Sunday, January 18, 2009

732-742

Willingness to compromise is the essential component in preventing revolution. If a government hopes to escape revolution it needs to be humble enough to reshape and change with the will of the people. While the Congress of Vienna (1814) had presented an idealistic proposition to ensure peace and prevent revolution, it did not stress the importance of embracing governmental and systematic change in order to avoid revolution. The success that systematic change has in avoiding revolution is best demonstrated by the British reform in 1832. The period after the Napoleonic Wars brought great hardship to Great Britain, and, as a result, social unrest, particularly within the middle class. As pressure from lower classes increased, British political leaders realized that the only way to avoid revolution would be to have an open ear to the complaints of the British people and try to mold itself, moderately, to resolve the problems through the Reform Bill of 1832. This Bill reduced (but did not eliminate) the influence and presence of the British elite in Parliament and opened Parliament to some members of the middle class. The result of this alteration in Parliament were changes that heeded to the needs of the middle class (such as the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846) and thus made a greater majority of the British public content. While discontentment with the gains of the 1832 reform remained and was demonstrated through the rise in Chartism during the 1840s, ultimately, the willingness of the British government to adhere to the complaints of the people at all was critical in preventing revolution. The actions of the British government in 1832 demonstrated the need to change according to the complaints of the people in order to prevent revolution. 

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