REVOLUTIONS: THE POLITICAL CRISIS OF THE ANCIEN RGIME 1.

CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTIONS The reforms made under the influence of the Enlightenment during the 18th century didnt solve Ancin Regime problems. So, some revolutions took place between 1770 and 1870 in order to change the system. These revolutions are known as the bourgeois revolutions. The main targets of these revolutions were 2:

-The creation of a liberal political system based on the rights of freedom, equality before the law and property, and on some principles like national sovereignty, division of powers and a constitution. -The creation of an open society without privileges or estates, in which social promotion depended on merit and work, measured by wealth. 2. REVOLUTION AND INDEPENDENCE IN USA During the last decades of the 18th century the 13 British Colonies in the east coast of North America made a political revolution and an independence war against Great Britains king. Causes:

-The colonies hadnt any representatives in the British parliament; -The trade dependence with G.B. (London had the monopoly of many products); -The influence of the ideas of Enlightenment; -The increasing of the taxes without consulting the colonies. In 1773, due to a new tax about tea exportation, some settlers in Boston dressed up as Indians decided to throw to the sea the tea cargo of 3 British boats. The repression was so cruel that this event called as the Boston Tea Party was the spark that ignited the Independence War that began in 1776. On July 4th 1776, the representatives of the 13 Colonies met in Philadelphia and proclaimed their union, and declaring the independence of the USA as a republic based on the liberal principles. G.B. didnt accept the independence and continued the war. In the end, with the Spanish and the French support, the British were defeated in Yorktown (1781), and both sides signed the Peace of Versailles (1783). By this treatment G.B. recognized the independence of USA. Finishing the war, the new state wrote the constitution of 1787, completed with the Virginia Declaration of Rights:

-This constitution is considered the first one in history. It establishes the national sovereignty, the division of the powers and the federal republic as the state system. -The Virginia Declaration of Rights recognizes the right to life, liberty and property, and the freedom of religion, speech and press as well. Consequences: the American revolution proved that the ideas of Enlightenment could develope in a state; this revolution had a big influence on the French Revolution and in the rest of Europe; despite of the Human Rights Declaration, black people and Indians were still discriminated.

3. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION Causes:

-Ideological and political causes: the ideas of Enlightenment and the influence of the American Revolution. -Social causes: a) Noblemen and clergy had lost political power because of the absolute monarchy, and some of them had economic problems too. b) Peasants were in a situation of subsistence and had to pay a lot of taxes; popular urban groups lived in miserable conditions. c) Bourgeoisie had economic power but they desired to share the political power as well. Mercantilism blocked their activities. -Economic causes: bad harvest in the last years before 1789, and a financial crisis due to the debts of the monarchy. In order to sort this out king Louis XVI decided to call the parliament (General States) to ask the privileged states for new taxes. This marked the beginning of the revolution. Periods:

1) The General Estates (1789): when the representatives of the 3 estates met, they began discussing how they had to vote. The 3rd estate, represented by the bourgeoisie, was in favor of counting votes by individuals. But the other 2 estates preferred the traditional way of counting votes by estate. So, the 3rd estate decided to leave the assembly and to move on to the next chamber called the Ball Game Chamber. They founded a National Assembly and they promised not to leave until a constitution was elaborated. 2) The Constitutional Assembly (1789-91): the National Assembly became the Constitutional Assembly. People of Paris rioted against the army and attacked the prison of La Bastille. From Paris the riots spread to other cities and to the villages. The Constitutional Assembly abolished feudalism, wrote the Human and Citizen Rights Declaration, and made the Constitution of 1791. In this constitution national sovereignty, division of powers and censitary suffrage were established.

3) The Legislative Assembly (1791-92): the Constitutional Assembly turned into the Legislative Assembly, which had to face noblemen and kings opposition (he even tried to escape from France). Another problem was the confrontation between the moderate revolutionaries (girondins), and the radical revolutionaries (jacobins), supported by popular groups called sans culottes. 4) The Convention (1792-95): the majority of this new assembly, the girondins, decided to abolish the monarchy and to execute the king. The French Republic was created. The rest of the European Monarchies started the war against France. Popular classes were dissatisfied with the war, and this circumstance caused the jacobins promotion to power. His leader, Robespierre, proclaimed a new constitution in 1793, which established the universal suffrage. He used terror against the opposition, killing thousands of people by the guillotine. The rest of the Convention members, terrified by Robespierre deposed and executed him and all his supporters. The new moderate government elaborated a new constitution in 1795, in which censitary suffrage was reestablished. 5) The Directory (1795-99): 5 people took the executive power who decided to continue the war in Europe. Napoleon, a young prestigious general, made a coup dtat and replaced the Directory with the Consulate in 1799. Consequences: liberalism and Illustration ideas succeeded in Europe; the bourgeoisie got the political power.

4. NAPOLEON The Consulate: Napoleon ruled the country with other 2 people between 1799 and 1802. Since 1802 to 1804 he ruled it alone as consul for life. During this period he tried to pacify France and to make some interior reforms: -The pacification of France: Napoleon eliminated the radical opposition; he allowed the coming back of the exiled noblemen; finally he signed an agreement with the Pope (concordat) in 1801, by this Napoleon recognized Catholicism and the Church didnt demand its confiscated lands during the revolution. -Interior reforms: Civil Code (1804), which recognized the revolution achievements; the freedom of trade; the public social care; the public education. Thanks to these reforms Napoleon was appointed consul for life in 1802, and Emperor of France in 1804. THE NAPOLEONIC EMPIRE (1805-1815): between 1805 and 1810 Napoleon was able to create a huge empire after defeating the main European powers (battles of Austerlitz, Jena, Ulm). The exception was G.B. who defeated the French and Spanish fleet in Trafalgar (1805) and resisted the economic block (no country was allowed to trade with G.B.).

The conquered countries were ruled by Napoleons relatives or generals who spread the French Revolution ideas. Nevertheless, the foreign occupation of these countries caused the raise of nationalism. NAPOLEONS FALL: Napoleon was defeated in Russia in 1812 and in Spain in 1814. After this a coalition formed by G.B., Austria, Prussia and Russia entered into Paris, Napoleon was sent into exile to Elba island and Louis XVIII was restored as the legitimate Bourbon king of France. But in 1815 Napoleon managed to escape to France and ruled the country for 100 days. In the battle of Waterloo Napoleon was finally defeated and was sent to exile to Santa Elena island.

5. RESTAURATION IN EUROPE Between 1814 and 1815 the countries that defeated Napoleon(G.B., Austria, Prussia and Russia)met in the Congress of Vienna with the following objectives:

-Restoring absolutism: the deposed kings by Napoleon were restored, and main European powers were allowed to intervene in any country threatened by a revolution. -Reconstruction of the map of Europe: France came back to its 1791 boundaries, and the main powers shared some territories out and drew borders without counting on other nations desires and aspirations.

In order to ensure this situation 2 groups of alliances were created: -The Holy Alliance (1815): signed by Russia, Austria, and Prussia and afterwards by France. These countries should help the other members in case of a revolutionary threaten. -The Quadruple Alliance (1815): it was formed by Austria, Russia, Prussia and U.K... Their targets were to preserve the situation established in Vienna and to deal European conflicts by diplomacy and the calling of congresses. 6. THE LIBERAL REVOLUTIONS OF 1820, 1830 AND 1848 Concept of liberalism: it is a political and an economic ideology which defends individual freedom and its surveillance by the state. So liberalism recognizes the right to property and the right to equality before the law, without privileges. Besides, this ideology admits the national sovereignty, the election of representatives by the vote, and the division of powers. All this is written in a constitution. REVOLUTIONS OF 1820: the Restoration exerted a great repression, so liberals staged some ant absolutist uprisings in Russia, Spain, Portugal, Naples and Piedmont. These revolutions failed. Only Greece achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830 after the uprising of 1821.

REVOLUTIONS OF 1830: liberals got the power in many Western European states. In France Charles X was removed and a constitutional monarchy was imposed under Louis Philip of Orleans as king; Belgium got the independence from The Netherlands; Spain and Portugal established liberal governments. But this type of liberalism was conservative, so they imposed a censitary suffrage. REVOLUTIONS OF 1848: the revolutions of 1848 began in France, where Louis Philip of Orleans was forced to leave the throne and the Second Republic was proclaimed. Other states also passed by revolutionary waves as Prussia, the Austrian Empire, the Germanic Confederation and some Italian states. In all these revolutions working classes had a larger participation, demanding social equality and universal suffrage. The fear of workers radicalism scared the bourgeois, who repressed the revolutions.

7. NATIONALISM: THE ITALIAN AND GERMAN UNIFICATIONS Concept of nationalism: it is a political ideology which considers the nation as the fundamental unit of peoples life. The nation is understood as a community endowed with common characteristics such as history, language, religion, etc. Nationalism demands that borders of nations match the states. 19th century nationalist movements emerged in Europe where there was a mismatch between nations and political boundaries. We can distinguish between:

-Independence nationalist movements: they struggled to separate the nation from a foreign power or from a multinational state. Some examples of this are Greece and Belgium. -Unionist nationalist movements: they struggled to unify a separated nation in one state. The best examples are Italy and Germany. THE ITALIAN UNIFICATION: Italy was divided in 7 states, some of them under foreign rule. The unification of the country was led by the king of Piedmont-Sardinia, his Prime Minister Cavour and the revolutionary Garibaldi. The process underwent several stages:

-1859-60: Piedmont attacked Austria with the French help. Lombardy is conquered, but Savoy and Nice have to be given to France. Meanwhile, Garibaldi invaded the Kingdom of the Two Sicilys. Afterwards Tuscany, Parma, Modena and part of the Papal States joined the union and the first Italian parliament is formed in Turin in 1861. -1866: Italy conquered The Veneto after a new war against Austria. -1870: finally the rest of the Papal States were conquered. THE GERMAN UNIFICATION: Germany formed the German Confederation composed of 39 states. The 2 main states were Austria and Prussia. Both of them wanted to create a powerful Germany from their kingdoms. Finally the unification was led by the King of Prussia William I and his Prime Minister Bismarck.

This unification was achieved in 4 stages:

-The Zollverein, or German Customs Union, was a coalition of German states formed to manage customs and economic policies within their territories. Established in 1834, the original union cemented economic ties between the various Prussian and Hohenzollern territories. -Duchies War: Austria and Prussia attacked Denmark in 1864 in order to conquer the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. Den-mark lost the war and had to give these two provinces to Austria and Prussia. -Austrian-Prussian War: In 1866 Prussia faced Austria. The Austrian defeat of Sadowa allowed the unification of the German Northern States. -Prussian-French War: Prussia decided to attack France in 1870. The victory over the French army in 1871 confirmed Prussia as the dominant player in a unified German state. With the proclamation of Wilhelm as Kaiser, Prussia assumed the leadership of the new empire. The southern states became officially incorporated into a unified Germany at the Treaty of Versailles of 1871. France had to give Alsace-Lorraine to Germany.

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