Liberal Revolutions and the Concert of Europe

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter contrasts with the previous one. In the cases discussed in both chapters, there were revolutions in states not acting as a platform to spread revolution, but in the cases discussed in this chapter, all the great powers—France, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Britain—perceived they had a significant revolutionary movement of the same character as the revolutions. As the domestic contagion effects theory expects, there were contagion fears that decisively affected foreign policy: states were hostile toward the revolutions and cooperative with each other. They forswore opportunities to use revolutions in Spain, Portugal, Naples, Piedmont, and Greece as a means to enhance their geopolitical standing in order to prevent possible revolutionary contagion.