Overview

The decades following the Congress of Vienna were marked by ideological conflict, political tension, and cultural transformation. Competing visions of authority, freedom, and identity shaped revolutions, reforms, and new artistic movements across Europe, laying the foundation for modern nationalism and social thought.

Key Themes and Developments

• Conservatism:
  • Championed tradition, monarchy, and the social order restored by the Congress of Vienna.
  • Key figure: Metternich of Austria, advocate of stability and anti-revolutionary policies.
• Liberalism:
  • Promoted constitutional government, civil liberties, and free markets.
  • Drew heavily from Enlightenment ideals and middle-class interests.
• Nationalism:
  • Belief in the cultural and political unity of people with a shared identity (language, history).
  • Threatened multiethnic empires like Austria and the Ottomans.
• Socialism:
  • Criticized capitalist inequality and advocated collective ownership or regulation of production.
  • Early thinkers: Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Robert Owen.
• Revolutions of 1830:
  • France: July Revolution replaced Charles X with Louis-Philippe ("Citizen King").
  • Belgium gained independence; uprisings in Poland and Italy failed.
• Cultural Developments – Romanticism:
  • Reaction against Enlightenment rationalism and industrialization.
  • Emphasized emotion, nature, individuality, and national spirit.
  • Figures: Goethe, Shelley, Delacroix, Beethoven.

Quick Tip

The post-Napoleonic era was an ideological battleground. Focus on how conservatism tried to contain liberal, nationalist, and socialist pressures—many of which erupted in revolution and reshaped European political thought.