2. Congress System
❖Congress of Vienna (1815), major
powers sought to restore “legitimate”
rulers.
❖Period after 1815 is known as the
Restoration.
❖Major powers also wanted to establish a
“balance of power” and “collective
security” against future revolutionary
upheavals.
3.
4.
5. Congress System
❖Period between 1815 and 1848 was
characterized by conservatives (slow
change), and reactionaries (return to old
regime).
❖Restoration meant a return to absolute
rule and revival of institutions abolished
by French.
❖Spain, King Ferdinand VII abolished the
Constitution of 1812.
6.
7. Congress System
❖Not all rulers aimed to undo the
work of the French.
❖Napoleon’s great achievement was
the creation of strong centralized
states.
❖Victorious powers then established
the “Congress system,” to maintain
status quo.
8. ❖November 1815, Britain, Austria,
Prussia, and Russia signed Quadruple
Alliance.
❖Agreed to meet periodically to
maintain peace.
❖First meeting, September 1818, agreed
to end occupation of France and admit it
as member of Congress system.
Congress System
9.
10. ❖Thus creating a Quintuple Alliance.
❖Conservative monarchies of eastern
Europe, Russia, Austria, and Prussia
formed Holy Alliance in September 1815.
❖Officially dedicated to the protection
of Christian principles of “religion,
peace, and justice.”
❖England refused to join.
Congress System
11.
12. ❖Spain’s King Ferdinand VII, after
series of military revolts, he was forced
to bring back the Constitution of 1812,
making Spain a constitutional
monarchy.
❖1823, French force of 100 000 soldiers
entered Spain and made it possible to
abolish constitution.
❖1820, revolutionary year in Portugal.
Congress System
13. ❖Civil war broke out in
Spain, by 1840, resulted
in definitive victory for
constitutional
monarchy.
❖Italian peninsula,
uprisings occurred in
Kingdom of Naples in
1820.
Congress System
14. ❖Posed a threat to Austrian authority.
❖Britain and France opposed intervention
by the Congress, but Russia and Prussia
backed Austria.
❖Austrian forces crushed the uprising.
❖Governments of small north-central Italy
collapsed and government of Papal States
found itself in great danger when its army
disintegrated.
Congress System
15. ❖First successful nationalist revolution
took place in Greece.
❖Greeks formed part of the Ottoman
Empire.
❖Rebelled in 1821; Greeks were Orthodox
Christians fighting Muslim rulers.
❖Greece was considered cradle of
Western civilization.
Congress System
16. ❖Many believed Greek glory would rise
again.
❖English poet Lord Byron went to
Greece and joined the independence
struggle.
❖Greeks had support of Britain, France
and Russia (which saw Greek revolt as
opportunity to gain influence in
Balkans).
Congress System
17. ❖1827, three powers signed a treaty to
guarantee Greek independence.
❖Ottomans had no choice and Greece
became independent in 1830.
Congress System
18. ❖France after 1815: Louis XVIII
ruled until his death in 1824 as a
constitutional monarch.
❖All people had civil rights and
were equal before the law, but
political rights were restricted to
males of the propertied and landed
classes (bourgeoisie).
Restoration of France
19. ❖His brother, Charles X (1824-1830),
issued an edict that dissolved
parliament and suspended the freedom
of press.
❖Government was overthrown and the
king went into exile.
❖Revolution of 1830 confirmed that the
people of France still supported the
principles of 1789.
Restoration of France
20. ❖New king, Louis
Philippe, King of the
French, reflected this
spirit.
❖The fleur-de-lis was
abandoned for the
tricolour flag of the
Revolution.
Restoration of France
21. ❖Not a political ideology, but
a way of looking at life.
❖Influenced all doctrines and
attitudes of the time,
including socialism,
liberalism, conservatism, and
nationalism.
Romanticism
22. ❖Reaction against the ordered
rational mode of thought of
the Enlightenment.
❖Romantics emphasized the
emotions and truth to be
found in feelings and
sentiments.
Romanticism
24. ❖For Romantics, movement and
change, ever part of nature, were
more important than order and
harmony.
❖In England, William Wordsworth
(1770-1850), pictured nature as
idyllic, beautiful, and ever-
changing:
Romanticism
25. I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant
thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.
Romanticism
26. To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me
ran;
In much it grieved my heart to
think
What man had made of man.
Romanticism
27. ❖Romantics reintroduced religion
and mysticism to European
intellectual scene.
❖They embraced the unknown
and glorified faith based on
feelings.
❖Also had a new interest in the
Middle Ages.
Romanticism
28. ❖While Enlightenment thinkers had
viewed the Middle Ages with disdain
(because life was dominated by the Church
and there was little scientific progress),
Romantics viewed the Middle Ages as a
creative period when true feelings and
emotions could find expression, people
had a sense of order and community,
living close to nature and the soil.
Romanticism
29. ❖Tradition and custom, which
were sneered any in the
Enlightenment period, were
revered by Romantics because of
people’s long adherence to them.
❖Romantics respected established
political institutions and the
beauty of custom.
Romanticism
