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Alexander I
Russian Czar from 1801 to 1825. He briefly allied with Napoleon before turning against him. Though Alexander envisioned himself as an "enlightened despot," Metternich managed to move him towards becoming a Reactionary after the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
Jeremy Bentham
English philosopher, a father of Radicalism and Utilitarianism. One example of his unconventional nature: when he died in 1832, he had his body preserved and placed on display in a cabinet in University College, London, where it remains to this day.
Simón Bolívar
South American freedom fighter who led the liberation of several Spanish colonies around 1820. He subsequently became a South American dictator, with hopes of uniting a South American empire.
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
After the February Revolution in Paris in 1848, Louis Napoleon was elected President in France simply on the basis of name recognition among the newly enfranchised voters. He soon declared himself Emperor Napoleon III. France prospered under him for two decades.
House of Bourbon
European royal family, which had kings on the thrones of France, Spain, and Naples at various times during the early 19th century.
Edmund Burke
18th century thinker, statesman, and writer, whose 1790 work, Reflections on the Revolution in France, became the classic text of British Conservatism.
George Canning
British foreign secretary and champion of Liberalism in foreign affairs form 1822 to 1827. Canning briefly served as Prime Minister in 1827.
Viscount Castlereagh
British foreign secretary from 1812-1822. Robert Stewart (Viscount Castlereagh) was a major architect of the new European balance of power established at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
Charles X
Successor to Louis XVIII, Bourbon king of France from 1824 to his overthrow in the July Revolution of 1830. He believed in the divine-right of kings, and was unable to cope with the new, post-revolutionary realities of France.
Eugene Delacroix
French Romantic painter, who painted exotic scenes, and whose use of color over line inspired the Impressionists.
Ferdinand
Austrian Hapsburg Emperor who abdicated during the revolution of 1848, turning the throne over to Franz Joseph.
Charles Fourier
French theorist of Socialism who wanted to reorganize society into cooperative "phalanxes."
Franz Joseph
Hapsburg Emperor of Austria from 1848 to 1916. In 1867 he divided the Empire into Austria and Hungary, creating the "Dual Monarchy."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
18th and 19th century German writer, who worked in nearly every imaginable field, from science to drama. Considered one of the greatest German writers, Goethe was essential in the Nationalist construction of a German Volksgeist.
Hapsburg
Perhaps the greatest royal family of modern European history, the Hapsburg dynasty once controlled Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire under one man. By the 19th century, they only really controlled the Austrian Empire. Emperors Ferdinand and Franz Joseph were both Hapsburgs.
Hegel
G.W.F. Hegel was a 19th century Romantic German philosopher who held that progress is made through conflicting opposites being resolved, via the dialectic, in a synthesis.
Louis Kossuth
Magyar (Hungarian) Nationalist who briefly controlled Hungary in 1848 and 1849, but was crushed by the Russian army.
Louis Philippe
Also called the Duke of Orleans, Louis Philippe ruled France as King from 1830 to 1848, when his government toppled in the February Revolution. Louis Philippe drew most of his support from the Bourgeoisie; he alienated and marginalized the growing French working class, leading to his overthrow in 1848.
Louis XVIII
Bourbon king of France from 1815 to his death in 1824, during which time he proved moderately Liberal, allowing an advisory Parliament to meet.
Magyars
Dominant linguistic and ethnic group in Hungary.
Robert Malthus
Early British economist. His most famous idea was that increasing the food supply would always increase the population, meaning that eradicating the suffering of the lower classes was impossible.
Karl Marx
German economist and philosopher who, along with Friedrich Engels, wrote The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital while in living in England. The ideology of Communism draws its inspiration from Marx and Engels' work, which was influenced by the social environment in Western Europe during the first half of the 19th century.
Joseph Mazzini
Italian Nationalist from Genoa who founded Young Italy in 1832, a movement that would inspire nationalist groups throughout Europe.
Klemons von Metternich
Austrian foreign minister, Metternich was Europe's arch-Reactionary. He was a leading architect of the balance of power developed at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and he called the great powers to various Congresses throughout the coming decade to put down European rebellions wherever they started. In 1848, during a revolution in Vienna, Metternich fled the city.
Nicholas I
Succeeded Alexander I, serving as Russian Czar from 1825 to 1855. Nicholas' more liberal brother Constantine was favored as successor by Russian revolutionaries, but Nicholas used the army to destroy this rebellion.
Robert Owen
Manchester manufacturer who grew upset by the conditions endured by workers in Industrial Revolution Britain, and became a reformer.
Robert Peel
Britain's conservative prime minister from 1834 to 1835, and from 1841 to 1846. Peel oversaw the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, partially due to the ongoing Irish Famine.
David Ricardo
Early British economist who helped develop "Classical" economics. He was responsible for formulating the "Iron Law" of wages, which stated that any attempt to improve workers' lots would lead to such a population increase that the increased competition for labor would ultimately bring workers' wages back down. This argument held that no improvement in workers' lives was possible, so the government should not bother legislating wage increases.
Saint-Simon
French theorist of Socialism, he developed a concept of "Christian Socialism" emphasizing the brotherhood of all men. His conception included the centralization of industry and equal sharing of its profits.
José de San Martín
Much like Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín was a South American military leader involved in the liberation of several South American countries from Spanish colonial rule.
Friedrich Schiller
German Romantic dramatist of the late 18th and early 19th century.
Karl Friedrich Schinkel
German Romantic architect who worked both in classical forms; a leader in the Gothic Revival.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Influential British Romantic poet, married to Mary Shelley.
Mary Shelley
British Romantic writer, wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, and author of Frankenstein (1818), a classic allegory of the flaws of Reason and Science.
Slavs
An ethnic and linguistic classification in Eastern Europe and Western Asia that includes Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and Macedonians.
