19. EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS
Deleted member 147289
19. EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENTS
The Victorian era was in full swing and the British Empire sat on the throne of the world: an empire that went from Canada to New Zealand via India and the Cape, absorbed in its splendid isolation. Queen Victoria, loved by her subjects together with her husband Albert, reigned over an empire on which the sun never set. Industrial, scientific and naval development had allowed the United Kingdom to take a position of advantage over other European powers and thanks to the superiority of the royal navy it dominated the sea and trade, the lifeblood of the empire with precious Chinese, Indian and African goods that flowed into London, transforming the city into an unparalleled cultural and industrial center, where Victorian high society, dominated by conservative religious and social morals of the time, had turned into a global model and, helped by the vastness of his empire, he easily spread cultural, political and industrial ideas.
The French Republic experienced the decade as a period of stabilization and settlement following the revolution, during which the republican institutions consolidated, also helped by the charisma and moderation of Cavignac who remained president until 1857 when he died in office leaving the government to Adolphe Thiers and his alliance between conservatives and liberals who marginalized the Democrats who had been in opposition since the beginning of the republic. Despite growing consensus among the urban proletariat, France still possessed an agricultural economy with the countryside a conservative stronghold that allied with the urban bourgeoisie that with Cavignac's interventionist policies had increased its power and wealth by expanding the French industrial base. Occasionally this social division had escalated in more heated situations with urban clashes between political opponents but never of the levels of the June Days, the population remembered what had happened when the army arrived. These clashes shook the republican structure but it remained standing thanks to the moderate policies of the president who was able to regn in his coalition inspired in part by the United States from which inspiration was taken for some institutions such as the Supreme Court. France did not embark on foreign adventures, preferring to focus on her internal problems; this does not mean that the armed forces were not a pillar of the republic which was also led by a general, receiving substantial investments which made them the first on the European continent. French military interest was concentrated in Algeria, a place of gradual colonization and for the moment limited to the coasts and in Egypt where Prosper Enfantin had established a company to dig a canal in the Suez area. Recognizing the usefulness of the project but also the costs, France invited the Italian Confederation and the United Kingdom to participate in the project. The Italians agreed quickly while the British hesitated for a few years until they entered the company and construction began in 1859.
The construction of the Suez Canal was a massive undertaking, employing some of the brightest engineers of the time
The German area had been deeply shaken by the events of 1848-1849 with the experience of the Frankfurt Parliament which would represent one of the highest points for German liberal history and the beginning of a serious discussion on the need for a unified German state. Although it had been suppressed by reactionary weapons, the seeds of unity had been widespread among the minds of the bourgeois and the major thinkers of the time who began to compose songs, paint paintings, create statues and architectural works aimed at glorifying the German spirit. Austria had been heavily defeated by the revolutions with an internal instability caused by political and national reasons with the spread of liberal ideas and the unrest of minorities who asked for a reform based on the Hungarian model. Franz Joseph and Schwarzenberg refused to take these requests into consideration and fell back on a return to reactionary absolutism by repressing any anti-imperial demonstration. In this repressive climate, Franz Joseph was assassinated by a Hungarian patriot in 1853, angered by the emperor's failed concessions to his people. Schwarzenberg died in 1852 and with them gone the Austrian reactionary age came to an end with the coronation of Maximilian I, just twenty-one but of liberal ideas: he had opposed repressions during the revolution and in the early years of his reign he worked to reform its domains with freedom such as that of the press, the establishment of an imperial parliament elected with requirements of census, age and education, the beginning of the promotion of other nationalities in their local bureaucracy and the impulse to industrialize Austria, starting from Vienna and Prague and later spreading throughout the empire. Led by his nobility of mind and great cunning Maximillian did everything possible to improve the life of his subjects and restore Imperial prestige, moving away from the Balkans and focusing on Germany recovering the influence lost in the south, one of the most prominent examples was the marriage in 1856 between Maximillian and Elisabeth Von Wittelsbach (“Sissi”). Prussia, after the experience of the war for Schlesweig and the defeat, was getting back on its feet: military reforms followed the defeat, aimed at transforming the Prussian army into one of the best in Europe since after the Napoleonic wars relative continental peace had made the military fall into a state of quiet, but also an economic boom in the Rhineland area gave a strong boost to the Prussian economy which began the slow process of industrialization, favored by the control of the Rhine and the surrounding areas rich in coal and iron which allowed Prussia to develop a large and well-stocked industrial base. In this decade the division of Germany began to emerge in the North (led by Prussia which influenced most of the states and of the Protestant religion) and South (Led by Austria and composed of the southern Catholic kingdoms); outside the courts and in elegant living rooms ideas of German unity were spreading, not of a monarchical but republican nature, since the kings had refused the crown when they could take it meant that they were not interested in seeing a united Germany and then the bourgeoisie would have had to take matters in hand.
The "Sick man of Europe", the Ottoman Empire, was in the midst of the Tanzimat era, a series of reforms aimed at modernizing the decadent Islamic empire which, after its peak in the seventeenth century, had begun a slow decline with the gradual erosion of its power in Africa and in the Balkans, with the growth of local nationalist movements which were strongly opposed to the Turkish domination which continued from the fifteenth century. The long period of peace enjoyed by the empire favored the implementation of reforms and modernizations among the population, such as the reform of the way of dressing that went from a Turkish to a Western style, the release of the first banknotes, the creation of a ministry of education and the Ottoman national bank among many. Slowly the empire was starting to rise after the decline of previous years, trying to solidify its foundations in order to be able to rise again. On the other side of the Bosphorus, however, the Slavic populations were conspiring against Constantinople: seeing Greece as an example of success thanks to European aid, Romanians and Serbs, who already owned their states, were spreading discontent among their compatriots under the yoke Ottoman, giving rise to acts of civil resistance and some small local revolt, crushed by the new imperial army. Realizing that they would not be able to defeat the Turks alone, the Slavic peoples turned to the only power that would listen to them: Russia.
Alexander II would be remembered as a great reformer by his people who loved their Zar
Russia, the giant of the east, had avoided the collapse of the Austrian empire and returned to its semi-isolation from Western European affairs, absorbed in the consolidation and extension of the empire. The most important event of the decade was the death of Nicholas I and the succession of his son Alexander II. Tsar Alexander II was a reformer: he had seen firsthand the vastness and backwardness of Russia, based mainly on subsistence agriculture and serfdom and had understood that the motherland would not have had a future without change. So he embarked on the most ambitious reform campaign since the time of Peter the Great, touching on subjects such as justice, the economy and civil society but strangely not the army, not much loved by the pacifist Tsar. During his reign, the foundations were laid for a nascent Russian industry in major cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg and the emergence of an urban middle class as a consequence of industrialization, literacy campaigns began among the rural masses by means of public tutors and religious ones to recover the abyss of development that existed with western countries and censorship was removed, promoting the reformist political discourse among the upper classes who no longer had to fear the secret police by proposing reforms. Alexander II also laid the foundations for the future emancipation of serfs which was declared in 1861, putting an end to the centuries-old tradition of tying farmers to the land and allowing greater mobility between cities and countryside, thanks also to the reduction of secret police checks. The liberal wave of the decade fully fulfilled the Russian Empire and its Tsar was its main proponent. A sector that underwent few interventions was that of the armed forces: the navy began to use the first steamships while the absence of a war to verify the preparation of the ship to no reform was considered except the expansion of ground forces and a principle of modernization of their equipment.
The Victorian era was in full swing and the British Empire sat on the throne of the world: an empire that went from Canada to New Zealand via India and the Cape, absorbed in its splendid isolation. Queen Victoria, loved by her subjects together with her husband Albert, reigned over an empire on which the sun never set. Industrial, scientific and naval development had allowed the United Kingdom to take a position of advantage over other European powers and thanks to the superiority of the royal navy it dominated the sea and trade, the lifeblood of the empire with precious Chinese, Indian and African goods that flowed into London, transforming the city into an unparalleled cultural and industrial center, where Victorian high society, dominated by conservative religious and social morals of the time, had turned into a global model and, helped by the vastness of his empire, he easily spread cultural, political and industrial ideas.
The French Republic experienced the decade as a period of stabilization and settlement following the revolution, during which the republican institutions consolidated, also helped by the charisma and moderation of Cavignac who remained president until 1857 when he died in office leaving the government to Adolphe Thiers and his alliance between conservatives and liberals who marginalized the Democrats who had been in opposition since the beginning of the republic. Despite growing consensus among the urban proletariat, France still possessed an agricultural economy with the countryside a conservative stronghold that allied with the urban bourgeoisie that with Cavignac's interventionist policies had increased its power and wealth by expanding the French industrial base. Occasionally this social division had escalated in more heated situations with urban clashes between political opponents but never of the levels of the June Days, the population remembered what had happened when the army arrived. These clashes shook the republican structure but it remained standing thanks to the moderate policies of the president who was able to regn in his coalition inspired in part by the United States from which inspiration was taken for some institutions such as the Supreme Court. France did not embark on foreign adventures, preferring to focus on her internal problems; this does not mean that the armed forces were not a pillar of the republic which was also led by a general, receiving substantial investments which made them the first on the European continent. French military interest was concentrated in Algeria, a place of gradual colonization and for the moment limited to the coasts and in Egypt where Prosper Enfantin had established a company to dig a canal in the Suez area. Recognizing the usefulness of the project but also the costs, France invited the Italian Confederation and the United Kingdom to participate in the project. The Italians agreed quickly while the British hesitated for a few years until they entered the company and construction began in 1859.
The construction of the Suez Canal was a massive undertaking, employing some of the brightest engineers of the time
The German area had been deeply shaken by the events of 1848-1849 with the experience of the Frankfurt Parliament which would represent one of the highest points for German liberal history and the beginning of a serious discussion on the need for a unified German state. Although it had been suppressed by reactionary weapons, the seeds of unity had been widespread among the minds of the bourgeois and the major thinkers of the time who began to compose songs, paint paintings, create statues and architectural works aimed at glorifying the German spirit. Austria had been heavily defeated by the revolutions with an internal instability caused by political and national reasons with the spread of liberal ideas and the unrest of minorities who asked for a reform based on the Hungarian model. Franz Joseph and Schwarzenberg refused to take these requests into consideration and fell back on a return to reactionary absolutism by repressing any anti-imperial demonstration. In this repressive climate, Franz Joseph was assassinated by a Hungarian patriot in 1853, angered by the emperor's failed concessions to his people. Schwarzenberg died in 1852 and with them gone the Austrian reactionary age came to an end with the coronation of Maximilian I, just twenty-one but of liberal ideas: he had opposed repressions during the revolution and in the early years of his reign he worked to reform its domains with freedom such as that of the press, the establishment of an imperial parliament elected with requirements of census, age and education, the beginning of the promotion of other nationalities in their local bureaucracy and the impulse to industrialize Austria, starting from Vienna and Prague and later spreading throughout the empire. Led by his nobility of mind and great cunning Maximillian did everything possible to improve the life of his subjects and restore Imperial prestige, moving away from the Balkans and focusing on Germany recovering the influence lost in the south, one of the most prominent examples was the marriage in 1856 between Maximillian and Elisabeth Von Wittelsbach (“Sissi”). Prussia, after the experience of the war for Schlesweig and the defeat, was getting back on its feet: military reforms followed the defeat, aimed at transforming the Prussian army into one of the best in Europe since after the Napoleonic wars relative continental peace had made the military fall into a state of quiet, but also an economic boom in the Rhineland area gave a strong boost to the Prussian economy which began the slow process of industrialization, favored by the control of the Rhine and the surrounding areas rich in coal and iron which allowed Prussia to develop a large and well-stocked industrial base. In this decade the division of Germany began to emerge in the North (led by Prussia which influenced most of the states and of the Protestant religion) and South (Led by Austria and composed of the southern Catholic kingdoms); outside the courts and in elegant living rooms ideas of German unity were spreading, not of a monarchical but republican nature, since the kings had refused the crown when they could take it meant that they were not interested in seeing a united Germany and then the bourgeoisie would have had to take matters in hand.
The "Sick man of Europe", the Ottoman Empire, was in the midst of the Tanzimat era, a series of reforms aimed at modernizing the decadent Islamic empire which, after its peak in the seventeenth century, had begun a slow decline with the gradual erosion of its power in Africa and in the Balkans, with the growth of local nationalist movements which were strongly opposed to the Turkish domination which continued from the fifteenth century. The long period of peace enjoyed by the empire favored the implementation of reforms and modernizations among the population, such as the reform of the way of dressing that went from a Turkish to a Western style, the release of the first banknotes, the creation of a ministry of education and the Ottoman national bank among many. Slowly the empire was starting to rise after the decline of previous years, trying to solidify its foundations in order to be able to rise again. On the other side of the Bosphorus, however, the Slavic populations were conspiring against Constantinople: seeing Greece as an example of success thanks to European aid, Romanians and Serbs, who already owned their states, were spreading discontent among their compatriots under the yoke Ottoman, giving rise to acts of civil resistance and some small local revolt, crushed by the new imperial army. Realizing that they would not be able to defeat the Turks alone, the Slavic peoples turned to the only power that would listen to them: Russia.
Alexander II would be remembered as a great reformer by his people who loved their Zar
Russia, the giant of the east, had avoided the collapse of the Austrian empire and returned to its semi-isolation from Western European affairs, absorbed in the consolidation and extension of the empire. The most important event of the decade was the death of Nicholas I and the succession of his son Alexander II. Tsar Alexander II was a reformer: he had seen firsthand the vastness and backwardness of Russia, based mainly on subsistence agriculture and serfdom and had understood that the motherland would not have had a future without change. So he embarked on the most ambitious reform campaign since the time of Peter the Great, touching on subjects such as justice, the economy and civil society but strangely not the army, not much loved by the pacifist Tsar. During his reign, the foundations were laid for a nascent Russian industry in major cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg and the emergence of an urban middle class as a consequence of industrialization, literacy campaigns began among the rural masses by means of public tutors and religious ones to recover the abyss of development that existed with western countries and censorship was removed, promoting the reformist political discourse among the upper classes who no longer had to fear the secret police by proposing reforms. Alexander II also laid the foundations for the future emancipation of serfs which was declared in 1861, putting an end to the centuries-old tradition of tying farmers to the land and allowing greater mobility between cities and countryside, thanks also to the reduction of secret police checks. The liberal wave of the decade fully fulfilled the Russian Empire and its Tsar was its main proponent. A sector that underwent few interventions was that of the armed forces: the navy began to use the first steamships while the absence of a war to verify the preparation of the ship to no reform was considered except the expansion of ground forces and a principle of modernization of their equipment.
Last edited by a moderator: