NATIONAL INSTABILITY
The nineteenth century commenced with the resolution of late eighteenth century disputes, wars, and political conflict that resulted in a starkly different political landscape with new state borders.
Aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna
Following the radical French Revolution of 1789, First Consul of France Napoleon Bonaparte launched a series of military campaigns aimed at expanding the French Empire known as the Napoleonic Wars. The wars were largely successful for the French army until the overzealous French general attempted an attack on the Russian Empire, resulting in his army's defeat and Napoleon's exile to the island of Elba. His exile however proved ineffective, and Napoleon returned to the French throne and attempted further armed conflict in the continent. This time, Napoleon's forces were easily overwhelmed, and Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena, where he would reside until his death in 1821. Meanwhile, as a result of the aggressive expansionist French campaigns, the Great Powers of Europe, which at the time was comprised of Great Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and France, held the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815 headed by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich to debate how Europe was to be reformed and how France was to be punished for its aggression. The Congress' first objective was to ratify the previously drafted Treaty of Chaumont, which forced France to cede any territory gained in the Napoleonic Wars and pledged each nation's army to resist and extinguish any continued French aggression. The second and more delicate objective of the Congress of Vienna was to size and reshape national boundaries in continental Europe in order to balance the Great Powers of Europe, using Northern Italy, Poland, and a series of small German states as a sort of neutralizing buffer between Austria, Prussia, and Russia. The ultimate result of the Congress of Vienna was the Concert of Europe—the framework for European international policy until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
The Concert of Europe
The resulting Viennese international system known as the Concert of Europe was a system of balances designed to keep Europe's Great Powers from gaining too much influence within the continent in order to prevent another series of expansionist conflicts. In the end, the perpetuation of the Concert system would be a significant cause of the start of World War I. The Concert was comprised of the Great Powers and was epitomized by Austrian leader Klemens von Metternich whose conservative philosophy prospered under the international system within the German Confederation. Much like Metternich's Austria, the Concert of Europe was put to the test during the revolutions of 1848
Revolutions of 1848The Congress of Vienna, Concert of Europe, and conservative policies following the Napoleonic Wars created tension between the middle/lower classes and the wealthy, ruling class. Areas in which territory was exchanged and divided, particularly the German states, anti-patriotic sentiment also contributed to tension between the population and its government officials, who did rarely represented the ideology of their constituents. These factors, coupled with economic failures and unpopular legislature ultimately culminated in the eruption of revolutions in 1848. The revolutions began in France initially in a manner similar to the 1789 revolution. The French rebels fought in support of a self-ruling republican government, and their victory over the absolutist regime in February of 1848 quickly spread across the continent as the populations of other major European states launched massive political uprisings in favor of democratic government bodies. The revolutions were largely successful and created more progressive democratic bodies, but the counter-revolutions in the latter half of 1848 prevented their goals from being fully realized.
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