HIS 102 – Western
Civilization II
Lecture 5 -- Reactionism,
Liberalism, and Nationalism
(John Stuart Mill)
(Oath of the Horatii,
Jacques Louis David)
I. Intellectual Trends
in Europe: Romanticism and Realism
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Romanticism
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After Napoleon's defeat, the
rationalism of the Enlightenment gave way to Romanticism
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"The post-revolutionary world
invited artists and thinkers to put down their books and seek not to know
but to feel"
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Given the violent excesses of
the French Revolution, this repudiation of rationalism should come as no
surprise
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Romanticism in Art
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Eugene Delacroix (Liberty Leading
the People, 1830) p. 137 in reader
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J.M.W. Turner (Shipwreck, 1823)
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These are good examples of the
romantic style
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The Delacroix depiction of the
1830 uprising in France is full of passion, as distinct from the much more
controlled images of the earlier French Revolution.
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And Turner's Shipwreck paintings
(he made several on the same theme) show a world in which man cannot necessarily
reign in the forces of nature, even with the power of his intellect.
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Romanticism in Literature
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William Wordsworth
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"Tables Turned" p. 140 of reader
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nature is more powerful than
human intellect
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learn from nature by opening
your heart, not your mind
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
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Faust was his most celebrated
work
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Faust, is based on the medieval
legend of the man who sells his soul in order to know the hidden mysteries
of the universe.
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Germaine de Stael (1766-1817)
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essay "On the Influence of the
Passions on the Happiness of Individuals and of Nations," ("an artist must
be of his own time") is considered a fundamental statement of Romantic
theory
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de Stael develops both a critique
of the passions and a sustained argument for both their inevitability and
their moral necessity as a preliminary ground for the moral sentiments
she extracts from philsophes such as Adam Smith
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from the negative example of
the Reign of Terror Having she declared that "the real obstacle to individual
and poetical happiness is the impulsive force of the passions,"
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de Staël nevertheless insists
that the world is largely populated by, and governments must exist to manage,
"passionate characters."
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These, she implies, constitute
the real interest of life and society, unlike those whose "existence is
monotonous," who display "as many tints as individuals, without a single
real color in sight."
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Romanticism and religion
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With Romanticism also came a
rejection of Enlightenment Deism, and new support for organized religion
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William Blake
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Poem "Milton" p. 140-41 of reader
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"I come in Self-annihilation
and the grandeur of Inspiration, To cast off Rational Demonstration by
Faith in the Savior"
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Blake totally rejects what he
sees as the condescension of the philosophes, arguing that all their so-called
learning is really just a cloak for their ignorance about the true nature
of things
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Romantics were also nationalistic,
often romanticizing their nation's past and creating hero/epic mythologies
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Anit-Semitism
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This combination of religious
zeal and nationalism led people in some countries to withdraw from Enlightened
principles of religious toleration and freedom, and to move toward a new,
reinvigorated Anti-Semitism
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Hatred against Jews was further
fueled by emerging pseudo-scientific theories (phrenology being one of
these new "sciences") of race and racial inferiority, which had unfortunately
survived the Enlightenment and continued to gain adherents.
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Romanticism in America
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The Romantic writers were imitated
by a generation of American writers that came of age following the Revolution
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Most important among these were
the Transcendentalists
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Like the Romantics, they focused
more on a higher law, one created by natural forces
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They turned away from rational
thought and placed their emphasis on the emotional and spiritual
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The main figures in the group
were Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcott family
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They even went so far as to
establish a commune at Brook Farm
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The Realist movement
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In the visual arts and literature,
Romanticism began to give way to realism, frank depictions and portrayals
of ordinary people in everyday settings
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Art
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Jean Francois-Millet
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The artist Jean-Francois Millet
exemplifies this movement
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1857 painting The Gleaners
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Photography
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Realism was very much aided
by a new technology that had become available during the 1830's: photography
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And as industrialization and
urbanization accelerated, photographers began to document visually the
harsh conditions faced by the poor and dispossessed
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photographer Jacob Riis, perhaps
the best known photographer to document the dark side of the Second Industrial
Revolution
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literature
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Charles Dickens
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British writer (1812-1870)
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depicted "the squalor of the
lives of the poor, the psychology of industrial capitalists, and the experiences
of neglected or abandoned children."
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Works such as Oliver Twist,
David
Copperfield, Hard Times, and Bleak House echo these themes
repeatedly
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Emile Zola
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France (1840-1902)
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also examined the lives of ordinary
people, such as coal miners (Germinal) and prostitutes (Nana)
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"Whereas Romanticism had resisted
industrialization and retreated into nostalgia and the celebration of nature,
Realism faced it ruthlessly."
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Disenchantment with the new
world of industrialism
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Considering the harsh conditions
faced by the urban poor in the industrial age, and the sense of isolation
and helplessness felt by many, Realism inevitably led to disenchantment
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Nihilism and Anarchism
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Given this disenchantment, some
intellectuals embraced nihilism (belief in nothing), and promoted a violent
attack on all authority
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Closely related to nihilism
was anarchism, an ideology which views government as complicit in social
injustice
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The Russian intellectual Mikhail
Bakunin (1814-1876) is considered the father of the anarchist movement
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Although anarchism never gained
many adherents, because anarchists used terrorism as a means to destroy
government they had a profound psychological impact on 19th century society
II. Challenge to the Congress
of Vienna
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The Congress of Vienna
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met between 1814 and 1815 to
discuss the disposition of Europe following the Napoleonic period.
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It was under the influence of
Prince Metternich, who tried to undo the effects of the French Revolution
of which he profoundly disapproved, and who attempted to reestablish the
Old Order
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This initiated in Europe a reactionary
period from which no country was immune
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Metternich wanted to restore
control to the so-called "legitimate" monarchs as opposed to the self proclaimed
emperor Napoleon and thus put the Bourbons back on the throne of France
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He redesigned the map to surround
France and prevent future French aggression
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France was reduced in size from
the Napoleonic period, but still treated as a respectable power, unlike
what happened to Germany after World War I
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Metternich tried to keep a careful
balance between the Big Four, Austria, Prussia, Russia and Britain, but
in so doing he ignored the national aspirations of European nations like
Poland, Italy and Germany, all of which remained hopelessly DISUNIFIED
against the people's desires.
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Metternich formed the Quadruple
Alliance with the Big Four, but quickly admitted France in 1818, making
it the Quintuple Alliance
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Foreign occupying forces were
removed from French soil and her indemnity reduced to win her cooperation
to concert diplomacy which proclaimed that no action would be taken without
the consent all of the Big Five.
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Support for the return of the
Old Guard was widespread
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They at least promised to keep
the peace after decades of war, and the revived church, both Catholic and
Protestant, supported these legitimate monarchs and associated themselves
with the kings
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Large landowners, who were still
the bulk of power of the continent supported the return of the Old Order
as safer than the attacks on their property and social standing the French
revolution had produced.
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Challenges to the Congress of
Vienna
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But the settlement at Vienna
was weakened by various events, especially as Britain moved away from concert
diplomacy to adopt her usual role of balancing the powers of Europe by
supporting the underdog
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British Actions
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One sees this first in Britain's
support of the American Monroe Doctrine in 1823, when Britain let it be
known that she would enforce the ban against further colonization or exchange
of colonies the American President had announced but was in no position
to defend himself
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Britain also aided the Greek
rebels when Greece rebelled against the Turks in 1820, because that opened
more trade for Britain.
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July Revolution in France (1830)
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But the first real challenge
to the Congress' settlement was the 1830 French revolution
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No where had Metternich provided
for any country, let alone France, to change its government without asking
everyone else, and yet the French did and got away with it
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Louis XVIII, the Bourbon put
back on the French throne, was relatively moderate, but many of his royalist
supporters wanted revenge for predations against their families during
the revolution
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From 1820 onward there was more
censorship, but things came to a head in 1830 when Louis' successor, Charles
X, had himself crowned with almost medieval splendor at Reims, the coronation
place of the absolutist monarchs of old.
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Charles openly professed
his belief in divine rights of kings and an alliance of church and state,
and followed up by gagging the press and limiting voting rights
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Paris revolted and took to the
barricades
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Charles decided it would be
healthier for him to abdicate and flee
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This is called the July Revolution.
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Government of Louis-Phillipe
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Now the French knew what they
did not want, the Bourbons and absolutism, but they did not know what they
did want.
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The liberals wanted a new Republic
based on the republic of the French revolution, but that republic had created
the Reign of Terror and so the very idea of republicanism was associated
by many Frenchmen with violence and bloodshed
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Thus the middle and upper classes
wanted a constitutional monarchy, but not under the recalcitrant Bourbons
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They prevailed, choosing a new
king, Louis-Philippe, the so-called citizen-king, who was pro-bourgeois
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His father had voted for the
execution of Louis XVI and so he came to the people with excellent liberal
credentials
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He was presented to the adoring
Parisian crowds by none other than the aged Lafayette himself.
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The 1830 French revolution was
socially conservative
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The liberals who put Louis-Philippe
in power showed little concern or sympathy with the plight of the lower
classes whose concerns were economic in orientation, including job protection,
better wages, shorter working hours, etc
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Nor was this 1830 revolution
provided for in the Congress system, where no change was to occur without
the Big Five's approval
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Metternich opposed it, but the
French had demonstrated that a people could change their government and
get away with it, a lesson others would learn later
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Peaceful Evolution in Great
Britain
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Even Britain had immediately
after the Napoleonic period undergone a reactionary period
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The 1819 Peterloo incident and
government moves to curb the press and suspend habeus corpus are only a
few examples
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But by the 1820s, England was
back on her piecemeal reform track
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Equal voting rights for Catholics
was enacted in 1829, labor unions were recognized in 1824, and a police
force was created for London
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Capital punishment was abolished
for some 100 offenses and even the Corn Laws which had taxed incoming agricultural
products to subsidize inefficient English agriculture were relaxed, thus
lowering the price of food.
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Problems with suffrage
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Britain still had to deal with
inequalities in voting rights. Rotten boroughs existed where there
was no or very little population but which still sent members to Parliament
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Pocket boroughs controlled by
political bosses like the landed aristocracy were also an affront to English
democracy
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And large industrial centers
like Manchester and Birmingham were not represented at all
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Reform
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A bill to reform these abuses
passed the Commons but stalled in the House of Lords
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King William IV of Britain then
threatened the Lords that either they would enact this Reform Bill of 1832
or he would create enough new peers to sit in the House of Lords to pass
the bill
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The king had been influenced
by the 1830 French revolution and feared the violence which plagued Paris
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The House of Lords, forced to
choose between its social exclusivity and political power, chose exclusivity
and passed the bill.
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The Reform Bill of 1832 did
not enfranchise the workers, but it did increase the number of voters by
50% by lowering property qualifications to vote
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The net effect was to increase
the representation of the industrial north when 143 seats were reallocated
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But the Bill did not destroy
the strength of the landed aristocracy, a fact which probably encouraged
some wavering Lords to vote for it
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Reforms in the 1830s in England
gradually increased the powers of the non-aristocracy, but the reforms
were evolutionary, not revolutionary, as England rejected the violence
urged by people such as the Chartists whose Charter of Six Demands they
were prepared to use violence to obtain
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Revolution in England became
unnecessary because those seeking reform and change were actually part
of the government where they could legislate change in piecemeal fashion.
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The great hole in the British
reform movement, however, was Ireland, where the government failed to accommodate
rising Irish nationalism or to help the wretched Irish peasants.
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Revolutions of 1848
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In 1848, Europe exploded in
revolution--except in Britain. There had been severe food shortages
since 1846, which in turn caused a severe commercial and industrial downturn
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Once again, the desire for change
was led by political liberals in the aristocracy and middle class who wanted
peaceful change
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They allied with the urban workers
to put pressure on governments, but these urban workers wanted more than
just political reform like the secret ballot or the right to vote
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Workers wanted to follow political
reform with economic reform, such as minimum wage, right to strike, etc.
and were prepared to use violence to get it.
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Liberals on the continent sealed
their fate and caused the collapse of the revolutions of 1848 when they
failed to follow political reform with social or economic reform.
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France
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Once again, it was France who
began the revolution
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Louis-Philippe seemed unaware
that the industrial revolution in full swing in France was creating vast
inequalities of wealth and a politically conscious proletariat at the same
time
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The proletariat could not vote
and hence was excluded from power, so its desires were never addressed
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Widespread corruption in Louis'
government made taxes increase and lessened the king's prestige
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In February, 1848, Louis- Philippe
was obliged to abdicate following general rioting
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A provisional government created
a second French Republic on the basis of universal male suffrage, meaning
all adult men could vote
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This government was beset with
factionalism, however, in part because the French still lacked the centuries-old
tradition of self government England had known
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Moreover, radicals and socialists
were not content with the republic, wanting basic economic reforms as well
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In June, a massive rebellion
occurred in Paris with 10,000 dead or injured
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The capital had never seen such
violence, not even in the Reign of Terror.
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The violence of the June days
created a backlash among the middle class and aristocrats
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the bourgoisie were angry the
proletariat had not shown sufficient "gratitude" when they had been "given"
the right to vote
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They sought out Louis Napoleon,
the nephew of Bonaparte, to be the president of the Second Republic
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The fear of proletariat violence
united the middle class and aristocracy against the workers whose needs
they did not understand
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Louis Napoleon was welcomed
by the Catholic Church which feared radicals as much as the aristocracy
did, remembering the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
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In 1852, Louis Napoleon abolished
the republic and proclaimed himself emperor
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The Second Empire had begun
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The rise of Louis Napoleon shows
the power of the middle class to make--and then break--a revolution, and
it also shows that proletariat desires were being ignored on the continent.
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Germany
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The Germans also revolted in
1848
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Inspired by France, Germans
revolted and created the Frankfurt assembly to write a constitution for
Germany
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But what exactly was Germany?
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Did it include all German speakers,
in which case the crown should go to the Hapsburgs in Vienna who had ruled
a huge empire for centuries
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This so-called greater Germany
theory foundered on the fact that the Austrians were backward and moreover
had what some Germans considered "mongrel" races in their empire, people
like Poles, Czechs, Slavs, etc
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The Little Germany theory preferred
creating a new Germany, a purified one, under Prussian leadership, giving
the crown of the new constitutional monarchy to the Hohenzollerns of Prussia
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The Frankfurt assembly constitution
was a typically middle class and liberal document offering the usual political
reforms, but offering no economic aid or reform to urban workers whose
needs the writers of the constitution did not appreciate.
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The problem arose when the assembly
finally offered the crown to Frederick William IV of Prussia who refused
it
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He wanted a unified Germany
but only on his terms
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If he took the crown from the
assembly, the assembly might take it back some day, and this he would not
tolerate
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The assembly slowly melted away
and was finally dispersed by Frederick William's army
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Many German liberals who had
been at the assembly gave up on Germany and fled to the United States,
especially to new areas then opening up, like Texas, where they founded
cities like Fredericksburg and New Braunfels
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Frederick tried his own plan
for unifying Germany under Prussian dominance
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but the plan failed when Austria
and Russia let it be known they were prepared to use force to stop a unified
Germany being created at their doorstep
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Russian fears of a united Germany
were well founded; a united Germany invaded her twice in the twentieth
century with devastating loss of life
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Failure of the revolutions of
1848
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All the revolutions of 1848
ultimately failed
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Reasons for failure
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One reason was lack of experience
and realism among its leaders
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More devoted to broad principles
than practical results, they tended, as in the case of Italy, to concern
themselves with writing the national anthem before there was a safe government
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Nationalism moreover resulted
in factionalism, pitting one state against another
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Class consciousness pitted the
middle classes against the proletariat as well
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The former did not want to forgo
their privileged economic position and thought political reform was sufficient
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Finally, Austria and Russia
were prepared to support reactionary governments with military might while
no one, including Britain, was prepared to defend liberal governments with
force if need be
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As Europe reached the mid-century
mark, Britain was developing an evolutionary path to reform, creating more
democracy but following it up with economic reforms like increasing the
food supply at lower cost
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She had already moved away from
concert diplomacy, and France had defied the Quintuple Alliance, twice,
by changing her government in 1830 and 1848
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After 1850, therefore, the Congress
of Vienna concert diplomacy system would not be able to deal with a new
crop of leaders, hard-headed realists all, who began to accomplish what
the romantics of 1848 had failed to do
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The unification of Italy and
Germany was achieved, but the arrival of these two countries on the world
scene, especially the last, set the stage for World War I.