Why_Did_the_Concert_of_Vienna_Fail_

he French Revolution that began in 1789 was a scary event for all members of old, conservative Europe. Not only was an established dynasty of monarchs pulled down and replaced with a republic, but the fall of that republic was followed by the strong, well liked Emporer Napoleon who, though not royal or accepted by other monarchs, conquered various parts of Europe, put his families members on the thrones of the two Sicilies and Spain, and collapsed the Holy Roman Empire. Though he eventually fell, liberal ideas of revolution and governmental reform were scattered throughout Europe. Scared for their own power, leaders of the four other major European powers (plus France) gathered in 1815 to ensure that such a change would never come to place. They created a system called The Congress of Vienna, which was an alliance between the five to ensure a continued balance of power between the five countries. Based on ideas created by Austrian minister Klemens von Metternich, they would help each other put out any ensuing revolutions, respect each other’s power, and keep the conservtive order in place. However, this would only work to a certain extent. Though the Congress initially worked because it restored the old order immediately and worked to keep things in place, it could not be continually successful because of the unstoppable forces of liberalism. The Congress did initially restore the old order, which would have made it difficult for continued change to occur. First of all, it restored any fallen monarchies that the revolution or Napoleon had deposed. Louis XVIII was returned to Frace, Ferdinand IV was returned to the Two Sicilies, and Ferdinand VII was returned to Spain. This would help suppress any hope of revolution because it would appear as though previous attempts had totally failed--everything was back the way it was. It also helped to suppress change because the rulers were in established dynasties--unlike Napoleon, the rulers were born into their positions and thus were symbols of conservative rule. Another part of the system was to redistribute land that Napoleon took, giving back back stolen land and evenly shelling out the rest to maintain a balance of power between Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and France. Austria regained plenty of stolen territory and much of Italy; Prussia got ⅖ of Sardinia and much of the German States, and Russia got Poland. France was aligned with neutral “buffer” countries such as Piedmont, Switzerland, and eventually Belgium in 1839. Such a balance protected the countries from one another--not one had chance at being too powerful. Also important, if there was a problem in one country due to revolution or otherwise the others could easily stop it--or in the words of Austrian minister Klemens von Metterich, “I am the Chief of Police in Europe.” Thus, any revolution that could possibly bring any change would be immediately squashed. The power of the five major governments were extreme- each had armies of hundreds of soldiers on hand, and were able to crush multiple rebellions, such as those in the two Sicilies (1820-1), Spain (1820-3) and Poland (1830). The five countries, united on a common goal, were able to keep their conservative order the way they wanted it for a short period of time. However, the forces of liberalism ensured that the Congress was ultimately due to failure despite the drive of the Big Five. One source of this failure was the change from a rural, agrarian Europe to an urbanized, industrial Europe. As more things were invented and more factories erected, more and more flocked to cities in search of a living. Though a factor since the Middle Ages, the Industrial Revolution occuring between the 1700s and 1800s sped up this urbanization. For instance, London went from having roughly 1,117,000 people in 1750 to nearly six times that amount one hundred years later. By 1850, 2 million people cities existed where none had existed a century earlier. This would help to outdate and undermine the Congress of Vienna’s lasting influence because the closer grouping of people meant the closer grouping of different ideas and revolutionaries--and thus a bigger chance that people would group together to start a movement and want change, despite the wishes of the Congress. This went hand and hand with the current print culture. Though things had been printed since 1455, the use of the printed word had escalated in the past century. Over 2000 regular newspapers were in circulation by 1830- multiple times the amount as had been a century earlier. Books were also being printed easier due to bounds in printing technology, and so were pamphets. Thus, to obtain written works- and ideas- was cheaper and easier than ever before. Like the growth of cities, the growth of print culture caused more liberal ideas to be spread to greater numbers- and thus undermine the conservative order put forth by the Congress. Also, the liberal idea of creating a government to suit the needs of the people had already been planted by France. The rest of Europe saw their governments go off to fight a group of citizens who loved their country and culture enough to reform their government to help the people. This nationalism would rub off on other states and even ethnicities, causing a change from the static social order that the Congress wished to maintain. Groups like the German States and Italian states began to dream of a unified state for their culturally similar people, and they began to resent the Austrian rule. In Italy, nationalists like Giuseppe Mazzini spread ideas of a unified state and belonged to organizations promoting Italian unity. German students all over the Austrian empire created youth commitees to celebrate German culture and yearn for their own state. Likewise, Slavs began to resent the German based rule of Austria, leading to an uprising in 1848 against Austrian rule. Though this uprising ultimately failed by the end of the year, the idea and dream was still there, not to be crushed by the Congress.