Rise of Bourgeois Society in the Netherlands

The Rise of a Bourgeois Society

• The Netherlands were part of the Holy Roman Empire from 1050-1300

• The Emperor was the highest feudal lord, who lent land to vassals (counts or dukes)

• The inhabitants of these regions were governed by these vassals, receiving protection in exchange for services.

• Due to peatlands, marshes, and forests, the Netherlands were sparsely populated and not urbanized.

• There was little agriculture possible, so the areas were self-sufficient using barter or mutual services.

• It was an agrarian society: everyone worked in agriculture.

• In the 11th century, things changed, and agriculture became more productive for 3 reasons:

  • Land cultivation began: forests were cleared, and marshes and fens were drained to create fields.
  • The three-field system replaced the two-field system. The first year, a field was planted with summer grains, the second year with winter grains, and the third year the land lay fallow to restore. This yielded more than the two-field system, where the land lay fallow every other year.
  • New techniques were developed to cultivate the land. Better ploughs and oxen were replaced by stronger horses.

• Higher production first led to more available food, causing the population to grow.

• Secondly, not everyone had to work the land because of more efficient agriculture, causing people to specialize.

• As people specialized in making tools and clothing, trade revived.

• The first result of the flourishing trade was an increase in urbanization.

• Artisans and merchants began living in places concentrated on trade, such as road and river junctions.

• This led to new cities emerging or old cities flourishing: an agrarian-urban society arose.

• The second result was the development of a monetary economy. Because of the increased trade, barter was no longer possible and there was a need for money as a means of exchange.

Political Changes

• Townspeople tried to obtain city rights from their local lord to protect their economic and political interests

• This made them an independent entity within the area of the feudal lord.

• Townspeople gained self-governance, regulated their own jurisdiction, and built a city wall.

• The lord allowed this because he received taxes and military support.

• The inhabitants were called citizens/burghers: forming the citizenry.

• They had the right to practice a trade, the right to be judged by fellow citizens, and were eligible for administrative functions

• Not everyone belonged to the citizenry: newcomers had to pay first.

• Cities did benefit from an influx of aspiring citizens from the countryside: they brought new capital and new knowledge that further developed the cities.

Economic Changes

• A city with city rights also had the right to hold a market several times a year.

• Distant merchants and surrounding farmers with surpluses came to the market.

• Large cities acquired a market function for the surrounding area, growing into a large network where merchants travelled to annual markets.

• Flanders grew into a largely urbanized area in Europe in the 11th century, especially the city of Atrecht in 1300.

• There were two reasons for this:

  • Atrecht became the capital of a diocese, creating much employment. Demands for luxury goods and the construction of churches required artisans and craftsmen.
  • The area of Atrecht was agriculturally productive and specialized in sheep farming; it acquired a central place in the cloth industry.
  • High-quality cloth was sold at all kinds of annual markets.

Social Changes

• Social differences arose because of the successful trade.

• A large group of rich merchants acquired an increasingly powerful position and distinguished themselves from the other inhabitants: the new social class was called patricians.

• The remaining inhabitants were called commoners.

• Patricians strengthened their position in three ways:

  • Self-governance created new administrative functions, which the rich merchants divided among themselves.
  • The patricians lent money to the local lords, who accumulated debt to them. They became increasingly dependent on the patricians and their power decreased. The patricians began to behave more like nobility: large houses and expensive clothing.
  • Merchants united in guilds. Mostly guilds were formed by craftsmen with the same profession, but now also merchants.
  • Because craftsmen were dependent on merchants for the sale of goods, they couldn't do anything against this and were given more power. They determined working conditions, prices, and wages.

• At the end of the 13th century, this led to conflicts within the cities; the commoners, led by craftsmen, complained about abuse of power and corruption by patricians.

• In Flemish cities, craftsmen rebelled against patricians, and only the French king supported the patricians and sent them an army.

• Craftsmen and farmers fought against the army. In 1302, the Battle of the Golden Spurs was fought at Kortrijk.

• The Flemish defeated the French army, but it did not definitively end the powerful position of the patricians.

The Position of the Urban Bourgeoisie

• Around 1300, Flanders and Brabant were the economic center of the Netherlands, but Atrecht lost its economic lead for two reasons:
  • Trade over water became more important. Atrecht had few options to trade over water, while this was easier for Bruges: via the North Sea, they had connections with trade to Spain and Italy, and with the Hanseatic league.
  • Merchants began to work with larger amounts of money, so coins were no longer used, but rather bills of exchange. This also led to the emergence of the first banks, where letters could be exchanged.
• An urban network developed in the Netherlands, in which each city had its own function.
• Bruges was the most important commercial center and became the center of money trade; merchants could buy letters of exchange and do banking at the merchant exchange.
• Antwerp was important for trade in goods. It had good connections with the rest of Europe through the large harbor; the important commercial cities in Europe began to work with larger sea vessels.
• After 1350, Amsterdam acquired an important economic function: the city specialized in trade with the Baltic region, since the land was not suitable for grain cultivation, they had to import it. In the 14th century, Amsterdam acquired an important harbor with a large merchant fleet.

Religious Changes

• In the period from 1302-1602, the independence of citizens was central; they took care of their own well-being and knowledge by building hospitals, shelters, and universities.

• Previously, it was the task of the clergy to take care of the general interest of the townspeople (bonum commune), but now they did this themselves, making them more independent from the church.

• From the 15th century onwards, people dared to criticize the clergy, leading to new movements and groups with their own view on faith:

  • Modern Devotion: A movement that originated in Deventer and spread through the Netherlands. Clergy and laypeople withdrew from religious communities and spread the religious belief that every person can have direct contact with G-d, without the church, making faith much more individual.
  • Beguines: grew because of this: female laypeople who lived together in Beguine convents and devoted themselves to their faith there.
  • Mendicant orders: monks and nuns without possessions who were dependent on charity: a point of contact for clergy on more individual faith.

• Modern Devotion paved the way for the Reformation.

• The division of the Christian church in Western Europe: It began as an attempt to purify the abuses of the church; indulging in the sale of indulgences and worshipping saints, but resulted in a split between Catholicism and Protestantism.

• Protestantism was a collective term for different movements that reformed the church, attracting many followers in cities.

• Lutheranism of Martin Luther and Calvinism of John Calvin were important. Calvinism gained many followers in the Netherlands.

Centralization

• Vassals saw the benefit of granting city rights, but lords were not happy with the growing independence of cities.

• They strove for centralization in the 14th century: the realm was governed from one point, and they determined the laws and set taxes.

• The Netherlands were governed by the dukes of Burgundy (1384 to 1482) and the members of the Habsburg family (from 1482).

• They wanted to centralize and came into conflict with cities.

• The cities continued to fight for their right to their own particular interests: particularism.

• The cities had benefited from growing trade, but the king was increasingly able to benefit from this.

• First, they were dependent on vassals to govern the region, but when money became available, they could levy taxes and hire officials and soldiers to strengthen their grip on an area.

• Bruges revolted against the Burgundian rulers in the 15th century, but this struggle made them one of the poorest cities in Flanders in the 16th century.

• Because of this, Antwerp experienced economic growth in the 16th century:

  • They had their own merchant exchange, and because of the crisis in Bruges, they were able to take over the central position of Bruges.
  • The European colonization of America started in 1492, causing Spain and Portugal to trade with America in the 15th century, and Antwerp played a role in this.

• The Habsburg ruler Charles V expanded the policy of centralization. Increased taxes, and an official apparatus for tax collection and a central government for the Netherlands in Brussels.

• He determined the faith of his subjects. He was Catholic, but Protestantism gained more and more followers. To suppress the "heresy," he forbade the dissemination of Protestant ideas, which was punishable by the death penalty.

The Dutch Revolt

• After the death of Charles V, his son Philip II became king of Spain and lord of the Netherlands.

• He continued the policy of centralization and was also an opponent of non-Catholics.

• The discontent with the persecution of heretics led to the Iconoclasm (1566): Protestants stormed Catholic churches and destroyed the statues in the churches.

• Philip II responded harshly; he sent the Duke of Alva to restore order. In the Netherlands, rebellious citizens rallied behind William of Orange, an important nobleman; this started the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish Empire.

• William of Orange and the Duke of Alva focused on conquering as many cities as possible.

• Citizens looked to the interest of their own city; some supported the Duke of Alva because they were Catholic, others supported William of Orange.

• Alva went to cities to prosecute rebels; if they were not allowed in, cities were besieged. Such as Antwerp in 1585: surrender after a long siege.

• Inhabitants of Antwerp fled to Amsterdam; they brought knowledge, capital and trade networks, giving the city a great boost: Amsterdam and Holland experienced economic growth.

• Rebels fought for independence and against Catholic domination. Radical Calvinists wanted a ban on Catholicism, but many administrators preferred freedom of conscience: the freedom of every citizen to choose their own religion.

• Alva's actions made it clear that this was not possible under Philip II; a few regions did not want to belong to Spain.

• Some regions in the South were reconquered, but not in the North: the northern regions became a republic, where power lay with the bourgeoisie and not the king.

A Prosperous Republic

• In 1602, the Republic was still at war with Spain; Spain did not recognize independence.
• Almost everything in the Republic was independent. A region was no longer governed by a local ruler, but by delegates from cities and nobility, and the governance of cities remained in the hands of rich merchants, called regents.
• The Republic had a national government: the States General, where representatives from all regions met. An important function in the Republic was stadtholder; who led the army.
• Because of the war against Spain, the stadtholder was able to exercise much influence.

Interests in War

• Stadtholder and regents often had different interests in the government of the Republic.
• Regenten considered upholding particularism important: then they had enough freedom of movement to let trade thrive.
• Freedom of conscience was also important and practical for them; religious tensions were not good for the economy.
• This led to conflict with the stadtholder, who strived for administrative and religious unity to strengthen his own position.
• It was necessary for cities to work together, because of the war against the Spanish Empire.
• A war economy developed: the economy was in service of the war, and revenues from trade were used to finance the struggle.
• Regenten saw this war against Spain as a means to weaken the Spanish trading position and to strengthen their own; they tried to gain a larger share in trade with Asia.
• This led to the establishment of the VOC in 1602. They were granted a monopoly on trade with the East Indies and the right to wage war; it became a major trading power and an extensive trading network.

Economic Growth

• Despite the war, the economy of the Republic, especially Holland, grew strongly.
• This came about because:
  • The Republic earned money from overseas trade (Baltic Sea, Italy, and Asia).
  • Merchants invested in technical improvements, with which they could earn money. Windmills: sawing planks, grating dyes, pulp for paper manufacturing etc. Polders were reclaimed, where tobacco and tulips were grown.
  • The fall of Antwerp in 1585 led to an increase in investment capital in Amsterdam. Amsterdam took over the Antwerp stock exchange and became the new transit port to the European hinterland; it became an important staple market: a storage place where goods were stacked.
  • Surrounding countries were restless: in the German Empire, the Thirty Years' War broke out from 1618 to 1648, which hampered economic growth, and in England and France this was due to tension between nobility and monarch. They were economically weak, allowing the Republic to control European trade and world trade.
• This was called the Golden Age: especially for merchants.

Civil Culture

• The tolerant and rich Republic attracted migrant workers.
• Economic growth made it easy for people to climb into a higher social class, and because of the freedom of conscience people, who were persecuted in their own country because of their faith, could live quietly here.
• The cities in the maritime regions grew explosively; Holland and Utrecht had a ring of prosperous cities connected by public transport, especially water.
• The consequences of economic growth were visible in Amsterdam; a new canal belt was constructed to house the population, popular with traders and merchants who had canal houses built; direct access to trade by water.
• Rich merchants also invested in themselves, for status. Bought noble titles, built town palaces or country houses and portrayed themselves by famous artists. The monarch was
• here not the center of art and culture; here was a civic culture. Visible in art; there was a large market for portrait artists; Rembrandt van Rijn, for example.

Economic Decline

• In 1648, the Thirty Years' War ended and the situation in countries around the Republic stabilized.

• These countries were now also focusing on trade and formed competition for the Republic.

• In France, Louis XIV came to power, who strived for absolutism. He wanted to exert influence on the economy; which is why he was led by mercantilism; the wealth of one country comes at the expense of the wealth of another country.

• He wanted to achieve this by promoting his exports and limiting their imports. England also pursued this policy, but in the Republic each region pursued its own policy, where free trade suffered under mercantilism.

• Trade declined and regents withdrew from trade to safeguard their political and economic power; went into banking and lent money to entrepreneurs and rulers outside the Republic.

• The regents still had all the administrative functions; this caused dissatisfaction among commoners who did suffer from economic decline.

• This led in the 17th century to a struggle between the stadthloders of Orange and the regents class.

  • Orangists: supporters of stadtholder. These were people from among the commoners. Dissatisfied with the influence and wealth of regents and hoped that stadtholder could limit their power.
  • States' Party (Staatsgezinden): the regents who wanted to limit the power of the stadtholder. According to them, not too much power should lie with one person: with growing power stadtholder, this was at the expense of the freedom of individual regions and cities. For example: Johan de Witt, with him the regents did not succeed in governing without stadtholder.

• 1672: disastrous year. The republic goes to war with France, England and two German states. A new stadtholder had to be appointed to lead army; succeeded in warding off attacks, but this put an end to the economic bloom of the Republic. England now taking the lead, with London as the new center of banking and world trade.

• Regenten did not lose their position of power; they had already withdrawn and retained wealth by investing in shares and loans. The administration began to resemble an oligarchy: form of government where all power is in the hands of a small group of people.

The Enlightenment (1650-1789)

• Until the 16th century, the authority of others was leading in the practice of science: what was in the Bible, in church writings or in the works of important scholars from antiquity were not to be disputed.

• In the 16th and 17th centuries, scholars developed new ways of looking at the world around them; one came to an opinion by means of independent thinking, observing and reasoning. New discoveries were made. This

• renovation took place between 1600 and 1700 so quickly that one speaks of the scientific revolution.

• this is related to four other historical developments:

• The voyages of discovery confronted Europeans with areas with which they had had little or no contact until then. They came into contact with new plant and animal species and people with their own customs; the worldview based on the Bible no longer seemed to be correct. Scholars sought explanations for the discoveries and fitted them into a new perspective on the world.

• A renewed interest arose in the literature and history of Greek and Roman antiquity; this scholarly culture is called humanism. Humanists looked with a critical eye at texts of classical authors and interpreted them differently; it was discovered that mistakes had crept in during the copying of the works, including the Bible. This called existing scientific knowledge into question.

• A debate arose about how to come to true knowledge; here were reason and empiricism important. Reason: from René Descartes; considered logical reasoning as a reliable source of knowledge, with mathematics at its heart. Empiricism: people came to true knowledge about their environment through sensory perceptions, observation and experimentation is central.

• In the 16th and 17th centuries there was cross-fertilization between crafts and science. Scientists use artisanal knowledge to make their own research instruments, while conversely artisans became interested in science.

The Enlightenment: Critical, but Optimistic

• Some thinkers felt that scientific methods should also be applied to society, leading around 1650 to the beginning of the
• Enlightenment; a period in which scholars questioned all aspects of society. Reason and understanding had to be leading; not tradition or religion. Religious practices and power relations that had existed for centuries were questioned; enlightened thinkers wondered to what extent these traditions were in accordance with reason. This led to fundamental questions about society: can you rationally argue who has the right to exercise power? Can you logically reason what the correct belief is?
• Enlightened philosophers were optimistic; according to them, progress was possible through reasonable thinking.
• This idea of progress came to the fore in ideas about education and upbringing: children should be educated from a young age to become critical citizens; education led to the spread of knowledge and at the same time offered resistance to misconceptions and superstition.
• Enlightened thinkers did question the scope of human understanding; whether people could be purely rational in all respects.

Ideas About Religion

• Applying scientific methods to society began with discussions about the position of religion in society, but new discoveries put pressure on old ideas about the relationship between G-d, nature and man.
• During the scientific revolution, Newton explained various natural phenomena according to a fixed mathematical systematic, such as gravity. These discoveries had consequences for the Western worldview; the world seemed to function according to fixed natural laws and seemed less dependent on the intervention by g-d; many people no longer recognized themselves in the
• traditional teaching of the Christian faith, but deviating from official church teaching was not permitted in many European countries. Enlightened thinkers came to the realization that faith was a personal matter, and not something the monarch imposed; the individual must be able to decide for himself about his faith.

Ideas about Citizens and Power

• Enlightened thinkers applied the scientific method to political-social issues. They experienced that citizens regularly suffered under injustice and arbitrariness by rulers. John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau philosophized about the best way to protect citizens against abuse of power by the state. They assumed natural law; people naturally possess certain rights; right to life, liberty and property. Locke and

• Rousseau assumed that power lay with the people, but the people had transferred power to the monarch to make an orderly and prosperous society possible. The transfer of power had taken place under certain conditions; this imaginary agreement they called the social contract.

• Locke and Rousseau differed in their views on the nature of this social contract.

  • Locke: the community had made an agreement with the monarch in the distant past; the subjects had promised to remain loyal to their monarch. They had to abide by the laws the government made, and in return the monarch offered protection to his subjects and promised not to abuse power; if he did not, the people could remove him.
  • Rousseau: he was more radical; he assumed the general will: the laws in a country had to directly coincide with what all citizens wanted together. The government was not an independent institution, but had to carry out the direct will of the people. The
  • general will would best come to fruition in a direct democracy: citizens themselves vote on legislation, which therefore coincides with what the people want. Rousseau believed that this would improve the position of slaves and the poor; the community would
  • vote on the basis of reason and in the interest of everyone.

• Charles de Montesquieu thought about preventing abuse of power; he proposed a division of powers. The total power will therefore never lie with one person or group: the legislative power, the executive power and judicial power.

Ideas About the Economy

• Adam Smith likewise opposed excessive state influence, in the area of economics.
• Smith trusted in the ratio of people: from rational considerations they would always pursue their own economic interests. Everyone should be free to trade and do business as they see fit, without too many rules and restrictions. Such free
• competition would create more economic growth for the community as a whole; this leads to more happiness and prosperity than when the state intervenes in the name of the community. His ideas provided for a revaluation of the relations between government and economy; mercantilism and guilds were abolished.

Public Opinion and the Monarch

• As a result of the Enlightenment, a new political culture emerged in Europe in the 18th century.

• A public opinion arose because citizens read magazines and participated in salons and coffee houses in the public debate about various aspects of society.

• The spread of Enlightenment led to tensions with the authorities. Publications on enlightenment were monitored, sometimes banned or authors arrested. The period of the Enlightenment coincided in many countries with absolutism; monarchs tried to gain absolute power through centralization of government.

• In the political, economic, and religious spheres, monarchs strived to impose their will on the entire people in their country; they are above the law. They justified this desire for power on the basis of the droitedivin: the idea that G-d had appointed them to govern.

• In some countries, monarchs themselves embraced the enlightened ideas, without abandoning absolutism; enlightened absolutism.

• Enlightened rulers still wanted all power in their hands, but legitimized their rule not from faith, but with a rational argument: a country could, according to them, best be governed by a ruler who served the general interest from enlightened ideals.

Revolutions in North America and France (1776-1813)

• The enlightenment ideals spread rapidly; through books and correspondence, the ideas ended up in the British colonies on the east coast of North America. The enlightenment ideals stimulated the desire for more self-determination; the right to decide as a people how the

• administration will look. The British authorities did not want to know anything about it. In the second half of the 18th century, the Europeans (mostly British) who had settled in the North American colonies revolted, in conflict with the British government: this grew into the American Revolution.

• The reason for the revolution was disagreement over the new British taxes: the colonists thought it was unfair that they paid taxations, but had no representatives in the British parliament; the British king pushed through the tax plans anyway. In response,

• The British colonies jointly declared their independence from Great Britain in July 1776; start of the American Revolution.

• In various states, American rebels established committees of correspondence to drive the British rulers out of the colonies. These secret organizations coordinated the acts of resistance by the individual states by means of correspondence. The

• committees took over the government tasks of the evicted British authorities in many places. General George Washington rose to become the leader of the American

• independence war; he gained support with many colonists thanks to the pamphlet 'common sense' by the enlightened thinker Thomas Paine: in this pamphlet, Paine justified the

• American uprising with the help of enlightenment ideas; the British king had violated the natural law of his subjects with his taxation policy, so they were right to resist.

• The American Revolution ended when Great Britain recognized the independence of the

• United States in 1783. The states united in a new American

• republic, which received a constitution (in operation in 1789). -The constitution was based on -enlightenment ideals: all citizens were equal before the law and ultimately power was in the hands of the American people; they chose public representatives and the head of state, the

• president, to prevent government repression, the three powers were strictly separated.

Inequality in the United States

• The United States were a federation of states that pursued a joint foreign policy, but were otherwise fairly independent. These were first the thirteen colonies that had broken away
• from Great Britain; but later states came in the middle and west -of North America, founded by European colonists who took over the areas. Often
• they had driven out the original inhabitants with brutal force, as had happened earlier in the British -colonies.
• This development proves that not all residents of the United States have the same rights,even though the constitution does promise this. In practice, citizenship applied mainly to a -small upper class of white, Protestant and English-speaking men. The original inhabitants
• (Indians) were excluded from citizenship, women were not allowed to vote and the
• black slaves were also not considered part of the citizenry. Especially in the
• southern states, where the large plantations were located, they continued to be regarded as property for a long time. This led -to tensions and ultimately a civil war with the northern states, which were less dependent
• on slavery and had abolished this system early in the 19th century.

Lead Up to the French Revolution

• In Europe, societal and political tensions arose under the influence of the Enlightenment in the 18th century. In France, resistance arose against the class society. the clergy (first estate) and nobles (second estate) had more rights than the other French (third estate).

• The upper class of the third estate, traders and bankers for example, had by the

• increasing importance of trade gained much wealth and economic power, so they also wanted political influence, but they did not get it. The nobles and clergy did not support this system either; therefore, the tensions over the class society would be the main cause of the French Revolution.

• The prelude to the French Revolution was a financial and political crisis in 1789. The French

• treasury was empty and King Louis XVI sought support for new taxes. After 175 years

• the States General was convened; a meeting in which all three estates were

• represented and advised the king. At the meeting, the estates could not

• agree on a solution to the problems. The representatives of the third estate, especially members of the rich bourgeoisie, felt that they had insufficient political influence in the States General. They left the meeting and proclaimed their own legislative assembly for all of France; also a number of members of the first and second estates joined. The assembly quickly became

• seen as the official administration of France. the King was forced to recognize the new assembly. the beginning of the French Revolution.

French Revolution

• During the first revolution, which ran from 1789 to 1792, the new legislative assembly implemented the following changes:

  • The privileges of the first and second estates were abolished; everyone paid the same taxes and offices were accessible to everyone.
  • The 'Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen' was passed in 1789. The document guaranteed equal rights, such as freedom of expression and the right to influence decision-making.

• In 1791 France got a new constitution; France became a constitutional monarchy. The king retained his power, but most of the power now lay with a parliament. The members of this parliament were chosen according to census suffrage; only rich men could vote, so a part of the third class now had the right to vote.

  • The first revolution meant a lot for the upper class of the third class; the life of poor townspeople, farmers and women changed little. The French writer Olympe de Gouges felt that the position of women should be the subject of discussion in the revolution and that women should also be given equal rights. She produced 'Declaration of the Rights of Women', but this had little impact.

• The second revolution, which ran from 1792 to 1799, was more radical. Some citizens felt that the revolution did not go far enough; this was true for the Jacobins: fanatical revolutionaries who saw themselves as representatives of the people. Partly because of their growing influence, the king was imprisoned and the French republic proclaimed; the king was convicted of treason and executed. Shortly after that, the Jacobins got all the power. They introduced

• general male suffrage in. According to them, it should not remain with political changes: they

• tried to enforce economic equality between citizens, by setting a maximum price

• for bread. The Jacobins brought about a reign of terror; under the leadership of Robespierre persecuted opponents of the revolution on a large scale and brought them to death under the

• guillotine, Gouges was one of the victims.

• After the terror regime (1793 and 1794) there was no stable administration in France. In 1799 used

• the general Napoleon this chaos to seize power with his army; he crowned himself

• emperor of France. He put an end to the republic and to the political influence of

• citizens. Under his leadership, the French Empire conquered a large part of Europe: in those

• areas he had the highest political power in hands. He carried out enlightened reforms

• through, including the Code Napoleon; a code that stated that all citizens before the law

• were equal. They were given different freedoms; freedom to determine their own religion and it

• right to be free over your country (without obligations to one

• Lord. The code was clear and structured logically so everyone would understand their rights.

• In 1813 Napoleon had to give up his European reign. He retreated to France

• and was dethroned and banished by rebellious soldiers. Shortly afterward, he escaped and came

• he was again in power in France; at Waterloo in 1815 he was definitively defeated.

Political Culture in Europe

After Napoleon has lost his European region, the rest of the European countries get together at -the Congress of Vienna (1914-1915). The goal was to create a new, peaceful order,

• in 1815 the Congress did this in two ways:

• They restored the monarchy in many countries with special rights for the Church and the nobility, such as for the French Revolution. the restoration name. During the restoration some

• countries a constitution. This was not very democratic because the power again by the nobility and the royal houses was.

• The winners tried to ensure stability in Europe by striving for The idea that the state peace was best guaranteed by a system of equally powerful states led to the forming the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

• The northern and Southern Netherlands with Luxembourg merged to a

• new, strong state on the northern border of France. According to the constitution Netherlands was a

• constitutional monarchy, the monarch had much power and the parliament little. Not all -Measures from the French period were reversed, the Code Napolon remained in many countries, including Netherlands, largely intact.

• The hope that the measures of the Congress of Vienna to the political rest in Europe would come on, was not true. The 19th century was a period of great changes: the industrialization came in the range and created emancipation movements. Movements that

• Strived for legal and social equality of to slave were to, women, laborers and religious groups. As a result of this changed the way politics were

• practiced, the political culture. More groups demanded and acquired input in the political decision-making, it was only after much fighting.

• By the restoration lot European citizens their net acquired power and rights; they

• longed back to the reforms from the time of the revolution, this was the -Liberalism, in particular among the well-to-do middle class. This political movement made a lot of value

• to the freedom of an individual in relation to the state, they found that the state itself too much interfered in the lives of people. The liberals therefore strive for equal civil rights

• for everyone, such as press freedom, freedom of religion and the freedom of association. This

• Freedom must be laid down in a constitution, they were in favor of censusrecht ,

• but progressive liberals are committed in the course of for further Expansion of the franchise.

• In the achievement of reforms experienced liberals in first half of the against century much.

• It came to revolutions: -1830: citizens from the southern part of the new Kingdom with King. They wanted power to be with them parliament to lie and claimed

• equal civil rights. They will ultimately separated from the rest of the Kingdom and formed its own State: Belgium. This country got a liberal constitution.

• 1848: forward-thinking Parliamentarians knew the King to convince of the necessity from a new, liberal Constitution. This was set up by Johan Rudolph Thorbecke.

• in which the king remain did part of the government, but the -Ministers were responsible for the government policy. There was censorrecht to:

• Only rich, male citizens were allowed to vote.

Nationalism

In the 19th century increased the influence of the nationalism, they assumed that a people or nation is a united - or had to form. The Rise had three causes:

Rousseau's theory about the will: Rousseau saw the inhabitants of a country not

• longer as the subjects of a monarch, but as members of a community - a nation who are jointly responsible for the country government.
• Napoleon had everywhere in Europe the same government culture and laws introduced: this had in The state resistance and national feelings are stronger.
• the romance: a cultural movement that much influence on art and literature. The
• Romantics believed that people to purely reasonable beings were, they had
• interest in history, local traditions and the culture of the ' ordinary
• population.
• Nationalistic movements provided for in Europa for restlessness. The supporters strive for -national states: for each people one state was. On one hand, old principalities were united to new states, Italy and Germany. On the other hand, some states fell away
• more people, religions, languages and culture areas harbor.
• Socialism.

Socialism arose as a reaction to the restoration. Socialists came up for workers to, the

• movement got as a result of the industrial revolution lot support. The industrialization led in
• The 19th century to new labor relations and the formation of factory cities. laborers worked in factories under miserable circumstances for a low wage. They lived in Overcrowded and polluted slums. About these problems of workers, referred to as the social question, was fully debated.
• The in the Basic Law laid down civil rights were according to the socialists however insufficient -to solve the problem of poor living and conditions of the proletariat
• (people without property). The community or the state had the material conditions of these
• people improve actively. This thought inspired the workers, who are increasingly aware of the importance of political power and have been fighting to improve their position. They met in trade unions, political parties and co-operatives (common companies)
• Within socialism several currents had arised, with more radical or moderate thought:
• The socialist thinkers Karl Marx gone further than most early socialists, it was Unavoidably that workers through an armed revolution the power would grab and one ' dictatorship of the proletariat ' would establish. The company had
• then be reformed on the basis of socialist ideals: without
• Class differences and private ownership. This is called communism.
• The anarchism wanted a revolution which is even more invasive was, you had not only one
• coming to an end to the capitalism, but at all involuntary power relations. They
• dreamed of a small society without state.
• Supporters of the social democracy rejected the revolution