The Age of Metternich

1
Chapter 23

• The Age of Metternich
• 1815-1850
• Conservatism
• Liberalism
• Nationalism
• Romanticism
• Socialism

2
Conservatism

• The Congress of Vienna created
• The Concert of Europe A concerted effort to
  maintain the status quo
• The Congress System A series of meetings of the
  Great powers to monitor and defend the status quo
  
• The Quadruple Alliance Austria, Russia,
  Prussia, England took military action to defend
  Europe from Liberalism and Nationalism
• Brits dropped out 1822 replaced by France

3
The Congress of Viennas Success

• Concert system successfully maintained the
  balance of power until German unification 1871
• Successfully avoided world war until 1914
• Concert System ended with Crimean War in the
  1850s
• Successfully put down Liberal and Nationalistic
  revolutions
• Exceptions Greece, Belgium

4
Conservatism

• Did appeal to upper classes and peasants who were
  frightened by the violence and terror of the
  French Revolution
• The Bourgeoisie posed the biggest threat to
  conservatism
• Edmund Burkes Reflections most famous defense
  of conservatism
• Metternich an even bigger fan

5
Conservatism in German Confederation

• Metternich had the most to lose to Liberalism and
  Nationalism
• Understood that universities posed the biggest
  threat
• 1819 Metternich called the Carlsbad Diet
• Carlsbad Decrees Materials that advocated
  unification were censored
• Liberals and Nationalists in universities were
  driven underground

6
Conservatism in Prussia

• Hohenzollerns in Prussia instituted some
  government reforms after defeat of Napoleon
• German nationalists misunderstood and looked to
  Prussia to unify German states, hoping for an
  enlightened despot kind of thing
• Prussian reforms were not liberalonly made
  government more efficient
• German nationalists were disappointed.

7
Conservatism in England

• Tories defeated Napoleon and were still in
  control
• Corn Laws still in effect
• Habeas Corpus repealed for the first time in
  English history
• Peterloo Massacre Police attacked a peaceful
  crowd listening to an anti-Corn Law speech
• 11 killed 400 wounded

8
Conservatism in England contd

• Censorship of the Press
• Mass meetings were abolished
• By 1820 England moving toward authoritarianism

9
Conservatism in France

• Began as liberal Charter 1814
• By 1815 The White Terror Royalist mobs
  murdered thousands of former revolutionaries
• Elections of 1816 restored moderate royalists
  to power
• By 1823 France had joined the Quadruple Alliance
  and helped to crush a liberal revolution in Spain
  and restored a Bourbon to power

10
Conservatism in France continued

• 1829 The heir to the French throne was murdered
• Royalists used above as an excuse to crack down
  on liberalism
• Louis XVIII shifted to conservative policies
• Increased censorship
• Reduced suffrage

11
Conservatism in Russia

• Alexander I (1801-1825) initially favored
  Enlightened Despotism but became increasingly
  conservative over time
• Died in 1825 and Brother, Nicholas all set to
  take power
• Decembrist Uprising Junior military officers who
  wanted a constitutional government tried to
  prevent Nicholas from taking power

12
Conservatism in Russia continued

• Uprising crushed
• Nicholas I became Europes most reactionary
  monarch
• Police state, censorship, state-sponsored
  terrorism
• No representative assemblies
• Education limited, curriculum monitored
• Alienated Russian intellectuals
• Slovolphiles (Mir)
• Westernizers