CHAPTER XVI

THE RESETTLEMENT OF EUROPE

When Napoleon had been finally chained down, under the ward of the British Government, on the rock of St. Helena, the Emperors of Russia and Austria and the King of Prussia made a compact, which was called the Holy Alliance, with the principal and excellent object of maintaining peace. It is not easy to estimate how far it succeeded in that good aim, because we cannot be sure how many wars were checked by the existence of the alliance. Probably we ought to give it credit for some negative results of this kind which do not make any show in the story.

It had one curious effect, at all events. The Spanish settlements in South America had taken advantage of the distracted condition of Europe to declare their independence of the mother country. Spain appealed to the Holy Alliance to help her in regaining them, and the Alliance received the appeal favourably. But, before anything came of it, the United States put forward a famous declaration, known as the Monroe Doctrine, saying that they would not tolerate any interference, or any further colonisation, by any European Power, in either of the American Continents. Even so, Spain and the Holy Alliance might possibly have proceeded with their project had Great Britain favoured it. But Great Britain, on the contrary, was found to be not at all in its favour--for one thing her {196} own experience in attempting to bring American colonists under a home Government which they disliked had not been encouraging--so the idea of putting pressure on the Spaniards in South America was at once and finally abandoned. It could not have been undertaken with any prospect of success if two nations so dominant at sea as Great Britain and the United States were opposed to it.

This Holy Alliance was formed between the three most powerful and most despotic rulers in Europe. Its essential idea was to maintain peace and order, but, as was evident from this very design of forcibly helping Spain to bring back her South American sheep into the home fold, it was peace and order according to the ideas of these despotic rulers. That is to say, that its ideals were in no accord with the spirit of freedom which had been let loose by the French Revolution, and was still working throughout the world, although for the moment it had lost some of its vitality because of the alarm excited by the extreme violence of that Revolution.

Both the allied Emperors had within their boundaries peoples over whom they held a sovereignty by force, and much against the will of the governed. The Russian great bear had his paw on a prostrate, but always protesting, Poland. The Austrian double-headed eagle had occasion to be on watchful guard in two directions, both east and south-west. The rulers of all the States of Italy held their governments virtually under Austrian direction, and by none, except perhaps the Pope, whom she had been influential in restoring to his Papal States, was she beloved.

[Sidenote: Austro-Hungarian War]

But she had more cause for anxious watchfulness on the east. In course of the gradual relaxing of the Turk's grip on Europe, that Oriental power had been forced to relinquish Hungary to Austria at the end of the nineteenth century. The population of Hungary {197} was mixed, but by far the largest blend in the mixture was of people of Magyar race, which had affinity with the Finns, the natives of Finland. The language and the chief men were Magyar. They never blended kindly with the Germanic Austrians, and were jealous in maintaining their own national identity. In 1833 they obtained the concession that the debates in their own Parliament might be conducted in the Magyar language. But there was ever this constant friction, the Austrian Crown trying to reduce the Hungarians to more complete dependence and the Hungarians constantly striving for more freedom. Finally war blazed out, from all this smouldering trouble, just before the middle of the century, when the Austrian Emperor abdicated in favour of Francis Joseph, his nephew, and the Hungarians refused to recognise the nephew as their king.

The Magyar orator and statesman, Kossuth, was the great figure in this gallant effort of the Hungarians for their liberty. In the early period of the struggle the Hungarians gained victories, and there was a moment when it seems that, had they pushed forward, they might have taken Vienna itself, Austria's capital city. But they did not so push on. The Austrian armies were reinforced, and then Austria called in the help of her friend in the Holy Alliance, Russia. That was a combination against which the Hungarians could not well be successful. Their revolt was put down with cruel severity. For the time being they gave up the idea of independence, though their sense of a nationality distinct from that of their conquerors remained as vivid as ever.

This rising, and its suppression, occurred in the years 1848 and 1849. By the year 1866 a rift had appeared in the Alliance so-called Holy; and Austria was actually at war with Prussia. The war arose out of a work of spoliation done by the two allies two years {198} before, when they had combined to take the provinces of Schleswig-Holstein from under the rule of Denmark. The population of those provinces was in part Scandinavian and in part Germanic, so that they were divided in their political desires, some of the people favouring union with Denmark and others wishing to be taken into the Confederation of German States. On their own part they were claiming their independence of the Danish rule. There was therefore a certain excuse for the action of these two Holy Allies; but now, when they had done the act of robbery, they quarrelled over the division of the spoils. Prussia claimed to take both Schleswig and Holstein under her own dominance. Austria said that she should at least be given one of them for her share. The result was the outbreak of that which has been called the Seven Weeks' War, in which Prussia was completely victorious.

And in this brief campaign there were Hungarian legions fighting on the side of Prussia against Austria, their own sovereign. That, however, did not imply that Austria's sovereignty was weakened, and in the following year, that is, in 1867, Francis Joseph the Austrian Emperor, was formally crowned King of Hungary at Buda-Pesth, the Hungarian capital.

In this way Austria and Hungary came to stand in a curious position towards one another. They were two kingdoms under the same ruler--a double kingdom.

Another outcome of that Schleswig-Holstein conflict and of the Seven Weeks' War was that the Confederation of the German States was reconstituted. The old single confederation was broken up into a North German Confederation, of which Prussia was the head, and a South German Confederation, the river Maine being taken as the boundary between them. Austria stood apart politically, though geographically belonging to the Southern group.

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In spite of her defeat then, Austria maintained her old dominance over Hungary, but she did not succeed in maintaining for long the far less definite dominance which the European Powers had assigned to her, at the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars, over the various States of Italy.

Italy was later than any other land of Europe in settling down into the national boundaries which remained without any break of importance until the Great War. We may indeed say that the very idea of Italy as a single nation had scarcely existed before the year 1830 or thereabouts. Men did not regard Italy as a unit; but thought of Tuscany, of Venice, of the Papal States, of the Kingdom of Naples, and so on.

[Sidenote: The Young Italy Party]

But the year 1831 was epoch-making, as we say, for Italy, because it was the year in which the great Italian patriot Mazzini began to gain men's attention. He formed what was styled the "Young Italy" party, of which the leading idea might be called, according to a phrase now in common use, "Italy for the Italians." He had this good ground to work on, that the people of Italy, speaking of the country as we know it to-day, were for the most part of the same stock and, with certain local differences, spoke the same language.

Mazzini then, and his "Young Italy" party, went working and speaking to inspire the people with their own views. Already there was a widespread hatred of the Austrians, which made these views acceptable. In 1846 a Pope of liberal tendencies came to the papal throne and accorded his subjects a measure of freedom which gave offence and alarm to the Austrians. They sent an army to subvert these popular measures, and on that there was a general rush to arms on part of the peoples of Central and Northern Italy.

For a while all went in favour of the Italian arms, but the Austrians brought reinforcements, the tide {200} of Italian success was stayed, was driven back; by the middle of the century all was as before the rising--except that a keen national spirit had been aroused in the Italian people.

For a while it could not find expression. But in the year 1859 it at length found outlet by the help of a neighbour who had not usually played the part of Italy's friend in our story. Already, ten years before, the French had taken a hand in the internal struggles of Italy. They had captured Rome, when its citizens had declared for a republic and had driven out their Pope; and had restored the Pope to the sovereignty of his Papal States.

But in the interval strange things had been happening in France. The Bourbon who was brought back to the French throne at the end of the Napoleonic wars, and his younger brother who succeeded him, ruled not much more wisely than their fathers. Bitter experience had taught them nothing. In 1830 the mob of Paris rose against the king, forced him to flee for his life, and elected his relative, Louis Philippe, of the younger, the Orleans, branch, king in his stead. He was acceptable to the people as the son of that Philippe who had been, entitled Philippe "Egalité," because he took the side of the people in the early days of the French Revolution.

Louis Philippe ruled France from 1830 to 1848, and then his government also gave offence. Again, there was a rising of the people of Paris, supported by the old soldiers of the National Guard, which the king had unwisely disbanded. Again the rising was successful, and now it was no longer a king of any kind that the vote of the people called to govern them. They declared for a republic, and as President they elected one of the deputies to the Assembly. The name of that deputy was Louis Napoleon, and he was nephew of the great Emperor. Twice he had made attempts {201} to seize the government by force, but each time with so little success as to seem merely ridiculous.

From the moment of his election he began to have difficulties with the Assembly. Its members still seem to have regarded their President as a man of small account, an adventurer, trading on the reputation of his name, who twice had made himself a laughing stock. Then, on a certain night in 1851, he sent soldiers to the houses of the leaders who opposed him in the Assembly. The soldiers took the surprised statesmen from their beds and threw them into prisons. The next morning Paris awoke to find its walls placarded with the announcement that the Assembly was dissolved and that Paris was under martial law.

[Sidenote: Napoleon III]

The people were reconciled to the surprising stroke by the right of universal suffrage--every man of age to have a vote--being restored to them. There was an attempt at a counter-stroke; but after some hundreds had been shot down, as by that "whiff of grapeshot" with which this Napoleon's uncle had dispersed the Paris mob years before, all further trouble ceased. Yet another change in the constitution of the government appointed Louis Napoleon ruler of France for ten years. Less than a year later he was proclaimed Emperor of the French with the style of Napoleon III.; for the title of Napoleon II. had been given to the son of Napoleon I. who had died without ever reigning as Emperor.

There had been many adventures in the new Emperor's life. In his young days he had served with the Italian revolutionists against the Papal States, and had thus a rather personal interest in the Young Italy movement of Mazzini. It is certain too, and very natural, that he felt the influence of his name, and the tradition of his uncle's glory. The very fact that he had followed that uncle to the imperial throne would strengthen that influence. In obedience to it he was {202} impelled to lead France to further adventures, in some small imitation of that uncle's grandiose schemes. Moreover, his hold on the throne was none too secure: the more distraction he could find abroad for the restless spirit of the people, the less risk there was of disturbances to shake him from the throne at home.

Some such blend of motives seems to have driven him to be constantly seeking occasions to put his armies in the field. He found such occasion first against Russia--against Russia, and in support of the Turk!

It was a curious reversal of all that seems right and natural, though already we have seen the Turk strangely and occasionally allied with one Christian power against another. But generally we have found the Turk regarded as the common foe against whom all Christendom must combine. The truth is that the Turk was no longer at this time the power to be dreaded that he had been. He had for long been standing on the defensive in Europe, trying, but on the whole rather failing, to hold what he had won.

And on the other hand Russia, now the Turk's principal foe, had become so powerful that all Europe was afraid of her, afraid of her upsetting that "balance of power" in Europe of which we now begin to hear a good deal. In particular, she was reaching down to get Constantinople for her port; and France, and other nations of Europe, conceived it their business to see that she did not get it, with all the increase of power that it would bring her.

[Sidenote: The Crimean War]

To that opinion Napoleon III., a man of character and abilities which have puzzled all historians, but certainly a man of much astuteness, had brought opinion in Great Britain. Great Britain was beginning, on her own account, to fear the Russian push down towards the northern bounds of her Indian possessions. And so now, that is to say, most particularly in 1854, {203} we see another reversal, another happening rather different from all that the story has been wont to show us. For we see now those old enemies, England and France, in friendly alliance together, partners in the very fruitless enterprise known as the Crimean War. It was fought with much bloodshed and misery and cost to all three nations involved, and ended in a barren victory for the English and French.

Possibly it did check the Russians in their movement towards Constantinople, possibly it did something to maintain that much desired balance of power; but of positive result there was little or even none.

Nor did the Crimean War put a final end to the troubles between Russia and Turkey. Russia, as the great Slav power, was sure to find herself opposed to Turkey, who ruled over the Slavs in portions of the Balkans. There was war between them again, thirty years later, in 1877, but yet again its result solved no problems.

Shortly after the conclusion of his Crimean enterprise the Emperor went adventuring again--on the adventure at which I have already hinted--and this time, it must be admitted, with a far more evident mark set upon the world's story as its outcome. For in 1859, in conjunction with the Sardinian army, we find him helping the Italians, inspired by their new sense of nationality, to express their hatred for the domination of Austria. Again following the footsteps of his great uncle, he defeated the Austrians in two successive battles in the North of Italy, and drove them out of Lombardy.

Meanwhile, under the popular leader Garibaldi, the southern part of the peninsula had been won for the Italian people in 1860. An Italian Parliament, so called for the first time, was summoned, and the King of Sardinia elected King of Italy, though not yet with a kingship over the whole of what we now call Italy. {204} There were, still outstanding, Venice and the Papal States. As the price of her help, France received the Sardinian provinces of Savoy and Nice.

[Illustration: GARIBALDI.]

In 1866, however, this new Italy took the side of Prussia against Austria in their fight over Schleswig-Holstein. Both on land and sea the Italians were defeated, but no doubt they kept employed some of the Austrian force which, but for Italy's help, might have been used against Prussia, and as the recompense that help Italy was given Venice and the Venetian territory at the end of the Seven Weeks' War.

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Garibaldi with his followers defeated the Papal troops, and entered Rome in the following year, but the French, again appearing as the Pope's friend, stepped in, recaptured Rome for the Pope, and forced Garibaldi and his army to surrender. It was largely due to Garibaldi's gallant efforts, nevertheless, that the Papal States were shortly afterwards finally incorporated into the kingdom of Italy, and in the following year, that is, in 1871, Rome became the capital of the kingdom and the seat of Government. The temporal power of the Pope was at an end; the national unity of Italy was virtually complete.

France, at that moment, had little enough attention to spare for affairs other than her own. Trouble had arisen between Napoleon III. and the King of Prussia, leader of that Northern Confederation of German States which Bismarck had firmly welded together, over the succession to the Spanish throne. Save for that Franco-German trouble, Spain, since her great days, has made little mark on the Greatest Story. As we have already seen before, so now again, she played her own part, cut off from the main stage behind the barrier formed by the Pyrenees. It was a troubled drama. One king and then another was tried and found wanting. An experiment with a republican form of government had even less success. A solution was found in going back to a representative of the old royal family in 1875; and his successor is on the throne of Spain to-day.

[Sidenote: Franco-German War]

As to that Franco-German war which resulted in 1870 from the dispute over the Spanish succession, it is still debated whether its actual outbreak was due to the ambition and machinations of Bismarck and the military spirit in Prussia or to the restlessness and ambition of Napoleon. Certain it is that he was very ready to take offence with Prussia which had already baulked him in a design of purchasing from Holland {206} the Duchy of Luxemburg. That project had to be abandoned, and Luxemburg remained a Grand Duchy attached to the throne of Holland, until 1890, when a queen came to the Dutch Crown and Luxemburg passed under the Salic Law to the eldest male of the same family. Napoleon had expected that he would be helped, in the fight against Prussia, by Austria and also by the Southern Confederation of the States of Germany. But he had under-estimated the skill with which Bismarck held all the Teutonic States together. Neither of these came to his assistance when he declared war. And within a very short time after that declaration it became equally certain that he had wholly under-estimated the power and the readiness for action of the Prussian fighting machine.

In the course of a few weeks consistently disastrous for France, two of her principal armies laid down their arms, and at Sedan the Emperor himself was taken prisoner. Paris was besieged, and yielded under stress of famine early in 1871. Peace was made on the terms that France should pay a money indemnity and should give up to Germany Alsace and Lorraine. There was the usual anarchical interlude of the Commune, when the mob obtained temporary possession of Paris; and finally a republican form of government was adopted which still endures. Those provinces which Germany thus took from France remained under German rule until given back to her at the end of the Great War.

One result of the war of 1870 to 1871 was that the domination of Prussia over the rest of the German States was yet more firmly established. The Southern, as well as the Northern, were brought into one group, and the King of Prussia assumed the supremacy over all with the title of German Emperor.

[Sidenote: Norway and Sweden]

That severance of Alsace and Lorraine from France was the last change of really large importance made in {207} the map of Europe during the nineteenth century. It was almost the latest made before the Great War. In Scandinavia there was a later rearrangement, where Norway, who had for a long while chafed under her union with Sweden and desired freedom and recognition as a separate nation, attained her aim in 1905.

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