Age of “Isms”
Nationalism
• 10 ingredients of Nationalism
• 1. Certain defined unit of territory
• 2. Common cultural
characteristics
• 3. Common dominant social and
economic institutions
• 4. Common independent/sovereign
government
• 5. Belief in common history/origin.
• 6. Love or esteem for fellow nationals.
• 7. A devotion to the entity called a
nation.
• 8. Common pride in achievements or
common sorrow in tragedies.
• 9. Disregard for or hostility to others.
• 10. Hope that the nation will have a
great and glorious future.
Liberalism
1. Efficient government prepared to
acknowledge the value of
commercial and industrial
development
2. A government in which their interests
would be protected by their direct
representation in the legislature; a
constitutional monarchy, not a
democracy
• 3. Foreign policy of peace and free
trade
• 4. belief in individualism and the
doctrines of the classical economists,
Thomas Malthus and David Ricardo:
–Economic individualism: individuals are
entitled to use for their own best
interests the property they
inherited/acquired by any legitimate
method.
• People must be allowed to do what
they like as long as they do not
trespass upon the equal rights of
others to do the same.
• Laissez-faire: the functions of the
state should be reduced to the lowest
minimum consistent with public safety.
Gov’t should shrink itself into the role
of a modest policeman, preserve
order and protect property
• Obedience to natural law: there are
immutable laws operating in the realm
of economics as in all universal
spheres: supply and demand; law of
diminishing returns; etc. These laws
must be recognized and respected.
• Freedom of contract: individuals
should be free to negotiate the best
kind of contract the can from other
individuals:
• The liberty of workers and employers
to bargain with each other as to
wages and hours should not be
hampered by the laws or by the
collective power of labor unions.
• Free competition and free trade:
competition keeps prices down,
eliminates inefficient producers, and
ensures maximum production
according to public demand;
• No monopolies should be tolerated;
no price-fixing laws for the benefit of
incompetent enterprises;
• In order to force each country to
engage in the production of those
things it is best fitted to produce, all
protective tariffs should be abolished.
• Free international trade will keep
prices down
Thomas Malthus: Essay on
Population
• Nature set limits to the progress of
mankind
• Natural tendency for population to
increase more rapidly than the
food supply
• Poverty and pain were
inescapable;
Malthus’ Theory
• Even if laws were passed distributing
all wealth equally, the condition of the
poor would only temporarily improve;
• Poor would raise larger families, and
again become poor.
• Malthus advocated later marriage as
a means of relief, but stressed
population would outrun any possible
increase in the means of subsistence
• Due to this theory, middle class began
the destruction of older society that
made some attempt to care for its
poor
–England had instituted a system of doles
and subsidized wages to help sustain
laborers and their families when
unemployed; this failed to prevent
distress and was met with resistance
from taxpayers
• According to Malthus, such ideas
damaged both rich and poor alike;
• Malthus shifted the responsibility for
poverty from society to the individual;
this appealed to the middle class
David Ricardo
• Iron Law of Wages: Wages seek a
level which is just sufficient to enable
workers to “subsist and perpetuate
their race, without either increase or
diminution”
• If wages should rise temporarily
above the subsistence standard, man
and women would be encouraged to
marry earlier and produce more
children;
• The population would increase, and
the ensuing competition for jobs
would force the rate of pay down to its
former level;
• Ricardo’s law of rent and wages:
• Rent is determined by the cost of
production on the poorest land that
must be brought under cultivation; as
a country’s population increases and
more land is cultivated, higher rents
• Charged for more productive land and
an ever-increasing proportion of the
national income is absorbed by the
landlords.
• These arguments helped the middle
class: law of wages gave employers a
useful weapon to protect themselves
from worker petitions for higher pay;
• Law of rent justified middle-class
opposition to the continuing power of
landed interests: classes that derived
their income not from hard work, but
from its role as rent-collector profited
unfairly at the expense of the rest of
society and deserved to have its
profit-making curtailed.
Utilitarianism & Jeremy Bentham
Overview of Utilitarianism
• Proposed as a secular moral
basis for legislative decision
making; all institutions, all laws
must be measured according to
social usefulness;
• Consequentialist: the end justifies
the means {1}{2}
• Economic (spreadsheet) model of
moral calculation: {3}
• calculate the probable costs
v. benefits -- "the utility" of each
available policy or course of action
• choose the course which yields the
greatest utility, for all affected.
• unlike economic calculation in two
respects
* the costs & benefits not monetary but
intrinsic
• the calculation is nonegoistic: not just
private gain but the general welfare at
issue. {4}
• Hedonism: pleasure is the only intrinsic
good {5}{6}
• only quantity matters {7}
• valuation of individual pleasures'
quantities {8}
•
•
•
•
•
•
counts: intensity & duration
discounts: uncertainty & nonproximity
further consequences to be
considered
fecundity of productivity (of further
pleasure or pain)
purity (absence of admixed
pain/pleasure)
Issue: a "morality fit for pigs"?
• Is pleasure a good thing at all?:
"Pain don't hurt" (G. Anderson)
• The only good thing?: what of
truth, beauty, & justice?
• Are there qualitative differences
between pleasures?
• ignoble low-brow pleasures:
pushpin
• elevated high-brow pleasures:
Pushkin
• Connected issue: To what extent is
moral concern for animals warranted?
{9}
• How did this affect the middle class?
• Individual is important
• Interests of community= sum of
interests of selfish egos living in it.
• Individuals should pursue their own
interests
• Entrepreneurs—pursue
industrialization b/c it gave happiness
to most people
• Favored laissez-faire; favored
government intervention;
• Provided theoretical basis for reforms:
revised poor law in Britain;
• Expanded educational system in
France;
• Fortified business position to proceed
with the industrial revolution
Auguste Comte & Positivism
Name derived from
the assertion that
only knowledge of
any current value
was “positive,” or
scientific,
knowledge
• Humankind’s ability to analyze society
scientifically and to predict the future
had reached a point that it would
enable Europe to achieve a “positive”
society, organized not in terms of
belief, but facts;
• This achievement would happen only
through struggle
• Compte's Aim: to make a science of
sociology {1}
• to put the study of human social relations
& institutions and especially development
on a scientific footing
• as Galileo had done for physics by his
determination "merely to investigate . . .
some of the properties of accelerated
motion, whatever the cause of this
acceleration may be." {2}
• an empirical science based on
observation & experiment yeilding
positive knowledge: contras
Hegel's abstract rationalistic
approach.
Law of Three Stages {3}
• Theological: "In the theological state,
the human mind, seeking the
essential nature of beings, the first
and final causes (the origin and
purpose) of all effects --in short,
Absolute knowledge -- supposes all
phenomena to be produced by the
immediate action of supernatural
beings." {Positive Philosophy, Ch.1)
• Metaphysical: "In the metaphysical state,
which is only a modification of the first, the
mind supposes, instead of supernatural
beings, abstract forces, veritable entities
(that is, personified abstractions) inherent
in all beings, and capable of producing all
phenomena. What is called the
explanation of phenomena is, in this
stage, a mere reference of each to its
proper entity." (Positive Philosophy, Ch.1)
• Positive: {2}
• Practical application to European History
• Feudal theological stage of socio-political
thought: dogma of "divine right"
• Metaphysical liberal democratic stage:
dogma of liberty of conscience & of the
sovereignty of the people
• Postivistic stage of scientific social
management {4
• Through his declaration that
achievement of the highest stage
was impossible w/out the turmoil
of industrialization, Comte assured
the middle class of its leading role
in the better world that was to be.
Critics of the middle-class
worldview
• Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist,
Hard Times, Dombey and Son—
he sympathized w/the industrial
workers against the tyranny of the
new rich
• Honore de Balzac: The Human
Comedy: exposed stupidity,
greed, baseness of middle class
• Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary—
depicted the banal, fatal nature of the
bourgeois existence for women
• John Stuart Mill: rejected the
universality of economic laws;
• Insisted that distribution of wealth
could be regulated by society for the
majority of its members
• Mill advocated radical departures from
Laissez-faire; favored legislation for
shorter work days; state could take
steps to redistribute wealth by taxing
inheritances and appropriating the
unearned increment of land
• In his Principles of Political Economy
• Urged abolition of wage system;
encouraged producer cooperatives
• Mill distrusted the state; His
producers’ cooperatives were
designed to give workers the fruits of
their labors, not to exalt their power.
• 1859 On Liberty—he attacked the
tyranny of the majority; it was a
defense of individualism, but it was
against middle-class conformity and
the threat of state control
• Utopian thinkers: Robert Owen and
Charles Fourier
• Owen—re-organized his own cotton
mills to provide free schooling and a
system of social security for his
workers
• Society was reorganized on basis of
cooperation, communities rewarded
workers as a result of their labor
• Fourier urged the abolition of the
wage system and complete equality of
the sexes
• Both men had numerous followers,
who founded idealistic communities
based on the principles of their
leaders; all attempts failed over time
due to faulty leadership and for
Fourier, moral turpitude due to his
sexual doctrines
• Louis Blanc, of France, campaigned
for universal male suffrage, giving
working-class men control of the
state; once in charge, the workers
would make the state the “banker of
the poor” and institute “Associations
of Production” a system of workshops
governed by workers, thereby
guaranteeing jobs and security for all
• These briefly were implemented in
1848
Conservativism
After 1815, most countries tried to
stem the advances of liberalism
Most governments did not want
revolutionary upheavals that they
had experienced from 1776 to
1815.
• Aftermath of the Congress of Vienna:
• Restoration of legitimate monarchs in
Spain, France and Italy
• Balance of Power in Europe: no one
power would dominate
• Policy of French containment & nonvindictive boundary settlement
• Holland made strong, united
w/Austrian Netherlands; Austria given
N. Italy; Prussia--Rhineland
• Plans to have frequent meetings—
Concert of Europe; disagreements
made this redundant
• 1818—1st Congress at Aix-laChapelle: 4 powers removed troops
from France; France re-admitted to
good standing;
• Conservative political and Social
order restored in Europe;
Conservative monarchies,
conservative religion and landed
aristocracies become allies
• This is a new union, which sparks
much reaction in the near future
• Liberal forces begin to act
• 1820: attacks against reactionary
governments in Spain and Naples
• Spain: Bourbon king Ferdinand VII of
Spain (r. 1814-1833) promised to
govern according to the written
constitution
• He ignored this pledge; dissolved the
Cortes and ruled alone
Ferdinand’s other policies:
* Foreign books/newspapers
confiscated at the frontier
• Only 2 newspapers permitted
• Attempted to restore powers of
pre-revolutionary church,
monarchy, and nobility
• A group of army officers rebelled,
demanding that Ferdinand adhere to
Constitution of 1812, which he
abolished in 1814.
• Ferdinand backs down for a while
• In Naples, also 1820, the
Carbonari, a secret brotherhood
of young liberals, revolted against
the king; he was forced to accept
the constitution
• Both constitutions were modeled
after the liberal French
constitution of 1789-1791
• 1820: Congress of Troppau in Austria
brought together Austria, Prussia,
Russia,Great Britain and France
• Protocol of Troppau: Stable govt’s could
intervene in countries experiencing
revolutions
• A,R,P pledged to come to each other’s aid
to suppress revolution
• F/GB declined to endorse the pledge—did
not want detailed international treaties
• Metternich proceeded to repress the
Carbonari rebels via imprisonment or exile
• 1821: Congress of Laibach: allowed
Austria to restore the King of Two
Sicilies to non-constitutional
government
• 1822: Congress of Verona: called to
deal w/continuing liberal threat to
Spanish stability, the revolutions
occurring in Spanish South American
colonies and the insurrection in the
Near East
• GB balked at joint action and
withdrew from continental affairs
• A/P/R agreed to support French
intervention in Spain: France
dispatched 200,000 man army to the
Iberian Peninsula in 1823. This force
put an end to Spanish liberals
opposing King Ferdinand VII’s
attempts to undermine representative
government
• 1823—French Army invades to
support Ferdinand;
• Ferdinand tortured and executed
hundreds; thousands imprisoned or
exiled.
• France helped Ferdinand restore his
authority and he ruled as he wished
• The conservative governments were
unable to stem the movements of
independence and liberalism in South
and Central America.
• Taking advantage of upheavals in
Spain/Portugal, colonists from Mexico
to Argentina rebelled.
• Simon Bolivar, son of a slave owner,
educated in Europe—studied
Voltaire/Rousseau
• Considered himself Latin American
Napoleon
• Led series of independence
movements between 1821-1823
• Mexico, United Provinces of Central
America, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia;
Santo Domingo
• Other countries became independent
either just before, or just after Bolivar
• The US recognized these new states:
• 1823: President James Monroe issued the
“Monroe Doctrine” declaring that any
European intervention in the Western
hemisphere would be considered
unfriendly acts toward the US;
• GB supported this with neutrality; they
looked forward to new trade
• Independence movements
against the Ottoman Turks:
• Began with Serbia
• 1817, Serbs revolted and won
their independence;
• This leads to other uprisings
• 1821: Alexander Ypsilanti, a Greek
Soldier attempted to encourage the
formation of a Greek ‘empire’
constructed on vaguely liberal
principles.
• He engaged his band of armed
followers against the Ottoman Turks
• Ypsilanti was soon defeated, but his
movement lived on
• Five years later, the goal of an
independent Greece was hatched
• Because the allies (GB,F,R) saw that
Greek independence would be
advantageous to them, the supported
the Greek rebels with naval
intervention and Russian invasion of
the Balkans. This time, the rebels
succeeded.
• Metternich and other reactionaries
could no longer preserve the status
quo, and GB in particular was not
reliable.
• By the late 1820s, the liberal
movement was gaining momentum
very quickly.
• In Russia:
• Aspirations for a constitutional
government surfaced upon the death
of Alexander I December 1, 1825
• Constantine, next in line for the
throne, publicly renounced the title.
• He had been married to a German
Princess for 19 years, most of this
time, they were separated
• his divorce and subsequent marriage
to a Polish princess, Joanna
Grudzińska, caused him to renounce
the Russian throne, but remain the de
facto viceroy to the king of Poland
• Since he had supported liberal
reforms in Poland, he had many
followers in Russia
• On December 14, 1825, troops
assembled in Senate Square in St.
Petersburg to swear allegiance to
Nicolas I, Alexander’s youngest
brother;
• The royal officers refused to swear
allegiance to Nicolas I. The rebellion
lasted until January 3, when it was
finally subdued by Nicolas I’s troops.
• The leaders were sent to St.
Petersburg to stand trial, where they
were interrogated, tried, and
convicted. Most were exiled to
Siberia, or other remote gulags.
• five Decembrists were hanged and
something unusual happened. The
ropes split before any of them actually
died.
• According to tradition, the officers
should have been set free, having
survived the execution.
• Nicolas ordered new rope and they
were subsequently hung.
• This was the last public execution in
imperial Russia.
• Nicolas proclaimed the goal:
“Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and
Nationality”
• Russia did have some modernization,
however; Bureaucracy grew more
centralized and efficient;
• Laws were codified in 1832
• Estates were reorganized for better
production; railways built
• In England, 1815, rioting broke out, a
result of depression and
unemployment
• Repressive gov’t measures adopted:
and spies hired
• At Manchester, 80,000 workers
demonstrated for political reform in
St. Peter’s field
• The gov’t sent soldiers, who fired on
the crowd
• The “Peterloo” massacre killed 11 and
injured 400, including 113 women
• 1819: Six Acts passed, outlawing
‘seditious and blasphemous’
literature; levied a stamp tax on
newspapers; allowed search of
houses for arms; restricted public
meeting rights
• Liberals began to change some laws
in Great Britain: it retreated from the
Quintuple alliance; abolished capital
punishment for hundreds of offences;
liberalized Corn Laws (tariffs levied to
increase the price of imports, keeping
domestic grain prices artificially high),
abolished laws that kept various
religious groups from participating in
political life
• House of Commons did not reform the
system of representation: traditionally,
it represented the interests of the
landed nobility; 2/3 of house were
directly nominated or owed their
election to rich landowners
• Many electoral districts were
controlled by the money of
landowners: pocket/rotten boroughs
Industrial middle class insisted that
landowners’ interests not always the
best for the nation
• Corn Laws hurt everyone but
landowners (in opposition to
Bentham’s theory) Reform Movement
intensifies;
• Lord Grey and Whigs become party of
reform, starting w/bill to modify
electoral structure of England
• Middle-class industrialists allied
w/artisans and tradesmen in many
large cities;
• Engaged in bloody clashes w/police
and army;
• Intention to withhold taxes declared
• Form national guard if necessary
• King William IV agreed to legal
change
• 1832: Reform Bill: vote given to
middle class, not workers;
• no equal districts;
• 140 seats redistributed, increasing
representation for industrial areas
• France:
• Louis XVIII—granted “constitutional
charter”:
• legal equality
• Careers open to talent
• Two-chamber parliamentary
government
• Vote to property owners and age
• Those born after 1789 could not vote
• 1824: Louis XVIII dies; succeeded by
Charles X—his brother
• Zealous monarchist and enemy of
liberalism, modernization and
Napoleonic legacies
• French assembly issued indemnities
to emigres whose land had been
taken by the state
• Church allowed to teach in French
Classrooms
• Upper middle class led rebellion
against these policies
• March 1830: Chamber of Deputies
(bankers) vote of No confidence in the
government
• Charles dissolved the Chamber
• Called for new elections
• Elections went against Charles’
candidates
• Charles issued ordinances on his own
authority:
• 1. Dissolved new chamber before it
met
• 2. Strict censorship on press
• 3. Restricted suffrage to exclude
upper middle class almost completely
• 4. Called for new elections
• Revolution occurs:
• Parisians took to streets
• Constructed barricades and fought
army and police
• Intense fighting lasted for days
• Charles abdicated
Conflict of interest arose: street fighters
wanted republic; those w/power
wanted constitutional monarch
• King Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848)
• Installed as King of the French; not
King of France
• Must abide by 1814 constitution
• Franchise extended from 100,000 to
200,000 males
• Right to vote based on ownership of
property
• Middle class benefited from this
change
• Other revolutions:
• Belgium: liberal and national
sentiment ended union of Belgium
and Dutch
• European countries strengthened its
position and eventual independence
w/accession of Leopold of SaxeCoburg as king;
• Poland:
• Nationalists moved to overthrow
Russian Tsar, Nicholas I; West did
not intervene;
• Russian troops crushed Polish
rebels
• Poland merged into tsarist empire
Liberalism in Britain and
France
1830-1848
• Britain:
• First Parliament after 1832 passed
new law dealing w/poor
• Doles were ceased
• Those who could not support
themselves were confined to
workhouses
• Workhouse conditions were so severe
that it compelled those to find outside
work, no matter the wage
• Parishes grouped into more efficient
unions
• Law was administered by central
board of commissioners in London
• Economic depression of early 1840s
proved these conditions impossible;
doles were re-established and taxes
increased
• 1846: Repeal of Corn Laws
• Even after 1820 modification, bread
prices were artificially high; employers
had to pay wages high enough to
allow workers money for food
• Corn Laws symbolized privileges of
landowners over middle class
• Anti-Corn Law League formed to
abolish this
• Other legislation passed reflected
middle class concerns: individual
salvation:
• 1833: Slave trade in British colonies
abolished
• Series of Factory acts, limiting
working hours for child labor
• 1847: workday in some trades limited
to 10 hours
• Government grants to schools
established by the Church of England
increased after 1830;
• No form of state education was
established until 1870, however
• France: slower pace of reform
• Expanded educational system:
highlighted their belief in meritocracy
• 1833: French law established
elementary schools in all villages
• Children of indigent parents received
free education
• All others paid modest fee
• Large towns were to provide training
schools for trade and industry and
teacher training
• Result: number of pupils increased
from 2 million in 1831 to 3.25 million
in 1846.
• The Rest of Louis Philippe’s reign
accomplished little
• Politicians engaged in schemes to
enrich themselves via modernization
of Paris and construction of railways
• Louis did nothing to curtail this
• He was easily caricatured by his
enemies and amassed a fortune to
“provide for his 5 sons and 3
daughters”
• Radicals in both France and Britain
grew dissatisfied with their efforts to
propel liberalism
• Reform Bill in Britain did little for their
political participation
• Turned to trade unionism
• Luddites (Ned Ludd) attacked
machines in factories
• Believed that machines caused
unemployment
• No unions were organized effectively
before 1850
• One attempt, Grand National
Consolidated Trades Union of Great
Britain and Ireland, to lead a general
strike, caused government to end
unions—the leaders were sent to
penal colonies in Australia
Workers turned to political means
Chartist movement established.
People’s Charter circulated across the
country; signed by millions
Six demands:
Universal manhood suffrage;
institution of the secret ballot;
• abolition of property qualifications for
membership in House of Commons
• Annual parliamentary elections
• Payment of salaries to members of
the House of Commons
• Equal electoral districts
• The success of this movement
depended upon economic conditions:
it spread w/unemployment and
depression, and its leaders had
differing views
• 1848 revolutionary outbreaks on the
continent inspired Chartists to plan
major demonstrations in London
• 500,000 workers planned a march on
Parliament w/petition signed by 6
million demanding the 6 points
• Confronted w/open class conflict,
special army units called up
• Fewer than 50,000 showed up
• Rain, poor management, lack of
willingness to battle armed forces
ended Chartists’ campaign
• Increasing prosperity ended
movement after 1850
• France: radicals who manned
barricades in 1830 unhappy w/results
• Opposed to constitutional monarchy
• Radicals were primarily writers,
students, working-class leaders
• Conspiracy of Equals, written by
Gracchus Babeuf became their bible
• Led by Auguste Blanqui, they voiced
victimization of workers by middle
class
• Organized secret societies that
became leaders of 1848 insurrection
• Launched campaigns in the press and
caricatured Louis Philippe
• They also took to the streets
• 1834: Louis Philippe’s government
passed a law making radical political
organizations illegal
• Rioting in Lyon and Paris ensued as a
result
• Over a span of 2 days, government
troops massacred hundreds and
arrested 2000 leaders
• 1835—assassination attempt on Louis
Philippe resulted in increased
censorship
• Repressive measures increased
dissatisfaction w/regime
• By 1847, general campaign of agitation
spread throughout France
• February 22, 1848: giant protest meeting
was announced
• On Feb. 21, Louis Philippe had forbidden
the meeting;
• Rioting and barricading followed and
resulted in abdication of Louis Philippe
• Provisional government established:
• 7 republicans and 3 socialists
• Government established workshops
which were really program of public
works in and around Paris
• High unemployment increased initial
number of 10,000 to 66,000 by April
and 120,000 by June
• Paris attracted radicals from all over
Europe
• 170 new journals emerged and 200
new clubs formed in weeks
• Delegations claiming to represent all
oppressed Europeans converged in
Paris and moved about the city freely
Universal manhood suffrage was
implemented in the April elections
Result: few radical socialists were
elected; moderate republicans and
monarchists were returned to
government
Conservative demeanor of the elected
body tried to suppress the radicals
• By late spring, majority in government
believed workshop system was
unbearable financial drain and threat
to social order
• By end of May, workshops were
closed to new enrollment
• Barred from those residing in Paris
less than 6 months
• Sent those 18-25 to army
• Thousands lost state-financed jobs
• June Days:
• Desperate workers threw up
barricades across Paris
• June 23-26, workers defended
themselves in hopeless military battle
against armed forces from provinces,
wishing to repress urban working
class
• After the fighting ended, 3000 were
killed and 12,000 arrested and
deported to Algerian labor camps due
to their revolutionary threat to the
government
• As a result of the June days, the
government called for the immediate
election of a president to bring order
to France
• Of the four candidates : Lamartine—
moderate republican
• General Eugene Cavaignac—
commander of the June troops
• Alexander Ledru-Rollin—socialist
• Louis Napoleon Bonaparte—nephew
of emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who
returned twice as many votes as
others combined
• Louis Napoleon spent most of his life
in exile; in 1830, he was arrested in
France, and escaped to England in
1846.
• He secured many funds from
reactionaries in both countries and
returned in 1848, welcomed by all
classes
• Louis Napoleon dreamed of emulating
his uncle, Napoleon, and used the
power he had as president to gain
more power:
• Catholics regained control of schools
and he sent an expedition to Rome to
restore to the pope temporal powers
denied him during the 1848 struggles
• He introduced old-age insurance and
laws for the encouragement of
business to court workers and middle
class
• 1851: he proclaimed need for
extraordinary measures to protect
rights of masses and established
temporary dictatorship, inviting the
people to grant him the power to draw
up a new constitution
• December 21, 1851, this was
authorized by a vote of 7.5 million to
640,000;
• New constitution, put into effect in
January 1852, made the president an
actual dictator
• After one year, Louis Napoleon
ordered another plebiscite; with
approval of 95% of voters, he
assumed title Napoleon III, emperor of
the French
• Significance of 1848?
• Pivotal role of middle class: denied
political voice under Louis Philippe, it
allied w/radicals
• After his abdication, middle class
swung right, to support Louis
Napoleon;
• Louis Napoleon realized the need to
cater to middle class interests to
survive
• Louis Napoleon assisted middle class
in its economic goals, but made it
forget its political liberties
• Class consciousness could not be
ignored by governments;
• Workers moved to edge of political
power; their revolts could be ignored,
but it would risk the stability of the
state; their needs must be addressed