The Dike and the Flood: Domestic

1. The Dike and the Flood: Domestic Section 11.54

2. Introduction • Congress of Vienna sought to end conflicts that were plaguing Europe for over 25 years • Louis XVIII is restored to the French throne • Tories governed to maintain the old England • Metternich maintains the policy of conservatism in central Europe • Alexander I is a wild card • Tsar, pushing religion into politics, self-chosen world savior, Jacobin, liberal • Metternich hoped to convert him into a conservative • Circle of discontent and tension was established • Response of the Congress was viewed as reactionary by liberals • Activities of the liberals were viewed as revolutionary by the Congress

3. Reaction after 1815: France, Poland • Republicans (regicides) that rallied to Napoleon’s return (100 days) were brutalized by the counterrevolutionaries • Resulted in a White terror against republicans and protestants • 1820 a fanatical workman’s assassination of Duke de Berry (King’s nephew) deepened the split • 1824 Louis XVIII died and Charles X (father of murdered Duke de Berry) came to the throne • Louis XVI youngest brother was first to emigrate in 1789 • 1824 he claimed absolute power • Began campaign against republicanism, liberalism, and constitutionalism • Poland struggles under its viceroy Alexander I • Nationalist interests in Poland promote expansion • Poles could not get along with Alexander’s viceroy • Russian landholders were not excited by the republican presence on their boarder • Revolutionaries (professors and students of University of Vilna)meet in underground societies • Efforts to stop revolutionary forces builds tension Charles X

4. Reaction after 1815: The German States • Germany is was left as a loose association of independent states (Bund) • Nationalist movement is centered in the universities • Volksgeist and Deutschtum are commonly discussed • students formed Burschenschaft in 1815 which were clubs of serious political discussion • a kind of German youth movement • held congress at Wartburg in 1817 listened to rousing speeches, marched to Teutonic costume • Informer named Kotzebue to the Tsar is murdered • Receives hundreds of letters of congratulation • Metternich issues the Carlsbad Decrees • Dissolved the Burschenschaft and gymnastic clubs • Placed government officials in the universities • Censored books and newspapers • Repression becomes the status quo

5. England • Landed classes feared an onrush of imported agricultural goods and the collapse of farm prices • Gentries Response to open agricultural markets spurred the implementations of “Corn Laws” (1815-1846) • tariff on imports that maintained high prices for domestic produce • Wages could not keep up with prices • Post war depression in economy • Contributes to the spread of radicalism • Demands are made for reform in the HOC and social welfare system

6. England • riot broke out in London in Dec 1816, • In Feb, the Prince Regent was attacked in carriage • gov suspends habeas corpus and employ agents provocateurs (spies) to charge radicals • Manchester industrialists use unrest to push for political representation • Mass demonstration of 80 thousand at St. Peter’s Fields is fired upon by soldiers • They asked for universal male suffrage, annual elections of HOC, repeal of Corm Laws • Perfectly orderly protest • (Peterloo Massacre of 1819) comparison to Waterloo • 11 killed, 400 wounded, including 113 women

7. Six Acts • Parliament responds with Six Acts (1819) • Outlawed seditions and blasphemous literature • Stamp tax on newspapers • Search of private houses for arms • Restricted the right of public meetings • Revolutionaries planed the assassination of the Cabinet • Caught by police on Cato Street (1820) • Five members of the Cato Street Conspiracy are hanged • Reactionary policies dug in to stop the flood of revolutionary spirit