Chapter 12: Revolution and the Reimposition of Order, 1848-1870

1. Chapter 12: Revolution and the Reimposition of Order, 1848-1870 Section 12.58: Paris: The Specter of Social revolution in the West

2. Introduction • Never before or since had Europe been in a universal upheaval as 1848 • 1848 revolution breaks out spontaneously from many sources • Secret societies • Demand for constitutional governments • Demand for independent national groups • Demand for an end of serfdom • Powers that were faced by the revolutionaries • Catholic Church • Habsburgs • Only Russia and Britain escape revolutions in 1848 • Revolution failed as rapidly as it succeeded • Succumbed to military repression and actually strengthened conservatives • Some goals were achieved • national unity • Constitutional government • Limited representation

3. Paris: the Specter of Social Revolution in the West • July Monarchy only covered republicanism (which was becoming socialistic) • Few interests were represented in the Chamber of Deputies • Graft and corruption common, fraud • July Monarchy was built over a volcano of repressed republicanism • Movement to expand suffrage increased demands • Radicals want universal, liberals ask for broadening voting • Louis Philippe (and Prime Minister Guizot) did not respond Honore Daumie. Gargantua. 1831

4. The February Revolution in France • Reformers planned a banquet and demonstrations in Paris on Feb 22 • 2/21/1848 King forbade any demonstrations in Paris • Revolutionaries barricade the streets of Paris • Used paving blocks, stones, furniture across streets, intersections • National guard refused to move against insurgents • 20 revolutionaries are killed outside the house of Guizot • 1 guard had been shot • republican parade corpses on torch lit carts • 2/24/1848 Louis Philippe abdicated and fled for England • reformers had hoped to replace him with his grandson

5. Proclamation of Republic and Blanc • Republicans proclaimed the Republic • Set up a Provisional government of 10 men • Elections through universal suffrage were to follow • 3 of the 10 were social revolutionaries • Louis Blanc • Blanc pushes for economic & social reforms • Called for a Ministry of Progress to set up “Social Workshops” (collective manufacturing establishments) • Labor Commission was created and produced little • Created “National Workshops” • A political concession to Blanc • Never given anything important • Abolition of slavery in the French colonies was achieved Go hang yourself somewhere else.

6. National Workshops • Became an unemployment relief project • Really a political concession by Provisional Gov • No important work was ever assigned them • Women were excluded • Dug roads, fortifications • Paid 2 Francs a day • Unemployment outpaced the Workshops ability to provide relief work • 120 thousand enrolled by mid June • 200 thousand idle men in Paris = (trouble!!) Lacoste, Eugène, 1848 Liberty Trees.

7. Constituent Assembly 5/4/1848 replaced the Provisional Government • No social republicans were included • executive board members (5) were all outspoken enemies of Blanc • Lines are drawn between revolutionary Paris and more conservative land and property interests Workers in Paris • more numerous than in 1792 • less satisfied with capitalism • want less hours • greater concern about unemployment • workers saw no future in capitalism • had no compunction about violence against elected assemblies (tradition of violence) • so many regime changes since 1789 based on insurrections • major difference between France and England The Republic, 1848, Daumier

8. The June Days of 1848 • 5/15/1848 the Workers and social revolutionaries (feeling social republic slipping away) attacked the Constitutional assembly • Social revolutionaries set up a new provisional government • National Guard turned against the social revolutionaries • Restored the Constituent Assembly • Assembly prepared to root out socialism • Attacked the national workshops • Offer them place in army, go to country, or get lost • Labor class begins to resist • Martial law is proclaimed and General Cavaignac takes over • Class warfare breaks out as more than half of Paris is barricaded • Gave military a tough time (lacked tanks) • 6/24/to 6/26/1848 Bloody Days of June • 10,000 are killed, 11 thousand taken prisoner • Military defeated the resistance • Prisoners are exiled to the colonies • Militant workers were confirmed in a hatred and loathing of the bourgeois class • capitalism existed by the callous shooting of working class men and women • People above the labor class were in a panic Louis Eugène Cavaignac

9. Revival of Chartist Agitation • England experienced a revival of chartist agitation • Revolutionary committee drew up plans for arson, barricades • Petition weighing 584 pounds was presented to HOC but contained only 2 mil sigs and was rejected • One secret organizer was gov spy who revealed plan • Rev committee was arrested • Military clashes occurred • Fervor dies down • The specter of social revolution was more real than the potential for social revolution • Those that had something to lose to social revolution took steps to prevent it • Fear of social revolution shapes the Second French Republic

10. The Emergence of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte • Constituent Assembly drafts a new constitution • Create a strong executive power • Call for immediate elections • Louis Napoleon was elected by a landslide • Supposed to be a friend of the common people • At the same time a believer in order • Rode the coattails of Napoleon’s name • Born in 1808, nephew of Napoleon • Father was Louis king of Holland • Napoleon own son died in 1832 • Had tried to seize power at Strasbourg in 1836 and Boulogne in 1840 (Putsches) (both miserably failed) • Was sentenced to life in prison at Ham but escaped in 1846 by walking off ground dressed as stonemason • Wrote Napoleonic Ideas (Uncle was misunderstood) and Extinction of Poverty (anti capitalist tract) • 1840 Napoleon’s body was buried in Invalides • Bonaparte was only name voters had heard of!!! Napoleon III of France

11. President by Popular Mandate • Constituent assembly dissolved itself and elections were held (500) • Two thirds of the selected members were monarchists (but they were divided between: • Legitimists (Charles X) • Orleanists (Louis Philippe) • One third were republicans • 180 were socialists whose main issue was the form of society • 70 were old fashioned republicans whose main issue was the form of government

12. Antirepublican Government • President and Assembly work to stamp out socialist interests • use an abortive insurrection as a pretext to oust 33 socialist deputies, suppress meetings, censor press • 1850 they take the vote away from the lowest and most socialist class • Falloux Law puts the schools under the direction of the Catholic Church • School teacher had made schools political ground for promoting socialist ideas • French Republic is actually anti republican • French military moves against Mazzini’s republic in Rome • Bonaparte now knows that he is champion of the conservatives • he now goes about trying to win over the radicals

13. Louis Napoleon undermines the Assembly • On Dec 2, 1851 (anniversary of Austerlitz) he had placards placed in Paris which dissolved the Assembly and gave vote for all adult males back • When Assembly tries to meet he has them arrested • Calls for new elections with universal suffrage • Louis Napoleon is elected by huge majority • 10 year term • In the following year the Empire is declared • Louis Napoleon becomes Napoleon III • The republic was dead • Killed by its reputation for radicalism • Liberalism and constitutionalism were dead • Bourgeois and property owning monarchists supported constitutions • Hopelessly divided they were weak and the door was open for the Bonapartists