In the year 1848, a series of revolutions swept across the European continent. Motivated by a variety of liberal, nationalist, and other radical ideas, these revolutions were initially very successful in toppling their respective governments. Countries from the great powers of France, Austria, and Prussia to the smaller states in Italy and Germany had their monarchical governments bound by constitutions or replaced by republics. However, within a few years, these new liberal governments were supplanted by counter revolutionaries and replaced by conservative regimes once again.
Nolan Douglas explains.
An 1841 portrait of King Louis Philippe I of France. By Franz Xaver Winterhalter.
Liberalism and Conservatism in the 19th Century
It needs to be understood that the beliefs of liberalism and conservatism in 19th century Europe are far different from how we perceive these ideologies now. At the time, liberalism was a fairly new ideology with a focus on securing individual rights, modernizing feudal systems and replacing them with capitalism, varying degrees of democracy, and constitutional government. The constitution of the United States is an excellent example of what European liberalism looked like in the 19th century. On the other hand, 19th century European conservatism was about order and tradition, focusing on maintaining powerful monarchies and aristocracies with little to no restrictions on their power.
The Conservative Order in Europe
In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, Europe was reorganized at the 1814-1815 Congress of Vienna. At the congress, the great powers of Europe, the United Kingdom, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia agreed to maintain a new status quo in hopes of avoiding a repeat of the upheavals of the last twenty years. Because Napoleon had abolished the old Holy Roman Empire, which had previously encompassed what is today Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic, this territory was reorganized as a loose German Confederation, dominated by Austria and, to a lesser extent, Prussia. France was now a constitutional monarchy under the Bourbon dynasty, the same family which had ruled the country before the 1789 French Revolution. Italy was divided between a number of small states, the most powerful of which were the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the Papal States (which were ruled by the Pope). The Austrian Empire also controlled the rich provinces of Lombardy and Venetia, containing the major cities of Milan and Venice. Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian foreign minister, was an important architect of the new conservative order in Europe and would be a symbol of the status quo until 1848.
France: A New Republic
Following Napoleon's final defeat in 1815, France was again a monarchy under King Louis XVIII. This new King Louis was the younger brother of King Louis XVI who was executed during the 1789 French Revolution. In the period from 1815 to 1830, France was a constitutional monarchy, but with a very limited electorate I. In 1830, Charles X was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution and replaced by King Louis Philippe, a more liberal-minded constitutional monarch from the Orléans branch of the Bourbon dynasty. While Louis Phillippe's regime (known as the July Monarchy) was more popular than that of Charles X, many people in France wanted a more representative government. While France under the July Monarchy had a bit more representation in its parliament than the regime of Charles X, only around 170,000 of France's richest men could vote under this more liberal government. In 1832, there had been an unsuccessful republican revolt which was violently crushed by the July Monarchy (this is the revolt depicted in Les Misérables). This massacre further tainted the image of the July Monarchy and Louis Philippe, increasing the desire for a republic.
On February 22, 1848, a pro-republican protest erupted in violence as the government called in the National Guard to break up the crowd. Overnight, Paris was embroiled in Revolution once again with barricades popping up across the city. On February 23, Louis Philippe abdicated his throne, and French republicans began to build the Second French Republic. The constitution of this new republic guaranteed universal suffrage and was initially popular, but would be even more short lived than its predecessor. The Second French Republic was composed mostly of moderate, liberal republicans with a huge majority in the Constituent Assembly, although conservatives and democratic socialists held significant numbers of seats as well. In June of 1848, more radical republican workers rose up in Paris against the republic, believing it wasn't democratic enough. Although these radical insurgents were put down by the government, the fear created by this uprising caused many French people to grow wary of the more radical elements of the revolution. As a result, conservatives began gaining ground in the republic. In December, Louis Napoleon, nephew of the famous conqueror, was elected president. In the elections of 1849, the conservative Party of Order won a majority in the Constituent Assembly, unseating the moderate liberal majority. In December of 1851, Louis Napoleon organized a coup and overthrew the government, establishing himself as a dictator. On 2 December, 1852, the same date as his uncle in 1804, Louis Napoleon was crowned Emperor of the French under the name Napoleon III. Within just a few years, the Second French Republic had met the same fate as the first.
Italy: A War for Unification
The revolutions in Italy began January 12 of 1848 with a revolt in Palermo against the Bourbon King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. Within a month, Ferdinand II was forced to grant a liberal constitution in his kingdom or be dethroned. Throughout the spring of 1848, the monarchs of Tuscany, Piedmont-Sardinia, and the Papal States all followed suit by granting liberal constitutions limiting their power. Initially, many Italian revolutionaries hoped to establish a united Italy under the leadership of Pope Pius IX who was seen as a liberal reformer and might be willing to take up the role. Other revolutionaries wanted a constitutional monarchy under the Piedmontese monarchy while more radical revolutionaries hoped to establish a united and democratic Italian Republic. On March 18, the city of Milan rose up against the Austrians in a revolt known as the Five Days of Milan. After five days of fighting, the Austrian troops, led by the Czech Marshal Radetzky, were driven out of the city. During this revolt, another revolt began in Venice on March 22 and a republic was declared in Venetia. The following day, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, led by King Charles Albert, declared war on the Austrian Empire, beginning the First Italian War of Independence with support from Italian revolutionary volunteers from across the peninsula. While the Sardinians and other Italian revolutionaries had some initial successes and advanced into Lombardy-Venetia, they were ultimately defeated by the better trained Austrian troops under Marshal Radetzky by March of 1849.
While the Austrians fought the Piedmontese and Italian volunteer forces, central and southern Italy were in the midst of their own revolutions. Although he had agreed to a constitution, Pope Pius IX fled Rome to seek refuge in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies on November 25, 1848 following the assassination of Pellegrino Rossi, his minister of interior. Now leaderless, Italian revolutionaries in the Papal States founded a new Roman Republic on February 9, 1849. Soon after, a Tuscan Republic was founded in Tuscany following the flight of its Grand Duke. In March of 1849, French troops landed in the Roman Republic. Initially there was hope that these French troops would aid the revolution, but the French instead seized the city of Rome and toppled the Roman Republic under orders from President Louis Napoleon. With this act, France had sided with the counterrevolution. With Austrian troops victorious in the north, the Roman Republic crushed, and the Two-Sicilies siding with the Austrians, the revolutions in Italy were quelled. Because of divides and mistrust between the revolutionaries Italian nationalists would have to wait for their dream of a united Italy to come to fruition. While Italy remained divided , Piedmont-Sardinia retained a constitutional monarchy as an artifact of 1848, eventually completing the Unification of Italy in 1870.
Austrian Empire: Habsburg Rule in Turmoil
The Austrian Empire was built over the course of centuries by the Habsburg family, mainly through dynastic marriages with very little military conquest. Through these marriages, the Habsburgs built a vast, multi-ethnic empire in the center of Europe. While it had been a major European power for several centuries, the Austrian Empire was rife with ethnic divisions. Habsburg subjects included Austrian Germans, Magyars (Hungarians), Czechs, Slovaks, Italians, Poles, Ruthenians (Ukrainians), Romanians, Slovenes, Serbs, and Croats. Although the Austrian Germans were the ruling class, they made up a fairly small proportion of the overall population of the empire. These ethnicities were divided in their goals and hopes for the future of the empire, and this showed in the revolutions. While many German revolutionaries sought to join Austria with the German unification efforts centered in Frankfurt, most Magyar revolutionaries wanted either autonomy or independence for the Hungarian nation. Many Czechs hoped for the same for their own people.
Throughout the spring of 1848, revolts began across the empire. By the end of March, Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I promised to accept a constitution. In the chaos, liberal nationalists in Hungary, led by Lajos Kossuth, seized their moment and passed liberal legislation. This liberal legislation, known as the April Laws, transformed the Kingdom of Hungary into an autonomous, parliamentary democracy within the Habsburg empire, abolished serfdom, created a Hungarian National Guard, and established freedom of the press and religious equality. With these laws, Hungary became one of the most liberal nations in Europe, but also placed itself at odds with the Habsburg monarchy. However, the April Laws also alienated some minorities within Hungary, such as Transylvanians, Germans, Slovaks, Croats, and Serbs because the laws established Hungary as an ethnic nation state. While Hungary became the center of the revolutions in the Austrian Empire, revolutionaries also seized power in Prague and Vienna. On May 17, despite promising a constitution two days earlier, Emperor Ferdinand I fled Vienna. In the summer, the counterrevolution began as Prague was bombarded and captured by Habsburg forces in June. In September, Croatian forces loyal to the Habsburgs invaded Hungary, and Vienna was bombarded and captured by Habsburg forces on October 31. For the next few months, a civil war raged between Austria and Hungary, with Hungary declaring an independent republic on April 13, 1849. However, in June of 1849, Russian forces invaded Hungary in support of the counterrevolution, sealing the fate of the young republic and putting the revolutions in the Austrian Empire to an end. Over the course of the revolutions in Austria, Emperor Ferdinand was forced to abdicate and was replaced by his eighteen year old nephew, Franz Joseph, who would reign until his death in 1916.
Prussia and Germany: A Crown from the Gutter
Similarly to Italy in this period, Germany too was divided between many small states, albeit many more than Italy. Unlike Italy, Germany was loosely united under the German Confederation which could be compared to the modern European Union on a smaller scale. The Austrian Emperor was somewhat of a leader of this loose confederation as the president of the Federal Convention, but held little real power over the other German states. The Kingdom of Prussia was the other major power within the German Confederation and competed for influence among the smaller German states with Austria. With the Austrian Empire in turmoil in 1848, the rest of Germany too was engulfed in revolution. On March 15, protests erupted in the Prussian capital of Berlin. The Prussian king, Frederick William IV, quickly accepted the demands of the protesters, promising to grant them a liberal constitution. However, on March 18, a true revolution broke out in the city when Prussian troops fired on protesters. King Frederick William, although still promising a constitution and siding with the liberals on paper, fled the city. Conservative monarchs throughout the small states of the German Confederation were similarly forced to accept liberal constitutions in the spring of 1848. On May 18, 1848, a new German National Assembly made up of representatives from across Germany, including Prussia and Austria, met in Frankfurt. Soon after, a Prussian Constituent Assembly was formed. The Frankfurt Parliament would spend the next year creating a constitution and ironing out the details of a united Germany.
For months, the Frankfurt Parliament debated the specifics of what shape this new Germany would take. Would it be a centralized, democratic republic in the same vein as France? Would it be a more decentralized, liberal empire? If so, who would be its Emperor? Should Austria be included? If so, should the entire Austrian Empire be integrated into Germany, or just the German speaking parts? These questions divided the Parliament and made creating a constitution difficult. Ultimately, it was decided that a liberal constitutional monarchy under the King of Prussia would be created, excluding Austria entirely. However, by the time the Frankfurt Constitution was completed On March 27, 1849, Prussia had crushed its revolution and the King had dissolved the Constituent Assembly the previous December. When the Frankfurt Parliament offered King Frederick William IV the crown of a united German Empire, he rejected it, calling it a "crown from the gutter." This was the nail in the coffin for a united liberal Germany. Despite most of the minor German states ratifying the constitution, a united Germany could not be forged without support from Prussia or Austria.
The Failed Turning Point
English historian A.J.P. Taylor once said of the Revolutions of 1848 that "German history reached its turning point and failed to turn." While he was specifically referencing the revolutions in Germany, this quote rings true for all of the revolutions across the continent. Despite being quickly and widely successful at their initial goals, the revolutionaries of 1848 could not agree on their end goals, allowing the counterrevolution to sweep through Europe just as quickly.
What do you think of the European Revolutions of 1848? Let us know below.
Nolan writes at The Era of Change blog here.
References
"Napoleonic Germany and the Revolution of 1848." In A Brief History of Germany, by Jason P. Coy. Facts On File, 2010.
"Whose Empire? The Revolutions of 1848–1849" In The Habsburg Empire : A New History, by Pieter M. Judson. 2016. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press.
Rapport, Mike. 1848: Year Of Revolution. United Kingdom: Little, Brown Book Group, 2010.
