Who needs the French Revolution?

This is in response to JED's post and DLemma's comment on the same post:

The French Revolution certainly spread the ideas of liberty, equality, and fraternity across Europe, and it expedited the growth and development of the 19th-century ideologies supporting or reacting to those ideas. However, I think the right conditions for conservatism, liberalism, socialism, and nationalism were already in place in Europe before the French Revolution. In other words - you could consider this type of counterfactual - the French Revolution was not necessary for the creation of these ideologies to occur. The Enlightenment ideas had already been discussed throughout Europe for a century. The Industrial Revolution, and the social disparities that came along with it, had already begun in Britain before the French Revolution. If there were no French Revolution, the main difference between this hypothetical situation and the real subsequent history of Europe would be that the Conservative movement would have been considerably weaker.

Revolution, Restoration, and Britain (Coffin 709-717)

In addition to the Industrial Revolution, the effects of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars made Britain and its empire one of the most powerful entities of the 19th century. To begin with, Britain won the wars, so it didn't have to give away any money as an indemnity, like the French did (also, Britain's infrastructure wasn't even damaged, as happened with countries on the continent, particularly Russia). In fact, Britain received new territories from France as compensation for the war, increasing the size of the British Empire and giving a large base from which to expand. The British Empire also benefited from the Congress of Vienna. The delegates there wanted stability in Europe and thought the best way to achieve this goal would be to maintain a balance of power by means of organizations like the Quintuple Alliance and the creation of small independent states. This meant that Britain's rivals wouldn't become too powerful a threat to Britain, or, if they did, the other countries of Europe would ally with Britain against that rival. Britain, then, didn't have to commit as many troops to Europe and could instead use its armies to conquer and rule territory for its empire. In the Western Hemisphere, the French Revolution and the ideas associated with it had inspired revolutions and wars of independence in almost every country. These developments took land, resources, and markets away from some of Britain's trading competitors, Portugal and Spain, and opened up new markets for British goods. The Monroe Doctrine in 1823, which warned against European intervention in the Western Hemisphere and which Britain supported, helped secure these markets for Britain. Interestingly enough, the ideas of both the French Revolution and the Congress of Vienna, which was a reaction to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, were beneficial to Britain and the growth of its empire.