The Revolutions of 1848

week 1 Lecture 2

Congress of Vienna

* September 1814 - June 1815 
* Napoleon asked to abdicate 
* Monarchy to be restored
* But  more compromised 
* Napoleon sent into exile on the island of elba 
* June 1815
* Napoleon exiled to St Helena
* Tiny island in the atlantic under british rule 
* Primarily about borders and conservatism across europe 
* Consolidates the power of  absolute monarchies
* Russia 
* Prussia 
* Germanic confederation
* Austria-Hungary 
* Little to no change to Britain, Spain and Portugal

The ‘Hundred days’

* Napoleon's return, defeat at Waterloo (June 1815)
* Travels through france gaining support
* Had to avoid certain areas as he didn’t have any support there
* Arrives in Paris
* Royal court leaves central palace
* Issues a statement to fellow heads of states
* Calls them his brothers
* Didn’t have a positive reaction
* Surrenders a few days after Waterloo
* Despite what ABBA say

Reassuring Restorations

France

* Restoration of the Bourbon Monarchy  -Charte
* Louis XVIII (1814-1824)
* Charles X (1824-1830)

German Confederation

* 39 States; forms Zollverein (customs union; 1834)
* Vormärz (pre-march) - Junge Deutschland (Young Germany)

Italian States

* Multiple ‘Kingdoms’ and rulers
* Lombardy-Venetia (Austria)
* Papal States (Pope)
* Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (bourbons) 

Habsburg Empire ( Austria-Hungary)

* Multinational and vast
* Diverse societies and languages
* Prince Klemens von Metternich - chancellor

Secret Socities

* Illegal to support napoleon or be openly republican 
* Rise of underground groups - heirs of tradition in 1789?
* Their job to keep the ideas alive

Carbonari - Secret Society

* Founded in Naples


* Small group to reduce the risk of leaks
* Attempted revolution in 1820
* Giuseppe Mazzini
* Joined Carbonari as a young man

Charbonnerie - Secret Society

* Bonaire 
* French version
* Early secret republican movement
* From the french exiles in Italian states
* All insurrections discovered or failed

Societe des Amis du peuple and société des droits de l’homme - Secret Society

* Later french societes
* Inspired by Philippe Buoarroti
* The ABCs in les Mis were inspired by these groups

1830s France

* Reaction to charles X’s attempts at increasingly repressive legislation
* ‘Les trois glorieuses’ (*three glorious days*)  in Paris (27-29 July 1830) 
* Barricades
* Louis-Philippe , the duke of orleans, becomes king
* Sends his children to school instead of educating them at home
* His dad was known as philippe equality and had voted for the execution of Louis, but ran away during the terror
* middle-class monarchy
* ‘Best of all possible republics’ - Lafayette 

1830s Belgium

* Formation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands by Congress of Vienna
* Dominance of northern Dutch over more populous belgium south 
* Linguistic and religious differences 
* More protestant than catholic
* Revolution in August 1830
* Formation of the Kingdom of Belgium
* Louis-Philippeis so supportive he sends his daughter to marry the king leopold
* Victoria’s uncle

Growth of Liberalism

* Demands for greater political participation across Europe
* Demand for male suffrage

Economic and Agrarian problems

* ‘Hungry Forties’
* Economic recession, high food prices and crop failures across Europe 
* Irish potato famine 
* Ireland still continued to export grain when other countries stopped exports when their potato crops failed
* Belgium even stopped producing beer

Rise of socialism and social unrest

* Failed uprisings in Lyon (1831;1834) and Paris (1832;1834;1839)
* 1834 was the biggest
* 1832 was the Les Mis one
* Inhabitants in pairs massacred 
* July Monarchy’s ‘ Enrichissez-vous!’ attitude 
* Get rich society
* Very capitalist industrial society

Nationalism

* ‘Young Europe’
* Young Italy
* Young Germany

1848 : the Springtime of the Peoples

France

* Banqueting campaign (1847-8) demands electoral reform
* Action in streets of Paris; Proclamation of Second Republic (24th February 1848)
* After a banquet was banned
* Philippe forced to abdicate, escaped to England

German Confederation

* Uprisings in German states from March 1848
* Demands for electoral reform
* Issues over unity
* Formation of first German Parliament; met in Frankfurt in May 1848

Revolution Spreads

* Common demands
* Constitutional and parliamentary rule
* Guarantees of civil liberties
* Creation of new constitutions by monarchs
* King Frederick William in Prussia
* Emperor Francias Joseph in Austria-Hungary

Revolutionary Divisions and Repression, 1848-1849

* Tensions between more moderate liberals and socialists/republicans/democrats (France, Germany, Italy
* June days of 1848
* Reaction to the closure of Ateliers Nationaux (national workshops)
* Execution of Robvert Blum in Vienna
* November 1848
* Baden uprising and repression
* 1849
* Armies of France republic sent to crush the Roman Republic
* 1849

1848 : Legacies and Interpretations

* ‘There have been more mischievous revolutionaries that those of 1848, but i doubt if there have been any stupider’ - Alexia de tocqueville
* A ‘farce’ ? Election and coup d’etat of louis-napoleon Bonaparte
* grandson of napoleon 
* Defeat of autonomous republics (Italy, Hungary); reversal of gains; reassertion of monarchies/empires
* Historians’ approaches: an outright failure (WolframSiemann on Germany); the ‘forgotten revolution’(Riot-Sarcey and Gribaudi on France)

But does 1848 really deserve this negative reputation?

* Rediscovered in the fight for unification of germany 
* Legacies on 1848
* Universal suffrage and electoral reform
* Nationalism (in some cases, links to unification)
* Socialism and feminism