The
Restoration and Congress of Vienna
After 25 years of wars and
revolutionary governments, the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte meant for the
European aristocracy the possibility of regaining power and restoring
absolutism. This group of former privileged people considered that the
Revolution had been a temporary evil and that France would recover its
traditional policy.
The restoration, as it is known to
the period of European history that comprises between 1815 and 1830, was
characterized precisely by those aristocratic desires to restore the old
customs and political customs. The artifice and director of the project was the
Austrian Prime Minister, Prince Klemens von Metternich, who was deeply
convinced that the absolutist system was the only one capable of guaranteeing
peace, harmony and the well-being of nations.
With this spirit the great powers
convened a congress in Vienna attended by princes, aristocrats and the most
influential politicians of the time, such as the Frenchman Talleyrand or
Metternich himself. Convinced that the divine right legitimated the monarchy to
govern, representatives of Russia, Austria, France and Great Britain made the
following decisions:
1.
The redefinition of the European map, which the
Napoleonic wars had modified with a criterion that favored the interests of the
victors.
2.
The imposition of the principle of dynastic
legitimacy, which recognizes the right of the royal families who governed
before the Napoleonic invasions and by means of which the permanence of the
monarchy was assured.
3.
The establishment of a system that would allow
the balance between the powers and avoid possible clashes between them to
obtain European hegemony.
However, the growth of the
bourgeoisie and the effects of the Industrial Revolution had considerably
changed social conditions in Western Europe. In this way, the period was
characterized by the emergence of liberal movements, led mainly by the
bourgeoisie and the incipient working class that defended the revolutionary
ideals and that, in some cases, also had nationalist aspirations.
The
holy alliance
In order to maintain the Europe that
emanated from the Congress of Vienna, defend the religion and help each other
to quell any liberal or revolutionary outbreak (in Europe or America), the
powerful powers accepted a proposal by Tsar Alexander I of Russia to train what
he called the Holy Alliance. According to the treaty of 1816, the alliance
would be formed initially by Russia, Prussia and Austria, although a little
later they would join Spain and France.
Thus, for example, in 1823 the
French helped Fernando VII of Spain to crush a liberal uprising by Colonel
Rafael de Riego. In a few years, all European movements similar to it were
repressed, the Constitutions that they tried to implement were revoked and the
old regime restored. The Holy Alliance achieved thirty years of apparent peace,
pursuing the ideas of freedom, democracy, popular sovereignty and socialism
that were dispersed throughout Europe. Many historians have called this period
"the peace of exhausted effort", due to the weariness that radical
social groups showed after the years of struggle in France, although they never
gave up their liberal ideas as we shall see below. Upon the death of Tsar
Alexander I, the Holy Alliance was dissolved.
The
bourgeoisie and the liberal revolutions
During the 15th century, feudal
power in Europe came to an end because the kings centralized political power;
thus, Portugal, Spain, France and the United Kingdom, were built as monarchical
nation-states under an absolutist regime, while in Italy the City-States were
consolidated. At the same time, the bourgeoisie was strengthened by the
discovery, conquest and colonization of America, Africa and Asia. The merchants
achieved considerable economic gains by marketing various products of the new
continent, including tobacco and silver; and also Asian items, such as spices
and silk.
The period between the last quarter
of the 17th century and the first half of the 19th century was the era of
liberal revolutions in Europe and America, such as the English Revolution
(1642-1689), the independence of the Thirteen Colonies (1776-1783), the French
Revolution (1789-1804), the independence in Ibero-America (1810-1824) and the
European revolutionary movements of the decades of 1820 and 1830, as well as
those of 1848.
The revolutions reflected the
interest of the bourgeoisie for a political transformation. This social class,
which had been financially strengthened by commercial and financial activities,
considered that it should have social recognition not only through the purchase
of titles of nobility. In Europe, political institutions such as the British
Parliament, the States-General in France and the Spanish Cortes limited
political participation and the defense of their rights. In America, the
political centralism of British and Spanish monarchs and politicians also
failed to respond to the interests of regional bourgeoisies in their colonies.
During the first lustrums of the 19th century, the French bourgeoisie took the
model of the political transformations of its revolution to other European
territories, and for that it used the Napoleonic wars. Subsequently, the
oppositionists of liberalism, would react to these movements seeking to restore
the old power of the monarchies.
In 1830, the French bourgeoisie
sought greater political participation and achievement to establish a liberal
monarchy. In contrast, in Belgium, Poland, Italy and Germany, the bourgeoisie
had nationalist demands, struggled for its independence against foreign
occupation and for establishing liberal governments. Belgium achieved its
independence.
In 1848, the ideas of universal
suffrage and rights for all clashed with absolutism and moderate liberals. In
the movements against the regime the bourgeoisie and the workers were allied,
and the latter claimed, for example, their right to strike and the reduction of
the working hours in a day. The revolutionary movements took place in France,
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy and the German confederation, where the
unification of the German nation was sought.
Parallel to the political
revolutions, economic transformation was promoted through liberalism and
industrialization. The bourgeoisie resumed the economic thought of Adam Smith
(1723-1790), who claimed that the development of the economy should be based on
supply and demand; In addition, he suggested opening the borders for the free
exchange of goods. The industrialization that was derived from the First
Industrial Revolution (1780-1840) was financed with the profits obtained from
the commercialization of sugar produced in America and sold in Europe, implied
the transformation of society. In short, between 1776 1848 the bourgeoisie
promoted political and economic revolutions that affected the European and
American countries, which led to the beginning of the Contemporary Age.
All these changes reflected the
demands of political and economic freedom of the bourgeoisie, the social group
most strengthened by the transformations, since other groups, such as the
nobility and the guilds, lost most of their privileges.
Liberal
revolutions of 1830 and 1848
Shortly after the conclusion of the
Congress of Vienna, the model he intended to establish showed its weaknesses.
The liberal ideas of the French Revolution had penetrated the population and
the bourgeoisie was not content with the new state of affairs. On the other
hand, the new European borders did not satisfy the nationalist interests that
had appeared in different regions, as a result of the Napoleonic invasions.
Thus, the ideals of democracy and
nationalism gave rise to various revolutionary movements that occurred in three
waves: in 1820 (as the uprising of Colonel De Riego in Spain), in 1830 and
1848. The most significant were these, originated in France but that spread
across much of the European continent.
In 1830 the cycle of revolutions
began which represented another liberal attempt to transform the political
regimes of the Restoration. Unlike the revolutions of 1820, which had been
Mediterranean, now the scene went to the countries of the center and part of
northern Europe.
The first great uprising of the
revolutionary wave known as that of the bourgeois or romantic revolutions took
place in France. Charles X, successor of Louis XVIII, intended to maintain
absolutist practices: demanded that the lands of the aristocrats who had lost
them in the revolution of 1789 or that compensation be paid be returned; It
strengthened the Catholic Church and eliminated freedom of the press. Before
its policies, the National Guard, a military group composed of the petty
bourgeoisie, rose up against the king in July 1830. The financial bourgeoisie,
followed by students and workers joined the revolt, the rebels built barricades
to slow down and cut the advance of the royal soldiers. This movement, known as
the July Revolution, succeeded in getting the Liberals and the Republicans to
force the king into exile in England.
Louis Philippe Duke of Orleans, was
appointed as successor to the deposed monarch, is known as the king of the
bourgeoisie, because he reinstated the constitution, extended the right to vote
(although always limited to landowners), and promoted the process of
industrialization. Only the upper bourgeoisie, the big landowners and the
bureaucracy were the beneficiaries of these measures, while the workers who had
participated in the revolution were excluded, which would result in another
revolution in France in 1848. Shortly after the July Revolution, in Belgium,
Poland and the Italian states also recorded outbreaks of violence.
The Liberal revolutions of 1830,
left Europe divided in two big regions: west from the Rhin river modern
liberalism triumphed, like in France, Belgium and Great Britain. And at the
east all the revolutions were crushed by the absolutist governments and their
conservative ideologies. Everything in Europe began to get worst once the
nationalist movement emerging in the continent started to be suppressed.
