19th Century Revolutions

Video 1 - Reform and Revolution 1815-1848

  • Congress of Vienna occurred before these and sought to prevent revolutions from happening after the French Rev

  • reform and activism developed after 1815 (during industrialization)

  • 1810s and 1820s American people gained independence from Portugal and Spain

  • People were more educated (Enlightenment) and constitutions were more valued

    • aristocrats included

      • Russians- feared that the tsar would be a dictator

1830 - rev in France “Three Glorious Days” of July 1830

  • Old gov- Charles X (legitimists)

    • strict censorship

    • compensation for aristocratic losses in the rev of 1789

    • death penalty for any pilfering of church objects

      • people believed these to be absolutist policies

  • new gov - Louis Philippe 1 (orléanist)

    • created a constitutional monarchy

    • he expanded suffrage to about 170k men (still a small fraction of French citizens)

    • social unrest was still high due to industrialization (poor conditions)

    • 1831 - silk workers went on strike in Lyon for poor pay

  • Metternich’s censorship and secret police discouraged the discussion of reform among the people

  • Italy - the Carbonari was a secret society that wanted constitutional government

    • directed uprisings in 1820 and 1830

    • forces of the Holy Alliance of Austria, Prussia, and Russia stopped the revolts

  • Hungarian nobility wanted to separate from the Austrian empire

  • Serbia and Greece pulled away from the Ottomans

    • 1817 - serbs became independent principality under the Ottomans after 1815 uprising

    • 1831 - greeks won complete independence

Britain - Peterloo

  • Irish catholics rebelled against official religious discrimination

  • followed Waterloo - harvests failed, costs of living rose

    • thousands in Britain gathered to call for change

    • Parliament wanted to protect aristocratic agricultural interests, so they established the Corn Laws, which raised the price of grain

      • orators demanded repeal and upper classes were on edge

  • 1819 - St. Peter’s Field Manchester (Peterloo Massacre)

    • followed by the Six Acts

      • allowed government searches

      • prohibited large assemblies

      • punished anti-gov publications

  • Britain confiscated Irish peasant lands when hit by a big economic downturn

  • 1801 - The Act of Union joined Ireland to Britain

    • Catholics were very discriminated against

      • catholic property confiscated unchecked

  • Daniel O’Connell - activist and lawyer formed the Catholic Association

    • lobbied for Catholics to have high positions in British Parliament

  • Great Reform Act of 1832 - eliminated “rotton boroughs”

    • aristocrats became members of parliament by inheritance

    • gave representation to new industrial cities like Manchester (which was not previously represented)

      • more male suffrage (property owners)

  • Socialists

    • Britain - Robert Owen

      • Utopian communities - factory workers worked limited hours and had education

      • overall well-being of the community prioritized over profit

    • France - Claude Henri Saint-Simon, CHarles Fourier, August Comte

      • harmony and efficient management

      • rational oragnization of human societies

Video 2: Revolutions of 1848

  • “Hungry Forties” - bad harvests, especially in Ireland (potato blight mold)

  • 1846 and 1847 - Britain’s liberal Whig government stuck to Laissez-faire and didn’t help the suffering Irish

  • food riots became common on the mainland

  • 1833-1838 Britain freed slaves in the empire except for India as pro-freedom ideas circulated

    • 1848 - France re-emancipated slaves after re-enslavement under Napoleon

  • Language of Freedom - free from governmental oppression, allowed people share ideas

  • Women like George Sand (pseudonym) and the Bronte Sisters published novels about the persecution of women

  • women reformers addressed the poverty of women (worsened due to inflation for food, causing famine for families)

  • working women were more politically active (wanted better pay)

  • Italy was divided among many different nations (austria, spanish, papacy)

  • Giuseppe Verdi encouraged unified and independent Italy

  • Messina Sicily women tore down royal insignia and started a revolution in January of 1848

    • they supported Giussepe Mazzini - national unification and republican gov

    • others wanted a gov led by the pope or monarchy

      • the lack of unity defeated the rev

  • Myriad interests sparked revolution in Paris

  • People were against Cronyism (positions of power based off of inheritance), limited voting rights, and censorship

  • Louis Philippe were exiled by reformer

  • Louis Blanc - socialist who advocated for national workshops to increase employment for men

    • women advocated to add them to the workshops as well

    • George Sand (woman) nominated representative for the Naitonal Assembly

  • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels - Communist Manifesto

  • News of other revs influenced the status quo of other states

  • King Frederick William IV summoned a congress at Frankfurt for reform and unification

    • people debated on including Austria

    • Prussian king refused

Poland - 1846

  • nationalists from upper classes wanted to revolt against Austrian rule

    • peasants refused to join because Austrian rule was thier only way of gaining freedom from the payments and service they owed aristocratic landowners

    • upper classes wanted freedom from Austrian oppression, peasants wanted freedom from feudalism

Austrian Empire:

  • Klemons Von metternich (conservative reformist)

    • many disliked him so different groups of people united against him to eliminate him

  • liberals and aristocrats didn’t want to give workers the right to vote (believed they didn’t have a big picture perspective)

    • People believed this for Jewish people too