Western Civilization
BEYOND BOUNDARIES
Inhoudsopgave
Chapter 21 – Restoration, Reform and Revolution, 1814-1848........................................................................1
Chapter 22 – Nationalism and Political Reform, 1850-1880.............................................................................4
Chapter 23 – The Age of Optimism................................................................................................................. 8
Chapter 24 – Imperialism and Escalating Tensions, 1880-1914......................................................................11
Chapter 25 – War and Revolution, 1914-1919...............................................................................................14
Chapter 26 – The Illusion of Stability, 1919-1930..........................................................................................18
Chapter 27 – The Tortured Decade, 1930-1939............................................................................................. 22
Chapter 28 – The Era of the Second World War, 1939-1949..........................................................................26
Chapter 29 – The Age of the Cold War, 1949-1989........................................................................................30
Chapter 30 – A Continuing Experiment: The West and the World Since 1989................................................34
Chapter 21 – Restoration, Reform and Revolution, 1814-
1848
Restoration and Reaction, 1814-1830
Congress of Vienna – Conference called by the Great Powers after Napoleon’s defeat. They
sought long-term stability as they drew new territorial boundaries and restored some of the
rulers that had been overthrown.
Corn Laws – Laws passed by the British Parliament in 1815 that placed tariffs on imported
foreign grains to protect domestic grain producers from international competition.
Decembrists – Group of Russian military officers, later viewed as martyrs, who led the
unsuccessful December 1825 rebellion seeking to install a constitutional monarchy.
Section Summary
- At the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815), Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia,
having defeated Napoleon, redrew territorial boundaries for their own advantage
and restored previous rulers to create stability.
- Western Europe had constitutional monarchies, though they faced a variety of social
and political discontents.
- Eastern Europe remained committed to absolutist monarchies that took measures to
repress any protest or revival of revolutionary thinking.
- Spain returned to absolute monarchy, exiling liberals, but lost its American colonies.
,Ideological Confrontations
Conservatism – Ideology underlying the order established in Europe in 1815, which
afterward emphasized support for the existing order of monarchy, aristocracy, and an
established church.
Romanticism – Cultural movement, prevalent from the 1760s to the 1840s, that rebelled
against rationalism and its Enlightenment values and prized sentiment.
Nationalism – Belief that people derive their identity from their nation and owe it their
primary loyalty. The criteria for nationhood typically included a common language, religion
and political authority, as well as common traditions and shared historical experiences.
Liberalism – Nineteenth century economic and politically theory that called for reducing
government powers to a minimum. Liberals sought to eliminate state regulation of the
economy and ensure a voice in government for men of property and education.
Laissez-faire – French term meaning ‘to leave alone’, to advocate freeing national economies
from the fetters of the state and allowing supply and demand to shape the marketplace.
Utilitarianism – Political theory of Jeremy Bentham, who argued that the purpose of
government is to provide ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number’, and that the test
of government is its usefulness.
Socialism – Nineteenth century economic and social doctrine and political movement that
advocated the ‘social’ or state ownership of property in order to create a more just system.
Marxism - The ‘scientific socialism’ of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, which stated that the
working class inevitably would rebel against the capitalist owners and build a communist
society.
Section Summary
- From 1815 to 1848, conservatism provided the ideological foundations for restored
monarchies and social hierarchy; the ideologies of romanticism, nationalism,
liberalism, and socialism challenged that order.
- Romanticism was based on feeling and passion rather than on reason; it inspired the
arts but also revived religion and challenged the existing political order through its
influence on nationalism.
- Nationalism – the identification with one’s nation based on shared language, culture,
political authority, and historical past – began to emerge in the first half of the
nineteenth century.
- The economic and political theory of liberalism originated with and justified middle-
class interests and stressed individual freedoms.
- Socialist ideologies – ‘utopian’ and ‘scientific’ – emerged in response to the harsh
conditions of the working classes and offered an alternative to capitalism.
,The Quest for Reform, 1830-48
July Revolution – Uprising in Paris in July 1830 that forced King Charles X to abdicate and
signaled a victory for constitutional reform over an absolute monarchy.
Great Reform Bill – British law that broadened the franchise and provided parliamentary
seats for new urban areas that had not previously been represented.
Chartism – Nineteenth-century British political movement calling for universal male suffrage,
electoral districts with equal population, salaries and the abolition of property
disqualifications for members of Parliament, the secret ballot and annual general elections.
Section Summary
- In July 1830, the French responded to reactionary measures taken by their king with
revolution, ushering in the more liberal July Monarchy; these events inspired serious
opposition to other regimes.
- British liberals responded to France’s July Revolution by redrawing the voting districts
to reflect the growth of cities, widening the franchise to include the middle classes,
and loosening colonial rule over white settler populations.
- Having suffered more directly from Napoleonic invasions, rulers in the Austrian
Empire, the German states, and Russia remained determined to preserve absolute
political power from 1815 to 1848; they effectively repressed agitation for liberal
reform and aspirations for national unification.
- National movements from within and foreign threats from without challenged the
religiously diverse Ottoman Empire, already in decay because of its corrupt
bureaucracy; Serbs and Greeks successfully revolted against Ottoman rule.
The Revolutions of 1848
Frankfurt Assembly – Popularly elected national assembly that attempted to create a unified
German state.
Section Summary
- Across the Continent, the roots for revolution lay in increasingly restricted resources
among rural peasants and urban workers; the harvest failures and economic
depression of 1845-1846 turned this situation into a crisis.
- The liberal impulse to revolution at first united middle classes, peasants, and workers
in demands for political freedoms and economic justice.
- Once regimes gave in to the challenge or were overturned, the goals of different
social classes conflicted.; the divisions between them opened the path to reaction
and repression.
- Liberal revolution in eastern and central Europe inspired movements of national
unification in the German states and in Italy, Hungary, the Czech lands, and Croatia,
all at the expense of the Austrian Empire.
, Chapter Summary
What were the goals of the Restoration, and the sources of resistance to it?
After more than twenty-two years of war, the powers that finally defeated Napoleon – Great
Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia – met in 1814 and 1815 as the Congress of Vienna. They
sought to re-establish international stability by creating a balance of power among
themselves and by restoring the pre-revolutionary order to Europe. They bolstered
monarchical rule, reinstated political and social hierarchies, and strengthened church
authority. With the Bourbon monarchy restored in France, that nation was included in the
Concert of Europe on equal footing.
What major ideologies developed in the first half of the nineteenth century?
New ideologies that had taken root in the late eighteenth century both supported and
challenged the efforts to restore order after 1815. Conservatism, romanticism, nationalism,
liberalism and socialism variously shaped outlooks, spawned movements, and informed
policies in the first half of the nineteenth century. While conservatism sought to stem the
tides of change through repressive measures in both eastern and western Europe, the other
ideologies called for and justified change.
How did the restorations that followed the Napoleonic era give way to reform?
By 1830, the restored order had already shown cracks that led to revolution and reform. The
July Revolution of 1830 in France replaced its reactionary king with a more liberal one. That
event sparked reform in Britain, which extended the vote to the middle classes. Eastern
European regimes remained more autocratic.
What were the main causes of the revolutions in 1848, and what roles did nationalism,
liberalism, and socialism play in inciting and sustaining revolutions?
Economic crisis and anger at authoritarian regimes caused the revolutions. Still
disenfranchised, the growing middle classes used liberalism to justify political freedom. In
Central and Eastern Europe, where empires and states included multiple nationalities and
languages, nationalism also raised the issue of which groups of people the government
should represent. Economic deterioration in the 1840s increased by the appeal of socialism
and economic reform became part of the revolutionary agenda. By 1851
counterrevolutionary forces defeated movements born of these ideological impulses, but
the ideologies persisted.
Chapter 22 – Nationalism and Political Reform, 1850-
1880
The Changing Nature of International Relations
Realpolitik - Style of governing that is based on practical and material factors, rather than on
ethics or ideology, and that uses all means, including war, to expand the influence and
power of a state.
Congress system – System of European international relations in the first half of the
nineteenth century in which the major European states cooperated to preserve the balance
of power.
