Chapter Twenty-Three: The Concert of Europe

CHAPTER OUTLINE

Power to the People, 1815—1848 After : The Conservative Response and Nationalism in Central Europe Revolution in Russia, the Iberian Peninsula, and Greece Pressure and Change in Great Britain France: Laboratory of Revolution

One People, One Nation: 1848—1871 The Creation of Austria-Hungary The Unification of Italy The Unification of

The State Triumphant: 1848—1914 Britain: The Challenge of Mass Politics Russia: An Autocracy Attempts Reforms France: From Second Empire to Third Republic Central Europe: The German and Austro-Hungarian Empires Mediterranean Europe: Italy, Spain, Portugal Wars and Alliances

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Chapter twenty-three focuses on the events after the end of the and the Age of Revolution. The powers of Europe were forced into a response, and their tendency was conservative. They replaced Napoleon with the brother of the executed Louis XVI, and put in place plans that repressed most revolutionary plans for the next fifteen years. The 1830s saw the next great wave of revolutionary activity, especially in Italy, France, and Eastern Europe. The most powerful of the revolutions was the uprising in Greece, which involved many of the powers in Europe: by 1832, Greece had successfully won its independence from the . Other countries, including Great Britain and Russia, saw demands for change, protesters in the streets, and every other conceivable type of protest. In most areas, the revolutions were quickly put down, giving rise to the next set of rebellions in 1848. The first of the revolutions, in France, set the mod el for the rest of Europe, and rebellions followed in the , the states of Italy and Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Spain, and Portugal. While not one of these rebellions was successful, they did change Europe, as rulers took note of the forces that demanded power. Nationalism became an important aspect of the European landscape, as the people of Europe began to identify themselves as being from a particular country rather than being from a village or a family.

This sense of nationalism led to the unification of two of the areas of Europe: Italy and Germany. Italy, under the direction of Count Cavour of Piedmont, broke away from the control of the Austrians and the French and unified in the 1860s, with the king of Piedmont, Victor Emmanuel II, declared as the king of Italy. Unification did not solve all of the problems on the peninsula; those in the south believed that the northern states (including Piedmont) were far more interested in their own agendas than concerned with the entirety of the new kingdom. This dispute kept several areas, including Venice, from joining the new state; it was not until Rome was declared the capital in 1871 that the entire peninsula unified.

Germany, under the direction of of Prussia, created a new unified German state, separate from Austria but including most of the other German speaking states. Through a series of diplomatic maneuvers and well-timed wars, Bismarck succeeded in gathering up most of the German-speaking states into the North ; in the process, he managed to defeat both Austria and France, in humiliating fashion. The culmination of the dream of a unified German state occurred when William I, the King of Prussia, was declared emperor of Germany in January 1871.

The Austrian Empire was contending with issues internally as well. Nationalist movements within the Empire had been a serious concern since the time of the Napoleonic Wars, with some of the largest minority groups demanding equal rights and treatment. The largest of these, the Magyars, went so far as to demand that they be given equal roles within the government. The Austrian decision to give the Magyars parity within the government led other minority groups, including the Czechs, Serbs, and Bosnians, to demand their own autonomous state, and by the end of the century the Austro- Hungarian Empire appeared to be destroying itself from within.

1 Other states used the end of the nineteenth century as a time to introduce reforms. Britain introduced Reform Bills that increased the number of people who were allowed to vote in national elections. In Russia, Alexander II realized that without reform, revolution was a given, and he set out to reform the state. Included in these reforms were the emancipation of the serfs, the creation of village assemblies, judicial reforms, and the introduction of wider public education. The reforms were not enough to satisfy the radicals in Russia, and Alexander was assassinated in 1881. In Paris, the creation of the Paris commune saw the creation of the first socialist state during the Franco-Prussian war of 1871. While the commune only lasted a few months, and led to the deaths of 20,000 Parisians, the stage had been set for other revolutions to follow. The great uprisings of the mid-nineteenth century in Poland, in Serbia, in Austria were brutally suppressed by increasingly repressive monarchs desperate to retain their power. Few realized that, by 1918, the monarchical system in Europe would be, for all intents and purposes, destroyed.

KEY POINTS

Power to the People: 1815-1848: With Napoleon gone, European leaders try to put a lid on the revolutionary impulse; but the people have been aroused, and all over Europe they take to the streets to demand their rights.

One People, One Nation: 1848-1871: As much as they crave freedom, the peoples of Europe crave nationhood; Italy and Germany are created to meet that need, and Hungary gains parity with Austria under Habsburg rule; but minorities in that multiethnic empire are still dissatisfied as the century nears its end.

The State Triumphant: 1848-1914: The states of Europe reassert their authority over their populations in some cases with support from the electorate, in others by means of repression as the state emerges triumphant after an era of revolution.

SUGGESTED FILMS

English History: Nineteenth Century Reforms. Coronet, 13 minutes

Revolts and Reforms in Europe (1815-1848). Coronet, 16 minutes

Revolutions of 1848. Radim Films, Inc., 22 minutes

Germany: Feudal States to Unification. Coronet, 13 minutes

Unification of Italy. Coronet, 14 minutes

Bismarck: Germany from Blood and Iron. Learning Corporation of America, 30 minutes

The Myth of Nationalism. Walter H. Berlet Films, 30 minutes

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