Chapter Summary
The first half of the nineteenth century in Europe can be characterized by a number of themes: revolution, conservatism, liberalism, and nationalism. Each of these themes had its origin in the last quarter of the eighteenth century-the specific event that inspired them was the French Revolution. The Revolution impacted Continental Europe for a number of reasons and in a number of ways. Although the great wave of revolutionary ideas flooded the European consciousness with notions of fraternity, equality, and liberty, it was Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars that forced European monarchs to make important decisions about how to respond to this wave of revolution and reform. Certainly, no European monarch would support the revolutionaries, but reform was clearly a different story. How would European governments deal with reform? How did the era of the dual revolution modify and transform European governments into European politics?
The Congress of Vienna, which was held at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, sought to block the reoccurrence of further revolution. European monarchs could not allow themselves to become another France, especially in the changed economic circumstances of the early nineteenth century. The idea was to maintain a European "balance of power" that would keep France in check. Of course, the problems "resolved" at Vienna would emerge again at the end of the nineteenth century when the combination of a unified Germany, European imperialist aspirations, a second industrial revolution, and the presumed duties of the great powers would lead to a new conflict, global in scope.
In terms of European culture, the movement known as Romanticism served as a corrective to the Enlightenment's overreliance on human reason. The Romanticsa mixed bag of poets, novelists, composers, artists, historians, and philosopherselevated the emotions, spontaneity, and creativity of the individual. Questions of sentiment and sensibility became the new focus, and poetry seemed to be the most important form of discourse. As Percy Bysshe Shelley once remarked, "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." Whereas the eighteenth century saw human nature as static and in accordance with reason, the Romantics saw diversity and uniqueness.
The French Revolution not only generated a conservative reaction, it also created liberalism as a new political ideology. Conservatives were intent on demonstrating that natural rights did not exist, because they argued they had no foundation in history. The only rights that existed were those granted by the state. Liberals argued that man did indeed have natural rights, and foremost among them was the natural right of personal liberty. In essence, one of the legacies of the French Revolution was a new political vocabulary, and since all revolutions force people to make choices, one had to decide whether to be a liberal or a conservative. These were personal decisions with significant social ramifications.
Finally, the first half of the nineteenth century is also the period in which the European middle and working classes found their voice in the political affairs of their nation. The middle classes were slowly brought into the orbit of "popular" government by issuing various programs for social, political, and economic reform. But for the working classes, various efforts to democratize their social and economic aspirations led to outright failure and near retreat. Meanwhile, the power and authority of the European aristocracy waned in the face of new wealth created by the captains of industry.