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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. describe the goals of the leaders of the congress of Vienna and how the balance of power was reset.
2. discuss how and why artists and writers of the romantic movement revolted against the age of classicism
and the French Revolution.
3. define and describe socialism, liberalism, and nationalism.
4. explain why revolutionaries triumphed briefly in 1848 only to fail almost completely.
CHAPTER SUMMARY
After Napoleon and the revolutionary forces of France were defeated, the conservative victors gathered at
Vienna to fashion a peace settlement and restore the European balance of power. Each of the major victors –
Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia – were compensated with territory, and France was brought back
into the “balance.” In addition, a unique system of “intervention” was established whereby potential and real
revolution could be stopped.
This chapter examines a number of extremely important ideas: liberalism, nationalism, socialism, and
romanticism. Studying these ideas helps us understand the historical process in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. A key aspect of that process was the bitter and intense struggle between the conservative aristocrats,
who wanted to maintain the status quo, and the middle – and working – class liberals and nationalists, who
wanted to carry on the destruction of the old regime of Europe that had begun in France in 1789. The symbol of
conservatism was Prince Metternich of Austria, Europe’s leading diplomat. Metternich was convinced that
liberalism and nationalism had to be repressed, or else Europe would break up into warring states. In opposition
to Metternich, liberals and nationalists saw their creeds as the way to free humanity from the burden of
supporting the aristocracy and from foreign oppression. Metternich’s convictions were shared by the other
peacemakers at Vienna in 1814, while those of the liberals fanned the fires of revolution, first in 1830 and, more
spectacularly, in 1848. Political liberalism, combined with the principles of economic liberalism, with its stress
on unrestricted economic self – interest as the avenue to human happiness, was extremely attractive to the
middle class. Of the major powers, only Britain was transformed by reform and untouched by revolution.
The chapter shows that although many believed nationalism led to human happiness, it also contained the
dangerous ideas of national and racial superiority. To make the turbulent intellectual world even more complex,
socialism emerged as another, equally powerful set of ideas regarding the creation of a just and happy society.
Early socialists were idealistic and utopian, but the socialism of Karl Marx, which later became dominant,
claimed to be realistic and scientific. Socialism contributed to the split between the middle and lower classes.
This split explains the failure of these classes to unite in the face of the common enemies in the revolutions of
1848. The chapter also discusses romanticism, which was a reaction to the rationalism of the previous century.
Romanticism was the central mood of the nineteenth century and the emotional background of its painting, music,
and literature.
STUDY OUTLINE
Use this outline to preview the chapter before you read a particular section in your textbook and then as a self –
check to test your reading comprehension after you have read the chapter section.
I. The peace settlement
A. By 1814, the conservative monarchs had defeated French armies and checked the spread of the French
Revolution – but many questions remained unanswered.
B. The European balance of power
1. The victors (mainly the alliance of Russia, Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain) restored the French
boundaries of 1792 and the Bourbon dynasty.
2. They made other changes in the boundaries of Europe, establishing Prussia as a “sentinel’ against
France, and created a new kingdom out of Belgium and Holland.
3. It was believed that the concept of the balance of power – an international equilibrium of political
and military forces – would preserve peace in Europe.
4. But the demands of the victors, especially the Prussians and the Russians, for compensation
threatened the balance.
a. The Russian demands for Poland and the Prussian wish for Saxony led to conflict among the
powers.
b. Castlereagh, Metternich, and Talleyrand forced Russia and Prussia into a compromise whereby
Russia got part of Poland and Prussia received two-fifths of Saxony.
C. Intervention and repression
1. Under Metternich, Austria, Prussia, and Russia led a crusade against liberalism.
a. They formed a Holy Alliance to check future liberal and revolutionary activity.
b. When liberals succeeded in Spain and in the Two Sicilies, these powers intervened to restore
conservatism.
c. But Latin American republics broke from Spain.
d. Metternich’s policies also dominated the German Confederation – through which the Carlsbad
Decrees were issued in 1819.
e. These decrees repressed subversive ideas and organizations in the 38 German states.
D. Metternich and conservatism
1. Metternich represented the view that the best state blended monarchy, bureaucracy, and
aristocracy.
2. He hated liberalism, which he claimed stirred up the lower classes and caused war and bloodshed.
a. Liberalism also stirred up national aspirations in central Europe, which could lead to war and the
breakup of the Austrian Empire.
b. The empire, which was dominated by the minority Germans, contained many ethnic groups,
including Hungarians and Czechs, which was a potential source of weakness and dissatisfaction.