The term “conservatism” first appeared in writing in 1815, in connection to the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in France after the reign of Napoleon. Conservatism is a philosophy that stresses the preservation of existing institutions and traditions. Conservatives do not oppose change; instead, they favor the stability of change that occurs within existing forms of government, economic systems, or social structures.

Conservatives do not oppose change; instead, they favor the stability of change that occurs within existing forms of government, economic systems, or social structures.

Conservatism is an ideology that was first clearly articulated in opposition to the liberalism of the Enlightenment and French Revolution. Liberalism in the early 19th century held that progress came through applying the ideals of human rights, even at the expense of traditions and institutions. In the early nineteenth century, most European conservatives favored strong monarchies, mercantilist policies, and aristocratic privilege, the established institutions of their day.

In the early nineteenth century, most European conservatives favored strong monarchies, mercantilist policies, and aristocratic privilege, the established institutions of their day.

These conservatives contended that complicated public policies should be determined by educated aristocrats, people who understood the details of a particular policy and who had the personal connections to implement the policy effectively. Allowing the lower class to vote for representatives amounted to, nineteenth century conservatives believed, deciding policies through a popularity contest. This led conservatives of this period to oppose most democratizing reforms.

Political philosophies like conservatism differ from place to place and change over time.

Political philosophies like conservatism differ from place to place and change over time. In 1815, Britain was governed already by a constitutional monarchy with Parliament as a strong national legislature, and conservatives there wanted to preserve the authority that the monarchy and aristocracy still had. In Russia, on the other hand, the tsar was absolute and no national legislature would exist until 1905. Russian conservatives, then, favored absolutism. As the Industrial Revolution transformed Europe, conservatives modified their beliefs to reflect the new status quo.

Enlightenment thinkers, as part of their efforts to understand the world, carefully defined political philosophies, and the terms conservatism, liberalism, and radicalism first appear in writing during or shortly after the Enlightenment. Liberalism has as its root “liber,” the Latin for “free.” Enlightenment thinkers first began to employ the term liberalism in a political sense in the late 18th century to refer to a philosophy of human rights and freedoms.

Terms conservatism, liberalism, and radicalism first appear in writing during or shortly after the Enlightenment.

Liberalism was especially popular among the European middle class, a group that was still a small proportion of the overall population but which was growing rapidly. The middle class was comprised of merchants, artisans, government officials, and professionals like doctors. European trade with the Americas, Africa, and Asia had spurred artisan and merchant production, and members of the middle class by the late eighteenth century could thus afford the level of education required for government service. The most prestigious government offices, however, were reserved for members of the nobility, and frustration with feudal laws and customs led middle class Europeans to embrace liberal reform as a challenge to legally defined aristocratic privilege.

Conservatism developed in response to liberalism in order to conserve the existing “corporate” makeup of society.

Conservatism developed in response to liberalism in order to conserve the existing “corporate” makeup of society. Traditionally, Europeans were organized into groups, or corporations, like a village or guild. Each corporation had collective rights, duties, and obligations that connected it to the rest of society. Nobles, for instance, could expect peasants to provide crops and rents, but nobles were also expected to provide justice and, in times of need, food for peasants. The liberal doctrine of individual liberal rights, early conservatives believed, threatened to replace this web of social connections with a highly individualized system that encouraged competition between members of a society.

The Anglo-Irish politician and writer Edmund Burke was the most important of the early conservative theorists.

The Anglo-Irish politician and writer Edmund Burke was the most important of the early conservative theorists. He argued that traditional legal codes and systems of government represented the accumulated wisdom of a number of generations of wise men. While Enlightenment thinkers often claimed that a single person or generation could use reason to break with tradition and form completely new institutions like governments and social structures, Burke viewed this as the height of arrogance, likely to result in unforeseen and negative consequences. This hostility to the Enlightenment view that reason alone could create the best institutions to organize society characterized early conservatism.

While Enlightenment thinkers often claimed that a single person or generation could use reason to break with tradition and form completely new institutions like governments and social structures, Burke viewed this as the height of arrogance, likely to result in unforeseen and negative consequences.

The French Revolution of 1789 represented for Burke the worst kind of anti-traditional Enlightenment rationalism.

The French Revolution of 1789 represented for Burke the worst kind of anti-traditional Enlightenment rationalism. Burke and other conservatives believed that the bloodshed and violence of the Revolution resulted from the dismantling of existing French institutions like the monarchy and Estates General, the old French Assembly by revolutionary leaders.

With what seemed to conservatives to be the arrogant assumption that they were wiser than their predecessors, the revolutionaries in France tried to invent a new system of government from scratch.

With what seemed to conservatives to be the arrogant assumption that they were wiser than their predecessors, the revolutionaries in France tried to invent a new system of government from scratch and broke the bonds between groups in society like the nobility and the peasantry through constitutional protections for individual rights. Conservative observers claimed that the French constitutions of 1791 and 1793 freed French citizens from the reciprocal obligations that bound them to act for the good of society as a whole; the unintended consequence of these reforms, conservatives believed, was the violence of the Reign of Terror.

This destruction of so-called stabilizing traditions intensified under Napoleon, who seized power in France in 1799. Napoleon exported his Napoleonic Code of law and other reforms to areas he conquered, ending serfdom and other feudal systems that used birth to determine status and instead implemented “careers open to talent.” To conservatives, the bloodshed of the Napoleonic era, when roughly 5,000,000 Europeans, soldiers and civilians, had been killed and when war had been prosecuted, more or less continuously, for around twenty-five years by 1815, was a natural outcome of the French attempts to recreate the world through reason.

After the defeat of Napoleon, conservatism served as the guiding philosophy of the aristocratic politicians who met at Congress of Vienna in order to restore peace to Europe.

After the defeat of Napoleon, conservatism served as the guiding philosophy of the aristocratic politicians who met at Congress of Vienna in order to restore peace to Europe. The Great Powers had defeated France in a Quadruple Alliance that included Russia, Austria, Britain, and Prussia, and they sought to maintain this alliance to prevent another general European conflict, in large part by opposing the resurgence of what they saw as the destructive liberal ideology of the French Revolution.

Austrian Foreign Minister Klemens von Metternich emerged as the architect of the conservative peace.

Austrian Foreign Minister Klemens von Metternich emerged as the architect of the conservative peace. Metternich believed that by restoring monarchs to power in countries like Spain and France and by binding the Great Powers to act together in a Concert of Europe to repress revolutions, the Great Powers could halt the growth of ideologies they believed to be harmful to the status quo, like liberalism and nationalism.

In 1815, the status quo in most European countries involved a strong monarchy, a mercantilist economic system, a social class system based on heredity rather than merit, and legal differentiation between classes. Russia’s Tsar Alexander I, for instance, still held absolute power unlimited by a constitution, and the Austrian Empire continued to extract the traditional feudal labor tax known as the corvee from its peasants. Both of these states had avoided the more sweeping changes of the Napoleonic period, and they credited their stability and their ability to defeat Napoleon to their traditional institutions.

Both of these states had avoided the more sweeping changes of the Napoleonic period, and they credited their stability and their ability to defeat Napoleon to their traditional institutions.

In order to reinforce the commitment to these traditions, Alexander I formed the Holy Alliance with Prussia and Austria, an alliance which was strongly committed to preserving the status quo. The terms of the alliance dictated that national policies should be founded on established Christian principles, which Alexander believed clearly defended divine rights monarchies and which he interpreted as being hostile to the secular ideas of liberalism. Moreover, the alliance bound the monarchs to come to each other’s assistance, as the Russians would do in helping the Austrians suppress revolution within their empire in 1848.

In the period that followed the Congress of Vienna, the growth of nationalism in Europe and the rising influence of the middle class threatened the system Metternich and his allies had put in place, and the members of the Concert of Europe responded by instituting repressive policies throughout Europe. In the new German Confederation established at Vienna, the Carlsbad decrees sharply regulated free expression and the right to assemble, restricting the liberal clubs that had been established during the time of Napoleon.

While the Concert of Europe had successfully opposed uprisings in Spain and Italy, a revolution in Greece challenged the conservative commitment to repressing revolution.

However, this repression did not stop the growth of liberal movements. While the Concert of Europe had successfully opposed uprisings in Spain and Italy, a revolution in Greece challenged the conservative commitment to repressing revolution. Although the Greek Revolution was the kind of nationalist uprising the Concert of Europe had committed to suppressing, European leaders felt little reason to aid the Ottoman Empire, which was neither a Christian-led empire or central to the balance of power in Europe.

The Ottoman Empire was clearly in decline by the early nineteenth century, and the problem of how to handle territories that chose to break away from the empire was known as the “Eastern Question.” This “question” divided the conservative leadership of Europe. The Austrian Empire, which was led by Germans but inhabited as well be a variety of minorities, saw the potential breakup of the Ottoman Empire as a threat to their own empire, as it could encourage Austrian minorities to seek independence.

Russia, on the other hand, encouraged Ottoman independence movements, viewing the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire as a way to secure control of the Black Sea and the straits to the Mediterranean Sea. The different approaches to the Eastern Question undermined the conservative consensus in Europe, eventually leading to war between the Great Powers in the second half of the century.

Russia, Britain, and France all chose to support the Greek Revolution.

Russia, Britain, and France all chose to support the Greek Revolution, as Russia sought to extend its influence into Southeastern Europe and the British and French sought to limit Russian influence while extending their own in the Mediterranean. With this international support, Greece obtained full independence in 1830, and the conservative Concert of Europe inadvertently strengthened reform movements throughout the continent.

Additional revolutions broke out across Europe in 1830, further testing the commitment and unity of Europe’s conservative leadership. The French King Charles X had already established a reputation as an ultra conservative by limiting the French constitutional charter established by Louis XVIII after the defeat of Napoleon, and he set off an uprising in 1830 by issuing a decree stripping 75% of the French electorate of the right to vote. The rebelling French forced Charles to abdicate, and the crown passed to Charles’ cousin, Louis Philippe.

This violation of the principle of the divine legitimacy of Charles drew an angry response from Russia’s tsar in 1830, Nicholas I, but the revolution was conservative enough in nature to satisfy the other members of the Holy Alliance. Louis Philippe restored the rights that the French had lost and strengthened the constitution, but as a whole the revolution essentially preserved the status quo. Louis Philippe’s monarchy was approved by conservatives like Metternich, who blamed Charles’ rigid policies and bullying tactics for the revolution.

The revolution in France inspired revolutionaries across Europe, who hoped that France would support revolutionary change abroad as had occurred under Napoleon.

The revolution in France inspired revolutionaries across Europe, who hoped that France would support revolutionary change abroad as had occurred under Napoleon. The members of the Holy Alliance, however, immediately mobilized in opposition to the revolutions, and Louis Philippe, alarmed at the proposed “radical” reforms of revolutionaries in the German states and Italy, declined to support the revolutions throughout Europe. Consequently, Austria put down the revolution in Italy and Russia suppressed revolution in Poland.

While avoiding revolutionary uprisings of its own in the 19th century, Britain felt similar pressure to reform by 1830.

While avoiding revolutionary uprisings of its own in the 19th century, Britain felt similar pressure to reform by 1830. England’s Glorious Revolution of 1688 had established the principle that Parliament represented all citizens, but only about 400,000 of Britain’s 14 million inhabitants could vote. Making matters worse, Parliamentary electoral districts, known as boroughs, had not been redrawn for centuries, resulting in corrupt voting practices and a lack of representation for cities like Manchester, which had grown rapidly during the early Industrial Revolution.

Britain’s conservative party, the Tories, tried to resist calls to reform the government, but the liberal party, the Whigs, proposed a reform bill. In 1832, the Whigs were able to pass what became known as the Reform Bill of 1832, which expanded the electorate to around 650,000 men, amounting to around 15% of adult men in England, and the law redrew the boroughs to improve representation. This modest reform nevertheless strengthened the reform agenda, as reformers saw that the government would respond to mass demonstrations and other forms of political pressure.

By mid-century, the role of conservatives was changing in Europe. Industrialization, the shift to machine production that started in the late 1700’s in Britain, had spread to the continent, challenging older family roles, working patterns, and the social class system. The combination of industrial change and the growth of liberalism inspired massive revolutions across Europe in 1848. While the Holy Alliance put down the majority of the uprisings, but the specter of radical change raised by the revolutions led conservative political leaders to embrace gradual reforms to satisfy their citizens, such as limitations on working hours for women and children.

The combination of industrial change and the growth of liberalism inspired massive revolutions across Europe in 1848.

Leading conservatives of the second half of the nineteenth century claimed to be more “practical” than their predecessors, guided more by realism than ideology.

Leading conservatives of the second half of the nineteenth century, like Otto von Bismarck of Prussia and Benjamin Disraeli of Britain claimed to be more “practical” than their predecessors, guided more by realism than ideology. They saw certain movements, like nationalist unification efforts, the expansion of the right to vote, and the end of peasant obligations as bound to succeed at some point, causing them to support reforms in an effort to channel these movements away from liberalism to a more conservative direction.

They saw certain movements, like nationalist unification efforts, the expansion of the right to vote, and the end of peasant obligations as bound to succeed at some point, causing them to support reforms in an effort to channel these movements away from liberalism to a more conservative direction.

Otto von Bismarck’s policies illustrate the shift in conservatism. Unlike traditional conservatives, Bismarck believed that nationalism, the pride in being German, could be used to enhance the power of the state and to protect the monarchy, and he played a leading role in the unification of the German states in 1871. Like traditional conservatives, Bismarck valued the bonds of reciprocal obligation between the nobility and the peasant and city workers, but he used this traditional approach to justify the creation of welfare programs like government health insurance and unemployment programs. These were the kinds of reforms strongly associated with radical socialism, yet Bismarck defended the changes as maintaining the status quo by drawing the loyalty of the workers away from socialist parties and to the state.

CONCLUSION

Conservatism is an ideology that focuses on upholding established traditions, but the philosophy is not anti-change. Instead, conservatives support gradual reform, often to strengthen social bonds. As traditions change, the ideas conservatives try to maintain can change. Therefore, conservatives became more accepting of nationalism and the extension of the right to vote after 1848.