Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

CHAPTER I. EUROPE, FROM THE CONGRESS OP VIENNA (1815) TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1830.

GERMANY: THE HOLY ALLIANCE.—The years of peace which followed the War of Liberation produced a signal increase of thrift and of culture in Germany. But they brought also a grievous disappointment of ardent political hopes. There was a feeling of national brotherhood, which that struggle had engendered,—such a feeling as Germans had not experienced for centuries before. Constitutional government and German unity were objects of earnest desire. Frederick William III., the king of Prussia (1797-1840), had promised his people a constitution. But the two emperors, Francis I. of Austria and Alexander of Russia, together with Frederick William, had, at the instigation of Alexander,—whose mind was tinged with religious mysticism,—formed at Paris (Sept. 26, 1815) "the Holy Alliance," a covenant in which they pledged themselves, in dealing with their subjects and in their international relations, to be governed by the rules of Christian justice and charity. They invited all the potentates of Europe, except the Sultan and the Pope, to become parties to this sacred compact. With the exception of George IV., the Prince Regent of England, the sovereigns complied with the request. This alliance, which was sincerely meant by Alexander, was popularly confused with the alliance of Austria, Russia, Prussia, England, and France, the aim of which was to prevent further revolutions. Francis I., who lived until 1835, was stubbornly averse to every movement that in the least favored popular freedom and constitutional government. Supreme in his counsels for a whole generation was Metternich, not a profound statesman, but an expert diplomatist, who labored, generally with success, to stifle every effort for an increase of freedom in Germany, and elsewhere on the Continent. In the smaller German states, especially those which had belonged to the Confederacy of the Rhine, there was a disposition to found a constitutional system; but the Prussian government followed in the wake of Austria, and Austria stood in the way of every such innovation.

AGITATION AND REACTION.—The agitation for liberty was specially rife among the students in the German universities. A demonstration by them at the Wartburg (1817), in commemoration of Luther and of the victory over Napoleon at Leipsic,—in which there were songs and speeches, and a burning of anti-liberal books,—was noticed by the Prussian and Austrian ministers; and the alleged revolutionary movements of students were denounced by the Emperor Alexander. This reactionary zeal was whetted by the murder of Kotzebue, a German poet, who was hated as a tool of Russia and a foe of liberty, and was assassinated by Karl Sand, a fanatical Prussian student (March 23, 1819). Young Sand was executed for the deed, but his fate drew out many expressions of pity and sympathy. The Diet of the confederacy (Sept. 20, 1819) adopted what were called the Carlsbad Resolutions, which provided for a more rigid censorship of the press, committees of investigation to suppress revolutionary agitation, and a strict supervision of the universities by the governments. All the states were required to enforce these regulations. The liberal party, the party of freedom and unity, still subsisted, especially in the smaller states, where some of the princes, as William I. of Würtemberg (1819-1864) and Louis I. of Bavaria (1825-1848), entertained comparatively liberal views.

FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XVIII.—The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818) withdrew the army of occupation left by the allies in France. The Pentarchy, or Five Great Powers, pledged themselves to the continued maintenance of peace by means of conferences and congresses. Louis XVIII. (1814-1824), although inactive, was not void of good sense, and was disposed to accommodate himself to the times. But the court party, with his brother the Count d'Artois at its head, were unyielding in their despotic ideas. They were for restoring the system of the old monarchy. The increase in the liberal members of the Chamber, or legislative assembly, impelled Richelieu, the head of the ministry, to resign (Dec., 1818). A more liberal man, Decazes, succeeded him. He was supported by a party which arose at this time, called Doctrinaires on account of a certain pedantic spirit, and a disposition to shape political action by preconceived theories or ideas, which was imputed to them. In their ranks were Royer-Collard, Guizot, Villemain, Barante, and others. They advocated a constitutional monarchy. Among the liberals not affiliated with them was La Fayette, who encouraged the Charbonniers, a secret society for promoting liberty, that had its origin in Italy.

TYRANNY IN SPAIN.—In 1820 revolts broke out against the Bourbon governments in Spain and Italy. Ferdinand VII. had been restored to liberty by Napoleon in 1814, and had returned to the Spanish throne. In 1812 the Cortes had established a constitution with a system of parliamentary government, limited prerogatives being left to the king. In favor of the new system were the educated and enlightened class generally. But—as was not the case in Germany—the uprising against Napoleon in Spain had owed its strength very much to the ignorant and superstitious peasantry, who, while they hated the foreign yoke, clung to the feudal and ecclesiastical abuses which the French rulers in Spain, as far as time and opportunity permitted, swept away. Ferdinand thus had a strong support in his movement to bring back the former bigoted and exclusive system. He wrested the national property from the holders to whom it had been sold. He restored the Inquisition: not less than fifty thousand individuals were imprisoned for their opinions. From his tyranny ten thousand Spaniards escaped into France.

SOUTH AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.—The French usurpation in Spain cost that country its American colonies. They would not submit to the French sovereignty, and after its fall maintained their independence. Buenos Ayres broke loose from Spain in 1810, and in 1816 joined the Plate states in a confederation. Paraguay declined a union with Buenos Ayres, and continued under the patriarchal absolutism introduced by the Jesuits, Dr. Francia being its ruler until his death (1840). Uruguay became a republic distinct from Buenos Ayres in 1828. In the northern colonies, the principal hero of the struggle for independence was Simon Bolivar, who sprang from a noble Creole family. He first fought for the independence of Venezuela (1810), but was made by New Granada its general in 1812, and became president of the two countries, which were united under the name of Colombia (1819). Quito was now taken, and Peru was set free from the Spanish rule. Upper Peru, in 1825, was named, in honor of the "Liberator," Bolivia. He found it impracticable to connect the different states in one confederacy, and closed his eventful life in 1830. Colombia divided itself into the three states, Venezuela, New Granada, and Ecuador (1831).

MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE.—After the year 1808, there were various attempts at revolution in Mexico. In 1821 its independence was achieved by an insurrection under Iturbide, a native Mexican. He failed in the effort to make himself emperor (1822); and the Republic of Mexico was organized in 1824, and was recognized by the United States in 1829.

MILITARY REVOLT IN SPAIN.—The loss of her American colonies, and the efforts to restore them, reduced Spain to extreme poverty. In 1820 a successful military insurrection, led by Quiroga, Riego, and Mina, proclaimed anew the constitution of 1812. Ferdinand, who was capable of any amount of hypocrisy as well as cruelty, swore to uphold it. The revolution was supported by the intelligent class of people, but the defenders of it were split into different parties. The clergy and the peasantry were arrayed on the other side. Guerilla bands were organized under the name of the "Army of the Faith."

CONGRESS OF VERONA.—The military revolt in Spain alarmed the Great Powers. The three sovereigns were now leagued for the defense of "the throne and the altar;" for Alexander, who had shown liberal inclinations on the subject of the emancipation of the serfs, and even towards Greece in its aspiration for independence, now recoiled from every thing that savored of freedom. At the Congress of Verona (Oct., 1822), the sovereigns resolved to interfere in Spain. The Duke of Wellington declined to concur with them, and, on his return from the congress, advised Louis XVIII. to take the same course.

ENGLAND: CANNING.—George IV. (1820-1830) had been regent since 1810. Already unpopular, he became still more so in consequence of his abortive effort (1820) to procure a divorce from Queen Caroline, whom he had married at the demand of his father (1795). She was not allowed to be present at his coronation. On account of the profligacy of her husband, there was a strong sympathy with her, although she was a coarse-minded woman. For a number of years after the Peace of 1815, the English government resisted movements towards reform at home; and in its foreign policy, under the guidance of Castlereagh, it sustained the reactionary cause abroad. Disaffection towards the ministers gave rise to a plot, contrived by some desperate men, to destroy them in a body. It was detected; and Thistlewood, with some of his confederates, was executed (1820). On the death of Lord Castlereagh in 1822, Canning, a disciple of Pitt, became foreign secretary. He adopted a more liberal policy, and worked against the schemes of Metternich for interference in the affairs of foreign states. He transferred England, says Guizot, "from the camp of resistance and of European order into the camp of liberty."