Revolutions and liberalism

Question 1

definition of revolutions

Answer 1

• Eric hobsbawn
• argues that there are three central criteria: a social element as seen by the mass movement of groups; an ideological element positing a renovating objective and a sudden, often violent, period of upheaval.
• The Time scale is difficult to ascertain. Is it the period of violence or a suitable point of crisis in the old regime combined with the long-term repercussions? Terminal points are easier to analyse in retrospect. This tends to be when a new framework has been established and it is sufficiently safe from overthrow.
• Some look at quantitative measures, such as when the population returns to its pre-revolutionary level (the soviet population didn’t until 1930).
• Revolutions are periods were groups of people pursue intended goals, but the element of conscious action should not be overstated as planned actions take place in the context of uncontrollable forces.

Question 2

different between a revolution and a rebellion

Answer 2

• Revolutionaries do not want to break away, they want change to the existing regime. Rebels want to break away and leave.
• Revolutions will have deeper structural roots (e.g. sexual revolution of the 1960s). Rebellions tend to have more localised causes and grievances.

Question 3

causes of the French Revolution

Answer 3

• There was a large economic crisis as the treasury was practically empty due to expensive overseas military expansion (e.g. their role in the American revolution).
• Poor climatic conditions – in 1788 there was a strong hailstorm throughout all of summer followed by a period of drought and this led to poor farming conditions.
• Lack of popular sovereignty was created unrest in the lower stratum of society. the non-aristocratic members of the third estates represented 98% of the population but were outvoted by the remaining 2.
• There was an outdated voting system, divided into three orders by which people voted as opposed to by individual (clergy, nobility and head of state). More often than not the clergy and nobility would vote together to outnumber.

Question 4

outcome of the French Revolution

Answer 4

• The revolution abolished serfdom, privileges, the temporary abolition of slavery, proclaimed liberty, ended monarchical absolutism and founded a republican regime. These were outlined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
• The King attempted to flee the country in June 1791 and questions rose about how much power he would retain. A constitutional monarchy was proposed.
• The French Revolution had long-term consequences. From 1792 onwards, the revolution radicalised and became more international. In April 1792 the newly elected legislative assembly declares war on Austria and Prussia.
• In 1793, the Jacobins took control of the National Convention from the more moderate Girondins.
• In 1795, a bicameral legislature was proposed but overtime they were forced to rely on the military, and this laid the foundations for Napoleon’s coup. The upper house was made of people of noble ecclesiastical or royal birth; the lower was geographically represented but structured to allow consultation with people of wealth in these areas.
• France declared war on the Habsburg empire. It started the French Revolutionary Wars.

Question 5

reasons for failure of the French Revolution

Answer 5

• Innate contradictions. Citizenship was not universal; women were excluded, black people were only temporarily emancipated from slavery and workers needed property for active citizenship
• Defeat of Napoleon
• Congress of Vienna – restricted French borders and restored the house of Bourbon in the person of Louis XVIII.

Question 6

mediterranean revolutions - Italy

Answer 6

• the revolution started in Sicily and in Naples against Ferdinand I who was forced to promise a constitutional monarchy. This inspired Carbonari in the North and 1821, Piedmont got a constitutional monarchy.
• The Statuto of King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia weakened the king’s power and ensured equality for all citizens before the law
• The Holy Alliance, which linked the three great Monarchist powers, did not allow this and Austria intervened. The revolt was quelled.

Question 7

Mediterranean revolutions - spain

Answer 7

• Colonel Rafael del Riego led a mutiny of the Spanish army demanding the liberal constitution of 1812. He agreed but asked for intervention from the Congress of Verona of 1822 to prevent it.
• Monastic land was sold and the power of traditional bodies such as the church were curbed. The king Victor Emanuel I adopts a constitution based on the Spanish one salt tax abolished, decentralisation agreed and universal suffrage declared.
• They arranged for 100,000 French troops to reinstall the absolute monarchy.

Question 8

Mediterranean revolutions - Greece

Answer 8

• The Revolution of 1821 was against Ottoman rule.
• Success was threatened by Egyptian intervention. Ibrahim Pasha invaded Peloponnese, Missolonghi and Athens in 1826. The Greeks were later assisted by the British, France and Russia

Question 9

causes of the July Revolution

Answer 9

• Louis and Charles both ruled by hereditary right
• Louis was well liked, and his charters embodied liberalism. There would be equality in law and tax and no law could be passed without consent of the legislative body.
• Charles X attempted to rule as an absolute monarch and re-assert the power of the Catholic church. This coincided with the height of the ultra-royalist party would want a return of the aristocracy. Acts of sacrilege became punishable by death and freedom of the press was restricted.
• In 1828, there was high stamp duty on printed material. This led to the resignation of Villele. Martignac replaced him as PM but was not extreme enough for either side so was replaced by Prince de Polignac.
• The liberal bloc grew within the Chamber of Deputies and were important in conveying political opinion to the public, especially the economically suffering French masses.
• Charles invokes Article 14 of the 1814 charter giving him exceptional power in emergencies and suspends the constitution. He launches the Saint-Cloud Ordinances in July, suppressing freedoms of the press, dissolving the two-house parliament, restricting the electorate.
• Royalists launched a white terror against those who had supported Napoleon in the Hundred Days. Waves or lawless revenge spread through southern France (Marshal Ney, a popular patriotic figure was put to death).

Question 10

the 1830 revolution

Answer 10

• Repressive violence aggravated the revolutionaries. Over 4000 barricades were erected during the three glorious days.
• Charles X abdicated and went to GB and Louis Philippe was placed on the throne who agreed to rule as a constitutional monarch and revived the tricolour.

Question 11

1848 revolution - Italy

Answer 11

• Local revolution in January 1848, Sicily. It took the form of a nationalist rising against Austria led by the King of Sardinia under the Italian tricolour. It led to secondary riots in Naples who demanded a representative parliament. Revolts broke out in Milan – boycott of the state lottery and the tobacco monopoly – two important sources of gov revenue. More than 15,000 street barricades were erected in a matter of hours and Alert sent troops to help
• Italian liberalism coincided with the contradictory need for modernisation as the former advocated greater representation whilst the latter relied on depriving local delegates of power and disciplining members of society.
• They were poorly co-ordinated and had different objectives. upper class Piedmontese spoke French whilst Lombardy Germany and ordinary Italians local dialects. Poorly connected (no railway and trade impeded by internal and external tariff barriers and different coinage systems).
• Some took this as a sign that Italy wasn’t ready for independence as they had been given an opportunity for independence but ruined it because the rulers disagreed and because there was insufficient feeling for nationality.
• Unlike in France which was already a nation-state, Italy was divided into different kingdoms.

Question 12

1848 revolution in France

Answer 12

• Evans has lots of work on this
• Revolts started to end the constitutional monarchy of Louis Philippe and confer complete control to the people. It led to the creation of the Second French Republic. He was constitutional but not enough - limiting the franchise remained to just 5% of the adult male population.
• April and May 1834 government crushes an uprising by silk workers in Lyons and crushed another revolt shortly after in Paris deaths, arrests and jailing all became directly attributable to Louis-Philippe.
• Popular agitation over the government’s refusal to permit a political banquet in support of electoral reform.

Question 13

1848 revolutions - Habsburg monarchy

Answer 13

• the emperor ruled from Vienna but the people he ruled over started to campaign for autonomy.
• Hungary for example, wanted an independent Hungarian ministry residing in Budapest, freedom of the press, civil and religious freedom, popularly elected parliament, trial by jury and other demands (12 points).
• Some regions supported the Hapsburg monarchy. The Serbs of Vojvodina, the Romanians of Transylvania. The revolution was eventually crushed by the Russian Tsar Nicholas I. After Austrian defeat in the Austro-Prussian War, Austro-Hungary was created.

Question 14

why did the 1848 revolutions fails?

Answer 14

• Rulers took back control and repressed revolts.
• Rulers divided revolutionaries and played on class differences.
• Division between liberals and democrats. The liberals like constitutionalism but didn’t like democracy as they associated it with terror and popular disorder
• Universal suffrage – when awarded to all men in France in 1848 it played against revolutionaries as most voters were countryside peasants who voted conservatively. They voted for Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in 1848. He put an end to the republic.

Question 15

when did revolutionary tendencies ease?

Answer 15

• 1871 Paris Commune – The third republic had been established in 1870 and lots of the army had been damaged during the Franco-Prussian war. Some of the army generals tried to establish an independent government. They were governed progressively – the separation of church and state, self-policing, the rights of employees.
• Italy was unified in 1861, Germany in 1871 and Hungary gained partial sovereignty. States started to focus on colonial ambitions rather than internal divisions.
• As states grew stronger and richer because of industrialisation, it became more bureaucratic. Parliamentary rule became more effective and there was greater social cohesion (suffrage, mass education programmes, widening of the lower middle class). The emergence of the welfare state starts.

Question 16

revolutions move east eat the end of the 19th century

Answer 16

• In Russia, autocratic regimes had persisted and the country industrialised late, leading to a spike in unemployment and poor working conditions towards the end of the nineteenth century. This perpetuated a communist rhetoric.
• In 1905, a wave of strikes broke out in St Petersburg and workers started a peaceful march. They were fired upon outside the Winter Palace. Tsar Nicholas II responded by saying that he would establish an elected assembly to advice the government and eventually the October Manifesto established an elected legislature.
• It did not overthrow the Tsar, but it did lead to the Fundamental laws of 1906 which created the Duma and fostered the development of legal political activity and parties.
• There had been strikes throughout Europe, both east and west, but the outbreak of war in 1914 garnered nationalism and put an end to social discontent. In Russia, patriotism evaporated (soldiers mutiny) and in 1917 a revolution started.
• From 1848-1917, it is more of a social question and class struggle. Before 1848, it is more about equality and national causes.

Question 17

how did socio-economic change lead to revolutions?

Answer 17

• the end of the Napoleonic wars and the start of widespread socio-economic change throughout Europe. The demilitarisation of many European states led to short term commercial and industrial setbacks as key industries, such as textiles and the metallurgical trades, were no longer required to produce the same surplus of weaponry and military attire.
• Industrialisation mechanised a number of rural trades (weaving machines in textile factories). Again, this increased unemployment levels as fewer labourers were required to produce the same output, resulting in more and more people searching for jobs in an ever-shrinking market.
• Jonathan Sperber
• Factory workers were at the bottom of this pyramid. They worked a 12-hour day at the pace set by the machine and depended entirely on wages (no land to supplement their income). The distance between them and the capitalist owners was huge.
• An increase in female labour strained marital relations. The rate of divorce increased tenfold and this disrputed social relations.
• Workhouses increased governed by the principal of less eligibility. This mobilised rural workers as seen by the swing riots. National workshops in France provided temporary relief for the destitute in the form of menial, low rate (two francs per worker per day) employment. A hostile worker’s demonstration during the so-called ‘June Days’ saw up to 50,000 labourers involving themselves with insurrections.
• improvements to communication allowed revolutionary ideas to spread more easily.

Question 18

how did environmental factors cause revolutions?

Answer 18

Pamela Pilbeam

• There was a poor harvest and hailstorms during the summer before the French Revolution. This created rural discontent due to poor harvests.
• In 1817, during the restoration and in 1847 before the subsequent revolutions of 1848, there were harvest failures which damaged a large amount of European agriculture and caused widespread famine.
• People wanted to find an outlet for their frustration, directing blame towards the government in a way that they couldn’t towards the environment.

Question 19

how did improvements to human capital cause revolutions?

Answer 19

• Lenore O’boyle
• The growth of democracy meant that the youth were freer and had higher aspirations. Government initiatives to increase secondary school enrolment encouraged more people to seek higher education.
• In Prussia in 1835, there were 262 candidates for every 100 livings in the church and 256 candidates for every 100 judicial offices.
• The population was also rising and therefore it was disproportionate.
• Large contingents of unemployed but highly educated individuals started to develop an inflated sense of self-worth, creating an impetus for self-recognition. This contributed to the development of far-right ideologies.
• In Prussia had a strong tradition of absolutism meaning that positions in state were highly idealised and people were not content with professions which they deemed below their capabilities or of insufficient prestige.
• Education was more expensive in Britain (with enrolment at Oxbridge costing approximately 5 times as much as a continental education/ 3,500/20 million matriculated students in England versus 6,362/18.5 million in Prussia).
• unemployment could also be imperially outsourced.

Question 20

How did government initiatives lead to revolutions?

Answer 20

• In 1832, the British government deliberately introduced the Great Reform Act in order to placate the people, increasing representation from major cities. Deliberate and measured inclusion of groups who had previously been excluded from politics which conceded enough power to prevent a revolution whilst still allowing representation to remain largely undemocratic.
• In France, Louis Philippe had alienated the petty bourgeoisie from government, restricting their autonomy and agency – July monarchy.
• Laissez faire had caused the number of bankruptcies to multiply. As the purchasing power of artisans’ declines, their demand for industrial and commercial goods shrank which led larger employers to trim their commitments in the labour markets.

Question 21

were revolutions just a response to 1789?

Answer 21

• 1848 revolutions were strongest in areas which were under Napoleonic rule. There is a hangover, one cannot ever truly go back to pre-Napoleonic times. Foundations for a new social and political order.
• Ideologies aside, 1789 showed that there was an alternative to accepting oppression. Mimicking this propensity.
• Improved communications meant that these ideas started to spread. Paris was seen as the capital city of Europe, once it sneezed the rest followed.

Question 22

liberalism defintion

Answer 22

Elay -general notion of constitutionalism (had an influence on executive responsibility to parliament and the degree of popular access to the franchise); civil liberties under the law. It had a theory of sovereign individual, a particular tradition of thinking about human nature as the constitutive basis for social relations and the moral life. Individualism is a core tenant.

Question 23

historiography and key individuals in liberalism

Answer 23

• A new generation of writers were committed to the liberal cause. John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spender offered philosophic validation. Mill in his tract ‘on Liberty’ made a plea for human freedom yet his utilitarian basis caused confusion.
• John Stuart Mill’s basis for representative government was the rational idea of humans realising their potential through active citizenship with enhanced liberty cultivating reason. He did suggest a system of voting with extra weight for the intelligent and talented as the wisest come from property and privilege.

Question 24

in what ways was liberalism a party of contradictions?

Answer 24

• Alan Kahan posits:
• ‘Opposing the virtues of 1789 with the vices of 1793 was the hallmark of liberal historiography’. They did not necessarily believe that revolutionary aims would achieve revolutionary goals.
• They did not advocate revolution but their willingness to join separated them from conservatives.
• Liberals saw themselves as defenders of religious toleration and were the great proponents of Jewish emancipation and Catholics in Britain. Termination of the Anglican monopoly of Oxbridge and emancipation from forms of religious disability. In Germany, liberals were anti-Catholic, however. Religious toleration had limits.
• Thy were worried that political participation by the wrong people would bring disaster. In order to avoid despotism, some form of political participation was necessary, however.
• They championed increased rights in the constitution – to assembly, religious freedom, property, opinion, work. They were advocates of today’s civil rights. This was gradually adopted by the democratic tradition. John Stuart Mill’s ‘On Liberty’ champions this.
• At present, people needed to be excluded as it would be detrimental to welfare. However, overtime everyone would be able to participate. Universal suffrage was supported for future time. This is what differentiates them from many conservatives.
• Defining capacity – individualist liberalism defined the capacity of individual and socially oriented liberalism which defined the capacity of certain groups. Usually this was the middle classes even if it wasn’t a dominant role. Individual capacity was often evaluated in moralist terms. criteria could change a society progressed and developed.

Question 25

liberalism in England

Answer 25

• The 1832 Reform Act abolished rotten boroughs and gave seats to centre of population density. In most urban areas those who occupied houses at £10 were enfranchised. The franchise for the counties was given to men who owned land worth 40 shillings and who rented land long term for £10 or short term £50. It was now 20% of adult males and it was not equal between constituencies.
• Language in the parliamentary debates showed that voting was a trust not a right and that it should only be given to those who could exercise it properly
• Property and education produced capacity (property was an indirect test of intelligence). The lower classes could not understand what politics actually were in the way that the middle class could and it was unsafe to not enfranchise these people.
• The social version of capacity dominated discourse.
• The purchasing power of £10 varied between regions and meant very different things about the economic standing of those who occupied 10-pound homes in different parts of the country. it did decrease lower-class electoral strength. In Oldham in 1832, 13.7 percent of the adult male pop voted versus 8.4% in 1866.

Question 26

liberalism in France

Answer 26

• The electoral system of the restoration enfranchised those who paid FF330/year in certain taxes meaning that only 80,000 French men voted. The July Monarchy eventually reduced the tax criteria to FF200. The types of taxes which would constitute were broadened from land to businesses. This increased the franchise to 200,000.
• Some were also enfranchised based on educational capabilities, at least for local voting. Almost 3 million had the vote in local elections, over 33% of the adult male population. Graduates of the Ecole Polytechnique received the local vote after two years residence.
• Democrats opposed ‘capacity’ as it created a new derivation of aristocratic privilege. Liberals argued it was a demonstration of personal accomplishment and ability which could only be done through hard work and orderly habits. Merely getting a degree did not demonstrate this. Property gave people an immediate interest in the preservation of social order and this guaranteed political usefulness.
• Many dwelt upon the eventual coming of universal suffrage. The English downplayed this to placate conservatives whereas the French emphasised it to reconcile revolutionaries to the regime.
• During the 1840s there was a shift towards an individualistic conception of liberalism. They wanted to reverse the decision of 1831 and admit the adjunctions (liberal professions), to increase the minimum number of district voters from 150-400 and to lower the cens from FF200 to FF100. Duncos pioneered this in 1842, suggesting that education was proof that capacity didn’t disappear.
• Guizot became more conservative and disagreed.

Question 27

how did liberalism lead to revolution?

Answer 27

• After the French Revolution of 1789, a restoration period occurred. Charles X tried to reinstate the despotic old regime, appointing a government ministry comprised exclusively of ultra-royalists. Acts of sacrilege became punishable by death and freedom of the press was restricted. Charles invokes Article 14 of the 1814 charter giving him exceptional power in emergencies and suspends the constitution. Both Louis and Charles had ruled by hereditary rights rather than popular representation. the 1830 government was erected on liberal principals.
• The revolution started in Sicily and in Naples against Ferdinand I who was forced to promise a constitutional monarchy. This inspired Carbonari in the North and 1821, Piedmont got a constitutional monarchy. The Statuto of King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia weakened the king’s power and ensured equality for all citizens before the law.
• People not only revolted in favour of liberalism but also against it. Liberals believed in the discourse of capacity whereby people did not necessarily have a right to political participation but more so a right to good governance.
• . Many democrats did not support this as they argued that it created a new derivation of aristocratic privileges, When Guizot refused to amendments to the suffrage and resistance banquets were quelled, a revolution broke out in 1848.
• in Prussia when many campaigned for an income-based replacement or a reduction of residency requirements on the basis that there was a bias towards wealth not education, the king of the united Landtag was not persuaded. This led to the Prussian revolution if 1848.

Question 28

liberalism in Germany

Answer 28

• There was no national unity yet in Germany. the leading German states did not have a parliament. Liberals in Germany wanted political reform and national unification.
• Hansemann tried to establish the power of the middle class. They were large in numbers, wealth and education. He argued A privileges were no logner useful.
• Their emphasis on education and culture criteria lent itself to an individualistic understanding of imperialism. No German was interested in emancipating the Jews as a social group, but most liberals were prepared to enfranchise them as individuals as they had personal capacity. Given that they were enfranchised this suggests that individualist perceptions took primacy.
• Bureaucratic liberalism in Germany - Many saw bureaucrats as a class that was specially endowed with liberal virtues. To others, capacity was seen as concentrated solely in the hands of the bureaucracy. A good administration was synonymous with a good constitution.
• A division among voters according to this scale could be used to represent political maturity. They adopted a universal but unequal suffrage (three-class system in 1850).
• Electors were chosen and then electors voted for the representative the suffrage at the lowest level was broad (anyone who paid taxes – 75% of adult male pop); the other two thirds paid the bulk of taxes (only land, house and business tax counted here). There was an average of 500 electors per district.
• Many civil servants were given tax-free housing and therefore couldn’t vote, and this is why universal suffrage was encouraged. The nobility and the church could also elect a proportion.

Question 29

critics of liberalism

Answer 29

• Constant was sceptical as to the ability of any political system to impose order on society. the historical development of society was inevitable, politics could only reflect social development. No political system could harmonise and unify social diversity.
• The ultraroyalists also sought to eradicate the influence of the French revolution and its liberal principles. Which complicated matters
• It Italy, the liberal regime was challenged by the Italian Socialist Party and the Catholic Popular Party. Corruption meant that they couldn’t rely on a secure basis of popularity amongst the Italian population.
• In 1815, there was a restoration of a legitimate Europe. They aimed to secure monarchy was the ruling institution, aristocracy as a social ordering and the churches as guardians of cultural values. The international order settled at Vienna was guaranteed by Britain and Russia.

Question 30

did expanding the electorate create more political stability

Answer 30

yes
- Great Reform act of 1832
- Declaration of the Rights of Man ended 1789 Revolution
No
- people still excluded after 178
- discourse of capacity, extending slightly but not democratically was bad.
- July monarchy
- DoC encouraged moe people to be educated to qualify - surplus
No
- other factors were more significant

Question 31

summary of differences between liberalism in different countries

Answer 31

• Direct attacks on the property criterion was what distinguished French liberalism from English. It was re-instating a derivation of former aristocratic privileges.
• In Germany, the main focus fell to education and this created more of an individualist outlook. For example, no German was overtly interested in emancipating the Jews as a social group, but most liberals were prepared to enfranchise them as individuals as they had personal capacity. Given that they were enfranchised this suggests that individualist perceptions took primacy. This was also influenced by bureaucratic liberalism.
• They therefore adopted a three-class system which created universal suffrage but on unequal terms.
• universal rights was more of a promise in France to placate the revolutionaries and less so in England due to a strong conservative presence.