The
Principle of Legitimacy solved the problem of finding a ruler for France. Once Napoleon was killed, there was no one in
charge of France and so at the Congress of Vienna, the members decided what to
do about France and who would rule the country.
To reinstate traditional government and put the line of Bourbons back on
the throne, the congress used the principle of legitimacy to reinstate lawful
monarchs. The congress also kept the
lower class citizens happy with the restored monarch by making it a
constitutional monarchy where “one may profess his religion with equal freedom”
and where “Frenchmen are equal before the law”1. This would help to stop a revolt by the lower
class citizens who would otherwise be angry with the restoration of the monarchy
and their lack of rights.
The
Principle of Legitimacy would have pleased Metternich since he was a
conservative. Conservatives preferred
traditional government with absolute monarchs.
This principle preserved the monarchy and brought back the traditional
line of rulers. Even though France
became a constitutional monarchy and not an absolute monarchy like conservatives
preferred, Metternich and the other members of congress did not want a repeat
of the French Revolution. They did not
want any revolts due to citizens being angry about having an absolute monarchy. Instituting a constitution kept all citizens
from becoming angry enough to revolt.
The
Congress of Vienna impacted Europe by using concepts like the principle of
legitimacy to solve various problems.
The principle of legitimacy kept monarchy (in some form) in Europe;
including France. The monarchy attempted
to keep the majority of the power and the lower classes without power. The only time the lower class was equal was “before
the law”1. Another concept of
the congress was the concept of the balance of power which also affected Europe. The balance of power reinstated most former
boundaries of countries.
Only a few nations were expanded to try and
make sure no one country had significantly more power than another. This helped because if there were any wars,
no one country would become powerful enough to take over the other countries
like Napoleon did. The power was balanced
between the major European powers like France, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and
Britain. These five countries excluding
Britain formed a Holy Alliance. This
meant that monarchs were supposedly given the authority to rule by God. If there were any revolts against the
monarch, all four countries would work together to crush the uprising, since
revolting would be considered going against not only the monarch but God as
well. The holy alliance and this principle
of intervention stopped revolts in Italy and Spain. Europe underwent a drastic change after the
rule of Napoleon ended and the concepts of the Congress of Vienna were put into
place.
1The Constitutional Charter of 1814
No comments:
Post a Comment