Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/390

 378 THE MODERN NATIONS the Greeks were left without European support, other than that of volunteers such as Lord Byron. They held their own, though it seemed certain that they must succumb to the Turks re- enforced by a fleet and army from Egypt. The deciding factor in the situation was the accession of Nicholas i. as Russian Tsar. Russian policy was thenceforth guided exclusively by Russian interests. In spite of Metternich, Russia, Great Britain, and France came to an agreement to force concessions upon the sultan — a process which immediately involved their sinking the Egyptian fleet at the battle of Navarino. Ultimately, after a war in which Russia was left to act by herself, Turkey was compelled to allow Greece to become an independent constitutional monarchy under the young Prince Otho of Bavaria. The ! July Revolution ' in France was immediately followed by the revolt of Belgium against Dutch domination, and of Poland against the Russian supremacy; while the peaceful manner in which it had been carried out helped very materially in the passage in England of the Reform Act which reconstructed the House of Commons. Both in France and in England the effect was to make the manufacturers and the middle classes the controlling power. In Belgium the clericals were united to the liberals, because of the antagonism between Belgian Catholicism and Dutch Belgian Calvinism. The intervention of the powers brought Independ- about the separation of the two kingdoms, the Belgian Crown being bestowed on Leopold of Saxe- Coburg, uncle of the Princess Victoria, who four years later be- came Queen of England. It may be noted in passing that, as the Crown of Hanover could not pass to a female, its union with that of Great Britain was then brought to an end, and the way prepared for its ultimate incorporation with Prussia. The Polish insurrection exemplified the fatal incapacity of the Poles for acting in unison j in spite of heroic resistance it was ruthlessly stamped out, and Poland was turned into a province of the Russian Empire. Meanwhile, the Spanish dominions in Central and South America had broken away from Spain, and Brazil had become separated from Portugal as an empire under the Portuguese