REVOLUTIONS OF 1848

1
REVOLUTIONS OF 1848

• Europe was literally convulsed by a wave of
  revolutions in 1848
  
• Unprecedented in their scale and aspirations
• Revolutions were the culmination of a series of
  political, economic, and social crises which had
  started in the late 1840s
  
• Began with widespread harvest failures in 1847
  and were intensified by an international
  financial and industrial crisis
  
• Result was widespread hunger, disease,
  unemployment, business failure, and revolution

2
ECONOMIC CRISIS

• Severe economic crisis intensified social
  problems created by industrialization and rapid
  population growth from 1845 on
  
• Began in agricultural sector and then spread to
  industry
  
• Poor grain harvests hit most countries in 1845
  and 1846
  
• Caused food prices to skyrocket
• Demand for manufactured products declined as
  people now spent a larger proportion of their
  incomes on food
  
• Unemployment therefore increased dramatically
• Connected in an indirect way to crisis was a
  serious contraction of credit
  
• Caused cash flow problems for many and led to
  numerous bankruptcies

3
VARIED IMPACT OF CRISIS

• Social and geographic impact of the crisis
  varied
  
• Harvest bad in Great Britain in 1845 but it
  improved in 1846
  
• Relatively advanced economy, involvement in
  overseas trade, and repeal of Corn Laws made
  England well placed to secure additional food
  supplies
• Economic crisis was therefore not particularly
  severe there
  
• Russia and Poland were also spared worst aspects
  of economic crisis
  
• Because their grain harvests remained good
• Hardest hit countries were Ireland, Belgium,
  Prussia, and northern part of Austrian Empire

4
THE REAL DANGER

• Economic crisis generated widespread sense of
  grievance among those who felt it was the duty of
  their governments to take positive action to help
  them
• Included urban and rural workers, businessmen,
  peasants, and all those frightened by increase in
  crime and disorder
  
• The real danger for European governments was that
  this discontent might take political shape
  
• That economic misery might become politicized

5
MIDDLE CLASS LIBERALISM

• Economic difficulties only become dangerous when
  they receive a political focus
  
• Decisive factor in this process appears to have
  been the aggravation of discontent within the
  middle class
  
• Who had the organizational capacity to mobilize
  themselves and wider mass support
  
• Middle class tended to present demands within the
  context of liberalism
  
• Ideology which favored end of arbitrary
  government by reducing power of traditional
  institutions, a wider sharing of power by means
  of developing parliamentary government, and
  guarantees of individual freedoms
• Liberals generally rejected democracy in favor of
  rule by those who owned property

John Stuart Mill Liberal philosopher
6
SOCIALISM

• Issue of poverty attracted considerable attention
  in the 1840s
  
• Witnessed by numerous official and private
  inquiries into the problem
  
• And by growing popularity of the humanitarian
  socialism of Louis Blanc and Etienne Cabet
  
• Found receptive audience among skilled craftsmen
  in towns of Central Europe and France
  
• Workers looked forward to the day when, through
  the formation of workers cooperatives, they
  might become masters of their own destinies
  
• Less skilled workers showed little interest in
  democratic or socialist ideas

Louis Blanc
7
BANQUET CAMPAIGN

• A variety of opposition groups appeared in France
  during 1840s
  
• Included Republicans
• Pressed for extension of the right to vote
• Republicans launched reform campaign in July
  1847
  
• Organized banquets to get around law prohibiting
  political meetings
  
• Louis Philippes hostility to demands presented
  at banquets radicalized movement
  
• Radical republicans assumed an increasing
  prominent role at the expense of more moderate
  men
  
• Alexandre Ledru-Rollin
• Banquet campaign was planned to culminate with
  mass banquet in Paris on February 22, 1848

Ledru-Rollin
8
PRUSSIA

• Frederick William IV relaxed censorship and
  created semi-elected body of advisors
  
• Encouraged liberals to push for completely
  constitutional regime
  
• Variety of social clubs and professional
  organizations formed to be fronts for political
  debate and training ground for political
  organization
• Their ideas spread down hierarchy to lower middle
  class and skilled workers
  
• Most believed that their interests would be best
  served by the protection of their handicraft way
  of manufacturing against industrial competition
  and through reinforcement of their guild
  privileges
• Not the way middle class saw things

Frederick William IV
9
THE SOCIAL QUESTION

• German liberals were not in complete agreement
• Seen in their attitude towards the social
  problem
  
• Some were determined to blame the lazy poor for
  their own misery
  
• Which could only be eased by rapid economic
  modernization combined with moral education
  
• Others had a desire to protect the interests of
  the small independent craftsman and farmer from
  unrestrained capitalism
  
• Minority of radicals even advocated compulsory
  education and progressive income tax
  
• Even before 1848, it was evident that popular
  unrest was leading many German liberals to
  question their blind faith in progress and look
  to the state as a source of protection

10
AUSTRIAN EMPIRE

• Influential works smuggled into the empire from
  the west attacked inefficient bureaucracy,
  censorship, taxation, centralization of political
  power in Vienna, a favoritism shown nobles
• Stimulated discussions of reform in the Legal
  Political Reading Club, the Concordia Society,
  and the Lower Austrian Manufacturers Society
  
• In Bohemia and Hungary, opposition combined with
  nationalist discontent
  
• Mainly only among educated upper classes

11
ITALY

• In Austrian-controlled northern Italy, local
  elites of landowners, aristocrats, and wealthy
  professionals and merchants felt unfairly
  excluded from government
• Also resented Austrian censorship
• Businessmen objected to economic policies which
  favored Austria
  
• Italian clergy objected to Austrian interference
  in ecclesiastical affairs

12
PIUS IX

• Election of Pius IX in June 1846
• Freed 2000 political prisoners
• Relaxed censorship
• Stimulated liberal and nationalist sentiment
  throughout Italy
  
• Governments of Tuscany and Sardinia-Piedmont made
  similar concessions
  
• Widespread and growing criticism of Austrian
  government in years leading to 1848

13
ENGLAND

• Mass propaganda in favor of democratic reforms
  embodied in Great Charter
  
• But Chartism did not lead to revolution
• Limited concessions and the fear of disorder that
  Chartism contained reduced middle-class support
  of radical politics
  
• Depriving masses of the leadership necessary to
  mobilize popular discontent

Chartist Demonstration
14
UNCOMPROMISING CONTINENTAL GOVERNMENTS

• In France, Louis-Philippe and his prime minister
  Francois Guizot were confident that no
  concessions were necessary and that protest could
  be contained
• Frederick William IV of Prussia was convinced of
  his divine right to rule and was confirmed in
  this belief by his narrow circle of aristocratic
  advisors
• In Austrian Empire, a poorly educated king and
  elderly Metternich could not respond effectively
  to financial problems and pressure for reform
  
• All continental governments had lost touch with
  the reality of an Europe undergoing rapid
  economic and social change
  
• Resulted in political polarization
• Unresolved crises caused loss of confidence among
  government supporters

Francois Guizot
15
Outbreak in Paris on February 23-24 clearly
served as major stimulant Intensifying government
crisis elsewhere and encouraging opposition
Why did revolutions break out in 1848?
Revolutions of 1848 began in capital cities and
urban centers and then spread to other towns and
rural areas
16
FEBRUARY 22, 1848

• Banquet, planned for February 22 1848, banned by
  French government out of fear of disorder
  
• Radicals call for protest demonstration
• Students and workers gather at Place de la
  Concord where sporadic violence occurred
  

17
FEBRUARY 23, 1848

• Elements of National Guard defect to the side of
  the protestors
  
• Louis Philippe loses nerve and fires Guizot
• Barricades erected in poorer quarters of Paris
• Nervous troops near Foreign Ministry fire at
  crowd
  
• 10 pm
• Enrages popular opinion

18
FEBRUARY 24, 1848

• By morning, 1500 barricades had been constructed
  and a mass insurrection was underway
  
• Louis Philippe orders troops to smash revolt
• Difficult to move troops in city and they become
  demoralized and are forced to withdraw
  
• Louis Philippe abdicates
• Group of prominent republicans proclaim
  Provisional Government from balcony of city hall

19
SUMMARY

• Revolution took place in France because, in a
  situation of economic and social crisis, the
  regime had lost the confidence of its habitual
  supporters
• It had failed to introduce timely concessions in
  response to the growing demand for political
  reform
  
• And when an essentially fortuitous incident led
  to a mass uprising, government was paralyzed by a
  crisis of confidence and unable to coordinate
  effective repressive measures
• As a result, a small body of active republicans
  took advantage of the regimes paralysis to
  mobilize mass support, to seize power, and
  establish new government

20
MARCH 3, 1848 IN THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE

• Hungarian Diet officially supports program of
  constitutional reform designed to establish the
  autonomy of Hungary within the Empire
  
• On the same day, the Legal-Political Reading Club
  in Vienna issues proclamation demanding
  
• Creation of an United Diet in which both middle
  classes and peasants would be represented and to
  which ministers would be responsible
  
• Expansion of education
• Equitable taxation
• Abolition of censorship

21
FALL OF METTERNICH

• Metternich was determined not to give in and
  considered imposing martial law
  
• Large crowds take to the street on March 13
• Troops ordered to disperse them were met with
  hail of rocks and bottles and open fire in
  response
  
• Demonstrators construct barricades and full-scale
  insurrection was underway
  
• On March 15, Metternich resigned and the emperor
  promised a liberal constitution
  
• On the same day the emperor met with delegates
  from the Hungarian Diet and granted them greater
  autonomy

22
BOHEMIA AND ITALY

• Subject peoples of the Empire take advantage of
  government collapse
  
• Stirrings of independence in Bohemia
• Big trouble in Italy
• Riots forced Ferdinand II to grant his people a
  constitution
  
• Grand Duke of Tuscany, the pope, and King Charles
  Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia all granted, or
  promise to grant, their people constitution
  
• To avoid violence
• Revolt erupts in Milan on March 18
• Austrian commander withdraws after 5 days of
  fighting
  
• Similar event in Venice
• Results in establishment of Venetian Republic
  under leadership of Daniel Manin

Daniel Manin
23
GERMANY

• News from France sparks disorders in Bavaria,
  East Prussia, and northern Germany
  
• Rural disorders occurred in southwest and central
  Germany
  
• In Prussia, Frederick William IV is faced with
  numerous petitions for reform and serious urban
  and rural disorders
  
• When he learned of collapse of Austrian regime,
  he decided to make concessions
  
• Too lateriots already swept Berlin and army had
  been forced to withdraw from city
  
• King announces that he will establish a
  constitutional monarchy
  
• Other German rulers do essentially the same thing
  
  

24
GREAT BRITAIN AVOIDS TROUBLE

• Chartists originally received news of events in
  Paris with enthusiasm
  
• But most Chartist leaders refused to depart from
  their commitment to strictly legal agitation
  
• Movement was already in decline and proved unable
  to mobilize support
  
• Another factor was official preparedness
• Preventive measures were put into effect
  immediately
  
• But premature repression was also avoided

25
SYNOPSIS I

• With the exception of Great Britain and Russia,
  it was a combination of poor leadership, division
  among the propertied classes, loss of confidence
  among political elites, and the domino effect of
  governmental collapse which stimulated demands
  for reform and discouraged effective government
  resistance in France, Germany, and Austrian Empire

26
SYNOPSIS II

• Initial revolutionary outbreaks varied
• Violent overthrow of monarchy in France
• Violent efforts to expel foreign rulers in
  Lombardy and Venetia
  
• Peaceful effort by Hungary to assert its
  autonomy
  
• Various searches for constitutional compromise in
  German states, Austria, and Bohemia
  

27
SYNOPSIS III

• Groups which seized power or who were seeking
  accommodation were mostly coalitions of people
  with differing and often conflicting objectives
  
• Old Regimes had collapsed so suddenly that those
  who now claimed power were surprised and
  unprepared
  
• Actually the rapid progress of events had
  advantages
  
• Little initial opposition to widespread
  assumption of power by liberal critics of earlier
  regimes