19th Century Revolutions

1848 Revolutions

1848 Revolutions

• What were they?
• Where were they?

1848 Revolutions

• Revolutions against Absolutist Monarchies
• Revolution for Constitutions
• Revolution for freedom of Press and Demonstration

Causes, Part I: Congress of Vienna

• Weak French Monarchy
• Absolutist Monarchies
• Multi-ethnic Empires

• Congress of Vienna 1815
  • Created weak French monarchy
  • Italy into dominion of Austria
    • Venice = part of Austria
    • Lombardy = part of Austria
  • Poland to Russia
  • Germany broken into German confederation of 39 states
    • Generally under dominion of Austrian Empire.
  • Ignored liberalism and nationalism.
  • Created absolutist states on the basis of pre-French Revolutionary systems
  • Absolutist regimes
    • Some parliaments with little power.

Causes, Part II: Nationalism

German Confederation & Nationalism

Italian Nationalism

Austrian Empire

Map of Europe in 1815

• Nationalism
  

Causes, Part III: Political Activism

• Growth in Reading public
• Growth in political clubs
• Demands for liberal freedoms: Press, demonstration, etc.
• Much to complain about.

• Political Activism
  • Expansion of public sphere
  • more educated people in 1848 than were in 1800.
  • oppressive censorship
  • oppression of public assembly
  • 1830s-1840s absolutist systems are faltering
    • demanding liberal reforms:
      • freedom of the press
    • Creating political clubs
      • Some were moderate, based on

Causes, Part IV: The Hungry Forties

• Industrial City life in Europe
• Real wages dropping in 1830s and 1840s.
• Economic downturn in 1842
• Bad Harvests in 1845 & 1846: Potatoes and Wheat

1848 Revolutions: France in the Beginning

King Louis-Philippe I (r. 1830-1848)

Banquet against Chief Minister François Guizot (22 Feb. 1848)

2nd Republic (24 Feb. 1848-1852)

June Days 1848

Painting of King Louis Philippe I

• 12 January 1848
• France
  • Banquet against Francois Guizot on 22 Feb 1848
    • Guizot was the Prime Minister of France and a conservative liberal.
      • Defender of limited suffrage.
      • To those that wanted the vote, he said, “Enrichissez-vous” (Get rich)
    • Cancelled public political meetings known as banquets.
      • Many of the banquets were calling for an expansion of the franchise.
      • This one was critical Guizot and his government.
    • Many get angry and begin to protest.
    • 23 Feb 1848, soldiers fire into crowds
    • Many of the working class immediately join in
      • Overnight fears of massacre from soldiers
      • Over million paving stones, 4,000 trees, and 1500 barricades were constructed
  • Louis-Philippe I (1830-1848) fleas to England.
• Organize elections for 2nd republic. (1848-1852)
  • Elect new national assembly in April 1848
  • Turned into a class based voting
    • Liberals were joined by conservative peasants (most of society)
      • Didn’t want the monarchy, but didn’t want any social changes.
    • Monarchists and conservative republicans got majorities.
  • Paris radicals refused to Accept the results
    • Led to conflict between he liberal property owners and the urban poor.
• June Days
  • the conflict turned violent
  • The industrial workers of Paris launched another revolt against the liberal government.
    • Fighters were the industrial workers (masons, locksmith, etc.)
  • Many of the propertied classes (peasants shopkeepers, landowners)
    • Flowed into Paris to stop the fighting.
  • 3,000 rebels were shot
  • 12,000 arrested.
  • 4,500 deported.
  • Socialist clubs and newspapers were shuttered.

1848 Revolution: France Fails

President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (Dec. 1848-1852)

President for Life

Emperor Napoleon III (r. 1852-1870)

Painting of King Louis Philippe I

• Presidential elections
  • Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (1808-1873)
    • was elected president
    • sold himself as protector of property and protector of voting rights.
    • then suppressed institutions of liberal political culture.
    • radical clubs abolished
    • 1850, removed universal male suffrage.
    • Dec. 1851, declared self president for life.
    • abolished the legislature.
    • 1852, declared self emperor napoleon III.

1848 Revolutions: Italy in the Beginning

Palermo, 12 January 1848

Sought a Constitution and lower Taxes

Constintutional Monarchies

Map of Europe in 1815

• Italy
  • Began 12 Jan 1848 in Palermo
  • Spread to Naples
    • Quickly Kingdom of two Sicilies (Naples) granted constitution and basic civil liberties.
    • In Feb. Grand Duchy of Tuscany granted constitution.
    • After news of Paris came more fell
      • Pope Pius IX (the liberal pope) granted constitutional monarchy
      • Piedmont-Sardinia also granted constitutional monarchy.
      • Then Lombardy declared itself independent from Austria
      • Then Venice declared itself independent of Austria.
        • These led to war with Austria
    • Led to revolt in the countryside,
      • Especially over usage of the forests (think of it like the killing of the pigeons).

1848 Revolutions: Italy Fails

Lombardy and Venetia declare independence

King Carlo-Alberto (Piedmont-Sardinia), in 1848

Austria Crushes the Italian Revolutions

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (1849)

Map of Europe in 1815

• Failure
  • The king of Piedmont-Sardinia Carlo-Alberto overplayed hand
  • Led plebiscite votes where Lombardy and Venice voted to join Piedmont-Sardinia
    • Split the nationalists in Italy.
    • Led the central powers of Italy to withdraw support for the war.
    • Piedmont-Sardinia could not defeat the Austrians alone.
    • Austria destroyed the
  • Radicals then took control of Rome,
    • Hoping to spur unification.
    • But Louis-Napoleon was invited to intervene by the Catholic clergy and forced their surrender of the Republicans

1848 Revolutions: German Lands

King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (r. 1840-1861)

Grants Constitutional Monarchy and legislative assembly

German Confederation elects him King of unified Germany, March 1849

A crown from the gutter

King Friedrich Wilhelm IV

• Prussia
  • Freidrich-Wilhelm IV accepted changes early on
  • Really regretted accepting them
  • inspired many liberals at the German Confederation to put hope in him
    • starting creating a new consitution for a united Germany.
    • created a mixture of the USA system and the parliamentary system of UK.
  • Then Friedrich-Wilhelm changed his mind.
    • Dec. 1848 new legislature took its seats.
    • One week later, he formed a new government around a conservative prime minister
      • marched an army into Berlin
      • dissolved parliament
    • rewrote a new more conservative constitution.

1848 Revolutions: Austria Fails

Nationalist Revolutions

Vienna, Prague, Lombardy, Venetia, Zagreb (Croatia)

Revolutionary in-fighting

Military Repression

Map of Europe in 1848

• Austria
  • Nationalist revolutions
    • in Vienna, Prague, Lombardy, Venetia, Zagreb (Croatia)
      • all declaring soverign authority
      • all wanted end of Klemens von Metternich (foreign minister 1809-1821, Chancellor 1821-1848)
        • he stepped down.
        • march 12,
    • Czech Natioanlists calling for a Czech national assembly within Austria
    • Hungary won autonomy, a parliament and an elected legislature.
      • they were granted.
    • They ran into major problems
      • class problems
        • Peasants vs Austrians
        • peasants vs local nobles
      • national problems
        • multiple nations within areas
          • Germans supported the crush of the Czechs in Prague
          • they supported national sovereignty but thought Czechs threatened their own.
    • led to a series of devastating defeats against Austrian Armies in 1848.
    • Refused the concessions already made to Hungary for example by having Ferdinand I abdicate the throne in favor of Franz Josef.
      • Hungarians fought on
      • Russia then granted support to Austria.
      • Hungary finally subjugated in August 1849.

Consequences

• Newspapers
• Political Clubs
• Class & Political Divisions
• Nationalism

• Consequences.
  • newspapers
    • Austria
      • before 1848
        • 79 newspapers, 19 discussed politics
      • after
        • 388 papers, 306 were political news.
  • political clubs
    • German-speaking Europe
      • between 1 million and 1.5 million people joined political clubs.
        • 1 out of every 9-10 men.
    • clubs turned people into citizens
      • in Germany they became really important to conservative politics
        • by 1849, conservative clubs outnumbered liberal clubs.
  • Created large political meetings
    • planned well ahead of time and publicized.
    • women joined these meetings
      • other times women joined political clubs.
      • they became increasingly participatory.
  • Class & political division
    • became clear that there were major divisions between class and poltiics