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Home Great Britain and Europe, 1815-78 |
Great Britain and Europe, 1815-78The relations of Great Britain since 1815 with other European States must form the subject of our next chapter. The large share that Great Britain had taken in the overthrow of Napoleon and in the subsequent negotiations at the Congress of Vienna (p. 560) had given her a foremost position amongst European powers, and for over fifty years from 1815 till the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 - the attention of British foreign secretaries was absorbed in various crises that arose on the Continent of Europe. In order, therefore, that British policy may be understood, it is necessary briefly to explain the main lines of European political development up till 1878.There have been two movements of supreme importance in the nineteenth century. First there has been a movement for Self-government. The rulers of many of the States of Europe after 1815 were reactionary and despotic, and hated and distrusted all Liberal aspirations, which they labelled as dangerous and anarchical. In many parts of Europe liberty, as we in Great Britain understand it, was unknown; there was no liberty of speech or of writing; public meetings were forbidden, arbitrary arrests frequent, and Parliaments - where they existed - powerless. The growing desire felt by the people for greater individual freedom and for a greater control of the government led at various times, and especially during the years 1830-2 and 1848-52, to agitations and revolutions, which were sometimes suppressed and sometimes successful. Closely allied with the movement for self-government there has been, secondly, movement for the realization of the idea of Nationality. People of the same race or speaking the same language, possessing common traditions or a common history, have shown a passion to be united and to be freed from the control of alien rulers, a passion which led to the independence of Belgium in 1830, to the War of Italian Liberation in 1859, and to the final union of Germany under the leadership of Prussia in 1871. It was this idea of nationality as well as the oppressiveness of the Turkish Government which caused the frequent revolts of Christians in south-eastern Europe against the Sultan of Turkey, revolts leading 'to the independence of Greece in 1829, and to the practical independence of the various Balkan States as a result of the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. These revolts are connected with the third great subject that has occupied since 1815 the attention of European statesmen, the Eastern Question as it is called, due to the slow dissolution of the Turkish Empire and the conflicting interests of European nations which resulted. What was the attitude of Great Britain on these subjects? Both persecuted Liberals and oppressed Nationalities looked to her for sympathy and advice, for mediation, and at times even for armed assistance. The people of Great Britain gave then sympathy, and individual Englishmen expended their money and risked their lives in supporting the twin causes of liberty and nationality. The Government of Great Britain was prolific in advice, and not infrequently very valuable advice; and it sometimes attempted, with success, to combine with other powers in mediating between the combatants. But since 1815 a desire for peace and a horror of European entanglements which might lead to war have been the chief characteristics of British statesmen - with the important exception of Lord Palmerston; the policy of the British Government has been therefore on the whole pacific, and it has shrunk, wherever possible, from armed assistance. On the Eastern Question British opinion has been divided, and not always consistent. British sympathies on behalf of the oppressed Christians have been counterbalanced by a very lively distrust of Russian polities I designs in the Balkan peninsula. It was thought that Russia supported these Christians - of whom, as they belonged to the Greek Church, the czar regarded himself as the natural protector - chiefly in order to attain what was supposed to be the great object of her policy, the acquisition of Constantinople, and with it the control of the eastern Mediterranean and a road to India. Moreover, the courage of the Turk in warfare has aroused the admiration of the British race, and has encouraged a belief in tin prospective regeneration of the Turks and a hopefulness in the Inline of their rule. |
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