570 Ch. 15 Liberal Challenges To Restoration Europe

The Congress of Vienna.

European diplomacy. In fact, the Congress met officially but once, to sign
the final treaty, which had been negotiated in smaller formal and informal
gatherings of the various delegations. In the wake of the many territorial
changes that had occurred during the previous twenty-five years, the repre­
sentatives redrew the map of Europe, particularly of Central Europe,
putting old rulers back on their thrones.
After Napoleon’s final defeat in 1815—the Congress of Vienna continued
to meet during the 100 Days—a protracted struggle among the conservative
forces, monarchies, nobles, established churches, and liberals took place in
Europe. “Liberalism” as an economic and political philosophy implied the
absence of government constraints that could interfere with the development
of the individual. It was a philosophy perfectly suited to the middle classes
in “the bourgeois century.” The middle classes were an extremely diverse
social group that ranged from merchants and manufacturers of great wealth
to struggling shopkeepers (see Chapter 14). Rapid population growth
swelled the number of lawyers, notaries, and other middle-class profession­
als. The entrepreneur came to be revered. Moreover, the middle classes’ lib­
eral emphasis on individual freedom found expression not only in economics
and politics but also in the literature, art, and music of romanticism, which
celebrated individual fulfillment through subjectivity and emotion. Boasted
one German liberal, “We are the times.”
Liberal movements were in many places closely tied to the emergence of
nationalism as a source of allegiance and sovereignty. Nationalism was usu­
ally defined by language and cultural traditions, and the quest to establish