Russia’s Role in The Congress of Vienna

By: Omar Youssef

            The Congress of Vienna majorly changed Russia’s role in European affairs. After the Congress, Russia made a strong alliance with 3 other nations Austria, England and Prussia. This alliance was called the quadruple alliance. It was the major division of power amongst the European nations.

            Geographically, Russia gained a respectable amount of land in the areas of Poland and parts of eastern Prussia. Just by gaining these few lands it gave Russia a considerably increased amount of influence in the region with one of its most famous being the aid of Austria in helping with the revolt of Hungary.

            As for the satisfaction with the outcome of the Congress, there were different views amongst the ranks of the Russian people:

-       Czar Nicholas was very happy with the outcomes of the Congress. One of his biggest fears was a revolution in Russia. He tried, using all means possible, to suppress any and all feels of revolution in the country. He had upped censorship in all newspapers and there were severe, sometimes fatal, consequences for those who disobeyed. This is why, for the most part, the Czar was pleased with the outcome of the Congress.

-       The Russian People were, for the most part, displeased with the outcome of the Congress because it gave way to the Czar to control them and their many ideas of revolt. Following the Congress of Vienna there was to be a mass famine in the northern provinces due to bad harvests and unusually dry weather, this freshened the long lost ideas of revolt in the minds of the Russian peasants, which eventually led to the Great Reforms in the early 1860’s.

-       The Nobles were kind of at an intersection with the outcomes because they were not terribly beneficial nor where they harmed…

The Unification of Italy

         The unification of Italy was greatly helped by the revolutions of 1848. It helped unify the armies of the south (ITALY & HUNGARY) against the Austrians and Russians on the northern boarders. One of the many factors that also helped this eventual state unification was the shear numbers of the enemy troops. They were outnumbered and had decided to share alliance and share the common enemy in order for them to prevail.

         The key actors of this unification were the southern states themselves. They co-operated to overcome their common enemy (Austria), which was on their part, a very smart move. Once the armies began to march under unified commands, it was easy to defeat the Austrians and Russians in many instances. Unified, the Italians and the Hungarians were able to start re-gaining previously lost lands from the Austrians and beat back the Russians till the Austrian boarders, eventually leading to the formation of modern-day Italy and Hungary.

The key figures of this unification were:

1.)         Giuseppe Mazzini

2.)         Pope Pius IX

3.)         King Charles Albert of Sardinia

4.)         Camillo di Cavour

5.)         Napoleon III

6.)         Victor Emmanuel II

7.)         Giuseppe Garibaldi

First of all we will see Giuseppe Mazzini’s importance in the Italian Unification. He was the Italian patriot that started a national revolutionary movement. Mazzini’s ideology of an independent integrated republic spread quickly among large segments of the Italian people. All over the country, many masses of people calling for revolution formed an alliance.

Massive reforms that took place during the 1840s in the Papal States, Lucca, Tuscany, and the Kingdom of Sardinia were intended to slow the revolutionary movements. Instead, these reforms only made things worse for the revolutionary groups in Southern Italy that was now spreading to the north of Italy and parts of Hungary

The first revolution on the Italian peninsula took place in the Kingdom of Sicily, which resulted in a constitution for the whole kingdom. A violent uprising against authority in 1848 caused Pope Pius IX (Catholic Ruler of Rome) to flee Rome and a republic was proclaimed. King Charles Albert of Sardinia mobilized his army and marched to the assistance of Lombardy and joined in the war to drive the Austrians from Italian soil. 

Count Camillo di Cavour became prime minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1852. It was his leadership and accommodating policies that led to the unification of Italy.

Cavour was able to persuade Napoleon III to a secretly planned war against Austria.  By early 1859, Cavour had caused a crisis that provoked the Austrians to send an ultimatum demanding Piedmontese disarmament. As part of the "plan", Cavour rejected the ultimatum, which led to the subsequent war with the Austrians.  The French came to the aid of the Piedmontese and the Austrians were defeated in the two major battles of Magenta and Solferino.  The Austrians were forced to surrender Lombardy, with its great city of Milan to Napoleon III.  Finally, in 1859, Napoleon transferred Lombardy to the sovereignty of Victor Emmanuel II. 

Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian nationalist revolutionary hero and leader in the struggle for Italian unification and independence.  Born in 1807 in Nice, France, he joined Mazzini's movement in 1833.  In 1834 Garibaldi was ordered to seize a warship, but police discovered the plot and he was condemned to death.  He escaped to South America, where he lived for 12 years. He then moved to New York and got his US citizenship. During the same year he returned to Italy and participated (again) in the movement for Italian freedom and unification, which became widely known as the Risorgimento (Italian for "revival").

King Louis XIV of France

      An absolute monarch is a king/queen who has basically absolute control over his/her state and its subjects. They thought themselves to be appointed rulers by God himself. They had the “Devine Right to The Throne”. They were unmatched financially, militarily and politically; whatever they say goes. King Louis XIV of France was one of the most famous absolute monarchs to ever exist and this document will tell you exactly how.

       First off, who is Louis XIV? He was the king of France. He became king when he was 4½ years old, leaving his mother to rule until he was 17. He was known as the “sun king” because of the elegance of his art, buildings, clothes, mistresses … etc. Obviously he was an unmatched character in history that was undoubtedly an absolute monarch.

       The first of many points that support this idea is his dominance in decision-making. This is most greatly shown in one of his many famous quotes: “I order you not to sign anything, not even a passport without my command.” This shows his uncut authority in office.

Another point that can be made about his authority is that he weakened the nobles. “I had no intension of sharing my authority with them…” were his words concerning the subject. Furthermore he dismisses any others who may have a wee impact on the realm by saying “L’état, ce moi!” meaning I am the state.

       He also made many major changes to the legal system. These were very affective within the realm and abroad. The parliament’s power was stripped by obstruct legislation. The judicial structure was ameliorated by the new codes of civil / criminal procedure. Municipal law enforcement was improved due to the establishment of the lieutenant general of police for Paris. This was later used in other cities as well. These changes helped keep the realm under his control and impressed the foreign dignitaries.

       King Louis also fabricated the term “Bureaucracy”. A bureaucracy is when important decisions are made by state officials; or in this case Louis himself. He wanted to eliminate any doubt that he was the soul decision taker in office. By creating Bureaucracy he made this “legal”.

       One other thing that he did quite often was glorifying monarchy. This was mostly making his life even more amazing. His biggest and most famous creation was a palace in Versailles. It was the biggest palace in the world. Its gardens were so massive that the fountains within had to be turned off unless the king was walking by; this was to not waste water. In fact one of the architects said that with this many fountains the king would dry out the Seine.

       Also vocalizing the glorification of monarchy was his title and role model, “The Sun King”. His title meant that he was over powering, like the sun. He was the one who shed light on the world, like the sun. He was very fond of himself. He had art made of him, clothes made out of gold for him and he even had specialists choose women to be mistresses for him. All of this was to make his life more luxurious and impress the foreign kings and queens. He glorified himself by glorifying monarchy.

       Another factor showing Louis’s absolutism is his many European conquests. His main problem was with the Spanish. His wife was the daughter of the Spanish king and after he died the realm was inherited to her brother and nothing to her. This infuriated Louis and caused him to launch a full-on attack on the Spanish armada in Normandy and the Netherlands. After a few years of war France was able to subdue the lands in the north that formerly belonged to the Spanish.

       During this main event in the war books of Louis XIV he gained much more than land. He gained a considerable amount of gold and respect. At the time the three major military powers were England, Spain and France. After the Spanish defeat in the Netherlands the French got a firm grasp on first place amongst the three. Even the English were astounded at the swift defeat of the Spanish despite their increased numbers and military force. This showed that despite being a piece pampered French pastry, Louis was not here to mess around.

He still holds the record for longest monarch to rule; he ruled for over 70 years. The amount of time that he ruled for helped him establish many bonds with foreign dignitaries and help his young reign remain strong.

       His personality was probably the most important of the reasons that he is considered an absolute monarch. You see, he was too busy to care where, or how something would be accomplished. He wanted results, and results only. This kind of attitude was literally “fit for a king”.

       Despite his arrogance he was quite a strong ruler. He managed to help France prosper in a time of difficulty in Europe. He had the stamina to keep this great nation under control for 70 years. That, if not anything, speaks miles about his character.

       In the end, with all of the overwhelming evidence that this document has presented you with, there should be absolutely no doubt as to whether Louis XIV was an absolute monarch or not. The Sun King was a great lucrative ruler that was an absolute monarch from sunrise to sunset.

Religion in the Ottoman Empire

            The Nomadic tribes of the Middle East were savage peoples. They were recruited to work for the Sultan in Turkey and they were taught manners, religion and war craft. They were transformed from nomads to respected generals serving the Holy Muslim Army in Constantinople under the name of Ghazis (or religious fighters). These nomadic peoples were the beginnings of one of the greatest empires to rule this world, The Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Empire started in the year 1299 and lasted until the year 1923, over 700 years of existence. They ruled their huge empire from Constantinople, which is in modern day Istanbul, Turkey. The founder of the Empire and one of its many Sultans was Osman I, hence the naming of the empire. He will start a long chain of powerful Sultans that will change the coarse of history for a long time to come.

            The Ottoman Empire was no doubt a Muslim Empire but one of its keys to success was religion itself. See, Islam didn’t only affect them in a spiritual and religious way it also affected their political issues, their rivals, their allies, their battle strategies, foreign affairs, religious tolerance, taxation, trade, education, prayer, economy but most of all it affected their everyday life. The way the Ottomans ruled and the systems they created to help them with issues pertaining to religion where such a success that one of the empire’s generals said: “I have had less problems with Jews and Christians than I have had with Muslims.”⁽¹⁾

            Ever since the introduction of the “Millet System” in the empire they have had no problems pertaining to religion or religious differences. This point was very important to the Ottomans because if they could secure the stability within the empire then they could focus on conquering lands abroad and gaining power amongst the other empires around the world. The Millet System essentially separated the different religions so that a person from that religion would dictate their social affairs, (such as marriage, divorce, inheritance etc.) but the top allegiance was always to the Sultan.

Another System pertaining to religion that was used to help the empire’s military strength was the Devshirme System. This system led to the formation of the most feared warriors of all time through children. Yes, Children. The Ottomans had the genius idea to take young children that were Christian or Jewish and teach them Islam and give them the best education available and teach them that their allegiance rests only with the Sultan and God. Once the children grew up they were trained to become warriors or great architects in the Royal Palace.

            Going back to their beginnings they took many of their ideas and philosophies from the Islamic faith. They ran their government based on the Islamic Shareea’ (code of Islamic rules and laws). Their warriors were taught Islam, even if they were Christian (this is because the Islamic Shareea’ prohibits soldiers from killing women, children and old men, there are also other laws pertaining to warfare that are different in the Islamic Shareea’ from Christianity and Judaism).

Furthermore, Islam changed the way that they saw the surrounding world. When the Ottomans occupied another nation with different cultures, religions or beliefs, the first thing they did was send one of their many scholars to the locals and he was to study and essentially live the same way those people lived. After a certain time the Sultan would call the scholar back to the palace and would inquire him about everything that he saw. If the Sultan liked (for example) a certain law that was being implemented before their arrival, he would include it in their code of laws (this also depended on the agreement of the change with the Islamic Shareea’).

            Religion also greatly affected the empire’s economy. Religion allowed the empire more taxes. The Islamic Shareea’ says that all people with different faiths living under Muslim rule are due taxation called cizya (or gizya); this was for the simple reason of protection. No non-Muslim was required to go to war for the Empire. On the contrary, all Muslim males (adults, that are healthy and have no sisters or parents to take care of) were required to go to battle for the empire. They also made a deal with the Christians and Jews pertaining to this rule of war. If they were to fight with the Holy Muslim Army (as Muslims – even if they are not actually Muslim) they (them and their families) would be relieved of the burden of the cizya (gizya).

            Continuing on in the field of the empire’s military (Askeri), one of the most important battles that the Empire took part in was during the Habsburg wars, specifically the battle of Lepanto. The battle of Lepanto was one of the empire’s greatest losses. Even though the Sultan, Ali Pasha, out numbered King Don John of Austria the empire lost that naval battle. This was a conflict of religions that lead to the end of Ottoman expansion to the west and was the turning point of the empire from being a great, prosperous, growing empire to a slowly but surely declining one.

            Ali Pasha commanded 230 galleys and 56 galliots. This was considered to be the grandest naval fleet ever to fight. But the European fleet, lead by Don John of Austria was composed of many different European armies. The Venetians were under the command of Agostino Barbarigo to the Left of the Real (the ship that Don John was in). The Genoese under Giovanni Andrea Doria were on the right and a reserve fleet led by Álvaro de Bazán was located behind the Real, bringing the number of Europeans to a grand total of 206 galleys and 6 gallasses. All of these European armies were under the name of the Holy League, while the Ottomans were under the name of The Holy Muslim Expansion. Both sides were fighting for God but only one side prevailed.

            After the capture of Sultana (the ship that Ali Pasha was on), the Sultan was publically executed in front of his loyal subjects. His head was cut off and displayed on a pole at the front of the ship and his subjects tied to that pole in a possession that didn’t allow them to look away from the bodiless head. This was morally scaring for the Ottomans because ever since they were children they were taught to always think highly of the Sultan and obey his commands. When he was executed (against the will of Don John) it left a mark in the Ottoman’s history that they would never forget for centuries to come. This execution marked the beginning of the end for the Ottoman Empire.

            The empire’s foreign affairs were greatly affected by Islam as well. Originally the Islamic Shareea’ prohibited a Muslim nation to fight against another Muslim nation. Some Sultans took it upon themselves to “bend” this rule and “join” other nations. Finally, through corruption and bribery the Sultan Mahmud II changed the Islamic Shareea’ for the first time in history. Mahmud II was later executed for this change in Shareea’ and his head was displayed on the main door of the city with a flag next to it saying these words: “Traitorous, non-believer not a Sultan. Allah Akbar (God is the greatest).”

            Also under the genre of foreign affairs, in battle all dead were respected. If the enemy troops (no matter what religion) allowed the Ottomans to collect and burry their dead they were allowed to do the same. If not the Ottomans would take the enemy corpses and display them on backs of donkeys or hanging off the back of carriages with horse manure. This nasty custom was later made illegal by vote of Islamic Council and agreement of the Sultan Suleyman The Magnificent.  This was because the Islamic Shareea’ specifically says that: “All corpses are allowed respect and traditional burial rights. Every Muslim man who dies in defense of himself, his family, his money or his country will not be washed or stripped of his armor or parted from his blade. (He is to be buried the way he is found, in bloody clothes, with his armor and his sward.) He shall be treated with mercy by the all merciful Allah and forever in paradise he shall be.”⁽²⁾

            In the spreading of religion to foreign lands, trade played a big role. The Silk Road was most famous for the goods that traveled its path but it was a main porthole for Islam to cross over into Asia. Since the discovering of the Silk Road Islam has spread heavily to Asia and specifically Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The spreading of Islam through the Silk Road was an accident. Traders from the Ottoman Empire would travel to Asia, using the Silk Road, to trade with the peoples of Asia. In their trading and dealing the people noticed their honesty and behavior and asked about them and eventually discovered Islam. This was a gateway into Asian countries such as Russia. The increasing Muslim population made it easier to conquer such nations.

            Coming to the closing curtain of the empire’s sensational performance for over 700 years amongst the other empires in the world, comes more war. Specifically World War II and I. World War I was an extremely traumatizing for the Ottomans, it turned their strong unified country empire into a bunch of feeble states. This put its military in critical condition. Finally, when World War II came it basically finished off the empire and left the banner of Islam dangling, without a savior. After World War II the empire was left to crumble. Once the empire finally came to a political, social and military standstill it finally surrendered to the modern world of Democracy and the Arab Republic of Turkey was formed, leaving the crescent on their flag as a reminder of their great Islamic Ottoman history.

The Ottoman Empire

Bibliography

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(2) J. Nasir, Jamal, “The Islamic Law of Personal Status,” Page N/A

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