The Revolutions of 1848

1. The Revolutions of 1848 Daniel W. Blackmon AP European History Coral Gables Sr. High

2. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • Impact of Industrialization on the Working Classes

3. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • Europe as a whole is still predominantly rural. Great Britain and Belgium were the most industrialized and urbanized areas. France was a generation behind, and the rest of Europe possibly even farther. Inhibiting factors were lack of capital and poor transportation. Railroad building promised to alter that.

4. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • Nevertheless, there were 400,000 factory workers in France (Jones 7) and 600,000 in the German states (9). Their life expectancy was lower than than of rural workers, their housing squalid, their diet monotonous, and they were especially susceptible to diseases such as cholera.

5. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • In Germany, worker standards of living were declining in the 1840s. Evidence in both France and Germany suggest that the traditional methods of social control in a rural society had broken down. A sense of class-consciousness (in the Marxist sense) was developing–that skilled and unskilled workers had distinct interests within a society that was more industrial and capitalist.

6. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • Traditional artisans remained an important segment of the economy in France, Italy and Germany. The artisans, who were generally better off than factory workers, were under heavy pressure from modernization; for instance, guilds were being outlawed and immigrant workers undersold their labor.

7. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • The artisans wanted programs such as tariff barriers, revival of guilds, and guaranteed work. (10) The artisans, not the factory workers, provided the backbone of working class rebellion in 1848. (Jones 5-13)

8. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • Impact of Industrialization on the Middle Classes

9. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • Middle classes were primarily urban, and their key issue is frustrated ambition.

10. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • Grande Bourgeoisie: [bankers, merchants, senior state officials, industrialists] Not revolutionary in outlook; they are interested in increased modernization and industrialization, improved credit and investment capital. In France, Germany and Italy, this group had reason to be discontent with the government.

11. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • Professional Middle Class: [lawyers, surgeons, architects, professors, journalists, minor state officials] A growing number of educated young men found themselves competing for too few public offices. This is especially true of university students.

12. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • In France, this competition for office was a major source of unhappiness with the government. In Germany especially, academics were the intellectual leaders of the liberal movement. This is the class that articulated political discontent.

13. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • An Orleanist official observed “ ‘it isn’t the workers one should fear, rather it is the déclassés, doctors without patients, lawyers without briefs, all of the misunderstood, the discontented, who finding no place at the banquet table try to overturn it.’ “ (Jones 21)

14. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • Petite Bourgeoisie [shopkeepers, elementary school teachers, small employers] This group tended to share the political ideals of the professionals, but were usually very vulnerable economically.

15. General Causes for the Revolutions of 1848 • They often allied themselves with the artisans, particularly in Germany, where Jewish emancipation had led to a proto-antisemitic movement where Jewish merchants served as symbols of modernization.

16. Population Pressure and Agriculture • The Agricultural Revolution which began in Holland and England had not yet spread throughout Europe. Much agricultural production was still inefficient (the farther east one goes, the truer this is). At the same time, population was rising swiftly: from approximately 120,000,000 in 1750 to 187,000,000 in 1800 to 266,000,000 in 1840 (Jones 24).

17. Population Pressure and Agriculture • Population growth led to underemployment. Peasants migrated to cities seeking work, where they lowered wage scales. Farmers were still quite vulnerable to natural disasters. “At the same time, changes in the modes of agricultural production and the extent of capital investment had the effect of squeezing out the small independent peasant producers.

18. Population Pressure and Agriculture • This often pushed the rural classes into proto-industrial activities [cottage industry], especially in textiles.” (25)

19. Population Pressure and Agriculture • Political power in Europe was still held by the hereditary aristocracy, and their wealth was based upon land. Land ownership was highly concentrated (except in France). feudal dues such as the robot.

20. Population Pressure and Agriculture • The land owners in Central and Eastern Europe still exercised great control over the lives of the peasants through remaining

21. Population Pressure and Agriculture • About 70% of a peasant’s income was still spent on food (27); hence, any food shortage or fluctuation in price (such as 1845-47) could destroy the stability of rural society. (Jones 24-28)

22. The Breakdown of Traditional Political Control • The Congress of Vienna attempted to secure the principles of hereditary monarchy, Church authority, and aristocratic privilege as the foundations of society. (29)

23. The Breakdown of Traditional Political Control • Metternich equated liberal reform with revolution, and the French Revolution of 1830, which replaced the legitimate Charles X with Louis Philippe, appeared to prove his case. (30) Elsewhere in Europe, governments were autocratic and / or absolutist.

24. The Breakdown of Traditional Political Control • Elsewhere in Europe, governments were autocratic and / or absolutist. After 1830, the conservative position began to erode under attacks from liberalism, nationalism, socialism and democracy. (32)

25. The Breakdown of Traditional Political Control • Liberalism not only demanded the limitation of traditional authority by the Crown or the Church by parliaments dominated by the middle class and freedom of the press, but also demanded economic freedom: free trade, abolition of tariffs, an end to remaining feudal restrictions.

26. The Breakdown of Traditional Political Control • Liberalism is strongly middle-class–the credo of manufacturers, entrepreneurs, professionals. Limited suffrage is one of their key planks: suffrage should be based upon property holding.

27. The Breakdown of Traditional Political Control • Democracy favored universal male suffrage, and usually envisaged a republican government. In France, provincial school teachers and the petite bourgeois often were democrats. The spread of literacy helped the spread of democracy.

28. The Breakdown of Traditional Political Control • Socialists demanded some form of restructuring of society. Writers included Robert Owen, Louis Blanc, August Blanqui, and, of course, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The Revolutions of 1848 provided the occasion for writing The Communist Manifesto. Leaders of various socialist movements tended to come from the artisan classes.

29. The Crisis of the 1840s • The mid-1840s saw crop failures due to weather conditions, compounded by the effects of the potato blight. Food prices shot up; grain prices in France 100 to 150%, Venice to 100% and potatoes in Gemrany 135% (44) Food riots resulted.

30. The Crisis of the 1840s • “There was also a financial and industrial crisis, especially in France.” (43) The government of Guizot had backed the construction of railroads, but speculation and overproduction of iron and coal led to a sharp drop in prices. Manufacturers laid off workers, unemployment soared.

31. The Crisis of the 1840s • Bankruptcies among the petite bourgeois increased. Germany suffered a financial crisis in textiles, industry in northern Italy, Austria and Bohemia suffered.

32. The Crisis of the 1840s • Such conditions led the middle classes to demand reform and a role in government while fear of massive disorder frightened the governments into giving in without much of a fight. (Jones 43-51)

33. The Revolution of 1848 in France • Specific Causes • By the 1840s, Louis Philippe’s Orleanist regime was losing credibility with the bourgeoisie. Guizot, who dominated the government, faced opposition from Thiers, who was a reformer., but was pre-empted by republicans.

34. The Revolution of 1848 in France • This opposition was expressed by the Banqueteers campaign, which began as a call for reform

35. The Revolution of 1848 in France • Guizot had won the election of 1846, but widespread corruption was charged, and a series of scandals in the government weakened his position. The National Guard, made up of bourgeois youths, became alienated. His policies were seen as failed.

36. The Revolution of 1848 in France • For instance, although he increased the number of public school students from 1.9 to 3.5 million, the class of elementary school teachers resented their low pay [how amazing!!]

37. The Revolution of 1848 in France • His policy of avoiding colonial wars (in order not to stir up British hostility) was construed as unpatriotic. His government supported large railway loans, but speculation and overproduction of iron led to a financial crisis in 1847.

38. The Revolution of 1848 in France • Thiers desired electoral reform and to depose reform. The Banqueteer campaign was initially part of that strategy. However, on February 22, 1848, Guizot became alarmed at the demonstration, and called out troops, who fired upon the crowd. The result was the February Days.

39. The Revolution of 1848 in France • Barricades went up all over Paris, and soon the demonstrators were joined by units of the National Guard.. Social disorder became widespread. Louis Philippe abdicated.

40. The Revolution of 1848 in France • The new Provisional Government, led by Lamartine, was moderate in its make up (even Louis Blanc was, for a socialist, moderate). Lamartine’s Manifesto to Europe was intended to allay fears of a new round of revolutionary wars, but also indicated that his chief concerns were not social. • The problems to be faced were finance, political consolidation, and social issues.

41. The Revolution of 1848 in France • Uncertainty made it impossible for the PG to re-establish financial stability; in fact, gold reserves fell, credit tightened, and the government attempted a new 45 centime tax on income which hurt small farmers and peasant proprietors.

42. The Revolution of 1848 in France • Politically, the PG instituted universal manhood suffrage. The results were not as expected. Giving peasants the vote meant giving the Church tremendous electoral influence. The election boiled down to a battle between a republican bureaucracy and clerical influence, with the Church winning. The new Constituent Assembly was weighted towards property.

43. The Revolution of 1848 in France • With property interests dominant, there was little likelihood of success socially. The great problem in the cities was unemployment. Louis Blanc proposed National Workshops, a public works program to alleviate unemployment.

44. The Revolution of 1848 in France: Reaction • In June 1848, the government began to fear popular revolution, led by the workers. When the National Workshops were dissolved, the barricades went up in Paris again.

45. The Revolution of 1848 in France: Reaction • This time, however, the middle classes were haunted by the spectre of working class violence (to paraphrase Marx) and the Army, commanded by Cavaignac, was used ruthlessly to crush the revolt. 3,000 were killed, and 11,000 arrested, with many being deported to Algeria.

46. The Revolution of 1848 in France: Reaction • The aftermath led to the rise of Louis NapoleonBonaparte as a popular conservative candidate with support from all social classes. The Bonaparte name reminded Frenchmen of their glory days, and further was associated with order.

47. The Revolution of 1848 in France: Reaction • Since he supported Church control of education, he received the support of the clergy. Furthermore, his opponent was Cavaignac, whose butchery in Paris made him unpopular with many.

48. The Revolution of 1848 in France: Results • They revolution intensified divisions within French society, and brought into power a regime at least as supportive of bourgeois interests as that of Louis Philippe..

49. The Revolution of 1848 in France: Results • By 1851, Louis Napoleon had reimposed a considerable degree of repression, curried favor with the Church by sending French troops to defend Pope Pius IX in, and then staged a coup d’etat that proclaimed himself Emperor.

50. Reasons for the Failure of the Revolutionaries • The classic Marxist interpretation of the Revolution of 1848 sees the bourgeoisie and proletariat in a temporary alliance to remove Louis Philippe, but then quickly their interests diverge, with the July Days representing reaction.