A “Revolution in Government” in the Periphery?: state formation in southern, eastern, and southeastern Europe after 1848

1. Revolutions and State Formation
in Europe, 1789-1871
Dr Christos Aliprantis
American College of Thessaloniki – Anatolia College

2. A “Revolution in Government” in the
Periphery?: Introduction
 Competing traditions of statehood in
the southern and eastern “European
peripheries” (Italian states, Greece,
Ottoman Empire, Russia)
 Different responses to international
pressures (challenge of revolution,
diplomatic isolation, political and
military weakening)
 “Western” influences vs indigenous
practices - shared sovereignty

3. I. The central and eastern Mediterranean
world around 1850
 Italian peninsula: political fragmentation; buffet
zone amidst Great Power rivalry (France vs Austria);
only Piedmont retained an independent policy
 Ionian Islands & Malta: British protectorates (until
1863 and 1864 respectively)
 Greece: politically and economically weak state
under triple British, French and Russian “protection”
(indirect control)
 Ottoman Empire: political and military weakness;
efforts to modernize; Russian threat; political and
economic support by G. Britain and France

4. 2. The Papal States as a unique case of
statehood across Europe
 The Popes functioned as universal spiritual
heads of the Catholic Church AND secular
rulers of central Italy between the early Middle
Ages and 1870 (“Heritage of Constantine”)
 Short-lived Roman Republics (1798-99, 1849)
 Potential leadership in the Italian unification?
 Papal state apparatus => rather inefficient and
characterized by fragmentation and prevalence
of local notables and internal tensions (18th and
early 19th c.)

5. .
 Dual and overlapping spiritual and secular administration:
 Secular/lay persons formed the majority of the personnel
(6850) vs the clergy (300) but the clergy occupied the
higher, key positions: Most ministers were clergymen
(exempt those of the interior, commerce and war)
 French military occupation (1849-70): instrument of
counter-revolutionary policy & imperial expansion
 The occupation divided and polarized French society
 The French army was an instrument of institutional
modernization in this context of “shared sovereignty”
 The French protected Pope Pius IX from a new revolution
or from Piedmontese conquest BUT ALSO it limited the
papal reprisals against Roman revolutionaries and radicals

6. .
 There were tensions between the French army and
the Papal authorities: the former were considered
oppressive while the latter tried to retain as much
as their authority as possible
 The French troops only guaranteed the survival of
the Papal States
 After 1861 most of the eastern and north east
Papal provinces passed under the control of the
Kingdom of Italy
 After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, the
French garrison in Rome was recalled and the
Italian army conquered the city
 The Pope refused to recognize the new state and
the “Roman Question” remained open until 1929

7. 3. Dependence and decline in the
Kingdom of Two Sicilies
 The Kingdom remained under the political and economic
influence of Austria and Britain respectively after 1815
 King Ferdinand II followed an authoritarian policy after
1848 aiming to prevent another revolution; imprisoning
his opponents and sending them into exile outraged the
international public opinion and isolated the kingdom
 Bourbon authority collapsed after Giuseppe Garibaldi’s
Expedition of the Thousand in Sicily (1860, battle of
Volturno). Afterwards the Kingdom of Two Sicilies was
absorbed by the Kingdom of Italy

8. 4. The Ionian Islands under British
protection (1814-1863)
 The Ionian Islands had long been part of the Venetian
Republic (c.1500-1797)
 In the Napoleonic period they formed the short-lived
Septinsular Republic under joint Russo-Ottoman
protection (1801-1807) under a conservative/aristocratic
constitutional government
 After the Congress of Vienna the Islands were put under
British protection: British colonial rule faced no
resistance in its early years but after 1848 the Islands
became increasingly ungovernable

9. .
 The reasons for the rising public discord were:
 (i) Poor economic performance and financial crisis in the
1850s that exposed the weakness of the British authority
(imbalance of trade deficit; poor harvests in the 1840s-
1850s and increased masses of destitutes and beggars)
 (ii) The liberal and radical agenda of parts of the Ionian
middle class that demanded political reforms (enlarged
representation) and national unification with Greece (esp.
after the 1848-49 revolts in Cephalonia)
 Neither harsh measures (censorship, imprisonment/exile of
opposition members) nor William Gladstone’s mission in
1859 in search of solutions, reached any actual results
 The Islands were transferred to Greece in 1863 on occasion
of the Greek dynastic change .

10. 5. Government and administration in the
Kingdom of Greece
 After the Greek war of independence, the Ionian Ioannis
Kapodistrias became shortly Greece’s first governor
(1828-31). He tried to impose far-reaching reforms to
stabilize the country but the local elites were against him
and Kapodistrias was assassinated in 1831
 Greece was under the tutelage of Britain, France, Russia
 Afterwards the Great Powers installed a Bavarian prince,
King Otto as an absolute monarch in Greece (1833-62)
 Otto’s Regency and his administrators built a state
apparatus in Greece following the western European
(esp. Bavarian and French) models

11. .
 The Bavarians in Greece and their associates disregarded the
liberal and constitutional legacy of the Greek revolution and
governed in an absolutist manner (1833-43)
 They introduced a new administrative division for the kingdom,
a new schooling system, new police forces (gendarmerie) and
created a new university (in Athens in 1837)
 They were less successful in solving the recurring problem of
banditry in the countryside and providing pensions and/or land
for most of the revolutionary fighters (who in turn turned to
banditry)
 In the early 1840s, King Otto’s popularity was declining, which
led to a bloodless, liberal revolt in Athens in September 1843
 The rebels (liberal parties, army officers) demanded a consti-
tution and the withdrew of foreigners from the administration

12. .
 A constitutional assembly was gathered and a constitution was
proclaimed in 1844: it allowed for almost universal male suffrage
and created a bi-cameral parliamentary system (an elected
parliament and a senate appointed by Otto. Otto maintained though
extensive powers and kept interfering regularly in government
 The prime minister during the constitutional assembly Ioannis
Kolettis stated the foundational principle of Greek irredentism (the
“Great Idea”) according to which the Greek kingdom had to expand
to include all or most of the Greeks living in the Ottoman Empire
 Three political parties resulted out of the first elections in 1844: the
(so called) British, French and Russian party: these were essentially
loose coalitions of notables that were supporting one of the above
Great Powers esp. regarding the irredentist plans of Greece
 The leaders of the three parties would dominate political life and
share power with Otto until the late 1850s

13. .
 Otto and most Greek politicians stated in public that they
wished the territorial expansion of Greece and yet they
lacked the resources to achieve this aim
 G. Britain and France were also against this agenda as this
would disturb the status quo in the Near East
 Greece wished to side with Russia in the Crimean war in
order to expand against the Ottoman Empire but Britain and
France forbade such a policy
 British and French naval units captured the port of Piraeus
(1854-57) and installed a friendly government in Greece
 The occupying forces tried also to put Greece’s finances in
order, which had chronically been in bad shape (the state had
officially declared bankruptcy in 1843)

14. .
 A joint British-French finance commission was established to
control the Greek public finances, suggest reforms and administer
certain Greek state monopolies using them to repay the public debt
 This was the first case of direct foreign financial control in the
history of the Greek state
 In the late 1850s a new generation was increasingly restless
against Otto; the Italian unification reflected negatively upon Otto,
who had failed to expand Greece and still had absolutist tendencies
 Otto gradually lost the support of the Great Powers. He was forced
to abdicate in October 1862 and leave Greece
 The Great Powers chose a new ruler for Greece, George I from
Denmark. The ousting of Otto was also accompanied by a new
constitution in 1864, which further consolidated liberal principles

15. 6. The Ottoman Empire in the Tanzimat period
 The Ottoman sultanate first appeared in the late 13th/early
14th century in north-western Asia Minor
 It expanded rapidly and after the conquest of
Constantinople (1453) and in the 16th century it was one
of the largest and powerful empires in Europe and Asia
 In the 17th-18th century though the Ottoman state started
to decline after losing a series of wars against Russia and
the Habsburg Empire
 In the early 19th century the empire faced a number of
domestic revolts against central authority combined with
foreign pressures (esp. from Britain, France and Russia)

16. .
 Sultan Mahmud II (1808-1839) attempted to prevent the further
decline of his empire through a program of state reforms (Tanzimat):
 (i) the Jannissaries corps –once the most formidable part of the
Ottoman army, which by the 19th c. had turned obsolete, was
violently abolished in 1826
 (ii) the edict of Gülhane (Rose Chamber, 1839) guaranteed the
security of life, property and honor of all subjects of the empire
regardless of race or religion. It authorizes a fairer system of taxation
as well as fairer methods of military conscription and training
 (iii) a new, more secular schooling system that limited the influence
of the religious, Islamic establishment (Ulema)
 (iv) the reorganization of the army based on the Prussian conscript
model
 (v) new commercial and criminal codes based on those of France

17. Conclusion
 State reforms and sovereignty relations in mid-19th c. southern
Europe were characterized by relations of dependency between local
polities and the Great Powers
 These dependency relations ranged from open involvement (France in
Rome); official protection (Ionian Islands, partly Greece) to softer
influence and policy advice (Naples, above all the Ottoman Empire)
 The Italian states, Greece or the Ottoman Empire tried after 1815 –
usually under foreign pressures- to introduce more stable state
institutions regarding above all constitutional representation, public
safety, finances and taxation, schooling, and military reorganization
 The aim of these reform leaderships was the prevention of falling
behind and becoming too weak and dependent from the Great Powers