After the War Came

While doing the reading at my dining room table, I decided that it would be entirely appropriate to listen to The Decemberists. Unfortunately it seems that zero to none of their lyrics fit in with what the reading detailed, with the exception of "When the War Came," which says:

A terrible autonomy,
Is grafted onto you and me,
Our trust put in the government,
They told their lies are heaven sent,
'Til the war came.
The lyrics bring up the idea of the Divine Right of Kings, a principle which was pushed aside by Metternich and the Congress of Vienna. Rather than getting power from god, a ruler was legitimized by "international treaties, support, and a series of guarantees" (Western Civilizations, Coffin and Stacey, 712). Even though the Decembrists came into being in 1825 years after the Congress of Vienna (1814), the Decemberists (band), forgiving the anachronism, seem to address the more positive side of revolution and war. The "terrible autonomy" is easily enough viewed as any autocratic power which was overthrown because of the uprisings in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. But everything changed when "the war came."

The legacies of the revolutions (in thought, government, etc.) can be seen in their prolonged impact on society. As Western Civilizations addresses on the opening page of Chapter 20, as much as Metternich wished to reintroduce the same sort of political stability as before, changes in how people viewed themselves and their places within the cultural context made restoration impossible.

Peace would have to be found in a different way.

As international relations quickly became a game of alliances and subtle (or not so subtle) threats like the Monroe Doctrine, the way peace was established similarly changed. Manipulation and opportunism came to the front of the game. Seen in the Balkan conflicts of the 1820's, the desire for peace did not preclude gain. Sacrifice, in the sense of power and esteem, was not necessary.