THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 AND THEINTERNATIONAL ORDER

The virtues of the Vienna peace settlement can be seen from the fact that no conflict between Great Powers erupted over developments that could easily have caused war:

1.The movement to abolish the trans-Atlantic slave trade2.The Greek War of Independence (1821-1830)3.The revolutions of 1830, which caused France to

withdraw from the conference system and Belgium to secede from the Netherlands.

4.The far more widespread revolutions of 1848.

By 1848, however, Metternich’s premise that all governments should be based on “dynastic legitimacy” had been utterly discredited.

A major recession struck soon after Louis Philippe came

to power: “A Free People, Whose Happiness Begins” (French cartoon from October 1831)

Poor Lyon silk weavers launched major uprisings in 1831 & 1834: “Horrible Massacre at Lyon, 9 April

1834”

K. W. Hübner, “The Silesian Weavers,” 1844(as in Lyon, these linen weavers revolted in 1844)

“Hunger and

Despair”

“Government

Assistance”

(Satirical cartoon,

Berlin, 1847)

“The Seizure” (Austria, 1847)

The spread of popular uprisings in 1848:Bad harvests & unemployment created fuel for an

explosion

Feb 22: ParisFeb 27: Baden

(Offenburg Program)

Mar 13: ViennaMar 15:

BudapestMar 18: BerlinMar 18: MilanMar 19: MunichMay 3:

DresdenJune 9:

Bucharest

“Lamartine before City Hall, 25 February 1848.”The Paris crowd hailed a provisional government for the 2nd

Republic led by a Romantic poet and the socialist Louis Blanc.But rural voters elected a more conservative legislature in April

Frédéric Sorrieu, “The Universal, Democratic, and Social Republic: The Marketplace” (spring 1848)

“The Universal, Democratic, and Social Republic: The Pact”(Christ blesses the union of the free peoples of Europe)

“The Triumph of the Universal, Democratic, and Social Republic”

(children of the 4 continents drive the chariot; slaves are freed)

“Invasion of the Assembly,” Paris, 15 May 1848:The democratic clubs demanded war to liberate Poland

Ernest Meissonier, “The

Barricade,”aftermath of the

June Days of 1848, when the Second Republic suppressed the

democratic clubs

Louis-Napoleon(1808-1873)

• Son of Louis Bonaparte (King of Holland)

• Raised in Switzerland and Bavaria

• Joined the carbonari in Italy

• Banished to England in 1831

• Coup attempts in 1836 and 1840

• Elected French President with 75% of the popular vote in December 1848

“Prince Louis Napoleon, President of the Republic, Decorating the Carter, Jean-Baptiste Pruvost, with the

Legion of Honor at Saint-Quentin” (June 1850)

Louis Napoleon seized power in December 1851 and drove 100,000 republicans into exile:

Daumier, “The Fugitives” (ca. 1868)

“Cavalry Attack at the Municipal Armory,” Vienna, March 13, 1848

“The Fall of Metternich, 13 March 1848”(All the other ministers told the Kaiser that he must go.)

J.C. Schoeller, “Caricature of Metternich’s Flight,” 1848

Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894):The George

Washington of the Hungarian

Revolution, who led the resistance to

Austrian and Russian invaders until August 1849

Magyar revolutionaries had little sympathy forthe aspirations of Croats, Rumanians, Ukrainians, &

Slovaks

Berliners celebrate on the barricades on the evening of March 18, 1848 (royal palace in background)

Ceremonial opening of the

National Assembly in St. Paul’s Church, Frankfurt a.M., May 18, 1848:

All German states held democratic

elections for an assembly to

write a federal constitution for

Germany

FRANCIS PALACKY (1798-1876) refuses to come from Prague to Frankfurt to help organize the

election of a German National Assembly, 11 April 1848

“The object of your assembly is to establish a federation of the German nation in place of the existing federation of princes, to guide the German nation to real unity…. Although I respect such effort…, I cannot participate in it in any manner whatsoever. I am not a German---at least I do not feel myself to be one. I am a Czech of Slavonic blood, and with all the little I possess and all the little I can do, I have devoted myself for all time to the service of my nation. That nation is a small one, it is true, but from time immemorial it has been a nation of itself and based upon its own strength. Its rulers were from olden times members of the federation of German princes [the Holy Roman Empire], but the nation never regarded itself as pertaining to the German nation.” Palacky helped instead to organize an international “Slav Congress” in Prague to support the preservation of the Austrian Empire with more provincial autonomy as the best shield against Russia.

German War Flag, 1848 (with Habsburg Eagle): At first the Frankfurt Assembly hoped to ally with the Habsburgs

The new flag and the Goddess of

Liberty parade through Cologne during a

short-lived republican uprising in September

1848

The Republicans Friedrich Hecker & Gustav Struve seized power in Baden

Imperial (Croatian) troops storm Vienna in October 1848 to restore Emperor Franz Joseph; 4,000 men died

The Berlin Citizens’ Militia agrees that the Prussian Army should occupy the city, 10 November 1848

“A New Method for Granting a Constitution” (Berlin, December 1848): Frederick William IV was in charge

Delegates from Frankfurt offer to crown Frederick William IV as German Kaiser, Berlin, April 3, 1849

He refused the offer unless it was approved by his brother German monarchs. Most of the Frankfurt delegates then gave up on their quest for national unity and went home.

Prussian troops advance against the revolutionary army of Baden (including Friedrich Engels), June

22, 1849

France, Prussia, & Austria sweep the revolutionaries out of Europe (1849)

FRANCE AUSTRIA PRUSSIA FRANKFURT a.M.

Revolution breaks out Feb. 22-24

Vienna, March 13-15

Berlin, March 18: March 30: “Pre-parliament”

April 23: national elections

May: Emperor flees Vienna

May: Prussian state assembly meets

May: National Assembly

June Days: workers’ uprising crushed

June-July: Imperial troops conquer Prague & Milan

October: National Guard fires on workers in Berlin

September: Armistice with Denmark

October 24-31: Imperials conquer Vienna

November: royal troops occupy Berlin

October: republican rising in Baden

December 1848: Louis Napoleon President

Dec. 1848: Austria & Russia invade Hungary

December 1848: King decrees constitution

December 1848: Assembly tilts toward Prussia

March 1849: Kaiser decrees constitution

Berlin, April 3, 1849: King rejects imperial crown

March 1849: federal constitution proclaimed

Dec. 1851: Coup by Napoleon III

May-August 1849: All uprisings crushed from Hungary to Baden.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848

1. Austria and Prussia adopt written constitutions, but with limited suffrage and strong powers reserved to the monarch.

2. In the “Second Empire” (1851-1870), Napoleon III combines authoritarian rule with the quest to promote industrialization and gain prestige in foreign policy.

3. Movements for national self-determination spread among the Czechs, Poles, Magyars, Croats, and Italians.

4. Popular unrest in Great Britain subsides as a result of the Great Reform Act of 1832, Poor Law of 1834, repeal of the Corn Laws (1846), and a rising standard of living.