A Short History of Europe: From Charlemagne to the Treaty of Europe (12 page)

Although his Egyptian adventure had not been the success he had hoped for, he was still given a hero’s welcome on his return. He was also invited to be part of a coup but, instead, usurped the coup for himself. In November, 1799, the thirty-year-old Napoleon became First Consul, playing the leading part in a ruling triumvirate
governing France. In 1802, he was named First Consul for Life and then, in 1804, following overwhelming approval in a plebiscite, he became Emperor, as Napoleon I. France made peace with Austria in 1801 and then Britain in 1802. Napoleon had already made his peace with Rome and the papacy in the Concordat of 1801. Meanwhile, reform continued at home that affirmed many of the revolutionary
principles, such as equality before the law.

Peace with Britain foundered after just a year, colonial quarrels setting the two old enemies at each others’ throats yet again. Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) confirmed British naval supremacy and soon the other European powers – Austria, Prussia and Russia – had rejoined the fray against the French. Napoleon enjoyed victory at Austerlitz
in 1805, Jena in 1806, Friedland in 1807 and Wagram in 1809, but his lack of naval power was a major drawback. In 1810 and 1811, he was at the zenith of his power. Bonaparte family members ruled Spain, Naples and Westphalia and France controlled vast swathes of Europe. The Holy Roman Empire had been replaced in 1806 by the Confederation of the Rhine, no more than a French satellite state, while
Hamburg, Amsterdam, Rome and Brussels were all under French control.

However, the decline had already set in. The Spanish campaign begun in 1808 was long and arduous, the Spaniards wearing Napoleon’s armies down with their guerrilla tactics. His invasion of Russia in 1812 became first a retreat in the face of the harsh Russian winter and then a rout. Germany rebelled in 1813 and, by 1814, France
was surrounded and outnumbered. On 6 April, Napoleon abdicated in favour of his son and was exiled to Elba. He remained there until the following year when he famously returned to rule France for another hundred whirlwind days. He was finally defeated by the Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) and the Prussian general, von Blücher (1742–1819), at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. His next exile,
on the isolated Atlantic island of St Helena, was final.

The Congress of Vienna – a conference of ambassadors of the victorious Allies – convened in Vienna from November 1814 until June 1815, meeting even during the period when Napoleon returned from Elba, and signing its Final Act eight days before his conclusive defeat at Waterloo. It determined the future shape of Europe.

In France, the Bourbons were restored to the throne, under Louis XVIII (ruled 1814–24), younger brother of the executed Louis XVI, and its borders were reinstated to their pre-Revolutionary positions. Holland was given Belgium, previously under Austrian control. The Allies did not restore the Holy Roman Empire, instead creating the German Confederation, consisting of 39 German states. It was,
however, chaired by the Austrian Habsburgs. Prussia, a major force in the Napoleonic Wars, gained the Rhineland and became a major German power. In Italy, the former kingdoms, duchies and principalities were mostly returned to their pre-Napoleonic state. Austria held on to Lombardy and Venice in the north. Poland virtually disappeared from the map, following its support for Napoleon, most of its territory
going to the Russians.

Napoleon’s attempt to unite Europe by force had failed and, in so doing, it had betrayed many of the ideas of the Revolution and of the Enlightenment. One of the main reasons for its failure was the new feeling of nationalism that arose in many countries. New ideas of nationhood developed and individual liberty became a hot topic in political debate. Amongst the legacies
of the Corsican’s rule were the codification of the laws of many countries and a uniform system of weights and measures that has served Europe well ever since.

Europe had been at war since 1792 and it had been ruinous in terms of lives lost and financial cost. In order to prevent it happening again the great powers, led by Lord Castlereagh (1769–1822), the British Foreign Secretary, Metternich
(1773–1859), the Chancellor of Austria and Tsar Alexander I of Russia (ruled 1801–25), devised the Concert of Europe, a system of meeting in congress from time to time to resolve problems without resorting to war. It was also a vehicle by which the major powers could crush revolutionary activity before it developed in the way that the French Revolution had. Spain, Naples, Piedmont and Portugal soon
experienced the force of this initiative when uprisings in favour of constitutional government were ruthlessly crushed. The British withdrew from the Concert after a short time but the others continued in what was termed a Holy Alliance.

Europe in 1800

Following the Napoleonic Wars, the British Empire emerged as the world’s leading power. The statistics are staggering; Britain controlled a quarter of the world’s population and about a third of its land and sea. Europe still lacked strong nation states, enabling Britain to establish the ‘Pax Britannica’ around the globe, a period during which it controlled
most of the important trade routes and possessed a navy that truly did rule the ocean waves. The period of relative peace it engendered began to weaken as the Europe created by the Congress of Vienna began to fall apart and the Great Powers once again began to make warlike noises.

The Ottoman Empire, which had reigned supreme in Eastern Europe for many centuries, went into decline, raising the
spectre of Russian expansionism towards the Mediterranean that ultimately led to the Crimean War (1854–56). The Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) arose out of years of tension between the two countries and was followed by the emergence of the new nation states of Italy and Germany.

Nationalism and liberalism were the two concepts that had the greatest influence on nineteenth-century politics. Borrowed
from the French Revolution, they were espoused by the revolutionary leaders of the new century and contributed to the creation of a new Europe. Nationalist tendencies that had become current during the Napoleonic era when, for example, the Russians, the Germans and the Spanish had refused to give in to the French, persuading people to attempt to expel foreign occupiers, and the principles of democracy
became aspirations for many liberals. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press and religion were preached while the romantics celebrated heroism and the liberty of the individual.

However, the same old problems of famine, economic stagnation and social inequality persisted and were met with the age-old response of repression. Even in England, aglow with global success, there were demands and,
sometimes, violent protests for electoral reform and 11 died in the Peterloo Massacre when thousands protested in Manchester. The Reform Act of 1832 greatly improved the legitimacy of Parliament by increasing the number of men who could vote to 650,000. It contributed to Britain’s avoidance of revolution in the nineteenth century.

Repression in Germany took the form of a ban on political meetings,
censorship of the press and rigid control of education. In Italy, societies known as the
Carbonari
(charcoal-burners) met in secret to call for the expulsion of all foreign powers and the unification of Italy as a republic. Their rebellions of 1820–21 in Piedmont and, in 1831, in the rest of Italy were easily defeated.

The first major uprising occurred in Greece in 1821. Much of the country had
been under Ottoman control since the fourteenth century but Ottoman power was weakening and the time was right for a war of independence. The struggle became an inspiration for European liberals, its romantic standing much enhanced by the death of the English poet, Byron, at the siege of Missolonghi. Britain, France and Russia intervened on the Greek side, destroying the Turkish fleet at the Battle
of Navarino, off the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, in 1827. Greece finally obtained independence in 1830.

The years 1830–31 saw dissatisfaction erupt into revolution in a number of European countries. In July 1830, Paris rose up once more when the Bourbon monarch, Charles X (ruled 1824–30), made an attempt to remove the constitutional limitations on his sovereignty. He was replaced
by Louis-Philippe I (ruled 1830–48), a descendant of Louis XIII. Watching events in France carefully, rebels in a number of other states were stung into action. In Germany, some rulers were persuaded to abdicate and new constitutions were introduced, complete with electoral reform. In Italy, the people of Modena, Parma and the Papal States rebelled against Austrian rule but were swiftly dealt
with. A revolt in Poland installed a revolutionary government until the Russian tsar took action in 1831.

The Congress of Vienna had handed Belgium to the Netherlands and, in 1830, the Belgians rose up against the union and their Dutch king. Belgium achieved independence in 1831 but eight years later was at war with its former masters. The 1839 Treaty of London guaranteed Belgian independence
and neutrality. Meanwhile, Luxembourg became an independent Grand Duchy, but still within the Dutch kingdom. It would not finally be relieved of Dutch suzerainty until 1890.

The lack of success of many of the 1830–31 revolutions and rebellions did little to dispel the feelings of dissatisfaction shared by many of the peoples of Europe. If anything, in fact, these feelings
were exacerbated by that age-old cause of social unrest – a series of poor harvests and famines. People were starving again all over Europe.

The century’s second and altogether more successful wave of revolution began in Paris, as usual, in February 1848. Louis-Philippe abdicated after fighting against electoral reform. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (ruled 1848–70), nephew of the Emperor, was elected
President of the Second Republic. By 1852 he had disposed of his opponents, often violently, and, following a questionable referendum, in the best Bonaparte tradition he declared himself Emperor as Napoleon III. He would remain in power until 1870 when France lost the disastrous Franco-Prussian War and he was deposed.

Meanwhile, revolution broke out across Europe. In Austria, an uprising by students
in Vienna sent their reactionary political leader, Prince Metternich, into exile. The feeble-minded Emperor Ferdinand I agreed to the demands of the people and abdicated. His nephew Franz-Josef (ruled 1848–1916) became Emperor and would reign for 68 years. Following an uprising, King Frederick William IV (ruled 1840–61) of Prussia was forced to grant a constitution and demonstrate his support
for a united Germany. A German parliament was elected and it made the decision to declare war on Denmark in order to win back the two German states of Schleswig and Holstein. The matter was unresolved at the end of hostilities and Frederick William impatiently closed the fledgling German parliament. To the east, the Hungarians declared independence from Austria while, to Hungary’s annoyance, Croatia
immediately declared independence from Hungary. Austria joined in with the Croatians in an invasion of Hungary, but the Russians, fearful of the spread of revolutionary ideas to their own peasants, invaded Hungary and crushed the rebellion.

In Italy, the Italian patriot, Giuseppe Garibaldi, was moderately successful in the First Italian War of independence. Milan had rebelled against Austrian
rule and, in Rome, a republic was established, but a French force was sent to bring it down. Eventually, in June 1849, the French prevailed and Garibaldi and his troops retired from Rome to carry on the struggle for Italian freedom elsewhere.

It had been many years since Europe had been at war and, since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, most countries had been looking inwards. By
the middle of the century, however, tensions were rising once again. Russia’s expansionist ambitions had begun to worry the other European superpowers, although all of them greedily eyed the territories of the fading Ottoman Empire. Eventually the anxieties led to the Crimean War (1854–56), fought between the Russian Empire on one side and France, Great Britain and Sardinia supporting Turkey on the
other. The allies won and the Russians were forbidden (by the Treaty of Paris that ended it) from establishing a naval or military presence on the Black Sea coast, a huge disadvantage to them. All the Great Powers promised to respect the independence of the Ottoman Empire.

Germany approached unification, its prime advocate being the great statesman, Otto von Bismarck (1815–98), the Prussian Prime
Minister. The Germans defeated the Austrians over the issue of Schleswig and Holstein in 1866, finally driving the Habsburgs from Germany and the unification cause was helped by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. Prussian victories at Metz and Sedan led to the fall of Napoleon III and the Second Empire. It also led to the final unification of Germany with the Prussian King Wilhelm
I (ruled 1861–88) being crowned Emperor.

Defeat for France also hastened unification in Italy. Count Camillo Cavour (1810–61), Prime Minister of Piedmont, had linked up with the French Emperor Napoleon III in 1858 and driven the Austrians out of Lombardy. Cavour then formed a union with other states in Italy. With his blessing, Garibaldi and a force of
Camicie Rosse
(Red Shirts) overthrew the
kingdoms of Sicily and Naples. In 1861, he added Sicily and southern Italy to the new Kingdom of Italy, to be headed by the King of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel II (ruled 1861–78). Rome was declared the capital of the new state, but Pope Pius IX refused to give up his claim to the Papal States, regarding himself as a prisoner in the Vatican. No Pope would leave the Holy City for the next 59 years.

The Austrians, meanwhile, would focus on creating the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Nonetheless, they still faced the nationalism of the many Slavic peoples under their control – amongst them the Serbs, Montenegrins, Albanians and Bulgarians. Now that the Turks were fading from the picture, these minority peoples, as well as others across Europe, found themselves in states in which they felt
like second-class citizens. This sentiment would have dire consequences for Europe and the world in 1914.