Europe, 1783-1914

by Simpson; William

• ISBN13: 9780415226592
• ISBN10: 0415226597
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-09-05
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Europe, 1783-1914is an accessible history of Europe from the advent of the French Revolution to the origins of the First World War, covering political, economic, and social aspects of the period. Each chapter is structured with concise backgrounds to events including tables of key dates, a selection of primary documents and questions to test current interpretations of important themes, and a guide to further reading. Highly illustrated with maps, contemporary cartoons and portraits.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	x
Acknowledgements	xii
The Condition of Europe c. 1789	1	(15)
Europe's extent and the concept of Europe	2	(1)
The social and economic background	3	(2)
Industry and trade	5	(1)
The states of Europe	6	(6)
The Enlightenment	12	(4)
The French Revolution, 1785--89	16	(14)
Key dates	17	(1)
Section A
The collapse of the ancien regime, 1786--89	17	(4)
The year 1789	21	(5)
Section B -- Sources
Poverty or prosperity as explanations for the French Revolution	26	(4)
The Collapse of the French Monarchy and the International Response, 1789--92	30	(13)
Key dates	31	(1)
Section A
The constitutional monarchy, 1789--92	31	(5)
The international response and the outbreak of war	36	(4)
Section B -- Sources
Why did the experiment in constitutional monarchy fail?	40	(3)
The Revolution at War	43	(18)
Key dates	44	(1)
Section A
The radicalisation of the French Revolution under the pressure of war	44	(4)
The reign of Terror	48	(6)
The Directory	54	(3)
Section B -- Sources
Why did Republican France wage war, and what effect did war have on the Revolution?	57	(4)
The Rule of Napoleon	61	(17)
Key dates	62	(1)
Section A
Napoleon's rule in France	63	(4)
War, 1803--08	67	(3)
Defeat, 1808--15	70	(3)
The Napoleonic impact on France	73	(1)
Section B -- Sources
Napoleon's relationship to the French Revolution	74	(4)
The Impact of the French Revolution and Napoleon on Europe and the Congress of Vienna	78	(18)
Key dates	79	(1)
Section A
The varied impact of French rule	80	(6)
The making of the peace settlement	86	(6)
Section B -- Sources
The Treaty of Vienna: a backward looking settlement?	92	(4)
The Industrialisation of Europe and its Effects	96	(16)
Key dates	97	(1)
Section A
Economic change	97	(5)
Social consequences of industrialisation	102	(3)
Ideological responses to industrialisation	105	(3)
Section B -- Sources
Living standards and the industrial revolution	108	(4)
Nationalism and the Breakdown of the Concert of Europe, 1815--56	112	(12)
Key dates	113	(1)
Section A
Nationalism and its supporters	114	(1)
Challenges to the Vienna settlement	115	(2)
The Near East	117	(2)
Section B -- Sources
Nationalism and its opponents	119	(5)
Restoration Europe, 1815--48, and Challenges to Authority	124	(20)
Key dates	125	(1)
Section A
France 1815--48	126	(6)
The Habsburg empire and the German Confederation	132	(2)
Russia	134	(6)
Section B -- Sources
Reaction, change, and the failure of the French monarchy	140	(4)
1848: The Year of Revolutions	144	(17)
Key dates	145	(1)
Section A
The political and economic background	146	(1)
The course of Revolution	147	(6)
The re-establishment of authority	153	(4)
Section B -- Sources
The 1848 revolutions: common features and failures	157	(4)
The Second Empire in France, 1851--70	161	(17)
Key dates	162	(1)
Section A
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and power	163	(2)
The flourishing of the Second Empire: the 1850s	165	(4)
Failure of fulfilment: 1860--70	169	(5)
Section B -- Sources
Liberal at home and abroad?	174	(4)
The Unification of Italy, 1849--71	178	(14)
Key dates	179	(1)
Section A
The Nationalist movement prior to 1860	180	(2)
Italian unification, 1850--61	182	(6)
Remaining problems	188	(1)
Section B -- Sources
The roles of Mazzini and Cavour in the making of Italy	189	(3)
The Unification of Germany, 1849--71	192	(19)
Key dates	193	(1)
Section A
Possible solutions to the German problem	194	(2)
Pressures to unite	196	(1)
The process of unification, 1848--61	197	(2)
The process of unification, 1862--66	199	(2)
The process of unification, 1866--71	201	(5)
Section B -- Sources
Bismarck's role in the unification of Germany	206	(5)
Reform and Reaction in Russia, 1849--94	211	(17)
Key dates	212	(1)
Section A
Defeat under Nicholas I	213	(1)
Alexander II, 1855--81	214	(7)
Alexander III and the return to reaction, 1881--94	221	(1)
Section B -- Sources
The limitations of Alexander II's reforms	222	(6)
The Age of Imperialism	228	(24)
Key dates	229	(1)
Section A
Economic growth in Europe	230	(4)
The imperialist impulse	234	(5)
Africa and the Far East	239	(9)
Section B -- Sources
Colonial expansion and European rivalries	248	(4)
Marxism and the Growth of Working Class Organisations	252	(14)
Key dates	253	(1)
Section A
Karl Marx, his life and works	253	(3)
Varieties of Marxism	256	(2)
Working class movements	258	(2)
International organisations	260	(2)
Section B -- Sources
Left-wing alternatives	262	(4)
The Third Republic in France, 1871--1914	266	(20)
Key dates	267	(1)
Section A
Establishing the Republic, 1870--79: a compromise with the past	268	(4)
Challenges to the Republic	272	(5)
French foreign and colonial policy, 1871--1906	277	(4)
Section B -- Sources
The extent of support for the Third Republic	281	(5)
Imperial Germany, 1871--1912	286	(20)
Key dates	287	(1)
Section A
The problems of German history	288	(1)
German domestic history, 1871--1914	288	(8)
German foreign policy, 1871--90	296	(3)
German foreign policy, 1890--1912	299	(3)
Section B -- Sources
The links between German domestic concerns and foreign policy	302	(4)
The Habsburg Empire, 1848--1914	306	(18)
Key dates	307	(1)
Section A
The problems facing the Habsburg empire	308	(2)
The return to absolutism	310	(2)
Austria-Hungary under the Ausgleich, 1867--1914	312	(4)
Austrian foreign policy, 1849--1908	316	(4)
Section B -- Sources
The weaknesses of the Habsburg empire	320	(4)
Russia, 1894--1914	324	(16)
Key dates	325	(1)
Section A
Witte's reforms and the 1905 Revolution	326	(3)
Stolypin's reforms and the Dumas	329	(3)
Foreign policy, 1894--1914	332	(2)
Section B -- Sources
The impact of the Dumas and Stolypin's reforms	334	(6)
International Relations 1890--1914 and the Origins of the First World War	340	(20)
Key dates	341	(1)
Section A
The background to 1914	341	(7)
The Balkan tangle	348	(2)
Countdown to catastrophe	350	(4)
Section B -- Sources
Responsibility for the outbreak of war	354	(6)
Europe in 1914: Retrospect and Prospect	360	(11)
European states and empires	361	(1)
Forms of government	362	(1)
The European economic system	363	(1)
Society	364	(1)
The intellectual climate	365	(1)
Challenges to Europe's stability	366	(5)
Index	371