Crisis and Compromise in Britain 1815-1848

1. Crisis and Compromise in Britain 1815-1848

2. Stirrings of Discontent • Popular protests in favor of reform swept the country from 1815-1819 • Poor harvests 1818-1819 led to grain riots by the poor • Mass meeting was held at St. Peter’s Fields in Manchester in 1819 • Police fired on the protestors, killing 11 and injuring 100’s

3. Peterloo Massacre-1819

4. Parliament passed the Six Acts that banned demonstrations, suspended habeas corpus, and restricted freedom of the press • 1820’s continued with economic bad times and riots in northern England over low wages • In 1830, food riots and machine breaking spread to southern England

5. Passage of the Reform Bill • Election of 1830 reduced the conservative majority in Parliament • 5,000 petitions were brought to Parliament attacking the landed elite • Lords resisted this and rioting ensued • William IV exerted political pressure on the Lords • Reform Bill passed in 1832

7. Accomplishments of the Reform Bill • Eliminated “rotten boroughs” and “pocket boroughs” • Reduced minimum franchise requirement • Doubled the electorate • What had been achieved in France by revolution in 1830 was achieved in Britain in 1832 by reform

8. Repeal of the Corn Laws • Protectionist Corn Laws were passed by Parliament in 1815 and 1828 • Bad harvests of 1839-1841 increased pressure for repeal • Anti-Corn Law League formed in 1839 • Repeal of Corn Laws 1846 proved a decisive victory for economic liberalism

9. The Chartist Movement • “Great Charter” called for universal male suffrage, salaries for elected officials, annual elections, etc. • Rejected by Parliament in 1839 and 1842 • Reflected the limits of reform in Britain

10. Chartist meeting at Kennington Common, England-1848

11. The Revolutions of 1848

13. France

14. Origins • Reformers planned a great banquet to be accompanied by street demonstrations in Feb., 1848 • Gov’t banned all such meetings • Barricades were then built by citizens throughout the city • Nat’l Guard refused to act against these

15. After 20 protestors were killed outside PM Guizot’s home, rioting erupted in the streets • Louis Philippe abdicated and escaped to England • Radicals poured into the Chamber of Deputies and claimed France a republic

16. The Second Republic • “Political republicans” (7) dominated “social republicans” in the new Provisional Government • Nat’l Workshops were established as a concession to social republicans • Labor Commission failed to enact a ten hour day

17. Constituent Assembly was elected by universal male suffrage • Social republicans were marginalized in the new gov’t • Nat’l Workshops had mobilized the working class • Coup was organized by Nat’l Workshop members, but failed

18. Constituent Assembly was now determined to crush socialism and class warfare broke out during the “Bloody June Days” • Revolt was repressed with 10,000 killed and 11,000 deported

19. The Second Empire • Assembly decided to create a strong executive that would keep order • Louis Napoleon was elected by an overwhelming majority • Louis presented himself as a friend of the people and supported universal male suffrage

20. Louis staged a successful coup in 1851 and was elected for a 10 year term • In 1852, Louis proclaimed himself Emperor Napoleon III

21. Austria

22. Origins • News of the revolution in France reached the Austria in March, 1848 • Workers and students rose in revolt in Vienna • Metternich fled to Britain • Revolution now spread through the Austrian Empire and Germany

23. Revolutionary momentum had faded by June • Insurrection in Prague was put down by force and the Slav congress fled • Lombardy and Venetia in Italy which had declared independence were also reconquered • Magyar revolt in Hungary was repressed

24. The Impact of 1848 • Marked the end of the era of liberal revolution that had begun in 1789 • Initiative passed temporarily to conservative political groups • Middle classes became more conservative • Working classes realized they needed more effective forms of organization