Liberal revolutions and nationalist movements

Liberalism and nationalism

Liberalism is an ideology based on a set of principles:

• citizens have national sovereignity and can vote
• states have separate branches of power
• constitutions stablish the rights and duties of citizens
• individuals have right to own property
• there is a free market economy.

Nationalism is a political ideology that advocates the rigth of nations to create their own state.

The French Revolution

The unrest that led to the Revolution was caused by:

• an economic crisis wich left many people hungry
• bourgeois frustration over a lack of political influence
• a refusal by the privileged to pay taxes.

The revolution began when the Third State proclaimed themselves the National Assembly and promised not to disband until a constitution was drawn up.

The Revolutión went through three stages:

• Constitutional monarchy, wich gave more rigths to citizens, taxed the nobility and sold off Church lands.

• Democratic republic: First controlled by the Girondin Convention. Later Jacobins took control and introduce the Reign of Terror, price control and wealth redistribution.

• Burgeois republic: a coup by moderate bourgeoisie stablished a Directory.

Napoleonic period

• Because of a crisis, a young general called Napoleon Bonaparte led a coup to restore order in the country. He began to rule under a Consulate.

• Between 1804 and 1811, Napoleon formed an Empire that covered most of Europe.

• A revolt in Spain in 1808 marked the beginning of the decline of Napoleonic rule.

• Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by the United Kingdom and Prusia.

The Restoration

• Russia, Prussia and Austria signed the holly Alliance Treaty, wich stipulated that they had to help each other in the case of a liberal revolution in Europe.

• However, the French Revolution had left its mark and the new system was unable to prevent the growth of liberal and nationalist sentiment.

• The first nationalist movements began in Greece, wich was part of the Ottoman Empire, and Belgium, wich separated from the Netherlands.

• Later, Italy and Germany, Wich both consisted of different states, became indenpendently unified.

Vocabulary

• Consulate: the government of France from the end of the Directory to the star of the Napoleonic Empire (1799-1804).

• Girondist: member of a group of moderate republicans in the French Revolution.

• Jacobin: a member of a group of radical republicans in revolutionary France.

• Nation: a group of people with culturalties, who lives within the same state or territory.

• Republic: a country which is ruled by elected representatives, not by a king or queen.

• Sans-culottes: the lower classes in France in the 18th century who wanted social, economic, and political equality.

• State: a country; the political and administrative organisation that exercises power over a specific territory.

• Suffrage: the rigth to vote in elections.