Conservative Order And The Challenges Of Reform

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

The Challenges of Nationalism and Liberalism

The Emergence of Nationalism

Nationalism is a political view, the people of the nation must have a common set of values over many fields.

Common Language

Common Customs

Common Cultures

Common History

Ethnicities should be defined by borders

Opposition to the Vienna Settlement

The Vienna Settlement said that monarchies/dynasties, not the people, set the standards for political unity against to nationalism.

Russia and Austria weren’t nationalistic.

They believed that people of different nationalities shouldn’t be living in the same nation.

They believed that popular sovereignty it gave people the ability to determine a national image.

Creating Nations

National History

Writings from intellectuals on nationalistic ideals began being published in the nineteenth century.

These writings began to opitimize nationalistic historical ideals, they gave people pride of the nation they lived in.

National Language

The language choice for government buildings and education was powerful because it would either support your personal dialect or make it irrelevant.

They didn’t really like slang, so they went with higher, or older forms of a language.

This also motivated those who didn’t give a crap about their government to get involved.

Meaning of Nationhood

Nationalists thought that a nation’s destiny was grown from their individual’s personalities.

They gave them choices to pursue talents and careers.

They argued that nations were creations from god.

Poland compared themselves to Christ suffering among other nations that would soon experience a revolution.

These comparisons were common.

Regions of Nationalistic Pressure

Ireland

England took over Ireland in 1800 and the Irish nationalists wanted their independence.

Germany

The nationalists of Germany wanted to unite all countries that spoke German but they had to challenge Austrian and Prussian powers to attempt this.

Italy

Italian nationalists wanted to get rid of the Austrians in the Italian peninsula and unify Italians.

Poland

Polish nationalists wanted their independence from Russia.

Eastern Europe

Places like Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc. all wanted recognition in the Austrian Empire.

Balkan Peninsula

Nationalists like Serbs, Greeks, Albanians, Romanians, and Bulgarians wanted freedom from the Ottoman Empire.

Early-Nineteenth-Century Political Liberalism

Liberalism was nineteenth-century European politicians who wanted conservative change and defended their own political, social, and religious standing.

Political Goals

Wanted legal equality for all citizens, religious toleration, and freedom of the press.

Believed any power the government had was given to them by their citizens and they could just as easily take away that power.

Wanted continental governments to be constitutional.

Liberals were educated, moderately wealthy, commercialized, but were excluded from regular politics.

Economic Goals

Took Adam Smith’s free trade motto.

Wanted abolition of unfair government wages and privileged guilds.

Wanted a national economy based on people’s talents and their merit.

In Great Britain they already had a pretty conservative government so they wanted to extend voting rights (typical of democratic governments) without becoming a democracy.

In France they were cool with the government there but they used their Principles of 1789 to justify any call for equal rights.

In Germany and Austria monarchs and aristocrats beat down the liberals with an iron fist so they didn’t really become influential in these countries. The Middle class didn’t get a chance to participate in politics thanks to a severe social divide.

Liberals wanted to unite all of Germany but Prussia and Austria refused.

Relationship of Nationalism to Liberalism

Nationalism and Liberalism are comparable in some aspects.

Nationalists in one country might receive recognition for their actions from liberalists in another country like when nationals in Greece made Athens their capital English and French liberalists supported this action.

Some views of Nationalism and Liberalism conflicted.

Some nationalists wanted ethnic dominance over another people in a foreign region which was a very controversial goal.

Conservative Governments: The Domestic Political Order

Conservative Outlooks

Major Fundamentals of conservatism.

Political and religious guidelines from Edmund Burke and Friedrich Hegel.

Legitimate monarchies, landed aristocrats, and established churches.

Retaking control after 1815

Wartime allows for all the aggressive governments to take control of the population if they were slipping before that.

After a war that demanded an efficient economy and provided numerous jobs people had the free time to look into political issues.

After 1815 these conservative governmentals were confronted with new opposition which took root from the domestic idleness of their opposition.

Liberalism and Nationalism Resisted in Austria and the Germanies

Dynastic Integrity of the Habsburg Empire

There were many ethnicities and nationalities within the Austrian Empire

Liberalism and nationalism were perceived as major threats to the Austrian Empire as it included Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Italians, Croats, and other ethnic groups.

If Austria allowed representative government, Metternich feared national groups would fight for independence internally.

Austria took over the German Confederation

The Congress of Vienna created the German Confederation, got rid of the Holy Roman Empire, and put Austria in charge of the Confederation. They did this to prevent unification of a German national state.

Defeat of Prussian Reform

Although Frederick William III (1797-1840) promised the implementation of some form of constitutionalism, he broke his promise in 1817 when he created the Council of State instead, which was responsible to him alone.

Frederick fired his reformative ministers and replaced them with die hard conservatives also appointing a lot of Junkers to military positions.

Older ties between the monarchy, army, and landholders were rekindled in this chapter.

Student Nationalism and the Carlsbad Decrees

Three southern German states established constitutions after 1815; Baden, Bavaria, and Wurttemberg.

Students in Germany created a club called the Burschenschaften which supported nationalism.

A member of that group, Karl Sand, assassinated August von Kotzebue, a controversial conservative.

Karl Sand was publicly executed to try and beat down that nationalists’ movement but instead created a martyr.

These clubs were usually anti-Semitic

A different branch of this club, in Jena, had a festivile on the anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig which didn’t make rulers very happy.

Carlsbad Decrees

In July 1819 this was issued and it dissolved the Burschenschaften.

It also let the government censor the press and send university inspectors out to try and prevent this kind of thing from happening again.

They also limited what Bavaria, Wurttemberg, and Baden would vote and discuss on in the Confederation.

The Confederation’s open opposition to the Burschenschaften set an international precedent of a monarch’s ability to resist a constitutionalist demand or view point of a state.

Postwar Repression in Great Britain

Lord Liverpool’s Ministry and Popular Unrest

Lord Liverpool was the Tory Prime minister of England

He wanted to help the wealthy and landed class.

He passed the Corn Law which required a maintaining of high prices of domestically produced grains by getting rid of taxes of international grains.

They got rid of the upper class’s income tax and replaced it with a sales tax on consumer goods which only affected the middle class.

These policies and economic decline after 1815 led the lower class to demand political reform.

Radical clubs like that of Germany and newspapers also demanded reform.

William Cobbett’s Political Registrar was a publication criticizing the government.

Major John Cartwright and Henry Hunt were two other political reform leaders.

The Government responded to these actions with the Coercion Acts of March 1817.

After a mini-riot in Spa Fields near London Parliament temporarily suspended habeas corpus which were basic rights for the population of Britain.

"Peterloo" and the Six Acts

There were protests in the industrious northern Britain

On August 16, 1819, in Manchester at Saint Peter’s Fields, a milita was order by local governemtn to move into the audience and eleven people were killed, this was later called the Peterloo Massacre.

This was a little too much for some politicians so they passed the Six Acts which prevented the most radical political leaders from such agitation of extremists in Britain.

Cato Street Conspiracy

Arthur Thistlewood, a group of the most extreme radicals, was plotting to blow up the entire British cabinet.

After their plan crashed and burned six of the conspirators were hung for pretty much sheer stupidity.

Bourbon Restoration in France

The Charter

Described power of government in France and it had a hereditary monarch and bicameral legislature.

The chamber of Peers was the upper house and was appoint by the king, it was modeled after the English House of Lords

The Chamber of Deputies was the lower house, they were appointed by those that made the voting property requirements.

It repeated a lot of the stuff in the declaration of the rights of man.

Freedom of Religion was granted but Roman Catholicism was the official religion.

The charter would not allow the land acquired in the revolution to be returned.

Ultraroyalism

A lot of royalist didn’t like Louis XVIII and since the monarchy was hereditary they rallied his brother, the count of Artois and heir to the throne.

After Napoleon was defeated royalists went after revolutionaries and those who supported napoleon, aristocratic style (whatever that means.)

They killed the duke of Berri, son of the king and heir to the throne.

They convinced Artois that it was the liberals that killed him so he took actions against them.

He passed new electoral laws that gave wealthy electors two votes.

He allowed the press to be censored

People who were suspected of dangerous political activity could be arrested.

These actions weakened the constitutional fascination of liberals as they were driven out of politics.

The Conservative International Order

The Congress System

The first congress meet in 1818 at Aix-la-Chapelle in Germany near the Belgium border.

Four world powers agreed to remove their troops from France.

The meeting didn’t go without any conflict.

Tsar Alexander I proposed that the Quadruple Alliance lock in the current European Borders.

Castlereagh vetoed this because the only purpose of that alliance was to keep France in line.

The Spanish Revolution of 1820

In Spain after Napoleon’s defeat Bourbon Ferdinand VII was crowned as a constitutional monarch.

He ignored the constitution and did what he wanted which was dissolve the Cortes which was their parliament.

The army started to flip out so he said, my b, and accepted the constitution and reinstated the parliament.

The people of Naples also forced their king to accept a constitution with less drama.

Metternich asked the Quadruple Alliance to form a coalition after these revolts took place.

Britain opposed dealing with Italy or Spain.

Metternich asked Prussia and Russia next at the Congress and Protocol of Troppau.

They decided that a stable government had every right to intervene with a struggling one.

Austrian troops marched into Naples and restored the king as an absolute monarch.

They dealt with Psain in the Congress of Verona

Britain again played middle man and didn’t intervene.

Austria, Prussia, and Russia were a little far away so they agreed France could send over an army to stop the revolt as long as they didn’t acquire any new territory or conquer anything.

Revolt Against Ottoman Rule in the Balkans

The Greek Revolution of 1821

The revolution was a liberal symbol of the struggle of Greek freedom from Asian Orientals of the Ottoman Empire.

Philhellenic groups were formed all over Europe to support the Greeks.

Lord Byron went over to fight and ironically died from cholera in 1824.

As the Ottoman empire continued to expand it was harder to control its empire so nationalist groups began to fight for their independence much like Greece.

Russia, Austria, France, and Britain all had their eyes on the potentially conquerable land in the Ottoman empire

Treaty of London was signed after Britain, France, and Russia Decided that Greece’s freedom would benefit them greatly so they told the Ottoman empire to get out; Britain sent two war ships to help the benefit.

Russia marched troops into Romania and took control of it with the treaty of Adrianople.

Treaty of London2.0 declared Greece independent and they crowned Otto I, son of the king of Bavaria their first king.

Serbian Independence

Between 1804 and 1813, Siberia had a guerilla war with the Ottomans led by Kara George.

They didn’t win independence but it helped their image anyway.

Later in 1830 Milos Obrenovitch negotiated Serbian independence from the Ottoman Empire.

There were disputes about the Muslims and other minorities in Siberia so Russia became the formal protector of them and helped spread the Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Slavic ethnicity.

The Wars of Independence in Latin America

Revolution in Haiti

It was sparked by the policies of the French Revolution overflowing into France’s Empire.

The National Assembly in Paris in 1791 declared that property-owning mulattos in Haiti should enjoy the same rights as white plantation owners.

The Colonial Assembly in Haiti—comprised of white plantation owners—resisted the orders of the National Assembly and this ignited a full-fledged rebellion.

It demonstrated that slaves of African origins could lead a revolt against white masters and mulatto freemen and it sparked fear in slave owners throughout the Americas.

Francois-Dominique Toussaint L’Ouverture (1743?-1803), a former slave, emerged as the leader of the revolt.

The slave revolt was suppressed but the free blacks and mulattos resumed the fighting in order to obtain the rights granted by the National Assembly.

France sent troops to ensure the rights of the free blacks and mulattos and were joined by the slaves in fighting the privileged class in Haiti.

In early 1793, France abolished slavery in Haiti and L’Ouverture was appointed Governor General for life.

Napoleon distrusted LOuverture and, therefore, sent an army to capture him after which he was imprisoned in France and died in 1803.

Another man of slave origins, Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806) continued the resistance but Napoleon chose to withdraw from Haiti completely when France went to war with Britain in 1803.

France formally acknowledged Haitian Independence in 1804.

Wars of Independence on the South American Continent

Creole Discontent

Reasons for discontentment

Creoles in Latin America were unhappy with Spain’s imperial trade policies that prevented them from trading freely with North American and European markets.

Creoles were also repulsed by recent tax hikes imposed by Spain.

The resented policies that favored peninsulares—white people born in Spain—for political patronage including appointments in the colonial government, church, and army.

Creole leaders became familiar with the works of the Enlightenment philosophes.

Event that triggered Brazilian Independence

Napoleon invaded Portugal and Spain in 1807 which presented a unique opportunity for revolutionary-minded Creoles.

Between 1808 and 1810, Creole leaders established juntas, or political committees, that claimed the right to govern different regions in Latin America.

After the establishment of the juntas, Spain never recovered governmental authority over South America.

With the establishment of juntas, peninsulares lost their privileges and Creoles took positions in the government and army.

Creoles would have to fight for a decade before South America’s independence was officially acknowledged.

San Martín in Río de la Plata

Due to geographical barriers, distinct regional differences, and the absence of an integrated economy meant that there would be several different paths to independence.

Rio de la Plata, or modern-day Argentina, was the first region to gain autonomy.

The citizens of Buenos Aires fought off a British invasion in 1806 which gave them the confidence that they could rely on themselves rather than Spain.

The juntas in Buenos Aires declared independence from Spain and sent an army into Paraguay and Uruguay to liberate them from Spain.

Buenos Aires juntas sent their general Jose de San Martin over the Andes Mountains where the occupied Santiago and established Chilean Independence with Bernardo O’Higgins (1778-1842) as its supreme dictator.

In 1820, San Martin organized a fleet that carried his army by sea to Peru where they landed and forced the royalist army from Lima and San Martin became the protector of Peru.

Simόn Bolívar’s Liberation of Venezuela

Simon Bolivar (1783-1830) Bio

organized juntas in Caracas and Venezuela in 1810.

advocate of independence and republicanism

Role in Venezuelan Independence

forced into exile from 1811-1814 when civil war broke out in Venezuela as a coalition of royalists, llaneros (Venezuelan cowboys), and slaves challenged the authority of republican government.

With help from Haiti, he returned and captured Bogota, capital of New Granada, to secure a base from which to launch an attack on Venezuela,

In the summer of 1821, Bolivar captured Caracas and was named president of Venezuela.

Bolivar joined his army with that of San Martin and they jointly liberated Ecuador.

Bolivar believed in republicanism whereas San Martin believed monarchy was necessary for the future of Latin America.

San Martin quietly retired from public life and was sent into exile in Europe.

In 1823, Bolivar invaded Peru and crushed the remaining royalist forces at the Battle of Ayacucho.

Independence in New Spain

The drive for independence in New Spain—which included present-day Mexico as well as Texas, California, and the rest of the southwest United States, demonstrates the conservative outcome of the Latin American colonial revolutions.

Road to independence

A local governing junta was established in 1808 but before it could lead the region to independence, a Creole priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (1753-1811) issued a call for rebellion to the Indians in his parish.

Hidalgo, supported by a group of 80,000 followers, set forth a program of social reform, including changes in landholdings.

Hidalgo was captured by a royalist army in 1811 and executed.

Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon (1765-1815), a mestizo priest, became the movement’s leader and he called for an end to forced labor and for substantial land reforms.

He was executed in 1815, ending five years of popular uprising

Conservative creoles and Spaniards rallied behind former royalist general Augustin de Iturbide (1783-1824), who declared Mexico independent of Spain in 1821.

Iturbide was declared emperor.

Brazilian Independence

Brazilian independence was peaceful.

Royal family moved there and established Rio de Janeiro as a royal city that was ruled over by Portuguese prince regent Joao.

Prince regent Joao addressed many local complaints and implemented reform that benefitted Brazil rather than Portugal.

For example, he lifted many trade barriers.

An uprising occurred in 1820 and its leaders demanded that prince regent Joao return to Lisbon.

Joao left his son, Dom Pedro, as regent in Brazil and encouraged him to be sympathetic to the cause of Brazilian Indpendence.

Dom Pedro was declared emperor of an independent Brazil in 1822 which maintained monarchy as its system of government.

Political and social elite in Brazil did not resist in order to avoid destruction of property and to help uphold the institution of slavery in an independent Brazil.

The Conservative Order Shaken in Europe

Russia: The Decembrist Revolt of 1825

Unrest in the Army

The Russian Army just got done a bunch of major butt kicking and they got bored sitting around.

They were also influenced by the French Revolution, and started forming secret societies.

Pestel was the head of the south societies and wanted representative government and end to all serfs.

There was a Northern Society who wanted everything that the southern society with a constitution and still had aristocratic interests.

Both societies disagreed with each other but they still teamed up for the coup d’etat.

Dynastic Crisis

Death of Tsar Alexander I

Tsar Alexander I died unexpectedly, without an heir, in 1825 and allegedly named his younger brother, Nicholas, as the new Tsar.

However, Alexander’s other brother, Constantine—being the elder of the two—was the legitimate heir to the throne; however, he did not want to be tsar.

Troops in Russian army have split loyalties between Nicholas and Constantine

Many believed that Nicholas was more conservative than Constantine.

Constantine was more popular with the people of Russia.

Army required to take an oath of allegiance to Nicholas

Most regiments took the oath but the Moscow regiment marched into Senate Square in Saint Petersburg and refused to swear allegiance.

Moscow regiment called for a constitution and that Constantine be named tsar.

Nicholas ordered the cavalry and artillery to attack the crowd and sixty people were killed.

Nicholas investigated the Decembrist Revolt and the secret societies responsible for it.

He executed five of the plotters and sent more than a hundred others were sent to Siberia.

The Autocracy of Nicholas I

Nicholas came to epitomize nineteenth-century autocracy but he did understand that social reform was required to modernize Russia.

For example, Nicholas understood oppression of the feudal system—and reportedly knew it should be eradicated—but he also knew that if he ended serfdom, he would lost the support of the nobility.

He instituted a codification of Russian law in 1833.

Literary and political censorship and a widespread system of surveillance and secret police flourished throughout his reign.

Official Nationality

A program instituted by Nicholas and administered by Count S.S. Uvarov, the minister of education.

Russian Orthodox Church controlled schools and universities and taught young Russians to accept their place in life and spurn social mobility.

Political writers stressed that only through the autocracies of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and Alexander I had Russia prospered.

Russians were taught that their religion, language, and customs were a source of wisdom that separated them from the moral corruption and turmoil of the West.

Revolt and Repression in Poland

Poland remained under the domination of Russia following the Congress of Vienna but was granted a constitutional government with a parliament, called the diet, that had limited powers.

The tsar also reigned as king of Poland.

Polish nationalists advocated for change in his arrangement.

In November 1830, a small insurrection of soldiers broke out in Warsaw and movements broke out throughout the country.

The diet deposed Nicholas as king of Poland, but Nicholas sent troops into Warsaw and suppressed the revolt.

Organic Statute (February 1832)

Nicholas declared Poland to be an integral part of the Russian Empire.

Revolution in France (1830)

The Reactionary Policies of Charles X

Conservative Measures

Charles immediately ordered his Chamber of Deputies to organize a fund to pay aristocrats who had lost property and possessions during the revolution an annual sum.

He restored the practice of primogeniture.

To support the Roman Catholic Church, he enacted a law that punished sacrilege with imprisonment or death.

Elections of 1827

Liberals gained enough seats in the Chamber of deputies to make the king compromise.

In 1829, Charles replaced his moderate cabinet with an ultraroyalist cabinet headed by Prince de Polignac.

In response, liberals opened negotiations with the liberal Orleans branch of the royal family.

The July Revolution

Trigger of revolution

Charles X called for a new election in 1830 in which liberals scored stunning victories.

Instead of accepting the new Chamber of Deputies, the king and his ministers planned a seizure of power.

Meanwhile, Polignac sent a naval expedition to Algiers in North Africa which the French conquered and added to their empire; behind this smokescreen, Charles X issued the Four Ordinances which amounted to a royal coup d’etat.

Four Ordinances restricted freedom of press, limited franchise to only the wealthiest people in the country, and called for new elections

The Revolution

Liberal newspapers called for the working class of France to ignore the monarch’s Four Ordinances.

Impoverished workers erected barricades in the streets of Paris.

The king ordered troops to disperse the crowd and over 1,800 people were killed; but the army was unable to take control of the crowd or city.

On August 2, Charles X abdicated and went into exile in England.

The liberals of the Chamber of Deputies named a new ministry comprised of constitutional monarchists and ended the rule of Bourbon dynasty by proclaiming Louis Philippe, the duke of Orleans, the new king of France rather than the Count de Chambord, the infant grandson of Charles X.

The revolution was the work of an alliance between upper-middleclass liberals and hard-pressed laborers but the differences of these two groups would soon emerge.

Monarchy under Louis Philippe

Politically, Louis was considered more liberal than any prior monarch and was commonly referred to as "king of the French" rather than "king of France."

Although Louis enacted many liberal measures, the everyday economic, political, and social influence of the landed oligarchy continued.

Reaction from the lower and working classes

In 1830, workers of Paris called for job protection, better wages, and the preservation of traditional crafts

Royal troops suppressed a worker’s revolt in Lyons and another strike by silk workers was also crushed in this city.

A funeral of a popular Napoleonic-era general provided a stage for a revolt that troops were called in to suppress and it resulted in over 800 deaths.

France in Algeria

Louis Philippe realized the importance of Algeria to French commercial interests and expanded well into the interior of Africa.

Although a Muslim region, France began to regard Algeria as not a colony but an integral part of France itself.

Belgium Becomes Independent (1830)

The July Revolution sparked nationalists sentiments in neighboring Belgium which had been merged with the kingdom of Holland in 1815.

Belgium and Holland differed in language, religion, and economy.

Belgian upper classes never acknowledged Dutch rule.

Disturbance in Brussels on August 25 1830

Occurred after an opera about a rebellion in Naples against Spanish rule

To end the rioting, the municipal authorities formed a provisional national government

War between the Netherlands and Belgium

King William I of Holland sent troops and ships against Belgium and by November 10, 1830, the Dutch had been defeated.

A national congress wrote a liberal constitution for Belgium which was issued in 1831.

In July 1831, Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg—who had ties with British royalty and married the daughter of Louis Philippe of France—was named king of the Belgians.

The Great European powers were too tied up suppressing other rebellions to intervene.

The Great Reform Bill in Britain (1832)

Political and Economic Reform

The Commercial/Industrial class was the bigger in Britain than anywhere else in Europe.

This made them really influential.

Liberal Whigs, aristocrats, wanted to defend the constitutional liberty and sided with moderate reforms instead of drastic actions.

Lord Liverpool’s cabinet was conservative, they focused on repealing the Combination act which prohibited labor organizations

Catholic Emancipation Act

Act of the Union

William Pitt the Younger persuaded parliament to unite England and Ireland.

Ireland was permitted to send a hundred members to the House of Commons but only Protestant Irishmen could be elected to represent their overwhelmingly Catholic nation.

Irish nationalists form the Catholic Association under the leadership of Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847) and agitated for Catholic emancipation

O’Connell secured his own election to Parliament but could not legally take his seat.

In 1829, Wellington and Robert Peel steered the Catholic Emancipation Act through Parliament.

Catholic Emancipation Act

It was a liberal measure passed for the conservative purpose of preserving order in Ireland.

Only the wealthiest Irish could vote.

Impact on political climate in Britain

Alienated many of Wellington’s Anglican Tory supporters in the House of Commons.

The election of 1830 returned many supporters of parliamentary reform to Parliament.

A Whig leader, Earl Grey (1764-1845) was given the responsibility of running the government.

Legislature Change

Whig reform bill goals

Replace "rotten boroughs" or boroughs that had few voters with representatives for the previously unrepresented manufacturing districts and cities.

The number of voters in England and Wales was to be increased by about 50 percent through a series of new franchises.

Process of ratification

House of Commons initially voted down the bill but Earl Grey called for a new election and won a majority in favor of the bill but the House of Lords still rejected it.

William IV compromised by permitting the creation of enough peers to give a third reform bill a majority in the House of Lords

The Great Reform Bill became law in 1832

It expanded the size of the English electorate

Increased number of voters by 200,000

New urban boroughs were created to give them influence in the House of Commons.

For every new urban electoral district created, an rural one—dominated by the aristocracy—was also created; therefore, this reform bill was not necessarily a middle-class victory.