Chapter 23: The Concert of Europe

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Chapter 23 The Concert of Europe
Decembrist Revolt St. Petersburg (December 26,
1825)

• Day 39
• McKay 757-761, Palmer 11.54 .55

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Age of Metternich
Burschenschaft member Carl Sand Executed
Congress of Troppau discuss Revolution in Naples
Greek Independence
1815 1818 1820 1822 1825 1830 1848
Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818) pulls army of
occupation out of France
Revolutions of 1848 The Dike Breaks
Decembrist Revolt
Congress of Vienna -The Dike is Created
Congress of Verona
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Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815

• All states of Europe sent reps (even former HRE)
• Talleyrand (Louis 18 minister) represented France
• Important matters would be decided by 4 great
  powers (Quadruple Alliance)
• Castlereagh (GB), Metternich (Austria), and
  Alexander (Russia), Hardenberg (Prussia)
• Prussians want land
• Alex wants Poland, constitutionalism in Europe,
  and some type of security pact (NATO)
• Castlereagh, Metternich, Talleyrand (France) seek
  bal of power
• Want to stop Universal Monarchy imperialist
  system within Europe
• Balance of Power Legitimacy key diplomatic
  buzzwords
• Believed that shifting souls (people and
  territory) around to create a balance

Metternich
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Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815 Continued

• France is still viewed as biggest threat
• Barrier of strong states is erected around France
• Dutch Republic becomes the Netherlands (under
  House of Orange) is expanded to include Austrian
  Netherlands (Belgium)
• Kingdom of Piedmont restored expanded with
  Genoa
• Prussia gets the left bank of the Rhine a
  "sentinel (a lookout) on the Rhine"
• Austria gets Tuscany, Milan, Venice, Lombardy

• These moves are meant to block both France and
  Russian hegemony
• Consolidation under Napoleon is left in place
• Confederation of the Rhine renamed German
  Confederation
• Pope receives the rest of Italy (Papal States)
• In Spain the Bourbons are restored

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Second Treaty of Paris

• Harsh peace for France
• France is forced to pay and indemnity 700,000,000
  francs
• Army of occupation is placed in France to keep
  France in line
• No Bonaparte should ever govern France
• Future congresses would be called to review the
  political situation of Europe
• Quadruple Alliance of Chaumont is reconfirmed in
  Nov.
• The Holy Alliance
• Alexander proposes an alliance to uphold
  Christian principles of charity and peace
• He meant it as a condemnation of violence
• All sign except the Pope, the Ottoman sultan, and
  the regent of Great Britain
• Later becomes a symbol of unholy monarchies
  against liberty and progress
• IE. Symbol of Repression

final document of the Congress of Vienna, signed
on June 9, 1815, to establish lasting peace in
Europe after the Napoleonic Wars
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Congress of Vienna

• Polish-Saxon Question
• Prussians and the Russians demanded Saxony and
  Poland
• threatened the balance
• Austria refused to give up its slice of Poland
  and feared a powerful Prussia
• Castlereagh, Metternich, and (French) Talleyrand
• Leaked information that they had a secret treaty
  of alliance together
• forced Russia and Prussia into a compromise
• Russia got part of Poland and Prussia received
  two-fifths of Saxony

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Congress (Metternich) System

• Congress of Vienna
• Great powers (Austria, GB, Russia, Prussia)(later
  France) agreed to work in Concert to stop
  growing Isms from spreading
• Known as Metternich System
• Chief diplomatic paradigm from (1815-1848)
• Very Conservative
• Feared liberalism, nationalism, republicanism
• Feared nationalism the most
• a war of all against all
• Goals
• Contain France
• Restore legitimate monarchs
• Maintain balance of power
• Maintain peace
• Stop Isms from spreading

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Metternich and Conservatism

• Characterized by Intervention and repression
• Under Metternich, Austria, Prussia, and Russia
  led a crusade against liberalism nationalism
• formed Holy Alliance to check future liberal and
  revolutionary activity
• Novel idea (precursor to League of Nations and
  United Nations)
• Europes Great Powers agreed to intervene to
  restore order but not to acquire territory
• Also known as the Concert of Europe
• Must work in concert with all the Great Powers
• Dike trying to hold back the flood of Isms
• believed best state blended monarchy,
  bureaucracy, and aristocracy (not absolutism but
  more Montesquieuesque)
• Liberalism nationalismromanticism trouble
  for conservatism (before 1850)
• Austrian Empire
• contained many ethnic groups, including Germans,
  Hungarians, Poles, Slovaks, Croats, Italians and
  Czechs

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Prince von Metternich. Political Confession of
Faith (1820)
The Source of the Evil France had the misfortune
to produce the greatest number of these men. It
is in her midst that religion and all that she
holds sacred, that morality and authority, and
all connected with them, have been attacked with
a steady and systematic animosity, and it is
there that the weapon of ridicule has been used
with the most ease and success. Drag through the
mud the name of God and the powers instituted by
His divine decrees, and the revolution will be
prepared! Speak of a social contract, and the
revolution is accomplished! Nevertheless the
revolutionary seed had penetrated into every
country and spread more or less. It was greatly
developed under the régime of the military
despotism of Bonaparte. His conquests displaced a
number of laws, institutions, and customs broke
through bonds sacred among all nations, strong
enough to resist time itself which is more than
can be said of certain benefits conferred by
these innovators. From these perturbations it
followed that the revolutionary spirit could in
Germany, Italy, and later on in Spain, easily
hide itself under the veil of patriotism We are
convinced that society can no longer be saved
without strong and vigorous resolutions on the
part of the Governments still free in their
opinions and actions. We are also convinced that
this may yet be, if the Governments face the
truth, if they free themselves from all illusion,
if they join their ranks and take their stand on
a line of correct, unambiguous, and frankly
announced principles. The first principle to be
followed by the monarchs, should be that of
maintaining the stability of political
institutions against the disorganised excitement
which has taken possession of men's minds- the
immutability of principles against the madness of
their interpretation and respect for laws
actually in force against a desire for their
destruction.... Let them be just, but strong
beneficent, but strict. Let them maintain
religious principles in all their purity, and not
allow the faith to be attacked and morality
interpreted according to the social contract or
the visions of foolish sectarians. Let them
suppress Secret Societies, that gangrene of
society.
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Reaction after 1815 The German States

• Germany was left as a loose association of
  independent states (Bund)
• Nationalism began to grow in universities
• Volksgeist and Deutschtum (German Culture) are
  commonly discussed
• students formed Burschenschaft in 1815 which were
  clubs of serious political discussion
• a kind of German youth movement
• held congress at Wartburg in 1817 listened to
  rousing speeches, marched in Teutonic costumes
• Burschenschaft member Karl Sand assassinated
  conservative dramatist August von Kotzebue for
  ridiculing Burschenschaftens
• Martyred after his execution

• Metternich issues the Carlsbad Decrees (1819)
• Dissolved the Burschenschaft and gymnastic clubs
• Placed government officials in the universities
• Censored books and newspapers
• Repression becomes the status quo

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The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1818

• Met to discuss the withdraw army of occupation
  from France
• France had paid reparations
• Army of occupation withdrawn
• Accepted France as nation in good standing
• Alexander I
• most advanced internationalists of the day
• Also flirted with liberalism (constitutionalism)
• "universal union of guarantee"
• suggested that a permanent European union with
  international military force be formed to
  safeguard ALL recognized states
• blocked by British reservations about long-term
  military commitments (like Wilsons League of
  Nations)
• GB more concerned with preserving its colonies
• Reason why Monroe Doctrine worked

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The Congress of Troppau, 1820

• Carbonari (secret Italian liberal society) had
  great influence over army
• Liberal general forced Bourbon King Ferdinand to
  take oath to constitutionalism
• Modeled on the Spanish Constitution of 1812
• Metternich gets nervous and calls the Congress of
  Troppau to block spread of liberalism
• Metternich reviews horrors of revolution to
  Alexander
• Today I deplore everything that I have said and
  done between the years 1814 and 1818 ... Tell me
  what you want of me. I will do it. Alex I
• Alexander shifts away from support of
  constitutionalists to the Conservatives
• Should be granted by monarchs not extorted by
  revolutionaries
• Metternich drafts the Protocol of Trouppau
• Said that stable governments have the right to
  intervene to restore order in countries
  experiencing revolution
• Russia, Prussia and Austria sign it
• Protocol claims the right to intervene in other
  nations if revolution threatens European
  Alliance
• Neapolitan (Naples) revolution is put down and
  Bourbons are restored

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The Congress of Verona, 1822

• Many revolutionaries and liberals fled terror in
  Italy and went to Spain
• Alexander Ypsilanti, a Greek, military man who
  served Russia led armed followers from Russia to
  Romania hoping to lead Greek rebellion with
  Russian support (1821)
• Metternich got nervous again
• Called for Congress of Verona
• Alexander (now a conservative) refused to support
  Ypsilanti who was defeated by Turks
• France under Louis XVIII invaded Spain with 200
  thousand
• Crushed liberal revolution
• Church and King are restored under Ferdinand VII
• Revolutionaries were savagely persecuted

Alexander Ypsilanti (1792-1828)
Ferdinand VII of Spain
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The Greek Revolution of 1821

• Revolution of independence broke out in Greece in
  1821
• Part of the Ottoman Empire
• Romantic and liberal propaganda (philhellenic
  societies) call for action
• Viewed Revolution as rebirth of original
  democracy
• Major Issues
• Eastern Question- (weakness and unstable Ottoman
  Empire) had long troubled Europe
• Land- Russia and Austria want
• Trade- France and GB
• Christianity- Did not like idea that fellow
  Christians were mistreated by Islamic Ottoman
  Empire
• Isms- did not want to encourage isms
• Treaty of London (1827)
• GB, France, Russia Demanded Ottoman recognition
  of Greek independence
• Sent troops and a fleet
• Greek independent 1830

Massacre at Chios (1824) by Eugène Delacroix
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Massacre at Chios (1824) by Eugène Delacroix
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Russia The Decembrist revolt 1825

• Alexander I died in 1825
• Some Russian officers who had fought in W. Europe
  were influence by liberalism
• Major Issues
• Constitutionalism
• Republicanism
• Emancipation of the serfs
• There was uncertainty which of his 2 brothers
  would succeed him (Constantine or Nicholas)
• Army preferred Constantine (Constantine and
  Constitution)
• Uneducated soldiers thought Constitution was the
  name of his wife!

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Decembrist Revolt (1825)

• Liberal Officers (Decembrist) led an uprising in
  Dec
• Constantine had already deferred to Nicholas
• Nicholas I (1825-1855) put down Decembrist revolt
  harshly
• Had rebellious officers hanged or sent to Siberia
  work camps
• Overall response is to clamp down on Russia
• Revolt foreshadows the Russian Revolution
• Ten years after Napoleon the conservative
  reaction seems to be holding back the flood of
  liberalism

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The End of the Congress System

• Congress System
• failed to make progress toward an international
  order
• Stood for nothing but repression status quo
• Made no attempt at accommodating new Isms
  emerging in Europe
• No efforts at relieving revolutionary sentiments
  with reform
• Repressed or punished all revolutionary agitation
• Propped up governments that could not stand on
  their own (Spain)
• The Dike starts to leak

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Concert of Europe
Nationalism
Liberalism
1848
Constitutionalism