British Imperialism and the Decline of Trust in the International Order, 1840–1848*

Abstract: During the 1840s, international crises and territorially limited armed conflicts in Europe and overseas gave rise to or at least fuelled feelings of deep mistrust, pessimism and fear among a considerable number of Europeans. This had wide-ranging and often negative consequences for the stability of the post-Napoleonic international arena. Despite deep-rooted opinions that the conservative powers were to blame, they are not the only ones who can be held responsible for this feeling of insecurity. Britain also contributed to it with its assertive and sometimes even illegal foreign policy. In response to this, some Italian and German liberals and democrats assumed a negative attitude towards both Britain and the whole European states system. Furthermore, as they had no faith in the guarantees of their external security established by the 1815 treaties, they tried to gain a higher level of protection through national unification, strong armed forces and overseas expansion. Through the presentation and analysis of this response to international insecurity in the liberal and democratic public sphere with Italy and Germany as examples, this article reveals the strong impact of British foreign policy on the emergence of aggressive nationalism between 1840 and 1848. This nationalism continued into the second half of the nineteenth century and, after the unifications of both Germany and Italy, fuelled the two countries’ economic, naval and territorial ambitions, which were both troublesome for Britain and subversive to the entire European order, making its inception in the 1840s even more significant.