I.
France
A.
Tough
economic times in Europe (potato famine, high food prices, high unemployment)
B.
Louis Phillipe is apathetic and inactive
1.
he
won’t address economics
2.
he
won’t address election reform
3.
the
people revolt
4.
Louis
Philippe abdicates (steps down) & hands it over to grandson
5.
But…the
people want no more monarchy.
C.
France’s
Second Republic
1.
Provisional
republic with a constitution
2.
Such
a republic would need to have…
a.
right
to vote to all adult males
b.
freed
French slaves
c.
no
death penalty
d.
ten-hour
workday
3.
Different
factions though
a.
moderate
liberal republicans – felt universal male suffrage was enough
b.
radical
republicans – called for some socialism (Louis Blanc & Albert)
i. want right to work,
gov’t cooperatives, noncompetitive workshops
4.
French
go to the polls April 1848 & elect Constituent
Assembly
a.
It’s
a legislature with 500 moderates, 300 monarchists, 100 radicals
5.
Alexis de
Tocqueville
(social observer) says socialism was the key to the revolution in Paris at this
point
a. de Tocqueville says
the peasants in the land want a republic and hate the radical Parisian
socialists
b.
Socialists
try to take-over in Constituent Assembly
c.
Uprising
squelched and national workshops closed. This led to…
6.
More
uprisings in Paris (people in Paris vs. the army)
a.
“June
Days” – 3 days of killing 10,000+ people
D.
Results
1.
The
revolution got crushed (neither republican nor socialists)
2.
Constituent
Assembly held on with strong executive power
3.
Louis Napoleon (Nap. Bonaparte’s
nephew) elected. He is liked by the propertied class who want order. Is
semi-authoritarian.
II.
Austria
A.
The
bottom line…
1.
News
of revolution from France stirs excitement.
2.
Liberals
– want changes: written constitutions, representation, civil liberties
a.
Monarchs
wimped out and gave in. Oddly, this meant the revolutionary movement fizzled.
b.
Then,
the monarch/aristocrats/army re-grouped
B.
Back
to the beginning…
1.
Revolution
began in Hungary where folks want change (national autonomy, civil rights,
universal suffrage)
2.
Folks
take to the streets and emperor Ferdinand
I wimps out and gives in
3.
Metternich took off running,
in disguise, to London
4.
King
had abolished serfdom so country folks were happy; city workers were not
though, they wanted socialism/government workshops. Therefore…
5.
The
revolutionary coalition was unstable and not united
6.
A
liberal, mostly democratic constitution is created; they’re nation-building.
7.
However,
minority groups wanted to be autonomous. The bottom line here is that the
revolutionaries are not in agreement on what they want to do. This hurts.
8.
The
conservatives strike back.
a.
Sophia, married to
emperor’s brother, fires up the conservatives
b.
Wants
Ferdinand to abdicate to her son (or get him ousted)
c.
The
army starts kicking tail among protestors
d.
Sophia’s
son, Francis Joseph gets crowned
emperor
e.
Russia
(Nicholas I) lends his army to help crush the Hungarian countryside
III.
Prussia
A.
Liberals
want to unite German provinces into unified nation with constitutional monarchy
B.
Fall
of Louis Phillipe in France fires up the
liberals…workers explode. Middle class liberals join the workers for now.
C.
Monarchy
Frederick William IV caves in. He
promised to make exactly what the liberals wanted above.
1.
Workers…wanted
much more (socialism)
2.
Conservatives…wanted
much less. What’s going to happen?
D.
Liberals
set up a National Assembly to write
a constitution
1.
They
get bogged down in a legal issue with Denmark
2.
National
Assembly appoints King Frederick William of Prussia emperor
3.
But,
Frederick William gets back his “swagger” and disbands the National Assembly
and reasserts “divine right”
4.
Frederick
William tries to get the German provinces to unite under his emperorship,
that fails.
5.
Germany
would not unite as a republic, nor as an empire.
IV.
The
bottom line of 1848 revolutions – In France, Austria, and Prussia, liberals and
socialists try to raise revolutions, eventually they fail, and the
conservatives get back control