely on things that are made up- creating an identity
The Unification of Germany (1848-1871)
● 1848 Revolutions start in Europe
● Prince Otto von Bismark “Iron Chancellor” (1815-1898)
○ “Some people learn from their mistakes. I learn from other people’s
mistakes.”
○ “Not through speeches & majority decisions will the great questions of the
day be decided, but by iron & blood!”
○ Real politique/ for realistic politics
○ End justifies the means
○ Prussian army is the finest in Europe
○ *General staff- modern military education– chief of staff (general) making
plans during peacetime
● Karl Von Clausewitz - On War military strategy with political objectives
(handbook)
● General Helmuth von Moltke– repeating rifles, railroad, telegraph, mass conscript
army (enlist) “all battle plans fall apart within the first 5 mins of contact with the
enemy because of unexpected developments.” – adapt to changing situations*
● 1864
○ Prussia & Denmark
○ Danes defeated within weeks
● 1866
○ Austria & Prussia - 7 weeks
○ Controversy of administration
○ July 3rd - trap austrian army and Prussia wins
● 1870
○ Prussia & France
○ 6 weeks
○ France defeated at Sedan in August 31 1870
● German Empire is now most powerful nation on the continent (economy & army)
The German Empire (1871-1914)
● Bismarck
○ German constitution written by him
○ Chancellor of the empire
○ Balance of power politics (Three Emperors League)- Austria, Russia &
Germany
○ Didn’t like Catholics- getting them to make a choice
○ First modern welfare state- retirement & pensions, workers comp,
unemployment insurance, accident insurance
● Prince Friedrich (Fritz)
