1. THE GROWTH & SUPPRESSION OF
DEMOCRACY FROM THE AGE OF
METTERNICH TO WWI (1815-1914)

2. OVERVIEW
What is the Age of Metternich?
 From the fall of Napoleon in 1815 to the Revolutions of 1848
How was the age defined?
 Conservatism
 Against liberal nationalist self-determination ideals
Who is Metternich?
 Klemens von Metternich (1773-1859)
 Chancellor/Foreign Minister of Hapsburg Austria, chief
participant in the Congress of Vienna

3. OVERVIEW CONT.
2 nations developed bases for democracy:
 England: stable
 France: unstable, back & forth between revolution & reaction
3 Nations opposing democracy:
 Germany: Prussian militarists had gained control of the
unification process after constitutionalists failed
 Austria: Germanic Hapsburg rulers suppressed the move
toward autonomy of polyglot nationalities
 Russia: ruling class obsessed with “Autocracy, Orthodoxy, &
Nationalism”

4. THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY
England
• Parliament
• In 1815 (after Napoleonic Wars) represented aristocrats & wealthy
• The Corn Laws of 1815
• Raised grain prices & prohibited import of foreign grain
• Benefited landowners who ran Parliament
• Riots & unrest
• Corn Laws repealed in 1846 (Anti-Corn Law League)
• Tories (1820s conservative party): restructured penal code, developed
modern police force, legalized labor unions, granted basic civil rights to
Catholics
• 1830 House of Commons Reform (lower house of Parliament)
• Many of the boroughs that had representatives no longer existed, while
emerging industrial cities had none at all
• The Great Reform Bill of 1832: abolished “rotten boroughs”, expanded the
electorate, & empowered the middle class

5. ENGLAND, CONT.
• The Chartist movement (1838-late 1840s)
• Radical working-class activists
• Advocated reforms such as: universal male suffrage, secret voting ballot,
“one man one vote”, abolition of property qualifications for public office, &
public education for all classes
• Failed at the time, but reforms were eventually implemented
• England was able to maintain stability during the Revolutions of 1848
• Whig Party (liberals): William E. Gladstone
• 1866: attempted to expand voter eligibility (failed)
• Tory leader Benjamin Disraeli introduced The Second Reform Bill (1867)
• Doubled size of electorate & gave vote to many industrial workers
• Disraeli lost general election of 1868  victory for Gladstone
• Gladstone’s Reforms
• Legalized labor unions, secret ballot introduced, free public education
offered to working-class children
• Third Reform Bill of 1885: universal male suffrage
• The Social Welfare State
• Unions gained right to strike
• Government insurance provided for those with work-related injuries
• Unemployment insurance & old-age pensions enacted
• Compulsory school attendance laws

6. FRANCE
• Bourbon Louis XVIII
• Brother of Louis XVI (guillotined)
• Issued a constitution, but gave power to small class of landowners & rich
• Charles X
• brother of Louis XVIII
• Repressive measures led to Paris riots in 1830
• Soon abdicates  rift between radicals who wanted to establish a republic & bourgeoisie
who wanted stability of a monarchy
• Louis Phillipe
• Came to power with the help of Marquis de Lafayette
• Aristocratic “bourgeoisie king”
• Honored the Constitution of 1814
• Proletariat had no representation
• Abdicated in February 1848
• The Chamber of Deputies
• Created by Louis XVIII’s 1814 constitution
• Pressured by Parisian mobs to proclaim a republic & name a provisional government until
elections
• Constituent Assembly established single-chambered Legislative Assembly & president
elected by universal male suffrage

7. France, cont.
• Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
• Second Republic
• Eradicated socialism & radicalism
• Reelected & proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III
• Autocratic, but not absolutist
• Napoleon controlled finances & initiated legislation
• Immensely popular because of his public works projects & subsidies to industry
(stimulated economy)
• The Liberal Empire: eased censorship & granted amnesty to political prisoners
• Downfall: foreign affairs
• Crimean War: prevent Russian dominance in the Black Sea
• French backed down in 1860confrontation with US over a French satellite in Mexico
• Franco-Prussian War (unify Germany): disaster for France
• Resulted in the end of the Second Empire & began the Third Republic
• Controlled by monarchists & bourgeoisie
• National Assembly suppressed the Paris Commune (radical socialist counter-government)
• Chamber of Deputies (1875)
• The French government alternated and fell dozens of times until WWI
• Governments lacked stability because of the multiparty system
• Dreyfus Affair: Jewish army captain falsely accused by antirepublican conservatives
• Had universal male suffrage & social welfare system similar to Britain

8. THE SUPPRESSION OF DEMOCRACY
Germany
• Congress of Vienna established the German Confederation (39 states)
• Burschenschafts: radical student groups dedicated to the unification of Germany under a single
constitution
• Organized a convention in 1817 & 1819; attempted assassination of reactionary politicians
• Carlsbad Decrees: Metternich’s anti-subversive laws designed to get the liberals out of Austria, its
press, & the universities
• Secret police controlled publishing & university discussions
• Carlsbad Diet drove liberalism & nationalism underground
• The Zollverein
• Economic union of seventeen German states established in response to the Revolutions of 1830
• Prussian King Frederick William IV
• Called nominal legislative assembly instead of military after revolutions of 1848
• Granted a constitution & established a House of Representatives elected by universal male suffrage
• Controlled by wealthiest classes
• Frankfurt Assembly established nature of the future union of Germany
• Supporters of Greater Germany wanted to include Austria and to have a Hapsburg emperor rule over
the Union
• Supporters of Lesser Germany wanted to exclude Austria and to have Prussia lead the union
• Austria backed away from the union
• Frankfurt Assembly failed
• German unification was left to Prussian militarism & Bismarck’s policy of “Blood & Iron”

9. AUSTRIA
• Reactionary government left untouched in the Revolution of 1830
• Parisian rebellions in 1848  Louis Kossuth, a Hungarian nationalist, aroused separatist
sentiment in the Hungarian Diet
• National assembly legal in the empire
• Riots in Vienna & Metternich fled the country
• Hungarians, Czechs, & 3 Northern Italian provinces of the empire declared autonomy
• The Prague Conference
• Czech response to the all-German Frankfurt Conference
• Austroslavism: Slavic groups within the empire would remain part of the empire & set up
autonomous national governments
• Austrian armies restored Hapsburg authorities before this idea could be adopted
• Franz Joseph
• Replaced Emmperor Ferdinand I
• Conservative forces within the government centralized power & suppressed opposition
• Austro-Prussian War (1866)
• Austria was defeated
• The Compromise of 1867: set up constitutional government with limited suffrage, granted
Hungarians autonomy, & created a dual monarchy (Austria-Hungary)
• Exclusion of Slavic minorities encouraged the Pan-Slavic movement to seek independence for
ethnic minorities  WWI

10. REVOLUTIONS OF 1848
France
Causes Length of Protagonist Events Results
Time
• Economic changes 1847-1848 Louis Blanc, • Louis Philippe • Napoleon III
in England fled to England
• Social pressures in
Pierre • Guizot resigned
reigned
France Proudhon, as barricades after
• Political Louis emerged winning
demonstrations Cavaignac, across Paris landslide
outlawed (political • 2nd Republic
banquets held – later Sophonse de formed in 1848 election
outlawed Lamartine, based on • Dismissed
• Louis Napoleon & Napoleon III universal male National
Guizot when 52 suffrage
protestors were • Class struggle:
Assembly
killed during anti- rich vs. poor & • Ruled with
censorship rural vs. urban complete
demonstrations • Urban workers power
attempted
Marxist
takeover &
failed

11. REVOLUTIONS, CONT.
German States
Causes Length of Protagonists Events Results
Time
• 39 February • French • Germans in • King maintained
Baden leadership
Germanic 1848- May leaders demanded a Bill • Bismarck
states 1848 • Bourgeoisie of Rights in comes to power
began to of Germany February under Wilhelm I
demand • Richard • crowd • Bismarck unites
threatened western
rights after Wagner palace in Berlin German states
word of after into modern
French demonstrators Germany
were killed through
revolutions • William dictatorial rule
spread Frederick IV
supports
revolutionaries
• King Ludwig
abdicated in
Bavaria
• Saxony heard
calls for reforms

12. REVOLUTIONS, CONT.
Hapsburg Empire
Causes Length of Protagonists Events Results
Time
• Multiethnic February  • Empire burst • Hapsburg
empire held Empire returned
together by
1848-August • Conservativ to former state
force 1849 e Russian of multiethnic
• Empire was in Tsar empire (Croats,
decline & not Nicholas I Slovaks,
united Germans,
• All ethnic reassemble Austrians,
groups d the empire Poles, Huns,
attempted to Serbs,
gain autonomy Ruthenians,
as nationalism Italians,
spread Czechs)
• The Communist • Central
Manifesto was authority
published in weakened
German • Empire would
only last to 1918

13. REVOLUTIONS, CONT.
Hungary
Causes Length of Protagonists Events Results
Time
• Ethnic March 1848 • Louis • Took advantage • Returned to
oppression by of general
Kossuth revolutions
former
Austrian • Louis multiethnic
throughout the
Hapsburgs
Bathyany empire state
• Hungarian • Austria grants
Parliament had • Practiced
autonomy
been called in • After Austria passive
1825 to address crushes smaller resistance
financial matters revolutions, against the
• Bloodless new emperor
Franz Josef I
Hapsburgs
revolution in returns to crush
March led by Hungary
governor & • Austria gains
Prime Minister support from
Russia
• Hungarians
defeated

14. REVOLUTIONS, CONT.
Italian States
Causes Length of Protagonists Events Results
Time
• Guiseppe March – • Giuseppe • Revolutions 1000 people
Mazzini & May 1848 Mazzini = Venetian & killed by
others write • Giuseppe Roman Austrians, who
about Italian republics regained power
Garibaldi
nationalism • Austrians throughout the
& greatness marched peninsula
of Roman through
Empire Piedmont &
• Citizens of conquered
Milan most of Italy
revolted in by May 1849
March
• Revolution
spreads

15. REVOLUTIONS, CONT.
Poland
Causes Length of Protagonists Events Results
Time
Prussians March-June • Jerry • Prussians • Poles learn
armed Polish 1848 Zdrada arm Poles they can’t
prisoners & • Frederick to weaken bargain
encouraged William IV Russians with
them to lead a • Natalis • Poles & Germanic
revolution Sulerzyski Prussians states
against Russia • Sereryn ended up in • Focused on
Elzanowski armed economic
conflict  growth
Prussian rather than
victory political

16. RUSSIA FROM NAPOLEONIC WARS TO WWI
(1815-1914)
• Alexander I
• Extends the reforms of Catherine the Great
• Modernized government function & offered greater freedom to Jews
• Held back by Napoleon’s invasion from 1812-1820
• Ordered statewide censorship & adherence of all subjects to the Russian Orthodox
Church
• Constantine vs. Nicholas
• Decemberist Revolt
• Army officers supported Constantine, but were crushed by Nicholas
• Nicholas
• Continued Alexander’s autocratic policies
• Created the “Third Section”: secret police who prevented the spread of Western or
revolutionary ideas
• “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality”
• Russian intellectual response:
• Slavophiles: upheld Slavic/Russian culture & wanted an agrarian society (the mir)
• Westernizers: “extend the genius of Russian culture” by industrializing & establishing
constitutional government
• Alexander II
• Emancipation Proclamation of 1861: ended serfdom
• Murdered by the Narodniks (radical Slavophiles)

17. RUSSIA, CONT.
• Industrialization
• By the beginning of WWI, 25 of 140 million were urban
• Trans-Siberian Railroad
• Growing proletariat was largely employed in state-owned factories that
exploited and abused them

18. SAMPLE ESSAYS
“Adam Smith’s enormous authority resides, in the end, in the same property that we
discover in Marx: not in ideology, but in an effort to see the bottom of things. In
both cases their greatness rests on an unflinching confrontation with the human
condition as they could best make out.”
Assess the above quote. What ideas did both men draw upon in order to formulate
their ideas? What were their conclusions & why were they so different?
“Attempts at reform & modernization in 19th-century Russia were inevitably diluted by
the habit of reaction.”
Assess the validity of this statement by offering factual evidence.
“Austria’s suppression of Slavic autonomy wihtin the empire created more dissolution
than unity.” Defend or refute this statement.
Evaluate the achievements of Napoleon III.
Compare & contrast the growth and suppression of democracy in 19 th-centuray
Europe.

19. SAMPLE MULTIPLE-CHOICE
1) The period from the fall of Napoleon in 1815 to the Revolutions of 1848
is often referred to as the Age of Metternich for all the following reasons
EXCEPT:
A) The reactionary policies of Prince Metternich of Austria dominated continental
politics
B) Republicanism was suppressed & nationalistic urges of most ethnic groups
were denied
C) Support of the Old Order was widespread among the political elite
D) The industrial middle class was increasingly denied representation in
government
E) The liberal ideas of the French Revolution were suppressed

20. 1) The period from the fall of Napoleon in 1815 to the Revolutions of 1848
is often referred to as the Age of Metternich for all the following reasons
EXCEPT:
A) The reactionary policies of Prince Metternich of Austria dominated continental
politics
B) Republicanism was suppressed & nationalistic urges of most ethnic groups
were denied
C) Support of the Old Order was widespread among the political elite
D) The industrial middle class was increasingly denied representation in
government
E) The liberal ideas of the French Revolution were suppressed
The wealth of the industrial middle class gave it leverage with the government

21. 2) All of the following policies reflect the conservative nature of the British
government from 1815-1825 EXCEPT:
A) The Corn Laws
B) The Peterloo Massacre
C) The “Rotten Borough system”
D) The Six Acts of 1819
E) The establishment of a modern police force

22. 2) All of the following policies reflect the conservative nature of the British
government from 1815-1825 EXCEPT:
A) The Corn Laws
B) The Peterloo Massacre
C) The “Rotten Borough system”
D) The Six Acts of 1819
E) The establishment of a modern police force
This was a reform since crime was on the rise in the rapidly expanded cities

23. 3) Metternich and other diplomats were able to accomplish all of the
following as a result of the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) EXCEPT:
A) Switzerland was recognized as a neutral nation
B) Metternich gained status internationally as a minster of Europe
C) The balance of power between nations and alliances was restored
D) Italy was unified under Sardinian leadership
E) The Netherlands were reunited with Belgium politically

24. 3) Metternich and other diplomats were able to accomplish all of the
following as a result of the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) EXCEPT:
A) Switzerland was recognized as a neutral nation
B) Metternich gained status internationally as a minster of Europe
C) The balance of power between nations and alliances was restored
D) Italy was unified under Sardinian leadership
E) The Netherlands were reunited with Belgium politically
Italy was not unified by the Congress of Vienna

25. 4) Which would be the best description of the political situation in France
from 1815 to the start of WWI?
A) A series of contrasting types of governments were established and removed
B) There was a gradual but continual move toward reform & greater
representation for all classes
C) There was a disintegration of republicanism
D) Imperialism replaced Bourbon despotism
E) Ceaseless despotism was relieved by brief periods of revolution

26. 4) Which would be the best description of the political situation in France
from 1815 to the start of WWI?
A) A series of contrasting types of governments were established and removed
B) There was a gradual but continual move toward reform & greater
representation for all classes
C) There was a disintegration of republicanism
D) Imperialism replaced Bourbon despotism
E) Ceaseless despotism was relieved by brief periods of revolution
Instability of individual governments & change of types of government prevailed

27. 5) Elected by a landslide after the failed Revolution of 1848, he founded the
Second French Empire:
A) Louis XVIII
B) Louis Philippe
C) Louis Napoleon
D) Louis Blanc
E) Louis Quatorze

28. 5) Elected by a landslide after the failed Revolution of 1848, he founded the
Second French Empire:
A) Louis XVIII
B) Louis Philippe
C) Louis Napoleon
D) Louis Blanc
E) Louis Quatorze
A nephew of the great & first Napoleon, he capitalized on his uncle’s fame to get
elected and to establish and empire

29. 6) The Revolutions of 1848
A) Overthrew the governments of France, Germany, & Russia
B) Erupted in England as well as on the continent
C) Marked the decline of political influence of the proletariat
D) Gave rise to Communism & realpolitik
E) Dissipated the nationalistic urges of the peoples of Eastern Europe

30. 6) The Revolutions of 1848
A) Overthrew the governments of France, Germany, & Russia
B) Erupted in England as well as on the continent
C) Marked the decline of political influence of the proletariat
D) Gave rise to Communism & realpolitik
E) Dissipated the nationalistic urges of the peoples of Eastern Europe
The failure of the revolutions inspired new methods of getting power for the
“have-nots”

31. 7) The original goal of the Frankfurt Assembly (1848-1849) was to
A) Design and implement a constitutional government for a unified Germany
B) Consolidate Germany under Austrian Hapsburg leadership
C) Unify the northern states of Germany under Prussia
D) Create a united Germany for Germans only
E) Convince Prussia to unite Germany by force

32. 7) The original goal of the Frankfurt Assembly (1848-1849) was to
A) Design and implement a constitutional government for a unified Germany
B) Consolidate Germany under Austrian Hapsburg leadership
C) Unify the northern states of Germany under Prussia
D) Create a united Germany for Germans only
E) Convince Prussia to unite Germany by force
The other issues came up during the conference and helped wreck the chances
for a democratic Germany

33. 8) Which is the best characterization of the status of reform in Russia from
1815-1914?
A) “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality” was the slogan of all
B) Repeated attempts to Westernize & reform resulted in reaction
C) Gradual democratization was effected by the “Westernized” intelligentsia
D) A purge of all Western influences was effected by the “Slavophiles”
E) There was a total suppression of all attempts to reform & modernize

34. 8) Which is the best characterization of the status of reform in Russia from
1815-1914?
A) “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality” was the slogan of all
B) Repeated attempts to Westernize & reform resulted in reaction
C) Gradual democratization was effected by the “Westernized” intelligentsia
D) A purge of all Western influences was effected by the “Slavophiles”
E) There was a total suppression of all attempts to reform & modernize
For every step forward, a step back

35. 9) All of the following represent a change in the democratic movement in
Europe in the last three decades of the 19th century EXCEPT:
A) Liberals sought to limit government authority in social & economic affairs
B) Suffrage had expanded to include most of the male population
C) Liberals argued for government regulation of industry
D) Governments became increasingly involved in alleviating poverty
E) Industrial workers demanded a higher standard of living

36. 9) All of the following represent a change in the democratic movement in
Europe in the last three decades of the 19th century EXCEPT:
A) Liberals sought to limit government authority in social & economic affairs
B) Suffrage had expanded to include most of the male population
C) Liberals argued for government regulation of industry
D) Governments became increasingly involved in alleviating poverty
E) Industrial workers demanded a higher standard of living
This was the liberal program in the earlier part of the century. Abuses of
industrialization changed it.

37. 10) Between the end of the Second Empire in 1871 and the start of WWI,
France
A) Had one stable government
B) Had developed a two-party system
C) Suffered a single-party dictatorship
D) Had dozens of separate and unstable governments
E) Was ruled by socialist radicals

38. 10) Between the end of the Second Empire in 1871 and the start of WWI,
France
A) Had one stable government
B) Had developed a two-party system
C) Suffered a single-party dictatorship
D) Had dozens of separate and unstable governments
E) Was ruled by socialist radicals
The coalition governments often fell at the hint of a major crisis

39. 11) All of the following are features of the social welfare systems that had
developed in France & England before WWI EXCEPT:
A) The right of workers to strike
B) Government insurance for job injuries
C) Old-age pensions
D) Compulsory school attendance
E) Universal suffrage

40. 11) All of the following are features of the social welfare systems that had
developed in France & England before WWI EXCEPT:
A) The right of workers to strike
B) Government insurance for job injuries
C) Old-age pensions
D) Compulsory school attendance
E) Universal suffrage
Women did not get the vote until after WWI in Britain, after WWI in France

41. 12) “He is guilty! Damn that Jewish officer and his rabble-rousing novelist
friend! Republicans and their spies will be the ruin of us. That cursed
officer has become a symbol. Let him not blind us to the truth that we
need a king. May he rot on Devil’s Island.”
To whom is the speaker referring?
A) Leon Gambetta
B) Marshal MacMahon
C) Alfred Dreyfus
D) Major Esterhazy
E) Georges Boulanger

42. 12) “He is guilty! Damn that Jewish officer and his rabble-rousing novelist friend!
Republicans and their spies will be the ruin of us. That cursed officer has
become a symbol. Let him not blind us to the truth that we need a king. May
he rot on Devil’s Island.”
To whom is the speaker referring?
A) Leon Gambetta
B) Marshal MacMahon
C) Alfred Dreyfus
D) Major Esterhazy
E) Georges Boulanger
The infamous Dreyfus Case pitted supporters of a republican government against the
conservative classes. Strong evidence indicates that Major Esterhazy was the guilty
party who passed military secrets to the Germans

43. 13) The accused in the above passage was exonerated, party through the
efforts of Emile Zola, the writer. The conflict involved an attempt by a
rival political faction to embarrass the government with trumped-up
charges of espionage. Which faction was responsible for the false
imprisonment of the man referred to above?
A) Monarchists
B) Liberals
C) Republicans
D) Radical workers
E) Socialists

44. 13) The accused in the above passage was exonerated, party through the
efforts of Emile Zola, the writer. The conflict involved an attempt by a
rival political faction to embarrass the government with trumped-up
charges of espionage. Which faction was responsible for the false
imprisonment of the man referred to above?
A) Monarchists
B) Liberals
C) Republicans
D) Radical workers
E) Socialists
Although a court-martial never found him innocent, the president of France
pardoned him and public opinion turned against the monarchists & other
conservative factions.

45. 14) The man whose reestablishment of a French Empire brought in the mid-
1800s temporary prosperity then ruinous defeat to the nation was
A) Cavour
B) Louis Napoleon
C) Louis Kossuth
D) Leon Gambetta
E) Georges Boulanger

46. 14) The man whose reestablishment of a French Empire brought in the mid-
1800s temporary prosperity then ruinous defeat to the nation was
A) Cavour
B) Louis Napoleon
C) Louis Kossuth
D) Leon Gambetta
E) Georges Boulanger
Cavour was the unifer of Italy; Gambetta and Boulager were French politicians;
Louis Kossuth was the Hungarian nationalist hero

47. 15) The uprisings of the Revolutions of 1848 occurred in most of Europe
with the exception of
A) Russia and England because Russia was too backward and unindustrialized
and England was too advanced politically, economically, and industrially
B) Russia and England because both were controlled by a merciless
government – the tsar in Russia & Parliament in England
C) Russia & Austria because both were controlled by long-established
monarchies and punished serfs harshly
D) Austria & Switzerland because Austria was controlled by a long established
monarchy & punished serfs harshly, and Switzerland was too isolated
E) England and France because England had the most stable government &
France had the least stable

48. 15) The uprisings of the Revolutions of 1848 occurred in most of Europe
with the exception of
A) Russia and England because Russia was too backward and unindustrialized
and England was too advanced politically, economically, and industrially
B) Russia and England because both were controlled by a merciless
government – the tsar in Russia & Parliament in England
C) Russia & Austria because both were controlled by long-established
monarchies and punished serfs harshly
D) Austria & Switzerland because Austria was controlled by a long established
monarchy & punished serfs harshly, and Switzerland was too isolated
E) England and France because England had the most stable government &
France had the least stable
Russia & England were the only two major nations to escape revolution in 1848;
England was the most advanced & Russia was the least