Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/389

 THE EUROPEAN POWERS FROM 1815 TO 1871 377 popular discontent. In France, Louis xvm. resisted the pressure of the ultra-royalists, and maintained what might be called a con- stitutional system ; but here too the reactionary party, headed by the king's brother and heir, obtained the ascendency from 182 1 onwards. In Spain, however, discontent reached such a pitch that a popular revolt in 1820 led to the compulsory acceptance by the king of the constitution which had been formulated in 181 2 during the Peninsular War. This 'constitu- tion of 1812' became the watchword of the revolutionists who were at the same time rising in Naples, in other parts of Italy, and in Sicily. The Holy Alliance was brought to bear on these disturbances, Great Britain and France not being prepared to intervene actively. France indeed joined with the Holy Alliance ; and in Spain, Portugal, and Italy popular resistance was crushed and absolutism restored. The death of Louis xvin. placed his brother on the French throne as Charles x. in 1824, and the government became per- sistently reactionary. But the effect was not unlike 2 Resistance that of the accession of James 11. in England in to the 1685. The sober constitutionalists combined to Reaction - effect an almost bloodless revolution in July 1830; the king was forced to abdicate, and his cousin Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, was raised to the throne as a constitutional _ FmncG king, Charles with his son and grandson retreating to exile in England. This was the first definitely successful revolt against the reaction. At the same time, nationalism won its first victory. The system of government in the Turkish Empire was of the oriental, not the western type. The sultans were very much in the hands of the troops called Janissaries, the provinces were left to the pro- vincial governors, and Egypt under Mehemet Ali paid very little attention to the sovereign at Constantinople. It Greek was, however, primarily the Christian populations, Independ- subjected to Mohammedan rulers, which suffered ence ' from serious oppression. A rising which began in Moldavia, in 1820, was followed by a general insurrection in the Morea, the southern peninsula of Greece, and in the islands of the ^Egean. In spite of strong sympathy in Russia and in England,