Revolutions of 1848

Revolutions of 1848

Part of theAge of Revolution
Barricadeon the rue Soufflot,an 1848 painting byHorace Vernet.ThePanthéonis shown in the background.
Date	12 January 1848 – 4 October 1849
Location	Western,Northern,andCentral Europe
Also known as	Springtime of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples, Year of Revolution
Participants	People ofIreland,France,German Confederation,Hungary,Italian states,Denmark,Moldavia,Wallachia,Poland,and others
Outcome	SeeEvents by country or region Political change in a few countries Significant social and cultural change

Therevolutions of 1848,known in some countries as thespringtime of the peoplesor thespringtime of nations,were a series ofrevolutionsthroughout Europe over the course of more than one year, from 1848 to 1849. It remains the most widespreadrevolutionary waveinEuropean historyto date.

The revolutions were essentiallydemocraticandliberalin nature, with the aim of removing the oldmonarchicalstructures and creating independentnation-states,as envisioned byromantic nationalism.The revolutions spread across Europe after an initial revolution began inItalyin January 1848.Over 50 countries were affected, but with no significant coordination or cooperation among their respective revolutionaries. Some of the major contributing factors were widespread dissatisfaction with political leadership, demands for moreparticipationin government and democracy, demands forfreedom of the press,other demands made by theworking classfor economic rights, the upsurge ofnationalism,and theEuropean potato failure,which triggered mass starvation, migration, and civil unrest.

The uprisings were led by temporary coalitions of workers and reformers, including figures from the middle and upper classes (thebourgeoisie);however, the coalitions did not hold together for long. Many of the revolutions were quickly suppressed, as tens of thousands of people were killed, and even more were forced into exile. Significant lasting reforms included the abolition ofserfdomin Austria and Hungary, the end ofabsolute monarchyin Denmark, and the introduction ofrepresentative democracyin the Netherlands. The revolutions were most important in France, the Netherlands,Italy,theAustrian Empire,and the states of theGerman Confederationthat would make up theGerman Empirein the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The wave of uprisings ended in October 1849.

Origins

Map of Europe in 1848–1849 depicting the main revolutionary centers, important counter-revolutionary troop movements and states with abdications

The revolutions arose from such a wide variety of causes that it is difficult to view them as resulting from a coherent movement or set of social phenomena. Numerous changes had been taking place in European society throughout the first half of the 19th century. Bothliberalreformers andradical politicianswere reshaping national governments.

Technological change was revolutionizing the life of the working classes. A popular press extended political awareness, and new values and ideas such aspopular liberalism,nationalismandsocialismbegan to emerge. Some historians emphasize the serious crop failures, particularly those of 1846, that produced hardship among peasants and the working urban poor.

Large swaths of thenobilitywere discontented withroyal absolutismor near-absolutism. In 1846, there had been anuprisingofPolishnobility in AustrianGalicia,which was only countered when peasants, in turn,rose up against the nobles.Additionally, anuprisingby democratic forces againstPrussia,planned but not actually carried out, occurred inGreater Poland.

The middle and working classes thus shared a desire for reform, and agreed on many of the specific aims. Their participation in the revolutions, however, differed. While much of theimpetuscame from the middle classes, the physical backbone of the movement came from the lower classes. The revolts first erupted in the cities.

Urban workers

Galician slaughter(Polish:Rzeź galicyjska) by Jan Lewicki (1795–1871), depicting the massacre of Polish nobles by Polish peasants inGaliciain 1846.

The population in French rural areas hadrisen rapidly,causing many peasants to seek a living in the cities. Many in thebourgeoisiefeared and distanced themselves from theworking poor.Many unskilled laborers toiled from 12 to 15 hours per day when they had work, living in squalid, disease-ridden slums. Traditional artisans felt the pressure ofindustrialization,having lost theirguilds.

The liberalization of trade laws and the growth of factories had increased the gulf between master tradesmen, and journeymen and apprentices, whose numbers increased disproportionately by 93% from 1815 to 1848 in Germany. Significant proletarian unrest had occurred inLyonin1831 and 1834,andPraguein 1844.Jonathan Sperberhas suggested that in the period after 1825, poorer urban workers (particularly day laborers, factory workers and artisans) saw their purchasing power decline relatively steeply: urban meat consumption in Belgium, France and Germany stagnated or declined after 1830, despite growing populations.The economicPanic of 1847increased urban unemployment: 10,000 Viennese factory workers lost jobs, and 128 Hamburg firms went bankrupt over the course of 1847.With the exception of the Netherlands, there was a strong correlation among the countries that were most deeply affected by the industrial shock of 1847 and those that underwent a revolution in 1848.

The situation in the German states was similar. Parts ofPrussiawere beginning to industrialize. During the decade of the 1840s, mechanized production in the textile industry brought about inexpensive clothing that undercut the handmade products of German tailors.Reforms ameliorated the most unpopular features of ruralfeudalism,but industrial workers remained dissatisfied with these reforms and pressed for greater change.

Urban workers had no choice but to spend half of their income on food, which consisted mostly of bread and potatoes. As a result of harvest failures,food pricessoared and the demand formanufactured goodsdecreased, causing an increase in unemployment. During the revolution, to address the problem of unemployment, workshops were organized for men interested in construction work. Officials also set up workshops for women when they felt they were excluded. Artisans and unemployed workers destroyed industrial machines when they threatened to give employers more power over them.

Rural areas

Rural population growth had led to food shortages,landpressure, and migration, both within and from Europe, especially to the Americas. Peasant discontent in the 1840s grew in intensity. Peasant occupations of lost communal land increased in many areas; those convicted of wood theft in the Rhenish Palatinate increased from 100,000 in 1829–30 to 185,000 in 1846–47.In the years 1845 and 1846, apotato blightcaused asubsistence crisis in Northern Europe,and encouraged the raiding of manorial potato stocks in Silesia in 1847. The effects of the blight were most severely manifested in theGreat Irish Famine,but also caused famine-like conditions in theScottish Highlandsand throughoutcontinental Europe.Harvests of rye in the Rhineland were 20% of previous levels, while the Czech potato harvest was reduced by half.These reduced harvests were accompanied by a steep rise in prices (the cost of wheat more than doubled in France and Habsburg Italy). There were 400 French food riots from 1846 to 1847, while German socio-economic protests increased from 28 from 1830 to 1839, to 103 from 1840 to 1847.Central to long-term peasant grievances were the loss of communal lands, forest restrictions (such as the French Forest Code of 1827), and remaining feudal structures, notably the robot (labor obligations) that existed among the serfs and oppressed peasantry of theHabsburg lands.

Aristocraticwealth (and corresponding power) was synonymous with the ownership of farmlands and effective control over thepeasants.Peasant grievances exploded during the revolutionary year of 1848, yet were often disconnected from urban revolutionary movements: the revolutionarySándor Petőfi's popular nationalist rhetoric in Budapest did not translate into any success with the Magyar peasantry, while the Viennese democratHans Kudlichreported that his efforts to galvanize the Austrian peasantry had "disappeared in the great sea of indifference and phlegm".

Role of ideas

TheJune Uprisingof 1848 inPragueinjected a strong political element intoCzech National Revival.

Despite forceful and often violent efforts of established and reactionary powers to keep them down, disruptive ideas gained popularity:democracy,liberalism,radicalism,nationalism,andsocialism.They demanded aconstitution,universal manhood suffrage,press freedom,freedom of expressionand other democratic rights, the establishment of civilian militia, liberation of peasants, liberalization of the economy, abolition of tariff barriers and the abolition of monarchical power structures in favour of the establishment ofrepublican states,or at least the restriction of the prince power in the form of constitutional monarchies.

In the language of the 1840s, 'democracy' meant replacing anelectorate of property-ownerswith universal malesuffrage.'Liberalism' fundamentally meantconsent of the governed,restriction of church andstatepower,republican government,freedom of the pressand the individual. The 1840s had seen the emergence of radical liberal publications such asRheinische Zeitung(1842);Le NationalandLa Réforme(1843) in France;Ignaz Kuranda'sGrenzboten(1841) in Austria;Lajos Kossuth'sPesti Hírlap(1841) in Hungary, as well as the increased popularity of the olderMorgenbladetin Norway and theAftonbladetin Sweden.

'Nationalism' believed in uniting people bound by (some mix of) commonlanguages,culture,religion,sharedhistory,and of course immediategeography;there were alsoirredentistmovements. Nationalism had developed a broader appeal during the pre-1848 period, as seen in theFrantišek Palacký's 1836History of the Czech Nation,which emphasised a national lineage of conflict with the Germans, or the popular patrioticLiederkranz(song-circles) that were held across Germany: patriotic and belligerent songs aboutSchleswighad dominated theWürzburgnational song festival in 1845.

'Socialism' in the 1840s was a term without a consensus definition, meaning different things to different people, but was typically used within a context of more power for workers in a system based on worker ownership of themeans of production.

These concepts together—democracy, liberalism, nationalism and socialism, in the sense described above—came to be encapsulated in the political termradicalism.

Sequence of main trends

Spring 1848: Astonishing success

The revolutionary barricades inViennain May 1848

The world was astonished in spring 1848 when revolutions appeared in so many places and seemed on the verge of success everywhere. Agitators who had been exiled by the old governments rushed home to seize the moment. In France, themonarchywas once againoverthrown and replaced by a republic.In a number of major German and Italian states, and in Austria, the old leaders were forced to grant liberal constitutions. The Italian and German states seemed to be rapidly forming unified nations. Austria gave Hungarians and Czechs liberal grants of autonomy and national status.

Summer 1848: Divisions among reformers

In France, bloody street battles exploded between the middle class reformers and the working class radicals. German reformers argued endlessly without finalizing their results.

Autumn 1848: Reactionaries organize for a counter-revolution

Caught off guard at first, the aristocracy and their allies plot a return to power.

1849–1851: Overthrow of revolutionary regimes

The revolutions suffer a series of defeats in summer 1849. Reactionaries returned to power and many leaders of the revolution went into exile. Some social reforms proved permanent, and years later nationalists in Germany, Italy, and Hungary gained their objectives.

Events by country or region

Italian states

Main article:Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states

Episode from theFive Days of Milan,painting byBaldassare Verazzi

The first of the numerous revolutions to occur in 1848 in Italy came in Palermo, Sicily,starting in January 1848.There had been several previous revolts againstBourbonrule; this one produced an independent state that lasted only 16 months before the Bourbons came back. During those months, the constitution was quite advanced for its time in liberal democratic terms, as was the proposal of a unifiedItalianconfederation of states.The revolt's failure was reversed 12 years later as the BourbonKingdom of the Two Siciliescollapsed in 1860–61 with theunification of Italy.

On 11 February 1848,Leopold II of Tuscany,first cousin of EmperorFerdinand I of Austria,granted the Constitution, with the general approval of his subjects. The Habsburg example was followed byCharles Albert of Sardinia(Albertine Statute;later became the constitution of the unifiedKingdom of Italyand remained in force, with changes, until 1948) and byPope Pius IX(Fundamental Statute). However, only King Charles Albert maintained the statute even after the end of the riots. Revolts broke out throughout theKingdom of Lombardy–Venetia,such as theFive Days of Milanwhich marked the beginning of theFirst Italian War of Independence.

Afterdeclaring independencefrom theHabsburgAustrian Empire,theRepublic of San Marcolater joined theKingdom of Sardiniain an attempt, led by the latter, to unitenorthern Italyagainst foreign (mainly Austrian but also French) domination. However, theFirst Italian War of Independenceended in the defeat of Sardinia, and Austrian forces reconquered the Republic of San Marco on 28 August 1849 following a long siege. Based on theVenetian Lagoon,the Republic of San Marco extended into most ofVenetia,or theTerrafermaterritory of theRepublic of Venice,suppressed 51 years earlier in theFrench Revolutionary Wars.

In theDuchy of Modena and Reggio,Duke Francis Vattempted to respond militarily to the first attempts at armed revolt, but faced with the approach of Bolognese volunteers to support the insurgents, in order to avoid bloodshed he preferred to leave the city promising a constitution and amnesties. On 21 March 1848 he left for Bolzano. A provisional government was established in Modena. In thePapal States,an internal revolt ousted Pope Pius IX from his temporal powers and led to the establishment of theRoman Republic.

The municipalities ofMenton and Roquebruneunited and obtained independence as the Principality ofMonaco.

France

Main article:French Revolution of 1848

The "February Revolution" in France was sparked by the suppression of thecampagne des banquets.This revolution was driven by nationalist and republican ideals among the French general public, who believed the people should rule themselves. It ended theconstitutional monarchyofLouis-Philippe,and led to the creation of theFrench Second Republic.After an interim period,Louis-Napoleon,the nephew ofNapoleon Bonaparte,waselected as president.In 1851, he stageda coup d'étatand established himself as a dictatorial emperor of theSecond French Empire.

Alexis de Tocquevilleremarked in hisRecollectionsof the period, "society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy, and those who had anything united in common terror."

German states

Main article:German revolutions of 1848–1849

Revolutionaries inBerlinin March 1848, waving therevolutionary flags,Berlin Palacein the background

The "March Revolution" in the German states took place in the south and the west of Germany, with large popular assemblies and mass demonstrations. Led by well-educated students and intellectuals,they demandedGerman national unity,freedom of the press,andfreedom of assembly.The uprisings were poorly coordinated, but had in common a rejection of traditional, autocratic political structures in the 39 independent states of theGerman Confederation.The middle-class and working-class components of the Revolution split, and in the end, the conservative aristocracy defeated it, forcing many liberalForty-Eightersinto exile.

Denmark

Main article:History of Denmark § Nationalism and liberalism

Danish soldiers parade throughCopenhagenin 1849 after victories in theFirst Schleswig War

Denmark had been governed by a system of absolute monarchy (King's Law) since the 17th century. KingChristian VIII,a moderate reformer but still an absolutist, died in January 1848 during a period of rising opposition from farmers and liberals. The demands for constitutional monarchy, led by theNational Liberals,ended with a popular march toChristiansborgon 21 March. The new king,Frederick VII,met the liberals' demands and installed a new Cabinet that included prominent leaders of theNational Liberal Party.

The national-liberal movement wanted to abolish absolutism, but retain a strongly centralized state. The king accepteda new constitutionagreeing to share power with a bicameral parliament called theRigsdag.It is said that the Danish king's first words after signing away his absolute power were, "that was nice, now I can sleep in the mornings".Although army officers were dissatisfied, they accepted the new arrangement which, in contrast to the rest of Europe, was not overturned by reactionaries.The liberal constitution did not extend toSchleswig,leaving theSchleswig-Holstein Questionunanswered.

Schleswig

Main article:First Schleswig War

TheDuchy of Schleswig,a region containing both Danes (a North Germanic population) and Germans (a West Germanic population), was a part of the Danish monarchy, but remained a duchy separate from the Kingdom of Denmark. Spurred bypan-Germansentiment, the Germans of Schleswig took up arms in protest at a new policy announced by Denmark'sNational Liberalgovernment which would have fully integrated the duchy into Denmark.

The German population in Schleswig and Holstein revolted, inspired by the Protestant clergy. The German states sent in an army, but Danish victories in 1849 led to theTreaty of Berlin(1850) and theLondon Protocol (1852).They reaffirmed the sovereignty of the King of Denmark, while prohibiting union with Denmark. The violation of the latter provision led torenewed warfare in 1863 and the Prussian victory in 1864.

Habsburg monarchy

Main article:Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire

Proclamation of theSerbian Vojvodinain May 1848 during theSerb Revolution

From March 1848 through July 1849, the HabsburgAustrian Empirewas threatened by revolutionary movements, which often had a nationalist character. The empire, ruled fromVienna,included German-speakingAustrians,Hungarians,Czechs,Poles,Croats,Ukrainians,Romanians,Slovaks,Slovenes,SerbsandItalians,all of whom attempted in the course of the revolution to achieve either autonomy, independence, or even hegemony over other nationalities.The nationalist picture was further complicated by the simultaneous events in the German states, which moved toward greater German national unity.

Hungary

Main article:Hungarian Revolution of 1848

TheBattle of Budain May 1849 byMór Than

Hungarianhussarsin battle during the Hungarian Revolution

The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was the longest in Europe, crushed in August 1849 by Austrian and Russian armies. Nevertheless, it had a major effect in freeing theserfs.It started on 15 March 1848, when Hungarian patriots organized mass demonstrations inPestandBuda(today Budapest) which forced the imperial governor to accept their12 points of demands,which included the demand for freedom of press, an independent Hungarian ministry residing in Buda-Pest and responsible to a popularly elected parliament, the formation of a National Guard, complete civil and religious equality, trial by jury, a national bank, a Hungarian army, the withdrawal of foreign (Austrian) troops from Hungary, the freeing of political prisoners, and union withTransylvania.On that morning, the demands were read aloud along with poetry bySándor Petőfiwith the simple lines of "We swear by the God of the Hungarians. We swear, we shall be slaves no more".Lajos Kossuthand some other liberal nobility that made up theDietappealed to the Habsburg court with demands for representative government and civil liberties.These events resulted inKlemens von Metternich,the Austrian chancellor and foreign minister, resigning. The demands of the Diet were agreed upon on 18 March by EmperorFerdinand.Although Hungary would remain part of the monarchy throughpersonal unionwith the emperor, a constitutional government would be founded. The Diet then passed the April laws that established equality before the law, a legislature, a hereditary constitutional monarchy, and an end to the transfer and restrictions of land use.

The revolution grew into a war for independence from theHabsburg monarchywhenJosip Jelačić,Ban of Croatia,crossed the border to restore their control.The new government, led byLajos Kossuth,was initially successful against the Habsburg forces. Although Hungary took a national united stand for its freedom, some minorities of the Kingdom of Hungary, including the Serbs of Vojvodina, the Romanians of Transylvania and some Slovaks of Upper Hungary supported the Habsburg Emperor and fought against the Hungarian Revolutionary Army. Eventually, after one and a half years of fighting, the revolution was crushed when Russian TsarNicholas Imarched into Hungary with over 300,000 troops.As result of the defeat, Hungary was thus placed under brutal martial law. The leading rebels like Kossuth fled into exile or were executed. In the long run, the passive resistance following the revolution, along with the crushing Austrian defeat in the 1866Austro-Prussian War,led to theAustro-Hungarian Compromise(1867), which marked the birth of theAustro-Hungarian Empire.

Galicia

The center of the Ukrainian national movement was inGalicia,which is today divided between Ukraine and Poland. On 19 April 1848, a group of representatives led by the Greek Catholic clergy launched a petition to the Austrian Emperor. It expressed wishes that in those regions of Galicia where the Ruthenian (Ukrainian) population represented the majority, theUkrainian languageshould be taught at schools and used to announce official decrees for the peasantry; local officials were expected to understand it and the Ruthenian clergy was to be equalized in their rights with the clergy of all other denominations.

On 2 May 1848, theSupreme Ruthenian Councilwas established. The council (1848–1851) was headed by the Greek-Catholic BishopGregory Yakhimovichand consisted of 30 permanent members. Its main goal was the administrative division of Galicia into Western (Polish) and Eastern (Ruthenian/Ukrainian) parts within the borders of the Habsburg Empire, and formation of a separate region with a political self-governance.

Sweden

Main article:March Unrest

During 18–19 March, a series of riots known as theMarch Unrest(Marsoroligheterna) took place in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. Declarations with demands of political reform were spread in the city and a barricade at Norra Smedjegatan was stormed by the military. In the end, there were 18–30 casualties in total.

Switzerland

Main article:Sonderbund War

Switzerland, already an alliance of republics, also saw an internal struggle. The attempted secession of seven Catholiccantonsto form an alliance known as theSonderbund( "separate alliance" ) in 1845 led to a short civil conflict in November 1847 in which around 100 people were killed. TheSonderbundwas decisively defeated by the Protestant cantons, which had a larger population.A new constitution of 1848 ended the almost-complete independence of the cantons, transformingSwitzerland into a federal state.

Greater Poland

Main article:Greater Poland uprising (1848)

Polish people mounted a military insurrection against thePrussiansin theGrand Duchy of Posen(or theGreater Polandregion), a part of Prussia since its annexation in 1815. The Poles tried to establish a Polish political entity, but refused to cooperate with the Germans and the Jews. The Germans decided they were better off with the status quo, so they assisted the Prussian governments in recapturing control. In the long-term, the uprising stimulated nationalism among both the Poles and the Germans and brought civil equality to the Jews.

Romanian Principalities

Main articles:Moldavian Revolution of 1848andWallachian Revolution of 1848

Romanian revolutionaries inBucharestin 1848, carrying theRomanian tricolor

A Romanian liberal and Romantic nationalist uprising began in June in the principality ofWallachia.Its goals were administrative autonomy, abolition of serfdom, and popular self-determination. It was closely connected with the 1848 unsuccessfulrevolt in Moldavia,it sought to overturn the administration imposed by Imperial Russian authorities under theRegulamentul Organicregime, and, through many of its leaders, demanded the abolition ofboyarprivilege. Led by a group of young intellectuals and officers in theWallachian military forces,the movement succeeded in toppling the rulingPrinceGheorghe Bibescu,whom it replaced with a provisional government and aregency,and in passing a series of major liberal reforms, first announced in theProclamation of Islaz.

Despite its rapid gains and popular backing, the new administration was marked by conflicts between theradical wingand more conservative forces, especially over the issue ofland reform.Two successive abortive coups weakened the new government, and its international status was always contested by Russia. After managing to rally a degree of sympathy from Ottoman political leaders, the Revolution was ultimately isolated by the intervention of Russian diplomats. In September 1848 by agreement with the Ottomans, Russia invaded and put down the revolution. According to Vasile Maciu, the failures were attributable in Wallachia to foreign intervention, in Moldavia to the opposition of the feudalists, and in Transylvania to the failure of the campaigns of GeneralJózef Bem,and later to Austrian repression.In later decades, the rebels returned and gained their goals.

Belgium

A depiction ofLeopold I of Belgium's symbolic offer to resign the crown in 1848

Belgiumdid not see major unrestin 1848; it had already undergone a liberal reform after theRevolution of 1830and thus its constitutional system and its monarchy survived.

A number of small local riots broke out, concentrated in thesillon industrielindustrial region of the provinces ofLiègeandHainaut.

The most serious threat of revolutionary contagion, however, was posed by Belgian émigré groups from France. In 1830 the Belgian Revolution had broken out inspired by the revolution occurring in France, and Belgian authorities feared that a similar 'copycat' phenomenon might occur in 1848. Shortly after the revolution in France, Belgian migrant workers living in Paris were encouraged to return to Belgium to overthrowthe monarchyand establish a republic.Belgian authorities expelledKarl Marxhimself from Brussels in early March on accusations of having used part of his inheritance to arm Belgian revolutionaries.

Around 6,000 armed émigrés of the "Belgian Legion"attempted to cross the Belgian frontier. There were two divisions which were formed. The first group, travelling by train, were stopped and quickly disarmed atQuiévrainon 26 March 1848.The second group crossed the border on 29 March and headed for Brussels. They were confronted by Belgian troops at the hamlet ofRisquons-Toutand defeated. Several smaller groups managed to infiltrate Belgium, but the reinforced Belgian border troops succeeded and the defeat at Risquons-Tout effectively ended the revolutionary threat to Belgium.

The situation in Belgium began to recover that summer after a good harvest, andfresh electionsreturned a strong majority to the governing party.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Main article:Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848

A tendency common in the revolutionary movements of 1848 was a perception that the liberal monarchies set up in the 1830s, despite formally being representative parliamentary democracies, were too oligarchical and/or corrupt to respond to the urgent needs of the people, and were therefore in need of drastic democratic overhaul or, failing that, separatism to build a democratic state from scratch.This was the process that occurred in Ireland between 1801 and 1848.

Previously a separate kingdom, Ireland wasincorporated into the United Kingdom in 1801.Although its population was made up largely of Catholics, and sociologically of agricultural workers, tensions arose from the political over-representation, in positions of power, of landowners of Protestant background who were loyal to the United Kingdom. From the 1810s a conservative-liberal movement led byDaniel O'Connellhad sought to secureequal political rights for Catholicswithinthe British political system, successful in theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1829.But as in other European states, a current inspired byRadicalismcriticized the conservative-liberals for pursuing the aim of democratic equality with excessive compromise and gradualism.

Trial of the Irish patriots atClonmel.Young Irelandersreceiving their sentence of death.

In Ireland a current ofnationalist,egalitarianandRadicalrepublicanism, inspired by theFrench Revolution,had been present since the 1790s – being expressed initially in theIrish Rebellion of 1798.This tendency grew into a movement for social, cultural and political reform during the 1830s, and in 1839 was realized into a political association calledYoung Ireland.It was initially not well received, but grew more popular with theGreat Famineof 1845–1849, an event that brought catastrophic social effects and which threw into light the inadequate response of authorities.

The spark for the Young Irelander Revolution came in 1848 when the British Parliament passed the "Crime and Outrage Bill".The Bill was essentially a declaration of martial law in Ireland, designed to create acounter-insurgencyagainst the growing Irish nationalist movement.

In response, the Young Ireland Party launched its rebellion in July 1848, gathering landlords and tenants to its cause.

But its firstmajor engagement against police,in the village ofBallingarry, South Tipperary,was a failure. A long gunfight with around 50 armedpoliceended when police reinforcements arrived. After the arrest of the Young Ireland leaders, the rebellion collapsed, though intermittent fighting continued for the next year,

It is sometimes called theFamine Rebellion(since it took place during the Great Famine).

Spain

While no revolution occurred in Spain in the year 1848, a similar phenomenon occurred. During this year, the country was going through theSecond Carlist War.The European revolutions erupted at a moment when thepolitical regime in Spainfaced great criticism from within one of its two main parties, and by 1854 a radical-liberal revolution and a conservative-liberal counter-revolution had both occurred.

Since 1833, Spain had been governed by aconservative-liberalparliamentary monarchysimilar to and modelled on theJuly Monarchyin France. In order to exclude absolute monarchists from government, power had alternated between two liberal parties: the center-leftProgressive Party,and the center-rightModerate Party.But a decade of rule by the center-right Moderates had recently produced aconstitutional reform (1845),prompting fears that the Moderates sought to reach out to Absolutists and permanently exclude the Progressives. The left-wing of the Progressive Party, which had historical links toJacobinismandRadicalism,began to push for root-and-branch reforms to the constitutional monarchy, notablyuniversal male suffrageandparliamentary sovereignty.

The European Revolutions of 1848 and particularly theFrench Second Republicprompted theSpanish radical movementto adopt positions incompatible with the existing constitutional regime, notablyrepublicanism.This ultimately led the Radicals to exit the Progressive Party to form theDemocratic Partyin 1849.

Over the next years, two revolutions occurred. In 1854, the conservatives ofthe Moderate Party were oustedaftera decade in powerby an alliance of Radicals, Liberals and liberal Conservatives led by Generals Espartero and O'Donnell. In 1856, the more conservative half of this alliance launched a second revolution to oust the republican Radicals, leading to a new 10-year period of government by conservative-liberal monarchists.

Taken together, the two revolutions can be thought of as echoing aspects of theFrench Second Republic:theSpanish Revolution of 1854,as a revolt by Radicals and Liberals against the oligarchical, conservative-liberal parliamentary monarchy of the 1830s, mirrored theFrench Revolution of 1848;while the Spanish Revolution of 1856, as a counter-revolution of conservative-liberals under a military strongman, had echoes ofLouis-Napoléon Bonaparte's coupagainst the French Second Republic.

Other European states

Illustration of the "March troubles"in Stockholm, Sweden in 1848

TheUnited Kingdom,Belgium, theNetherlands,Portugal,theRussian Empire(includingPolandandFinland), and theOttoman Empiredid not encounter major national or Radical revolutions in 1848.SwedenandNorwaywere also little affected.Serbia,though formally unaffected by the revolt as it was a part of the Ottoman state, actively supported Serbian revolutionaries in the Habsburg Empire.

In some countries, uprisings had already occurred demanding similar reforms to the Revolutions of 1848, but with little success. This was the case for theKingdom of Polandand theGrand Duchy of Lithuania,which had seen a series of uprisings before or after but not during 1848: theNovember Uprisingof 1830–1831; theKraków Uprisingof 1846 (notable for being quelled by the anti-revolutionaryGalician slaughter), and later on theJanuary Uprisingof 1863–1865.

In other countries, the relative calm could be attributed to the fact that they had already gone through revolutions or civil wars in the preceding years, and therefore already enjoyed many of the reforms which Radicals elsewhere were demanding in 1848. This was largely the case for Belgium (theBelgian Revolutionin 1830–1831); Portugal (the largeLiberal Warsof 1828–1834, and the minor civil war ofPatuleiain 1846–1847); and Switzerland (theSonderbund Warof 1847)

In yet other countries, the absence of unrest was partly due to governments taking action to prevent revolutionary unrest, and pre-emptively grant some of the reforms demanded by revolutionaries elsewhere. This was notably the case for the Netherlands, where KingWilliam IIdecidedto alter the Dutch constitutionto reform elections and voluntarily reduce the power of the monarchy. The same might be said of Switzerland, where a new constitutional regime was introduced in 1848: theSwiss Federal Constitutionwas a revolution of sorts, laying the foundation of Swiss society as it is today.

While no major political upheavals occurred in the Ottoman Empire as such, political unrest did occur in some of itsvassal states.In Serbia,feudalismwas abolished and the power of the Serbian prince was reduced with theConstitution of Serbiain 1838.

Other English-speaking countries

Chartistmeeting onKennington Common10 April 1848

In the United Kingdom, while the middle classes had been pacified by their inclusion in the extension of the franchise in theReform Act 1832,the consequential agitations, violence, and petitions of theChartist movementcame to a head withtheir peaceful petition to Parliamentof 1848. The repeal in 1846 of the protectionist agricultural tariffs – called the "Corn Laws"– had defused some proletarian fervour.

In theIsle of Man,there were ongoing efforts to reform the self-electedHouse of Keys,but no revolution took place. Some of the reformers were encouraged by events in France in particular.

In the United States, opinions were polarized, with Democrats and reformers in favour, although they were distressed at the degree of violence involved. Opposition came from conservative elements, especially Whigs, southern slaveholders, orthodox Calvinists, and Catholics. About 4,000 German exiles arrived and some became fervent Republicans in the 1850s, such asCarl Schurz.Kossuth toured America and won great applause, but no volunteers or diplomatic or financial help.

Followingrebellions in 1837 and 1838,1848 in Canadasaw the establishment ofresponsible governmentinNova ScotiaandThe Canadas,the first such governments in theBritish Empireoutside the United Kingdom.John Ralston Saulhas argued that this development is tied to the revolutions in Europe, but described the Canadian approach to the revolutionary year of 1848 as "talking their way... out of the empire's control system and into a new democratic model ", a stable democratic system which has lasted to the present day.ToryandOrange Order in Canadaopposition to responsible government came to a head in riots triggered by theRebellion Losses Billin 1849. They succeeded in theburning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal,but, unlike their counterrevolutionary counterparts in Europe, they were ultimately unsuccessful.

Latin America

In Spanish Latin America, the Revolution of 1848 appeared inNew Granada,where Colombian students, liberals, and intellectuals demanded the election of GeneralJosé Hilario López.He took power in 1849 and launched major reforms, abolishing slavery and the death penalty, and providing freedom of the press and of religion. The resulting turmoil inColombialasted three decades; from 1851 to 1885, the country was ravaged by four general civil wars and 50 local revolutions.

In Chile, the 1848 revolutions inspired the1851 Chilean revolution.

InBrazil,thePraieira Revolt,a movement inPernambuco,lasted from November 1848 to 1852.Unresolved conflicts from the period of the regency and local resistance to the consolidation of the Brazilian Empire that had been proclaimed in 1822 helped to plant the seeds of the revolution.

In Mexico, the conservative government led by Santa Anna lost California and half of the territory to the United States in theMexican–American Warof 1845–1848. Derived from this catastrophe and chronic stability problems, the Liberal Party started a reformist movement. This movement, via elections, led liberals to formulate thePlan of Ayutla.The Plan written in1854aimed at removing conservative, centralist PresidentAntonio López de Santa Annafrom control of Mexico during theSecond Federal Republic of Mexicoperiod. Initially, it seemed little different from other political plans of the era, but it is considered the first act of theLiberal Reformin Mexico.It was the catalyst for revolts in many parts of Mexico, which led to the resignation of Santa Anna from the presidency, never to vie for office again.The next Presidents of Mexico were the liberals,Juan Álvarez,Ignacio Comonfort,andBenito Juárez.The new regime would then proclaim the1857 Mexican Constitution,which implemented a variety of liberal reforms. Among other things, these reforms confiscated religious property, aimed to promote economic development and to stabilize a nascent republican government.The reforms led directly to the so-called Three Years War orReform Warof 1857. The liberals won this war but the conservatives solicited the French Government ofNapoleon IIIfor a European, conservative Monarch, deriving into theSecond French intervention in Mexico.Under the puppet Habsburg government ofMaximilian I of Mexico,the country became a client state of France (1863–1867).

Legacy

"We have been beaten and humiliated... scattered, imprisoned, disarmed and gagged. The fate of European democracy has slipped from our hands."

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

HistorianPriscilla Robertsonposits that many goals were achieved by the 1870s, but the credit primarily goes to the enemies of the 1848 revolutionaries, commenting: "Most of what the men of 1848 fought for was brought about within a quarter of a century, and the men who accomplished it were most of them specific enemies of the 1848 movement. Thiers ushered in a third French Republic, Bismarck united Germany, and Cavour, Italy. Deák won autonomy for Hungary within a dual monarchy; a Russian czar freed the serfs; and the British manufacturing classes moved toward the freedoms of the People's Charter."

Liberal democratslooked to 1848 as ademocratic revolution,which in the long run ensuredliberty, equality, and fraternity.Fornationalists,1848 was the springtime of hope, when newly emerging nationalities rejected the old multinational empires, but the end results were not as comprehensive as many had hoped.Communistsdenounced 1848 as a betrayal ofworking-classideals by abourgeoisieindifferent to the legitimate demands of theproletariat.The view of the Revolutions of 1848 as abourgeois revolutionis also common in non-Marxistscholarship.Middle-classanxietyand different approaches between bourgeois revolutionaries and radicals led to the failure of revolutions.Many governments engaged in a partial reversal of the revolutionary reforms of 1848–1849 as well as heightened repression and censorship. The Hanoverian nobility successfully appealed to the Confederal Diet in 1851 over the loss of their noble privileges, while thePrussian Junkersrecovered their manorial police powers from 1852 to 1855.In the Austrian Empire, the Sylvester Patents (1851) discardedFranz Stadion'sconstitutionand the Statute of Basic Rights, while the number of arrests in Habsburg territories increased from 70,000 in 1850 to one million by 1854.Nicholas I's rule in Russia after 1848 was particularly repressive, marked by an expansion of the secret police (theTretiye Otdeleniye) and stricter censorship; there were more Russians working for censorship organs than actual books published in the period immediately after 1848.In France, the works ofCharles Baudelaire,Victor Hugo,Alexandre Ledru-Rollin,andPierre-Joseph Proudhonwere confiscated.

A caricature by Ferdinand Schröder on the defeat of the revolutions of 1848–1849 in Europe (published inDüsseldorfer Monatshefte,August 1849)

In the post-revolutionary decade after 1848, little had visibly changed, and many historians considered the revolutions a failure, given the seeming lack of permanent structural changes. More recently,Christopher Clarkhas characterised the period that followed 1848 as one dominated by a revolution in government.Karl Marxexpressed disappointment at the bourgeois character of the revolutions.Marx elaborated in his 1850 "Address of the Central Committee to the Communist League" a theory ofpermanent revolutionaccording to which the proletariat should strengthen democratic bourgeois revolutionary forces until the proletariat itself is ready to seize power.The Prussian Prime MinisterOtto von Manteuffeldeclared that the state could no longer be run like the landed estate of a nobleman. In Prussia,August von Bethmann-Hollweg'sPreußisches Wochenblattnewspaper (founded 1851) acted as a popular outlet for modernising Prussianconservativestatesmen and journalists against the reactionary Kreuzzeitung faction. The Revolutions of 1848 were followed by newcentristcoalitions dominated byliberalsnervous of the threat of working-classsocialism,as seen in the PiedmonteseConnubiounderCamillo Benso, Count of Cavour.

Governments after 1848 were forced into managing the public sphere and popular sphere with more effectiveness, resulting in the increased prominence of the PrussianZentralstelle für Pressangelegenheiten(Central Press Agency, established 1850), the AustrianZensur-und polizeihofstelle,and the FrenchDirection Générale de la Librairie(1856).Nevertheless, there were a few immediate successes for some revolutionary movements, notably in the Habsburg lands.AustriaandPrussiaeliminated feudalism by 1850, improving the lot of the peasants. European middle classes made political and economic gains over the next 20 years; France retained universal male suffrage. Russia would laterfree the serfs on 19 February 1861.The Habsburgs finally had to give the Hungarians moreself-determinationin theAusgleichof 1867. The revolutions inspired lasting reform in Denmark as well as the Netherlands.Reinhard Rüruphas described the 1848 Revolutions as a turning point in the development of modernantisemitismthrough the development of conspiracies that presented Jews as representative both of the forces of social revolution (apparently typified inJoseph GoldmarkandAdolf Fischhofof Vienna) and of international capital, as seen in the 1848 report from Eduard von Müller-Tellering, the Viennese correspondent ofKarl Marx'sNeue Rheinische Zeitung,which declared that "tyranny comes from money andthe money belongs to the Jews".

About 4,000 exiles went to the United States fleeing the reactionary purges. Of these, 100 went to theTexas Hill CountryasGerman Texans.More widely, many disillusioned and persecuted revolutionaries, in particular (though not exclusively) those from Germany and the Austrian Empire, left their homelands for foreign exile in the New World or in the more liberal European nations; these emigrants were known as theForty-Eighters.

• 
  Louis Blenker(Germany)
• 
  Alexander Schimmelfennig(Germany)
• 
  Carl Schurz(Germany)
• 
  Franz Sigel(Germany)
• 
  August Willich(Germany)
• 
  Alexander Asboth(Hungary)
• 
  Lajos Kossuth(Hungary)
• 
  Albin Francisco Schoepf(Poland, Hungary)
• 
  Julius Stahel(Hungary)
• 
  Charles Zagonyi(Hungary)
• 
  Thomas Francis Meagher(Ireland)
• 
  Carlo Cattaneo(Italy)
• 
  Giuseppe Garibaldi(Italy)
• 
  Goffredo Mameli(Italy)
• 
  Giuseppe Mazzini(Italy)
• 
  Włodzimierz Krzyżanowski(Poland)

In popular culture

Steven BrustandEmma Bull's 1997epistolary novelFreedom & Necessityis set in England in the aftermath of the Revolutions of 1848.

See also

• Age of Revolution
• Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World 1848–1849byChristopher Clark
• Colour Revolutions
• Democracy in Europe
• Protests of 1968
• Revolutions of 1830
• Revolutions of 1917–1923
• Revolutions of 1989
• Arab Spring

Bibliography

Surveys

• Breunig, Charles (1977),The Age of Revolution and Reaction, 1789–1850(ISBN0-393-09143-0)
• Chastain, James, ed. (2005)Encyclopedia of Revolutions of 1848[http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/contents.htmonline from Ohio State U.
• Clark, Christopher, (2023),Revolutionary Spring: Fighting for a New World, 1848–1849(ISBN978-0-241-34766-9) Allen Lane.online book review
• Dowe, Dieter, ed.Europe in 1848: Revolution and Reform(Berghahn Books, 2000)
• Evans, R. J. W., and Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann, eds.The Revolutions in Europe, 1848–1849: From Reform to Reaction(2000), 10 essays by scholars
• Pouthas, Charles."The Revolutions of 1848"in J. P. T. Bury, ed.New Cambridge Modern History: The Zenith of European Power 1830–70(1960) pp. 389–415

• Langer, William.Political and social upheaval, 1832–1852(1969), standard overview
  • Langer, William.The Revolutions of 1848(Harper, 1971), ch 10–14 of his 1969 bookonline
• Namier, Lewis.1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals(Doubleday Anchor Books, 1964), first published by the British Academy in 1944.
• Rapport, Mike (2009),1848: Year of RevolutionISBN978-0-465-01436-1online review,a standard survey
• Robertson, Priscilla (1952),Revolutions of 1848: A Social History(ISBN0-691-00756-X), despite the subtitle this is a traditional political narrative
• Sperber, Jonathan.The European revolutions, 1848–1851(1994)online edition
• Stearns, Peter N.The Revolutions of 1848(1974).online edition
• Weyland, Kurt. "The Diffusion of Revolution: '1848' in Europe and Latin America",International OrganizationVol. 63, No. 3 (Summer, 2009) pp. 391–423JSTOR40345942.

France

• Clark, Timothy J.Image of the people: Gustave Courbet and the 1848 revolution(Univ of California Press, 1999), his paintings.
• Duveau, Georges.1848: The Making of a Revolution(1966)
• Fasel, George. "The Wrong Revolution: French Republicanism in 1848",French Historical StudiesVol. 8, No. 4 (Autumn, 1974), pp. 654–677in JSTOR
• Loubère, Leo. "The Emergence of the Extreme Left in Lower Languedoc, 1848–1851: Social and Economic Factors in Politics",American Historical Review(1968), v. 73#4 1019–1051
• Merriman, John M.The Agony of the Republic: The Repression of the Left in Revolutionary France, 1848–1851(Yale UP, 1978).

Germany and Austria

• Deak, Istvan.The Lawful Revolution: Louis Kossuth and the Hungarians, 1848–1849(1979)
• Hahs, Hans J.The 1848 Revolutions in German-speaking Europe(2001)
• Hamerow, Theodore S. "History and the German Revolution of 1848."American Historical Review60.1 (1954): 27–44.online.
• Hewitson, Mark. "'The Old Forms are Breaking Up,... Our New Germany is Rebuilding Itself': Constitutionalism, Nationalism and the Creation of a German Polity during the Revolutions of 1848–49",English Historical Review,Oct 2010, Vol. 125 Issue 516, pp. 1173–1214online
• Macartney, C. A. "1848 in the Habsburg Monarchy",European Studies Review,1977, Vol. 7 Issue 3, pp. 285–309online
• O'Boyle Lenore. "The Democratic Left in Germany, 1848",Journal of Modern HistoryVol. 33, No. 4 (Dec. 1961), pp. 374–83in JSTOR
• Robertson, Priscilla.Revolutions of 1848: A Social History(1952), pp 105–185 on Germany, pp. 187–307 on Austria
• Sked, Alan.The Survival of the Habsburg Empire: Radetzky, the Imperial Army and the Class War, 1848(1979)
• Vick, Brian.Defining Germany: The 1848 Frankfurt Parliamentarians and National Identity(Harvard University Press, 2002)ISBN978-0-674-00911-0.

Italy

• Ginsborg, Paul. "Peasants and Revolutionaries in Venice and the Veneto, 1848,"Historical Journal,Sep 1974, Vol. 17 Issue 3, pp. 503–550in JSTOR
• Ginsborg, Paul.Daniele Manin and the Venetian Revolution of 1848–49(1979)
• Robertson, Priscilla (1952).Revolutions of 1848: A Social History(1952) pp. 309–401

Other

• Feyzioğlu, Hamiyet Sezer et al. "Revolutions of 1848 and the Ottoman Empire,"Bulgarian Historical Review,2009, Vol. 37 Issue 3/4, pp. 196–205

Historiography

• Dénes, Iván Zoltán. "Reinterpreting a 'Founding Father': Kossuth Images and Their Contexts, 1848–2009,"East Central Europe,April 2010, Vol. 37 Issue 1, pp. 90–117
• Hamerow, Theodore S. "History and the German Revolution of 1848,"American Historical ReviewVol. 60, No. 1 (Oct. 1954), pp. 27–44in JSTOR
• Jones, Peter (1981),The 1848 Revolutions (Seminar Studies in History)(ISBN0-582-06106-7)
• Mattheisen, Donald J. "History as Current Events: Recent Works on the German Revolution of 1848,"American Historical Review,Dec 1983, Vol. 88 Issue 5, pp. 1219–1237in JSTOR
• Rothfels, Hans. "1848 – One Hundred Years After,"Journal of Modern History,Dec 1948, Vol. 20 Issue 4, pp. 291–319in JSTOR

External links

• "Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions" new articles by scholars
• The Revolutions of 1848 begin
• Maps of Europe showing the Revolutions of 1848–1849 at omniatlas.com