Outlines of nineteenth century history

Preface

This little book comprises those chapters of my revised " Mediaeval and Modern History " which cover nineteenth century events after 1815. They are here bound separately at the request of teachers who desire to use them in this form.

College Hill, Ohio April, 1906

Contents

Page

List of Illustrations v

List of Maps v

Chapter I The Congress Of Vienna And Metternich

i. Ideas bequeathed by the French Revolution to the Nineteenth Century. — The social and political history of Europe since the overthrow of Napoleon is a continuation of the history of the great revolt which broke out in France in 1789. The dominant forces at work throughout this period have been the ideas or principles inherited from the French Revolution.

There were three of these ideas, with which, as revolutionary forces in history, the student becomes familiar in tracing the story of the Revolution and the Empire. The first was the idea or principle of equality. The Revolutionists proclaimed this doctrine with religious fervor. It was spread broadcast over Europe. The French army, as it has been tersely expressed, was " equality on the. march." The Code Napoleon embodied this principle of equality, and wherever it was set up — in the Netherlands, in the West German states, in part of Poland, in Switzerland, and in Italy — it exerted the same leveling influence that it had in France. As Christianity brought in equality before God, so did the Revolution bring in equality before Caesar. The one made all men equal in the religious realm, the other made all men equal in the civil realm.

The second principle promulgated by the Revolution was that of popular sovereignty. According to this doctrine governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. The laws should be the expression of the will of all. The people either directly or through their representatives should have part in the government. All rulers and magistrates are the servants of the people and are responsible to them.

The third principle that underlay the Revolution was that of nationality. This principle requires that the state shall coincide with the nation. It demands that every nation shall be free to choose its own form of government and to manage its own affairs in its own way. This idea worked itself out during the course of the Revolution. It was evoked in great measure by Napoleon's cynical disregard of national sentiment and his wanton violation of national rights.

These principles or ideas, as we have said, were the precious political heritage which the nineteenth century received from, the Revolution. 1 They were full of vitality and energy. Their outworking, their embodiment in social institutions, in law, in government, makes up a large part of the history of the more advanced nations of the world since the downfall of Napoleon.

But these ideas, as we have intimated, have not had free course. Their embodiment in social institutions and in political forms has, in most of the European countries, been a process violent and revolutionary in character. This has resulted from these liberal principles coming into conflict with certain opposing conservative doctrines with which they have had to struggle for supremacy. And this brings us to the starting point of the history of the nineteenth century, — the celebrated Congress of Vienna.

2. The Congress of Vienna (September, 1814-June, 18 15). — After the first abdication of Napoleon, in the year 181 4, the European sovereigns, either in person or by their representatives, met at Vienna to readjust the affairs of the Continent. As we shall hereafter, in connection with the history of the separate

1 Of course these ideas were not novel doctrines promulgated now for the first time. All that is meant by calling them the ideas of the French Revolution is that by the Revolution they were invested with new authority and were given a new course in the world.

THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 3

European countries, have occasion to say something respecting the relations of each to the Congress, we shall here say only a word regarding the spirit and temper of the assembly and the general character of its work.

The Vienna commissioners seemed to have but one thought and aim, — to restore everything as nearly as possible to its condition before the Revolution. They had no care for the people ; the princes were their only concern. The principle of nationality was wholly ignored, while that of the sovereignty of the people was, by most of the plenipotentiaries, looked upon as a principle of disorder to be repressed in every possible way.

The first principle adopted by the Congress was that of legitimacy. According to this principle a throne is to be regarded like an ordinary piece of property. Long possession gives a good and indefeasible title.

Under this rule all the new usurping families set up by Napoleon were swept aside without ceremony, and the old exiled dynasties were restored. The most important of these restitutions, effected either by the direct action of the Congress or already consummated by events and confirmed by it, were those which brought back the banished Bourbon dynasties in France, Spain, and Naples. 2

The question of legitimacy having been settled, the next question was how the territories recovered from Napoleon should be distributed among the dynasties recognized as legitimate. For most of the sovereigns this was the subject of chief interest. Russia wanted the whole of Poland ; Prussia wanted the kingdom of Saxony ; Sweden wanted Norway ; Austria wanted territory in Italy.

In making the distribution the Vienna map makers took no thought whatever of the rights and claims of race or nationality. The inhabitants of the countries available for division were apportioned among the different sovereigns exactly as a herd of

2 The principle was applied only in the case of hereditary lay rulers. And even here an exception was made in the case of hundreds of petty German rulers whose territories Napoleon in his reorganization of Germany had given to the larger states. These princelets were not restored.

cattle might be divided up and apportioned among different owners. The following territorial settlements were among the most important.

The Belgian and Dutch provinces were united into a single state, which, unde; the name of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, was given to a prince of the House of Orange. The idea here was to create on this side of France as strong a barrier as possible against French aggression in the future. The fact that the Dutch and the Belgians, by reason of differences in race, in religion, and in industrial development, really formed two distinct nations was wholly ignored.

Sweden was confirmed in the possession of Norway, 3 which Denmark lost as a consequence of her alliance with Napoleon.

Russia was allowed to retain Finland and Bessarabia, and was given the greater part of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. The Polish lands acquired by Russia were made into what was called the Kingdom of Poland, with the Tsar as its king. The Poles were informed that they must give up all thought and hope of the restoration of their national independence.

Prussia was given about half of the kingdom of Saxony, extensive territories on both sides of the Rhine, and other lands, which gave her a more preponderant position in Germany than she had before the Revolution.

Austria, in compensation for the loss of her Netherland provinces, was given, besides a long strip of the eastern shore lands of the Adriatic Sea, Lombardy and Venetia in Upper Italy. This extension of Austrian rule over Italian lands was one of the grossest violations of the principles of nationality of which the Congress was guilty, and was to be signally avenged when the hour for Italian unity and independence arrived.

In Germany the Congress built upon the basis laid by Napoleon. Thirty-nine of the forty-two sovereign states, including

3 The two countries were to form a dual monarchy, each having its own Parliament, or Diet, but united under a single crown. This arrangement subsisted until A 5- iSoS, when Norway declared the union dissolved, and, choosing Prince Charles of Denmark as king, became an independent kingdom.

THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA 5

Prussia and Austria, to which he had reduced the hundreds of states constituting the old Germanic system, were organized into a confederation modeled upon the Confederation of the Rhine. 4

In Italy, on the other hand, Napoleon's work was undone and the old order of things was reestablished. With the exception of the provinces in the north, which had been given to Austria, the peninsula was divided into independent states, such as had existed before the Revolution.

A third matter which particularly occupied the attention of the committee on German affairs was the granting of constitutions to their subjects by the different sovereigns. In spirit and in temper the restored rulers were for the most part the old prerevolutionary despots come to their own again, but thoroughly frightened by what -had happened. Their desire was to rule in the old arbitrary way ; but there were those among them who recognized that a change had come over the world, and that the old absolutism could not with safety be reestablished. The Tsar Alexander seemed to entertain some genuine liberal ideas.

Consequently constitutions were talked about. Louis XVIII had been required by the terms of the treaties of Paris to give France a constitution, the allies understanding perfectly that if the restored Bourbons should attempt to rule as absolute sovereigns there would be trouble again which would unsettle everything in Europe. And now the Congress recommended to the German princes that representative bodies (Assemblies of Estates) be established in each state. But the only states, besides France, which at this time actually received constitutions were the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, and Norway.

And even where constitutions already existed or were now granted, these charters gave the people very little share in the government. They were constitutions of the aristocratic type, that is, they placed the government, where its form was monarchical, in the hands of the sovereign and a very small body of vpters. Practically the old regime of absolutism was almost everywhere reestablished.

4 For further details concerning the reorganization of Germany, see sec. 58.

But the Revolution had impaired beyond restoration reverence for the divine right of kings. An attempt to restore autocratic government in Europe was an attempt to restore an outgrown cult, — to set up again the fallen Dagon in his place. Notwithstanding, the commissioners at Vienna, blind to the spirit and tendencies of the times, did set up once more the broken idol, — only, however, to see it flung down again by the memorable political upheavals of the next half century. The kings had had

their Congress ; the people were to have theirs, — in 1820 and '30, and '48.

3. Prince Metternich, the Incarnation of the Spirit of the Restoration. — The spirit of the monarchical restoration of 1 8 1 5 , the spirit which controlled the Congress of Vienna, was incarnate in the celebrated Austrian minister, Prince Metternich.

Metternich hated the Revolution, which to him was the spirit of evil let loose in the world.

The democratic spirit he declared to be the spirit of disorder which could not fail "to change daylight into darkest night." The demand of the people for a share in government he regarded as presumptuous, and was wholly convinced that any concession to their demands could result in nothing save horrible confusion and bloodshed.

Metternich's system, therefore, was a system of repression. His maxim was, Let nothing be changed. A diplomatist of wonderful astuteness, of wide experience, and possessed of an intimate knowledge of the public affairs of all Europe, Metternich exerted a vast influence upon the history of the years from 18 15 to 1848. This period might appropriately be called the Age of Metternich. It was due largely to the Prince that during this

Fig. 1. — Prince Metternich. (From a painting by Sir

Thomas Lawrence)

METTERNICH AND THE HOLY ALLIANCE 7

period the old autocratic form of government prevailed so generally in Europe.

4. Metternich and the Holy Alliance. — The activity of Metternich during the earlier portion of the period of his ascendancy was so closely connected with a celebrated lea"gue known as the Holy Alliance that we must here say a word respecting the origin of this association.

The Holy Alliance was a religious league formed just after the fall of Napoleon by the Tsar Alexander and having as its chief members Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The ostensible object of the league was the maintenance of religion, peace, and order in Europe and the reduction to practice in politics of the maxims of Christ. The several sovereigns entering into the union promised to be fathers to their people, to rule in love and with reference solely to the promotion of the welfare of their subjects.

All this had a very millennial look. But the Holy Alliance very soon became practically a league for the maintenance of absolute principles of government, in opposition to the liberal tendencies of the age. Under the pretext of maintaining religion, justice, and order, the sovereigns of the union acted in concert to suppress every aspiration for political liberty among their subjects.

5. Other Nineteenth Century Principles, Movements, and Interests. — Lest the foregoing paragraphs should create in the mind of the reader a wrong impression of nineteenth century history, we must here remind him that no single formula will suffice to sum up the history of any age. History is ever very complex, for many ideas and many forces are always simultaneously at work shaping and coloring events.

The history of the nineteenth century presents a special complexity. While the great ideas transmitted to the age as a bequest from the Revolution were forces that gave the age its chief features, still throughout the century various other ideas, principles, and interests manifested themselves and contributed greatly to fill particularly the later years of the period with a vast complexity of movements, — intellectual, political, and industrial.

The spirit of the Renaissance was in the society of the period a pervasive and powerful influence. Throughout the century intelligence was becoming more diffused, and modern science, the special product of the Revival of Learning, was constantly revealing fresh wonders and arming man with new instruments of research and of mastery over nature.

The true spirit of the Reformation, too, was at work. As the century advanced, creeds grew more liberal, and the beneficent sentiment of toleration in religion, which has been declared to be " the best fruit of the last four centuries," 5 made rapid progress in the world.

Furthermore, the century was marked by a wonderful expansion movement of the European peoples, a movement which has given the world into the possession of the new and higher civilization created by the revolutions of the last three centuries in the home land of Europe. To this significant movement we shall devote a separate chapter under the heading "The Expansion of Europe."

Lastly, the nineteenth century witnessed an unparalleled industrial development, resulting from fortunate mechanical inventions and a great variety of other causes. To the phenomena of this new movement we shall be able to devote only a few closing paragraphs. In these we shall attempt nothing more than merely to indicate the relation of this industrial revolution to the general development of human society.

Selections from the Sources. — Memoirs of Prince Metternich (trans, by Mrs. Alexander Napier), vol. ii, pp. 553-599, and vols, iii-v. These volumes cover the years from 181 5 to 1829. They are of the first importance for this period. In them the spirit of the Restoration is incarnated. Ford, Life and Letters of Madame Krildener. This work lights up a remarkable passage in the life of the Russian Emperor Alexander I, and reveals the genesis of the Holy Alliance. Translations and Reprints, vol. i, No. 3, "The Restoration and the European Policy of Metternich" (ed. by James Harvey Robinson).

Secondary Works. — Among the great number of works on nineteenth century history the following are among the best of those in English which

5 The inscription written by President Charles W. Eliot for the Water Gate of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893.

present in brief survey the whole or some considerable part of the history of the period : Fyffe, A History of Modern Etirope, 17Q2-1878 ; Phillips, Modern Europe, i8i$-i8gg ; Andrews, The Historical Development of Modern Europe ; Seignobos, A Political History of Europe since 1814; Whitcomb, A History of Modern Europe; Robinson, An Introduction to the History of Western Europe ; Muller, Political History of Recent Times ; and Judson, Europe in the Nineteenth Century.

Biographies and works dealing with some particular subject or some limited portion of the nineteenth century : Stephens, Revolutionary Europe, 1789-1815, " Introduction," for suggestive paragraphs on the principles which have molded nineteenth century history, and chap, xi, for the Congress of Vienna; Malleson, Life of Prince Melternich ; Lowell, Governments and Parties in Continental Europe ; and Lodge, A History of Modern Europe, chaps, xxv-xxviii.

Topics for Class Reports. — 1. Talleyrand at the Congress of Vienna. 2. Prince Metternich and his system. 3. Madame Krudener and the Tsar Alexander I.

Chapter II France Since The Second Restoration (1815-1906)

6. Character of the Period. — The social and political history of France since the second restoration of the Bourbons may be characterized briefly. It has been simply a continuation of the Revolution, 1 — of the struggle between democratic and monarchical principles. The aim of the Revolution was to abolish privileges and establish rights, — to give every man lot and part in the government under which he lives. These liberal ideas and principles have on the whole, notwithstanding repeated reverses, gained ground ; for revolutions never move backward. There may be eddies and countercurrents in a river, but the steady and powerful sweep of the stream is ever onward towards the sea. Not otherwise is it with the great social and intellectual movements of history.

7. The Reign of Louis XVIII (i8i5[i4]-i824). — • " Your king, whose fathers reigned over your fathers for more than eight centuries, now returns to devote the rest of his days to defend and to comfort you."

Such were the words used by Louis upon his second return to his people after Waterloo. The events of the Hundred Days had instructed and humbled him : "I may have made mistakes," he said frankly, "and probably have done so."

Profiting by his experience, Louis ruled throughout a great part of the remainder of his reign with reasonable heed to the changes effected by the Revolution. But as he grew old and infirm he yielded more and more to the extreme Royalist party, which

1 Each of the revolutions of the period may be characterized as Metternich characterized the Revolution of 1830, namely, " as nothing else than a recurrence of the Revolution of 1789."

THE REIGN OF CHARLES X II

was again raising its head, and the government entered upon a course looking to the restoration of the old order of things.

8. The Reign of Charles X (i 824-1830); the Revolution of 1830. — Upon the death of Louis in 1824 and the accession of Charles X, this reactionary policy soon became more pronounced. The new king seemed utterly incapable of profiting by the teachings of the past. It was particularly his blind, stubborn course that gave point to the saying, "A Bourbon learns nothing and forgets nothing."

It is not necessary for our purpose that we rehearse in detail what Charles did or what he failed to do. His aim was to undo the work of the Revolution, just as it was the aim of James II in England to undo the work of the Puritan Revolution. He disregarded the constitution, restored the clergy to power, reestablished a strict censorship of the press, and changed the laws by royal proclamation. He seemed bent on restoring divine-right monarchy in France. He declared that he would rather saw wood for a living than rule after the fashion of the English kings.

The outcome of Charles' course might have been foreseen : Paris rose in revolt ; the streets were blocked with barricades ; Charles was escorted to the seacoast, whence he took ship for England.

France did not at this time think of a republic. She was inclined to try further the experiment of a constitutional monarchy. Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, who represented the younger branch of the Bourbon family, was placed on the throne and the constitution was revised. In the charter which Louis XVIII had granted he had styled himself " King of France by the grace of God." The new constitution declared Louis Philippe to be " King of the French by the grace of God and by the will of the nation." The first principle of the Revolution — the sovereignty of the people — was thus embodied in the fundamental law of France.

Louis Philippe had traveled about the world considerably and had lived in a democratic sort of way. He had looked on complacently at the taking of the Bastille, had been in America, and had taught school in Switzerland. The middle classes therefore with some reason looked upon him as one of themselves, and gave him the title of "Citizen King."

9. Effect upon Europe of the " July Revolution" of 1830; Origin of the Kingdom of Belgium. — France has been called the Enceladus of Europe. There is sufficient instruction in the suggested parable to make it worth our while to recall the myth to memory. As fable has it, Enceladus was one of the giants who made war upon Olympian Jove. In the rout of the giants, Minerva, helping Jove, disabled Enceladus by throwing ^Etna on top of him and pinning him forever to the earth. The stability of things in Sicily was thereby endangered, for as often as the giant turned his weary sides the whole island was convulsed.

France, having made war upon the Olympian hierarchy of divine-right kings, is by them worsted in battle and then pinned to the earth with the weight of Bourbonism. As often as the giant turns his weary sides there is an eruption, and the whole continent, like Trinacria of old, trembles to its remotest verge.

The convulsion in Paris shook all the restored thrones, and for a moment threatened to topple into ruins the whole fabric of absolutism that had been so carefully upreared by Metternich and the other political restorationists of the Congress of Vienna.

In the Netherlands the artificial order established in 1815 (sec. 2) was wholly destroyed. The Belgians arose, declared themselves independent of Holland, adopted a liberal constitution, and elected Leopold of Saxe-Coburg as their king (1831). Thus came into existence the separate kingdom of Belgium. The independence and neutrality of the little state was guaranteed by all the great powers.

10. The Revolution of 1848 and the Establishment of the Second Republic. — The reign of Louis Philippe up to 1848 was very unquiet, yet was not marked by any disturbance of great importance. But during all this time the ideas of the Revolution were working among the people, and the democratic party was constantly gaining in strength. Finally there came a demand for the extension of the suffrage. At this time there were only about

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SECOND REPUBLIC 13

two hundred thousand voters in France, the possession of a certain amount of property being required as a qualification for the franchise. The government steadily refused all electoral reforms. Guizot, the king's chief minister, declared that "this world is no place for universal suffrage."

Enceladus at last turned his weary sides. There was a convulsion like that of 1830. The center of this disturbance of course was Paris. Louis Philippe, thoroughly frightened by the prodigy, fled to England. After his departure the Paris mob dragged the throne out of the Tuileries and made a bonfire of it.

The Second Republic was now established, with the poet-historian Lamartine as its provisional Minister of Foreign Affairs. A new constitution, some features of which were copied from the Constitution of the United States, established universal suffrage. 2 The number of voters was at a stroke increased from a quarter of a million to upwards of eight millions. An election being ordered, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, 3 a nephew of the great Napoleon, was chosen President of the new Republic (Dec. 10, 1848).

The Paris " February Revolution," as it is called, lighted the beacon fires of liberty throughout Europe. 4 " It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that, during the month of March, 1848, not a single day passed without a constitution being granted somewhere." France had made another of her irresistible invasions of the states of Europe, — " an invasion of ideas."

2 There was a socialistic element in this Revolution of 1848. It was inaugurated by the working classes of Paris. One of the demands of the socialists was that the government should find work for the unemployed. National workshops were established by the provisional government, but the experiment was unsuccessful and the shops were soon closed.

3 This man had already played a singular role. In 1836 he had appeared suddenly at Strasburg, thinking to raise the French garrison there against the government. He was arrested and banished to America. Again in 1840 the adventurer, taking advantage of the revival of popular interest in the first Napoleon caused by the bringing of his ashes from St. Helena to France, made a somewhat similar attempt at revolution at Boulogne. He was arrested a second time and condemned to imprisonment for life in the fortress of Ham in Picardy. After about five years' confinement he escaped and found his way to England.

l ' 4 The revolution in Paris was not so much the cause as merely the signal for revolutions elsewhere. It imparted fresh energy to revolutionary forces which were ready to break forth or which had already found vent in violent explosions.

H n. The Second Empire (1852-1870). — The life of the Second Republic spanned only three years. By almost exactly the same steps as those by which his uncle had mounted the imperial throne, Louis Napoleon now also ascended to the imperial dignity, crushing the Republic as he rose.

A contest having arisen between the President and the National Assembly, the President planned a coup d'etat. He caused the arrest at night of the most prominent of the deputies opposed to him in the Assembly and such popular leaders in Paris as might

incite the people to resistance.

When the inhabitants of the capital awoke in the morning (Dec. 2, 1 851) they found the city placarded with proclamations announcing the dissolution of the Assembly and outlining the main articles of a new constitution, which was to be at once submitted to the people for approval.

The President's appeal to the people to indorse what he had done met with a most extraordinary response. By a majority of almost seven million votes 5 the nation approved the President's coup d'etat and rewarded him for it by extending his term of office to ten years. This was in effect the revival of the Consulate of 1799. The next year Louis Napoleon was made Emperor, and took the title of Napoleon III (1852).

The secret of Louis Napoleon's success in his coup d'etat was in part the fear that prevailed of the renewal of the Terror of 1 793, and in part the magic power of the name he bore. At just this time the name Napoleon was in France a name to conjure with. There had been growing up a Napoleonic legend. Time had idealized the founder of the First Empire.

Fig. 2.- — Napoleon III

(After a portrait by F. Winter-

halter)

THE SECOND EMPIRE l5

As the Second and the Third Republic were simply revivals and continuations of the First Republic, so was the Second Empire merely the revival and continuation of the First Empire. It was virtually the same in origin, in spirit, and in policy.

Louis Napoleon had declared that the Empire meant peace. But it meant anything except that. The pages of its history are filled with the records of wars. There were three important ones in which the armies of the Empire took part, — the Crimean War (1853-185 6), the Austro-Sardinian War (1859), and the Franco- Prussian War (1870-187 1 ).

The first two of these wars need not detain us at this time, since we shall speak of them later in connection with Russian and Italian affairs. 6 All that need be said here is that in each of them Louis Napoleon greatly enhanced his prestige throughout Europe.

The real cause of the third war, the one between Prussia and France, was French jealousy of the growing power of Prussia, around which as the preponderant German state the unification of Germany was fast proceeding.

Louis Napoleon, now aging and broken in health, was himself averse to the war. But he was forced into it by the mad clamor of Paris and the vehemence of the war party throughout the country. Even the Empress Eugenie was eager for war, since she believed that thereby the Empire would be strengthened in the affections of the French people and the succession of her son to the imperial throne assured.

With everything in a state of culpable and incredible unreadiness, although the highest military authority had declared that the army was ready and more than ready, France, " with a light heart," plunged into the fateful war. " Down with Prussia ! On to Berlin ! " was the cry.

There came a quick and terrible disillusionment. A single small column of French soldiers was barely able to set foot for a moment on German soil, — just long enough to enable the Prince Imperial to receive there his " baptism of fire." In a few days after the French declaration of war the great German hosts had