Napoleon was defeated in 1815 and soon European governments adopted the idea of conservatism. The conservatives held the belief that established, traditional institutions of state and society like monarchy, church, social hierarchies, property and family must be protected and preserved. They never proposed a pre-revolutionary period to return to but they knew that as Napoleon had carried out changes, modernisation would in fact contribute to a strong monarchy. They believed that it would strengthen power of the state and make it much more effective. For them it was a firm belief that aristocratic monarchies of Europe would gain much from a modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism and serfdom.