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Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix commemorates the July RevolutionThe French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution, was a revolt by the middle class against Bourbon King Charles X which forced him out of office and replaced him with the Orleanist King Louis-Philippe.
When Charles X took the throne on September 16, 1824, France was progressing towards reconstruction from the Napoleonic Wars. Charles's predecessor (and brother) Louis XVIII's reign had been peaceful and had the support of most of the population. The government was still quite autocratic, but gave far more freedom than the ancien régime before the revolution. Louis XVIII based many of his decisions on popular opinion, responding in particular to the wishes of the Parisian elite. An elected assembly existed, but had little power.
Charles, on the other hand, believed that the absolute monarchyAbsolute monarchy is an idealized form of government, a monarchy where the ruler has the power to rule his or her country and citizens freely with no laws or legally-organized direct opposition telling him or her what to do, although some religious author was the best form of government.
1 Background
Upon the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 the whole of Europe, and France in particular, was in a state of disarray. The Congress of ViennaThe Congress of Vienna ( October 1, 1814 June 9, 1815) was a conference between ambassadors from the major powers in Europe that was chaired by the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and held in Vienna, Austria. Its purpose was to redraw the met to redraw the continent's political map. Although more than 700 European countries attended, there were only 4 major powers that controlled the decision making: BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly, represented by by foreign secretary Lord Castlereagh; AustriaAustria is a landlocked country in Central Europe, a federation of nine states. Austria is bordered by Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the, represented by chief minister (and chairman of the congress) Fürst Klemens von MetternichKlemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Furst von Metternich-Winneberg-Beilstein ( May 15, 1773 June 11, 1858) (sometimes rendered in English as Prince Clemens Metternich was an Austrian politician and statesman and perhaps the most important diplomat of his era.; RussiaThe Russian Federation ( Russian: , transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija , or Russia (Russian: , transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija , is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. With, represented by Czar Alexander I; and Prussia, represented by King Frederick William III. Another very influential person at the congress was Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, a French diplomat under Napoleon. Although France was considered the enemy, Talleyrand was allowed to attend the congress because he claimed that he did not willfully cooperate with Napoleon but rather that he was forced to cooperate. Talleyrand proposed a system that was very well accepted by the congress. He proposed that Europe be restored to its legitimate (pre-Napoleon) borders and governments.
And so it was done, France was restored to its 1789 borders and the original ruling family, the Bourbon family, was restored to the throne. In the eyes of the congress, France was now back to normal. However, Louis XVIII (the new king of France) knew that ideas of nationalism and democracy still lingered, even after the fall of Napoleon.
Louis was happy to be king and he did not want to do anything to further upset the people of France. Because of this, he retained many of the reforms established between 1789 and 1815. He retained the Bank of France, he kept state funded schools, he even accepted a constitution that limited his power over the people. The constitution called for many things, including a legislature to assist in governing the country.
