Transcript The Revolutions of 1848

The Revolutions of 1848
and National Unification
National Movements
In 1848, liberal, republican and nationalist
sentiments in Europe erupted in a series
of revolutions.
 Republicans wanted government to be a
republic. Which is a government where
the head of state is not a monarch (i.e. a
President) Everything in government is
considered a public matter (not private)
and officials are elected

1848
The most revolutionary year in European
history
 Called the “Springtime of the
peoples”
 Of the major powers, only England and
Russia would avoid serious uprisings
 The spark would once again come from
France

France falls out of love with King
Louis Philippe
King Louis Philippe and his ministers
represented the views of the upper and
upper middle classes
 Mounting discontent on the part of the
lower middle class and the working class
(proletariat)
 Under Louis Philippe, political societies
were illegal, and in 1847, he suspended
the right of political assembly

French Revolution (still not the last)
The pattern of revolution, established in
1789, was repeated
 The army, ordered to fire on the
insurgents, refused, and within 3 days
Louis Philippe had abdicated his throne
and left the country
 The revolutionaries agreed on a
republican form of government and a
provisional government was established
until elections could be held

Revolutions Spread
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Austrian: March 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I
granted Austria a constitution
Hungary obtained its own constitution
though not fully autonomy
German States: Berlin, Prussian
revolutionaries demanded constitutional
government. Other revolutions followed in
the smaller German states. The German
states agreed to try and unify the German
states (it will take a little longer)
Most of these revolutions failed because of
the inability of the revolutionaries to remain
united
Back to France
The Provisional government was
composed of liberals, socialists, and
constitutional monarchists. (they didn’t
agree on much)
 Faced with poor harvests and massive
unemployment, they set up National
Workshops, which became public works
projects to provide jobs for the
unemployed. Liberals won the election
and closed them saying they cost to much

Workers Revolution
Workers responded by mounting a
second revolution
 The provisional government called in the
army to suppress them
 From June 24 to 26, 1848, Paris was
involved in a civil war
 The bloody “June Days” shook Paris,
France and Europe. The Defeat of the
workers, or “Social Republicans”
marked the first step back to
conservatism

Another Napoleon
December 1848, four men campaigned for
President of the new French Republic, a hero
of the repression, a liberal poet, a radical and
a political unknown with a famous last name
 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleons
nephew.
 Napoleon won my over 4 million votes,
which showed a large majority of French
voters still preferred the “order” and “glory”
associated with the name Napoleon

Napoleon followed in his uncles footsteps
 In December 1851, he used the army to
overthrow the constitution
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In December 1852, he declared himself
Emperor, and called a plebiscite, a direct
vote, asking for public approval of the move

The electorate voted overwhelmingly in his
favour and he became Napoleon III
Unification of Italy
Count Camillo di Cavour
Prime Minister of
Piedmont in Northern
Italy
 Liberal, admired
England
 Goal: absorb into
Piedmont the areas of
north-central Italy
under Austrian rule

Needs Help
Cavour knew Piedmont could not do this
alone and asked Napoleon III for
assistance
 July 1858, Piedmont and France signed the
Pact of Plombieres agreeing to make
war with Austria, so that Lombardy and
Venetia (other northern Italian provinces)
would be annexed to Piedmony
 Gave France Niece and Savoy in return
 First offensive treaty of modern times
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How to Start a Fight
Provoked Austria by taking protecting
Austrian draft-dodgers and mobilizing
troops on Austrian border
 Austria declares war first, April 20, 1859
 Piedmont was winning the war, but
Napoleon III backs out because of
Pressure from French Catholics who
feared this was a threat to the Papal
States
 Piedmont gets control of Lombardy, but
not Venetia

Piedmont grows larger
There were nationalist uprisings in Modena,
Tuscany, and Parma and their new
governments join Piedmont
 Piedmont then sends his army south and
with French support the Kingdom of the
two Sicilies is annexed to Piedmont, as well
as the papal states, except the area around
Rome
 Italy is declared a Constitutional Monarchy,
with Piedmont king Victor Emanuel II
named ruler
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Final Unification
The completion of Italian Unification
would take another decade.
 1866, Italy allied with Prussia in a war
against Austria and were successful and
Italy finally obtained Venetia
 During the Franco-Prussia war, France
was unable to defend Rome, and the
Italian Army annexed it to Italy
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German Unification
Prussia became the centre of German
Nationalism
 A revolution in 1848 failed, but Prussians
did obtain a constitution and a two house
legislature, but King Wilhelm I power
was unchecked and was more of an
enlightened despot then parliamentary
monarch

Fighting over Money
1862, the King and parliament were
deadlocked over the military budget
 This prompted Wilhelm to call on Otto von
Bismarck to become first minister
 Bismarck responded to the constitutional
deadlock by claiming that all powers not
specifically given by the constitution to
parliament belonged to the King
 He advised the king to ignore parliament and
tell the civil service to collect taxes as they
did before
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Otto Von Bismarck
With the army now on a sound footing,
Bismarck used the desire for a German
nation-state and Prussia’s dominant economic
position to unite some of the German states
against Austria
 Bismarck realized he would have to defeat
Austria to enable Prussia to achieve German
unification
 To accomplish this, he demonstrated
Realpolitik, “politics of reality”
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◦ Militarily he prepared for war with Austria
◦ Diplomatically, allied with Italy promising then
Venetia, pacified France with vague promises of
territory, hinted to Russia that Prussia would
support some of their western claims and hoped
England would not get involved
Austro-Prussian War
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The war lasted only 7 weeks and was a
decisive victory for Prussia
Prussian generals said they could continue to
Vienna and totally defeat Austria, Bismarck
said no, he wanted to unite Germany, not
crush Austria
Resulted in a North German
Confederation, composed of 22 of the 39
German states.
Prussian King, head of state, with a
constitution
The Problem with France
Napoleon III was not happy with
Bismarck’s success
 France feared a strong Germany as its
neighbour
 Bismarck knew that he would have to
defeat France to unify Germany, for they
would not permit a union of the northern
and southern German states
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Franco-Prussian War and German
Unification
Began July 1870, ended September 1870,
with the defeat of Napoleon III at Sedan
 With France out of the way, Germany was
free to unite
 The German states in the south joined the
Northern German Confederation to create
the German Empire, which comprised all
German states, except Austria.
 The King of Prussia was declared Emperor
 The new Germany would replace France as
the dominant power on the continent
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