The Revolutions of 1848
The Ismsdike Breaks
Palmer Chapter 12.59, 12.60
McKay Chapter 23
This is the true story... of 4 strangers... picked to live during a
Revolution... and have their lives taped... to find out what
happens... when people stop being polite... and start getting
real...The Real World 1848!!!
Real World 1848 Europe
• Liberalism
• Con.
Monarchy
• Enlightenment
• Reason
• Freedom on
press, religion
• Laissez-faire
• Limited right to
vote
• Bourgeoisie
• Nationalistic
for
Economic/
political
reasons
• Republicanism
• Republic
• Sans Cullotte
(French Rev)
• Often socialistic
• Universal male
suffrage
• Anti capitalistic
• Worker protection
• Social workshop
• Economic
planning
• Proletariat
• Nationalistic for
Romantic,
economic,
political reasons
• Romanticism •
•
• Politically
mixed
•
• Medieval
•
times
• Emotion
• Dreamers
•
• Nationalistic
•
for nostalgic,
•
cultural
(ethnicity,
language)
•
Conservatism
Absolute
monarchy
Ancien regime
Tradition,
monarchy,
nobility
Hierarchy
Stability
Fear all isms,
especially
nationalism
A war of all
against all
“Society was cut in two: those
who had nothing united in
common envy, and those who
had anything united in common
terror.”
Alexis de Tocqueville
1848 The Springtime of the Peoples.
-Kossuth calls
for Hungarian
Nation
-Vienna Revolts
Begin the March
Days
-Metternich flees
-Ferdinand
accepts March
Laws
-ends serfdom
Jan Feb
Frankfurt
Assembly
Convenes
-composed
of liberals
-Gen Jellachich
invades Hungary
Pan Slavic
Congress begins
-envision a confed.
of Slavic nations
-Frederick
William IV
promises
constitution
-Piedmont
Attacks Austria
March
February Revolution
-Louis Philippe
Abdicates
-National Workshops
est.
April
May
Vienna retaken by
Haps
-Hungary falls within
8 months
-Ferdinand
abdicates in favor of
Francis Joseph
-Sophia leads
counterrevolution
-Pan Slavic
Congress crushed
by Austria
June
Blanc’s National
Wksps closed
July
Aug
June Days
-General
Cavaignac &
the NA crush
socialist
workers
Sept
Oct
Nov.
Dec.
-Louis Napoleon wins
election
-Will soon become Nap.
III, end 2nd Republic &
begin 2nd Empire
Causes
• Revolutions of 1848
– Series of liberal/nationalistic/socialist(Republican)
Romantic revolutions erupted across Continent
– Only GB and Russia immune
• Immediate Causes:
– Severe food shortages
• Irish potato famine was part of overall poor
harvests
– Growing Socialism
• Issues of Industrial Revolution
• Laissez faire policies
• widespread unemployment
• bad living/working conditions
– Growing Nationalism
• Acute in Austria
– Growing Liberalism
• Civil liberties ignored by conservatism
– Growing Democratic Republicanism
• Workers wanted universal male suffrage
The Austrian Empire in 1848
•
•
•
•
Most populous state
except Russia
Consisted of three major
areas, numerous
nationalities:
– Germans, Magyars,
Slavs
Highly interlaced
populations
Metternich
– tried to crush
nationalism
– Carlsbad Decree
•
–
Outlawed Burchenshaften
Predicted that
nationalism would
produce “the war of all
against all..”
The March Days
• News of February Revolution of France
reached Vienna
• Vienna Uprising
• Louis Kossuth
– Magyar (Hungarian) nationalist and
member of the Hungarian diet
demanded Hungarian independence
(March 3, 1848)
• March Days
– Kossuth’s speech inspired and
inflamed Austrian students of Vienna
(March 13) who took to the streets to
demand liberal constitution
• Children of classic liberals
– army failed to restore order
– Metternich resigned/fled
– Emperor Ferdinand(r.1835-48)
promised moderate/liberal constitution
• Ended serfdom
– serfs now had little reason to
support revolution
The Magyar Revolt:
• Liberal Magyar (Hungarians) leaders embolden by
Vienna revolt
• Opposed central control of Vienna gov.
• Hungarian diet passed the March Laws:
– ensured religious equality
– jury trials
– free press
The Hungarian cockade
used in 1848
– nobility taxes
• Emp Ferdinand approved measures
• Favors Classic Liberals (Bourgeoisie)
• But Nationalistic Magyars demand an independent
Hungary
– tried to annex Transylvania/Croatia
• Other national groups hate this
– didn’t want Hungarian language imposed
– Saw Hapsburgs as only hope of preserving
culture
• What it happening?
Artist Mihály Zichy's rendition of
Sándor Petőfi reciting the Nemzeti
– liberalism v. nationalism v nationalism
dal to a crowd on March 15, 1848
Nemzeti dal ("National Song"), written by Sándor Petőfi,
said to have inspired the Hungarian Revolution of 1848
•
•
•
•
• “National Song”
On your feet, Magyar, the homeland calls!
The time is here, now or never!
Shall we be slaves or free?
This is the question, choose your answer!
By the God of the Hungarians
We vow,
We vow, that we will be slaves
No longer!
We were slaves up til now,
Damned are our ancestors,
Who lived and died free,
Cannot rest in a slave land.
By the God of the Hungarians
We vow,
We vow, that we will be slaves
No longer!
Useless villain of a man,
Who now, if need be, doesn't dare to die,
Who values his pathetic life greater
Than the honor of his homeland.
By the God of the Hungarians
We vow,
We vow, that we will be slaves
No longer!
•
•
German States in 1848
Frankfurt Assembly (May 1848-May
1849)
– Uprising had broken out in Berlin
– Liberal-Nationalists called for an
all German Constitutional
Monarchy
– Elected assembly met in Frankfurt
to create a democratic & unified
Germany
– wanted a liberal, self-governing,
federally unified, and democratic
(not egalitarian) Germany
– were peaceable, legalistic, nonviolent
Its strength
– it represents the moral sentiment
(liberalism, nationalism)
First Pan-Slav Assembly
• Frankfurt Assembly
– German Nationalists met at
Frankfurt in May ’48 in order to
create a liberal constitutional
monarchy and unite the German
states
• Kossuth and Hungarian nationalist
want a united Hungary
• Pan-Slavism
– Slavics see this as a threat to their
culture, language, nationality
– Included Poles, Czechs, Slovaks,
Croats, Serbs
• Pan Slav assembly met in Prague
(June 1848)
• Viewed the Austrian empire under the
Hapsburgs as a protector to preserve
Slavic interests
Uniforms of the Prague National Guard
and student legions from the revolution in
1848 on a contemporary coloured
lithograph published by F Kretzschmar in
Prague. (AMP, iconographic collection,
sign. III-332. Photo: JL)
Italy in 1848
• Italian liberals and nationalists wanted to oust the
Hapsburgs and create Italian nation
– Looked to: King Charles of Piedmont-Sardinia & Pope
Pius IX of the Papal States
– Both had had a liberal reputations
• Pope Pius was frightened after the assassination of his
minister (Count Pelligrino Rossi) & violence of revolution
• Pius IX became an ardent reactionary
• Syllabus of Errors (1864)
– Reactionary tract against everything that went under
the names liberalism, progress, modern civilization
• King Charles of Piedmont was lured into a war with
Austria
– Piedmont quickly defeated
Political cartoon showing
– King abdicated for son, Victor Emmanuel II (r.1849- the duplicity of Pope Pius
78)
IX
• Now the Republicans are alone (No Pope, No Charles)
• France Intervenes
– Louis Napoleon didn’t want powerful Italy
– attacked Rome/restored pope
– dissolved Roman Republic
THE SYLLABUS OF ERRORS BY PIUS IX
• As human reason is placed on a level with religion itself, so theological
must be treated in the same manner as philosophical sciences
• Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by
the light of reason, he shall consider true. • Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of
eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation. -- Encyclical "Qui
pluribus,"
• Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true
Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the
Catholic Church.
• The ecclesiastical power ought not to exercise its authority without the
permission and assent of the civil government.
• The Church has not the power of using force, nor has she any temporal
power, direct or indirect.
• In the case of conflicting laws enacted by the two powers, the civil law
prevails.
• In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion
should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all
other forms of worship.
• The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to
terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
June turns Springtime into Winter
Revolution of 1848 begins to collapse after June 1848
Why?
Divided and competing Isms
Liberals
–
Bourgeoisie , students, intellectuals
•
Favored constitutional monarchy, civil liberties, limited
suffrage
–
Did not understand social and economic problems of
lower class
–
afraid of lower classes
Republican Socialists
–
Working class
–
Wanted employment, (socialism in some cases),
universal suffrage (democratic republicanism)
Nationalism
–
Interlaced nationalities (minorities) feared being
dominated by another nationality
Serfs
–
free and no longer interested in revolution
Armies
–
largely run by conservative aristocrats and influenced
peasant soldiers
-Tom Morris
Conservative Winter Returns
• France intervenes in Italy
• Russia intervenes in Hungary
• Hapsburg's crush Pan Slavism
– Army forced King Ferdinand to
abdicate on Dec. 2, 1848
– Had given-in to revolution
– Install Francis Joseph (R18481916) as Emperor of Austria
(later Austro-Hungarian Empire
The German Question
• Can a German
nation be
created?
• How?
• In the midst of
the Revolutions
of 1848, liberals
from various
German states
gathered in
Frankfurt to
create a
German nation
•
•
•
•
•
German
States
Were 39 states recognized after Congress of
Vienna
– German Confederation
Nationalism Obstacles
– Traditions of independence
– Desire to maintain sovereignty (like US v
UN)
– Large states of Prussia (from Baltic to
Rhineland) and Austria (Motley Empire) were
threatened by one another
– Small states maintained their independence
through balance of power tactics
German dualism
– Defined= Polarity & rivalry between Berlin
and Vienna (Prussia and Austria)
– Which nation should lead “Germany”???
Powerful Junkers enjoyed status and autonomy
within Prussia
– were indifferent to all German dream
Western regions perceived Prussia and uncouth
and eastern
•
•
•
•
•
Grossdeutsch v Kleindeutsch
Most difficult question faced by the
Frankfurt Assembly
What is Germany?
Did it include:
–
Austria
–
Bohemia
–
parts of Prussia, parts of Denmark
–
Schleswig and Holstein
–
parts of Hungary
–
Moravia,
–
city of Riga, Zurich, Holland
What are the borders to be?
Grossdeutsch (Large Germany)
–
•
Great Germans: should include Austria
(except Hungary) and federated crown
should go to Habsburg Monarchy
Kleindeutsch (Small Germany)
–
–
Little Germans: said No Austria
supported Hohenzollern Monarchy (King of
Prussia would be King)
Austria or Prussia?
The Frankfurt Assembly
• Frankfurt Assembly met in May
1848
•
But Assembly had no real
power
– No military
– No civil administration with
which to take over
• It looked like the
National Assembly of
1789 BUT
• there was no preexisting
structure (all German
army, civil service) to
take over
•
Became dependent on the
support of the states it was
trying to supersede
Untimely Revolution
• Timing of the assembly is too late
– fear of social revolution is fueling
reactionary attitudes (June Days of Paris)
• Revolution could not be achieved without the
link between classes
– Threat of lower class violence is needed
for change to occur (National Assembly +
Sans Culottes)
– Middle and Lower Class need symbiotic
relationship
• Radical Riots (Socialist, Republicans) in
Frankfurt were repressed by the Assembly
• Denmark attempted to take over Germanic
lands (Schleswig-Holstein)
– Frankfurt Assembly called upon the
Prussian army to keep the peace & stop
Denmark
• The Assembly has no power without the
Prussian (Junker-led) Army
Berlin: Failure of the Revolution in Prussia
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Prussia was not liberal
But not backward
Frederick William III and IV (1840)
had refused constitutionalism
Gov. was not democratic but was
efficient, progressive, and fair
Strong educational system
– High literacy rates
Government used mercantilist
methods of planning the economy
Established the tariff union
Zollverein (a German NAFTA)
– Frederick List’s Dream of how
to unify Germany
– Very nationalistically liberal
(economically)
– eventually included almost all
Germany
Frederick William IV of Prussia
The Failure of the Frankfurt Assembly
•
•
•
•
Frankfurt issued a Declaration of the
Rights of the German People (not
man)
Modeled after American and French
but only for Germans
Frankfurt Assembly offered the crown
of “Germany” to Frederick William IV
(King of Prussia)
Accepting the crown would mean
– Junkers would not be happy
•
–
–
–
Less power over their peasants, lands
Forcing his title (Hohenzollerns)
over the smaller states that had
the real power
Challenging Austria and the threat
of war
Accepting liberalism
To be King or not
to be King…?
The Failure of Liberal Nationalism
• Fred Will IV declined saying he
could not “pick up a crown from
the gutter”
• If he was to be emperor it would
have to come from the Princes
• Frankfurt Assembly dissolved
• Part of what remains calls for
riots and elections
• Junker army moved in and the
Assembly was driven out of
Frankfurt
• Germany’s Arrested
Development
– Failure of German liberalism
stopped maturation process
toward democracy
– Left population susceptible to
autocracy & being overly
obedient
Democrats being swept out of the German lands
after the failure of the 1848 revolutions.
The Prussian Constitution of 1850
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
FW IV produced a
constitution in order to
placate the liberals
Remained in effect until
1918
Single parliament for all
regions in Prussia
divided the population into
3 estates (Class)
–
Wealthy (4%)
–
less wealthy (16%)
–
Poor (80%)
Resembled the Esates
System of Ancien Regime
big tax payers chose a
third of members (so a few
wealthy had as much
power as hundreds)
Controlled by eastern
Junkers
Constitution of 1850 Continued
• Rising industrials now share
power with Junkers
• Somewhat progressive for 1850
• Outpaced by western
constitutions that are more
liberal
• Gave industrialists and large
land owners a position of
special privilege within the state
• By 1860 the Liberals of the
Reichstag feel emboldened
enough to challenge the power
of the King
Conclusion
• “History reached its turning point and failed to
turn” A.J.P. Taylor
• The Springtime of the Peoples is crushed
• Serfdom is over but …
• Romantic notions of nationalism, liberalism,
republicanism harden into more Machiavellian,
realistic, scientific (positivism), pragmatic
ideology
• IE. Realpolitik
• From 1850 to 1914 nations will be united and
nationalism will grow via conservatives’ utilization
and exploitation of romanticism, liberalism, and
republicanism