CHAPTER 18

THE DOMINANT

POWERS IN THE AGE

OF LIBERALISM:

PARLIAMENTARY

BRITAIN, TSARIST

RUSSIA, AND

REPUBLICAN FRANCE

The Crystal Palace, a vast structure built of glass and iron in

London’s Hyde Park, housed the Exposition of 1851, the first world’s fair.

It stood 1,848 feet long, 408 feet across, and 66 feet high, and included a

million square feet of glass, 3,300 columns, and 2,300 girders, all of iden­

tical size so they could be prefabricated. Gaslight provided illumination,

and, for the first time, public toilets were installed for the convenience of

visitors. The machinery on exhibit, above all, captured the attention and

imagination of observers, including Queen Victoria herself. To the British

subjects of Queen Victoria, the Great Exposition of 1851 represented the

ascendancy of the British constitution, free trade and manufacturing, and

Christianity.

Great Britain was the quintessential liberal state. Britain’s long tradition

of constitutional monarchy, with the remaining authority of the monarch

more than balanced by Parliament, reflected its liberalism and economic

prosperity. There had been no revolution in 1848 in Europe’s most liberal

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