Course: European Political History
Required Sources: A History of Modern Europe 1789-1981, 7th Edition, H.L. Peacock (available at GAU library) The Pneguin History of the World, 3rd Edition, by J.M. Roberts
(available at GAU library)
Recommended Sources: Donald Kagan et al: A Political History of Europe, since 1814 by Charles Seignobos, S. M. Macvane, The Western Heritage, Brief Edition, 2003
Websites:

The course focuses on European history from the early 17th century to the end of the Second World War. The following aspects of political history of five selected countries - France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain- are covered : early kingdoms, unification, nationalism movements, political philosophies, conferences, alliance systems and conflicts which had an impact on Europe during the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries.Topics such as the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the Concert of Europe, and the two world wars will also be discussed. Special emphasis will be placed on the relationship between the rise of liberalism and nationalism, the industrial revolution, and the emergence of modern political systems in Europe.

Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 Political history of France :
Chapter 2 Political history of Germany:
Chapter 3 Political history of Great Britain:
Chapter 4 Political history of Italy:
Chapter 5 Political history of Spain:

Introduction
In studying political history of European states, we put a focus on the beginning of the 18th century as a starting point in the rise of major European powers in the face of waning non-Western empires, which led to the consequent politicization of the region as a whole, raising the stakes in the division and distribution of resources, areas of influence and geostrategic waterways. During the 18th century, Europe has seen the rise of despotic monarchies in some of the European states. Yet, just at the peak of their influence and power all of these monarchies were crushed under the forces of French revolution and then by Napoleon. France alone of the great despotic monarchies has seriously declined around this time. External defeat in the hands of Britain in Canada and India seriously lowered its international prestige. Her support for American rebels against Britain was the last effort by the “ancient regime” to restore some of its lost prestige, but this effort added to the difficulties faced by France. The French Revolution struck not only at the foundation of the “ancient regime”, but also at that of other states in Europe, big and small. From that time, the fate of Europe was to be determined by this struggle’s outcome which came to be dominated by the arms and personality of Napoleon. The French control of Europe following Napoleon’s victories gave rise to new forces in the region in the 19th century. The victories of the French led to radical changes on the political map of Europe. It also led to the emergence of new classes which were to constitute a challenge to the privileges and position of the old aristocracy in Europe. However, Napoleonic empire overreached itself against Russia, was unable to contend with naval and economic power of Britain, and in Spain met with fierce national resistance which made that country of key importance in the struggle against Napoleon. The most reactionary rulers were called upon to unite all classes in their common nationalist struggle. This sense of national unity and common nationality was above class barriers and remained a decisive factor in the history of Europe, despite the efforts of reactionary rulers and despots to turn back the tide as soon as Napoleon was defeated. The principle of traditional balance of power was reflected in the political redrawing of Europe after Napoleon’s defeat and was particularly reflected at the Vienna Congress in 1815, while nationalism and legitimacy of morachies were overlooked. For the next thirty years the Congress’ decisions was largely maintained, and the dominant political figure in the situation was Austrian Chancellor Prince Metternich. His overriding influence led to the suppression of nationalism and liberalism in Germanic states and in Italy. During the years of 1815-1848 forces of liberalism and nationalism were weak, and the risings in Italy and Germany were easily suppressed. Yet the growing influence of European middle class and discontent rose again the the revolution of 1848 against the French monarch Louis Philippe. Once again, France was the center of progressive movements elsewhere in Europe, and even in Britain Chartists movement challenged the absolutism of the monarchy and its lack of legitimacy in representation of the commons. However, all these movements were crushed by the end of 1849. The reasons for their failure are military, social and political. Austrian and Russian forces suppressed the movements, while the rising bourgeouis found it uncomfortable to unite with the “proletariat” in their struggle against despotism. It was the spectre of socialism that threw the middle and working class into the authoritarian arms of Napoleon. From 1848, when Communist Manifesto appeared, European socialism began to take a more organized form and shook the foundation of Russian monarchy in the 20th century.
Unifications of Germany and Italy were yet another stage in shaping the political map of Europe and introducing new regional actors to the stage. The defeat of France by Prussia in 1970 led to the outbreak of Parisian Commune and its anger at the monarchic rule. However, bloody suppression of the Commune left a permanent mark on the political history of France, for the new proletariat pulled itself together and united more over the ideas of socialism and social justice. Thus, the year 1870 was one of the most important in the history of Europe.
Years 1817-1914, leading to the outbreak of World War I, witnessed new trends in national and international affairs. In Germany Bismarck completed internal unification and fought a ruthless battle against socialism and Catholic Church. World imperialism forced him to modify his vision of Germany’s future. Under the young Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany decisively entered the European scramble for territories in Asia and Africa. Following Bismarck’s dismissal in 1890, Germany’s foreign policy took on a more assertive character, propelled by the need for resources and naval power. This policy led to famous rapprochement of Russia, France and Britain, who by 1907 formed something of a united front against Germany. These developments were related to the struggle for power in the Balkan, rising Serbian nationalism against Austria-Hungarian empire, and led to Austrian ultimatum to Serbia in July 1914. The war of 1914-1918 really began in the Balkans , although its causes ran world-wide. The division of Africa among great powers and extension of trading and colonial interests to the far East was one of the most important development of that period. The late 19th-early 20th century industrialization and increasing concentration of capital in the form of monopolies and international cartels compeled the powers to seek wider markets for their products and more sources of raw materials. This economic competition intensified by 1914 and only needed a political spark to ignite the war for redistribution of power and resources on an international scale. This state competition coincided with the powerful working class movements in support of eliminating private property and bringing the state to serve interests of proletariat, to protect themselves against ruthless exploitation by their masters.
After Germany’s defeat, makers of the treaty of Versailles attempted to settle political and economic problems which arose from the collapse of Austria-Hungarian and German empires. The establishment of the League of Nations was the main achievement of Versailles treaty in an effort to maintain permanent peace among nations. However, period of 1919-1939 economic crisis afflicted all the major states. Amidst the social unrest, its extreme form of protest against the government policies came as fascism and made its way in capturing the attention of furious and desperate masses. By 1939 fascist Italy and Germany succeeded in their aggressive claims. In Spain also a form of fascism triumphed.
The years 1939- 1945 witnessed the rise and fall of Nazism and yet another stage in redrawing the political map of Europe. The defeat of tyranny produced a creation of the UN which serves as a successor to the defunct League of Nation.
The whole period of 1789 to the modern times post Cold War can be best described as a political struggle between authoritarianism on one hand, and liberalism, freedom, determinism, liberty on the other.
Historical background: Europe has been at the center of regional and world politics. Its history and geography have shaped its people, cultures and build an entire civilization. The cradle of European civlization, Hellenism, spread through the Mediterranean world, northern and western Europe were dominated by Roman culture and civilization which would grow steadily over the next several centuries until it had supplanted Greek culture as the dominant Mediterranean civilization. The rise, and later assassination, of the dictator Julius Caesar of Roman republic marked the beginning of a constitutional crisis that would lead to the reorganization of the Republic into the Roman Empire. When the governing of the Empire became too cumbersome, the empire was divided by the emperor Diocletian into the Western and Eastern empires. During the later years of the Roman Empire, the Germanic peoples of northern Europe grew in strength to rival the Empire itself, and repeated organized attacks led to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476, a date which traditionally marks the end of the classical period, and the start of the middle ages. Much of Greek political philosophy was assimilated by the nascent Roman state as it expanded outward from Italy, taking advantage of its enemies' inability to unite. The only challenge to Roman ascent came from the Phoenician colony of Carthage, and its defeats in the three Punic Wars marked the start of Roman hegemony. First governed by kings, then as a senatorial republic, Rome finally became an empire at the end of the 1st century BC, under Augustus and his authoritarian successors. Geostrategically, Roman Empire had its centre in the Mediterranean Sea, controlling all the countries on its shores, including Britain, Romania and parts of Mesopotamia. A period of peace, civilisation and an efficient centralised government in the subject territories ended in the 3rd century, when a series of civil wars and internal degeneration undermined Rome's economic and social strength. In the power vacuum left in the wake of Rome's collapse, localised hierarchies were based on the bond of common people to the land on which they worked. Tithes were paid to the lord of the land, and the lord owed duties to the regional prince. The tithes were used to pay for the state and wars. This was the feudal system, in which new princes and kings arose, the greatest of which was the Frank ruler Charlemagne. In 800, Charlemagne, reinforced by his massive territorial conquests, was crowned Emperor of the Romans, effectively solidifying his power in western Europe. His Holy Roman Empire emerged around 800 and based in modern France, the Low Countries and Germany, expanded into modern Hungary, Italy, Bohemia, Lower Saxony and Spain. He and his father received substantial help from an alliance with the Pope, who wanted help against Italian Lombards. The pope was officially a vassal of the Byzantine Empire, but the Byzantine emperor did (could do) nothing against Italian Lombards. During the Middle Ages, Charlemagne's reign marked the beginning of a new Germanic Roman Empire in the west, the Holy Roman Empire, while the Eastern Roman Empire lived on in Southeastern Europe, though modern historians refer to this state as the Byzantine Empire as the state was Greek, and not Latin, in language and culture. In Western Europe, Germanic peoples moved into positions of power in the remnants of the former Western Roman Empire and established kingdoms and empires of their own. Many of these nacent states formed the core of many modern European countries. Of all of the Germanic peoples, the Franks would rise to a position of hegemony over western Europe, the Frankish Empire reaching its peak under Charlemagne around AD 800, when he was crowned Emperor of the West. Francia, as this state is sometimes known, was divided into several parts, West Francia would evolve into the Kingdom of France, while East Francia would evolve into the Holy Roman Empire, a precursor to modern Germany. Across the channel, British Isles were the site of several large-scale migrations. Native Celtic peoples had been marginalized during the period of Roman Britain, and when the Romans abandoned the British Isles during the 400s, waves of Germanic peoples, known to later historians as the Anglo-Saxons, migrated to southern Britain and established a series of petty kingdoms in what would eventually develop into the Kingdom of England by AD 927.
Early Modern Period in the 16th century is marked by the rise of nation-states, the division of Western Christianity in the Reformation, the rise of humanism in the Italian Renaissance, and the beginnings of European overseas expansion. Europe still remained a backwater compared to the rising Muslim world, with its vast network of caravan trade, or India with its Golden Period under the Gupta Empire and the Pratiharas or China, at this time the world's most populous empire under the Tang Dynasty. Islam had over a dozen major cities stretching from Córdoba, Spain, at this time the world's largest city with 450,000 inhabitants, to central Asia.
In the late 9th and 10th centuries, northern and western Europe felt the burgeoning power and influence of the Vikings who raided, traded, conquered and settled swiftly and efficiently with their advanced sea-going vessels such as the longships. In the 10th century independent kingdoms were established in Central Europe, for example, Poland and Kingdom of Hungary. The subsequent period, ending around 1000, saw the further growth of feudalism, which weakened the Holy Roman Empire.
From about the year 1000 onwards, Western Europe saw the last of the barbarian invasions and became more politically organized. The Vikings had settled in Britain, Ireland, France and elsewhere, whilst Norse Christian kingdoms were developing in their Scandinavian homelands. The Magyars had ceased their expansion in the 10th century, and by the year 1000, the Roman Catholic Apostolic Kingdom of Hungary was recognised in central Europe.
The High Middle Ages produced the rise of modern nation-states in Western Europe and the ascent of the great Italian city-states. The still-powerful Roman Church called armies from across Europe to a series of Crusades against the Seljuq Turks.
The slumber of the Dark Ages was shaken by renewed crisis in the Church. In 1054, the Catholic-Orthodox split occurred between the two remaining Christian seats in Rome and Constantinople. The Great Schism, as it was called, was sparked in 1054 by Pope Leo IX asserting authority over three of the seats in the Pentarchy, in Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria. Since the mid-8th century, the Byzantine Empire's borders had been shrinking in the face of Islamic expansion. Antioch had been wrested back into Byzantine control by 1045, but the resurgent power of the Roman successors in the West claimed a right and a duty for the lost seats in Asia and Africa. The Orthodox today state that the Canons of the Church explicitly proclaimed the equality of the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople. The Schism ofRoman Catholic and Orthodox followed centuries of estrangement between eastern and western Europe. After the East-West Schism, Western Christianity was adopted by newly created kingdoms of Central Europe: Poland, Hungary and Bohemia. The Roman Catholic Church developed as a major power, leading to conflicts between the Pope and Emperor. Most of Europe was Roman Catholic in the 15th century.
Further changes were set afoot with a redivision of power in Europe. William the Conqueror, a Duke of Normandy invaded England in 1066. The Norman Conquest was a pivotal event in English history for several reasons. This linked England more closely with continental Europe through the introduction of a Norman aristocracy, thereby lessening Scandinavian influence. It created one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe and engendered a sophisticated governmental system. Being based on an island, moreover, England was to develop a powerful navy and trade relationships that would come to constitute a vast part of the world including India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many key naval strategic points like Bermuda, Suez, Hong Kong and especially Gibraltar. These strategic advantages grew and were to prove decisive until after the Second World War.
Early signs of the rebirth of civilisation in western Europe began to appear in the 11th century as trade started again in Italy, leading to the economic and cultural growth of independentcity states such as Venice and Florence; at the same time, nation-states began to take form in places such as France, England, Spain, and Portugal, although the process of their formation (usually marked by rivalry between the monarchy, the aristocratic feudal lords and the church) actually took several centuries. On the other hand, the Holy Roman Empire, essentially based in Germany and Italy, further fragmented into a myriad of feudal principalities or small city states, whose subjection to the emperor was only formal.
In early 12th century, the period known as the Crusades began. A series of religiously-motivated military expeditions originally intended to liberate the Levant from Muslims, several Crusader States were founded in the eastern Mediterranean. These were all short-lived. The Crusaders would have a profound impact on many parts of Europe. Their Sack of Constantinople in 1204 brought an end to the Byzantine Empire. Though it would later be re-established, it would never recover its former glory. The Crusaders would establish trade routes that would develop into the Silk Road, and open the way for the merchant republics of Genoa and Venice to become major economic powers. Crusader missions to the Baltic lands would establish the State of the Teutonic Order. The Reconquista, a related movement, worked to push the Muslims out of Iberia.
The 13th and 14th century, when the Mongol Empire came to power, is often called the Age of the Mongols. Mongol armies expanded westward under the command of Batu Khan. Their western conquests included almost all of Russia (save Novgorod, which became a vassal), Kipchak lands, Hungary, and Poland (which had remained sovereign state). Mongolian records indicate that Batu Khan was planning a complete conquest of the remaining European powers, beginning with a winter attack on Austria, Italy and Germany, when he was recalled to Mongolia upon the death of Great Khan Ögedei. Most historians believe only his death prevented the complete conquest of Europe. In Russia, the Mongols of the Golden Horde ruled for almost 300 years. Around 1300, centuries of European prosperity and growth came to a halt. A series of famines and plagues, such as the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death, reduced the population by as much as half according to some estimates. Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare. France and England experienced serious peasant risings: the Jacquerie, the Peasants' Revolt, and the Hundred Years' War. Dynastic struggles and wars of conquest kept many of the states of Europe at war for much of the period. In Scandinavia, the Kalmar Union dominated the political landscape, while England fought with Scotland in the Wars of Scottish Independence and with France in the Hundred Years Wars. To add to the many problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church was shattered by the Great Schism. Collectively these events are sometimes called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages.
The conventional end of the Middle Ages is usually associated with the fall of the city Constantinople and of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The Turks made the city the capital of their Ottoman Empire, which lasted until 1922 and included Egypt, Syria and most of the Balkans. The Ottoman wars in Europe, also sometimes referred as the Turkish wars, marked an essential part of the history of the continent as a whole.
Beginning in the 14th century in Florence, and later spreading through Europe with the development of printing press, a Renaissance of knowledge challenged traditional doctrines in science and theology, with the rediscovery of classical Greek and Roman knowledge. 14th century was also a time of great progress within the arts and sciences. A renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts led to what has later been termed the Italian Renaissance.
The 15th century Renaissance is marked with Important political precedents set in this period. Niccolò Machiavelli's political writing in The Prince influenced later absolutism and real-politik. Also important were the many patrons who ruled states and used the artistry of the Renaissance as a sign of their power. In all, the Renaissance could be viewed as an attempt by intellectuals to study and improve the secular and worldly, both through the revival of ideas from antiquity. Toward the end of the period, an era of discovery began. The growth of the Ottoman Empire, culminating in the fall of Constantinople in 1453, cut off trading possibilities with the east. Europeans were forced to discover new trading routes, as happened with Columbus’s travel to the Americas in 1492, and Vasco da Gama’s circumnavigation of India and Africa in 1498. The numerous wars did not prevent European states from exploring and conquering wide portions of the world, from Africa to Asia and the newly discovered Americas. In the 15th century, Portugal led the way in geographical exploration along the coast of Africa in search for a maritime route to India, followed by Spain near the close of the 15th century; dividing their exploration of world according to the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494. They were the first states to set up colonies in America and trading posts (factories) along the shores of Africa and Asia, establishing the first direct European diplomatic contacts with Southeast Asian states in 1511, China in 1513 and Japan in 1542. Oceanic explorations were soon followed by France, England and the Netherlands, who explored the Portuguese and Spanish trade routes into the Pacific Ocean, reaching Australia in 1606 and New Zealand in 1642.
The Reconquista of Portugal and Spain led to a series of oceanic explorations resulting in the age of discovery that established direct links with Africa, the Americas and Asia, while religious wars continued to be fought in Europe, which ended in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia.
In the 15th century, at the end of the Middle Ages, powerful sovereign states were appearing, built by the New Monarchs who were centralising power in France, England, and Spain. The Iberian states (Spain and Portugal) were able to dominate New World (American) colonial activity in the 16th century but were increasingly challenged by British, French, and the short-lived Dutch and Swedish colonial efforts of the 17th and 18th centuries. New forms of trade and expanding horizons made new forms of government, law and economicsnecessary.
Colonial expansion continued in the following centuries. Spain had control of a large part of North America, all of Central America and a great part of South America, the Caribbean and the Philippines; Britain took the whole of Australia and New Zealand, most of India, and large parts of Africa and North America; France held parts of Canada and India (nearly all of which was lost to Britain in 1763), Indochina, large parts of Africa and Caribbean islands; the Netherlands gained the East Indies (now Indonesia) and islands in the Caribbean; Portugal obtained Brazil and several territories in Africa and Asia; and later, powers such as Germany, Belgium, Italy and Russia acquired further colonies. This expansion helped the economy of the countries owning them. Throughout the early part of this period, capitalism was replacing feudalism as the principal form of economic organisation, at least in the western half of Europe. The expanding colonial frontiers resulted in a industrial Revolution. The period is noted for the rise of modern science and the application of its findings to technological improvements, which culminated in theIndustrial Revolution.
The Early Modern period spans the centuries between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution, roughly from 1500 to 1800, or from the discovery of the New World in 1492 to the French Revolution in 1789. The period is characterised by the rise to importance of scienceand increasingly rapid technological rogress, secularised civic politics and the nation state.Capitalist economies began their rise. The early modern period also saw the rise and dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. As such, the early modern period represents the decline and eventual disappearance, in much of the European sphere, of feudalism, serfdom and the power of the Catholic Church. The period includes the Protestant Reformation, the disastrous Thirty Years' War, the European colonisation of the Americas and the European witch-hunts. Spreading through Europe with the development of printing press, knowledge challenged traditional doctrines in science and theology. Simultaneously Protestant Reformation under German Martin Luther questioned Papal authority. Henry VIII sundered the English Church, allying in ensuing religious wars between German and Spanish rulers. Protestant Reformation under German Martin Luther questioned Papal authority. The most common dating begins in 1517, when Luther published The Ninety-Five Theses, and concludes in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia that ended years of European religious wars.
During this period corruption in the Catholic Church led to a sharp backlash in the Protestant Reformation. It gained many followers especially among princes and kings seeking a stronger state by ending the influence of the Catholic Church. Figures other than Martin Luther began to emerge as well like John Calvin whose Calvinism had influence in many countries and King Henry VIII of England who broke away from the Catholic Church in England. These religious divisions brought on a wave of wars inspired and driven by religion but also by the ambitious monarchs in Western Europe who were becoming more centralised and powerful. The Protestant Reformation also led to a strong reform movement in the Catholic Church called the Counter-Reformation, which aimed to reduce corruption as well as to improve and strengthen Catholic Dogma. Still, the Catholic Church was somewhat weakened by the Reformation, portions of Europe were no longer under its sway and kings in the remaining Catholic countries began to take control of the Church institutions within their kingdoms.
Another important development in the 16th century was the growth of pan-European sentiments. Eméric Crucé came up with the idea of the European Council, intended to end wars in Europe; attempts to create lasting peace were no success, although all European countries agreed to make peace in 1518 at the Treaty of London. Another development was the idea of 'European superiority'. The ideal of civilisation was taken over from the ancient Greeks and Romans: discipline, education and living in the city were required to make people civilised; Europeans and non-Europeans were judged for their civility, and Europe regarded itself as superior to other continents. There was a movement by some such as Montaigne that regarded the non-Europeans as a better, more natural and primitive people. Francis Bacon and other advocates of science tried to create unity in Europe by focusing on the unity in nature.
The Reformation had profound effects on the unity of Europe. Not only were nations divided one from another by their religious orientation, but some states were torn apart internally by religious strife, avidly fostered by their external enemies. France suffered this fate in the 16th century in the series of conflicts known as the French Wars of Religion, which ended in the triumph of the Bourbon Dynasty. England avoided this fate for a while and settled down under Elizabeth to a moderate Anglicanism. Much of modern day Germany was made up of numerous small sovereign states under the theoretical framework of the Holy Roman Empire, which was further divided along internally drawn sectarian lines. The Thirty Years' War was fought between 1618 and 1648, principally on the territory of today's Germany, and involved most of the major European powers. Beginning as a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Bohemia, it gradually developed into a general war involving much of Europe. The major impact of the war, in which mercenary armies were extensively used, was the devastation of entire regions. Episodes of widespread famine and disease devastated the population of the German states and Italy, while bankrupting many of the regional powers involved. After the Peace of Westphalia which ended the war in favour of nations deciding their own religious allegiance, Absolutism became the norm of the continent, while parts of Europe experimented with constitutions foreshadowed by the English Civil War. European military conflict did not cease, but had less disruptive effects on the lives of Europeans. In the advanced northwest, the Enlightenment gave a philosophical underpinning to the new outlook, and the continued spread of literacy, made possible by theprinting press, created new secular forces in thought.
European overseas expansion led to the rise of colonial empires. The combination of resource inflows from the New World and the Industrial Revolution of Great Britain, allowed a new economy based on manufacturing instead of subsistence agriculture. Starting in 1775, British Empire colonies in America revolted to establish a representative government. Political change in continental Europe was spurred by the French Revolution under the motto liberté, egalité, fraternité. The ensuing French leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, conquered and enforced reforms through war up to 1815.
After the defeat of revolutionary and then Napoleonic France, the other great powers tried to restore the situation which existed before 1789. In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna, the major powers of Europe managed to produce a peaceful balance of power among the empires after the Napoleonic wars (despite the occurrence of internal revolutionary movements) under the Austrian diplomat and politician Minister Metternich’s system. However, their efforts were unable to stop the spread of revolutionary movements: the middle classes had been deeply influenced by the ideals of the French revolution, the Industrial Revolution brought important economical and social changes, the lower classes started to be influenced by socialist, communist and anarchistic ideas, especially those summarised by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The Communist Manifesto, and the preference of the new capitalists became Liberalism. Further instability came from the formation of several nationalist movements (in Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary, etc.), seeking national unification and/or liberation from foreign rule. As a result, the period between 1815 and 1871 saw a large number of revolutionary attempts and independence wars. The period between 1815 and 1871 saw a large number of revolutionary attempts and independence wars. In France and the United Kingdom, socialist and trade union activity developed. The last vestiges of serfdom were abolished in Russia in 1861 and Balkan nations began to regain independence from the Ottoman Empire. After the Franco-Prussian War, Germany and Italy unified into nation states, and most European states had become constitutional monarchies by 1871.
The 19th century also saw the British Empire emerge as the world's first global power due in a large part to the Industrial Revolution and victory in the Napoleonic Wars.
This period saw a gradual decline of these three powers which were eventually replaced by new enlightened absolutist monarchies, Russia, Prussia and Austria. Altogether, the Long 19th century, as it was called from 1789 to 1914, sees the drastic social, political and economic changes initiated by the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, and following the reorganisation of the political map of Europe at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the rise of Nationalism, the rise of the Russian Empire and the peak of the British Empire, paralleled by the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Crimean War in 1854 began a tenser period of minor clashes among the globe-spanning empires of Europe that set the stage for the First World War. It changed a third time with the end of the various wars that turned the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Kingdom of Prussia into Italian and German nation-states, significantly changing the balance of power in Europe. From 1870, the Bismarckian hegemony on Europe put France in a critical situation. France slowly rebuilt its relationships, seeking alliances with Russia and Britain, to control the growing power of Germany. In this way, two opposing sides formed in Europe, improving their military forces and alliances year-by-year. The rise of the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire initiated the course of events that culminated in the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th century and early 19th century when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, and transport affected socioeconomic andcultural conditions in Britain and subsequently spread throughout Europe and North America and eventually the world, a process that continues as industrialisation. In the later part of the 18th century the manual labour based economy of the Kingdom of Great Britain began to be replaced by one dominated by industry and the manufacture of machinery. It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Once started it spread. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. The introduction of steam power and powered machines underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity. The development of all-metal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century facilitated the manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in other industries. The effects spread throughout Western Europe and North America during the 19th century, eventually affecting most of the world, both economically and politically. The impact of this change on society was enormous and carried on to the begining of the 20th century. Rivalry in a scramble for empires spread. The outbreak of the First World War was precipitated by a series of struggles among the Great Powers. On one side were Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria (the Central Powers/Triple Alliance), while on the other side stood Serbia and the Triple Entente – the loose coalition of France, Britain and Russia, which were joined by Italy and Romania. With American entry into the war in 1917 on the Allied side, and the failure of Germany's spring offensive, Germany was out of manpower. Its allies, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, surrendered; all three empires were dissolved as the Allies achieved victory.
In the Treaty of Versailles (1919) the winners imposed relatively hard conditions on Germany and recognised the new states (such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, Yugoslavia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) created in central Europe from the defunct German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires, supposedly out of national self-determination. War and poverty triggered the Russian Revolution in 1917 which led to the formation of the communist Soviet Union. Hard conditions imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles and the Great Depression led to the rise of fascism in Germany. The rise of the irredentist totalitarian regime Nazi Germany led to a Second World War. In the following decades, fear of communism and the Great Depression of 1929–1933 led to the rise of extreme nationalist governments – sometimes loosely grouped under the category of fascism – in Italy (1922), Germany (1933), Spain (after a civil war ending in 1939) and other countries such as Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
After allying with Mussolini's Italy in the "Pact of Steel" and signing a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, the German dictator Adolf Hitler started the Second World War in 1939 attacking Poland and following a military build-up throughout the late 1930s. After initial successes, mainly the conquest of western Poland, much of Scandinavia, France and Balkans, Hitler's ideological foes were the Communists in Russia. German failure to defeat the United Kingdom and the Italian failures in North Africa and the Mediterranean led to the Axis forces split between garrisoning western Europe and Scandinavia and attacking Africa. War raged between the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) and the Allied Forces (British Empire, Soviet Union, and the United States). Allied Forces won in North Africa, invaded Italy in 1943, and invaded occupied France in 1944. Germany surrendered in early May ending the war in Europe.
Thus, "short twentieth century", from 1914 to 1991, sees the First World War, the Second World War and the Cold War, including the rise and fall of Nazi Germany and of the Soviet Union. These disastrous events spell the end of the European Colonial empires and initiated widespread decolonisation. The First World War and especially the Second World War ended the pre-eminent position of Europe. The map of Europe was redrawn at the Yalta Conference and divided as it became the principal zone of contention in the Cold Warbetween the two power blocs, the Western countries and the Communist bloc. The United States and the majority of European liberal democracies at the time (United Kingdom, France, Italy, Netherlands, West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany), etc.) established the NATO alliance as a protection against a possible Soviet invasion. Later, the Soviet Union and its satellites in Europe (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania) established the Warsaw Pact as a counterpoint to NATO.
Meanwhile, the rest of Europe slowly began a process of political and economic integration, with its aim to unite Europe and prevent other wars. This process included organisations such as the European Coal and Steel Community, which grew and evolved into the European Union, and the Council of Europe. The Central-East was dominated by communist countries under the Soviet Union's economic and military leadership, while the rest was dominated by capitalist countries under economic and military leadership of the United States. Both of the leading countries were superpowers. Portugal, belonging to the part of Europe led by the US, remained linked to the idea of the socialist state. There was also a number of neutral, or Third World, countries, including Finland, Yugoslavia, Sweden, Ireland, Austria and Switzerland.

Chapter I Political History of France
Political background: The legacy of despotic Louis XIV, AD 1715, left France as a unified, absolutist kingdom which emerged on the political map of Europe. However, the effect of his policy of national grandeur appears to be disaster. The nation's finances were in such a dire state, after twenty-five years of almost continuous warfare, that Louis' descendants remain weakened by financial constraints throughout the 18th century. Industry and commerce were in disarray. Foreign policy wise, to counter Spanish rise to power status, France and Britain often acted in a somewhat uneasy alliance. The main reason is that both nations had political leaders, Cardinal Fleury and Robert Walpole, who saw peace as a necessary aspect of national prosperity. With the death of both diplomats, there was nothing now to restrain the long-standing enmity between these two Atlantic nations, each with a developing empire overseas, particularly in India and Americas. French successes in northern Europe under Marshal Saxe, in 1745-6, prove in the long run less significant than Britain's stranglehold on French trade by sea. Once war is officially declared, in 1744, the British navy harasses French merchant fleets en route for the West Indies or India. Closer to home the harbours of France are blockaded, preventing the transport of commodities up and down the coast. By 1748, after four years of low-keyed naval warfare, France is ready for peace. The harbour of Louisbourg, at the entry to the Gulf of St Lawrence is of strategic importance in relation to French Canada, and India’s Madras are returned by France to Britain in 1748 in the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restoring the status quo but also postponing an inevitable colonial conflict between what are now Europe's leading powers. Germany’s Frederick the Great says of France and Britain around that time: 'they see themselves as the leaders of two rival factions to which all kings and princes must attach themselves'. Within less than a decade the kings and princes will again have to take sides, in the Seven Years' War (AD 1756-1763). At the start of the Seven Years' War the balance between the empires of France and Britain looks much as it has been since the late 17th century. By the end of it, in 1763, the situation is transformed. British victory over the French, clinched in the capture of Quebec in 1759, is followed by dramatic French concessions in the Paris peace treaty of 1763. France cedes to Britain all the territory which it has previously claimed between the Mississippi and the Ohio rivers, together with the original territories of New France along the St Lawrence. This brings to an end the French empire in continental America. The British become unmistakably the dominant power in the northern half of the continent by late 18th century, in one of the major turning points of history.
Political factors: The greatest event which has given rise to a dramatic shift in politics and nation building of France in the late 18th century was the French Revolution. Its causes are multiple. Already severed by the legacy of wars and domestic financial crisis, the French monarchy was ill-equipped to put into effect any necessary reforms. The king technically has absolute power, but neither Louis XV nor his grandson Louis XVI who succeeds him in 1774 proves capable of transforming that supposed power into effective action.
French society in the 18th century later acquires the title “ancient régime”, because it combines ancient privileges for the aristocracy with a complete lack of any modern accountability in government. Lack of accountability is epitomized in the notorious letters –“de cachet”. These documents, issued by the king, can consign someone to a state prison for an indefinite period without even giving a reason. Such behaviour prompted Magna Carta six centuries previously in Britain. Yet this royal privilege does nothing to help the king restrict the privileges of his nobility. Secondly, traditionally the aristocracy and clergy in France are exempt from most forms of taxation. Government efforts to end this injustice and to spread the burden more fairly repeatedly counter well orchestrated campaigns of aristocratic resistance - mainly through the parlement in Paris. Two reforming finance ministers, Turgot in 1776 and Calonne in 1787, are dismissed as a result of opposition in parliament to their measures. What is most disturbing is that these unseemly manoeuvres to preserve feudal privileges are taking place in the most sophisticated and advanced of Europe's kingdoms, and the philosophers of Enlightenment have long criticized the abuses associated with the clergy and the nobility. The court of Louis XVI and his Austrian queen Marie Antoinette were widely regarded as frivolous and corrupt.
In this atmosphere, if the struggle between the privileged classes and the king escalates into a real crisis, neither side is likely to win much sympathy from the French public. Unwisely and unwittingly the king's enemies provoke just such a crisis. The Paris parlement now asserts that taxation is only valid if voted by the estates general - a body not summoned since 1614. After repeated failed attempts at financial reform, King Louis XVI was persuaded to convene the Estates-General, a representative body of the country made up of three estates: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. The composition of the proposed estates general is a controversial topic during the autumn of 1788. The Paris parlement argues that the arrangement should be as on the previous occasion, in 1614, when each estate had an equal number of deputies and each of the three groups met and voted separately. This proposal represents a firm plea for the status quo, since the first two estates (clergy and nobility) can together outvote the third estate (the rest of the nation) on every issue. Yet the third estate is precisely the part of the community which is seething with resentment at the privileges enjoyed by the other two under the ancien régime. As political philosopher of the time, Emmanuel Sieyes stated in his most powerful pamphlet of the campaign “ What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been until now? Nothing. What does it ask to be? Something.” The government resists the demands of the Paris parlement’s first two estates and elections are declared for approximately 300 deputies for each of the first two estates and some 600 representing the third. The electorate includes a large proportion of the male citizens over the age of twenty-five, since everyone appearing on a tax register - as the owner of even the smallest patch of land, or as an industrial worker or craftsman - is allowed to vote. Thus the deputies of the third estate convening for the opening ceremony at Versailles in May 1789 are justifiably perceived as representative of the nation. And the majority of the nation, forming the third estate, have high hopes of them. But first the deputies of the third estate have an important political point to make.
In the opening ceremony the king announces that the estates must themselves decide whether to meet separately, as in the past, or in a joint assembly. The nobles and the clergy vote for separation. To avoid their numerical advantage being wasted by this arrangement, the deputies of the third estate engage in a blocking tactic. They resolve to take no action until the clergy and nobles join them. Deadlock ensues, until it is broken in a dramatic gesture. The third estate declare themselves to be an independent elected body. They choose for themselves a name, the National Assembly. For good measure, and knowing what prevails with any government, they exhort the people of France to continue paying taxes only as long as their assembly is sitting. The king's response is to summon a meeting of all three estates in his presence. In a nearby tennis court, the third estate takes a famous oath - to maintain their assembly until a new constitution guaranteeing their rights has been established. This act of defiance comes to be regarded later as the start of the French Revolution. In the joint session, Louis XVI orders the three estates to continue their deliberations separately. But when the deputies of the third estate refuse to leave the hall unless 'at the point of the bayonet', the king shrinks from force. The deputies remain in their places. The day is won. Louis orders the clergy and the nobility to join with the third estate in forming an assembly charged with a specific task - to provide France with a written constitution. The unauthorized National Assembly becomes the official National Constituent Assembly.
Fall of the Bastille 14 July 1789: The lengthy and complicated process of choosing local representatives of the third estate for the Estates General were a time of great political excitement in Paris. These events have coincided with economic deprivation, resulting from a bad harvest in 1788 and a severe winter. The news of the victory of the third estate is received ecstatically by the common masses. But it is soon followed by rumours that the king is inclining again to reactionary advisers and that there is a threatening build up of troops near the capital. The result is an insurrection, mobs surge through the streets, their most meaningful targets are the only two sites in Paris held by royal troops and representing the power of the first two estates. The first is the barracks of Les Invalides, where a large arsenal of muskets is seized by the masses. More significant as a symbol is the other focal point for the crowd's fury - the Bastille, constructed as a royal fortress in the 14th century. It seemed like a symbol of royal tyranny. The crowds stormed the fortress. The fall of this ancient fortress soon stands in popular memory for the overthrow of the ancien régime itself. And the event has consequences of lasting significance. Order is eventually restored in Paris by a newly elected mayor and commune (or city council) with the help of a volunteer militia. Known as the National Guard, and commanded by Lafayette, the militia wear the tricolour cockade which later becomes the basis of the French national flag. The king himself bravely puts the tricolour in his hat, and returns to Versailles through enthusiastic crowds. The example of Paris is rapidly followed in other cities. The institutions of royal authority are dismantled and are replaced by elected communes and by civic guards. The fall of the Bastille, in itself a minor event, is thus a major turning point. The king's officials are to be replaced by the people's.
Declaration of Rights 1789: In Versailles the Constituent Assembly is alarmed by news of peasant violence and destruction of property in many parts of France. This sudden and unexpected rural uprising is the result of panic sweeping many parts of the country, followed by rumours that aristocrats are conspiring to suppress the National Assembly and that foreign troops have been called in. Peasants attack and burn the castles and manor houses of their feudal lords in what becomes known as the Great Fear. A similar sense of panic grips the noble deputies at Versailles, who compete with each other in volunteering to give up their ancient privileges. A brief debate at the Assembly is sufficient to pass a resolution abolishing all traces of feudalism; legislation specifies the illegality of any form of serfdom, ending of monopolies and tax exemptions, opening of professions to all classes, equality before the law, free provision of justice, and abolition of tithes payable to the clergy who are subsequently required to take oath to the constitution. These practical measures are followed by a document which owes much to America's Declaration of Independence two decades earlier - Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen – which begins by stating that 'all men are born free and equal in rights'. Founder of American declaration, Thomas Jefferson, drafted the American document and defines the main human rights as 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'. His French successors also make liberty their first choice. But they follow it with the right to private property.
The distinction points up an important theme of the developing French Revolution. It is the achievement of the third estate, but that estate is a broad constituency ranging from the rich bourgeoisie to craftsmen and traders in the towns and smallholders in the countryside. All these classes, in revolutionary mood, covet the riches previously reserved for nobility and church (in fact, Constituent Assembly’s new decree declares that all church property belongs to the nation and will be sold). Enmity between various groups continues through the revolutionary years and into Napoleonic era. Indeed all subsequent class warfare, including even capitalism versus communism, can be seen as a continuing battle between rival wings of the third estate on one side, and the three estates on the other.
The capture of the king: Meanwhile a group of small entrepreneurs is the first to flex its muscles. The market women of Paris lead a march to Versailles to put their political views, in forcible fashion, to the king himself. The immediate intention of the Paris mob, marching fourteen miles to Versailles is to protest about the price of bread. They force their way into a sitting of the Constituent Assembly to demand a lower price, and they are allowed to send a deputation into the palace to see the king. The crowd, by now filling the palace courtyard, is not calmed until the king appears on a balcony and promises to accompany them to Paris. However, he and his family escapes Versailles and travels towards the capital. National Assembly delegates follow him. Paris, in radical and tumultuous mood, has thus captured both king and assembly. The revolution moves into a new phase.
Clubs and political figures: One of the striking features of the French Revolution is the part played by political clubs. In France, home of the Enlightenment and the most intellectual of European nations, it is predictable that the great issues of the years following 1789 will be passionately debated. The most significant of the clubs meets in a Jacobin convent and so becomes known as the Jacobin club. The term Jacobin eventually becomes associated with the most radical of republican policies owing to the club's dominance during the Terror of 1793, when its leading figures are Robespierre and Saint-Just. But in the early years of the revolution the Jacobin club includes a wide range of opinion. And its large membership throughout France makes it the debating chamber of the nation. The club's aims will later become its rigidly doctrinaire nature; they are 'to enlighten the people and to protect them from error'. The number of people arguing about the nature of error grows rapidly. By July 1790 the club in Paris has 1200 members and 152 affiliated Jacobin clubs, a significant number. With policy documents issued regularly from the centre, this network represents a formidable political force. At this same period another powerful club is formed in Paris, and one with more aggressive principles on republicanism than the Jacobins. The club of the Cordeliers ‘s stated function is 'to denounce to the tribunal of public opinion abuses of the various powers and all infractions of the rights of man’. Among the club's founding members are Danton and Marat. By the spring of 1791 their ability to appeal to the tribunal of public opinion, at least among the poorer classes in Paris, is made plain when the king and his family plan to leave the city.
The King’s escape: The royal family, trying to depart in carriages to their palace in St Cloud, are physically prevented from leaving by members of the National Guard, backed up by a noisy street demonstration inspired by the club of the Cordeliers. The incident makes the king's lack of freedom painfully apparent. It prompts the rash attempt at escape which leads, almost inexorably, to his death. In 1791 Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and their children succeed in leaving Paris in disguise with false passports, heading for the border with Germany. The idea is to escape from France and to enlist the support of royalist allies, perhaps even the emperor of Austria, Leopold II, who is Marie Antoinette's brother, who might somehow restore Louis to his kingdom. But along the way the family is recognized. Pursuing forces overtake the carriage at Varennes. The king is brought back to Paris, even more evidently a captive than before - and one now with possibly treasonable intentions. The club members of the Cordeliers see their chance and organize a mass demonstration on the Champ de Mars , Paris's main open space for public events, in support of a petition to the National Assembly. The petition demands the abdication and trial of the king. This is a step beyond what has yet been widely proposed, for the main revolutionary intention thus far has been to establish a constitutional monarchy. The scene, as often in such demonstrations, gets out of hand. National Guards respond with rounds of fire to restore order. The event takes its place in popular history as the 'massacre of the Champ de Mars'.
French declaration of war 1792: After his ignominious return from Varennes, Louis XVI has little option but to accept the detailed constitution, devised by members of the Constituent Assembly. It provides for its own replacement by a new assembly, to be known as the Legislative Assembly. The Constituent Assembly adds the self-denying proviso that the new assembly must consist entirely of new members. The inexperienced Legislative Assembly becomes paralyzed, as during that time too many revolutionary factions with different agenda’s for the future of the revolution begin to emerge. The main issue between them is whether France should go to war against other nations to export the revolution at its present stage of development, or should concentrate on pushing the revolution in a more extreme direction within the nation. The war party become known as the Girondins, because many of their leading members are deputies from the Gironde. Their own links are with the bourgeoisie - the merchants and professionals who have benefited from new opportunities thus far in the political upheaval, and who see self-interest in a period of consolidation and calm which the shared purpose of war tends to bring to a nation. The opposing party is the left wing of the Jacobins, headed by an active politician Maximilian Robespierre. Inspired rather more by the ideals of political change, and with support among less wealthy sections of society, they are determined to concentrate on furthering the revolution at home. The war party has a natural ally in the king. He is still head of state. Only he can declare war, and any clear outcome may prove to his benefit. If France wins a war, the credit may seem partly his. If she loses, the victor is certain to be a royalist nation which will have no wish to encourage revolution.
Other European nations are alarmed by the events in France. There are foreign armies in readiness beyond the Rhine, eager to crush the revolution lest it spreads beyond its borders. Among them are forces headed by French émigrés, who have already judged flight from France to be the safest course of action. The most significant opposing power to French revolution is Austria, so the declaration of war - which the Girondins persuade Louis XVI to declare in 1792 - is addressed to the Austrian emperor. This action launches the French revolutionary wars, and inaugurates a period of more than twenty years in which France is in armed conflict against European neighbours.
1792 also bring a heady blend of excitement, alarm and escalating violence - most of it orchestrated by the rival revolutionary groups jockeying for power in Paris. The war party, that of Girondins, has lost some of its influence owing to early French reverses against the Austrians on the battlefield. Meanwhile the radical wing of the revolution has extended its power base by skilful infiltration of the committees of the newly established Paris Commune - a local administrative and counceling body elected directly by people, independent of the Assembly or the King. A particularly prominent new voice in the affairs of the Commune is that of fierce Republican, Danton. The predictable outcome of an increasingly excitable mood, inflamed by a committee of insurrection set up by the commune, is an attack on the residence of the royal family in the Tuileries. The royal family retreat for safety to the Assembly. On this same day the king's rule is 'suspended', it is decreed that the Assembly will be replaced by a newly elected National Convention.
Meanwhile the approach of the election prompts the next step in Paris' relentless escalation of bloodshed. It suits the extremist Jacobins, whose support among the public is little more than slight, to hold the elections in an atmosphere of terror calculated to deter opposition. The brutal events known as the September massacres are a series of summary execution where most of the victims are priests and aristocrats, though many common criminals die as well. There is already a mood of public alarm, with foreign armies now on French soil, so it is easy for the Commune to argue that the victims were dangerous royalist conspirators. There are attempts, not very successful, to spread the massacre to provincial centres.
National Convention 1792-1793: The Parisian deputies in the new Convention are mainly Jacobins (Robespierre and Danton are elected as the first two deputies), but the largest party is still the Girondins. They sit on one side of the assembly, while opposite them are the Jacobins sitting on a raised platform which becomes known as the Mountain (giving them the name Montagnards). In the midst sit the large majority of deputies, unaffiliated but highly susceptible to the terrorist tactics of the Mountain. On the most urgent business before the assembly - the defence and the future government of the nation - everyone is agreed. On the military front, French revolutionary army has won its its first decisive victory, halting the combined forces of Austria and Prussia at Valmy and thus removing the immediate danger to Paris. On their first day of deliberation deputies decree unanimously that royalty is abolished in France. By this decree the French republic is established. The next issue confronting the Convention is what to do with the king. There is much debate as to the legal grounds on which he might be tried. His case is weakened by the discovery of documents apparently implicating him in treasonable correspondence with royalist enemies of France. Thus, King Louis is charged with crimes which include complicity in 'plots against the nation'. He denies all the charges but is given little chance to defend himself. Out of 721 deputies, 361 vote for death without delay or referendum. In 1793 Louis XVI is guillotined.
With the stage cleared by the death of the king, France lapses into a vivid and extreme example of political in-fighting. The first contest is between the only two clear-cut parties in the Convention, the Girondins and the Jacobins. They draw their support respectively from the country and from Paris, which gives the Jacobins a local advantage. It is used to ruthless effect when the Jacobins and the Paris commune persuade national guardsmen and armed citizens to surround the Convention. The deputies are prevented from leaving until they pass a resolution for the arrest of twenty-nine leading Girondins.
This debate exposes the next fatal rift among the leading deputies. Danton, who exercises considerable power through his dominance of the Convention's Committee of Public Safety, is interested only in achieving a stronger government than the Girondins were capable of providing. He sees the revolution as now secure, with no need for further victimisation. He and his allies operating as a group distinct from the Jacobins. By contrast the Jacobins, led by Robespierre, are determined to secure their own radical version of the revolution by eliminating all opposition. They have the Girondins in their sights. Their case is strengthened when Charlotte Corday, avenging the Girondins, assassinates Marat, the voice of the radical left. Marat’s death makes it easy to justify harsh measures against the leading Girondins. More than thirty of them are guillotined in 1793, and Robespierre is now firmly in control of the Committee of Public Safety, which has become the ruthlessly efficient executive wing of the Convention. The Committee gradually acquires all the centralized and unaccountable powers of a police state, and uses them with the arbitrary cruelty which has become known as the period of Terror.
The Terror and Thermidor AD 1793-1794: During 1793 the number of victims of the guillotine in France's cities rises dramatically. Robespier’s Committee for Public Safety takes the risk of ordering the arrest of Danton and his faction, a dangerous move because Danton is one of the revolution's most powerful orators and he nearly sways the Convention. But Robespierre and Saint-Just carry the day with some fabricated evidence and send Dantonistes to the guillotine. Robespierre's power is now absolute, but he rarely attends the Convention; there are mutterings about dictatorship. In the event known as Thermidor a majority in the Convention suddenly turn against him and order his arrest, together with Saint-Just and other close allies. In 1794 Robespierre and his faction are executed. With their departure the Terror Period dies down, though it is now Jacobins who are massacred in many parts of the country in revenge for the events of 1792-4. Politically the events of Thermidor result in power returning from the Committee of Public Safety to the full Convention. The moderates (or Thermidorians) now have the practical everyday problems of economics and war to contend with.
Bread and civil war 1794: Since 1789 the Assembly has issued paper currency to boost the economy and to enable citizens to buy the property of the church, appropriated by the state. To cope with escalating expenses and, from 1792, the cost of war, the government prints more and more money. The inevitable result is rapid inflation. Meanwhile the seizure of church property has itself brought immense problems in its wake. Priests who refuse to swear the oath to the republic find themselves without a salary. But often, in country districts, they have the support of passionately loyal parishioners. Similarly the massive programme of conscription, made necessary by the foreign wars, causes much resentment in many areas. The result of these various discontents is pockets of armed insurrection during 1793, with royalist interests eager to foment unrest wherever it occurs. A large-scale civil war breaks out in the Vendée region between the Loire and the Gironde. In this poor rural area there is much peasant support for priests and great resentment at the extensive conscription imposed. A peasant army, some 30,000 strong and enjoying the support of the local aristocracy, captures several towns with the intention of marching on Paris. Government forces eventually defeat and dispel the rebels in a series of bloody encounters. Further unrest erupts in 1795 when a French émigré army lands from British ships in this region. On this occasion, a year after the fall of Robespierre and his faction, the pro-first and second estate insurgents are rapidly defeated by a government army - a rare success for the Convention in Paris as it struggles to maintain order.
The Convention after Robespierre AD 1794-1795: The maximum price on bread is abolished by the Convention, leading to an even more severe shortage of food. Inflation continues to accelerate. On the political front, violent recriminations throughout the country against the extremist Jacobins give encouragement to the royalists and increase the dangers of a coup. The main concern of the moderates or Thermidorians, now in control of the Convention, is to balance the factions and avoid a lurch to either extreme. Their policy is to devise a new constitution which safeguards the perceived benefits of the revolution (guaranteeing certain individual liberties, for example, and assuring the new owners of church and émigré lands that their tenure is secure) and at the same time protects society against the unsettling populist pressures of the past two years (political clubs are banned). The resulting Constitution 1795 proposes an Executive of Five Directors , or Directory- not directly elected, but chosen by the members of two elected legislative chambers. The new constitution is a clear step back from the brink of full democracy. It replaces universal male suffrage with a tax-paying qualification for electors and a property-owning threshold for candidates. This, together with two thirds of the seats in the new assembly reserved for members of the existing Convention, causes much agitation in political circles of Paris. It is used by royalist agents to foment an armed insurrection against the Convention. The result, in Vendémiaire event in 1795 is the last popular uprising of the revolution. It brings to the fore a young artillery officer - Napoleon.
The guns of Vendémiare 1795: Napoleon's part in saving of Convention, and of its plans for the new regime of five directors, is a simple one. On being appointed one of the commanders to defend the seat of government in the Tuileries, he asks one simple question: 'Where is the artillery?' His men drag the cannon to Paris. Fortunately for the members of the Convention, waiting nervously in the Tuileries, the rebels decide on a direct frontal attack. They are exchanging musket fire with the Convention's troops, but eventually the rebels scatter. The Convention enables plans for the new Directory to continue on schedule. Much credit is given to the 26-year-old Napoleon for this narrow escape from disaster. In the early months of the Directory he is rapidly promoted until, in 1796, he becomes commander-in-chief of the French army in Italy. His success in this role brings him such a reputation in France that by 1799 he is himself in a position to replace the Directory.
The Directory 1795-1799: The four years of the Directory, with occasional changes of personnel among the five Directors, see the moderates or Thermidorians (in effect the bourgeoisie) trying to hold the ring between the real opposing forces of the revolutionary conflict - the royalists, agitating for a constitutional monarchy, and the Jacobins, aiming for a radical democracy. Continuing food shortages and inflation lend support at first to the Jacobin cause, until the radical republican journalist Babeuf alarms the middle classes with his calls for the overthrow of the Directory, a return to revolutionary principles and the sharing of all property. Babeuf is arrested and guillotined a year later, but public alarm at the reappearance of radicalism causes the pendulum to swing the other way. In the elections of 1797 the royalists do surprisingly well, even securing a place among the five Directors. Non-juring priests and aristocratic émigrés begin returning from abroad. In response three non-royalists of the Directors call in the army to stage a coup d'état Fructidor in 1797. Napoleon obligingly sends one of his roughest generals from Italy to mastermind the operation, which removes two Directors (the new royalist member and one other considered unreliable). With two new members, this second Directory conducts its affairs in an increasingly dictatorial manner, with violent persecution of its royalist opponents. At the same time the Jacobin wing of the political spectrum begins to regain power. The ideals of Robespierre and Babeuf recover an element of glamour. It seems as if the swing from extreme to extreme must be an unending process - unless it can be stopped by a drastic coup d'état.
Brumaire events: One of the great survivors of the years of revolutionary turmoil, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (author of the pamphlet about the third estate in 1789), is appointed a Director in 1799. He has already concluded that France's political chaos requires military intervention. He has been discreetly sounding out individual generals who might assist him in yet another coup d'état. One obvious general for the purpose is Napoleon. Napoleon returns from Egypt campaign and is actively engaged in planning a coup.
A false rumour about an imminent Jacobin plot against the Directory is the first step. This is used to persuade the senior of the nation's two councils (the Ancients) and other Deputies, known as Five Hundreds, to appoint Napoleon commander of all the troops in Paris. The conspirators meanwhile place under house arrest those Directors who are not in the plot. On the next day the Ancients and the Five Hundred, assembling at Saint-Cloud, find themselves surrounded by troops. Tense debate regarding the future of the revolution continues in both assemblies until Napoleon impatiently bursts in upon them. The terrified and exhausted deputies are persuaded to pass a motion formally ending the Directory and swearing an oath of loyalty to a new provisional Consulate of three men. This provisional trio of consuls consists of two of the previous five directors, both of them party to the plot and one newcomer - Napoleon Bonaparte. An appointed committee wrangles ceaselessly about the terms of a new constitution for the proposed consulate. The first two consuls are browbeaten by Napoleon and drop out of the running, and a constitutional document drafted by Napoleon is finally accepted. It provides for an executive first consul ‘s virtually unlimited power. It is no surprise that the first consul is to be Napoleon, with a Jacobin and a royalist selected as second and third consuls to appease both factions. The proposed package is put to the nation in a referendum, and the result nationally is voting Yes. After ten years of upheaval and terror the French are ready to accept dictatorial rule by a man who is decisive and undoctrinaire, professionally equipped to direct France's wars against her many enemies, sympathetic to the principles of the revolution and yet inclined to safeguard people's resulting windfalls.
First Consul AD 1800-1804: The plebiscite of 1800 gives Napoleon the mandate to play a role of the enlightened despot. He now has the power, like a monarch, to select the members of the Council of State over which he presides. As in a king's privy council, these councillors specialize in different departments of state. They give their advice. But on any important issue it is the first consul who makes the executive decision. With these powers, Napoleon sets about a thorough reform of France's administrative systems. Despotism and enlightenment are carefully balanced. Censorship of the press is introduced, but so are measures to improve secondary and university education. Police powers are strengthened and judges are now appointed (previously they were elected), yet the judges are given an important new independence in the form of security of tenure. Similarly the pragmatic first consul, himself indifferent to religion, is well aware that much of rural France deeply resents the French republic's attack on Catholicism. Napoleon sets about mending this fence. The estrangement from Rome has recently been absolute. Pope Pius VI, humiliated by the French, is a prisoner in France when he dies in August 1799. Napoleon now makes overtures to his successor, Pius VII. In a Concordat agreed in July 1801, the pope accepts that Napoleon will appoint French bishops (an argument between church and state which goes all the way back to the investiture controversy in the Middle Ages) and that church lands seized during the revolution will not be restored. In return Napoleon agrees to pay the salaries of the clergy and to recognize Catholicism as the religion of the majority of the French people.
The most famous and lasting of Napoleon's reforms during the consulate is his Code of Civil law. Since 1790 there have been several attempts to codify French law - chaotic in its ancien régime form and made more so by a flood of revolutionary legislation. In 1800 Napoleon appoints a committee of lawyers to work on the preparation of a code. He himself takes a keen interest, attending more than half the meetings in which their proposals are discussed. Statutes are enacted from as early as 1801. By 1804 they are ready to be embodied in a single Code Civil, renamed the Code Napoléon. The change of name reflects Napoleon's ever-growing stature in France. In 1802 the people are asked 'Shall Napoleon Bonaparte be consul for life?' As in 1800, the vast majority say Yes. For good measure it is agreed that he can designate his successor. This vote of confidence follows his achievement of peace with France's two main enemies, first Austria and then Britain.
The peace of Amiens AD 1802-1803: Peace is eagerly greeted by Europeans but this is to prove only a breathing space. In expanding colonial empire, Napoleon followed the same trend. Louis XIV had established a colonial empire of France in India and America which was destroyed by the follies of Louis XVI, who was merely a child at the time of accession. Napoleon, after holding the post of the first Consul endeavoured to revive the lost colonial Empire. He compelled the king of Spain to yield up Louisiana, a Spainish colony, situated in America to France. He also tried to capture some colonies of West Indies. He dispatched his General to take possession of Haiti. A separate army was sent to capture the island of San Domingo. Napoleon also wanted to drive the British from India. His ambitions to establish a vast colonial empire and his acts alarmed England which ultimately resulted in abrogation the treaty. England was now anxious to wage a war against France in or to crush his ambitions. Nothing has been resolved in the long rivalry between Britain and France, and each government soon finds much to complain about in the behaviour of the other during the interlude of peace. Napoleon's mercantile policy was one of the significant aspects of dynamic foreign policy. He failed to conquer England on sea and decided to defeat her as a nation of the traders. Napoleon’s refusal to agree to a commercial treaty means that British merchants are penalized by high tariffs in French and allied ports. They conclude that peace seems no more profitable than war. Napoleon was afraid of any interference by England. He, therefore, concluded a treaty with England known as the Treaty of Amiens to avoid this danger from England. Though the Treaty proved very short-lived and lasted for 15 months only, it gave an opportunity to both the countries, viz., England and France, to improve their internal conditions. The following causes led to its abrogation. Britain gives France more specific cause for complaint by not fulfilling the terms of the treaty of Amiens. It has been agreed that she will withdraw from Malta. Her failure to do so would be justified by the expressed views of the Maltese, whose assembly passes a resolution inviting George III to become their sovereign on condition that he maintains the Roman Catholic faith in the island. However, the wishes of local inhabitants carry little weight in diplomatic negotiations in the early 19th century. And Britain, remaining in possession of the island, is undoubtedly in violation of the treaty. Napoleon complains but avoids pressing the issue to the brink of hostilities. It is likely that his long-term intentions towards Britain are not peaceful, but he is not yet ready for a renewal of war. He needs time, in particular, to build up his fleet. The same logic makes Britain prefer an early renewal of the conflict. Napoleon was a born soldier and he knew well that his position was based on military power. He intended to recapture Malta, but he did not succeed in doing so. He also utilized his powerful army in invading Hanover, situated in the north of Germany and established his control over Hanover which belonged to England by a law of succession and hence Napoleon declared that as England had not given him Malta he would not part with Hanover. Though the Treaty of Amiens was concluded, Napoleon did not stop from interfering in the internal affairs of the European states. He established republics in some countries and posted his armies there. He meddled with the internal affairs of Switzerland and by dissolving unitary constitution, introduced Federal Constitution. He himself became the mediator in Switzerland. The name of Cis-Alpine Republic was changed into Italian Republic. He also occupied Holland and incorporated it into his empire. Napoleon massed a large number of soldiers at Boulogne and wanted to invade England by crossing the English Channel. Holland also supported Napoleon and the joint naval forces of both countries became formidable at sea. For no very good reason, other than long-term self-interest, the British government declares war on France in 1803.
Emperor AD 1804: The return of war is followed by renewed royalist plots, openly encouraged by Britain. One such plot leads to an incident which does considerable damage to Napoleon's international reputation - but also prompts him to take the next step up his personal career ladder. In the aftermath of royalist conspiracies, one way to draw their sting may be for France to have once again its own crowned head. Thus there emerges the suggestion that Napoleon should trump the opposition by becoming not king of France but emperor, founding a hereditary Napoleonic dynasty. In 1804 the senate is persuaded to pass a resolution proposing this major amendment to the constitution. For a third time a plebiscite is held to confirm another of Napoleon's changing roles at the head of state. Again the result is overwhelming, people vote yes. The coronation event is accompanied by the equally flamboyant creation of a new aristocracy. By 1808 there is even a new imperial nobility. These events shock French republicans and many elsewhere who have until now been inspired by Napoleon's achievements. Within four years of his coronation Napoleon is ruler of almost the whole of western Europe.
To ensure continuation of his dynasty, Napoleon demanding the hand of Austrian emperor's daughter. The Austrian emperor, Francis I, considers this to be a prudent step. In the circumstances so does Metternich, his newly appointed minister for foreign affairs. In response to the Pope’s refusal to coronate his newborn child, born to his second wife, since Napoleon’s divorce from Josephine, not recognized by church, Napoleon's troops enter Rome in 1808. In 1809 he declares that the city and all its territories are annexed to France. The pope responds by excommunicating the invading forces together with the emperor himself. Napoleon in turn arrests the pontiff, who remains under guard in France until 1814. It seems that Europe now belongs to Napoleon and he can do with it as he pleases. But over-confidence tempts him into the most disastrous undertaking of his brilliant career.
Napoleon the politician and commander: Napoleon was a born soldier who immortalised his name by his military skill. He adopted a dynamic foreign policy and gained grand and splendid victories one after the other and thus tried to satisfy his ever-growing ambitions.
By conquering the Austrian Empire, he made his name immortal in the annals of history. His empire had reached the zenith of its glory during 1804-1807. French historian Hazen has written about it: "He wanted to make France a La Grande Nation of Europe and for this a spirited and vigorous foreign policy of constant militarism was very essential." After the declaration of enthronement of Napoleon in 1804, a French citizen had rightly remarked: "We came to give France a king; we have given her an Emperor." It was really the greatest success of Napoleon that he progressed from the post of an army officer to the throne of France. In fact, he dazzled the people of France by his victories and occupied the throne with great pomp and show. He assumed the title of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He stressed the point before his accession to the throne that unless one single emperor had seated himself on the throne, there would be no peace in Europe; and after his enthronement he endeavoured to execute his dream into reality. He felt himself to be the most suitable candidate for enthronement.
Napoleon considered England to be his greatest enemy. He thought of destroying her naval power again and again but he knew it well that was not an easy task as the naval power of England was invincible. England was surrounded by sea; it was not possible for France to defeat her by his powerful land forces. Thus he endeavoured to extend territory of France and boosted her power and prestige. Napoleon wanted to enhance the glory and splendour of France like Louis XIV. Napoleon achieved wonderful victories and contributed much towards increasing the power and prestige of France. The people of France did not bother about his absolute rule because they were overwhelmed by his victories and reforms. A prominent writer has remarked about his foreign policy: "The key of his foreign policy was to smash the British power. The main objects of Napoleon were the colonial expansion, his spirited foreign policy, undermining the British naval power, revival of the ancient glory of France and the strengthening of the military power of the country. But he could not succeed in his efforts, not in the least. He wanted to dominate the entire Europe."
How far Napoleon's Empire was an Instrument of Peace? Napoleon tried his level best to maintain peace in Europe. He considered his empire to be an emblem of peace. In fact, it was only Napoleon who established law and order in the country. He was a supporter of the theory of religious toleration. People of different faiths, such as, Jews, Roman Catholics and Protestants were happy with Napoleon's religious policy. He formed a popular government and framed a new constitution with the support of his people. He initiated several reforms for the good of the people. Owing to the establishment of peace and order, arts, crafts, trade and commerce, industry and agriculture all flourished. If we take all these facts into account and scrutinize them minutely, we would realise that his empire was not an emblem of peace but a source of terrible wars and ruthless murders.
Foreign policy and military campaigns 1805-1815: Napoleon Bonapart was France's most successful general in the Revolutionary wars, having conquered large parts of Italy and forced the Austrians to sue for peace. In 1805, Napoleon planned to invade Britain, but a renewed British alliance with Russia and Austria (Third Coalition), forced him to turn his attention towards the continent. The failure to lure the superior British fleet away from the English Channel, ending in a decisive French defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar against the British, put an end to France’s hopes of an invasion of Britain. In 1805, Napoleon defeated a numerically superior Austro-Russian army at Austerlitz, forcing Austria's withdrawal from the coalition and dissolving the Holy Roman Empire. In 1806, a Fourth Coalition was set up. Napoleon defeated the Prussians at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt, marched through Germany and defeated the Russians in 1807 at Friedland. The Treaties of Tilsit divided Europe between France and Russia and created the Duchy of Warsaw.
With Austria an ally by conquest and marriage, Prussia crushed into submission, and nearly the whole of western Europe as his empire, Napoleon feels justified in taking a strong line with Russia. In spite of the congenial mood of Tilsit in 1807, and an attempt by Napoleon to revive it in another grand meeting at Erfurt in 1808, Alexander I fails to give any practical support to his ally in the 1809 campaign against Austria. There are various reasons. The Continental System is doing harm to Russia's Baltic trade. The introduction of French republican principles in the grand duchy of Warsaw alarms St Petersburg. And the terms agreed by the tsar at Tilsit have been unpopular in Russia from the start. With war between the two empires increasingly probable, Napoleon moves first in what he intends to be a massive and rapid strike. From February 1812 armies begin to march from many different regions. The assembled force is vastly impressive. The confronting Russian armies are heavily outnumbered, so they withdraw - dragging the French ever deeper into an environment where it is hard to find food for such large numbers of men and horses. The result is a narrow victory for Napoleon over a Russian army commanded by the veteran Kutuzov. The Russians withdraw once again, leaving Moscow open to Napoleon. He enters the city, only to find much of it burning - set on fire by the Russians. Napoleon waits in Moscow, vainly hoping that envoys will arrive to make terms. The retreat of the Grand Army from Moscow in 1812 has become one of the classic images of an invading force suffering disaster and devastation. Harried by regular Russian troops, by guerrillas and by hostile villagers, amid falling snow, the bridges ahead of them destroyed, Napoleon's greatest army seems to face an impossible task in getting home. All over Europe, as the news spreads, people chafing under French domination begin to imagine a different future.
Shifting alliances AD 1813: The three years from the disaster in Russia in 1812 to Waterloo in 1815 demonstrate vividly Napoleon's resilience in fighting back from an apparently hopeless position. During the winter of 1812 he imposes on a weary France a new level of conscription, reducing the age limit for the youngest recruits, efforts are made to rebuild the French arsenal. When Napoleon moves across the Rhine in 1813 for a new campaigning, he is once again in command of an army. Meanwhile public demonstrations in Germany against the French persuade the king of Prussia, Frederick William, to change sides. He declares war on Napoleon in 1813. Austria is more cautious. Marie Louise, the Austrian emperor's daughter, is now empress of France. And Austria instinctively distrusts any course of action which may restore the well-being of Prussia. Nevertheless in the coming showdown it seems unwise to face likely defeat as an ally of Napoleon. After signing a treaty with Russia and Prussia, Austria declares war on France. During 1813 campaign Napoleon achieves successes in battles on Prussia's southern borders. But he finds himself dangerously outnumbered by Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden. The crucial encounter between France and the allies begins near Leipzig. The Battle of Leipzig, involving all the major powers of continental Europe and seen, in retrospect, as a turning point in the downfall of Napoleon, acquires later another resounding name - the Battle of the Nations. It ends in disaster for the French. During 1813 it seems that the allies might accept a settlement which allows France her 'natural frontier' of the Rhine. It may be that this was never a serious offer on the allied side (Britain in particular is profoundly opposed to Belgium being in French hands), but in any case Napoleon cannot accept the loss of all his hard-won gains in Germany and Italy. It is a deeply ingrained part of his character to fight on regardless of the circumstances. But as he does so, during the winter of 1813-4, the allied position hardens. France must shrink back to the borders of 1792. Meanwhile enemy forces, for the first time since 1792, are poised to enter French territory. British commander Wellington's army is the first to cross the border into France. In 1814 allied armies cross the Rhine and enter Paris. Charles Maurice Talleyrand, Napoleon's long-serving foreign minister and the most slippery of the many faithless political characters in these turbulent times, is on hand to welcome the Russian tsar and the king of Prussia into the city. Talleyrand persuades the few available members of the senate to declare that Napoleon is deposed. They invite Louis XVIII to return from exile and, on condition that he accepts the terms of a constitutional monarchy, to mount the throne of his guillotined brother Louis XVI.
Taleyrand the politician and diplomat: Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord was a unique individual. Possessed of extreme self-confidence, he became one of the most important diplomats in Europe during the late 18th and early 19th century. Talleyrand, through skill, cunning and plain luck, managed to survive the reign of Louis XVI, the revolution and reign of terror, the Directory, the rule of Napoleon, and the reigns of both Louis XVIII and Louis Philippe. Talleyrand seemed to possess an uncanny ability to foresee political events and place himself on the side of the victor. At the Congress of Vienna, in 1814, Talleyrand fought to re-establish France as a political power equal to any other in Europe. His weapons were not the tyranny and violence used by Napoleon, but the principles of legitimacy, justice, and public law.
Talleyrand saw some hope in the ideas of the Revolution. He had authored the sixth of the twenty-two articles in the Declaration of the Rights of Man. Talleyrand had proposed the nationalization of the Church. He acquainted himself to Comte Paul de Barras, a member of the Directory. This proved useful when, in 1797, the cabinet was completely modified. Talleyrand was named Minister of Foreign Relations. Again he found himself serving in a government position. Talleyrand was suspected of complicity in the coup of Brumiare, a charge he vehemently denied. However within two weeks of the coup, he was appointed as Napoleon's Foreign Minister. Talleyrand often disagreed with Napoleon's foreign policy. He tried to counsel a policy of moderation for he did not consider the Europe organized by Napoleon as one that could ever attain a stable peace. Napoleon's Europe was to be based on coercion and violence. In 1814, Napoleon was deposed and four days later Louis XVIII was called to take the throne. Talleyrand, although he supported the return of the Bourbons to France, opposed the Charter under which Louis was to rule. He protested against the limitations imposed on freedom of the press. Talleyrand believed that to forestall another revolution, free speech and a right to express opposition was necessary. This was not unusual for Talleyrand, who had openly opposed Napoleon's policies. Austrian foreign minister, Prince Metternich, realized the importance of Talleyrand in France's future and went on to say that, "for great wounds great remedies are necessary and he who has to treat them ought not be afraid to use the instrument that cuts the best." When the Congress of Vienna was called, Talleyrand's role was not that of peace maker. The peace was already made. For better or worse he now had the role of protector. Talleyrand entered into the Congress of Vienna knowing the difficulties he faced in returning France to what he considered her rightful place. He had signed the Treaty of Paris ending the Napoleonic Wars. He was also aware of the secret agreement that gave the powers the authority to make all decisions concerning France and the division of her conquered territories. The terms of the Treaty of Paris were incredibly lenient. France would be returned to her boundaries of 1792 with the addition of 150 square miles of surrounding territory. The art treasures that Napoleon's troops had looted from other European nations, would remain in Paris, to prevent their being damaged. There would be no demands for reparation payments. The leniency shown by the Allies was purely political. Above all else what they needed for Europe was peace and security, and to impose a harsh settlement upon France would only weaken Louis' position and lead to a possible revival of Bonapartist sentiment. The Allies did what was necessary to prevent further hostilities with France.
Vienna Congress Negotiations: Talleyrand entered into the conferences at Vienna, with the intention of driving a wedge between the powers and preserving for France, not only her dignity, but her place among the other great Powers of Europe. He believed that although France had escaped destruction, by the treaty of Paris, she had not resumed her rightful position in the system of general politics in Europe. Her former possessions would be divided between the powers who had defeated her, excluding France, and reducing her to the status of a secondary power. To prevent this Talleyrand requested that Louis XVIII make him the delegate to the Congress.
Alliance powers were already meeting to decide what would be submitted to the Congress. Talleyrand began communicating with ministers of the smaller powers. Allying France with the smaller nations it would give his nation greater power in the Congress. His methods proved effective and France would be heard. The actors he was to negotiate with were Prince Metternich, the representative of Austria, in addition to representatives of Great Britain, Russia. At Taleirand’s insistence, the minister of Spain, Count de Labrador, and Prussian representative Humbold, were added to the list. Next Talleyrand pointed out that the Four powers had no legal, logical or moral justification for assuming control. They had agreed to calla Congress of all the powers. Talleyrand refused to recognize the authority of this group to make any proposals to the Congress. He did not intend to agree to anything arranged without France. Talleyrand, with the aid of the Spanish delegate, succeeded in reducing, to a degree, the control that the victors had given themselves. He wanted to further undermine this authority and place France in an equal position of power with the rest of Europe. Metternich produced a document for Talleyrand and Labrador to sign, along with the other four delegations. It would divide the work of the Congress into committees. Talleyrand was suspicious of this proposal. It would grant France, and Spain as well, a voice in the decisions of the Congress, but even if France and Spain always agreed they could still be overruled four votes to two. This still allowed the Four control of the Congress.
Talleyrand in an official communication, argued that in order for the Congress to have any legitimacy it must include all eight of the powers who had signed the Treaty of Paris.
If the lesser nations were not included they would be forced to explain to all Europe the reasons. Talleyrand's objections may seem trivial, yet they were important concessions. He had been meeting with the ministers of the smaller countries, and already had the support of Spain. With the support of the lesser nations, France could control any voting in the Congress. The angry delegates agreed to Talleyrand's proposal, the six would become eight. Talleyrand also insisted on any decision making to be based on public law of the land and sea. This did not sit well with all the delegates. Prince von Hardenberg shouted that to add the term public law was useless, it went without saying that they would act according to public law. To this outburst Talleyrand replied, "If it goes without saying, it would go better by saying it." Talleyrand wanted this in writing for all of Europe to see. Talleyrand had gained a victory. He had forced them to deal with the issues of legitimacy and self-interest. Their decisions would have to be based on principle and legitimate sovereignty. Talleyrand had decided long before the Congress met to push for the issue of legitimate sovereignty and clearly explained his reasons. First he declared that sovereignty could not be lost by conquest, nor could it be transferred except by the willing secession of its sovereign. The sovereign, by conquest, lost only actual possession of his estate. Using this reasoning most of the nations conquered by Napoleon never lost their sovereignty. These nations would have to be returned to their legitimate rulers. Second, those countries whose rulers had disappeared or had ceded their sovereignty to France, were now without legitimate rulers. They had transferred their sovereignty to France. Because of the Treaty of Paris, France had ceded sovereignty over these nations, but had not transferred it to anyone else. This left one half of the countries in Europe with no legitimate rulers. Third, the Allies had no power to create legitimacy for these nations, because as conquerors of the French Empire they did not gain sovereignty over them. This would have to be decided by the entire Congress, acting together, in order for any appointed ruler to be recognized as sovereign. No one, however, had considered Russian Tsar Alexander's inflexibility on the question of Poland or Talleyrand's skill to turn events to his favor. Alexander was unmoveable on the idea of Russian control of Poland. This was opposed by England, who wished to uphold a treaty that would have divided the Duchy of Warsaw between Prussia, Austria and Russia. Prussia was willing to allow the Russian expansion if, in compensation, it received Saxony and Mainz. Austria, in order to sway Prussia to its side, would allow immediate Prussian occupation of Saxony, provided Prussia would join England and Austria in opposing Alexander's design on Poland. In this, Alexander clung to Prussia for support. This agreement angered Prince Metternich of Austria This proved to be a stalemate and no agreement seemed forthcoming. Rumors of war between Austria and Russia began to circulate. As these threats of war began to reach the rest of Europe, Talleyrand began a campaign to sway opinion in France's favor and away from the allied Powers. In view of this concern by Austrian representative, Talleyrand had tried to obtain an ally among the Four powers in actively opposing Alexander's plans for Poland. He had turned to British representative Castlereagh. England, like France, had no territorial demands to make, and both countries wanted a general balance of power on the Continent. However, if England made too open a gesture toward France it would cause repercussions.
Castlereagh met with Talleyrand and King Louis XVIII in Paris , 1814. Castlereagh was en route to Vienna for preliminary meetings with the other three Powers. France offered its support to England in preventing Russian plans for Poland. Castlereagh had, in turn, given his assurance that nothing detrimental to France would be done during this meeting . A special understanding was formed between England and France. This understanding would now become useful. Considering Alexander's refusal to abide by the partition of Poland agreed to by treaty,Talleyrand secured an agreement between Austria, England and France. This was to be an alliance of mutual support. Austria and France each promised to provide 15,000 men and Great Britain would furnish and equal number of men of a proportionate subsidy. Hannover, Sardinia, Bavaria, and Hesse-Darmstadt, aware of Prussia’s territorial ambitions, would be invited to sign the treaty as well. A military commission would be established to prepare joint plans if Russian armies advanced into Western Europe. This treaty was signed by Talleyrand, Castlereagh, and Metternich in 1815. With the securing of this treaty, Talleyrand had hastened the dissolution of the Allies against France. Talleyrand was able to exploit their differences to the benefit of France. They had joined originally to defeat Napoleon, and now with the lack of a common enemy, they were testing the restraints of the Alliance to its breaking point.
With the dissolution of the coalition against France, Talleyrand had achieved a major victory, yet the problem of Poland remained to be solved. Talleyrand had proposed the idea of a large, independent Poland, strong enough to maintain its independence. Talleyrand was realistic enough, however, to realize that this would not occur. Russia, and Alexander particularly, would never allow Poland any real independence. The only solution that remained was to return Poland to its situation after the last of the three partitions.
Talleyrand also tried to warn Austria of the danger of putting, "Russia like a belt around your most important possessions in Hungary and Bohemia." He also warned of allowing Saxony to be taken over by Austria's "natural enemy". Talleyrand, as did most of Europe, knew of Prussia's well-trained army and militaristic sentiments. He feared that with the enlargement of her sphere of influence, Prussia could become dangerous to her neighbors. Talleyrand suggested preventing this by the formation of a German federation. After a period of threats and concerns about outright war, an agreement was finally reached (division of Poland would be that Prussia gained the provinc province of Posen, Austria would retain Galacia, remainder would be formed into Kingdom of Poland under Russian control. Prussia, in compensation for its loss of Polish territory would be given two-fifths of Saxony with the rest being restored to its legitimate sovereign. Prussia also gained the fortresses of the Elbe, much of the left bank of the Rhein, Westphalia and Pomerania. Austria, by way of compensation, obtained the Tyrol and Salzburg. She was promised further territory in Italy and the Illyrian provinces on the Adriatic.)
Meanwhile, Napoleon had escaped from Elba and was on his way back to reclaim his throne. The Congress sprang to action and was pledging whatever support was necessary to repel the tyrant. Thus, as a buffer zone, Switzerland was given new borders and was declared permanently neutral. This became a principle of international law. An agreement for the embryo of a German confederation was also reached. These two developments pleased Talleyrand greatly. Switzerland's neutrality gave France a secure frontier and the German Federation, Talleyrand believed, would become an important element in the equilibrium of Europe.
Before the settlements could be imposed on Europe, there was a battle to be won, so Austria, Prussia, England and Russia had signed a new alliance. This Quadruple Alliance invited France to join as a signatory. By luck or fate, France was now pledged to fight until Napoleon was crushed once and for all. The allied armies had gathered in Belgium and the Netherlands and Napoleon met his final defeat at Waterloo. A new treaty with France would now have to be negotiated. The second Peace of Paris took longer to draw up than the first. This treaty was not quite as lenient as the first. France would be obliged to return to their proper owners all art treasures that Napoleon had claimed as spoils of victory. France would be restored to its 1790 borders. She would be required to pay a settlement of 700 million francs and support an occupying army of Allied troops for 5 years. This army would consist of 150 thousand men.
Talleyrand opposed this treaty. He argued that the battles in 1815 had been against Napoleon alone. Louis had not given up the throne, and France had been part of the Alliance to defeat Napoleon, therefore no new treaty was needed. Europe wanted guarantees that the revolutionary spirit in France had been subdued and that there would be no further aggression. Talleyrand tried to convince them that Louis' very presence on the throne and France's signing of the Alliance treaty should be guarantee enough.
The Allies persisted in their demands and Louis' resolve weakened and was willing to accept the new treaty. This, in Talleyrand's opinion, undermined everything that had been accomplished at Vienna. Talleyrand refused to sign anything that would compromise France or render it powerless. Talleyrand would not be a party to something he believed to be detrimental to France. So in 1815, he resigned.
Talleyrand was skilled in the art of manipulation, yet the evidence would suggest that he was motivated by a love for France and genuine concern for its welfare. During the Congress of Vienna, Talleyrand had championed the cause of legitimacy and justice. He had done everything in his power to raise France from the position of a defeated, second class power to one of equality with the Great European powers. When judged by modern standards his methods seem unethical and corrupt, but taken in the context of the era in which he lived, Talleyrand was typical of the politician of this period.
Napoleon’s charade: Following his defeat, Napoleon has no choice but to abdicate, in the Treaty of Fontainebleau. The allies settle their affairs with Napoleon in the treaty of Fontainebleau and with the new king of France, Louis XVIII in the treaty of Paris. The terms in each case are surprisingly lenient, considering that the expansionist campaigns of the French republic and Napoleon have brought Europe two decades of war and hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Napoleon is given the island of Elba as his own estate, is allowed to retain the title of emperor and is given an annual pension of two million francs (to be paid by Louis XVIII). No indemnity is required from France as a nation. France is confined to her borders of 1792, losing the territories won by the citizen armies of the republic. Meanwhile the allies convene in the congress of Vienna, 1814, to tie up the loose ends of the continent which he has reshaped. But the little lord of Elba is still capable of surprising them.
The return from Elba AD 1815: Napoleon hears reports from his secret agents that the French people are far from happy with the return of the Bourbons, foisted upon them by the machinations of Talleyrand and the conquering foreign powers. The result is an exceptionally audacious plan - and one which succeeds beyond all likelihood. Napoleon waits until the British naval brig, stationed to watch Elba's coastal waters, is briefly called elsewhere. In 1815 he embarks his followers in a fleet of small vessels and reaches France. The pattern of welcome continues, as the news of the emperor's approach runs ahead of him. As promised, he reaches Paris and an ecstatic crowd welcomes him, without a shot being fired through the whole marching. Napoleon instals himself in the Tuileries (from which Louis XVIII has fled the previous evening) and starts to assemble a government. This is a harder task than the welcome of the populace would suggest. The middle classes are wary of any further upheaval. And retaliation is threatened swiftly from abroad, owing to the fact that Napoleon's enemies are all in one place, Vienna. News of Napoleon's landing in France reaches Metternich in Vienna. The allies' response to the crisis is immediately the agenda of the congress to mobilize the armies round France's borders. At the battle of Waterloo 1815, Napoleon suffers defeat at the hands of five allied armies and and abdicates. Louis XVIII returns to Paris for his second restoration. France's victorious enemies, irritated by the expensive diversion, are now in less generous mood. The treaty of Paris 1815, is markedly less lenient than the terms offered in 1814 on the first Bourbon restoration. It removes some territory on France's eastern frontier, subjects the controversial eastern provinces to a period of occupation by allied troops and imposes an indemnity of 700 million francs.
France’s domestic political scene 1815-1848: This period witnesses the last attempt to wed the institution of monarchy to teh French nation. The political landscape of France is marked by the constant conflict between the old forces of “ancient regime”, the ultraroyalists who attempt to change the settlement of 1815 and bring back the power to the Church and the King, on one hand, and the republican forces of the 1789 revolution on the other hand. The attempts of the restored French Bourbon King Louis XVIII to steer a middle line between these political groups are thwarted by the openly ultra-royalist agenda of his successor King Charles X, who reigned France 1824-1830. His overtures brought the Revolution of 1830 and an election of Louis Philippe as the King who took upon the constitutional restraints on his authority and supported a parliamentary monarchy. However, King Louis Philippe of Orleans’ narrow middle-class based domestic policy and failed, weak foreign policy abroad brought him low public opinion and created further conflict in the state. The rising Socialist movement and awakening of the proletariat class in France creates further troubles for the bourgeouis monarchy, while Legitimists (favoring return to pre-1789 monarchy), Republicans and Bonapartists all gradually undermine the King’s position. The French Revolution of 1848 sets off a political revolt throughout much of Europe, and is the consequence of these complications. The Bourbon monarchy ends in 1830, and Orleanist one in 1848, and neither is ever to be revived.
Politics of Louis XVIII, 1814-1824: With Napoleon safely removed from the scene, in distant St Helena, the Bourbon king Louis XVIII - restored to the throne now for the second time - attempts to establish the constitutional monarchy which has been the condition of his dynasty's return. The pattern is intended to echo the parliamentary system established in Britain, with one chamber made up of peers and another of elected deputies. He is quite prepared to keep the changes in administration under Napoleon and other changes brought by the Revolution, such as distribution of land to peasantry. He is not prepared to restore to the Church its land and power that the clergy enjoyed before the revolution. He clearly saw the danger of another revolution if he attempted to do that. The king’s appointed chief minister, Richieleau, supports his policy and the people’s liberties guarantied in the king Louis XVIII- introduced constitutional Charter of 1814. This Charter sets up a parliamentary system consisting of a chamber of peers nominated by the kind and the chamber of deputies elected by voters. People of all classes are decalred equal before law and eligible for civil and military appointments. Religious toleration is decreed, press is free from censorship, and those who purchased the land of the church and nobility during the years of revolution are guaranteed their possessions. However, the new franchise is very narrow,, and only those who pay 300 francs in taxation are eligible to vote in elections to the chamber of deputees. Second, only the King or his ministers could propose law, althought the lower chamber could refuse to pass them or grant taxes. Despite its limitations, the French Constitution of 1814 was the most liberal in all of Europe, with the exception of England. It instantly gained enemies, chief among them were ultra-royalists, with many followers among French emigree who returned from abroad and were now pressing for a return of their privileges enjoyed before the Revolution. They wished to put education under the control of the Church, control the press, embark on the policy of warlike adventures abroad to restore France’s tarnished image and military glory and make the loss of liberty at home more acceptable to the people.
The first elections held in 1815 after the defeat of Napoleon result in an ultra-royalist majority in the chamber of deputees. This did not oblige the King under the Charter to appoint an ultra-royalist government, so his minister stayed in office. But the King and Richileu were unable to control the activities of the ultra royalists in the country. The ultras began the policy of revenge on their opponents, known as White Terror. Vengeance for the recent sufferings of the landed classes was high on their agenda. The king, personally inclined to moderation, contrives to steer a middle course, he saw the dangers of the policy of revenge and granted pardon to all those who were not convicted by the ultras for “treason” in supporting Napoleon during his 100 days rule. But the ultra majority in the chamber of deputees defeated these issued orders. In response, Louis XVIII dissolved the Chamber of deputees in 1816 and called for new elections. His calculations were correct when new elections return a more centrist, moderate parliament. The electors were tired of and alarmed by the ultras’ policy of revenge and brought deputees to the chamber who were in favou of the King’s policy. The king was now able to put a stop to the Ultras’ activities. The years that follow are a constant conflict between the ultra royalists and the King and his minister’s moderate policy. The latter’s policy is acceptable to the great powers of Europe as they see a danger in any political strife leading to revolution. In 1818 Richileu was able to persuade the Great powers to withdraw their war occupation forces from French territories and to reduce the war reparations by one third. This was a great achievement and partly a reward to France for her good conduct.
But the King’s task is made more difficult after the assassination, in 1820, of his nephew the duc de Berry by a fanatical republican who was opposed to the monarchy and attempted to distinguish the Bourbon line. The event prompts an immediate swing to the right, ultra royalists took advantage of the incident and pushed for their radical demands on the government. This assassination was further accentuated because the murdered young man's father - the future Charles X - was already the leader of the ultra-royalist faction in the country. Richileu, while still atempting to restrain the Ultras, was forced to restrict the liberties guaranteed by the Constitutional Charter 1814. He imposed censorship of press, abolished secret ballot in elections and gave double vote to wealthy landowners. But these measures were still not good enough for the Ultras. They achieved his dismissal and replaced with a new minister Villele to carry out completely their policies. The new minister relied on the Catholic Church and the properties bourgeousie for his support in carrying out the ultras’ policies. The day of the Ultras has arrived. The 1820s see a continuous drift towards reactionary policies, including the unscrupulous revision of the franchise to favour the rich. The Catholic church begins to assert its influence over the royal court. Another person in ultras movement is writer Chateaubriand, who was elected as a foreign minister in Villele’s government. He put forward a foreign policy of militarism and adventures abroad in order to reconcile people with the loss of liberties at home. He advocated the intervention of French army in Spain to suppress the popular revolution there and the French army restored the King Ferdinand VII to the Spanish throne in 1823.
Encouraged by this success, the foreign minister wanted France to expand eastward to the Rhine river frontier and regain all the territory it held in the 18th century. This policy was likely to be opposed by the great powers by force. British foreign secretary, Canning, threatened war with France if she attempted to regain Spanish American colonies for Ferdinand VII. French Minister Villele found this policy advocated by Chateaubriand too dangerous and dismissed him.
King Charles’ foreign and domestic policy, 1824-1830: The ultra royalist influence in the government accelerates after Charles X succeeds his brother Louis XVIII in 1824. At the very start of his reign Charles X makes a dramatic statement of his intended policy. The leader of emigrees, believer in the Divine right of kings, plotter against revolution and moderate policies of Richilieau was now head of state and had himself crowned according to pre-1789 rituals of ancient regime. The 1824 election increased the number of ultra royalists in teh chamber of deputees and Minister Villele felt the time was right to grant all the privileges back to the emigree and clergy. Appropriate political measures follow. Power is returned to the clergy. Large sums of money are allotted to recompense the aristocracy for lost lands. The King and Villele intended to base their support on the old alliance of the Church and the monarchy, which was swept away by the revolution of 1789. In the parliament’s chamber of peers where liberals held a majority, protest was expressed against restored harsh ecclesiastic laws. Among the people who were opposed to the church’s monopoly on ideas, middle and lower classes were also repelled by such religious fanaticism. The liberal and republican forces in France began to rally their forces against the King, the aristocracy and the Church. Hostility mounts and is even expressed in parliament. A sign of this dissatisfaction was the election of republican leader Lafayette to the chamber of deputees in 1827. He organized secret societies, known as carbonari, in opposition to the ultra royalists and enjoyed much popularity in the National Guards. Charles responds by selecting increasingly right-wing ministers. Eventually in desperation, in 1830, he disbands the National Guards, the only force that was widely regarded as the only frontier protecting the liberties guaranteed by the 1814 Charter. Charles imposed harsh censorship of press, appointed a radical chief minister Prince de Polingnac, to replace Villele, who found Charles’ policies dangerous and fraught with invoking further opposition in France. Polignac took Charles X policies a step further, demanding an ultimate return to the pre-1789 days. Charles X dissolves the elected chamber and announces a new electorate, hoping to regain the ultraroyalist majority in both chambers. When the election results yield republican and liberal majority, he decalres an emergency state, sets aside election and reduces the number of those entitled to vote. This is too much for the Parisians, always conscious of their revolutionary traditions. These actions were a signal for immediate revolt against the King. Barricades appear once again in the streets. Angry crowds brandish the tricolour, symbol of the revolution but replaced since 1815 by the Bourbon flag. They set up their own government, residing in the Hotel de Ville in Paris, and headed by the veteran of 1789, Lafayette. The middle and working class unite in the struggle and many of those government troops that are sent to crush the rebellion merely fraternize with the rebels. After three days of street-fighting, the people win. Son all of Paris is controlled by the revolutionaries. Charles X, king of pomp and ceremony, abdicates in 1830 and flees to England. He had failed entirely to restore the monarchy of Divine right and destroy the liberties of 1814 Charter.
Republicans under Lafayette taking a leading part in July revolution of 1830 but republic is not set up. The reason was – while republicanism was strong in Paris, it didn’t enjoy equal influence in countryside. The commercial middle class feared that republic will direct its atack on their private property and landowner rights. Second, general understanding was that Great powers would not tolerate another Republican revolution in the heart of Europe and the country would again be prompted into isolation and be open to an external attack. The middle class wanted a peaceful policy, good relations with great powers, especially with England. Middle class was satisfied that the church and ultraroyalists were decisisively defeated and the bourgeouisie was not in control of political affairs.
Orleans (or July) Monarchy, 1830-1848: The King whom the middle class trusted to promote their interests was elected by the chamber of deputees and given a more democratic sounding title of King of the French. Executed King Louis XVI’s distant Bourbon cousin, Louis Philippe, the duc d'Orléans, cuts a very different figure, presenting himself to the people wrapped in a tricolour and greeted on the steps by Lafayette himself, a leading player in 1789 events. In 1830 Louis Philippe is formally proclaimed 'king by the will of the people'. He becomes known, with good reason, as the Citizen King. He enjoyed good credentials, was a member of Jacobin club and fought on the side of revolutionary armies against the Austrian forces. He was the first elected monarch in French history. This implied the right of those who elected him to get rid of him if he didn’t live up to their expectations. So his position was very insecure from the very start. The new Constitutional Charter of 1830 drawn up by the Chamber of Deputees put further limitations on the King’s powers. The King could not issue special emergency cases, as King Charles X had done. He could not put a national emergency state order and dissolve the Chamber of deputees if elections were against his position. Second, the chamber of deputees or peers could not propose laws themselves and not merely dispute those proposed by the King or his ministers. Third, the number of voters was increased through lowering ot tax qualification for franchise. This placed voting powers firmly in the hands of the middle class but was not sufficiently democratic, given the size of the population.
The Citizen King finds it hard to govern a nation in which the number of disaffected factions has increased with each change of regime. The extreme left wing, deriving from the Jacobins, has recently found new support in the increasingly industrialized cities. Meanwhile more moderate republicans, also with their roots in the revolution of 1789, hope for a system of the Directory. The imperial years have also left a Bonapartist faction, dreaming of a new empire linked with Napoleon's family. Even the royalists, having achieved their main purpose with the Bourbon restoration, are now split into two incompatible groups. The royalists faithful to the main Bourbon dynasty, describing themselves as the Legitimists, believe that Charles X's grandson should be king, with Louis Philippe merely regent. The other royalist faction, backing Louis Philippe, are known as the Orleanists. Louis Philippe lacks a clear democratic mandate (the franchise in his reign extends only to some 200,000 wealthy citizens), yet he has little of his own to offer. And there are frequent republican uprisings. The predictable response is a clampdown on political liberty. Large demonstration persist and the reappearance of barricades in the streets includes a new element, the red flag of socialism, now seen in working-class districts.
The problems facing Louis Philippe in foreign policy are also compounding. The previous governments since 1815 have to a certain extent revived the prestige of the country’s military power. There was a successful intervention in Spain by Charles X, and a success of the campaign to gain a French foothold in Algeria. Many people expected the King to go forward with this policy, especially Bonapartists, Legitimists and Liberals, while Republicans wanted their king to give active support to revolutions abroad. The king considered maintenance of peace as the best way of maintaining commerce and trade, which was favorable to the middle class, on whom he relied for power and support. Military adventures of any kind would distrupt this peace. The disaster of his foreign policy in the cases of Belgian revolution, Poland and Italy, Spanish marriages, the affair of Mehemet Ali of Egypt proved dangerous to his position as a King. The first two cases require our focus.
Belgian people were restive under their forced union with Holland made during the Congress of Vienna. Belgium was the first country in Europe to conduct a full scale industrial revolution after England. Belgium was a manufacturing country, and Holland a trade and seafaring state. The mainly Dutch government supported free tradem while Belgium favoured policy of protective duties on imports to promote their home manufactures. Belgium was Catholic, the Dutch Calvinist Protestants. When in 183o Belgians rose up in a revolt and forced the Dutch troops to leave their land, Louis Philippe faced a dilemma. Belgian revolt was a challenge to Vienna Congress’ arrangement and to Great Powers’ settlement. The King simply could not stand aside, especially as Belgians offered their throne to his second son. To this offer British foreign secretary Palmerston was entirely opposed. Louis Philippe, anxious to please and placate England, withdrew from this affair and his son’s candidacy. Instead, he agreed to the offer of Belgian throne to British Queen Victoria’s uncle instead. İn 1831, Dutch attack was launched against Belgium, by order of Dutch King William who refused to accept the fact of Belgian independence, however, with the help of French forces and British navy, Belgians repulsed the attack. In 1839, an agreement was reached between Great Britain, France, Russia, Austro-Hungary and Prussia that future neautrality of Belgium will be guaranteed should there be war in Europe. Belgium was a small buffer zone in preserving a balance of power between a great deal of European powers, and its occupation removed that safety cushion, particularly in the dealings of Great Britain, France and Germany. This principle of Belgian neutrality was violated by Germans in 1914.
Following this Belgian affair, Louis Philippe failed to please those groups in France which pressed for bringing Belgium under French control. He was accused for not being strong enough to go against Great Britain, that France was reduced to the status of playing second fiddle to its northern neighbor.
The year 1830 saw another string of revolts encouraged by July revolution and Belgian uprising. Catholic Poland was yet another country anxious to break free from Tsarist Russia’s control. Leaders of Polish revolt of 1830 hoped for assistance from Louis Philippe, and yet, as with Belgium, he followed a cautious policy, fearful of the war with the united front of Russia, Prussia and Austro-Hungary, all of which had Polish subjects. This would isolate France and place her in danger. The King could not count on Great Britain either which wouldn’t directly involved in the matter of no national urgency to British interests.
The same situation arose when a similar revolt arose against Austrian influence in some parts of Italy. And again the King gave no effective aid. He was attacked from every side at home, especially by the Liberals in the Chamber of Deputees led by Thiers. Yet he kept France out of any military adventure that might lead to another war in Europe. In 1836 liberals’ leader Thiers was appointed a chief minister and attempted to force King’s hand to adopt a more adventurous foreign policy, but soon resigned when the King refused to intervene on behalf of Spanish rebels who were involved in the civil war against their king.
This considerably contrbuted to the King’s position weakening in France, especially in the wake of Britain’s Lord Palmerston’s resounding diplomatic victory over Switzerland where civil war broke out between conservative Catholic and liberal cantons as to what type of government must be formed there. British support for the liberals resulted in the victory of the latter in forming the Swiss government, while French policy suffered a fiasco and was discredited by the Catholic church in France, while the King’s standing among French Catholic countrymen shattered. Whatever course he took in his foreign policy, he was sure to offend either religious, nationalistic or political sentiments of this or other political segment of his constituency.
On the domestic front, the main body of voters in elections were the middle class which consitituted the King’s support base. The reliance of Louis Philippe on the moneyed middle class meant that he ignored the conditions of the working class and became more and more isolated from the mass of the people as his reign progressed. So did the Chamber of Deputees and the government under chief minister Guizot who lavished favours on his ministers and bribed deputees in favour of his policies. Minister Guizot resisted all demands for an extension of the vote to less moneyed population, claiming that the tax qualification applies to those who work hard and make enough to qualify. “Make money and thus qualify as taxpayers for the vote, or Enrichichez vous!” was his usual argument to liberal demands on voting rights. He retained his control over th chamber of deputees by either a system of bribe or corruption, so no wonder this representative branch had little concern for the welfare of the poor. This was the major weakness of Orleanist monarchy.
There were many groups opposed to Louis Philippe’s rule. Many of the opposition were Socialists, Bonapartists, Legitimists, Liberals and Republicans. Socialists wanted establishment of trade unions and working class’ control over the means of production. Republicans demanded extension of the vote to the whole population and doing away with the monarchy. Liberals wished for King’s ministers to be chosen by the Chamber of deputees and be directly responsible to it for their actions. Legitimists supported the claims of Charles X’s descendants’ claims to rule and despised Louis Philippe simplistic approach and manners. Bonapartists cheered for the nephew of the deceased former emperor Napoleon I, young and ambitious Louis Napoleon III.
Rise of Socialism: France was the third European country to undergo industrial revolution. The transformation of France into a modern industrial nation was going rapidly under the reign of Louis Philippe. The wealth earned by the middle class was much a result of the working class labour,but the conditions in which the latter worked and lived were appalling. It was under these conditions that the ideas of socialism gained ground in the 1830s. These ideas were expounded by St Simon and Fourier. St Simon wanted a society that would be organized and guided by intellectuals who cared for the people, and ensure fair and proper distribution of wealth to all the people. Fourier proposed setting up workshop communities where property was owned in common and no private property owning capitalists existed. These communities would be linked together, with no strong central government in charge. The two political theorists were utopian Socialists and had no direct effect on workers. Another socialist ideologist, Proudon, claimed that property was theft and denounced unfair distribution which left property and wealth in the hands of very few. But the most important Socialist thinker and active agitator against Louis Philippe’s reign was Louis Blanc. In his book Le Organization du Travail, he argued that every man is entitled to productive work and it is the duty of the state that he should get it. State must run manufacturing workshops and workers must be employed cooperatively in them, get their fair share of income according to their contibuted labour. In other workds, the profits of the labour were to be shared among them, employee to employee. He called for full scale nationalization and worker’s control over production and its profits. Louis Philippe’s reply to these activities was to introduce the Law of Associations, by which heavy penalties were imposed on the societies aiming to overthrow the government. This law aimed primarily at the socialist societies and trade unions.
Coupled with peoples Napoleonic nostalgia people felt about regaining France’s former glory in foreign affairs, and the deteriorating domestic situation further served to undermine the King’s position. All groups opposed to the King agreed on the need to extend the vote to all to make chamber of deputees more representative of the nation. It was from the selfish policy of Chief Minister Guizot “Enrich yourselve so you can qualify for elections” that increasing opposition led by socialist worker Louis Blanc arose. In 1843 socialists and republicans united in their demands for parliamentary reform, demanding the loweirng of tax qualification for voters. They also demanded property qualification to become a deputee in the parliament. In the face of the government ignoring these demands, the usual pattern of escalation occurs. Barricades were drawn up in the working class quarters of Paris. National Gaurds, far from willing to disperse the demonstrators, fraternized with the socialists and other rebels. With the National Guard being completely unreliable and Minister Guizot resigning in fright, Louis Philippe abdicates and withdraws to England, and Paris crowd proclaims instead France’s second republic. The Republicans and Socialists were a main force in dethroning the King and bringing about the fall of July Monarchy, so now they jointly set up a provisional government, at the head of which was Republican poet Lamartine, and in which Louis Blanc was also included.
The Second Republic AD 1848-1852: The Revolution 1848 was brought about by the alliance of the middle and working classes. The alliance was uneasy, as the working class struggle took on socialist forms which was directed against the propertied interests of the middle class. Out of this conflict of interests, Louis Napoleon was able to gain power to revive the Empire based on order and protection of property interests. The first step towards his Imperial goal is his election as President in 1848. He attempts to consolidate the power of France by dynamic foreign policy, but his efforts are hampered by the conflict of interests within the ranks of his advisers and within the nation itself. He builds up his power to the point of proclamation of the Empire in 1852, however, as Emperor Napoleon III, he is outmatched in diplomatic skill by Bismarck, and France’s defeat in the Franco- Prussian war 1870-71 sees the end of the second Napoleonic era.
In its first few days following the 1848 revolution the provisional government of the new republic passes several radical measures. Socialists were in a strong position and held chief posts in the provisional government. This advantage was due to their strength in Paris, to the part Socialists have taken in the revolution and the leading role they have played in it. Under socialists’s pressure, Lamartine’s provisional government proclaimed the right of everyone to work, proposes state-run national workshops to ensure full employment, limits the length of the working week, and introduces universal male suffrage over the age of twenty-one - increasing the electorate at a stroke from 200,000 to some nine million. However, Lamartine’s orders decreed that the national workshops are deemed impractical and are abandoned, being replaced with schemes such as the extension of military conscription. At Louis Blanc’s insistence a Luxembourg committee (or the Ministery of Labor and Progress) was established to be concerned about the conditions of workers. It issued decreed lessening the number of hours at work, establishing minimum wages, strengthening the position of labor unions. However, most of these decrees lacked enforcement and were never put in force, as employers were firmly against these reforms and the Committee was so isolated from the remainder of the government. The result was an insurrection under Socialist leadership near hotel de Ville where the provisional government was located. Demonctrations were also held in the working-class districts of Paris, all ruthlessly suppressed by the republican government. The demands of the socialists were detrimental to the rights of property. The government chose to use force and disperse the crowds. This was a decisive moment for the provisional government and marked a sharp conflict between the socialists and their opponents which played a leading part in the events of 1848. In the light of these events, and of the rash of revolutions elsewhere in Europe, the electorate inclines to an authoritarian figure when the moment is reached, in 1848, for the choice of the republic's first president. The winner is Louis Napoleon, nephew of the emperor. He receives more than five million votes, nearly four times the score of his nearest rival. The election of a president in 1848 offers him a legitimate route to power. The new constitution of France 1848 established a single Chamber of Deputees elected for four years by universal male suffrage. It could not be suspended or dissolved without its own consent. This was arranged to prevent the President from acting on his own authority against the Chamber. The presidency is for a fixed term of four years, elected by universal male suffrage, he is not eligible for re-election for another four years. He appoints his won ministers, is head of armed forces and being elected by the people, is not answerable for his actions to the Chamber of Deputees. Many Liberals and even Socialists voted for Louis Napoleon Bonapart in the hope that he would live up to his promises of aiding the workers. The French peasantry, on the other hand, voted solidly for Napoleon in the hope that he would guarantee their right to their private ownership of land which the Revolution 1789 brought about and which Bonapart himself recognized. To the peasantry Bonapart’s name meant security of their possessions and no nationalization of land which socialists and communists advocated.
Louis Napoleon skilfully builds up support around the country, but he fails to persuade the national assembly to vote a change of law enabling him to continue in office after 1852. Additionally, the assembly reduces Republican vote by disfranchizing 3 mln of 9mln voters. Louis Napoleon demanded that the Assembly shuld repeal this disenfranchisement law. When the Assembly refused, his position among republicans was considerably strengthened. He posed as a true protector of the Revolution and people supported him against the Assembly. He resolves created political dilemma with a brilliantly organized coup d'état. In 1851 troops enter the assembly in Paris while large numbers of Louis Napoleon's political enemies around the country are arrested. He then uses the Napoleonic device of a plebiscite to seek the nation's approval for a new constitution. Louis Napoleon is helped by the fact that the assembly, inclining again to royalist sympathies, has in 1850 disenfranchised some three million of France's poorest voters. He restores universal male suffrage in time for the plebiscite, in which he asks for dictatorial powers as president for a span of ten years. Seven and a half million voters approve of his plans, with less than a tenth of that number registering dissent. A year later he again follows his uncle's example, enquiring whether the French people would like him to be their emperor. Once more an overwhelming majority say yes. Louis Napoleon takes the title Napoleon III, being supposedly the third ruler in his line. France's Second Empire begins.
The Second Empire at home AD 1852-1870: The constitution established by Napoleon III, with the mandate of the plebiscites of 1851 and 1852, enables him to rule with virtually unrestricted personal authority. The members of the upper chamber are appointed. The lower house is elected for six years but sits for only three months in the year; its debates are published in censored form, and the press is under similar restrictions. After years of weak rule and public disorder, France at first welcomes firm government. The economic cycle is on the upturn. Industrialization and the network of railways is greatly extended, radiating out from Paris. Financial services are developed. Reduction of tariffs leads to a marked increase in levels of trade. Nevertheless by the end of the decade there is mounting dissatisfaction at the moribund political scene. Napoleon III responds to the challenge with sound political sense and defuses the situation by becoming more liberal. An amnesty announced by him allows the return of many political exiles. In 1860 the elected assembly is given greater powers and the restraints on the press are somewhat eased. The new atmosphere encourages political dissent (in the election of 1863 there are two million opposition votes, and republican candidates do well in the larger cities), yet the emperor does not reverse the direction of his policy. Further relaxations are decreed and by the 1869 election the opposition vote has increased to three million. Again the emperor is undeterred. The public's message prompts him to restore genuine parliamentary government. The leader of the liberal group in the lower chamber, Émile Ollivier, is invited to form a ministry. He and his colleagues devise with the emperor a constitution which is put to the people in 1870 in yet another Napoleonic plebiscite. Once again it passes handsomely, with more than seven million voters expressing their approval. An imperial dictatorship has been transformed, almost seamlessly, into a constitutional monarchy. The new arrangement is hailed as the 'liberal empire'. But it is destined to have only two months of life. Napoleon III's foreign policy made him more inclined to grant concessions at home. But a final and costly disaster, at the hands of Prussia, proves the last straw.
The Second Empire abroad AD 1852-1870: Fascinated by his famous uncle, Napoleon III is eager to play a similarly impressive role on the international stage. His first major undertaking achieves all he might wish. In the Crimean War, France is on the winning side. And the holding of the peace talks in Paris in 1856 gives the new empire a visibly central role in European affairs. In 1859 he undertakes an adventure in north Italy, the arena which saw many of Napoleon I's greatest successes. His intention is to repeat the earlier Napoleonic achievement of sweeping the Austrians from Italy. To some extent he succeeds in his aim. After a narrow victory at Magenta in June he enters Milan as a liberator (and by agreement brings Savoy and Nice back within French borders). But his sudden treaty with Austria, after the horrors of Solferino, leaves almost everyone dissatisfied. Napoleon's downfall comes at the hands of Prussia, the nation so profoundly humiliated by his uncle in 1807. In 1866 the emperor is wrong-footed by the rapid victory of Prussia over Austria in the Seven Weeks' War. This leaves France with an unexpectedly powerful and uncompromising neighbour on her eastern frontier. War between the two is now perhaps inevitable - though when it does occur, in 1870, the immediate cause is a succession of diplomatic bungles and deceptions.
Franco-Prussian War AD 1870-71: Ever since Prussia's rapid success in the Seven Weeks' War of 1866, and the resulting consolidation of Prussian territory on the Rhine, there has been alarm and resentment in France at the growth of this ambitious neighbour. It is dramatically increased in 1870 when Prussian Hohenzollern family has been offered, and has accepted, the vacant throne of Spain. Having fought so often in the past against being surrounded to south and east by the Habsburg dynasty, there is public outcry in France at the prospect of the same trick now being pulled off by the Hohenzollern. In an escalating crisis, the Prussian king William I withdraws his relation's candidacy . The matter might have rested there, but for a diplomatic blunder on the French side. The French ambassador, in an audience with William I demands an assurance that the candidacy will never be renewed. William refuses to give this assurance. He then sends a telegram to Bismarck describing, in neutral terms, the audience and its outcome. Bismarck, irritated at the collapse of his Spanish policy, shortens the telegram before publication in such a way as to imply that the Prussian king has treated the French ambassador with disdain. Public opinion in France, already inflamed, now explodes. The French government declares war on Prussia.
France suffers as rapidly and as conclusively at Prussia's hands as Austria. In early encounters near Metz the French almost hold their own against the Prussians, but large French army is surrounded near Sedan. French cavalry, charging desperately to break out of the encirclement, suffer heavy casualties from the Prussian artillery, and the French surrender. Among prisoners of the Germans, is the French emperor himself, Napoleon III. The events at Sedan bring to an end one empire, in France, and hasten the creation of another, in Germany. But they do not immediately end the war. When the news of Sedan reaches Paris, a government of national defence is rapidly formed. Its first action is to depose Napoleon III and declare a republic. But there is nothing now to stop the German army on its march towards Paris. Delegates from Paris pass through the German lines to Versailles to agree an armistice in 1871. The Paris delegates to Versailles win peace at a humiliating cost. France is to cede Alsace and much of Lorraine to Germany, to pay a massive indemnity of 5000 million francs, and to support a German army of occupation until the money is provided. Moreover Bismarck insists on immediate elections to provide a national assembly with the authority to sign a treaty. German terms are formally accepted. Prussian army marches in a victory parade through the streets of Paris. There are many causes of Parisian resentment other than the parade itself. The government's capitulation has made meaningless the suffering endured in the four-month siege. Even worse, new republic is already in danger. Republican delegates are in a minority, outnumbered by royalists whose political aim is the return of the Bourbon dynasty.
By 1871, the political landscape of Europe changed dramatically. The German Confederation, led by Austria since its establishment in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna, was no more. A unified German Empire was proclaimed at Versailles by Otto von Bismarck, the brilliant statesman who altered the European balance of power, and in Italy unification had produced a kingdom created by another realist, Count Camillo Cavour. Napoleon III of France would soon be in exile in Britain, yet it was he who helped precipitate the events that isolated France in 1870 and set the stage for World War I.
Napoleon III and French Foreign Policy: Nephew of the great Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon III became emperor in 1851. Bored with domestic policy, Napoleon sought to enhance his prestige and turn his peoples’ attentions away from domestic concerns through foreign adventurism. Unfortunately, Napoleon III lacked any depth in terms of the fluid events of European foreign policy and was easily manipulated by Cavour and Bismarck.
French troops participated in the Crimean war 1853-56. Although most of the great powers were allied against Russia, Prussia remained neutral. Napoleon III took this as a sign of weakness, an impression he carried as the 1866 Austro-Prussian War broke out. Also known as The Seven Weeks’ War, the conflict ended Austrian dominance in Germany. As Bismarck consolidated the recalcitrant German duchies and kingdoms into the Prussian state, the stage was set for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
Napoleon III as a foreign policy maker: Napoleon was viewed negatively by the autocratic Russian state. The Russian tsar considered Napoleon III an upstart with a revolutionary past. Further, Napoleon had openly supported the Poles in their revolt against Russia and attempts at independence. Napoleon’s past betrayed him: as a young man, he championed self determination and promoted revolutionary activity. Napoleon III was the first French leader to deviate from the principles established by Cardinal Richelieu in the early 17th Century. The cornerstone of Richelieu’s policy was to keep Germany divided and fragmented. Toward that end, Richelieu covertly supported the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years’ War against Catholic Austria. Camillo Cavour manipulated Napoleon III into a war against Austria in 1859. In return for French assistance, France received Savoy and Nice in 1860, two “buffer” states established in 1815 to thwart future French expansion. These land exchanges were viewed unfavorably by Britain. A divided Germany was in the best interests of French security and European dominance. Napoleon III’s help in driving Austria from Italy earned him scorn in Vienna. During the Austro-Prussian War, Napoleon merely watched events unfold, fully believing Prussia would be defeated. Napoleon believed that once Prussia was defeated, he could offer his services as a peace mediator to help reconstruct central Europe. By the time Prussian forces crossed into French territory in 1870, Napoleon III was completely isolated. Austria was in no position to support France nor was it inclined to given French actions in the past. Austria was involved in internal problems, notably the establishment of the dual monarchy with Hungary. Great Britain, always reluctant to commit armies in a continental war, and dealing with global imperial problems, turned a deaf ear to any alliance with France. Further, Napoleon had sought to meddle in the affairs of Belgium, a neutral state with strong ties to Britain. Italy had received Venetia from Austria as gratitude for support in the Austro-Prussian War. There would be no help from Italy. The failed policies of Napoleon III resulted in a humiliated France and the establishment of the Second German Reich. The face of Europe was changed, and the countdown to the First World War had begun.