Aftermath of Napoleon and Conservatism

1. The European Balance of Power

a. The conservative, aristocratic monarchies, with their armies and economies (Great
Britain exception), appeared firmly in control once again; great challenge for
political leaders in 1814 was to construct a peace settlement that would last and
not start war

b. The allied powers were concerned with the defeated enemy, France and agreed to
the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty (Peace of Paris with Louis XVIII; May 30,
1814)

i. The allies were lenient toward France, gave them boundaries it possessed
in 1692 and France lost the territories conquered in Italy, Germany, and
Low Countries

ii. France did not have to pay any war damages; when the four allies met at
the Congress of Vienna, they agreed to raise a number of formidable
barriers against French aggression and the Low Countries were united and
Prussia received more territory on Frances eastern border to stand as a
sentinel against France

c. In their moderation toward France, the allies (the Great Powers) were motivated
by self-interest and traditional ideas about the balance of power

i. To Klemens von Metternich and Castlereagh (foreign ministers of Austria

and Britain) as well as their French counterpart Charles Talleyrand, the
balance of power meant an internal equilibrium of political and military
forces that would preserve the freedom and Austria, Britain, Prussia,
Russia, and France

ii. They had to arrange international relations so that none of the victors
would be tempted to strive for domination in its turn

d. The victors used the balance of power to settle dangerous disputes at the Congress
of Vienna and agreed that each of them should receive compensation in the form
of territory for their successful struggle against the French

i. Great Britain won and retained colonies and strategic outposts during the
war

ii. Austria gave up territories in Belgium and southern Germany but took in
rich provinces in northern Italy as well as Polish possessions
 iii. Prussia and Russia deserved to be compensated but almost led to war in
1815

e. Alexander I of Russia had taken Finland on his northern border and Bessarabia on
his southern border but wanted to restore kingdom of Poland and Prussians were
willing to give up their Polish territories as long as they could take in Saxony

i. Castlereagh and Metternich feared an unbalancing of forces in central

Europe

ii. On January 3, 1815, Great Britain, Austria, and France signed a secret
alliance directed against Russia and Prussia; the outcome was compromise
rather than war because threat of war caused rulers of Russia and Prussia
to moderate demands

iii. They accepted Metternichs proposal and Russia established a small Polish
kingdom and Prussia received two-fifths of Saxony; France had regained
its Great Power status and ended its diplomatic isolation by siding with
Metternich

f. When the peace settlement had been almost complete, Napoleon reappeared and
after Napoleon was defeated, the resulting peacethe second Peace of Paris
was still relatively moderate toward France and Louis XVIII was restored to his
throne

g. France lost some territory and had to pay an indemnity of 700 million francs and
had to support a large army of occupation for five years

h. The Quadruple Alliance agreed to meet periodically to discuss their interest and
consider appropriate measures of the maintenance of peace in Europe

2. Intervention and Repression

a. In 1815 under Metternichs leadership, Austria, Prussia, and Russia embarked on

a crusade against the ideas of politics of the dual revolution (lasted until 1848)

b. The Holy Alliance, formed by Austria, Prussia, and Russia in September 1815
proclaimed intention of the three eastern monarchs to rule on the basis of
Christian principles and to work together to maintain peace and justice on all
occasions (soon became symbol of repression of liberal and revolutionary
movements across Europe)

c. In 1820 revolutionaries succeeded in forcing the monarchs of Spain and Italian

kingdom of the Two Sicilies to grant liberal constitutions against their wills
 i. Calling a conference at Troppau in Austria under the provisions of the
quadruple Alliance, Metternich and Alexander I proclaimed the principle
of active intervention to maintain all autocratic regimes whenever they
were threatened

ii. Austrian forces marched into Naples and restored Ferdinand I to the
throne of the Two Sicilies and the French armies of Louis XVIII restored
the Spanish regime

d. Great Britain remained aloof, arguing that intervention in the domestic politics of
foreign states was not an object of British diplomacy and opposed any attempts by
the Spanish monarchy to reconquer its former Latin American possessions
(market)

e. Encouraged by the British position, the United States proclaimed its celebrated
Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which declared that European powers were to keep
their hands off the New World and in no way attempt to re-establish their political
system

f. Metternich continued to battle liberal political change but sometime she could do
little as in the new Latin American republics nor the dynastic changes of 1830 and
1831 in France and Belgium; Metternichs system proved effective until 1848

g. Metternichs policies dominated entire German Confederation, which was

composed of thirty-eight independent German states, including Prussia and
Austria and theses states met in complicated assemblies dominated by Austria,
with Prussia a willing junior partner in the planning and execution of repressive
measures

h. Metternich had the infamous Carlsbad Decrees issued in 1819 and required
German member states to root out subversive ideas in their universities and
newspapers

3. Metternich and Conservation

a. Born into the middle ranks of the landed nobility of the Rhineland, Prince
Klemens von Metternich was an internationally oriented aristocrat and marriage
to Eleonora von Kaunitz opened the door to the highest court circles and a
diplomatic career

i. Austrian ambassador to Napoleons court in 1806 and Austrian foreign

minister from 1809 to 1848, Metternich remained loyal to his class

ii. Metternich defended the rights of his class with a clear conscience; the
nobility was one of Europes most ancient institutions and regarded
 tradition as the basic source of human institutions (monarchy, bureaucracy,
aristocracy, commoners)

b. Metternichs commitment to conservatism was coupled with a passionate hatred

of liberalism; liberal demands for representative government and civil liberties
had captured some of the middle-class lawyers, business people, and intellectuals

i. Metternich believed these groups had been and still were engaged in a vast
conspiracy to impose their beliefs on society and destroy existing order

ii. Like many other conservatives, Metternich blamed liberal revolutionaries

for stirring up the lower classes, which he believed to be indifferent to
liberal ideas

c. The threat of liberalism appeared doubly dangerous to Metternich because it went

with national aspirations and liberals, believed that each national group, had a
right to establish its own independent government and seek to fulfill its own
destiny

d. Metternich thought national self-determination threatened the existence of the

aristocracy and threatened to destroy the Austrian Empire and revolutionize
central Europe

e. The vast Austrian Empire of the Habsburgs were a great dynastic state

i. Germans had supported and profited by the long-term territorial expansion

of Austria; Germans accounted for a quarter of the population

ii. The Magyars, a substantially smaller group, dominated the kingdom of

Hungary

iii. The Czechs, the third major group were concentrated in Bohemia and
Moravia

iv. The various Slavic peoples, together with the Italians and the Rumanians,
represented a widely scattered and completely divided majority in an
empire dominated by Germans and Hungarians

v. Different parts of provinces of the empire differed in languages, customs,

and institutions but were held together by their ties to the Habsburg
emperor

f. The multinational state Metternich served was both strong and weak

i. Austria was strong because of its large population and vast territories
 ii. Austria was weak because of its many and potentially dissatisfied
nationalities

iii. In those circumstances, Metternich had to oppose liberalism and

nationalism for Austria was unable to accommodate those ideologies of
the dual revolution

g. Other conservatives supported Austria because they could imagine no better fate

4. Napoleons Rule of France

a. In 1799, young General Napoleon Bonaparte was a national hero and seized
power; (born in Corsica in 1769) Napoleon rose rapidly in the army and placed in
command of French forces in Italy where he won brilliant victories in 1796 and
1797 (Egypt)

b. Napoleon learned of members of the Legislative Assembly who were plotting

against the Directory (weak dictatorship and firm rule had more appeal than
liberty)

i. Abbe Sieyes wrote that the nobility was over privileged and that entire
people should rule the French nation; wanted a strong military ruler like
Napoleon

ii. The conspirators and napoleon organized a takeover and on November 9,

1799, they ousted the Directors, and the following day soldiers disbanded
the Assembly

iii. Napoleon was named first consul of the republic and a new constitution
consolidating his position was approved in December 1799

c. Essence of Napoleons domestic policy was to use powers to maintain order and
end civil strife and did so by working out unwritten agreements with powerful
groups in France where groups received favors in return for loyal service

i. Napoleons bargain with the middle class was codified in the famous Civil
Code of 1804, which reasserted principles of the revolution of 1789:
equality of all male citizens before the law and absolute security of wealth
and private property

ii. Napoleon and leading bankers of Paris established the privately owned
Bank of France, which loyally served the interests of the state and the
financial oligarchy
 iii. Napoleons defense of the new economic order also appealed to the
peasants, who had gained both land and status from the revolutionary
changes

iv. Napoleon reconfirmed the gains of the peasantry and reassured the middle
class

d. Napoleon also accepted and strengthened the position of the French bureaucracy
and building on the government from the Old Regime, he perfected a centralized
state

e. A network of prefects, subprefects, and centrally appointed mayor s depended on

Napoleon and in 1800 and 1802, Napoleon granted official pardon to the nobles
on the condition that they return to France and take a loyalty oath (occupied high
posts)

f. In 1800, the French clergy was divided into those who had taken the oath of
allegiance to the revolutionary government and those in exile who had refused

i. Napoleon, personally uninterested in religion, wanted a united Catholic

church in France that could serve as a bulwark of order and social peace

ii. Napoleon and Pope Pius VII signed the Concordat of 1801 where the pope
gained for French Catholics the right to practice religion freely, but the
government now nominated bishops, paid the clergy, and exerted influence
of the church of France

g. Napoleons domestic initiatives gave the great majority of French people a

welcome sense of order and stability and Napoleon added the glory of military
victory

h. Under Napoleons authoritarian rule, women lost many of the gains and could not
make contracts or even have bank accounts in their name and re-established a
family monarch where the power of the husband and father was absolute over
the rest

i. Free speech and freedom of the press, rights of the liberal revolution in the
Declaration of the Rights of Man, were continually violated where number of
newspapers in Paris were reduced (government propaganda), harsh penalties for
politic offense, Napoleon left control of police state in France to Joseph Fouche
who organized an efficient spy system and by 1814, there were 2,500 political
prisoners

5. Napoleons Wars and Foreign Policy

a. After coming to power in 1799, he sent peace feelers to Austria and Great Britain,
the two remaining members of the Second Coalition, which had been formed in
1798

i. After being rejected, French armies led by Napoleon defeated the

Austrians; in the Treaty of Luneville (1801) were Austria lost almost all of
its Italian possessions and German territory on the west bank of the Rhine

ii. Napoleon concluded the Treaty of Amiens with Great Britain in 1802
where France remained in control of Holland, the Austrian Netherlands,
the west bank of the Rhine, and most of the Italian peninsula (diplomatic
triumph)

b. Redrawing the map of Germany to weaken Austria and attract the secondary
states of Germany toward France, Napoleon threatened British interests in the
eastern Mediterranean and tried to restrict British trade with all of Europe

i. Deciding to renew war with Britain in May 1803, Great Britain remained
dominant on the seas and a combined French and Spanish fleet was
annihilated by Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805;
invasion of England was impossible but renew fighting allowed to
proclaim himself emperor in 1804

ii. Austria, Russia, and Sweden joined Britain to form the Third Coalition
against France before the Battle of Trafalgar and assumption of the Italian
crown had convinced Alexander I of Russia and Francis II of Austria of
Napoleons threat

iii. Napoleon scored a brilliant victory over the Austrians and Russians at the
Battle of Austerlitz in December 1805 and accepted territorial losses for
peace

c. Napoleon abolished many of the German states in 1806 and established by decree
the German Confederation of the Rhine (minus Austria, Prussia, and Saxony) and
named himself protector of the confederation (firmly controlled western
Germany)

i. Prussians mobilized, Napoleon attacked, and won two more brilliant

victories in October 1806 at Jena and Auerstadt and after Prussia, joining
with Russia, lost to Napoleons larger armies, Alexander I of Russia
wanted peace

ii. In June 1807, the tsar and emperor negotiated and finally at the treaties of
Tilsit, Prussia lost half of its population, while Russia accepted Napoleons
reorganization of Europe and also promised to enforce the economic
blockade
d. Napoleon saw himself as the emperor of Europe (Great Empire), which was
consisted of three parts, the expanding France as the core, a number of dependent
satellites and allies that were expected to support Napoleons continental system
after 1806, and the independent but allied states of Austria, Prussia, and Russia

e. In the areas incorporated into France and in the satellites, Napoleon introduced
many French laws, abolished feudal dues and serfdom, and put the prosperity and
special interest of France first in order to safeguard his power base (conquering
tyrant)

f. The first great revolt occurred in Spain where in 1808 a coalition of Catholics,
monarchists, and patriots rebelled against attempts to make Spain a French
satellite

g. In 1810, Britain remained at war with France, helping the guerrillas in Spain and
Portugal, the economic blockage was a failure creating hard times for French
artisans and middle class, and Napoleon turned on Alexander I of Russia
(scapegoat)

h. Napoleons invasion of Russia began in June 1812 with a force that had 600,000
and although planning to winter in the Russian city of Smolensk, Napoleon
pressed on a

i. Defeated the Russians at the battle of Borodino, but Alexander ordered the
evacuation of Moscow, which then burned, and Alexander refused to
negotiate

ii. After five weeks in the burned-out city, Napoleon ordered a retreat, one of
the great military disasters in history; the Russian army and Russian
winter cut Napoleons army to pieces and only 30,000 men returned to
their homelands

i. Prince Klemens von Metternich, offered the proposal that France get reduced to
its historical size but Austria and Prussia joined Russia and Great Britain in the
fourth Coalition and was cemented by the Treaty of Chaumont, intended to last
twenty years

j. On April 4, 1814, Napoleon abdicated his throne and granted him the island of
Elba off the coast of Italy as his own state and allowed him to keep his imperial
title

k. The allies agreed to the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty and the new monarch,
Louis XVIII tried to consolidate that support by issuing the Constitutional
Charter, which accepted many of Frances revolutionary changes and guaranteed
civil liberties
l. A constitutional monarchy established in 1791 allowed few people to vote for
representatives to the resurrected Chamber of Deputies and was treated leniently
by allies

m. Louis XVIII lacked the glory and magic of Napoleon and hearing of political
unrest in France, Napoleon stage an escape from Elba in February 1815, used
appeals for support and French officers and soldiers who had fought for him
responded but the allies were united against him at the tend of a period known as
the Hundred Days, the Duke of Wellington crushed Napoleon at Waterloo on June
18, 1815

n. Napoleon was imprisoned on the island of St. Helena and Louis XVIII returned
in the baggage of the allies but now the allies now dealt more harshly with the
apparently incorrigible French (Napoleon wrote memoirs and an era had ended)