From the Napoleonic Wars to the Revolution of 1830.
[=A Quarter Century of Revolution=]
The terrific struggle of the "Hundred Days," which followed Napoleon's
return from Elba and preceded his exile to St. Helena, made a serious
break in the deliberations of the Congress of Vienna, convened for
the purpose of recasting the map of Europe, which Napoleon had so
sadly transformed, of setting aside the radical work of the French
Revolution, and, in a word, of turning back the hands of the clock of
time. Twenty-five years of such turmoil and volcanic disturbance as
Europe had rarely known were at an end; the ruling powers were secure
of their own again; the people, worn-out with the long and bitter
struggle, welcomed eagerly the return of rest and peace; and the
emperors and kings deemed it a suitable time to throw overboard the
load of new ideas under which the European "ship of state" seemed to
them likely to founder.
[=The Congress of Vienna=]
The Congress of Vienna was, in its way, a brilliant gathering. It
included, mainly as handsome ornaments, the emperors of Russia and
Austria, the kings of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria and Wurtemberg; and,
as its working element, the leading statesmen of Europe, including the
English Castlereagh and Wellington, the French Talleyrand, the Prussian
Hardenberg, and the Austrian Metternich. Checked in its deliberations
for a time by Napoleon's fierce hundred days' death struggle, it
quickly settled down to work again, having before it the vast task of
undoing the mighty results of a quarter of a century of revolution. For
the French Revolution had broadened into an European revolution, with
Napoleon and his armies as its great instruments. The whole continent
had been sown thickly during the long era of war with the Napoleonic
ideas, and a crop of new demands and conditions had grown up not easily
to be uprooted.
[=Europe After Napoleon's Fall=]
Reaction was the order of the day in the Vienna Congress. The shaken
power of the monarchs was to be restored, the map of Europe to be
readjusted, the people to be put back into the submissive condition
which they occupied before that eventful 1789, when the States-General
of France began its momentous work of overturning the equilibrium of
the world. As for the people, deeply infected as they were with the
new ideas of liberty and the rights of man, which had made their way
far beyond the borders of France, they were for the time worn-out
with strife and turmoil, and settled back supinely to enjoy the
welcome era of rest, leaving their fate in the hands of the astute
plenipotentiaries who were gathered in their wisdom at Vienna.
[=The Work of the Congress=]
These worthy tools of the monarchs had an immense task before them--too
large a one, as it proved. It was easy to talk about restoring to the
nations the territory they had possessed before Napoleon began his
career as a map-maker; but it was not easy to do so except at the cost
of new wars. The territories of many of the powers had been added to
by the French emperor, and they were not likely to give up their new
possessions without a vigorous protest. In Germany the changes had been
enormous. Napoleon had found there more than three hundred separate
states, some no larger than a small American county, yet each possessed
of the paraphernalia of a court and sovereign, a capital, an army
and a public debt. And these were feebly combined into the phantasm
known as the Holy Roman Empire. When Napoleon had finished his work
this empire had ceased to exist, except as a tradition, and the great
galaxy of sovereign states was reduced to thirty-nine. These included
the great dominions of Austria and Prussia; the smaller states of
Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover and Wurtemberg, which Napoleon had raised into
kingdoms; and a vastly reduced group of minor states. The work done
here it was somewhat dangerous to meddle with. The small potentates of
Germany were like so many bull-dogs, glaring jealously across their new
borders, and ready to fly at one another's throats at any suggestion
of a change. The utmost they would yield was to be united into a
confederacy called the _Bund_, with a Diet meeting at Frankfurt. But as
the delegates to the Diet were given no law-making power, the _Bund_
became an empty farce.
The great powers took care to regain their lost possessions, or to
replace them with an equal amount of territory. Prussia and Austria
spread out again to their old size, though they did not cover quite
the old ground. Most of their domains in Poland were given up, Prussia
getting new territory in West Germany and Austria in Italy. Their
provinces in Poland were ceded to Alexander of Russia, who added to
them some of his own Polish dominions, and formed a new kingdom of
Poland, he being its king. So in a shadowy way Poland was brought to
life again. England got for her share in the spoils a number of French
and Dutch colonies, including Malta and the Cape Colony in Africa. Thus
each of the great powers repaid itself for its losses.
[=Italy, France, and Spain=]
In Italy a variety of changes were made. The Pope got back the States
of the Church; Tuscany was restored to its king; the same was the case
with Naples, King Murat being driven from his throne and put to death.
Piedmont, increased by the Republic of Genoa, was restored to the king
of Sardinia. Some smaller states were formed, as Parma, Modena, and
Lucca. Finally, Lombardy and Venice, much the richest regions of Italy,
were given to Austria, which country was made the dominant power in the
Italian peninsula.
Louis XVIII., the Bourbon king, brother of Louis XVI., who had reigned
while Napoleon was at Elba, came back to the throne of France. The
title of Louis XVII. was given to the poor boy, son of Louis XVI.,
who died from cruel treatment in the dungeons of the Revolution. In
Spain the feeble Ferdinand returned to the throne which he had given
up without a protest at the command of Napoleon. Portugal was given a
monarch of its old dynasty. All seemed to have floated back into the
old conditions again.
[=The Rights of Man=]
As for the rights of the people, what had become of them? Had they been
swept away and the old wrongs of the people been brought back? Not
quite. The frenzied enthusiasm for liberty and human rights of the past
twenty-five years could not go altogether for nothing. The lingering
relics of feudalism had vanished, not only from France but from all
Europe, and no monarch or congress could bring them back again. In its
place the principles of democracy had spread from France far among the
peoples of Europe. The principle of class privilege had been destroyed
in France, and that of social equality had replaced it. The principle
of the liberty of the individual, especially in his religious opinions,
and the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people, had been proclaimed.
These had still a battle before them. They needed to fight their way.
Absolutism and the spirit of feudalism were arrayed against them.
But they were too deeply implanted in the minds of the people to be
eradicated, and their establishment as actual conditions has been the
most important part of the political development of the nineteenth
century.
[Illustration: LORD HORATIO NELSON
ARTHUR WELLESLEY, DUKE OF WELLINGTON
ILLUSTRIOUS LEADERS OF ENGLAND'S NAVY AND ARMY]
Revolution was the one thing that the great powers of Europe feared
and hated; this was the monster against which the Congress of Vienna
directed its efforts. The cause of quiet and order, the preservation
of the established state of things, the authority of rulers, the
subordination of peoples, must be firmly maintained, and revolutionary
disturbers must be put down with a strong hand. Such was the political
dogma of the Congress. And yet, in spite of its assembled wisdom and
the principles it promulgated, the nineteenth century has been
especially the century of revolutions, actual or virtual, the result
being an extraordinary growth in the liberties and prerogatives of the
people.
[Illustration: JAMES WATT--THE FATHER OF THE STEAM ENGINE
It is to the steam engine that the wonderful
productive progress of recent times is largely due,
and to the famous Scotch engineer, James Watt, belongs
the honor of inventing the first effective steam
engine. His idea of condensing the steam from his
engine in a separate vessel came to him in 1765, and
with this fortunate conception began the wonderful
series of improvements which have given us the
magnificent engine of to-day.]
[=The Holy Alliance=]
The plan devised by the Congress for the suppression of revolution was
the establishment of an association of monarchs, which became known
as the Holy Alliance. Alexander of Russia, Francis of Austria, and
Frederick William of Prussia formed a covenant to rule in accordance
with the precepts of the Bible, to stand by each other in a true
fraternity, to rule their subjects as loving parents, and to see that
peace, justice, and religion should flourish in their dominions.
An ideal scheme it was, but its promulgators soon won the name of
hypocrites and the hatred of those whom they were to deal with on the
principle of love and brotherhood. Reaction was the watchword, absolute
sovereignty the purpose, the eradication of the doctrine of popular
sovereignty the sentiment, which animated these powerful monarchs; and
the Holy Alliance meant practically the determination to unite their
forces against democracy and revolution wherever they should show
themselves.
[=Revolution in Spain and Naples=]
It was not long before the people began to move. The attempt to
re-establish absolute governments shook them out of their sluggish
quiet. Revolution lifted its head again in the face of the Holy
Alliance, its first field being Spain. Ferdinand VII., on returning to
his throne, had but one purpose in his weak mind, which was to rule as
an autocrat, as his ancestors had done. He swore to govern according
to a constitution, and began his reign with a perjury. The patriots
had formed a constitution during his absence, and this he set aside
and never replaced by another. On the contrary, he set out to abolish
all the reforms made by Napoleon, and to restore the monasteries, to
bring back the Inquisition, and to prosecute the patriots. Five years
of this reaction made the state of affairs in Spain so intolerable that
the liberals refused to submit to it any longer. In 1820 they rose in
revolt, and the king, a coward under all his show of bravery, at once
gave way and restored the constitution he had set aside.
The shock given the Holy Alliance by the news from Spain was quickly
followed by another coming from Naples. The Bourbon king who had been
replaced upon the throne of that country, another Ferdinand, was one
of the most despicable men of his not greatly esteemed race. His
government, while weak, was harshly oppressive. But it did not need a
revolution to frighten this royal dastard. A mere general celebration
of the victory of the liberals in Spain was enough, and in his alarm he
hastened to give his people a constitution similar to that which the
Spaniards had gained.
[=Metternich and His Congresses=]
These awkward affairs sadly disturbed the equanimity of those statesmen
who fancied that they had fully restored the divine right of kings.
Metternich, the Austrian advocate of reaction, hastened to call a new
Congress, in 1820, and another in 1821. The question he put to these
assemblies was, Should revolution be permitted, or should Europe
interfere in Spain and Naples, and pledge herself to uphold everywhere
the sacred powers of legitimate monarchs? His old friends of the Holy
Alliance backed him up in this suggestion, both Congresses adopted it,
a policy of repression of revolutions became the programme, and Austria
was charged to restore what Metternich called "order" in Naples.
He did so. The liberals of Naples were far too weak to oppose the power
of Austria. Their government fell to pieces as soon as the Austrian
army appeared, and the impotent but cruel Ferdinand was made an
absolute king again. The radicals in Piedmont started an insurrection
which was quickly put down, and Austria became practically the lord and
master of Italy.
[=How Order was Restored in Spain=]
Proud of his success, Metternich called a new Congress in 1822, in
which it was resolved to repeat in Spain what had been done in Naples.
France was now made the instrument of the absolutists. A French army
marched across the Pyrenees, put down the government of the liberals,
and gave the king back his despotic rule. He celebrated his return to
power by a series of cruel executions. The Holy Alliance was in the
ascendant, the liberals had been bitterly repaid for their daring,
terror seized upon the liberty-loving peoples, and Europe seemed thrown
fully into the grasp of the absolute kings.
[=The Revolution in Greece=]
Only in two regions did the spirit of revolt triumph during this period
of reaction. These were Greece and Spanish America. The historic land
of Greece had long been in the hands of a despotism with which even the
Holy Alliance was not in sympathy--that of Turkey. Its very name, as a
modern country, had almost vanished, and Europe heard with astonishment
in 1821 that the descendants of the ancient Greeks had risen against
the tyranny under which they had been crushed for centuries.
The struggle was a bitter one. The sultan was atrocious in his
cruelties. In the island of Chios alone he brutally murdered 20,000
Greeks, But the spirit of the old Athenians and Spartans was in the
people, and they kept on fighting in the face of defeat. For four years
this went on, while the powers of Europe looked on without raising a
hand. Some of their people indeed took part, among them Lord Byron, who
died in Greece in 1824; but the governments failed to warm up to their
duty.
Their apathy vanished in 1825, when the sultan, growing weary of the
struggle, and bent on bringing it to a rapid end, called in the aid of
his powerful vassal, Mehemed Ali, Pasha of Egypt. Mehemed responded by
sending a strong army under his son Ibrahim, who landed in the Morea
(the ancient Peloponnesus), where he treated the people with shocking
cruelty.
[=The Powers Come to the Rescue of Greece=]
A year of this was as much as Christian Europe could stand. England
first aroused herself. Canning, the English prime minister, persuaded
Nicholas, who had just succeeded Alexander as Czar of Russia, to join
with him in stopping this horrible business. France also lent her aid,
and the combined powers warned Ibrahim to cease his cruel work. On his
refusal, the fleets of England and France attacked and annihilated the
Turkish-Egyptian fleet in the battle of Navarino.
The Sultan still hesitated, and the czar, impatient at the delay,
declared war and invaded with his army the Turkish provinces on the
Danube. The next year, 1829, the Russians crossed the Balkans and
descended upon Constantinople. That city was in such imminent danger
of capture that the obstinacy of the sultan completely disappeared and
he humbly consented to all the demands of the powers. Servia, Moldavia
and Wallachia, the chief provinces of the Balkan peninsula, were put
under the rule of Christian governors, and the independence of Greece
was fully acknowledged. Prince Otto of Bavaria was made king, and ruled
until 1862. In Greece liberalism had conquered, but elsewhere in Europe
the reaction established by the Congress of Vienna still held sway.
[=The Spirit of Revolution=]
The people merely bided their time. The good seed sown could not fail
to bear fruit in its season. The spirit of revolution was in the air,
and any attempt to rob the people of the degree of liberty which they
enjoyed was very likely to precipitate a revolt against the tyranny of
courts and kings. It came at length in France, that country the ripest
among the nations for revolution. Louis XVIII., an easy, good-natured
old soul, of kindly disposition towards the people, passed from life in
1824, and was succeeded by his brother, Count of Artois, as Charles X.
[=Charles X. and His Attempt at Despotism=]
The new king had been the head of the ultra-royalist faction, an
advocate of despotism and feudalism, and quickly doubled the hate which
the people bore him. Louis XVIII. had been liberal in his policy, and
had given increased privileges to the people. Under Charles reaction
set in. A vast sum of money was voted to the nobles to repay their
losses during the Revolution. Steps were taken to muzzle the press and
gag the universities. This was more than the Chamber of Deputies was
willing to do, and it was dissolved. But the tyrant at the head of the
government went on, blind to the signs in the air, deaf to the people's
voice. If he could not get laws from the Chamber, he would make them
himself in the old arbitrary fashion, and on July 26, 1830, he issued,
under the advice of his prime minister, four decrees, which limited the
list of voters and put an end to the freedom of the press. Practically
the constitution was set aside, the work of the Revolution ignored, and
absolutism re-established in France.
[=The Revolution in Paris=]
King Charles had taken a step too far. He did not know the spirit of
the French. In a moment Paris blazed into insurrection. Tumult arose on
every side. Workmen and students paraded the streets with enthusiastic
cheers for the constitution. But under their voices there were soon
heard deeper and more ominous cries. "Down with the ministers!"
came the demand. And then, as the throng increased and grew more
violent, arose the revolutionary slogan, "Down with the Bourbons!" The
infatuated old king was amusing himself in his palace of St. Cloud, and
did not discover that the crown was tottering upon his head. He knew
that the people of Paris had risen, but looked upon it as a passing
ebullition of French temper. He did not awake to the true significance
of the movement until he heard that there had been fighting between
his troops and the people, that many of the citizens lay dead in the
streets, and that the soldiers had been driven from the city, which
remained in the hands of the insurrectionists.
Then the old imbecile, who had fondly fancied that the Revolution of
1789 could be set aside by a stroke of his pen, made frantic efforts
to lay the demon he had called into life. He hastily cancelled the
tyrannical decrees. Finding that this would not have the desired
effect, he abdicated the throne in favor of his grandson. But all was
of no avail. France had had enough of him and his house. His envoys
were turned back from the gates of Paris unheard. Remembering the fate
of Louis XVI., his unhappy brother, Charles X., turned his back upon
France and hastened to seek a refuge in England.
[=Louis Philippe Chosen as King=]
Meanwhile a meeting of prominent citizens had been held in Paris, the
result of their deliberations being that Charles X. and his heirs
should be deposed and the crown offered to Louis Philippe, duke of
Orleans. There had been a Louis Philippe in the Revolution of 1789, a
radical member of the royal house of Bourbon, who, under the title of
Egalité, had joined the revolutionists, voted for the death of Louis
XVI., and in the end had his own head cut off by the guillotine. His
son as a young man had served in the revolutionary army and had been
one of its leaders in the important victory of Jemappes. But when the
terror came he hastened from France, which had become a very unsafe
place for one of his blood. He had the reputation of being liberal
in his views, and was the first man thought of for the vacant crown.
When the Chamber of Deputies met in August and offered it to him, he
did not hesitate to accept. He swore to observe and reign under the
constitution, and took the throne under the title of Louis Philippe,
king of the French. Thus speedily and happily ended the second
Revolution in France.
[=Effect in Europe of the Revolution=]
But Paris again proved itself the political centre of Europe. The
deposition of Charles X. was like a stone thrown into the seething
waters of European politics, and its effects spread far and wide beyond
the borders of France. The nations had been bound hand and foot by the
Congress of Vienna. The people had writhed uneasily in their fetters,
but now in more than one locality they rose in their might to break
them, here demanding a greater degree of liberty, there overthrowing
the government.
The latter was the case in Belgium. Its people had suffered severely
from the work of the Congress of Vienna. Without even a pretence of
consulting their wishes, their country had been incorporated with
Holland as the kingdom of the Netherlands, the two countries being
fused into one under a king of the old Dutch House of Orange. The
idea was good enough in itself. It was intended to make a kingdom
strong enough to help keep France in order. But an attempt to fuse
these two states was like an endeavor to mix oil and water. The people
of the two countries had long since drifted apart from each other,
and had irreconcilable ideas and interests. Holland was a colonizing
and commercial country, Belgium an industrial country; Holland was
Protestant, Belgium was Catholic; Holland was Teutonic in blood,
Belgium was a mixture of the Teutonic and French, but wholly French in
feeling and customs.
[=The Belgian Uprising and Its Result=]
The Belgians, therefore, were generally discontented with the act of
fusion, and in 1830 they imitated the French by a revolt against King
William of Holland. A tumult followed in Brussels, which ended in the
Dutch soldiers being driven from the city. King William, finding that
the Belgians insisted on independence, decided to bring them back to
their allegiance by force of arms. The powers of Europe now took the
matter in hand, and, after some difference of opinion, decided to grant
the Belgians the independence they demanded. This was a meddling with
his royal authority to which King William did not propose to submit,
but when the navy of Great Britain and the army of France approached
his borders he changed his mind, and since 1833 Holland and Belgium
have gone their own way under separate kings. A limited monarchy, with
a suitable constitution, was organized for Belgium by the powers, and
Prince Leopold, of the German house of Saxe-Coburg, was placed upon the
throne.
[=The Movements in Germany and Italy=]
The spirit of revolution extended into Germany and Italy, but only with
partial results. Neither in Austria nor Prussia did the people stir,
but in many of the smaller states a demand was made for a constitution
on liberal lines, and in every instance the princes had to give way.
Each of these states gained a representative form of government, the
monarchs of Prussia and Austria alone retaining their old despotic
power.
In Italy there were many signs of revolutionary feeling; but Austria
still dominated that peninsula, and Metternich kept a close watch upon
the movements of its people. There was much agitation. The great secret
society of the Carbonari sought to combine the patriots of all Italy
in a grand stroke for liberty and union, but nothing came of their
efforts. In the States of the Church alone the people rose in revolt
against their rulers, but they were soon put down by the Austrians, who
invaded their territory, dispersed their weak bands, and restored the
old tyranny. The hatred of the Italians for the Austrians grew more
intense, but their time had not yet come; they sank back in submission
and awaited a leader and an opportunity.
[=The Condition of Poland=]
There was one country in which the revolution in France called forth a
more active response, though, unhappily, only to double the weight of
the chains under which its people groaned. This was unfortunate Poland;
once a great and proud kingdom, now dismembered and swallowed up by the
land-greed of its powerful neighbors. It had been in part restored by
Napoleon, in his kingdom of Warsaw, and his work had been in a measure
recognized by the Congress of Vienna. The Czar Alexander, kindly in
disposition and moved by pity for the unhappy Poles, had re-established
their old kingdom, persuading Austria and Prussia to give up the bulk
of their Polish territory in return for equal areas elsewhere. He gave
Poland a constitution, its own army, and its own administration, making
himself its king, but promising to rule as a constitutional monarch.
[=The Revolt of the Poles=]
This did not satisfy the Poles. It was not the independence they
craved. They could not forget that they had been a great power in
Europe when Russia was still the weak and frozen duchy of Muscovy. When
the warm-hearted Alexander died and the cold-hearted Nicholas took his
place, their discontent grew to dangerous proportions. The news of the
outbreak in France was like a firebrand thrown in their midst. In
November, 1830, a few young hot-heads sounded the note of revolt, and
Warsaw rose in insurrection against the Russians.
For a time they were successful. Constantine, the czar's brother,
governor of Poland, was scared by the riot, and deserted the capital,
leaving the revolutionists in full control. Towards the frontier he
hastened, winged by alarm, while the provinces rose in rebellion behind
him as he passed. Less than a week had passed before the Russian power
was withdrawn from Poland, and its people were once more lords of their
own land. They set up a provisional government in Warsaw, and prepared
to defend themselves against the armies that were sure to come.
[=A Fatal Lack of Unity=]
What was needed now was unity. A single fixed and resolute purpose,
under able and suitable leaders, formed the only conceivable condition
of success. But Poland was, of all countries, the least capable of such
unity. The landed nobility was full of its old feudal notions; the
democracy of the city was inspired by modern sentiments. They could not
agree; they quarreled in castle and court, while their hasty levies
of troops were marching to meet the Russians in the field. Under such
conditions success was a thing beyond hope.
Yet the Poles fought well. Kosciusko, their former hero, would have
been proud of their courage and willingness to die for their country.
But against the powerful and ably led Russian armies their gallantry
was of no avail, and their lack of unity fatal. In May, 1831, they were
overwhelmed at Ostrolenka by the Russian hosts. In September a traitor
betrayed Warsaw, and the Russian army entered its gates. The revolt was
at an end, and Poland again in fetters.
[=The Fate of Poland=]
Nicholas the Czar fancied that he had spoiled these people by kindness
and clemency. They should not be spoiled in that way any longer. Under
his harsh decrees the Kingdom of Poland vanished. He ordered that
it should be made a Russian province, and held by a Russian army of
occupation. The very language of the Poles was forbidden to be spoken,
and their religion was to be replaced by the Orthodox Russian faith.
Those brief months of revolution and independence were fatal to the
liberty-loving people. Since then, except during their brief revolt
in 1863, they have lain in fetters at the feet of Russia, nothing
remaining to them but their patriotic memories and their undying
aspiration for freedom and independence.