33.3 Europe: a.d. 1801 to 1900  (Page 11/27)

In the last of the century there was growing business prosperity, with particular emphasis on textiles, shoes, cheap china and glass, sugar refineries, breweries, coal and graphite mines and the great Skoda machine shop at Pilsen. Prague University had new vigor with Professor Thomas Masaryk becoming one of the greatest of Czech philosophers and patriots. He later became a member of the Austrian Parliament, promoting the Bohemian cause and in the next century was to become the first president of the Czechoslovakian Republic. In Moravia, there were riots in 1899 with the looting of Jewish and German houses so that troops had to be called out to restore order.

Switzerland

We noted in the last chapter that Napoleon had conquered Switzerland. In 1803 he allowed a satisfactory federal constitution and with Bonaparte's fall, the Confederation was restored. In 1815 the Congress of Vienna guaranteed the perpetual neutrality of that land and this had never been violated to date. After a short civil war in 1847 a new close national union developed and a new federal constitution was written. All tariff barriers between the cantons were removed between 1848 and 1874. The International Red Cross was formed at the Geneva Convention of 1864, chiefly due to the efforts of Jean Henri Dunant, a Swiss banker, who had happened to see a battlefield in northern Italy littered with tens of thousands of wounded soldiers lying unattended on the ground. The Red Cross insignia is the Swiss flag, with colors reversed. (Ref. 8 , 125 )

Western europe

Spain

The Napoleonic Wars brought Spain to the edge of ruin. After war with France and then against England, as a French ally, Spain's sea power was destroyed and Napoleon put his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne in 1805. In 1812 Joseph, with his Cortes (Congress), abolished the Inquisition and limited the powers of the Catholic Church. Fighting continued, however, in the Peninsular War, with Great Britain entered on the side of the Spanish people and eventually driving out the French. The locals had never accepted Joseph and Napoleon's dominion was already collapsing, anyway, so after the Peninsular War, King Ferdinand VII resumed rule and revoked the new laws regarding the church. Spanish overseas colonies were revolting, however, and the people of Spain blamed the king, so he was taken prisoner and anarchy followed, with various temporary rulers, including Isabella II, who reigned from 1833 to 1868, at first with regents. The contesting of her succession by her uncle, Don Carlos led to the Carlist Wars. In these revolts most of the Basque provinces and much of Catalonia supported Carlos. Civil wars and insurrections followed one after another until 1876, over a year after Isabella's son Alfonso XII had been proclaimed king. The economy remained critical and Spain had industry in only a few small areas. Even in 1829 the trade was only 1/3 of what it had been in 1785. The last great European famine was in Andalusia in 1882. On the death of Alfonso XII, his posthumous son Alfonso XIII reigned during the remainder of the century with his mother as regent. (Ref. 213 , 38 )