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Essay / Conservatism Between 1815-1851 in Prussia, France and...
Between 1815 and 1851 there was an increase in conservative demands and ideals across Europe. Three nations fit this mold exceptionally well, one of them being Prussia. The other nation that best shows how conservative ideals achieved their goals is France and how it changed after the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. The third nation being Austria and how the leaders handled the discontent of the various minority groups within its borders. Prussia had been a relatively conservative nation for some time with the monarch as the central point of power and Fredrick William did not want to change that. He spent years adopting constitutions and electing representative bodies to maintain his control. When in 1848, when the rebellion began in Berlin, to avoid upsetting many people, he refused to send troops in the hope that the rebellion would collapse. He even made concessions in their favor and allowed a re-election. As the rebellion did not abate, a few days after his announcement of concessions, he sent troops to clear the place, which ended up causing some deaths. When angry demonstrators surrounded the palace, Fredrick William IV showed respect to those who had died in clearing the square the day before and made even more concessions allowing the formation of an assembly. However, the assembly soon revealed that it was full of strong liberal radicals and he soon dismissed the assembly and filled it with more conservatives, showing how deeply conservative Fredrick William was and how unwilling he was to change. When Charles X came to power after the death of Louis XVIII, the leader of the ultraroyalist faction came to power. Charles It also helped show how paranoid the government was about possible rebellion against them and how pragmatic they were. Then throughout 1848 there were a multitude of rebellions and when the dust settled it looked like the Austrian government was going to lose, they were able to get back up and fight back with the help of the Russians and regain control for the conservatives. By the end of 1851, Austria was able to remain a strong conservative dual monarchy, a concession made to appease the Magyars, but their king still had to report to the Austrian king. Throughout the period 1815-1851 there were many calls for more liberal reforms and staunch opponents of conservatism, but by the end of 1851 Austria, Prussia and France were still among the few nations where conservatism was able to achieve its goals and stay in power..