Unit 7: 19th-Century Perspectives and Political Developments

Industrial Revolution

The transformation of production and daily life through industrialization, creating new economic power, urbanization, and conflicts over wages, working conditions, and political representation.

New Industrial Social Classes

The major groups expanded/created by industrialization—especially an urban industrial working class and an expanding middle class—whose interests reshaped political demands.

Nationalism

The belief that people with a shared identity (language, culture, history, sometimes religion) should have political unity and independence, often challenging empires and reshaping borders.

Liberalism

A 19th-century ideology emphasizing individual rights, constitutions, rule of law, civil liberties, and limited government; often tied to middle-class interests and sometimes limited suffrage via property requirements.

Conservatism

An ideology prioritizing tradition, hierarchy, monarchy, aristocracy, and established churches as anchors of social order; often used repression and later sometimes accepted limited reforms to reduce revolutionary pressure.

Socialism

A political movement responding to industrial capitalism’s inequalities, advocating reforms such as better wages, shorter hours, safer conditions, and greater economic justice (not always revolutionary).

Utopian Socialists

Early socialist reformers who imagined cooperative communities and believed moral persuasion and model societies could address industrial capitalism’s problems.

Marxism

A revolutionary form of socialism (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels) arguing that history is driven by class struggle and that the proletariat would ultimately overthrow the bourgeoisie and capitalism.

Congress of Vienna (1814–1815)

A post-Napoleonic diplomatic settlement led by major powers (Austria, Russia, Prussia, Great Britain; later including France) aiming to restore stability and prevent another dominant revolutionary empire.

Talleyrand

The French diplomat who represented France as it reentered European diplomacy during the Congress of Vienna negotiations.

Legitimacy

A Vienna principle meaning restoration of “rightful” dynasties (e.g., Bourbons in France) to reduce revolutionary temptation and stabilize regimes.

Balance of Power

A Vienna principle of redrawing borders and arranging alliances so that no single state could dominate Europe as France had under Napoleon.

Containment of France

A Vienna goal achieved by strengthening states around France (such as the Netherlands and Prussia) to prevent renewed French expansion.

Metternich System

The post-1815 conservative order associated with Klemens von Metternich, using domestic repression (censorship, surveillance) and international cooperation to suppress revolutions and maintain stability.

Concert of Europe

An informal great-power understanding after 1815 to manage international crises and preserve the Vienna settlement through cooperation.

Carlsbad Decrees (1819)

Repressive measures in the German states restricting academic and press freedoms to suppress liberal and nationalist student movements.

July Revolution (France, 1830)

A French uprising that removed Charles X and established a constitutional monarchy, demonstrating that monarchs could be overthrown.

Louis-Philippe

The “bourgeois” constitutional monarch installed in France after the July Revolution of 1830, whose regime favored middle-class interests.

Revolutions of 1848

A widespread wave of uprisings across Europe (France, Austrian Empire, German states, parts of Italy) driven by economic distress, liberal constitutional demands, nationalism, and working-class radicalism.

June Days (1848)

A violent clash in France between moderate republicans and radical workers after the February Revolution, highlighting divisions within revolutionary coalitions.

Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoleon III)

Elected president after France’s 1848 revolution; later established the Second Empire as Napoleon III.

Frankfurt Parliament

An 1848 liberal assembly in the German states that attempted to design a unified Germany with a constitution but failed due to lack of military power and Prussian refusal of a revolutionary crown.

Italian Unification (Risorgimento)

The 19th-century process that unified Italy through a sequence of diplomacy, wars, and regional campaigns, producing a monarchy despite strong republican nationalist currents.

Giuseppe Mazzini

An Italian nationalist who promoted republican nationalism and popular uprising as the route to unification.

Count Camillo di Cavour

Prime minister of Piedmont-Sardinia who advanced Italian unification through pragmatic diplomacy and war (including alliance with France against Austria in 1859).

Giuseppe Garibaldi

A charismatic Italian nationalist who led volunteer forces and conquered the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1860, accelerating unification momentum.

German Unification

The creation of a unified German state achieved largely through Prussian leadership, staged wars, and diplomacy, culminating in the proclamation of the German Empire in 1871.

Zollverein

A Prussian-led customs union that encouraged German economic integration by reducing internal trade barriers, supporting the push toward political unity.

Otto von Bismarck

Prussia’s minister-president (appointed 1862) who used diplomacy and limited wars to unify Germany under Prussian and monarchical leadership.

Realpolitik

A power-focused political approach associated with Bismarck that prioritized practical goals and state power over ideological purity, using nationalism strategically.

Eastern Question

The long-term geopolitical problem caused by the weakening Ottoman Empire: which powers would control strategic territories in southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.

Crimean War (1853–1856)

A conflict beginning with a Russia–Ottoman dispute over Christian minorities’ rights in the Holy Land, expanding when Britain and France intervened (with Sardinia) to block Russian dominance; it weakened conservative cooperation among powers.

Congress of Berlin (1878)

A diplomatic meeting that revised earlier arrangements and adjusted Balkan territorial settlements to manage Ottoman decline, Balkan nationalism, and great-power rivalry (often only a temporary patch).

Balkan Wars (1912–1913)

Two wars driven by nationalism and Ottoman decline that intensified rivalry among Balkan states and helped create the unstable conditions leading toward World War I.

Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary

A multinational empire structure (1867–1918) with Austrian and Hungarian halves under one monarch, sharing foreign policy and defense but facing ongoing nationalist tensions from other ethnic groups.

Austro-Hungarian Compromise (1867)

The agreement that created Austria-Hungary by granting Hungary greater autonomy in exchange for loyalty to the Habsburg dynasty, leaving many other national groups dissatisfied.

Triple Entente

The pre–World War I alliance bloc linking France, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

Central Powers

The pre–World War I alliance bloc including Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy (Italy later switched sides).

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

The Austrian heir whose assassination by a Serbian nationalist in 1914 served as the immediate spark that escalated crisis into World War I.

Mass Politics

Politics shaped by large electorates and organized participation through parties, unions, newspapers, and campaigns, fueled by expanded suffrage, literacy, and urban industrial society.

Bismarck’s Social Welfare Legislation

German state social programs introduced under Bismarck to reduce worker anger and undercut socialist appeal—reform used as a strategy to stabilize a conservative regime.

Feminism (late 19th–early 20th century)

Movements seeking women’s education, legal reforms (e.g., property rights), and suffrage, shaped by industrial society and liberal ideals while challenging “separate spheres” ideology.

Antisemitism

Hostility or discrimination against Jews, often intensified in late 19th-century mass politics through scapegoating, fear of outsiders, and conspiracy theories.

Dreyfus Affair

A French political scandal in which Jewish officer Alfred Dreyfus was wrongfully convicted of treason, exposing conflicts over nationalism, the military, republicanism, and antisemitism.

Romanticism

A cultural movement emphasizing emotion, imagination, individual experience, nature, and folk traditions; it challenged Enlightenment confidence in pure reason and helped fuel nationalist feeling.

Realism

An artistic and literary movement depicting ordinary life and social conditions without romantic idealization, often highlighting industrial-era realities and social critique.

Positivism

A 19th-century belief (associated with Auguste Comte) that society could be studied and managed scientifically through observation and reason, encouraging “scientific” approaches to reform and administration.

Social Darwinism

A discredited social ideology that misapplied “survival of the fittest” to human societies, claiming inherent superiority of some races/classes and justifying imperialism, racism, and eugenics.

Berlin Conference (1884–1885)

A meeting that set rules for European claims in Africa, formalizing competition for territory with little or no meaningful African participation.

New Imperialism

The late 19th–early 20th century expansion of European control (especially in Africa and parts of Asia) through colonies, protectorates, and spheres of influence, driven by strategic rivalry, economic motives, nationalism, and racist/“civilizing” ideologies.