Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/639

 Europe after the Congress of Vienna 483 of Vienna, hastened to sweep away the reforms which Napoleon had introduced and to reestablish all the abuses of the old regime. The lesser Italian princes, moreover, showed themselves to be heartily in sympathy with the hated Austria. Popular discontent spread throughout the peninsula and led to the formation of numerous secret societies, which assumed strange names, practiced mysterious rites, and plotted darkly in the name of Italian liberty and independence. By far the most noted of these associations was that of the Carbonari ; that is, charcoal burners. Its objects were individual liberty, constitutional government, and national independence and unity. These it undertook to promote by agita- tion, by conspiracy, and, if necessary, by revolution. Attempts were made by the Neapolitans and by the people of the kingdom of Sardinia, and later by other Italian states, to force their rulers to grant them constitutions. The alert Metter- nich, who had from time to time called congresses of the European powers, obtained their consent to dispatch Austrian troops to check the development of "revolt and crime." So all liberal movements in Italy were suppressed for the time being. 857. Hopeful Signs. Yet there were two hopeful signs. Eng- land protested as early as 1820 against Metternich's theory of interfering in the domestic affairs of other independent states in order to prevent reforms of which he disapproved, and France, on the accession of Louis Philippe in 1830, emphatically repudiated the doctrine of intervention. A second and far more important indication of progress was the increasing conviction on the part of the Italians that their country ought to be a single nation and not, as hitherto, a group of small independent states under foreign influence. 858. Creation of the Kingdom of Greece (iszi). Two events, at least, during the period of Metternich's influence served to encourage the liberals of Europe. In 1821 the inhabitants of Greece had revolted against the oppressive government of the Turks. The Turkish government set to work to suppress the revolt by atrocious massacres. It is said that twenty thousand of the inhabitants of the island of Chios were slaughtered. The