1. The Search for Stability: The Congress of Vienna
   Seeking to restore legitimate rule, compensate victims, and restore the balance of power, Britain, Prussia, Russia, Austria, and France established the Concert of Europe.
2. Ideological Confrontations
   Different political, social, and cultural philosophies mingled and clashed in the early nineteenth century.
   1. Conservatism
      Preaching traditional values, conservatism supported religion, social hierarchies, and royal authority.
   2. Romanticism
      The pursuit of beauty and emotion highlighted this ideology popularized in the poetry of Goethe and Byron and the music of Chopin.
   3. Nationalism
      Believing that common language and customs defined identity, some nationalists sought independence from foreign rule while others restored and celebrated traditional rights and culture.
   4. Liberalism
      Valuing individual freedom, liberals such as Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill argued for limited government intervention in private and public life.
   5. Socialism
      Early socialists' desire for societies based on community and cooperation gave way to Karl Marx's "scientific socialism" and prediction of inevitable revolution.
3. Restoration, Reform, and Reaction
   Reactionary efforts to maintain traditional order faltered after 1830 as European states began to integrate and accommodate ideological change.
   1. Western Europe: From Reaction to Liberalism, 1815-1830
      Conservative regimes in France, Britain, and Spain found it difficult to enforce reactionary policies in the face of continuing discontents.
   2. Western Europe, 1830-1848
      The establishment of a more liberal regime in France led to moderate Parliamentary and imperial reforms in Great Britain, but the Chartists pressed for more change.
   3. The Absolutist States of Central and Eastern Europe, 1815-1848
      Unlike the west, the states of central and eastern Europe were able to maintain their reactionary regimes, but nationalism led to losses for the Ottoman Empire.
4. The Revolutions of 1848
   Frustrated political hopes combined with economic pressures to spark more than fifty uprisings across Europe.
   1. Roots of Rebellion
      The economic concerns of peasants and artisans came to a crisis after the depression of 1845-1846, leading to revolts triggered by discontent and the hope for change.
   2. Liberals: From Success to Defeat
      Initial liberal successes broke down as the middle classes, peasants, and workers discovered they no longer shared a common ground.
   3. The Nationalist Impulse
      Attempts at national unification failed in Germany and Italy, as did Hungary's bid for independence.