Restoration Europe: Congress of Vienna and 19th Century Revolutions
Restoration Europe
Despite the revolutionary experience, a return to the values of absolute monarchy was sought. The aim was order and stability. Social and political movements took refuge in secret societies, biding their time.
Congress of Vienna and the New European Order
The Congress of Vienna established the territorial and political foundations of the post-revolutionary era. Napoleon’s victorious powers—Austria, Prussia, Britain, and Russia—were represented. France, Spain, Portugal, and Sweden also attended. Led by Metternich, the Austrian Chancellor, it shaped European politics until 1848. Austria secured its influence on the Italian peninsula. Russia expanded territorially (Finland, Poland, and Bessarabia). Prussia gained territory in Saxony, Pomerania, and parts of Westphalia. Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg formed the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Sweden annexed Norway. The former German Empire was replaced by the Germanic Confederation, a body of 41 states dominated by Austria and Prussia. Britain, with no territorial ambitions, secured control of the seas.
The Holy Alliance
The Congress of Vienna also established mechanisms to maintain the new European order. Tsar Alexander I of Russia, Emperor Francis I of Austria, and Frederick William III of Prussia signed an agreement pledging to uphold Christian principles and intervene in any country facing revolutionary threats.
France and Britain
In France, Louis XVIII (the Bourbon restoration) established a bicameral legislature (a Senate appointed by the king and a National Assembly with limited suffrage). In 1824, the more reactionary Charles X succeeded him. Britain maintained its parliamentary monarchy, with London becoming a haven for liberal exiles.
Revolutions of 1820
The Restoration was absolute in many countries, exemplified by Ferdinand VII in Spain, leading to revolutionary uprisings. The first wave of revolutions began in the Mediterranean: Spain and Naples in 1820, and Greece in 1821. Ferdinand VII’s absolutism was unsustainable. The country’s ruin, the return of the aristocracy, and tax privileges made it difficult to raise funds. Troops preparing to deploy to America revolted in Cadiz in January 1820. Ferdinand VII was forced to swear allegiance to the Constitution of Cadiz. The Holy Alliance was alarmed by the spread of revolution: a liberal revolt erupted in Naples in July 1820, followed by a liberal movement in Portugal in August, and in Piedmont in March 1821. The Congress system responded: in Troppau (1820) and Laibach (1821), the powers authorized Austria to crush the Neapolitan liberal movement while supporting absolutists in Spain. The Congress of Verona (1822) ordered French intervention in Spain. The French army ended the Liberal Triennium (1820–1823), restoring Ferdinand VII to absolute power. The Eastern Question, stemming from the weakening Ottoman Empire and the rise of Balkan nationalism, presented a major challenge. Greek revolutionaries rose up against the Turks in 1821. After years of conflict between Russia and Turkey, the Western powers secured Greece’s independence in 1830.
Revolutions of 1830
Demands for greater political freedom (liberalism) and independence (nationalism) fueled these revolutions, far more intense than those of 1820. Beginning in France, they spread across Europe, ending the Restoration. France, Belgium, and Britain emerged with bourgeois constitutional systems, albeit limited. Greece and Belgium became independent nations. Belgium gained independence from the Netherlands, supported by Britain and France, redrawing the map created by the Congress of Vienna. It adopted an advanced liberal constitution. In France, barricades led to the fall of Charles X and the ascension of Louis Philippe of Orleans (the “bourgeois king”), establishing a constitutional monarchy. Austrian troops suppressed liberal and nationalist uprisings in Italian states such as Parma and Modena. In some German states, Prussia suppressed insurrections. In Poland, the nationalist movement was crushed by Russia.