1.
Introduction
The 19th century is the European century. And the reason for this state of
things is that the nation-State model reaches its peak between the Fall of
Napoleon and World War I. Thanks to this the European Nation-States control the
world in 1900. The Nation-State model did not prevail easily. From 1814 to 1848
the history of Europe is characterized by the fight between the Absolutists
sovereigns reunited in the Congress of Vienna (1815)
and signatories of the Holy Alliance that is implemented through
the Metternich's policy of counterrevolutionary military intervention,
and the supporters of the Laissez-faire (liberal) regime, that
try to consolidate the principles of the French Revolution: a Constitution, a Representative
parliamentary regime, a set of Fundamental rights and a deeply orientated
market economy with an absolute rejection of any Government intervention.
Thanks to Metternich's system European sovereigns agreed on a common policy to fight successive Liberal revolutions. First the ones that tried to be imposed by military uprisings, like the one started by Riego in Spain in 1820, or the Decembrist Revolt in Russia (1825).
The last one was leaded by military
officers that got acquainted with the French revolutionary principles during
the wars against Napoleon, masterfully described by Leon Tolstoi in War
and Peace, published in the Journal The Russian Messenger from 1865 to
21867, before being published as a novel in 1869.
Unfortunately for the Absolutists the Metternich's system ends when the UK
walks away from the Holy Alliance because Her Majesty's Government accepts the
fact that the British ruling classes do not want to back the repression
of the rebellion in Spanish America. Not because they sympathize
with the liberal Spanish rebels, but since they saw a great potential for
British Colonial interests in Central and South America. For not exactly the
same reasons the Western European States fight the absolutism of the Ottoman
Empire in the Greek War of independence (1821-1832), a more
Romantic movement in which notorious European intellectuals participated, like Lord
Byron (1788-1824) who died in Missolonghi fighting for
the land where the Western culture was born.
The Metternich System collapses also in France with the 1830
revolution that brings as a corollary the Belgian Revolution against
the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The result is the creation of the Belgian
State.
These movements would also have an extremely important repercussion in
England, as they led to the crucial electoral reform of Lord Grey in
1832 that transformed the nature of the English Parliamentary system
in the sense of rendering it more representative. A movement that opened up the
way to the democratization of the British Political System, though
this process would not be completed entirely until British women were granted the
right of vote in 1928.
The whole order established in the Congress of Vienna crumbles definitely
in the rest of Europe with the wave of 1848 revolutions. This
crucial movement would end up changing the political history of Continental
Europe, starting with the Unification movements that happened in Italy and
Germany. It also enables the creation of the French Second Republic,
which is the first "social" regime in European history.
By the way, 1848 is significantly also the year in which Marx and
Engels publish their "Communist Manifesto". And I want to
mention this because Socialists’ ideas would become the main enemy of the
European bourgeois liberal regimes.
The first permanent consequence of 1848 Revolution is the creation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, through the movement called the Risorgimento (“Resurgence”) headed, among others, by the Comte of Cavour and Giuseppe Garibaldi. The Italian unity would only be completed in 1870 when Italian troops occupied the Papal States and Rome became the Capital of Italy. The popes would not have again an independent State until 1929, and thanks to Mussolini who agrees on creating the Vatican City state.
Let me point out that this novel created a neologism, el gattopardismo, which
we might define as any political action consisting of presenting as
revolutionary an idea that, in reality, does not seek to change economic or
social foundations but rather to maintain the status quo. If you want
to understand this key concept better, I encourage you to read the book, or, at
the very least, watch Luchino Visconti movie (1963) with the same title,
starring Burt Lancaster, in one of his most memorable performances. It is a
beautiful film that effectively conveys the novel's themes of decline and
impermanence. Do not miss it.
The other essential process of national unification happens in
Germany. The German unification promoted by Bismarck, is
the result of the Prussian overwhelming victories over Austria (1866), and
especially over Napoleon III (1870-1871). It is interesting that the defeat of
the French Second Empire gave way to the creation of the German Second
Reich (remember that the First Reich lasted from 962 to 1806), with
the proclamation of William I of Prussia as Kaiser in Versailles. This was a
huge humiliation for the French, and certainly a cause of French anger towards
Germans and explains why French were willing to start World War I that would end
with the disaster of the Peace of Versailles in 1919. A “Diktat” that will
lead to Hitler and World War Two.
The new German Empire (the Second Reich) was not a totally unified state
(as France, for instance was). In fact it was called the North German
Confederation and was headed by Prussia. On top of that it was not a
Parliamentary Regime as the Government was designated by the Kaiser and not by
the Reichstag. The full German unification and the instauration of the Parliamentary
Regime would not occur until the foundation of the Weimar Republic in
1919.
As far as the Liberal revolutions cycle is concerned Imperial Russia would be the last bastion of autocracy. The Czars would be the last European absolutists monarchs, and remained so until the 1905 Revolution, that was provoked by the humiliating defeat of Tsarist Russia by Imperial Japan, the new Eastern Power developed as a result of the Meiji Revolution (1868).
Thanks to the 1905 movement Russia did have a sort of Liberal regime
from 1906 to 1917. But it would not reach its definitive consolidation because
of the Soviet Revolution of October 1917 that not only abolished the
monarchy, but physically exterminated the royal family that was murdered on the
night of the 16-17 July 1918 in Yekaterinburg by order of Lenin.
The 19th century however was the peak of European history, as European Nation-states ended up controlling most of the World, through an exorbitant colonial expansion. If you want to understand how Europe became the leading continent in the World you should not miss Orlando Figes book The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture (2020).
The Europeans is a richly enthralling, panoramic cultural history of nineteenth-century Europe, told through the intertwined lives of three remarkable people: a great singer, Pauline Viardot, a great writer, Ivan Turgenev, and a great connoisseur, Pauline's husband Louis. Their passionate, ambitious lives were bound up with an astonishing array of writers, composers and painters all trying to make their way through the exciting, prosperous and genuinely pan-European culture that came about as a result of huge economic and technological change. This culture - through trains, telegraphs and printing - allowed artists of all kinds to exchange ideas and make a living, shuttling back and forth across the whole continent from the British Isles to Imperial Russia, as they exploited a new cosmopolitan age. (Extracted from AMAZON web page).
From a Legal perspective, it is important to remember that all the
revolutionary movements that happen in Europe in the course of the 19th century
in the name of the Liberal state principles, end up bringing essential
legal tools like constitutions, sets of fundamental rights and, above
all, a national narrative that consolidates the independence of
every European State. The result of this rising nationalism is
the amazing colonial expansion that will make European
Nation-States extremely wealthy and powerful to the point they would
control the whole World that was distributed among the colonial European states
in international conferences, like the one held in Berlin in 1884 for
distributing the African continent among the different European nations.
And the same happened in Asia, where Europeans controlled most of two
of the oldest and most prestigious civilizations in history: India and
China.
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The result of it is that Europe ends up controlling a lot of
territories worldwide. This is why the 19th century is undoubtedly the
European century. The only non-Western world power is Japan, a
country that fully accepted the nation-State model in 1868, thanks to the Meiji
Revolution backed by emperor Mutsuhito (the 122nd Japanese emperor) that
reigned from 1867 to 1912. The result of the Westernization of
Japan resulted in Japanese imperialism that enabled the Japanese
Military expansion in China and the Pacific area.
Nevertheless, the European colonial expansion increases gradually
the tensions among the different colonial powers, which rearm themselves
very strongly trying to get as many colonies as possible, following the classic
Roman principle "Si vis pacem para bellum" (If you want peace
prepare for war). This is why the last third of the 19th century is known as
the Armed Peace period. The military equilibrium based in alliances
would finally be broken in 1914. And European Nation-States would commit
suicide in the horrid and absurd World War I.
The most important idea that you must retain from Teaching Guide 5 is how through the adoption of the Nation-State model European states became powerful and wealthy, until nationalists’ excesses drove them to commit suicide in an annihilating war. An important lesson that proud European States will not learn until the end of World War II, when a destroyed Old Continent had totally disappeared from the world scene. To the point that European governments realized that they should unite for surviving.
2. How to study Teaching Guide 7:
a) Read the corresponding text to T.G. 7 in the “Aula Virtual”.
b) Familiarize yourself with the following basic Chronology of the
period:
CHRONOLOGY
1814 (October) to 1815
(June) Congress of Vienna
1815
18 June Battle of Waterloo
September:
Signature of the Holy Alliance
1820-1823 Spanish Liberal Triennium
1825 Decembrist Revolt
1830
July. French revolution. Beginning of July Monarchy in
France
August Belgian Revolution
1832 Lord Grey’s Electoral Reform Law
in England
1848
February: Revolution breaks out in Paris. Second French Republic
March 4: Albertine Statute
March 13 and 18: Revolution breaks out in Vienna and Berlin
May: Constitution of the Frankfurt Parliament (until My 1849)
1850: Prussian constitution granted by Frederick William IV (in force until 1918)
1858: Cavour meets Napoleon III at Plombières
1859: Battles of Magenta and Solferino
1861, March 14: Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy
1862: Bismarck heads the Prussian council of Ministers (until 1890)
1866: Austrians are defeated by Prussians at Sadowa
1868: Spanish Glorious Revolution
1870, July: Beginning of the Franco-Prussian War (until May 1871)
1871:
January18: William I of Prussia is proclaimed in the Palace of Versailles head of the Second Reich
March –May: Paris Commune
1873-1874: Spanish First Republic
1890: Bismarck’s resignation
1892: Franco-Russian alliance
1904: Beginning of the Russo-Japanese War (until September 1905)
1905, January: First Russian Revolution
1906: Nicholas II endorses the first Russian constitution
c) Complete in your Class notebook the following exercises:
CONCEPTS
QUESTIONS
Concrete questions
1. Which were the European Monarchies who intervened in the Congress of Vienna? What was the position of defeated France?
2. Explain why the word Congress has a different meaning in North America
and in post Napoleonic Europe.
3. Which was the political idea that stood behind the
Holy Alliance of 1815? Thinks in terms of the legitimacy of sovereignty.
4. How did Metternich transformed the sense of the Holy
Alliance that he initially disdained?
5. Why the Metternich System could be considered a
Forerunner of European Integration?
6. When and why the Metternich System collapsed?
7. What is the political essence of Liberal regimes
opposed to the Restoration imposed at the Congress of Vienna? Think in terms of
how powerful was the State in the “Laissez Faire” regimes.
8. Explain the difference between the French
“Doctrinaires” Liberalism and the Revolutionary Liberalism and which were the
consequences in Europe. 9. What was the essence of the Riego’s Revolt and the
Spanish Liberal Triennium? Think of how the Liberal state tried to be imposed. Mention
another examples of this type of Liberal revolution from 1820 to 1830?
10. In which way the French Revolution of 1830 and the
July Monarchy change the Spanish Liberals approach to the Liberal Revolution? Were
there any consequences in Europe to this French revolution?
11. Which was the essence of Lord Grey's Electoral
Reform Act of 1832 in England.
12. Did the
1848 revolution triumph in Italy? Did it transformed in any way the political
situation in any part of the Italian Peninsula?
13. Which was the relationship of Napoleon III of
France and the Italian unification?
14. Why the Kingdom of Italy created on 17 March 1861
could not have initially Rome as capital? Explain what was
the "Roman question" in the Italian unification process.
15. How did Napoleon intervene in the German territories and why his intervention was decisive from the perspective of German nationalism?
16. What was the Frankfurt Parliament that appeared after the 1848 revolution in Prussia? How did finally Prussia became a constitutional kingdom?
17. How did the
Prussian state implemented the principle of censitary suffrage considering that
every citizen had in principle the right to vote?
18. Did Bismarck
created in Prussia a unified State?
19. What was Bismarck’s Kulturkampf? Compare Prussian approach to the religious question to
what Unified Italy did?
20. Did Bismarck consolidated in the German empire a
Parliamentary regime?
General questions
1. Explain what argument 1815’s Restoration leaders used against French revolutionary foundations of Power’s Legitimacy during the Congress of Vienna that led to the Holly Alliance.
2. How did the Liberal
Oligarchy controlled the State legally and politically? Think of what meant originally the term "liberal" used politically
speaking to define the regimes issued from the revolutionary struggle of the
first half of the XIXth century?
3. Were the
liberal revolutions democratic? Think in terms of electoral systems (censitary
and universal). When did the liberal states became entirely democratic? Give
concrete examples.
4. Explain why Italians and Germans took opposite approaches to integration. Explain why Italian unification was a bottom-up process? Compare it the Top Down approach to Prussian constitutionalism after the 1848 Revolution. Think in terms of who hold the sovereignty and of Bottom up and Top down approaches.
5. Describe comparatively in a succinct and concise manner the fight between Austria and Prussia in order to lead German unification from 1848 to 1866. Think of the role of Bismarck.
6. When and how took place the Liberal revolution in Tsarist Russia? Think of if there were any constitutional consequences in Russia of the Napoleonic invasion, the biggest achievement of Mikhail Speransky reformism and if Tsarist Russia ever become a constitutional monarchy.
7. What was the consequence of the consolidation of the nation-state model
in Europe in the second half of 19th century? Explain why
the triumph of the Liberal model of State in Europe led to the “Armed Peace”? Think of Bismarck’s idea of Mitteleuropa
an what was the Prussian problem concerning colonialism?
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