1848 Revolutions

In the mid-1840s, Europe had a socio-economic crisis. There was intellectual discontent from
the middle-classes, since they wanted more rights. The political interests of the middle-class
liberals were rarely coincided.
Prussia and Piedmont regained constitutions that their rulers could not easily ignore. Feudal
obligations were abolished in part of eastern Europe.
European agriculture entered and acute crisis in 1845. Between 1845 and 1847 there was an
industrial crisis.
See powerpoint

France
In February 1848, the French government fell. He banned political meetings and tightened
censorship.
Louis Philippe was now old and was very anxious about pleasing everyone. There was some
complaining and unrest, but no revolt.
Also, Louis Philippe was very bourgeois, he was apathetic to the struggles of the lower
classes. He didn’t help the lower classes.
After political meetings were banned, the opposition started holding a series of banquets at
which after-dinner speakers put forward their views on political reform.
He banned protests and demonstrations in the streets of Paris. He did so because he was
scared of any opposition. However, there wasn’t a coherent opposition. There was no party
going against him.
Louis Philippe dismissed Guizot when a clash with the troops led to the shooting of between
40 and 50 demonstrators. The following day the people of Paris were outraged and the
National Guard refused to disperse the crowd.
Louis Philippe got scared, and abdicated.
There was no coherent opposition party. He didn’t really need to leave.
A provisional government had been set up on 25 February to fill the vacuum (1848).
The liberals looked at Alphonse de Lamartine who was a bit more radical.
The workers had risked their lives fighting from the barricades. The workers were more
liberal.
The intellectuals were more conservative.
They tried to compromise between the radical demands and the bourgeoisie.
Lamartine created the Manifesto to Europe which sought to convince the European powers
that France was peaceful.
The financial policy of the Provisional Government was based on compromise. The Bank of
France (check powerpoint for name and more info) was protected.
This moderate policy represented one of the administration’s greatest failures.
It failed to stop the slide in share prices and the drain in gold reserves of the previous 2
years.
They introduced a 45% income tax to help balance the books.
There was no universal suffrage, all men could vote.
The administration set up the National Workshops to alleviate social distress, and give work
to many unemployed people. They would work in public works.
These workshops were the embodiment of Louis Blanc’s (a French utopian socialist) theories
on state intervention. See powerpoint for more about Louis Blanc.
Few projects of importance were entrusted to the workshops for fear of damage that they
could do to private businesses with their cheap labour. They were afraid of undercutting the
private businesses.
They attracted resentment from the middle classes because they were paying their wages
with their taxes.
There was a major clash between radicals and conservatives and there were many
demonstrations against the assembly.
The conservatives won the next election.
There were many demonstrations, and even some Poles demonstrated asking for aid from
the French.
Barricades were raised in many parts of Paris and there were 4 days of fighting and
bloodshed.
France would go under martial law for a long time.
The elections of 1848 elections brought the first president of the 2nd Republic: Louis
Napoleon. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was intended to be used as a puppet, just used for his
name, which he shared with the myth of Napoleon. There was a myth surrounding
Napoleon, which Louis Napoleon used to his benefit.
He had already previously tried and failed to take power, but failed. See powerpoint for
attempts.
He used propaganda of the Napoleon ideal.
He spoke to the people a lot, and found out what people wanted, and promised it to him:
less taxes, less unemployment, protection of the Church.
See powerpoint.
He would succeed and win.

Germany
The political events in France in early 1848 impacted Germany.
There was an economic crisis in German towns which displayed 2 distinct characters, see
powerpoint.
There were quite a few acts of Luddism, where traditional workers would demonstrate
against or actually attack against mechanisation.
There would also go on to be overproduction, which leads to people becoming unemployed,
until you sell what was over produced, and some wouldn’t get the job back since they would
start to produce less.
The landowning class in Prussia (the Junkers) found themselves in a new position. They
wanted to link their houses to the markets, and wanted to do so via a railway. They wanted
to link East Prussian markets with the cities.
In 1846-7 there were no genuine governmental crises.
Study history using notes + powerpoints.
The news of revolution in Paris triggered resentment of political confrontation. Hence they
liberalised to avoid political confrontation.
In Bavaria, King Ludwig abdicated, and his successor, Maximillian II accepted the principles of
a constitutional assembly, as well as ministerial responsibility, a jury system and a free press.
At this time trial by jury was in its early stages. It wasn’t established. It was established in the
UK.

SEE POWERPOINT

Italy
Due to a revolt in Vienna, Metternich couldn’t deal with the revolts.
Radetzky, who used to put down revolts, retreated to the quadrilateral, which is small but
controlled supply lines and could easily get supplies from Innsbruck. This meant that they
had control of the supply lines.
The Austrian administration in Italy collapsed, so some of the different cities created their
own republics. Venice set up the Republic of St Mark under the leadership of Manin, who
eventually fled to Malta.
Charles Albert declared was on Austria and was promised support from Tuscany, Naples, and
Rome (which never came).
Charles Albert dreamed of a United Northern Italy.
Parts of Italy such as Milan and Venice had completely driven out the Austrians, and
supported Charles Albert, and the north of Italy tried to unite against Austria.
Naples withdrew its troops.
The Pope didn’t want to fight the Austrians since they were a Catholic nation. He refused to
fight against a Christian state. When Naples saw the Pope withdraw his army, they withdrew
theirs.
This left Charles Albert without much support. He was badly defeated at Custozza by
Radetzky and driven out of Milan and Lombardo-Venetia.
Radetzky managed to supress the revolts in Lombardy and Veneto, meaning that they
couldn’t really help.
Initially the Pope had shown a lot of enthusiasm for revolution. However, he didn’t want war
with Austria. One of his advisors was killed, and he fled.
In 1848, the relations between the Pope (who had shown little enthusiasm for the
revolution) and his Roman subjects was strained, because they wanted him to aid the
revolution. The pope got scared and fled. Garibaldi’s movement was called the red shirt
movement.
A republic was set up in Rome with Mazzini as one of the three rulers. Garibaldi had aided
Mazzini, who returned from South America to assist the Italian revolutionaries. Louis
Napoleon assisted the Pope and sent French troops to attack the Roman Republic. Louis
Napoleon partially aided the Church, to appease the Church, to strengthen his position in
France.
Louis Napoleon would remain a protector of the Pope for a long time.
However, Rome would end up being recaptured by the French.
Garibaldi’s forces harassed Radetzky’s men.
SEE POWERPOINT
The Roman Republic collapsed and the Pope was restored to power in Rome. He was no
longer popular as the person to unite Italy.
Charles Albert gets defeated again at Novara at one last attempt to fight the Austrians. This
leads to Charles Albert to abdicate in favour of his son Victor Emmanuel.
Viva Verdi was the code in favour of uniting Italy.
Venice was the last rebel stronghold which was taken by Radetzky in 1849. There was
nothing left of the revolution except of the parliamentary constitution of Piedmont. They
now had a constitutional monarchy.
The revolution also showed that
To this day is the most industrialised region is Piedmont, Victor Emmanuel would start
liberalising and mechanising and developing the region.
SEE POWERPOINT
After the risings in Vienna, Metternich leaves and is replaced by Schwarzenberg. He would
succeed in the revolutions, but failed to see the need for reform.

Germany
There was a revolt in Germany between 1848 and 1850.
Germany was characterised by its division into a number of small states.
The impetus behind revolution was nationalist, a desire to overthrow Austrian influence and
German prince linked with Austria, and to have them replaced by a united state, under some
form of liberal federation.
Prussia was the best equipped state to face Austria.
There was a revolt Berlin in 1848. This led to the King of Prussia to declare that he was in
favour of a united Germany.
There were still many risings in Austria.
The Vorparlament (a federal parliament, they just met, and discussed what they wanted)
met at Frankfurt, to decide how to unite Germany, and what a united Germany would look
like. Would it be a large (including the Austrian Germans or Austria) or small Germany (led
by Prussia)? Who would take the crown?
However they had one big problem, they had no power. They had no army or navy. They
were a group of liberals.
Austria starts to regain power, because it starts to subdue the revolts on its plate.
The Vorparlament starts to think that a smaller Germany.
The Vorparlament offers the crown of smaller Germany to Frederick William (King of
Prussia), however he rejected because he didn’t want to pick up the crown out of the gutter
(he was the King of Prussia, and they considered too many options, such as the Emperor of
Austria, and he didn’t consider the representatives to be illegitimate).
Vorparlament AKA Frankfurt Parliament because it met in Frankfurt.
William will end up turning down the revolts in Berlin, because he didn’t want a Germany
that they were revolting for.
However, he was ready to have a group of German states put together in the north, and they
form a league together with Saxony, Hanover, and some smaller Northern states on the
basis of a ‘League of Sovereigns’. In 1859 he formed the League of the Three Kings with
Hanover and Saxony together with a number of smaller German states. It was called the
Erfurt Union.
Austria pressured Saxony and Hannover to drop out, and Germany continued without them.
The League of four Kings was then created under the Austrians. See powerpoint for
members.
By the Convention of Olmutz, the Erfurt Union was forced to disband.
See Gwen’s notes