“A period of change and reaction.” How valid is this view on the period 1815-1848 in Europe?

Question Demands:

The key issue is an assessment of the developments in the period 1815-1848. There is need to understand the period before 1815 and bring in comparisons whenever possible. One is supposed to look at whether there were new transformations or whether there was resistance to political reforms as well as economic and social ones.

Definition of terms:

Reaction-response/action to a certain event-especially a return to an earlier condition; retrograde (directed backwards) tendency/opposition to progress.
1) Examine the changes.
-explain that the French revolution and the Napoleonic Wars had a great impact on post 1815 Europe.
-in fact the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Vienna Settlement heralded new era-it was a turning point/it opened a new chapter in the history of Europe.
-mention the changes and give examples e.g.;
-there were political, economic and social changes after 1815.
Political Changes
-The period was an era that was influenced by the ideas of freedom and equality.
-It was a period that saw the demands for constitutions.
-it was a period that challenged autocracy and absolutism.
-Also liberal and nationalist ideas spread eg the Spanish revolts of 1820 demanded the constitution of 1812.
-Revolts in Naples and Sicily 1820
-mutiny of the army at Piedmont in March 1821 which led to the abdication of Victor Emmanuel
-in Germany, limited constitutions were granted by the rulers in Bavaria and Baden in 1818, and in Württemberg in 1819.
-revolts in Portugal1821-which demanded a constitution
-the Greek Revolt
-nationalism manifested in 1830 in Poland and Belgium.
-in 1830 in Italy and in Germany there were violent protests by liberal groups against authoritarian rule.
-in France, Charles X abdicated after the July revolution 1830.
Economic Changes
-There was industrialization which brought with it the factory system, the evils related to it.
-Furthermore there was the growth of a powerful middle class which demanded more at the expense of a poor working class.
Social Reforms
-socialist ideas grew in France and by 1848 Karl Marx and Frederick Engel had produced the communist Manifesto.

However side

Examine the response of the different governments to the changes above both at national and international levels e.g. revolutions were put down throughout in the 1820s, 1830s and 1848.
-reactionary tendencies of Metternich and the Russian Tsar Alexander eg the Carlsbad Decrees 1819 in Germany ie Metternich drew up a serie of decrees to be imposed throughout the of Germany eg the press was to be strictly censored, the student societies and other forms of political gatherings were prohibited, police officials wer appointed to watch over activities in the universities.
-emphasize that the reaction was sometimes too harsh and it forced people into extreme.
NB: Thus the assertion in the question is true to a large extent.

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