The Italians, who since the days of the Renaissance had been at the mercy of a long series
of invaders, also had put great hopes in General Bonaparte. The Emperor Napoleon,
however, had grievously disappointed them. Instead of the United Italy which the people
wanted, they had been divided into a number of little principalities, duchies, republics and
the Papal State, which (next to Naples) was the worst governed and most miserable
region of the entire peninsula. The Congress of Vienna abolished a few of the Napoleonic
republics and in their place resurrected several old principalities which were given to
deserving members, both male and female, of the Habsburg family.
The poor Spaniards, who had started the great nationalistic revolt against Napoleon, and
who had sacrificed the best blood of the country for their king, were punished severely
when the Congress alowed His Majesty to return to his domains. This vicious creature,
known as Ferdinand VII, had spent the last four years of his life as a prisoner of
Napoleon. He had improved his days by knitting garments for the statues of his favourite
patron saints. He celebrated his return by re-introducing the Inquisition and the torture-
chamber, both of which had been abolished by the Revolution. He was a disgusting
person, despised as much by his subjects as by his four wives, but the Holy Aliance
maintained him upon his legitimate throne and al efforts of the decent Spaniards to get rid
of this curse and make Spain a constitutional kingdom ended in bloodshed and executions.
Portugal had been without a king since the year 1807 when the royal family had fled to the
colonies in Brazil. The country had been used as a base of supply for the armies of
Welington during the Peninsula war, which lasted from 1808 until 1814. After 1815
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Portugal continued to be a sort of British province until the house of Braganza returned to
the throne, leaving one of its members behind in Rio de Janeiro as Emperor of Brazil, the
only American Empire which lasted for more than a few years, and which came to an end
in 1889 when the country became a republic.
In the east, nothing was done to improve the terrible conditions of both the Slavs and the
Greeks who were stil subjects of the Sultan. In the year 1804 Black George, a Servian
swineherd, (the founder of the Karageorgevich dynasty) had started a revolt against the
Turks, but he had been defeated by his enemies and had been murdered by one of his
supposed friends, the rival Servian leader, caled Milosh Obrenovich, (who became the
founder of the Obrenovich dynasty) and the Turks had continued to be the undisputed
masters of the Balkans.
The Greeks, who since the loss of their independence, two thousand years before, had
been subjects of the Macedonians, the Romans, the Venetians and the Turks, had hoped
that their countryman, Capo d'Istria, a native of Corfu and together with Czartoryski, the
most intimate personal friends of Alexander, would do something for them. But the
Congress of Vienna was not interested in Greeks, but was very much interested in keeping
al "legitimate" monarchs, Christian, Moslem and otherwise, upon their respective thrones.
Therefore nothing was done.
The last, but perhaps the greatest blunder of the Congress was the treatment of Germany.
The Reformation and the Thirty Years War had not only destroyed the prosperity of the
country, but had turned it into a hopeless political rubbish heap, consisting of a couple of
kingdoms, a few grand-duchies, a large number of duchies and hundreds of margravates,
principalities, baronies, electorates, free cities and free vilages, ruled by the strangest
assortment of potentates that was ever seen off the comic opera stage. Frederick the
Great had changed this when he created a strong Prussia, but this state had not survived
him by many years.
Napoleon had blue-penciled the demand for independence of most of these little
countries, and only fifty-two out of a total of more than three hundred had survived the
year 1806. During the years of the great struggle for independence, many a young soldier
had dreamed of a new Fatherland that should be strong and united. But there can be no
union without a strong leadership, and who was to be this leader?
There were five kingdoms in the German speaking lands. The rulers of two of these,
Austria and Prussia, were kings by the Grace of God. The rulers of three others, Bavaria,
Saxony and Wurtemberg, were kings by the Grace of Napoleon, and as they had been
the faithful henchmen of the Emperor, their patriotic credit with the other Germans was
therefore not very good.
The Congress had established a new German Confederation, a league of thirty-eight
sovereign states, under the chairmanship of the King of Austria, who was now known as
the Emperor of Austria. It was the sort of make-shift arrangement which satisfied no one.
It is true that a German Diet, which met in the old coronation city of Frankfort, had been
created to discuss matters of "common policy and importance." But in this Diet, thirty-
eight delegates represented thirty-eight different interests and as no decision could be
taken without a unanimous vote (a parliamentary rule which had in previous centuries
ruined the mighty kingdom of Poland), the famous German Confederation became very
soon the laughing stock of Europe and the politics of the old Empire began to resemble
those of our Central American neighbours in the forties and the fifties of the last century.
It was terribly humiliating to the people who had sacrificed everything for a national ideal.
But the Congress was not interested in the private feelings of "subjects," and the debate
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was closed.
Did anybody object? Most assuredly. As soon as the first feeling of hatred against
Napoleon had quieted down—as soon as the enthusiasm of the great war had subsided—
as soon as the people came to a ful realisation of the crime that had been committed in the
name of "peace and stability" they began to murmur. They even made threats of open
revolt. But what could they do? They were powerless. They were at the mercy of the
most pitiless and efficient police system the world had ever seen.
The members of the Congress of Vienna honestly and sincerely believed that "the
Revolutionary Principle had led to the criminal usurpation of the throne by the former
emperor Napoleon." They felt that they were caled upon to eradicate the adherents of the
so-caled "French ideas" just as Philip II had only folowed the voice of his conscience
when he burned Protestants or hanged Moors. In the beginning of the sixteenth century a
man who did not believe in the divine right of the Pope to rule his subjects as he saw fit
was a "heretic" and it was the duty of al loyal citizens to kil him. In the beginning of the
nineteenth century, on the continent of Europe, a man who did not believe in the divine
right of his king to rule him as he or his Prime Minister saw fit, was a "heretic," and it was
the duty of al loyal citizens to denounce him to the nearest policeman and see that he got
punished.
But the rulers of the year 1815 had learned efficiency in the school of Napoleon and they
performed their task much better than it had been done in the year 1517. The period
between the year 1815 and the year 1860 was the great era of the political spy. Spies
were everywhere. They lived in palaces and they were to be found in the lowest gin-
shops. They peeped through the key-holes of the ministerial cabinet and they listened to
the conversations of the people who were taking the air on the benches of the Municipal
Park. They guarded the frontier so that no one might leave without a duly viseed passport
and they inspected al packages, that no books with dangerous "French ideas" should
enter the realm of their Royal masters. They sat among the students in the lecture hal and
woe to the Professor who uttered a word against the existing order of things. They
folowed the little boys and girls on their way to church lest they play hookey.
In many of these tasks they were assisted by the clergy. The church had suffered greatly
during the days of the revolution. The church property had been confiscated. Several
priests had been kiled and the generation that had learned its cathechism from Voltaire
and Rousseau and the other French philosophers had danced around the Altar of Reason
when the Committee of Public Safety had abolished the worship of God in October of the
year 1793. The priests had folowed the "emigres" into their long exile. Now they returned
in the wake of the alied armies and they set to work with a vengeance.
Even the Jesuits came back in 1814 and resumed their former labours of educating the
young. Their order had been a little too successful in its fight against the enemies of the
church. It had established "provinces" in every part of the world, to teach the natives the
blessings of Christianity, but soon it had developed into a regular trading company which
was for ever interfering with the civil authorities. During the reign of the Marquis de
Pombal, the great reforming minister of Portugal, they had been driven out of the
Portuguese lands and in the year 1773 at the request of most of the Catholic powers of
Europe, the order had been suppressed by Pope Clement XIV. Now they were back on
the job, and preached the principles of "obedience" and "love for the legitimate dynasty" to
children whose parents had hired shopwindows that they might laugh at Marie Antoinette
driving to the scaffold which was to end her misery.
But in the Protestant countries like Prussia, things were not a whit better. The great
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patriotic leaders of the year 1812, the poets and the writers who had preached a holy war
upon the usurper, were now branded as dangerous "demagogues." Their houses were
searched. Their letters were read. They were obliged to report to the police at regular
intervals and give an account of themselves. The Prussian dril master was let loose in al
his fury upon the younger generation. When a party of students celebrated the
tercentenary of the Reformation with noisy but harmless festivities on the old Wartburg,
the Prussian bureaucrats had visions of an imminent revolution. When a theological
student, more honest than inteligent, kiled a Russian government spy who was operating
in Germany, the universities were placed under police-supervision and professors were
jailed or dismissed without any form of trial.
Russia, of course, was even more absurd in these anti-revolutionary activities. Alexander
had recovered from his attack of piety. He was gradualy drifting toward melancholia. He
wel knew his own limited abilities and understood how at Vienna he had been the victim
both of Metternich and the Krudener woman. More and more he turned his back upon
the west and became a truly Russian ruler whose interests lay in Constantinople, the old
holy city that had been the first teacher of the Slavs. The older he grew, the harder he
worked and the less he was able to accomplish. And while he sat in his study, his ministers
turned the whole of Russia into a land of military barracks.
It is not a pretty picture. Perhaps I might have shortened this description of the Great
Reaction. But it is just as wel that you should have a thorough knowledge of this era. It
was not the first time that an attempt had been made to set the clock of history back. The
result was the usual one.
NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE
THE LOVE OF NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE, HOWEVER WAS TOO STRONG
TO BE DESTROYED IN THIS WAY. THE SOUTH AMERICANS WERE THE
FIRST TO REBEL AGAINST THE REACTIONARY MEASURES OF THE
CONGRESS OF VIENNA, GREECE AND BELGIUM AND SPAIN AND A
LARGE NUMBER OF OTHER COUNTRIES OF THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT
FOLLOWED SUIT AND THE NINETEENTH CENTURY WAS FILLED WITH
THE RUMOUR OF MANY WARS OF INDEPENDENCE
IT wil serve no good purpose to say "if only the Congress of Vienna had done such and
such a thing instead of taking such and such a course, the history of Europe in the
nineteenth century would have been different." The Congress of Vienna was a gathering of
men who had just passed through a great revolution and through twenty years of terrible
and almost continuous warfare. They came together for the purpose of giving Europe that
"peace and stability" which they thought that the people needed and wanted. They were
what we cal reactionaries. They sincerely believed in the inability of the mass of the
people to rule themselves. They re-arranged the map of Europe in such a way as seemed
to promise the greatest possibility of a lasting success. They failed, but not through any
premeditated wickedness on their part. They were, for the greater part, men of the old
school who remembered the happier days of their quiet youth and ardently wished a return
of that blessed period. They failed to recognise the strong hold which many of the
revolutionary principles had gained upon the people of the European continent. That was a
misfortune but hardly a sin. But one of the things which the French Revolution had taught
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not only Europe but America as wel, was the right of people to their own "nationality."
Napoleon, who respected nothing and nobody, was utterly ruthless in his dealing with
national and patriotic aspirations. But the early revolutionary generals had proclaimed the
new doctrine that "nationality was not a matter of political frontiers or round skuls and
broad noses, but a matter of the heart and soul." While they were teaching the French
children the greatness of the French nation, they encouraged Spaniards and Holanders
and Italians to do the same thing. Soon these people, who al shared Rousseau's belief in
the superior virtues of Original Man, began to dig into their past and found, buried beneath
the ruins of the feudal system, the bones of the mighty races of which they supposed
themselves the feeble descendants.
The first half of the nineteenth century was the era of the great historical discoveries.
Everywhere historians were busy publishing mediaeval charters and early mediaeval
chronicles and in every country the result was a new pride in the old fatherland. A great
deal of this sentiment was based upon the wrong interpretation of historical facts. But in
practical politics, it does not matter what is true, but everything depends upon what the
people believe to be true. And in most countries both the kings and their subjects firmly
believed in the glory and fame of their ancestors.
The Congress of Vienna was not inclined to be sentimental. Their Excelencies divided the
map of Europe according to the best interests of half a dozen dynasties and put "national
aspirations" upon the Index, or list of forbidden books, together with al other dangerous
"French doctrines."
But history is no respecter of Congresses. For some reason or other (it may be an
historical law, which thus far has escaped the attention of the scholars) "nations" seemed to
be necessary for the orderly development of human society and the attempt to stem this
tide was quite as unsuccessful as the Metternichian effort to prevent people from thinking.
Curiously enough the first trouble began in a very distant part of the world, in South
America. The Spanish colonies of that continent had been enjoying a period of relative
independence during the many years of the great Napoleonic wars. They had even
remained faithful to their king when he was taken prisoner by the French Emperor and
they had refused to recognise Joseph Bonaparte, who had in the year 1808 been made
King of Spain by order of his brother.
Indeed, the only part of America to get very much upset by the Revolution was the island
of Haiti, the Espagnola of Columbus' first trip. Here in the year 1791 the French
Convention, in a sudden outburst of love and human brotherhood, had bestowed upon
their black brethren al the privileges hitherto enjoyed by their white masters. Just as
suddenly they had repented of this step, but the attempt to undo the original promise led to
many years of terrible warfare between General Leclerc, the brother-in-law of Napoleon,
and Toussaint l'Ouverture, the negro chieftain. In the year 1801, Toussaint was asked to
visit Leclerc and discuss terms of peace. He received the solemn promise that he would
not be molested. He trusted his white adversaries, was put on board a ship and shortly
afterwards died in a French prison. But the negroes gained their independence al the same
and founded a Republic. Incidentaly they were of great help to the first great South
American patriot in his efforts to deliver his native country from the Spanish yoke.
Simon Bolivar, a native of Caracas in Venezuela, born in the year 1783, had been
educated in Spain, had visited Paris where he had seen the Revolutionary government at
work, had lived for a while in the United States and had returned to his native land where
the widespread discontent against Spain, the mother country, was beginning to take a
definite form. In the year 1811, Venezuela declared its independence and Bolivar became
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one of the revolutionary generals. Within two months, the rebels were defeated and
Bolivar fled.
For the next five years he was the leader of an apparently lost cause. He sacrificed al his
wealth and he would not have been able to begin his final and successful expedition
without the support of the President of Haiti. Thereafter the revolt spread al over South
America and soon it appeared that Spain was not able to suppress the rebelion unaided.
She asked for the support of the Holy Aliance.
This step greatly worried England. The British shippers had succeeded the Dutch as the
Common Carriers of the world and they expected to reap heavy profits from a declaration
of independence on the part of al South America. They had hopes that the United States
of America would interfere but the Senate had no such plans and in the House, too, there
were many voices which declared that Spain ought to be given a free hand.
Just then, there was a change of ministers in England. The Whigs went out and the Tories
came in. George Canning became secretary of State. He dropped a hint that England
would gladly back up the American government with al the might of her fleet, if said
government would declare its disapproval of the plans of the Holy Aliance in regard to the
rebelious colonies of the southern continent. President Monroe thereupon, on the 2nd of
December of the year 1823, addressed Congress and stated that: "America would
consider any attempt on the part of the alied powers to extend their system to any portion
of this western hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety," and gave warning that
"the American government would consider such action on the part of the Holy Aliance as
a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States." Four weeks later,
the text of the "Monroe Doctrine" was printed in the English newspapers and the members
of the Holy Aliance were forced to make their choice.
Metternich hesitated. Personaly he would have been wiling to risk the displeasure of the
United States (which had alowed both its army and navy to fal into neglect since the end
of the Anglo-American war of the year 1812.) But Canning's threatening attitude and
trouble on the continent forced him to be careful. The expedition never took place and
South America and Mexico gained their independence.
As for the troubles on the continent of Europe, they were coming fast and furious. The
Holy Aliance had sent French troops to Spain to act as guardians of the peace in the year
1820. Austrian troops had been used for a similar purpose in Italy when the "Carbonari"
(the secret society of the Charcoal Burners) were making propaganda for a united Italy
and had caused a rebelion against the unspeakable Ferdinand of Naples.
Bad news also came from Russia where the death of Alexander had been the sign for a
revolutionary outbreak in St. Petersburg, a short but bloody upheaval, the so-caled
Dekaberist revolt (because it took place in December,) which ended with the hanging of a
large number of good patriots who had been disgusted by the reaction of Alexander's last
years and had tried to give Russia a constitutional form of government.
But worse was to folow. Metternich had tried to assure himself of the continued support
of the European courts by a series of conferences at Aix-la-Chapele at Troppau at
Laibach and finaly at Verona. The delegates from the different powers duly traveled to
these agreeable watering places where the Austrian prime minister used to spend his
summers. They always promised to do their best to suppress revolt but they were none
too certain of their success. The spirit of the people was beginning to be ugly and
especialy in France the position of the king was by no means satisfactory.
The real trouble however began in the Balkans, the gateway to western Europe through
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which the invaders of that continent had passed since the beginning of time. The first
outbreak was in Moldavia, the ancient Roman province of Dacia which had been cut off
from the Empire in the third century. Since then, it had been a lost land, a sort of Atlantis,
where the people had continued to speak the old Roman tongue and stil caled themselves
Romans and their country Roumania. Here in the year 1821, a young Greek, Prince
Alexander Ypsilanti, began a revolt against the Turks. He told his folowers that they could
count upon the support of Russia. But Metternich's fast couriers were soon on their way
to St Petersburg and the Tsar, entirely persuaded by the Austrian arguments in favor of
"peace and stability," refused to help. Ypsilanti was forced to flee to Austria where he
spent the next seven years in prison.
In the same year, 1821, trouble began in Greece. Since 1815 a secret society of Greek
patriots had been preparing the way for a revolt. Suddenly they hoisted the flag of
independence in the Morea (the ancient Peloponnesus) and drove the Turkish garrisons
away. The Turks answered in the usual fashion. They took the Greek Patriarch of
Constantinople, who was regarded as their Pope both by the Greeks and by many
Russians, and they hanged him on Easter Sunday of the year 1821, together with a
number of his bishops. The Greeks came back with a massacre of al the Mohammedans
in Tripolitsa, the capital of the Morea and the Turks retaliated by an attack upon the island
of Chios, where they murdered 25,000 Christians and sold 45,000 others as slaves into
Asia and Egypt.
Then the Greeks appealed to the European courts, but Metternich told them in so many
words that they could "stew in their own grease," (I am not trying to make a pun, but I am
quoting His Serene Highness who informed the Tsar that this "fire of revolt ought to burn
itself out beyond the pale of civilisation" and the frontiers were closed to those volunteers
who wished to go to the rescue of the patriotic Helenes. Their cause seemed lost. At the
request of Turkey, an Egyptian army was landed in the Morea and soon the Turkish flag
was again flying from the Acropolis, the ancient stronghold of Athens. The Egyptian army
then pacified the country "a la Turque," and Metternich folowed the pr