Let us forget for a moment the international rivalries of the two
major powers and return to the political and social conditions of
Europe. If we view them with the retrospective wisdom of na-
tional-liberal historians, the events of 1830 were a sort of overture
and the following years can be considered an interval between two
revolutions, a long entr`acte in the great nineteenth-century sym-
phonic poem, dedicated to Liberty and Nation, in which Europe
took particular pride.

Those years were marked, in some countries, by great social
transformations. People born after the end of the Napoleonic wars
began to work and take their place in societies quite different from
those of their fathers and grandfathers. The industrial revolution
had been spreading from Great Britain to countries of Continental
Europe -- Belgium, Germany -- where large rivers and rich coal
mines favored the establishment of industries. As in England at
the end of the previous century, the first to take advantage of the
new techniques were textile manufacturers, who thus contributed
to hasten the economic decline of countries -- Italy, Spain -- where
textiles were still produced with traditional technology. Because of
the development of railways and the merchant marine, mechanical
industry acquired paramount importance. Cast iron and steel were
needed in growing quantities for rails, locomotives, boilers, car-
riages, carts, steamboats, and tooling machines. England led the
way with the first freight train (1825), between Stockton and Dar-
lington, and the first passenger train (1830), between Liverpool

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