The Defense of the Old Regime, 1815–48 467role of women in European society. Pioneers such as
Mary Wollstonecraft and Olympe de Gouges had
opened discussion of the woman question so effec-
tively that the Metternichian reaction could not con-
tain this debate. European legal systems, especially
the Napoleonic Code, but also the British common
law tradition and the Germanic Frederician Code, ex-
plicitly held women in an inferior position. The rights
of women were exercised for them by men (their fa-
thers, then their husbands). Women were expected to
remain confined to limited spheres of activity—Kinder,
Kirche, Küche(children, church, cooking) in a famous
German cliché. Formal education (especially higher
education) and educated occupations were closed to
them. The legal condition of women within marriage
and the family began with an obligation to obey their
husbands, who legally controlled their wives’ wages,
children, and bodies. Divorce was illegal in many
countries and rare everywhere (it required an act of
parliament in Britain).DOCUMENT 24.3
Mazzini: Instructions for Young Italy, 1831
Guiseppe Mazzini (1805–72) was one of the founders of Italian na-
tionalism and the modern state of Italy. He greatly influenced national-
ist thinking in many countries. Mazzini created a secret society, Young
Italy, dedicated to the unification of all Italian states under a self-
governing republic. His manifesto for Young Italy, from which the fol-
lowing excerpt is taken, was widely emulated.Young Italy is a brotherhood of Italians who believe in a
law of Progress and Duty, and are convinced that Italy is
destined to become one nation....
By Italy we understand —(1) Continental and penin-
sular Italy, bounded on the north by the Alps... and on
the east by Trieste; (2) The islands proved Italian by the
language of the inhabitants, and destined... to form a
part of the Italian political unity.
Young Italy is Republican and Unitarian.
Republican because theoretically every nation is des-
tined, by the Law of God and humanity, to form a free
and equal community as brothers; and the republic is the
only form of government that ensures this future....
Because our Italian tradition is essentially republican; our
great memories are republican; the whole history of our
national progress is republican; whereas the introduction
of monarchy amongst us was coeval with our decay and
consummated our ruin....
Young Italy is Unitarian because without unity there
is no true nation.
The means by which Young Italy proposes to reach
its aim are education and insurrection, to be adopted si-
multaneously, and made to harmonize with each other.
Mazzini, Giuseppe. Life and Writings.London: Smith, Elder, 1880.Illustration 24.3
Utopian Socialism at New Lanark.
The most successful of the utopian ideal-
ists was Robert Owen (1771–1858), an
exceptionally able man who went to
work in the cotton mills at age ten, was
the manager of a mill by age nineteen,
and was wealthy enough to buy the mills
at New Lanark, Scotland, at twenty-nine.
Owen devoted his wealth to creating the
model community at New Lanark shown
here. It provided unmatched working
conditions and housing for workers, a
nursery and school for their children,
evening education for workers, and a
cooperative store.