01:360:401 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Carlsbad Decrees, Holy Alliance, House Of Bourbon
21 May 2018
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Chapter 23: Ideologies and Upheavals
1. The Peace Settlement
1. The European Balance of Power
1. The conservative, aristocratic monarchies, with their armies and economies (Great
Britain exception), appeared firmly in control once again; great challenge for political
leaders in 1814 was to construct a peace settlement that would last and not start war
2. The allied powers were concerned with the defeated enemy, France and agreed to the
restoration of the Bourbon dynasty (Peace of Paris with Louis XVIII; May 30, 1814)
1. The allies were lenient toward France, gave them boundaries it possessed in 1692
and France lost the territories conquered in Italy, Germany, and Low Countries
2. France did not have to pay any war damages; when the four allies met at the
Congress of Vienna, they agreed to raise a number of formidable barriers against
French aggression and the Low Countries were united and Prussia received more
territory on France’s eastern border to stand as a “sentinel” against France
3. In their moderation toward France, the allies (the Great Powers) were motivated by
self-interest and traditional ideas about the balance of power
1. To Klemens von Metternich and Castlereagh (foreign ministers of Austria and
Britain) as well as their French counterpart Charles Talleyrand, the balance of
power meant an internal equilibrium of political and military forces that would
preserve the freedom and Austria, Britain, Prussia, Russia, and France
2. They had to arrange international relations so that none of the victors would be
tempted to strive for domination in its turn
4. The victors used the balance of power to settle dangerous disputes at the Congress of
Vienna and agreed that each of them should receive compensation in the form of
territory for their successful struggle against the French
1. Great Britain won and retained colonies and strategic outposts during the war
2. Austria gave up territories in Belgium and southern Germany but took in rich
provinces in northern Italy as well as Polish possessions
3. Prussia and Russia deserved to be compensated but almost led to war in 1815
5.
6. Alexander I of Russia had taken Finland on his northern border and Bessarabia on his
southern border but wanted to restore kingdom of Poland and Prussians were willing to
give up their Polish territories as long as they could take in Saxony
1. Castlereagh and Metternich feared an unbalancing of forces in central Europe
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2. On January 3, 1815, Great Britain, Austria, and France signed a secret alliance
directed against Russia and Prussia; the outcome was compromise rather than war
because threat of war caused rulers of Russia and Prussia to moderate demands
3. They accepted Metternich’s proposal and Russia established a small Polish
kingdom and Prussia received two-fifths of Saxony; France had regained its Great
Power status and ended its diplomatic isolation by siding with Metternich
7. When the peace settlement had been almost complete, Napoleon reappeared and after
Napoleon was defeated, the resulting peace—the second Peace of Paris—was still
relatively moderate toward France and Louis XVIII was restored to his throne
8. France lost some territory and had to pay an indemnity of 700 million francs and had to
support a large army of occupation for five years
9. The Quadruple Alliance agreed to meet periodically to discuss their interest and
consider appropriate measures of the maintenance of peace in Europe
2. Intervention and Repression
1. In 1815 under Metternich’s leadership, Austria, Prussia, and Russia embarked on a
crusade against the ideas of politics of the dual revolution (lasted until 1848)
2. The Holy Alliance, formed by Austria, Prussia, and Russia in September 1815
proclaimed intention of the three eastern monarchs to rule on the basis of Christian
principles and to work together to maintain peace and justice on all occasions (soon
became symbol of repression of liberal and revolutionary movements across Europe)
3. In 1820 revolutionaries succeeded in forcing the monarchs of Spain and Italian
kingdom of the Two Sicilies to grant liberal constitutions against their wills
1. Calling a conference at Troppau in Austria under the provisions of the quadruple
Alliance, Metternich and Alexander I proclaimed the principle of active
intervention to maintain all autocratic regimes whenever they were threatened
2. Austrian forces marched into Naples and restored Ferdinand I to the throne of the
Two Sicilies and the French armies of Louis XVIII restored the Spanish regime
4. Great Britain remained aloof, arguing that intervention in the domestic politics of
foreign states was not an object of British diplomacy and opposed any attempts by the
Spanish monarchy to reconquer its former Latin American possessions (market)
5. Encouraged by the British position, the United States proclaimed its celebrated Monroe
Doctrine in 1823, which declared that European powers were to keep their hands off
the New World and in no way attempt to re-establish their political system
6. Metternich continued to battle liberal political change but sometime she could do little
as in the new Latin American republics nor the dynastic changes of 1830 and 1831 in
France and Belgium; Metternich’s system proved effective until 1848
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7. Metternich’s policies dominated entire German Confederation, which was composed
of thirty-eight independent German states, including Prussia and Austria and theses
states met in complicated assemblies dominated by Austria, with Prussia a willing
junior partner in the planning and execution of repressive measures
8. Metternich had the infamous Carlsbad Decrees issued in 1819 and required German
member states to root out subversive ideas in their universities and newspapers
3. Metternich and Conservation
1. Born into the middle ranks of the landed nobility of the Rhineland, Prince Klemens
von Metternich was an internationally oriented aristocrat and marriage to Eleonora von
Kaunitz opened the door to the highest court circles and a diplomatic career
1. Austrian ambassador to Napoleon’s court in 1806 and Austrian foreign minister
from 1809 to 1848, Metternich remained loyal to his class
2. Metternich defended the rights of his class with a clear conscience; the nobility
was one of Europe’s most ancient institutions and regarded tradition as the basic
source of human institutions (monarchy, bureaucracy, aristocracy, commoners)
2. Metternich’s commitment to conservatism was coupled with a passionate hatred of
liberalism; liberal demands for representative government and civil liberties had
captured some of the middle-class lawyers, business people, and intellectuals
1. Metternich believed these groups had been and still were engaged in a vast
conspiracy to impose their beliefs on society and destroy existing order
2. Like many other conservatives, Metternich blamed liberal revolutionaries for
stirring up the lower classes, which he believed to be indifferent to liberal ideas
3. The threat of liberalism appeared doubly dangerous to Metternich because it went with
national aspirations and liberals, believed that each national group, had a right to
establish its own independent government and seek to fulfill its own destiny
4. Metternich thought national self-determination threatened the existence of the aristo-
cracy and threatened to destroy the Austrian Empire and revolutionize central Europe
5. The vast Austrian Empire of the Habsburgs were a great dynastic state
1. Germans had supported and profited by the long-term territorial expansion of
Austria; Germans accounted for a quarter of the population
2. The Magyars, a substantially smaller group, dominated the kingdom of Hungary
3. The Czechs, the third major group were concentrated in Bohemia and Moravia
4. The various Slavic peoples, together with the Italians and the Rumanians,
represented a widely scattered and completely divided majority in an empire
dominated by Germans and Hungarians
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Document Summary
Chapter 23: ideologies and upheavals: the peace settlement, the european balance of power, the conservative, aristocratic monarchies, with their armies and economies (great. Congress of vienna, they agreed to raise a number of formidable barriers against. Power status and ended its diplomatic isolation by siding with metternich: when the peace settlement had been almost complete, napoleon reappeared and after. Alliance, metternich and alexander i proclaimed the principle of active intervention to maintain all autocratic regimes whenever they were threatened: austrian forces marched into naples and restored ferdinand i to the throne of the. Spanish monarchy to reconquer its former latin american possessions (market: encouraged by the british position, the united states proclaimed its celebrated monroe. People celebrated the nobility of popular revolution in general and revolution: the most notable romantic painters in england was joseph m. w. turner and john.
