Robert Gildea - Barricades and Borders

The Short Oxford History of the Modern World

General Editor: J. M. Roberts

The Short Oxford History of the Modern World

General Editor: J. M. Roberts

The Crisis of Parliaments: English History 15091660

Conrad Russell

The Old European Order 16001800

Second Edition
William Doyle

The Limits of Liberty: American History 16071980

Maldwyn A. Jones

The British Empire 15581995

Second Edition
T. O. Lloyd

Modern India: The Origins of an Asian Democracy

Judith M. Brown

Barricades and Borders: Europe 18001914

Third Edition
Robert Gildea

Rebellions and Revolutions: China from the 1800s to 2000

Second Edition
Jack Gray

British History 18151906

Norman McCord

The European Dynastic States 14941660

Richard Bonney

Empire, Welfare State, Europe: History of the United Kingdom 19062001

Fifth Edition
T. O. Lloyd

Endurance and Endeavour: Russian History 18122001

Fifth Edition
J. N. Westwood

Barricades and Borders

Europe 18001914

Third edition

Robert Gildea

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Robert Gildea 1987, 1996, 2003

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First published 1987
Second edition 1996
Third edition 2003
Reprinted 2013

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ISBN 978-0-19-925300-5

ebook ISBN 978-0-19-108124-8

For John Roberts

Preface to the first edition

Were I asked to write this book today, I should probably decline the honour. It is a rash enterprise to attempt a total history of nineteenth-century Europe while being able to consult only a fraction of the literature. Some aspects inevitably proved more interesting than others. Students at Kings College, London, on whom I inflicted my first lectures inspired by this brief, complained that I was obsessed by nationalism and had too much to say about little countries in eastern Europe. One afternoon, researching the niceties of Swedish banking history, doubts of my own about the wisdom of the project almost got the better of my patience. There is no pretence here to originality: at best, the book is intended as a humane synthesis of new and not-so-new writing on nineteenth-century Europe and aimed at the student of the 1980s. I am indebted to the resources of the Bodleian and British Libraries. Among those who gave me crucial advice I would like to thank Jeremy Black, Tim Blanning, Peter Dickson, Robert Evans, Anne Hardy, Derek McKay, Tony Nicholls, Andy Pitt, Mike Rosen, Hamish Scott, Liam Smith, Nigel Smith, and Andrew Wathey. Philip Waller read painstakingly through the first draft of the manuscript, and saved me from too many errors in British history. John Roberts has been a model editor, and repeatedly sent me back to the drawing-board to mend my text. The typists who have tried to cope with my handwriting are too numerous to mention, but in particular I am grateful to Gil Dixon and Belinda Timlin. The unfailing scepticism of my students in both London and Oxford has forced me to clarify my ideas, and to reject many of them, but their enthusiasm has always come up with others to take their place.

R. N. G.
Merton College, Oxford
January 1986

Preface to the second edition

This book has been substantially revised for the second edition, both to take into account the shifts of recent research, and to clarify the text in the light of teaching experience. The most drastic revisions have been to sections dealing with the middle classes, religion, socialism, and nationalism; there is also an entirely new section on feminism. I hope that the student of the 1990s will find that the work has acquired something in the way of a new lease of life.

R. N. G.
Oxford
July 1995

Preface to the third edition

Revisions for the third edition have updated certain key sections, including those dealing with the 1848 revolutions, nationalism, religion, social engineering and modernism. The bibliography has been brought up to date. The argument has also been clarified at various points. The biographical dictionary of major figures has been replaced by three other items for easy reference: a chronology of events from 1799 to 1914, genealogical tables of dynasties of the main ruling houses, and a table of chief ministers in the major states.

R. N. G.
Oxford
July 2002

Contents

In the Essay on the Principle of Population, first published in 1798 and substantially revised in 1803, Thomas Robert Malthus, a Surrey curate and Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, issued a gloomy forecast for the nineteenth century. Population, he argued, had a constant tendency to increase geometrically, doubling in size every twenty-five years. But the resources necessary to sustain that increase could be multiplied only arithmetically, adding only a fixed amount every year. Individuals had therefore to impose a preventive check on the natural growth of the population by postponing marriage until they were in a position to maintain a family, and to abstain from sex in the meantime. If they did not, the population would be reduced to the level that resources could maintain by means of positive checks in the shape of war, famine, disease, and the fourth Rider of the Apocalypse who would always be with them, death.

As an analysis of conditions prevailing at the end of the eighteenth century, Malthuss study was remarkably shrewd. The population of Europe had been growing rapidly since about 1750. But closer inspection shows that the rate of growth was not the same in all countries, and the growth-rates before and after 1800 often varied considerably. The population of Spain and Portugal grew steadily between 1750 and 1800, and that of Ireland and Hungary increased dramatically. But in all four cases the growth-rate declined after 1800. In the Scandinavian countries a moderate growth-rate before 1800 improved to a good growth-rate after 1800. The performance of France was disappointing. The increase in her growth-rate was only marginal. Most remarkable, however, was the achievement of England, Wales, and Scotland, where the growth-rate doubled after 1800.