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The historical development of modern Europe (v. 1-2)
The historical development of modern Europe - v. 1-2 Author:Charles McLean Andrews Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. RECONSTRUCTION AND THE EUROPEAN SYSTEM. WITH the departure of Napoleon to Elba and the return of the Bourbons, France to all outward appearance ... more »was approaching the position she had occupied before the Revolution. The emigres, led by the Count of Artois, who had been one of the first to leave France in the early days of the Revolution, were crowding back, and were taking their places once more in the state and the army ; the white cockade was already supplanting the tri-colour ; the territory of France was to be but little greater than it had been in the reign of Louis XVI., and a Bourbon king was once more to sit upon the throne of his ancestors. The work of the Revolution and of Napoleon would seem to have been undone ; each step in the outward expansion of the power of France from 1792 to 1812 had been retraced in the rapid retreat after the Moscow campaign. The political boundaries of the majority of the European states were to be restored as nearly as possible to what they had been before the Revolution ; and in consequence, the face of Europe, politically distorted by Napoleonic conquest, was to take on a more familiar form. In France, save in the administrative, judicial, and financial organisation, apparently little trace of Napoleon's work remained. The Bourbons and the /mitres, with no appreciation of the real work of the Revolution and the Empire, cast from them the memory of all recent events, and prepared to enjoy once more a regime of legitimism and prerogative. But it needs only a brief examination to show that such an appearance was only on the surface, and that Europe had passed through a period in which an organic change had taken place both in the social structure and in the ideas and expectations of the people at large. War had diverted, defl...« less