A YEAR OF CHANGES IN EUROPE (1830)

Essay by AznHipHopLovaJunior High, 9th gradeA-, April 2004

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The French revolution and the Napoleonic Empire were dominant elements in the European history during a long period of time, and the consequences of these processes were lasting and hard to destroy. The political reaction after Napoleon's defeat was to return to the past government. The progressive development of a better understanding of the new ideas and its natural spreading throughout Europe, as a consequence of Napoleonic conquers, produced a social movement strong enough to resist the forces of conservative reaction. The accounts of the outbreak of the 1830 revolution in France and in Belgium are great examples of this.

France 1830, the July Revolution

Charles X was a bourbon King and a very conservative one, he grew up convinced of the necessity of a total restoration of the "Ancient Regime" as the only legitimate system of government. According to that system of ideas, the revolutionary theories of a people-based origin of power could not be, but a heresy and a sin against the divine laws.

In this sense, we can see the revolution of 1830 as the final battle between the conservative ideas and the new ideas that inspired Robespierre and other revolutionaries. There was a split between the middle class radicals and the businessmen, and the intellectual who still wanted the ancient regime as their government. This ideological confrontation can be the reason that made the king to dictate the ordinances of July 25, strongly repressive against the free thought and the republication of the ideas . The conservatives had learned how dangerous the ideas can be when they are widely spread through public media such as books or newspapers. Leaving the country with many problems, Charles the X abdicates to England. The problem of this was that the dissolved parliament. The government wasn't interested in proclaiming a...