Revolutionary Europe 1789-1815
9781465648082
281 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
The Period from 1789 to 1815 an Era of Transition—The Principles propounded during the period which have modified the political conceptions of the Eighteenth Century: i. The Principle of the Sovereignty of the People; ii. The Principle of Nationality; iii. The Principle of Personal Liberty—The Eighteenth Century, the Era of the Benevolent Despots—The condition of the Labouring Classes in the Eighteenth Century: Serfdom—The Middle Classes—The Upper Classes—Why France led the way to modern ideas in the French Revolution—The influence of the thinkers and writers of the Eighteenth Century in bringing about the change—Contrast between the French and German thinkers—The low state of morality and general indifference to religion—Conclusion. The period from 1789 to 1815—that is, the era of the French Revolution and of the domination of Napoleon—marks one of the most important transitions in the history of Europe. Great as is the difference between the material condition of the Europe of the nineteenth century, with its railways and its electric telegraphs, and the Europe of the eighteenth century, with its bad roads and uncertain posts, it is not greater than the contrast between the political, social, and economical ideas which prevailed then and which prevail now. Modern principles, that mark a new departure in human progress and in its evidence, Civilisation, took their rise during this epoch of transition, and their development underlies the history of the period, and gives the key to its meaning. The conception that government exists for the promotion of the security and prosperity of the governed was fully grasped in the eighteenth century. But it was held alike by philosophers and rulers, alike in civilised England and in Russia emerging from barbarism that, whilst government existed for the good of the people, it must not be administered by the people. This fundamental principle is in the nineteenth century entirely denied. It is now believed that the government should be directed by the people through their representatives, and that it is better for a nation to make mistakes in the course of its self-government than to be ruled, be it ever so wisely, by an irresponsible monarch. This notion of the sovereignty of the people was energetically propounded during the great Revolution in France. It is not yet universally accepted in all the states of modern Europe. But it has profoundly affected the political development of the nineteenth century. It lies at the base of one group of modern political ideas; and, though in 1815 it seemed to have been propounded only to be condemned, one of the most striking features of the modern history of Europe since the Congress of Vienna, has been its gradual acceptance and steady growth in civilised countries.
