At first, this didn’t particularly worry anyone. Inviting Russian troops to deal with yet another rebellion even became a kind of fashion: people have always loved to rake in the heat with someone else’s hands in all times and under all regimes. But since the time of Peter I, Russia had a fixation, which especially intensified under Catherine and became an obsession for her grandson Nicholas – to “beat” Turkey, seize Constantinople, and annex the territories of the second Rome to the “third Rome”107. While the Ottoman Empire was strong, such scenarios were out of the question, but by the mid-19th century, the once mighty conquering country had turned into the “sick man of Europe.” And the option to “beat and seize” took on quite real outlines.
These ambitions, however, did not amuse England, which was engaged in the Great Game with Russia for dominance.
Domination in Asia. Therefore, as soon as Nicholas moved from words to action, a representative coalition of former allies immediately gathered against him and vividly demonstrated what happens to an economically backward and politically archaic country that aspires to the role of a world hegemon. The “division of spheres of influence” turned out to be quite effective, but it gave all participants even greater confidence that for the sake of “containment” and “putting in place,” it is possible and even necessary to uncase the cannons. What followed was a series of wars between European neighbors, strategically of little use, but precisely because of this, they further convinced elites and society that a small war is no different from other political tools.
However, these wars did lead to some strategic shifts. As a result, a never-before-existing country, Italy108, appeared on the map of Europe, and instead of the old Prussia109 and its small and generally quite unhappy neighbors, the very Germany was formed that would cause so much commotion in the next century. The equally absurd and asymmetrical American-Mexican War110 rounded out the territory of the US, quietly transforming a large fragment of British colonies into a powerful force on a global scale. And a series of Opium Wars111 brought China to the state of a half-occupied, semi-wild land somewhere on the edge of the Earth, devoid of any meaning and significance for everyone except its closest neighbors. The fact that all these wars were fought with relatively small forces on limited territory in a medieval “army against army” format ultimately led the world to a stable understanding that “this is possible.” And when, a hundred years after the congress, the private disputes of sovereigns suddenly turned into a worldwide carnage, it was surprising to all parties. If everyone wanted the Second World War, then, by and large, no one desired the First. To rattle for a couple of months and disperse, as had happened many times before… the naive belief in the possibility of holding red-hot coal in one’s palms cost nations millions of lives, and rulers and elites – thrones, positions, and titles, and humanity as a whole – an unexpected and unpredictable change in the entire way of life.
Liberation of the Genius
People really like to attribute all achievements to one leader. This greatly simplifies the picture of existence: understanding one person is much easier than understanding several, let alone many. However, in life, of course, it doesn’t happen that way. Any changes, any progress, and any movement are the result of the interaction of many people. And not a single, even the most brilliant pioneer, is capable of doing anything without those who follow behind him. When, for some reason, the creative energy of thousands and tens of thousands of people is unleashed, the changes turn out to be truly grandiose.
The 19th century produced an unprecedented number of great people, from the military genius of Bonaparte to Brunel112, Tesla113 and Edison114. In general, listing them is pointless: hundreds and even thousands of names have inscribed themselves into the history of humanity over these hundred years. We can easily count twice, ten times more historical figures than in all previous human history. It seems as if a faucet was opened, and the earth began to produce geniuses where there was previously only emptiness and ordinariness.
By the way, this assumption is not far from the truth. Indeed, the 19th century broke several barriers that held back human energy and unleashed creative resources previously unable to grow and develop.
First and foremost, this is the class barrier. For many centuries before, the world was rigidly divided into social strata. Only people from the upper echelons of society had the path open to large-scale achievements. Everyone else had to be content with roles determined by birth. Not only did a peasant, doomed to a lifetime of plowing, but also an ordinary priest or a not particularly noble nobleman have insanely little chance of achieving something, becoming noticeable, or accomplishing something worthy of being remembered by descendants. Moreover, as time went on, these opportunities became fewer: if in the eleventh century a certain Robert Guiscard115, the sixth son of an obscure baron, could win himself the title of duke and essentially found a kingdom, then in the seventeenth century, Chevalier d’Artagnan could at best call himself a count and hope that His Majesty would find it possible to overlook this small liberty. By the end of the 18th century, in most states, the class division had reached its peak. Among the developed countries of that time, the only exception was the North American United States, where, due to the colonial peculiarity, there were never any classes116, and the republican form of government only emphasized the atypicality of the situation117.
The example turned out to be quite illustrative. It turns out that if you simply tell a lord to go to hell, the world doesn’t collapse. And if everyone does it together, you can even send the king far away.
At first, this was undertaken by the former allies of the Americans in their struggle against the British metropolis – the French. The most absolutist power in Europe dismantled its power vertical slowly, bloodily, and meticulously118. Other nations approached the matter less thoroughly, but overall, a person in the nineteenth century depended on their origin dramatically less than in the eighteenth century. The remnants of the class society were finished off by two world wars, but even by the start of the first one, a Jewish banker or an Irish engineer meant more than an impoverished descendant of ancient dukes with a mix of royal blood.
The second barrier, swept away even more thoroughly than the first, is the geographical one. And here, it’s not just about the distances, which have been reduced from long months of walking to hours or days by train and steamboat. It’s about people’s perception of the suddenly emerging possibilities of globalization.
Until the 19th century, the overwhelming majority of the population, with the exception of sailors, travelers, and some merchants and military personnel, led an incredibly sedentary lifestyle. And where could a barefoot peasant go? It wasn’t even just about having to walk: few could afford a riding horse, let alone a carriage. They had to carry food on their back and find lodging and companions. Today, we need money, money, and more money on the road, but until the 19th century, it played a much smaller role than we imagine. The Middle Ages were a time of subsistence economy, and even after their end, peasant contributions in grain, wool, and livestock were often more common than monetary rent in many places. In modern books and films, feudal lords scatter gold and silver everywhere, and even peasants always seem to have a pouch of coins. In reality, a poor person having just “a couple of shillings” did not mean immediate starvation: money was