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the European continent (until the advent of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s). The subsequent PDQHXYHULQJ RI WKH ÀYH (XURSHDQ SRZHUV $XVWULD %ULWDLQ )UDQFH 3UXVVLD DQG
Russia) evidenced a competitive spirit that signaled the rise of nationalistic sentiments.
With the stated purpose of restoring stability to the war-weary continent, the Congress RI 9LHQQD DSSURYHG D SHDFH WUHDW\ UHZDUGLQJ WKH ÀYH SRZHUV UHPDUNDEO\
including France) at the expense of less powerful nation-states. Russia gained much of Poland (partitioned among Austria, Prussia, and Russia in the 1790s) and all of Finland (previously under Swedish control—Sweden had made the diplomatic error of installing a Napoleonic general, Jean Bernadotte, as their king in 1813). Prussia gained Alsace-Lorraine (on the French border) and (previously Swedish) Pomerania. Norway was taken from Denmark and given to Sweden, Austria lost Belgium (consolidated with Holland, since both had Dutch-speaking populations) but acquired territory in northern Italy, and Britain acquired colonial possessions, including the Cape Colony (South Africa), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and part of the West Indies, in exchange for Senegal (site of the Medusa disaster), which was returned to France.
The guiding principle at the Congress of Vienna was restoration—restoration to the stability that reigned in Europe during the era of absolute monarchy before the French Revolution (Figure 7.1). Thus, the Bourbon family returned to the French throne, and regimes throughout Europe adopted policies intended to inhibit the loss of political power and Church/aristocratic privilege. Limits on suffrage were one method—in France, for instance, with a total population of about 30 million in 1815, only about 100,000 men could vote. Other restrictions included limits on the size of public meetings, bans on demonstrations, prohibition of student organizations, and press censorship.
On a continent whose population increased 70 percent between 1800 and 1850 despite an emigration of three million people, and whose cities (where ideas circulated most intensively) grew at an even faster rate, maintaining the status quo, much less returning to the good old days, was unrealistic. Industrial cities like Birmingham grew
² SHUFHQW LQ WKH ÀUVW \HDUV RI WKH QLQHWHHQWK FHQWXU\ DQG WKH QXPEHU RI cities with populations over 100,000 more than doubled during that period as well (23 to 52 in Europe and zero to six in the US). Fastest growing were suburbs, the main bastion of the bourgeoisie—the suburbs surrounding Birmingham, for instance, grew 16–fold between 1800 and 1850. The economic situation also changed drastically, with industrial wages falling steadily and incomes of professionals and entrepreneurs rising to the extent that they accumulated wealth which they then invested in enterprises such as real estate, joint stock railroad companies, well-appointed homes, and even art.
After 1830, the rapid expansion of railways further facilitated the exchange of people and ideas—between 1830 and 1850 the amount of rail increased from 30 kilometers to more than 23,000. Literacy rates also rose steadily as a result of obligatory schooling for children aged 7–14 (a law seldom enforced), primarily in
Figure 7.1
James Gillray, France. Britain.
Freedom. Slavery, 28 July 1789.
Data Box 7: Nineteenth-Century Population
Protestant countries where it was considered essential for everyone to be able to read the Bible (for Catholics and Orthodox Christians, religious understanding came ÀUVWDQGIRUHPRVWIURPWKHSDULVKSULHVW 6ZHGHQKDG(XURSH·VKLJKHVWOLWHUDF\UDWH
because priests there annually tested the reading skills of inhabitants of their parishes (a practice instituted in the seventeenth century), with responsibility for teaching in the hands of the estate owner or head of family. Denmark passed compulsory education legislation in 1814, as did Prussia in 1819, Sweden in 1842, England in 1870, Canada in 1872, France in 1881, and Holland in 1900. Although literacy increased steadily with the institution of state- and church-funded primary schools, by 1850, only the US, Scandinavia, Holland, France, and the German-speaking countries had literacy rates higher than 50 percent. Literacy translated directly into career opportunities.
Members of the aristocracy traditionally held positions such as postmaster, surveyor, DQGMXGJHEXWOLWHUDWHFRPPRQHUVFRXOGDOVRKROGSXEOLFRIÀFH%\WKHFHQWXU\·VHQG
the vast majority of civil servants were commoners.
Another consequence of literacy was the expansion of newspapers, spreading knowledge of current events and ideas with unprecedented rapidity. Technology made the nineteenth-century print revolution possible beginning with the invention of the iron press in the 1790s, increasing print production from ten to 250 sheets per hour. Friedrich Koenig’s steam-powered press enabled the London Times to print 1,100 sheets per hour in 1814, and by 1865, William Bullock’s roll-fed rotary press (the kind RQHVHHVLQYLQWDJHÀOPV DOORZHGWKHSURGXFWLRQRI FRPSOHWHGRXEOHVLGHG
newspapers per hour. The invention of OLWKRJUDSK\ by Alois Senefelder in 1796
Population (millions)
1800 1801 1806 1815 1830 1831 1833 1849 1850 1851 1852 1870 1871 1874 1876 1900 Austria-Hungary grease crayon onto a special kind of limestone. Water is then applied to the surface, adhering to the undrawn areas. Ink is then applied with a roller and adheres to the grease crayon drawing.
A sheet of paper is placed on the stone and sent through a press, which transfers the drawn design from stone to paper. In principle, an unlimited number of identical prints can be made.
The process was developed in 1796 by Alois Senefelder.
See http://www.moma.org/
interactives/projects/2001/
whatisaprint/print.html.
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that illustrated periodicals were now feasible, with the greater sense of journalistic realism they conveyed. In the 1850s, lithographic printing was mechanized, and a decade later, zinc plates replaced lithography stones in an exponentially faster rotary SUHVV,WZDVQRZWHFKQLFDOO\SRVVLEOHIRUWKHÀUVWWLPHLQKLVWRU\IRUZRUGVDQGLPDJHV
to reach vast audiences at affordable prices.
These statistics indicate that the conservative forces of restoration were ÀJKWLQJ D ORVLQJ EDWWOH *URZLQJ HFRQRPLF GLVFUHSDQF\ EHWZHHQ ULFK DQG SRRU
and political discrepancy between empowered and disenfranchised generated social tension and instability because people were better informed about existing conditions. The frequent assassinations and rebellions during this period indicated ZLGHVSUHDGGLVFRQWHQWDQGGHPRQVWUDWHGWKHGLIÀFXOWO\DEVROXWLVWJRYHUQPHQWVIDFHG
in maintaining stability. Brutally suppressed liberal revolutions broke out in Naples, Portugal, Sardinia, and Spain during the early 1820s. Disgruntled members of the Russian military took advantage of confusion following the death of Alexander I in December 1825 to mount the failed Decembrist Revolution. In 1830, France and Belgium experienced successful revolutions, although in France, the government’s inadequacy in responding to popular demands resulted in a failed coup attempt by Napoleon’s nephew Louis in 1836.
Respect for the aristocracy and its values vanished for the majority of Westerners GXULQJWKHÀUVWKDOI RI WKHQLQHWHHQWKFHQWXU\7KHERXUJHRLVLHZLWKDYDOXHV\VWHP
embedded in principles of honor, hard work, fairness, respect for others, and love of family became the new norm-setter in morality, behavior, and taste. It was easier for people to identify with self-made men whose principles resembled their own than with the frivolous and unfamiliar world of aristocrats. Furthermore, the possibility of joining the bourgeoisie, whose membership was determined by worldly success, was far greater than the aristocracy, whose membership was largely determined by noble birth.
“But before occupying ourselves with the different categories of crowds, we must first of all examine the characteristics common to them all. We shall set to work like the naturalist, who begins by describing the general characteristics common to all the members of a family before concerning himself with the particular characteristics which allow the differentiation of the genera and species that the family includes …
The most striking peculiarity presented by a psychological crowd is the following: Whoever be the individuals that compose it, however like or unlike be their mode of life, their occupations, their character, or their intelligence, the fact that they have been transformed into a crowd puts them in possession of a sort of collective mind which makes them feel, think, and act in a manner quite different from that in which each individual of them would feel, think, and act were he in a state of isolation. There are certain ideas and feelings which do not come into being, or do not transform themselves into acts except in the case of individuals forming a crowd. The psychological crowd is a provisional being formed of heterogeneous elements, which for a moment are combined, exactly as the cells which constitute a living body form by their reunion a new being which displays characteristics very different from those possessed by each of the cells singly.”
Source: Gustave Le Bon, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (1895). Mineola, NY: Dover, 2002, pp. 3–4.