World History / Unit 8: Revolutions and Nationalism
8.5 The Congress of Vienna and the Revolutions of 1848
Notes
After Napoleon's defeat, European leaders tried to restore order, but new ideas kept spreading.
- The Congress of Vienna (1814 to 1815), led by Austria's Prince Klemens von Metternich, aimed to restore legitimate monarchs, create a balance of power and contain France.
- Conservatives (monarchs, nobles, Church) wanted to keep traditional order. Liberals (often the middle class) wanted constitutions, elected parliaments and protected rights. Nationalists wanted each nation to have its own state.
- Nationalism: loyalty to a nation of people who share a language, culture, history or territory.
- Greece won independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830.
- In 1848, revolutions broke out in France, the German states, Austria and Italy. Most were crushed, but France became a republic again (briefly), and serfdom ended in Austria.
Practice
The main goal of the Congress of Vienna was to:
Leaders wanted stability after decades of war.
A group wants a written constitution, an elected parliament and freedom of the press. In the 1800s, this group would be called:
Liberals sought representative government and individual rights.
Nationalism is best defined as:
Nationalism became one of the most powerful forces of the 1800s.
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