While the Industrial Revolution shook the economic
and social foundations of European society, similar revolutionary
developments were reshaping the political map
of the Continent. These developments were the product
of a variety of factors, including not only the Industrial
Revolution itself but also the Renaissance, the Enlightenment,
and the French Revolution at the end of the
eighteenth century. The influence of these new forces resulted
in a redefinition of political conditions in Europe.
The conservative order—based on the principle of hereditary
monarchy and the existence of great multinational
states such as Austria-Hungary, Russia, and the
Ottoman Empire—had emerged intact from the defeat
of Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815,
but by mid-century, it had come under attack along a
wide front. Arraigned against the conservative forces
were a set of new political ideas that began to come into
their own in the first half of the nineteenth century and
continue to affect the entire world today.
World History
