The Frankfurt Connection: The 1848 Revolutions

A Short Victorious War: The Establishment of Italian Hegemony in the Neapolitan South
  • The casual observer, if he had turned his eye upon the United Provinces of Italy [1], he would have assumed that the country had no real interest in expansion. Indeed, the federation had remained conspicuously absent from the foreign policy manouverings of the great powers during the period, focused instead on the construction of a viable state. Based on this, the casual observer would have assumed that the peninsula had returned to the relative tranquility of the Congress Era.

    He would have been wrong however.

    While the federation's primary aim, in the aftermath of it's emergence from the Springtime of Nations, was very much to establish itself as a viable state, which following various internal manouverings saw the gradual expansion of the federal government's remit. This remit, was further reinforced by the removal of any counterweight to the House of Piedmont, through the sudden death of Leopold II of Tuscany, and the abolition of the Tuscan monarchy following a coup against his successor Ferdinand IV by radical Italian nationalists. [1]

    Cavour, despite his subtle encouragement of Tuscan malcontents to push for greater integration between Tuscany and Sardininia, was well aware of the danger the radicals presented to his state building ambitions. It was this reason, which would see his government, with the agreement of the Sardinian army, arm and train volunteer revolutionaries, led by the radical veterans Mazzini and Garibaldi. [2]

    The reason? The desire for full unification of the peninsula. Northern Italy (excluding Veneto), was united but the rest of the peninsula lay in the hands of the Papacy and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, regions not inclined to look upon Sardinian hegemony favourably.

    Cavour, had "retired" following the una mano attraversa l' altra scandal, resigning from the premiership and seemingly leaving politics altogether. His retirement however, was entirely in name only, as he served as an independent senator (and as Foreign Minister) in the government of Ricasoli, a point not missed by the national press. [3] Ricasoli's govenrment continued the policy of recruiting and arming voluntary revolutionaries.

    The government's plans were briefly put in hold with the death of Charles Albert, who was succeeded by his son Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia, a strong ally of Cavour since his rise to the premiership in the early 1850s. The expedition launched in late 1859, with around 5,000 men (2,000 Sardinian troops and 3,000 volunteers) under the joint command of Mazzini and Garibaldi, with the express aim of defeating the Neapolitans and launching an advance into the Papal States.

    The initial invasion of Sicily proved remarkably successful, with the small force capturing Marsala in the space of two days, with covert suppport from British and French ships in the area. [4] The Neapolitan forces were swiftly defeated, though the arrival of a force of well trained and equipped reinforcements on the island from Naples, prevented any premature celebrations. Cavour's government had also sent three vessels to Sicilian coast, on the pretext of "protecting Italian property and citizens within Palermo." These vessels, acted as a caution against any desire of the Neapolitans to bombard the city, possessing as they did, more firepower.

    The Neapolitan forces, were driven eastwards retreating to the mainland. The island of Sicily was annexed to the Federation, despite the protests of Garibaldi who preferred to wait until the end of the conflict, viewing annexation as an unnecessarily provocative gesture. [5]

    Napoli_Castel_Nuovo_museo_civico_-_ingresso_di_Garibaldi_a_Napoli_-_Wenzel_bis.jpg

    Celebrations in Naples as Garibaldi enters Naples

    Garibaldi took his revenge by disobeying a direct order to avoid crossing the straight, and landed in Calabria (with the tacit approval of the King) where his forces soon encircled Naples, having encountered little resistance. Ferdinand II, soon surrendered and went into exile with his family, leaving the Two Sicilies to the hands of the Sardinian led federation.

    In the Papal States, the Federation had annexed around two-thirds of the Papal States, following tacit French approval, in order to send troops to the south, on condition that they not enter Rome. As a result the majority of Umbria and the Marche were now Italian territory, though the Papacy still maintained Rome and the Latium area surrounding the city's northwest.

    Cavour, the great chessmaster had done it. Italy was free.

    (An extract from The Brigand and the Diplomat: The Formation of Modern Italy, by Walter Antenioli, 1949)

    BRIEF NOTES

    [1] The federation between the Sardinians and the Tuscans had always been unequal and uneasy, and Leopold's assassination in 1856 only exacerbated matters.

    [2] Garibaldi and Mazzini had both had long revolutionary careers by the time Cavour came calling, though the relationship between the two radicals and the more pragmatic Cavour was always fraught with tension.

    [3] Ricasoli, was largely seen as merely keeping the seat warm for if and when the new king reappointed Cavour.

    [4] The French had signed a treaty pledging support for the Italians in a war against the Austrians in exchange for Nice and Savoy. The British meanhile supported the Italian effort, as a counterbalance to the Neapolitan's support for the Russian attempts to gain access to the Mediterranean Sea.

    [5] Sicily was officially annexed following Victor Emmauel's entrance into the city, which was largely greeted by popular crowds. Garibaldi's fears however would prove correct, as the sudden declaration provoked anger behind closed doors in London, Paris and Vienna. The Austrians viewed the annexation as the removal of a valuable counterweight to Italian expansionism, while the British and French were irritated at not having been informed beforehand. Nevertheless, diplomatic recognition, in the face of Ferdinand II's abdication was swift in coming.
     
    Last edited:
    Ripples and Puddles: Change Afoot in British Politics, 1848-1855
  • Sir_James_Graham_2nd_Bart_First_Lord_Admiralty.jpg

    Sir James Graham, British Prime Minister

    While the violent ripples of the Springtime of Nations failed to ignite a revolution in Great Britain, it's effects still washed upon the shore. While Chartism had threatened to overthrow the new order, before fizzling out in a cold, damp afternoon, London became home to various malcontent, radical political exiles who agitated for a new dawn and the end of the old order.

    Outside of the fevered air of the radical bookshops and coffeehhouses frequented by the likes of Marx and Kossuth, the post-Congress world of the New Europe presented the British establishment with a challenge. The emergence of a newly unified Germany, under the auspices of a liberal constitutional model, was greeted in public with elation by the Prince Consort, while in private the government viewed the new state as a useful counterweight against possible French or Russian expanisionism. This goodwill was briefly hindered by the unpopular (in Germany), British brokered, Treaty of London (1852), but the two countries developed a reasonably cordial relationship, following the visit of the Emperor and Empress of Germany in 1854.

    Domestically, the Great Exhibition and the rebuilt Palace of Westminster fully demonstrated Britain's imperial power, as did the 'gunboat diplomacy' of Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston, who came to typify the pragmatic free traders who dominated politics during the period. Indeed, as the Whigs enjoyed a prolonged period of political dominance, the Conservatives appeared to be collapsing into anarchy, as the Peelite wing split from the Tories to form the Free Trade Party. [1] The new coalition government [2] of Sir James Graham, granted self-government to several colonies [3] though this was overshadowed by the Russo-Turkish War which threatened Britain's sacred routes to India. While the war was eventually ended before British troops were deployed, Graham authorised a deployment of a naval squadron to the Dardanelles (alongside the French), before helping broker the Treaty of Paris which opened the Black Sea to neutral shipping. While these suggested strong foreign policy success, Graham's coalition government was always shaky and eventually collapsed over attempts to extend the franchise, a problem that would dog successive administrations. [4]

    BRIEF NOTES

    [1] The imaginatively named Free Trade Party, were essentially the Peelites of the Tories and some disaffected Whigs, who resented John Russell, and as a result was always an uncomfortable allliance between social reformers and social conservatives in the name of free trade.

    [2] Sir James Graham, formed a coalition administration with the Whigs, following the collapse of the very shortlived Conservative administration of Edward Smith-Stanley. Much like the Free Trade Party, the coalition was fraught with tension.

    [3] New Zealand, the Australian territories and Natal were successively granted independence between 1853 and 1855.

    [4] The debate, between those who wished to progressively enfranchise the working classes to an eventual end goal of universal (male) suffrage, and those who viewed the 1832 Act as sufficient would continue to haunt British politics until the 1880s.
     
    Last edited:
    The New World and Old World Blues: The United States and the 1850s
  • The United States, found itself blessed with two presidents in the space of a year as the inexperienced Zachary Taylor died in office [1] and was succeeded by his uninspiring deputy Millard Fillmore who saw out the rest of Taylor's term. The states were divided by the issue of slavery, and the question of whether it would be expanded to the newly acquired western territories of California, New Mexico and Nevada [2], and while a compromise was steered through congress to secure a brief truce between the north and the south, the tensions which lay between the two would be the dominant feature of American political life during the period.

    If politically the country was only a few inches away from war, the country was experiencing a prolonged economic and demographic boom. In the Pacific northwest, the city of Boston, Oregon [3] was incorporated and thanks to its access to the Pacific Ocean through the its location at the confluence of two rivers, it would quickly grow into a major trade centre in the American northwest. The increasing expansion of American territory witnessed a boom in communications as mail order and telegraph companies (in part funded by the federal government) began establishing themselves in the western frontier. The largest of these was American Express, which in the two years since it's founding in 1850 as merger between three New York mail order companies, had expanded into California. [4] The economic boom was reflected in the increased economic co-operation between British North America and the United States, while an 1850 treaty signed with the British allowed for a joint claim over the Nicaragua Canal. [5] Meanwhile, demographic changes were occuring in both the Canadian territories and the American West, as gold was discovered in British Columbia, California and Oregon at the start of the decade, fuelling a boom in immigration (both internal and external) to the region. American foreign policy during this period focused almost extensively on the Pacific, as the successive Whig and Democrat administrations concentrated on maintaining Hawaii within the American sphere, and opening Japan to American trade. [6]

    In 1852, the U.S. elected the Democrats to office, with Pennsylvania's James Buchanan's becoming the fourteenth president of the republic, defeating the Whigs and the Constitutional Union. [7] Buchanan's victory ensured that the union would endure for a few more increasingly fraught years, as his government compromised on the slavery question time and time again in order to preserve the union. While this tactic succeeded, in as far as the union remained intact, the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1853 [8] resulted in widespread violence between pro-slavery forces and abilitionists in the new territories, as they fought to determine whether the new territories would be slaveholding areas. Despite personal reservations, the act was passed, repealing the Missouri Compromise. [9]

    James_Buchanan.jpg
    James Buchanan, 14th President of the United States: "the man who let inaction become a byword for efficiency"

    The violence was not merely confined to the issue of slavery. The rise of the anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, nativist American Party (later led by former president Millard Fillmore) saw tensions between the local population and the recent immigrants from Germany and Ireland explode into riots in both Kentucky and Ohio. Electoral violence between Protestants and Catholics in Louisville, would result in thirty-two deaths and a complaint to the Buchanan administration from the German ambassador.

    Buchanan, despite these problems would win re-election in 1856, despite a strong showing from the recently founded (and stridently anti-slavery) Republican Party. Nevertheless, despite his electoral victory, Buchanan's government continued it's "wait and see" approach, which led the satirist and journalist Samuel Clemens to dub him the man "who let inaction become a byword for efficiency." The tensions between both sides of the debate would continue to fester to the end of the decade, though they fell short of actual war, though the factionalism that was riven within the Democrats was exacerbated by the party losing control of Congress to the "Oppositional Coalition" of Whigs, Republicans and the Constitutional Unionists.

    While the union was beset by problems, culturally it was undergoing something of a boom, with American authors enjoying widespread popularity in Europe, with Britain serving as the publishing centre for numerous authors such as Melville whose novel The Whale was published to great acclaim, as was abolitionist novel Life Among the Lonely by Harriet Beecher Stowe, though it should be pointed out that these authors first achieved success abroad before the Americans took notice of them. [10]

    BRIEF NOTES

    [1] Despite rumours that he had been poisoned Taylor died from cholera.
    [2] California was quickly admitted as a state, but due to concerns over whether the new territories would become slaveholding areas, New Mexico (New Mexico and Arizona) and Nevada were maintained as federal territories.
    [3] Boston, Oregon had it's name decided by a successful coin flip (OTL's Portland)
    [4] The expansion into California, was at the insistence of John W. Butterfield limited in scope to post, rather than the establishment of railway network has had originally been envisaged.
    [5] The treaty wouldn't resolve the lingering tensions that dogged Anglo-American relations, but ensured that Nicaragua wouldn't develop into a flashpoint between the two.
    [6] The Americans did successfully, after numerous attempts open the Japanese ports to western trade, while an attempt by Napoleon III to annex Hawaii was stringently rebuffed.
    [7] Buchanan defeated Winfield Scott of the Whigs and Sam Houston of the Constitutional Union.
    [8] Same as IOTL
    [9] Which ITTL, much like in ours, becomes a harbinger of the civil war brewing on the horion.
    [10] Indeed many American writers were first published in Europe before becoming popular in their homeland, particularly in Britain, that the phrase "Yanks in Yorkshire" was coined to describe the writer's retreat built near the spa town of Harrogate, which became home to several American writers in it's early years.
     
    Last edited:
    The US Presidential Election of 1860
  • The tensions that had characterised the 1850s in the United States finally exploded into life in 1860, as the union which for so long had appeared to be creaking on rotten foundations collapsed. The Presidential election of 1860 would reshape the American landscape, and the first surprise of the campaign was the winner of the Constitutional Union nomination. Sam Houston was a radical from Texas who selected the more moderate John Bell as his running mate. The surprise in this nomination was that Houston was deeply unpopular with certain sections of the south who virulently opposed his strong unionism and anti-slavery stance. While the Constitutional Union was only a minor player in national politics, Houston’s nomination would set the tone for the rest of the political year.

    The new major force in national politics, the Republican Party initially appeared to have the most fractured debate, with four clear frontrunners in Lincoln, Seward, Chase and Bates. However it was clear that Bates and Chase had deeply divided the voting the delegates, while Seward was viewed with suspicion by the Radical wing due to his shift to the moderate centre. Lincoln also had detractors who felt he was far too moderate to fully realise the party’s platform while in office. In the end, it came down to a straight fight between Seward and Lincoln, with Seward managing to carry it after coming extremely close to winning it on the second ballot with Lincoln instructing his supporters to shift their votes to Seward. This sudden change came thanks to the “Chicago Compromise” where Seward offered Lincoln the Vice-Presidency and his supporters’ cabinet positions. In the end the Seward/Lincoln ticket won the election comfortably, also thanks in part to the strong working relationship between Seward and Lincoln.

    The Democrats meanwhile were thrown into turmoil with their northern and southern wings splitting, and the first convention having to end without having selected a Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate. The second convention comfortably resulted in a Douglas/Fitzpatrick win but the split between southern and northern Democrats was to have a big impact on the campaign. The election was one for the Republicans by oratorical skills of Seward and Lincoln, both of whom managed to draw huge audiences on their nationwide tour. Seward was prominently supported by northern media, with the New York Times and the New York Tribune running several months of pro-Republican coverage. The collapse of a unified Democratic front also enabled the Republicans to siphon votes from the moderates who might have supported them. The running of Houston for the Constitutional Union also failed to detract from the Republican bid, despite Democrat campaigners counting on it to draw votes away from the radical Seward ticket. Lincoln’s popularity and moderate stance was also a great boon to the Republican campaign. These multiple factors were responsible for the first Republican presidency and the surprisingly rapid ascension to the top of politics by a recently formed party.
     
    This House is Divided: The American Civil War, 1861-1864
  • The tensions between the north and south over the issue of slavery which characterised the union for some three decades, finally exploded into conflict after being allowed to fester during the 1840s and 1850s. The Chicago Compromise, which had seen the moderate and radical wings of the Republicans unify behind the Seward/Lincoln ticket ensured that a Republican victory would result in conflict, due to the party's explicit abolitionist stance. The subsequent election of so radical a duo to the White House provided the southern states the excuse they needed to secede from the Union. This desire was only increased when the Vice-President, Abraham Lincoln made a speech in early January, 1861 condemning slavery within the Southern states as unlawful. The Southern states soon began seceding, and various Southern politicians including Jefferson Davis resigned from their various political positions within the Union structure. Out of this would form the Confederate States, who established themselves as the national representation of the American South.

    200px-William_h_seward.jpg
    William H. Seward, 15th President of the United States, first Republican President, leader of the Union in the Civil War and architect of the abolition of slavery.

    The Civil War would begin almost immediately in the aftermath of the secession crisis and would have an effect on countries several thousand miles away. As a result of the war, an economic depression effecting cotton in Lancashire hit the United Kingdom, which led to Queen Victoria granting the Confederates belligerent rights (though the British had no desire to back either side, much to the disappointment of the French Emperor Napoleon III, who wished to expand France's influence in the Americas.)

    The war would begin with several Confederate victories, but soon settled into a relative stalemate, as both sides struggled to organise their armies. At the beginning however, the Confederates severely routed Union forces at Bull Run, resulting in the appointment of Hiram U. Grant [1] as senior commander of the Union forces. It would not be until early 1862 that the Union would taste major success with W.T. Sherman defeating the Confederates in Tennessee. Indeed 1862 would begin to see the tide turn against the Confederacy, as they found themselves pushed out of Missouri following defeat at Pea Ridge. In the southwest, the war was most notable for the distinguished use of the US Camel Corps. [2] The naval aspect of the war was also interesting from a military history view, as the first naval battle between the two sides was between two ironclad warships, the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. While inconclusive, the battle would show the potential of ironclad warships, while the war would also see the development of the first ever submarine.

    The turning tide in the conflict could be seen in 1862, following the crushing defeat inflicted upon the Confederates at Antietam [3] and subsequent pursuit of General Lee's Army of North Virginia, a victory which emboldened Seward's antislavery stance and persuaded the European powers not to recognise the Confederacy. [4] Grant's decision to besiege Richmond in November 1862, despite the reservations of George B. McClellan placed the Union in the ascendancy.

    dead-soldier-antietam1.jpg

    Dead Confederates in the aftermath of Antietam

    In Washington meanwhile, the seemingly unstoppable march of Union forces, saw the Supreme Court which held an abolitionist majority [5] support the Seward Ultimatum which declared that unless the South ended its rebellion he would issue the emancipation proclamation which would legally free all three million slaves held in the south. Despite the military situtation, the ultimatum was rejected in the south as nothing but Yankee bluster. In actual fact, the ultimatum was a calculated piece of pragmatism, as Seward and Lincoln had agreed that those Southern slaveowners who agreed to cooperate with the union would be offered the fig leaf of compensated emancipation to both encourage surrender and placate the unpredictable border states. Thus for the duration of the war, Seward's government pursued the de facto abolition of slavery by enforcing almost every judicial action which could kill it off in all but name only, though this policy proved controversial within Seward's cabinet. [6]

    Meanwhile, the Union's "March to the Sea" continued apace, as following an four month siege Richmond fell to the Union in March 1863, a blow which would severely cripple the Confederate war effort, despite the largely successful evacuation of troops from the city under the command of Lee, whose Army of North Virginia had proven to be a consistent thorn in the side of Union forces. The capture of the capital and major industrial centre of the CSA was a huge boon to the prestige of both Seward and the Republicans, who shrugged off accusations from the Democrats [7] that they "were shedding white blood for negroes." Despite the capture of Richmond, and the belief in Washington that his would quickly extinguish the South's will to fight, the Confederates pugnaciously soldiered on, launching numerous harying attacks against the larger Union force.

    Grant, in conjunction with Sherman decided that a two-pronged assault on the remaining confederate territory would be required to finally force the south to surrender, since with the capture of Richmond the major southern industrial centre was now in Union hands. Sherman who had taken charge of the Army of Tennessee, led his forces to push into the southwest towards Mississippi, while Grant's troops pushed south to defeat Lee's army. The tactic worked, as Sherman and Grant gradually pushed the remaining confederate forces towards the south. The war officially came to an end in January 1864 with the surrender of Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Congress, though following the surrender of Lee in September 1863 and the death of Nathan Bedford Forest in October 1863, [8] the war despite the continued guerrilla actions of a few die-hard fire eaters, had petered out by November.

    The successful conclusion of the conflict proved huge boon to Seward and the Republican's popularity, with the majority of the press predicting a Republican landslide in the 1864 elections. The Republican controlled Congress passed the proposed thirteenth amendment which would de jure abolish slavery throughout the United States in 1863, with the amendment coming into law a year later in 1864, following it's ratification by the states. [9] Seward would comfortably win re-election in 1864, with him and his Vice-President Daniel Dickinson [10] surviving an assassination attempt at their inauguration on March 4, 1865. Lincoln, who had been the most powerful Vice-President for decades, became Secretary of State following the formation of a Unionist [11] cabinet.

    Abraham_Lincoln_O-77_matte_collodion_print.jpg

    Abraham Lincoln, "The Illinois Lawyer" who transformed the office of Vice-President

    BRIEF NOTES

    [1] OTL Ulysses S. Grant
    [2] The Camel Corps were founded in the 1850s for use in the difficult terrain of the southwest, but despite their suitability for the terrain the army declind to use them for military purposes. ITTL, they're use in the southwest by the US Army becomes more widespread as the army used them as pack animals and communication animals in the arid southwestern territories.
    [3] The single bloodiest battle of the war, and one of the bloodiest in history, the Battle of Antietam saw the Union forces under the command of Grant break Confederate resistane after four days of intense, bloody fighting which saw around 25,000 casualties (the majority of which were wounded.)
    [4] The British were split over the issue, as the war directly effected the British economy with Lancashire suffering a depression due to the lack of southern cotton. Nevertheless, strong abolitionist opinion in Britain and the heated opposition to the Confederacy by Prince Albert persuaded Palmerston to avoid recognising the Confederacy, a policy reluctanly followed by the French.
    [5] As the majority of the previous Supreme Court had "Gone South", Seward was able to pack the court with abolitionist republicans who wholeheartedly supported his emancipation agenda.
    [6] The policy of offering "compensated emancipation" to those slaveowners who had supported the Union war effort, proved unpalatable for many of the more Radical Republicans, and drew fierce criticism from Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase and Thaddeus Stevens, leader of the Radical faction within the Republicans.
    [7] The sequence of Union victories which saw the successful capture of Richmond in early 1863, took the wind from the Democrats sails, as the high loss of life at Antietam was offset by the capture of the Confederacy's capital and industrial centre. The highly publicised bravery of black troops who fought in this theatre further dented the Democrats claims against Seward. The party began to split into factions, and this split was exacerbated in the 1864 election, which saw the Republicans win Congress, the Senate and the Presidency.
    [8] The circumstances surrounding Bedford's death in battle in Mississippi have never been clearly established, though the popular legend that he was killed by an escaped slave sharpshooter is likely an apocryphal legend.
    [9] The rapid ratification by the states, including those in the south under military occupation, has led to claims that the amendment was passed against the will of the people, though this has largely been the preserve of die-hard Confederate sympathisers.
    [10] The decision of Seward (backed by Lincoln and other moderate Republicans) to form a coalition with the "War Democrats" saw the formation of the National Union Party, which was for all intents and purposes the Republican Party, coupled with those Democrats who supported Seward's war policies. The selection of Dickinson as Vice-President proved popular, while Lincoln's appointment as Secretary of State was viewed with relief by those in Washington who felt the "Illinois Lawyer" had become too powerful as VP.
    [11] The "Unionists", while a coalition between the Moderate Republicans and the War Democrats, was essentially a continuation of Seward's policies from 1860-1864, and is usually viewed as a Republican administration by latter-day historians.

    Extract from "This House Divided: A Brief History of the United States in the Nineteenth Century", by E.S. Young (Harvard University Press, 1948, pp.172-175)
     
    Last edited:
    The Conservative Coalition and the Prince Regent, Germany 1858-1861
  • The dominance of federal politics enjoyed by Heinrich von Gagern's Liberals came to an abrupt end in the 1858 federal elections as voter anger towards the widely publicised corruption scandal between prominent Liberal MPs involving the West Africa Company (Westafrika Gesellschaft abbreviated to WAG) in 1857 saw them shed votes heavily to the right, with the moderate Catholic Party [1] (whose heartlands comprised the southern states) and the more nationalist National Conservative Union [2], who won support from the junkers and other traditional sectors of Prussian society. The Liberals were further pressed by Robert Blum's Democrats [3] who had begun to ally themselves with the emerging radical and socialist workers movements in the rapdily growing German cities. [4] Despite these various problems, the Liberals managed to secure enough seats to remain the largest party and limped on under von Gagern as a minority government until their budget was defeated in February 1859. [5] Von Gagern resigned for a second time, leaving uncertainty behind him [6], uncertainty further exacerbated by the severe stroke suffered by Emperor Frederick William in 1858, shortly after the elections had resulted in a hung parliament. This left his brother William, the cool headed pragmatist in contrast to his prickly brother as regent. The news complicated matters for he imperial family, who in that same year had celebrated the marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal and William's son Frederick. [7]

    The Liberals, now under the leadership of the former Minister of Justice Robert von Mohl, [8] were despite their failure to win a majoity the largest party. However, they were riven with factionalism as the conflicts between the radical and moderate wings which von Gagern had kept suppressed exploded into the open, gleefully reported on by Otto von Bismarck's Der Kurier newspaper. [9] This left the Catholic Party, led by Ludwig Windthorst [10] and the Conservatives of Karl Rudolf Friedenthal [11] to form an uneasy coalition with Friedenthal as Prime Minister and Windthorst as Minister of Justice. Differences in policy between the two parties would hamper government efforts for the majority of Friedenthal's term in office, though he an Windthorst personally enjoyed an amicable working relationship. [12]

    Friedenthal_1874.jpg

    Ludwig_Windthorst_1860_JS.jpg
    Karl Rudolf Friedenthal and Ludwig Windthorst, the leaders of the first Conservative government in Germany

    Economically the government abandoned the laissez-faire policies of the von Gagern period, with a shift to protectionist policy and statist involvement in the economy, with the state beginning to take on more interests in industry outside of the expansion of railways which had begun under the previous Liberal administration. This was particularly seen in the area of steel and coal production, with the federal government passing the "Coal-Iron Act" in 1859 which provided loans to iron and steelworks seeking to purchase mines to establish their own coking centres [13] creating a boom in the industry as numerous firms established themselves in the Ruhr Valley. This boom had an important demographic shift, as large numbers of economic migrants particularly from the Polish regions of Prussia began to arrive en masse, often finding themselves living in cramped and unsanitary conditions in the new industrial centres, an issue which would become a cause celebre for the rising trade union movement. [14]

    Friedenthal's government, containing as it did large numbers of nationalist deputies, also increased funding to the military and colonial ventures. The funding increase to the military focused heavily on the army, while the more nationalist elements of his cabinet and the army began drawing up plans for a potential war with Denmark over the "unresolved" status of Schleswig-Holstein. [15] In colonial terms meanwhile, the government part funded several settler voyages to the Kamerun and actively recruited missionaries from the various Christian demoninations within the empire for work in Africa, though a proposal to actively recruit settlers among the rural and urban poor was dropped due to fierce cabinet opposition. Despite these successes, the government would eventually collapse over a dispute between its Protestant and Catholic wings over denominational education and it's provision under a proposed new education law, which would have introduced more centralised control over the German education system. [16]

    Friedenthal resigned shortly after the coronation of Regent William as Emperor William I, following the resignation of the Catholic deputies from his government. Though shortlived, his ministry showed the viability of both the right as a political force and the relative health of the Frankfurt state, since it had survived an orderly transition of power, though such orderliness would often bely the rather fragile nature of it's party system.

    William's first action as Emperor was one he would be called on to perform often in the years of his reign: the dissolution of parliament and the calling of fresh elections.

    BRIEF NOTES

    [1] The Catholic Party originated as a Catholic interest group in the northern German states formed to protect Catholic minority rights. Following the unification and establishment of the Empire, it began to emerge as the voice of the south, whose strongly Catholic identity provided it with a large voter base to draw upon. Indeed such was it's dominance in the region, that the state governments of Baden, Bavaria and Württemberg had and unbroken line of premiers from the party until the 1880s when the growth of the Socialists began to threaten it's dominance.
    [2] The National Conservative Union, simply referred to as the Union by many within the press, formed from the numerous conservative factions which had attended the original Frankfurt parliament as delegates. Nationalists, anti-democratic and very much a bastion of the landowning classes it's heartlands were to be found in the vast estates of the Junkers in Prussia, though it won votes in other states as well.
    [3] Robert Blum, one of the most famous orators in the German parliament, had formed the radical Democratic Party in 1850 from the various radical and revolutionary elements which had coalesced in the café culture of Frankfurt around the time of the parliament's formation. The party had begun to fragment by the time of Friedenthal's government, with Blum developing an interest in the burgeoning socialist and trade union movements.
    [4] The rapid growth of the industrial workforce and the cities which swelled to accommodate them, had seen living conditions deterioate in Germany's urban centres. The first trade unions emerged from this environment in the 1850s and their membership began to expand rapidly, with many affiliating themselves to a particular political ideology. The unions would later form the basis for the first socialist inspired political parties within the country.
    [5] Despite their problems, the Liberals had built an electoral base which was remarkably hard for the other parties to shift, with the cities comfortably returing Liberal deputies to the House of Commons. Nevertheless, their failure to secure a majority meant that they could only survive on limited time as a minority government, one which faced hostility from both the left and right. Merck's budget aimed to pacify both sides, as well as the factions developing within the party by appealing to both sides, but in the end failed to satisfy anyone.
    [6] Von Gagern's resignation caused uncertainty, simply because for many he was the office of Prime Minister, and his vacation of the office felt to many like the end of an era.
    [7] The marriage had been in the making since the Great Exhibition, and was met with happiness in both Britain and Germany, with the ceremony attended by membrs of both families (including the Queen's uncle Leopold I of Belgium.) It was also the last public appearance of Frederick William before his stroke.
    [8] Robert von Mohl had served as the Justice Minister since the government of Auerswald, and given the unpopularity of Merck, he emerged as the leading senior candidate to replace Gagern.
    [9] Indeed the factionalism between the radical wing and the moderates threatened to split the party. The rightist press, particularly Bismarcks newspaper watched this with joy, for they strongly disliked both von Gagern and the Liberals. Von Mohl's leadership was frequently depicted as merely keeping the seat warm for von Gagen's eventual return to power, with the former prime minister's refusal to retire reported on deliberately by Der Kurier to undermine von Mohl's position.
    [10] Windthorst was something of a rarity, as both a Hanoverian Catholic, and as a committed parliamentarian famed for his oratory and dedication to the democratic constitutionalism of the Frankfurt state, and a explicit anti-liberal. This made him something of an uneasy ally for the Union, who shared his antipathy towards the liberals but shared none of his democratic convictions.
    [11] Friedethal (a Jewish convert to Protestantism) had emerged as the dominant figure in the various conservative groupings which made up the political right in the first years of the Empire, and had been the energetic force behind the formation (with the full support of conservatives such as Bismarck) of a national conservative party in 1852, which promoted both the interests of the traditional classes and German nationalism.
    [12] The coalition between the Catholic and Protestant parties was always fraught with mistrust, though their strong mutual antipathy towards the Liberals and laisse faire ensured that they could swallow their pride and just about work together. Windthorst and Friedenthal formed a close relationship being as they were both in their own way outsiders: a northern Catholic, and a Jewish convert to Protestantism.
    [13] The law saw a rapid increase in the number of integrated companies within the region, with a resulting boom in coal production which would last throughout the latter half of the century.
    [14] The slum conditions were notoriously bad inspiring several commentaries as a result, including one by Engels and Marx the authors of The Communist Manifesto. The rapid growth of the cities, and the lack of building created numerous shanty towns, which became known as Arme Häuser (Alms Houses), many of which became infamous for widespread poverty, disease and early death. The shocking conditions would prove a catalyst for the burgeonining trade unions, as the majority of people living there were workers in the newly built factories. The widespread influx of Poles into the Ruhr area also caused friction, as the new arrivals and the local Rhinelanders clashed over housing and work.
    [15] The desire to "reclaim" the region from the Danes was vocally expressed on the right, though it was an issue popular across the political spectrum. The humiliation of Fredericia was still keenly felt.
    [16] The dispute was essentially over whether religious education would be provided by the dominant church in the area, or the official state church of the Empire (which was the Lutherans) and whether the churches had the right to run schools within the proposed state system. The issue would continue to vex successive governments of both sides of the political spectrum for the next decade.
     
    Last edited:
    Flickerings of Life in Athens: The New King of Greece, 1862-1864
  • While dramatic changes had occurred within Europe's central heartlands, the small and often forgotten Balkan region, provided further evidence of the great changes sweeping the continent. The Greeks, after three decades of inertia overthrew the Bavarian monarch Otto in the Christmas of 1862, with the possibility that his brother Luitpold succession to the throne vetoed by both the Greek parliament and the Great Powers, initiating a continent wide search for a monarch that would be acceptable to the Great Powers and Greeks. While the Greeks strongly desired the Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria's second son such a possibility was vetoed by the British. Having been rejected by Prince Albert's brother [1] and rejecting both the suggestions of the French and Russians [2], the Great Powers decided upon the thirty-one year old Swedish Prince August, Duke of Dalarna as the most neutral candidate of the several proposed. [3] August, following a meeting with a deputation of Greek parliamentarians accepted the crown in early July 1863 and was crowned in October of that year as King Nicholas I of Greece. Unlike his predecessor he made an effort to learn Greek and committed himself to the model of constitutional government of that of his brother Charles XV of Sweden. The king also began negotiations with the British over the Ionian Islands. [4] It was during the period of negotiations that Nicholas met Princess Helena, the fifth child of Queen Victoria, and the two were married in April 1864. [5] The marriage was popular within Greece and with the British royal family, who viewed Nicholas as a calm and steady influence. The king, with the support of the Greek liberals also sought to resolve the vexed question of the country's consitutional order, settling on a system based on the constitutions of Belgium, Denmark and Sweden, with the monarch's role significantly reduced in contrast to the previous constitution. The consititution repealed the previous article which declared that ministers were solely appointed by and responsible to the king, and introduced an article which obliged the king to appoint the cabinet in conformity with the will of the parliament. [6]

    August_of_Sweden_%26_Norway_c_1870.jpg

    King Nicholas I of Greece

    After thirty years of veering between absolution and constitutionalism, "crowned democracy" it seemed had finally taken hold in the Hellenic Kingdom, with the promulgation of one of the most liberal constitutions in continental Europe at the time.

    BRIEF NOTES

    [1] Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was originally the main candidate approached, but his desire to retain his duchies as well as the Greek throne was rejected by the Great Powers out of hand.
    [2] Henri, Duke of Amicale and a Russian prince were rejected for the same reasons as the Duke of Edinburgh.
    [3] The list was eventually narrowed to candidates from Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Italy, with the Swedish Prince August eventually chosen due to his age and willingness to accept the throne. (He had also won the most votes of the suggested candidates in the constitutional referedum with 17.) The other candidates had included Amadeus of Italy, William of Denmark and the Count of Flanders.
    [4] The Ionian Islands had long desired union with Greece, but had been a British protectorate since the Napoleonic Wars. The islands were eventually gifted to the Greeks in 1864 as a gift to the king and his British bride.
    [5] Despite the age gap between the two (Nicholas was fifteen years older than his bride), the two were well suited to each other, with international observers noting they're close public and private relationship.
    [6] This provision also reformed the parliament's composition with the senate (previously seen as a conservative break upon the more liberal lower house) reformed. The new senate
    was composed of 120 members elected for a nine-year term, but its synthesis was renewed every three years by 1/3. At least 9/12 of the senators were elected by the people, 1/12 by the Parliament and the Senate in a common session at the onset of each Parliamentary term, whereas the remaining 2/12 were appointed by the king on the basis of a principle of representation of the professions. In the event of disagreement between the two chambers in the voting of a law, the Constitution established the supremacy of the Parliament's vote.
     
    Last edited:
    Map of Europe, 1861
  • I am working on a much more detailed map, so consider this something of a stopgap (though it should demonstrate the changes in the Italian peninsula.)

    map1848 b.jpg
     
    Eisen und Blut: Observations of the Aftermath of a Liberal Victory in the German Elections of 1861
  • "The election of the Liberal Party and their cabal of economic interests is a sign that our great nation is headed for ruin. The Liberals are a mob of the democratic: they claim they wish to extend the promise of reform to those among our countrymen who live in filth and squalor among the endless black smokestacks of our cities, yet the condition of these wretches grows worse. They preach much about the spread of constitutional governance to the settlements in Africa, as if our place in the sun is worth the vast amount of expenditure wasted on it. Gagern, the great white priest of this nonsensical movement, may try to rein in these aspects of his movement but the charger has long since bolted. The failure to push through the military budget, that would provide our country with the means to wrest the duchies back to their rightful place within the German orbit. The position of Germany in Europe will not be determined by its liberalism but by its power. Germany must concentrate its strength and hold it for the favorable moment, which has already come and gone several times. Since the debacles of Vienna and London, our frontiers have been ill-designed for a healthy body politic. Not through speeches and majority decisions will the great questions of the day be decided—this is the great mistake of the Frankfurt Mob—but by iron and blood."

    (Otto von Bismarck's editorial in Der Kürier, the leading conservative newspaper following the appointment of Heinrich von Gagern as Prime Minister for a third time in June 1861.)

    "The return of Heinrich von Gagern was greeted with a sense of mild relief in the diplomatic circles that rippled and shaked in Frankfurt, if only because he offered a sense of the familiar. The tense compromise of the Catholics and the Junkers had dissipated into nothingness, the two sides circling each other like punch drunk sailors in a bar room brawl. I met with an American sailor who told me the mood in the northern port cities was ripe with tension: antagonism towards the Danes, anger towards the poor Polish migrants who strike out west in search of work. Said it reminded him of the rage that convulsed in Ohio in the 1850s. The Bavarians say that Gagern was persuaded to return to prevent the Liberals splitting into coffee house factions like the early days of the Frankfurt Parliament. In Munich, the attitude towards Frankfurt is one of decided hostility: they look to Vienna, it's squares and fountains offering hope of a return to the days of church, king and structured order rather than the constant wash of change which extends from the centre to the periphery. The country seems paralysed in a state of permanent tension, it's national tapestry becoming more moth eaten and thread bare."

    (Extract from the diary of Edgar Allan Poe, an American journalist, author and critic who had relocated to Germany in the 1850s.)
     
    Last edited:
    The Midcentury Malaise: The Pessimistic Cultural Revolution in Europe and the New World
  • The political revolutions which had forged new nations, and forced a recognition of reformist agendas in the old European autocracies, also helped to create a new artistic culture, primarily centred in Europe, but whose effects were felt across the Atlantic and the frontier states of the New World. [1] This new culture was inherently political, and surprisingly pessimistic in tone though this of course varied from nation to nation. New political theories, such as those of Karl Marx and his associates in the Cologne School [2] focused on economics and produced numerous critiques of the Classical Model posited by thinkers such as Adam Smith.

    While the Cologne School was breaking with economic orthodoxy, the artistic movements that began to emerge in 1848 offerred a revival of techniques and styles located in the Middle Ages. The Antiacademians [3], centred in London explicitly rejected the classical art style of the Royal Academy of Arts and its founder Joshua Reynolds, preferring instead to focus on medieval settings combined with the Romantic movement's focus on nature. The group caused controversy with their style, particularly their focus on realism in Biblical scenes which led many to accuse them of blasphemy. [4] The group, which had originally been seven expanded in this period as the American born artist Walter Deverell joined the group in 1850. With the support of noted critic John Ruskin, their influence would be felt across the United Kingdom with several artists combining their medieval romanticism with realism.

    Literature also appeared to be changing, though in Britain the figure of Charles Dickens continued to dominate popular sales. The abolition of censorship in Germany and Sardinia, saw the emergence of a sharp edged satirism, as authors and humourists took advantage of the new liberties. The newspaper and periodical boom that emerged as a result of the liberalising of press laws in Germany gave a prominent platform to authors, though Goethian fiction still dominated culturally with Adele Schopenhauser's A Danish Story (serialised in Die Welt) becoming something of a cultural phenomenon in the infancy of the empire. [5] The new cultural freedom also encouraged a certain degree of experimentation particularly in music, as composers such as Franz Liszt [6] began to experiment with atonality (in Liszt's case with organ music.) Liszt's shift into unconventional piano compositions was perhaps exemplified with the music he created for the centenary of Mozart's birth in 1856.

    The new air of freedom emerging from the post-revoutionary ether in Central Europe encouraged artistic emigration, particularly from the Anglosphere with the most famous, American journalist, author and critic Edgar Allan Poe moving to Frankfurt to take up a post with the American Consulate. [7] Other writers such as Mary Ann Evans (who became better known under her pen name Marian Pearson) established literary reviews in Geneva, which developed a flourishing literary scene as a result. [8] The shifting away from romance themes to realism became more prominent in the newly developing Geneva Circle, as writers and artists disillusioned with Britain's cultural convervatism began to move to the continent. [9] This trend of artistic emigration was not limited to Britain however: Harriet Beecher Stowe's Life Among the Lowly was first published in Britain to acclaim, which saw it serialised in several abolitionist magazines in the States. Herman Melville's The Whale, found a similar path to success, and indeed the trend became encapsulated by the establishment of a writing retreat in the Yorkshire Moors which became home to several American writers during the decade. [10] The trend of artistic emigration was not solely confined to the Anglosphere. Victor Hugo, French author, poet and dramatist went into exile in Brussels following the coup of Napoleon III, while Nikolai Gogol retreated from Russia and eventually settled in Copenhagen where he finished the manuscript of Dead Souls. [11] The decade would not be without tragedies however: the German composer Robert Schumann committed suicide in 1854, while the young Russian novelist Tolstoy was killed while serving in the Crimean War. [12]

    The great demographic changes that had resulted from the rapid industrialisation saw new approaches to urban planning developed within Europe, some of which would later be exported to the New World. In Paris, the "Dictators of Architecture" began the process of greatly expanding the city centre through the demolition of the old medieval centre and it's replacement with a neo-Baroque style which saw the enlargement of public parks and the development of wide, spacious boulevards. [13] Napoleon III's plans for the renovation of Paris began to be studied in other European cities, as the influx of population placed strain on the traditional systems. The appalling industrial conditions inspired a general pessimistic trend in literature as the newly dominant realist approach saw the conditions of industrial workers and the urban poor described in great detail in the "social novels" of writers such as Dickens and Gaskell in Britain and Ludwig Feuerbach in Germany, who was one of the leading figures in the Cologne School. [14]

    The increase in artistic experimentalism during the period was surprisingly reflected at the Universal Exhibition of Paris with "realist" artists such as Gustave Courbet having their work exhibited within, though public reaction was decidely mixed. [15] The period also saw an increased experimentation in the field of children's literature with Edgar Cuthwellis's novel The Adventures of Alice Under Ground introducing surrealistic elements into what had previously been a didactic genre. [16] Poe's work in detective fiction saw him create a new character in the form of Prefect Hoffmann of Mainz, as he further developed the genre he had created with the character of Dupin. Other writers in detective fiction included Wilkie Collins, who created the popular character of Anne Rodway, who became the first prominent female detective character in popular fiction. [17] However, while realism was emerging as the dominant literary trend of the period, it's unflinching attention to detail saw it prove controversial. Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary was banned in France for obscenity, with Flaubert moving to Switzerland as a result: the novel was eventually serialised in The Geneva Review [18]

    The period was also noted for the further development of photography as a medium, particularly in the context of newspaper reporting, with photographs becoming a notable feature of wartime reporting, particularly in the American Civil War and the Russo-Turkish War of 1853-1854. Several art exhibitions of the period began to include photography as a medium, and the lapse of the patent on calotypes in 1854 saw the process become more economical, with photography increasingly becoming used as a medium of art. [19] Indeed photography aided several naturalists such as Darwin and Russell, whose theories of evolution proved highly controversial upon publication in the late 1850s, though it would prove to be hugely influential in fields of philosophy. [20]

    BRIEF NOTES

    [1] Particularly in "the settler states" of Australia, Canada and New Zealand where looser restrictions on censorship allowed for a flourishing cultural scene. The British territories in South Africa, received more mixed influences from the local Afrikaner community, producing what has been termed an "Anglo-Dutch" cultural movement.

    [2] "The Cologne School" was a broad grouping of writers, philosphers and economists who centred on the figure of Karl Marx, who had returned to Germany in 1851 and established a small publishing house in Cologne. The school was famed for their critiques of traditional economics and industrial society, positing radical theories that linked them to the burgeoning socialist movement. The Marxians as they were known had strong links to the Hegelian school of thinking, with members of the Young Hegelians such as Arnold Ruge becoming prominent members of the group.

    [3] The term "Antiacademian" was coined as a description of the group in a review by John Ruskin, and while they referred to themselves as the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" the name stuck.

    [4] The blasphemy controversy would seriously hinder the group with numerous galleries refusing to exhibit their works. Their championing by Ruskin eventually allowed them to overcome the controversy.

    [5] Schopenhauser's success allowed her to recover from the financial problems which had plagued her since a banking collapse in 1819. The novel's success also marked a certain stylistic change as she adapted Goethian influences into tale of contemporary realism.

    [6] Liszt's experimentalism made him a divisive figure, though his influence would be heard in the next generation of German composers through his influence as a music teacher in Weimar.

    [7] Poe would continue to write while working in the diplomatic circles of Frankfurt, which would colour his later writings.

    [8] So much so that some critics started to ostensibly refer to a broad "Swiss Guard" of writers, though in reality the literary group who made Geneva their home were fairly disparate in their styles.

    [9] This cultural conservatism saw Samuel Roberts, a contemporary of Wordsworth and Coleridge named Poet Laureate in 1849 following Wordsworth's death.

    [10] The small retreat near the spa town of Harrogate was owned by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and hosted several writers during the English Summer.

    [11] Dead Souls and it's pointed satire of the Russian government made Gogol persona non grata with the Romanovs resulting in his soujourn in Copenhagen turning into permanent exile.

    [12] Tolstoy's collection of essays about his experiences in the war, and his novel Boyhood were published posthumously.

    [13] The architectural group were led by Haussman, and concentrated on modernising the city centre to alleviate the poverty and poor living conditions that blighted the French capital.

    [14] Feuerbach's explicit rejection of religion and promotion of atheism made him a controversial member of the group, though his views meshed with those of Marx.

    [15] Courbet's pieces were viewed with disdain by the crowds, and when he tried to establish an open air exhibition he was roundly booed.

    [16] Cuthwellis, real name Charles Dodgson, was a mathemitician and photographer who associated with the Antiacademians. His depiction of a surreal world under ground world, and rejection of an explicit moral lesson made him something of a pioneer in children's literature.

    [17] Rodway's character would become popular enough that Collins began to write a series of stories with her as protagonist making her an early pioneer for female characters in detective fiction.

    [18] The Geneva Review was edited by Mary Ann Evans, who helped promote realist fiction which fell foul of the authorities in countries such as France and Britain which had strict anti-obscenity laws.

    [19] Photography began to be used by established artists as well as newspaper's, and by the mid 1860s was firmly esablished a medium.

    [20] Darwin and Russell's theories of evolution were swiftly adopted by anti-clerical and atheistic thinkers, as well as the exitentialists such as Kierkegaard and the Cologne School thinkers such as Feuerbach.
     
    Splendid Isolation: The United Kingdom, Empire and Europe (1855-1866)
  • Lord_Palmerston_1855.jpg

    Lord Palmerston (Henry John Temple), the dominant statesman of the period
    The British had cautiously welcomed the liberal revolutions which had established new nations within Europe, which provided a useful counterbalance to any expansionism which could disrupt the European balance of power. [1] Following the collapse of the Graham government in 1855, Palmerston succeeded to the premiership heading a Whig government. [2] The new government found itself drawn into conflict in China, with resentment against the imposition of the "unequal treaties" resulting in a British boat being impounded and it's crew arrested in Canton, with the incident sparking a brief war which later involved French troops, as well as small forces from Russia and the United States. [3] The British bombarded the city of Canton and eventually entered after destroying the four forts that guarded entrance to the city. The conflict remained localised however, as both China and Britain found themselves facing large rebellions against their rule. [4] The conflict with China would end in 1858, following the occupation of Canton and the signing of the Treaty of Tientsin. [5]

    Palmerston faced a more significant crisis in India, where long standing tensions and resentment towards East India Comapny rule exploded into open rebellion in the first months of 1857. The company's expansionist policies and probitions of Indian religious customs caused significant disquiet, particularly the openly preferential treatment given to Christian societies and converts, with many fearing that the British wished to forcibly Christianise the entire region. [6] The Company's taxation policies, particularly in regards to land, with many having their land forcibly seized and auctioned off, which caused deep anger and hostility towards the British in northern India, where the policy was most practiced. The Company, under the command of men who had nothing but distaste for India and the Indian people, had also alienated the troops under their command by reducing the powers of commanding officers and abandoning the adoption of local practices to foster morale. [7] British troops were stationed in India, though they were small in number, and several had been redeployed to the occupation of islands in the Persian Gulf following the Tehran incident and China to occupy Canton. [8] The resentment within the British Indian armies, was exacerbated by the abolition of the "foreign service" renumeration and their deployment to Burma, as well as the slow promotion process within the army, which had began to increase it's number of European officers to the detriment of local troops. This disquiet increased upon the introduction of new rifles, whose paper cartridges were rumoured to be greased with pig and cow fat, offensive to both Muslims and Hindus.

    The rebellion began in Calcutta after an altercation between Mangal Pandey and his British officers over his refusal to follow an order turned into a mutiny, as a contingent of sepoys based Barrackpore fired upon their British officers. The British eventually re-established order, and hung the mutineer before disbanding and stripping the offending regiment of it's uniform, though this punishment of "shame and disgrace" was viewed as unduly harsh within the Bengal Army and further exacerbated the situation. The 3rd Cavalry, ordered to parade, refused to accept the cartridges and were sentenced to ten years hard labour as a result. Their successful escape from prison in Meerut and advance on Dehli, began the Bengal Army's rebellion.

    The proclamation of Bahadur Shah II as Emperor of India, though whether he willingly accepted the offer of the crown or was coerced into it is still a matter of debate. Regardless, the uprising pushed the British back with significant outbreaks of unrest, and the killings of European civilians creating a storm of panic within the British press and parliament. Palmerston's slow reaction to the rebellion, and handling of the war in China saw him censured in parliament, to which he responded by calling a general election, which the Whigs went on to comfortably win. [9] Pamerston was able to force through several acts of parliament before the deterioating situation in India forced an opposition vote of censure supported by rebellious Whigs forced him to resign, whereupon he was succeeded by the short-lived ministry of Edward Smith-Stanley, the Earl of Derby. [10]

    The war in India had now denigrated into widespread atrocities by both sides, as the Indian rebels and the British forces indiscrimately massacred civilians and destroyed settlements. While the British would eventually regain the upper hand, the bloodiness of the conflict left an indelible mark upon the British imperial psyche. The brutal reprisals committed by the British in response to reports of civilian massacres and mass rape European women, were decried in some elements of the British press and parliament and celebrated in others. [11] In the aftermath, the East India Company was abolished with the governance of India transferred to the British Crown. As a a result a new Indian Office was created, along with a Governor-Generalcy. The new office, under the direction of the British government aimed to resolve the tensions which had led to the outbreak of rebellion. [12]

    Second_Earl_Granville.jpg

    Lord Granville, first Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

    Derby's minority government collapsed in early 1859, and was succeeded by Lord Granville as the first Liberal Prime Minister. [13] The new government covertly supported the Sardinian led invasion of Southern Italy, though officially they remained neutral following the French intervention. [14] Granville's ministry was frequently plgued by the conflict between Palmerstone and Gladstone who clashed over almost every issue. Palmerston's staunch support for a massive plan of coastal defence batteries was rejected by Gladstone as being too expensive, arguing instead that it would be a better idea to invest stongly in the navy. The long debate over the matter eventually led to a compromise, the Fortifications and Naval Defence (Provisions of Expenses) Act proposing to raise £9,000,000 in taxes to fund the construction of several coastal forts and investment in new naval technology and constructions. [15] Palmerston's foreign policy was primarily centred on forming a strong relationship with Frace, though the strong familial connections between the British and German royal families allowed for the development of cordial relations with the Germans. [16] Palmerston was a strong supporter of the expansion of British influence in Europe through the royal family, andd supported the foreign marriages of the Queen's children. Indeed, the period saw the first of several marriages between Victoria's children and foreign royalty. Victoria, Princess Royal married Prince Frederick of Germany [17] following seven years of courtship in 1858. This was followed by Princess Alice's marriage to William, Prince of Orange in 1862 [18] and the Prince of Wales marriage to Anna of Hesse and by Rhine in 1863. [19]

    Granville's government passed several important legislative acts, including a reform and codification of criminal law in 1861 and companies law in 1862. Foreign policy in the period was dominated by debates over the tensions between the Danes and Germans over the question of Schleswig-Holstein and the American Civil War, with the British refusing to support the French plan to recognise the Confederacy or the French intervention in Mexico. [20] The tensions between the Danes and Germans finally came to a head in 1863 following the passing of a new constitution which formally annexed the territories to Denmark, outraging the local German population and the German government which declared it a violation of the Treaty of London and began massing it's forces on the Danish border, before invading in Spring 1864. The war and it's outbreak brought severe difficulties for Granville's cabinet, as the United Kingdom enjoyed favourable relations with both Copenhagen and Frankfurt. The government eventually decided to hold a conference to resolve the conflict between the two countries, wth themselves, the Austrians, French and Russians as mediators. The ceasefire, negotiated in June after the German army had rapidly advanced through the duchies, held for a month as the British brokered conference eventually reached a resolution. Schleswig would be partitioned between the Danes and the Germans with the territory north of Flensburg remaining in Danish hands, while the rest including Holstein and Lauenberg were integrated into Germany. [21] The resolution was a success for the British government, which had pushed hard for the partition plan, and as a result the Liberals increased their majority in both votes and seats. The government's response to the outbreak of Fenian violence in Canada and Ireland which saw the deployment of troops and shipments of arms to the Ontario government in Bytown [22]and plans to temporarily suspend habeus corpus in Ireland (strongly resisted by Home Secretary Lord Russell) were viewed in sections of the liberal press as overly draconian. [23] The government's cautious reform bill, introduced in 1866 proposed to enfranchise "respectable" working men, excluding unskilled workers and what was known as the "residuum", those seen by MPs as the "feckless and criminal" poor. This was ensured by a £7 householder qualification, which had been calculated to require an income of 26 shillings a week. This entailed two "fancy franchises," emulating measures of 1854, a £10 lodger qualification for the boroughs, and a £50 savings qualification in the counties. The bill was eventually passed, expanding the franchise, though it's cautious provisions drew opposition from more radical elements. [24] Plans to expand the franchise further, brought down the government as the party split, allowing the Conservatives to form a ministry in 1866.

    Nevertheless, British party politics was to be forever changed.

    (Extract from Radical Reform: The Liberal Governments of the Nineteenth Century, by R.H. Mumby)

    BRIEF NOTES

    [1] This pragmatic foreign policy which was committed to limiting expansion of any one great power within Europe, was adhered to by both Liberal and Conservative governments.
    [2] The queen initially asked the Earl of Derby to form a government, but after he failed to garner enough support, Lord Lansdowne was asked but declined due to his advanced age. Due to her deep mistrust of Palmerston she turned to Russell who, like Derby as unable to form a ministry. It was then that Palmerston was invited to form a government.
    [3] Following the execution of a French priest, and the threatening of Russian and American trade interests the Four Powers agreed to form a joint expeditionary force to protect their interests in China, following an agreement signed in Hong Kong. The majority of the force's troops were Anglo-French, though the U.S. provided three naval vessels and the Russians sent a small force of around five hundred men.
    [4] The outbreak of rebellion in India diverted British resources to India, while the Qing were struggling to contain the Taiping rebellion.
    [5] The treaty specified the opening of further Chinese ports to foreign trade, and the establishment of legations for the four powers in Peking, a city which had prevously closed to foreigners. Previous travel restrictions on foreigners were lifted, as were freedom of worship restrictions on Christian within the country.
    [6] Whether the East India Company were planning to Christianise India is debatable, though the policy of overt preference towards Christian groups and the general air of religious intolerance encouraged by the company in it's attitude towards local practices certainly flamed the tensions within the region.
    [7] The gradual hardening of rules around the fraternisation of native troops and British officers, and the decline in use of officers who spoke local languages further exacerbated tensions between the sepoys and their superiors.
    [8] The Tehran Incident had seen British troops deployed to the Gulf following the diplomatic insult of the British ambassador to Persia, who had been accused of having improper relations with the sister of the Shah's principal wife. In response the British deployed two British regiments from India, occupying two islands in the Gulf until the matter was cleared with an official apology from the Shah.
    [9] Palmerston's popularity with the wider public was generally held to have won the election for the Whigs.
    [10] Derby's government, despite it's difficulty in governing was successful in forcing through necessary administrative reforms in India which abolished the East India Company and transferred administrative control to the British crown.
    [11] Periodicals and the popular press frequently depiced the rebels as nothing more than barbarians, while isolated voices in both the press and parliament criticised the British reprisals as equally barbaric.
    [12] The new Indian Office, established by the government to replace the East India Company, was given the power to set policy to be implemented by the Viceroy of India. Higher castes and rulers of the princely states were integrated into the government structure, while the civil service was opened to Indians. Relgious tolerance was reinstituted as was the general policy of decentralised government. The decision to open the universities to Indians further set a crucial precedent with Indians encouraged to participate in colonial government.
    [13] Granville's cabinet contained what the conservative press would later nickname "The Four Horseman": Granville as Prime Minister, Gladstone as Chancellor, Palmerston as Foreign Secretary and Russell as Home Secretary. The factionalism amongst the government led many to describe the various factions as the "Her Majesty's Disloyal Opposition" with numerous governmental plans scuppered by cabinet infighting. Granville, despite this did managed to weld together a working ministry, though plans for suffrage reform were defeated by Palmerston's opposition.
    [14] The emergence of a unified Italy in the Mediterranean was viewed favourably in London, for providing a useful counterbalance to potential expansion by Russia, France or Austria in the area.
    [15] The report, sparked by a French invasion scare called for the establishment of forts and floating batteries around the coast. Enthusiastically supported by Palmerston, it was opposed by Gladstone on grounds of cost, and by the Admiralty who believed it would be more expedient to invest the money in improving the country's naval capacity. Eventually, Granville hammered out a compromise wherein half of the money would be spent expanding the naval bases at Portsmouth and Plymouth, while the remainder would be spent on investing in coastal defences. The act passed parliament, and the construction of "Granville's Gargoyles" began.
    [16] Prince Albert's influence was strong in the cultivation of ties between the two nations, while the marriage of the Princess Royal and Prince Frederick of Germany in 1858 further cememted ties.
    [17] The wedding was attended by the majority of both families, excluding the emperor who was incapacitated by his stroke as well as delegates from both government's. The match was popular in both countries, with photographic prints and other memorabilia of the wedding selling well in the UK.
    [18] The marriage had largely been arranged by the Prince Consort and the Anglophilic Queen Sophie of the Netherlands, who wished to develop close ties with the British. The marriage also fell into the established policy of marriages within Protestant royalty.
    [19] The marriage of the Prince of Wales had been the most difficult to decide. Alexandra of Denmark had been considered but was rejected by Queen Victoria. Anna of Hesse was favoured by Queen Victoria, despite the reservations of the Princess Royal. The two eventually met and developed a fondness for each other, with the Prince of Wales describing her as a "very amicable woman." The marriage partnered the somewhat wayward Bertie with the strongwilled Anna, much to the queen's satisfaction.
    [20] The debate over the civil war split the cabinet with some favouring recognising the Confederacy, though Granville's cautiousness and Prince Albert's fierce oppositon to any recognition of the Confederacy ensured the British retained neutrality. The French expedition in Mexico was swiftly ended following the defeat at Puebla and the refusal of any elegible European prince to accept the proposed Mexican imperial crown, swiftly truncated French plans in the Americas, though Napoleon III maintained interests in the Empire of Haiti supporting he imperial government against an attempted coup in 1859.
    [21] The long simmering tensions along the border between the Danes and Germans erupted following the annexation of the duchies under the new Danish constitution of 1863 which abolished the parliaments of the duchies and placed them firmly under the Danish sphere much to the anger of the Germans, who following an appeal from the duchies mobilised a force of some 40,000 men. Though these troops massed on the border, the conflict remained devoid of fighting. The troops finally crossed in February and were engaged in heavy fighting around the frontier between Schleswig and Holstein. The reforms introduced after the fiasco of the first war were clearly effective, with the federal army advancing into Schleswig by April. The British government brokered the Treaty of London, which partitioned the duchies with southern Schleswig, Holstein ad Lauenberg annexed to the empire. The Daes, wary that the Germans would invade and occupy Jutland, agreed to the British brokered terms with the border set north of the city of Flensburg.
    [22] OTL Ottawa
    [23] The proposal to suspend habeas corpus was rejected by the cabinet as an object which would unecessarily enflame pro-Fenian sentiment. The collapse of the Fenian brotherhood due to lack of popular support eventually rendered the proposal moot.
    [24] The reform, despite being comfortably passed in parliament was attacked by Tories as too radical and by radicals as insufficiently radical, though it introduced the secret ballot and adjusted seat boundaries, as well as adding an extra million men to the voter roll.
     
    The End of Habsburg Hegemony? Austria and the Long Transition, 1853-1866
  • The assassination of Franz Joseph in 1853 had seen his young and broadly liberal brother Maximilian ascend to the throne as emperor, providing hope to the radicals of 1848 that the empire would isntrument reform and shift away from the repression enacted under Franz Joseph's rule. Maximilian dismissed the military government which had been in place since 1849 and appointed the noted liberal jurist Anton von Schmerling as Prime Minister, before calling the "Prague Convention" which would seek to establish a new constitutional order for the state. [1] The new government loosened restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly and gradually eased back the vast police state established during his brother's brief reign.

    Emperor_Maximiliano_around_1865.jpg

    Emperor Maximilian, around 1864
    Schmerling's govenrment began the Prague Convention by inviting delegates from the Crownlands in order to discuss the formation of a new federal structure, which would replace the centralised realm introduced under Franz Joseph, though for the meantime Schmerling's government focused primarily on economic reform shfting away from protectionism to the creation of a more equal customs union, which began the project to expand the empire's railway network, connecting Trieste to Venice (plans to connect Trieste to Milan were dropped indefinitely following the Sardinian annexation of Lombardy.) The new government introduced several economic reforms aimed to modernise the economy, though it was hindered in this by the vested agrarian interests which had dominated the empire since the feudal era. The country's vast debt as a result of the revolutionary wars and the need to maintain a standing army further hinded development. Diplomatically, the nation remained neutral in the Russo-Turkish War of 1853-1854, and maintained this neutrality in general during the decade, though it maintained a broad military presence in Veneto, in fear of further Italian military action. In the mean time Maximilian married his cousin Princess Helene of Bavaria in 1854. [2]

    The Convention of Prague, met for the first time in December 1853 and established the "State Committee" to propose very loose reforms, which would have granted limited authority to the imperial territories. [3] The emperor took a strong interest in the navy granting it military independence from the army [4], helping to establish and develop the facilities built in Trieste, and commissioned the Minerva Expedition [5] in 1854, which saw it become the first Austrian vessel to circumnavigate the globe. The return to civilian government, and the loosening of the autocracy marked the first of very small steps towards reform, though plans to introduce more wider ranging reforms were hamstrung by the hostility of the traditional nobility and vested interests of the "Four Pillars." [6] The emperor widened access to the imperial court [7], and threw himself into constructing a new summer residence in Trieste, while attempting to lighten the somewhat oppressive air of the Vienna Court, though the entrenched position of his mother made this difficult.

    Finally after a year and a half of negotiations between representatives of the Crown, central government and the Crownlands themselves, a new, loosely federalised structure was created, though the general area of authority was retained in Vienna. The proposals of what became known as the "March Edicts" were the following:

    1. The Emperor's previous autocratic powers were reduced, though he retained the powers to appoint and dismiss the government, dissolve parliament, sign legislation into law and operated a veto which could temporarily annul legislation.
    2. The Imperial Diet was reconsititued as a federal parliament with limited legislative powers, composed of the directly elected Chamber of Deputies and the appointed States Council which was composed of delegates from the various imperial territories. The new parliament was elected by men over the age of twenty-one who paid a certain threshold in tax. Originally there had been a proposal for universal manhood suffrage based on the German model though this was rejected following strong opposition.
    3. The federal parliament was granted limited authority. It had legislative authority over financial matters, transportation and communications, and was granted limited authority over foreign affairs and the military, though neither the military or the government were directly responsible to the parliament. Permanent committees for the army, navy, duties and taxes, commerce and trade, railways and communications, justice, accounts and foreign affairs granting parliament limited oversight in this area, though the veto held by the emperor and the executive ensured that legislative power was limited.
    4. The new convention established limited autonomy for the Crownlands, with each Crownland granted an assembly. The autonomous nature of these assemblies was limited in scope, with the local governments granted responsibilities for agriculture, education, health, language and limited tax powers. Elections to the local parliaments were held under the same franchise system as the Imperial Diet.
    5. The convention agreed to liberalise the reactionary laws on freedom of press and expression and began to dismantle the vast military and police state apparatus established by Maximilian's predecessor. Freedom of religion was also granted with the convention emancipating the Jewish population of the empire, though the Catholic Church was still granted preferential treatment within the new system.
    The convention was accepted by the moderate conservatives and liberal elements who supported Maximilian's proposed reforms. Hungary proved the great thorn in the negotiations due in part to the power of the local aristocrats, and the complex ethnic situation. The assassination of the Kaiser by a Hungarian nationalist and the general antipathy towards the Hungarians on the part of the other nationalities played into Maximilian's hands however, and they were eventually coerced into the new federal structure. [8] The government, as part of it's economic reforms, established a central bank which provided small loans to industrialists and manufacturers in order to boost production, though despite pressure from more radical elements it avoided the thorny issue of land reform for fear of disrupting the hard-won and fragile Prage Compromise.

    Moderate plans to reform the military were proposed but gradually delayed due to fear of reactionary opposition. While the Compromise was unpopular with the more radical liberals and the reactionary elements of court, Maximilian's support of decentralisation and granting of autonomy to "the loyal subjects of empire" won him popularity with a broad swathe of the population, and his government's cautious reforms ensured that the state didn't collapse into anarchy, despite the opposition of conservatives claiming it would do just that. The new emperor and his government, as well beginning the gradual reform of the Habsburg state maintained a general neutrality in European affairs, though the Austrians maintained a large force in Veneto to deter any potential Italian aggrandisement, and had raised an army in the event that the Sardinian led invasion of the Two Sicilies spilled into Veneto. The emperor remained ambivalent towards the empire's northern neighbour: Germany embodied the liberalism he wished to establish in Austria, and yet he felt it should be under the command of the Habsburgs. These tensions would continue to linger between the two countries, though the two agreed to the development of trade and economic relations.

    Austria, under the command of a young, committed monarch seemed to be on the very slow path to reform.

    BRIEF NOTES

    [1] The convention was open to delegates from the various nationalities of the empire and Maximilian took an active role. Schmerling, adopted a programme of cautious reform in order to appeal to nationalities of the empire, without alienating the vested interests of the power structure.
    [2] The emperor's marriage was arranged at the behest of his mother who continued to dominate the court. The couple would go on to have five children.
    [3] The Crownlands were granted local parliaments which were allowed to legislate for local affairs. Linguistic autonomy was also granted, though German remained the official language of the federal government.
    [4] The navy received an increase in funds and began to commission modernisation plans, though these were limited in scope.
    [5] OTL Novara Expedition
    [6] The army, the bureaucracy, the church and the informants of the secret police.
    [7] This access was extended to the minor gentry, as well as "the nobles in the fields of intellect, (…) of science and the arts, as well as the nobles of the civil life."
    [8] The Hungarian realms had been under military occupation since 1849 with their parliament suspended under martial law. In exchange for supporting his proposals, the emperor agreed to return the region to civilian control and re-establish the Hungarian parliament with it's respective privileges.
     
    The Sick Man Shows Signs of Recovery: The Ottoman Empire in the Aftermath of the Congress of London 1854-1866
  • The stirring military performance of the Ottomans against the Russians in the brief and bloody struggle for the Black Sea had caught many observers off guard, with numerous predictions that the Russians would hammer the Turks into submission until the British and French could respond by molibilising troops. [1] The Ottoman armies fighting the Russians to a stalemate had shown that the old empire was still functional as a fighting machine, though the great modernisation reforms continued afoot. In 1855, following the signing of the peace, the Edict of Imperial Reform (Islâhat Hatt-ı Hümâyûnu) was proclaimed which guaranteed the freedom of religion and equality under the law previously established under the 1839 Edict of Gülhane. The new reform extended the previsions of the previous edict by applying them to all citizens of the empire regardless of creed. [2] The reform also established reform committees for each community, composed of it's leading members. [3] The Civil Service which had greatly expanded as part of the reforms, was now open to all minorities while conscription was also extended to them as well. [4] The reforms established a national police force, the Gendarmerie which was extensively modelled on the French organisation. Like the civil service and the military this organisation was open to all Ottoman subjects, while all legal disputes were now held under "mixed tribunals" while all judicial proceedings were now public, while the penitentiary was reformed which included the abolition of corporal punishment. A further reform was the introduction of linguistic autonomy in judicial affairs and education, with minority languages granted equal status in regards to education (which saw the public school system extended by degree to cover the majority of imperial territory) and in judicial judgements, though both were subject to the newly established Ministry of Education and Ministry of Justice. [5] A programme of public works was instituted, with the construction of schools, hospitals, granaries, modernisation of the road network and the canal system within the empire in order to improve internal communications. The government also introduced plans to begin construction of a railway network and the establishment of a central bank, and borrowed money from British and French banks in order to part finance the war with the Russians. The strong military performance of the Ottomans encouraged further reform proposals, with plans to gradually industrialise and modernise the economy, through foreign capital. [6]

    Abdulmejid.jpg

    Abdülmecid, the reformist Ottoman Sultan

    The autonomies granted to the Danubian Principalities, had encouraged the Romanian unionist movement which sought to unify Moldavia and Wallachia into a political union. Nominally under the suzerainty of the Ottomans, the principalities, under their respective rulers Grigore Alexandru Ghica and Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei had begun modernisation programmes, with the establishment of a gendarmerie in both principalities, the abolition of Roma slavery [7] and a conservative land reform which termed peasants as tenants and allowed them more freedom in moving between boyar properties. In Moldavia, censorship was abolished in 1856, which saw a flourishing in both literature and the press in the period. Following the Treaty of London, which granted further autonomy to Moldavia and Wallachia, plans to unify the principalities came afoot, though it faced fierce resistance from conservative factions and was greeted with distrust by both the Austrians and Ottomans. Following petitions to the French, the Moldavian cause for unification eventually had backing from a major power: the elections in 1858, saw the conservative anti-unionist candidacy of Gheorge Bibescu [8] defeated by the Moldavian liberal Alexandru Ioan Cuza who secured victory in both principalities and exploiting an ambiguity in the text of the Treaty of London declared himself Prince of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which following extensive negotiations between himself and the Sultan saw recognised in 1861, with the establishment of a unified parliament and cabinet reponsible to Cuza. The recognition and diplomacy, which had long consumed Cuza's state building efforts now took a back seat to the "immediate reforms" he had promised in 1859. In 1862, the new constitution declared the country the Principality of Romania with it's capital at Bucharest, though it's nominal suzerainty to the Ottomans remained intact.

    Prince_Alexandru_Ioan_Cuza.jpg

    Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, sometimes referred to as Prince Alexander I

    Cuza introduced a programme of reforms aimed at modernising the country. The first was the secularisation of monastic lands, which seized the lands held by the Eastern Orthodox Church and transferred their ownership to the state. Compensation offered by the Romanian government at around 82,000,000 leu was accepted by the Church after a series of prolonged negotitions. [9] The issue land reform, with the abolition of the corvée system and the transferral of land ownerhsip to the peasants would prove to be a far thornier issue, with the conservative landowning classes viewing any reform that would reduce their economic power as a threat. The reform, was problematic since around two-thirds of land remained in the hands of the landowners, while a new levy introduced to defray the cost of the abolition of duties perfomed under the corvée system created a heavy burden on the majority of peasant landowners and ruined the poorest. The consolidation of land also bouyed the Boyars, who retained the birt third through consolidation, selling off their more undesireable plots to the newly emancipated peasant landowners. The poorly implemented land division devised under the scheme further complicated matters. A bill devised to grant the peasants title to the land they worked was defeated, as was a counter-proposal to abolish peasant dues and responsiblities while retaining boyar control of the land in question. In the end a compromise system of sorts, pushed through by the Conservative government of Barbu Cartagiu maintained a limited form of the corvée system in some lands, though the old privileges of the boyar class had been eroded. [10] More successful reforms, such as the introduction of a criminal code modelled on that of France and a publicly funded system of public primary schools, and began military reforms to establish a modernised Romanian army. The issue of land reform would continue to dog his government and in 1865, he was deposed in a coup. [11]

    The new government looked abroad for a monarch, eventually settling on the figure of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders the second son of Leopold I of Belgium and the younger brother of Leopold II. Philippe, after several months of negotiations accepted the crown becoming Prince Phillip I of Romania (Filip I) in January 1866 with the promulgation of a new constitution that year extensively modelled on that of Belgium, with extensive freedoms guaranteed. Whether the new order would be able to secure the land issue, or whether it would default back to semi-serfdom was however anyone's guess.

    Conde_de_Flandes.jpg

    Prince Phillip I of Romania

    BRIEF NOTES

    [1] The British and French did mobilise troops, though the quick proclamation of a peace rendered the process moot. Neither the Austrians or Germans mobilised their armies despite the diplomatic pressure to do so.
    [2] The new extension of religious freedoms was part of a programme of encouraging loyalty on the party of minority subjects to the Ottoman state.
    [3] The bodies were designed to discuss reforms necessary for both the Ottoman state and for the respective communities, and were composed of the leading members of each community.
    [4] The conscription issue was controversial, but was seen as necessary in government circles as a payoff for the increased rights and responsibilities granted to minorities under the reforms.
    [5] Respectively titled the Council of Instruction and the Tribunal Council, but referred to in the west by the aforementioned titles.
    [6] The extensive loans leveraged by the government would see the gradual development of an modernised transport network, with European engineers imported as advisors. The loans would also partially fund further military reform, and the extension of the shipping capacity of the empire.
    [7] The Roma had been subjected to slavery throughout the centuries, but following the increased radical tendencies within Romanian society the issue became more important politically, and by the 1850s abolition was a real possibility. In the aftermath of abolition however, the Romanian government adopted a widespread policy of social integration which consisted of four policies: the placing of Roma within villages (and not the fringes), the encouragement of inter-ethnic taxes, the banning of the Romany language in preference to Romanian, and the assimilation of Roma children into the newly established system of compulsory education. The policies were continued by both the Cuza government and the governments of Prince Phillip.
    [8] A previous prince of Wallachia during the 1840s.
    [9] The church had initially rejected the compensation offer, but faced with the prospect of losing their land and receiving nothing in exchange they eventually accepted.
    [10] They still remained the most influential group, and formed the bulk of supporters for the Liberal and Conservative parties. Their influence would continue to dominate Romanian society long after the reforms had been introduced.
    [11] A coalition of Liberals and Conservatives angered by the reform attempts overthrew him and sent him into exile in France, where he eventually died.
     
    Top