Liberalism, Nationalism, and Revolutions (1789-1870)

Posted on Nov 26, 2024 in History

French Revolution (1789)

Causes

  • Peasant protests due to poor harvests, degrading living conditions, and high taxes.
  • Urban unrest caused by food shortages, unemployment from British competition (liberalism).
  • Bourgeoisie discontent as the sole tax-paying class without political representation.
  • Nobility’s resistance to taxation, leading to the convocation of the Estates-General.

Process

  1. Convocation of the Estates-General: Privileged classes defend voting by estate, while the Third Estate (95% of the population) demands individual voting and equality.
  2. Formation of the National Assembly: The Third Estate forms the National Assembly, culminating in the storming of the Bastille (July 14th).
  3. National Assembly Decisions: Abolition of feudal privileges, Declaration of Human Rights, separation of church and state, and the Constitution of 1791.

Constitution of 1791 (Constitutional Monarchy)

  • Established suffrage censitaire (income-based voting).
  • Separation of powers.
  • King’s failed escape and subsequent overthrow of the monarchy.

The Republic

Radical Stage

  • Convention (new elections) with universal male suffrage, later extended.
  • Execution of Louis XVI.
  • Civil War.

Moderate Stage

  • Directory established, reverting to suffrage censitaire.
  • Rise of the bourgeoisie and the army.
  • Napoleon’s coup d’état (1799) and establishment of a strong, centralized state.

Napoleonic Era

  • Consolidation of bourgeois power and emergence of small landowners.
  • Anti-absolutist and constitutional reforms: Civil Code, free education system.
  • Napoleonic Wars ending with defeat at Waterloo (1815).

Liberal Revolution and Restoration

The Restoration (1815)

  • Political system designed by victorious powers (Austria, Prussia, Russia, Britain) at the Congress of Vienna to prevent revolutionary movements.
  • Restoration of monarchical legitimacy with limited concessions to parliaments in some cases (e.g., France).
  • Return to absolutism in Austria, Russia, and Spain.

Liberal Ideas

  • Individual liberty and separation of powers.
  • Liberalism as a doctrine against absolutism: separation of powers, suffrage censitaire and universal suffrage, constitutions, equality before the law, economic freedom.
  • Influence of Enlightenment ideas: reason, freedom.

Revolutionary Phases

  • 1830: Moderate liberalism replaces absolutism, rule of the bourgeoisie and aristocracy. (Limited suffrage, workers’ associations prohibited.)
  • 1848: End of feudalism (except Russia), rise of the bourgeoisie and proletariat as social classes.

Nationalism

  • Romantic nationalism strengthens territorial identities (Germany, Italy).

Italian Unification

  • Ideological organization (Young Italy of Mazzini).
  • Political strategy of Cavour (economic reasons: create a national market).
  • Military actions: Cavour defeats Austrians in the North, Garibaldi defeats the Bourbons in the South.
  • Victor Emmanuel II proclaimed King of Italy (1861).

German Unification

  • 1815: Creation of the Germanic Confederation to foster national consciousness.
  • 1834: Creation of the Zollverein customs union (26 million people).
  • Bismarck leads Prussia to unify German territories through political and military superiority, culminating in the proclamation of Wilhelm I as Emperor (1871).

Beyond Europe

USA

  • 1783: 13 American colonies achieve independence from Britain.

Japan

  • Mid-19th century: Feudal society initiates political and economic reforms to avoid foreign domination: restoration of imperial authority, abolition of feudal privileges, separation of powers, creation of an education system.