15.6: Liberalism

Liberalism would be based on the Enlightenment concepts of reason, rationality, and progress. The 19th Century liberals were usually educated men and women, including the elites of industry and trade, as well as the middle classes. These people shared the conviction that freedom in all its forms—from the despotic rule of kings, the obsolete privilege of nobles, economic interference and religious intolerance, occupational restrictions and limitations of speech and assembly—could only improve the quality of society and the well-being of its members.

In a contrast to the abstract nature of national identity among nationalists, liberalism had straightforward concrete beliefs. The most fundamental belief was in equality before the law, which starkly contrasted with the old “feudal order of legally-defined social estates. According to liberals, the very purpose of law was to protect the rights of each and every citizen rather than enshrine the privileges of a minority.

“Rights” had meant the traditional privileges enjoyed by a given social group or estate in the past, from the king’s exclusive right to hunt game in his forests to the peasants’ right to access the common land. Now, "rights" meant a fundamental and universal privilege concomitant with citizenship. Liberals argued that freedom of speech, a press free from censorship, and religious expression were “rights” that should be enjoyed by all. Likewise, most liberals favored the abolition of archaic economic interference from the state, including legal monopolies on trade (e.g. in shipping between colonies) and the monopolies enjoyed by those craft guilds that remained.

Early 19th-Century liberals considered the constitutional monarchy as the most reasonable and stable form of government. Constitutions should be written to guarantee the fundamental rights of the citizenry while defining and restricting the power of the king (thus staving off the threat of tyranny). Liberals also believed in the desirability of an elected parliament, albeit one with a restricted electorate. Almost universally, liberals thought that voting should be restricted to those who owned significant amounts of property, thereby (they thought) guaranteeing social stability.

Unlike nationalists, liberals saw some of their goals realized in post-Napoleonic Europe. The Bourbon monarchy was restored alongside an elected parliament, religious tolerance, and relaxed censorship in France. Meanwhile, Britain remained the most “liberal” power, having long stood as the model of constitutional monarchy. A liberal monarchy emerged as a result of the Belgian Revolution of 1830. By the 1840s, limited liberal reforms had also been introduced in many of the smaller German states. Thus, despite the opposition of conservatives, much of Europe slowly and haltingly liberalized in the period between 1815 and 1848.