Hugo uses this chapter to dispel the impulse that some “liberal” individuals of his time seem to have had to see the victory at Waterloo on the part of those representing the monarchical roots of Europe as a win for progress and liberty. Hugo’s argument against this way of thinking is that any capitulation made by the side of the monarchy was not out of a change of heart, but only that which was necessary to maintain their positions of power and authority. At the end of the chapter he says:
We must read into Waterloo no more than it truly represented. There was no intention of liberty. The counter-revolution involuntarily turned liberal just as Napoleon, by a parallel phenomenon, involuntarily turned revolutionary.
Though this particular example is bound to some very specific elements of its time and place, it is not an isolated occurrence. There is a pattern we can discern throughout history of counter-revolutionary forces making surface concessions that allow them to maintain power. These concessions often work in the same way the steam valve on a pressure cooker works - by adjusting to allow for release, an explosive event is avoided and the status quot can be maintained.
Where this happens there is often an adjusting of tactics that goes along with it. When the sword is laid down and treaties are signed, then the weapons of the ongoing revolution change as well. In the case we have before us, we see this as the end of violent revolution in Europe, but not the end of the spread of revolutionary ideas that would lead to further changes in the structures of power on the continent. Hugo speaks to this earlier in the chapter when he says:
Waterloo put an end to the overthrow of European thrones by the sword, but the effect of this was to cause the work of revolution to proceed in another form. The day of the swordsmen was ended, the thinkers took their place. The tides of the century which Waterloo sought to stem flowed over the battlefield and still rose; the sinister victory was defeated by liberty.
There is much that could be said about what would unfold after the time of Hugo’s writing and all of the additional twists and turns things would take between the 19th and 21st centuries as we move to the place where we find ourselves today. Wars still rage, revolutions rise and fall, things take new shape in the ever evolving reality of a global economy that looks for new methods and means to extract value and redistribute wealth to an ever tightening circle of the wealthy. Despite all of that I do believe (maybe naively but I refuse to abandon all hope) that Hugo was on to something when he noted that the tides of liberty and the will of those exploited continue to rise. I really do hope that despite those who would fight against it the “arc of the moral universe bends toward justice” and we will see progress made in the generations to come.
We’re in an age of transition not unlike the one that marked the revolutionary times written about in this novel. The details differ, but we are living through the advent of what many have named “Techno-Feudalism”. In transitional times like these it’s easy to be overwhelmed by those pushing the agenda of a reassertion of a “might makes right” mentality. My sincere hope is that like Hugo describes in the passages quoted above we see the tides of liberty continue to rise despite the efforts of those who would shut them down. ¡Viva la Revolución!