Transcript The Revolutions of 1848

The 1830 Revolutions
France: The “Restoration” Era
4 France emerged from the chaos of its
(1815-1830)
revolutionary period as the most liberal
large state in Europe.
4 Louis XVIII governed France as a
Constitutional monarch.

He agreed to observe the 1814 “Charter” or
Constitution of the Restoration period.
•
•
•
•
Limited royal power.
Granted legislative power.
Protected civil rights.
Upheld the Napoleon Code.
Louis XVIII (r. 1814-1824)
The “Ultras”
4 France was divided by those who had accepted
the ideals of the Fr. Revolution and those who
didn’t.
4 The Count of Artois was the leader of the “UltraRoyalists”
4 1815 “White Terror”
 Royalist mobs killed 1000s of former
revolutionaries.
4 1816 elections
The Count of Artois, the future King
Charles X
(r. 1824-1830)
 The Ultras were rejected in the Chamber of
Deputies election in favor of a moderate
royalist majority dependent on middle class
support.
France: Conservative Backlash
4 1820the Duke of Berri, son of Artois, was murdered.
4 Royalists blamed the left.
4 Louis XVIII moved the govt. more to the right
 Changes in electoral laws narrowed the eligible voters.
 Censorship was imposed.
4 Liberals were driven out of legal political life and into illegal activities.
4 1823 triumph of reactionary forces!

Fr troops were authorized by the Concert of Europe to crush the Spanish
Revolution and restore another Bourbon ruler, Ferdinand VII, to the throne
there.
King Charles X of France (r. 1824-1830)
4 His Goals:
 Lessen the influence of the middle
class.
 Limit the right to vote.
 Put the clergy back in charge
of education.
 Public money used to pay nobles
for the loss of their lands during
the Fr Revolution.
4 His Program:
 Attack the 1814 Charter.
 Control the press.
 Dismiss the Chamber of Deputies when it turned against him.
 Appointed an ultra-reactionary as his first minister.
King Charles X of France (r. 1824-1830)
4 1830 Election brought in another liberal majority.
4 July Ordinances
 He dissolved the entire parliament.
 Strict censorship imposed.
 Changed the voting laws so that the government in the future
could be assured of a conservative victory.
To the Barracades  Revolution,
Again!!
Workers, students and some of the middle class call for a Republic!
Louis Philippe  The “Citizen King”
4 The Duke of Orleans.
4 Relative of the Bourbons, but
had stayed clear of the Ultras.
4 Lead a thoroughly bourgeois life.
4 His Program:
 Property qualifications reduced
enough to double eligible voters.
 Press censorship abolished.
 The King ruled by the will of the
people, not by the will of God.
 The Fr Revolution’s tricolor
replaced the Bourbon flag.
4 The government was now under the control of the
wealthy middle class.
(r. 1830-1848)
Louis Philippe  The “Citizen King”
4 His government ignored the needs and demands
of the workers in the cities.
 They were seen as another nuisance and source
of possible disorder.
4 July, 1832  an uprising in Paris was put down
by force and 800 were killed or wounded.
4 1834  Silk workers strike in Lyon was crushed.
 Seething underclass.
 Was seen as a violation of the status quo set
down at the Congress of Vienna.
A caricature of
Louis Philippe
Belgian Independence, 1830
4 The first to follow the lead of France.
4 Its union with Holland after the Congress of Vienna had not proved successful.
4 There had been
very little popular
agitation for Belgian
nationalism before
1830  seldom had
nationalism arisen so
suddenly.
4 Wide cultural
differences:
 North  Dutch  Protestant  seafarers and traders.
 South  French  Catholic  farmers and individual workers.
Belgian Revolution - 1830
A Stirring of Polish Nationalism - 1830
A Stirring of Polish Nationalism - 1830
4 The bloodiest struggle of the 1830 revolutions.
4 The Poles in and around Warsaw gain a special status by the Congress of
Vienna within the Russian Empire.
 Their own constitution.
 Local autonomy granted in 1818.
4 After Tsar Alexander I dies, the Poles became restless under the tyrannical rule
of Tsar Nicholas I.
4 Polish intellectuals were deeply influenced by Romanticism.
4 Rumors reached Poland that Nicholas I was planning to use Polish troops to put
down the revolutions in France and Belgium.
4 Several Polish secret societies rebelled.
A Stirring of Polish Nationalism - 1830
4 Had the Poles been united, this
revolt might have been successful.
 But, the revolutionaries
were split into moderates
and radicals.
4 The Poles had hoped that Fr &
Eng would come to their aid,
but they didn’t.
4 Even so, it took the Russian army
a year to suppress this rebellion.
4 The irony  by drawing the Russian army to Warsaw for almost a year, the Poles
may well have kept Nicholas I from answering Holland’s call for help in suppressing
the Belgian Revolt.
Europe in 1830
The Results of the 1820s-1830
Revolutions?
1.
The Concert of Europe provided for a recovery of Europe after the long years of
Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.
2.
The conservatives did NOT reverse ALL of the reforms put in place by the French
Revolution.
3.
Liberalism would challenge the conservative plan for European peace and law and
order.
4.
These revolutions were successful only in W. Europe:
 Their success was in their popular support.
 Middle class lead, aided by the urban lower classes.
5.
The successful revolutions had benefited the middle
class  the workers, who had done so much of the rioting and fighting, were left with
empty hands!
6.
Therefore, these revolutions left much unfinished & a seething, unsatisfied working
class.
Typical Political Revolution
(TPR)
G The Middle Class allies with the
Working Class to revolt against the
ruling conservative class.
G Initially the Middle and Working
Classes succeed, but then because of
their basic differences the alliance
falls apart and the conservative
forces reassert themselves.
G Middle Class tends to be liberal, while
the working classes tend to be more
radical.
Louis Philippe, “The Pear,” 1848
Revolution in France 1848
G “the July monarchy in France was a
platform of boards built over a
volcano. Under it burned the
repressed fires of republicanism put
down in 1830, which since 1830 had
become steadily more socialistic”
G Radicals wanted universal suffrage
and a republic, but liberals asked only
for broader voting rights within the
existing constitutional Monarchy
G Louis Phillipe and his Prime Minister
refused any change. Stupid move.
What should they have done?
February revolution in France
1848
G Banquet in Paris planned for Feb. 22
G On February 21 the gov’t forbade such
meetings-that night barricades went up
throughout the city
G Gov’t called the national guard-refused
to move-King now promised electoral
reform-too late.
G Demonstration at Guizot’s house-20
killed
G February 24 Louis Philippe abdicates
to…England
G That leaves us with the liberal
reformers and the radical republicansnow it gets interesting.
The February Revolution
G Working class & liberals
unhappy with King Louis
Philippe, esp. with his
minister, Francois Guizot
[who opposed electoral
reform].
G Reform Banquets used to
protest against the King.
Paris Banquet banned.
Troops open fire on peaceful protestors.
Barricades erected; looting.
National Guard [politically disenfranchised]
defects to the radicals.
 King Louis Philippe loses control of Paris and
abdicates on February 24.




Creation of provisional government
G Const. Reformers hoped to carry on
with the son of Louis Phillipe
G Republicans stormed the Chamber of
Deputies and proclaimed a republic-no
whiff of grapeshot this time.
G Provisional government:
 7 political republicans-Lamartine
 3 social republicans- Louis Blanc
•
•
•
Blanc was interested in creating social
workshops
Instead he got national workshops
By June there were 200,000 idle men in a
city of 1 million
Election of Constituent
Assembly
G Elected in April 1848 by Universal
Male suffrage across all of France
G Immediately replaced provisional gov’t
with temporary executive board of its
own
G This new exec board contained NO
socialists
Alphonse Lamartine
G A poet & liberal, he
believed in the “Rights
of Man.”
 To vote, to free
speech, to property, &
to a secular education.
G Declared a new
Provisional
Government.
 Conservatives &
liberals are suspicious
of republicanism
•
Reminiscent of the
Reign of Terror.
Louis Blanc
G A Social Democrat.
G He believed in the
“Right to Work.”
 National Workshops.
•
Provide work for the
unemployed.
G Financial Crisis
 Flight of capital.
 Stock market crashes
[55% decline].
 New 45% increase of
taxes on the
peasants.
April Elections
G Resulted in a conservative majority
in the National Assembly.
 They began debating the fate of social
programs [like the National
Workshops].
G The conservative majority wanted
the removal of radicals like Blanc
from the government.
 In early June, the National Workshops
were shut down.
• This heightened class tensions!
The “June Days”
G Worker groups in Paris rose up in
insurrection.
 They said that the government had
betrayed the revolution.
• Workers wanted a
redistribution of wealth.
 Barricades in the streets.
• Victor Hugo’s Les
Miserables was based
on this event.
G A new liberal-conservative
coalition formed to oppose this lower
class radicalism.
“June Days” of 1848
G One side: nationally elected
constituent assembly
G Other side: National workshops
G NW unsuccessfully attacked the
CA
G CA declared martial law giving all
power to General Cavaignac (the
butcher)
G The bloody June days followed
June 24-26
G Class war raged in Paris-CA won
Paris: To the Barricades Again!
The 2nd French Republic (18481852)
G General Louis
Cavaignac assumed
dictatorial powers &
crushed the revolt.
 10,000 dead.
 A victory for
conservatives.
The Republic
by
Jean-Leon Gerome
G Nov., 1848  a new
constitution provided
for:
 An elected President.
 A one-house
legislature.
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
G After the June Days the CA sought to
create a republican constitution and
elect a new President
G Louis Napoleon Bonaparte won in a
landslide.
 Defeated Lamartine, Blanc, Cavignac
President Louis Napoleon
G The December election:
 The “law and order” candidate,
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte,
defeated Cavaignac.
 This was a big shift in middle
class opinion to the right!
G The New President:
 Purged the govt. of all radical officials.
•
Replaced them with ultra-conservative and
monarchists.
 Disbanded the National Assembly and held
new elections.
•
Represented himself as a “Man of the People.”
 His government regularly used forced
against dissenters.
The
HAPSBURG
EMPIRE
Revolution in Austria 1848
G Began in Hungary
G Louis Kossuth-Demanded national
autonomy from Austrian Empire, full
civil liberties and universal male
suffrage
G Austrian gov’t hesitated
G Viennese students and workers took
to streets-added own demands
G Aust. Emp. Ferdinand I gave inpromised reforms and a liberal
constitution
G Metternich fled to London
Weaknesses in Austrian revolutionary coalition
G Peasants, who made up most of the
army, were satisfied by the Gov’ts
aboliton of serfdom
G Hungarian revolutionaries wanted to
unify the diverse groups in Hungaryopposed by minority groups-croats,
serbs, rumanians-soon were locked in
armed combat with the new Hungarian
government
G Middle class wanted liberal reform
G Urban poor rose in arms-wanted
socialist workshops, universal voting
rights
G MC and UP soon were opposing
eachother
Reassertion of Conservative forces
G Ferdinand I abdicates in his place
his nephew Francis Joseph
G Windishgratz-smashed
Czechoslovakia
G Austria defeats revolutionaries in
Italy
G Army (peasants) attacked student
workers in Vienna
G Hungary brought back after
Russia went in with 130,000 troops
G The attempts to liberalize and
break up the Austrian empire were
unsuccessful.
The Austrian Empire: 1830
Ferdinand I (1793-1875)
G The nature of the Austrian
Empire:
 Very conservative monarchy
[liberal institutions didn’t
exist].
G Culturally and racially
heterogeneous.
G Social reliance on serfdom
dooms masses of people to a life without
hope.
G Corrupt and inefficient.
G Competition with an increasingly powerful
Prussia.
Therefore, the Empire was vulnerable to
revolutionary challenges.
Austrian Students Form a Militia
Vienna, 1848: The Liberal
Revolution
G The “February
Revolution” in France
triggered a rebellion
for liberal reforms.
G March 13  rioting
broke out in Vienna.
 The Austrian Empire
collapsed.
•
•
•
Metternich fled.
Constituent Assembly
met.
Serfdom [robot] abolished.
 The revolution began to wane.
•
The revolutionary government failed to govern
effectively.
The New Austrian
Emperor Franz Joseph I [r. 18481916]
The Hungarian Revolution
Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894)
G Hungarian revolutionary
leader.
G March laws provided for
Hungarian independence.
G Austrians invade.
 Hungarian armies drove
within sight of Vienna!
G Slavic minorities resisted
Magyar invasion & the
Hungarian army withdrew.
G Austrian & Russian armies defeated the
Hungarian army.
G Hungary would have to wait until 1866 for
autonomy.
Tsar Nicholas I (r. 1825-1855)
G He raised an
army of 400,000
in response to a
request from
Franz Joseph.
 140,000 put
down the
Hungarian
revolt.
The
German
States
G
G
G
G
G
G
G
Revolution in Prussia 1848
Prussia’s middle class wanted a
liberal constitutional monarchy
that would unite Germany into a
united and liberal German nation.
Prussian middle class pushed
demands after the French rev of
1848
Demands not granted
Workers in Berlin exploded
Frederick William IV gave in to
demands
FWIV promised Prussia liberal
const. + merge into German state
Workers wanted more
The Germans Follow the
French
G After the February French revolutions,
there were many riots in minor German
states.
G Austria and Prussia expected to intervene
to crush these revolts, BUT:
 Vienna Revolution  led to the fall of
Metternich.
 Berlin riots
•
•
•
Prussian army efficiently suppressed the
revolutionaries.
King Frederick William IV withdraws the
troops and hand the Prussia liberals a big
victory!
Other Princedoms collapse when Prussia’s
nerve fails.
Funeral for Berlin Freedom
Fighters
Prussian workers demands
G March 26 workers issued a series of
radical demands: universal voting
rights, minimum wage, 10 hour day
G The Prussian middle class could not go
along with it
G While the tensions in Prussia
escalated , an elected body met in
Berlin to write a constitution for a
Prussian State
Frankfurt Assembly
G Self appointed from various
German States successfully called
for a national constituent
assembly to begin writing a Const.
For a unified German State
G Denmark distraction:
Schleswig/Holstein
G March 1849, Frankfurt assembly
finally offered throne to FWIV
G By early 1849 reaction had been
successful in Prussia
G FWIV refused the Frankfurt
assemblies “crown from the
gutter”
The Frankfurt Assembly
G German liberals are overjoyed!
G German National Assembly established in
Frankfurt:
 Universal suffrage.
 Delegates mostly from the middle class.
 Debate over the nature of the state 
monarchy of Habsburgs or Hohenzollerns?
 They chose the Austrian Habsburg Archduke
John rather than the King of Prussia.
•
•
He was a well-known liberal sympathizer.
But they couldn’t guarantee the loyalty of the
Prussian Army.
Frankfurt Assembly Meets
Prussian Resurgence
G The Prussian army moved to crush the new
Polish Grand Duchy.
G The Prussian parliament disagreed with the
Frankfurt Parliament.
G The Prussian army
invaded Schleswig-Holstein
(at Frankfurt’s request).
 Horrified international
liberal opinion.
 Britain & Russia
threatened war
with Prussia.
 Prussia agreed to its own
peace with Denmark.
•
The Prussian army abandoned the Frankfurt
government.
Austria & Prussia Reassert
Control
G Austria re-gained
control of Vienna.
G Frederick William
deposed the Berlin
parliament.
G The Frankfurt
Assembly offered the
emperorship to
Frederick William.
 He declined.
 Radicals took to the
barricades again.
 The Prussian army crushed all resistance.
 April, 1849  the Assembly collapsed.
A New German Confederation
G Frederick William IV of Prussia was still
interested in ruling a united Germany.
G 1850  the German Confederation was
re-established at Olmutz.
G But, Frederick was forced to accept
Austrian leadership of Central Europe.