5: 1848 revolution Flashcards
Linked themes of revolution?
European (even universal) nature of revolutions vs specific local conditions and demands of particular revolutionaries, oth historiography and nature of revolutions move from general to specific
What was 1848 revolutions?
a) Largest revolutions in Europe to this date, series of political upheavels. The revolutions were social, liberal and democratic in their origins.
B) the general aim was to remove old monarchical structures and create independent nation states.
main features: dissatisfaction with political leadership, demands for more participation in government and democracy, demands for freedom of the press, other demands made by the working class, the upsurge of nationalism, and the regrouping of established government forces
Short term Causes of 1848?
a) economic crisis: 1847 fnancial crisis of railways and potato blight of mid 1840s. + poor harvest across Europe
b) Insecurity at top (king and advisors)
c) Precursors to revolutions : period of tension economically and politically: 1846 revolt in Austrian Galicia. 1847 Civil war in Switzerland.
Actual Events of 1848:
general pattern
beginnings
General pattern
a) moderate then libreral challenge to existing authority
b) then more radical democratic revolution
c) counter-revolution and restoration of authority
d) Led by coalitions of middle class, workers and reformist.
Beginnings:
1) Swiss civil war (1847) struggle etween liberal protestants and conservative catholics.
2) Sicily, Jan 1848: Peasant revolt and call for constitution
3) France: feb 1848: Historic city of revolutions and started here then spread across Europe
French Revolution:
causes/events
contemporary writing
a) Revolutionists held banquets 1848 and King Louis turned and ignored reformists
b) King Louis Phillipes monarchical constitution abdicated, 2nd french republic formed. Gov headed by Napoleon, he staged coup. Set up national workshops and commisions for unemployed. Established idea of ‘right to work’.
c) contemporary writings: society cut in two, those who had nothing teamed with envy and those who had something united in common terror.
d) end of monarchy Napoleon III new emperor.
MArks end of fuedalism in Europe.
Long term causes:
- Socio-economic changes associated
with industrialisation (emphasised by
Marx) - The shadow of the 1789 Revolution
(especially the 1793 Terror – emphasised by
conservatives: mass murder of revolutionaries in response to 1789 rev, conservatives used opportunity to suppress and thus made ppl angrier) - Ideological currents
(Liberalism, conservatism, socialism, nationalism)
German rev 1848:
2 causes:
a) unification of Germany as nation through Frankfurt parliament
b) demand for liberal reform in german states esp Prussia.
c) Frankfurt Parliament: called in response to march revolution in german states: Eventually Frankfurt constitution made proclaiming German Empire.
d) Uprising In Vienne suppressed violently,
Prussia defied Austrias revolutions and by 1850 all german states had suppressed any rights and elected parliaments, thus erasing all work of the revolution.
Why was the counter revolution so successful?
1) Middle classes joined authority: worried at anarchy and violence
2) Significance of Peasants
3) strength of conservative forces: military, church, dynasty.
