Professor Whitton
September 19, 2014
Revolutions of 1848
In the year of 1848, a series of revolutions broke out across the European continent. The revolts were mainly caused by the dissatisfaction people had with the economic and social problems in their society. The governments were threatened by the frustrated middle and working classes trying to reform them. Overall the outcomes of all the Revolutions ended in failure, not being able to permanently achieve significant changes.
There is a saying that goes “when France sneezes Europe catches a cold”. The Revolutions of 1848 first started in France and then spread to other areas of Europe. In France, King Louis Philippe’s government was mainly controlled by the bourgeoisie …show more content…
At this time the middle class needed the most help from their government because of the Industrialization age. The industrialization age caused many people to be unemployed and those who were employed worked in horrible conditions and barely made enough money to support themselves. The middle classes main objective for the French revolution was to obtain a new republic which would allow for universal male suffrage and better rights for the working class. Since the majority of the population was the middle working class they decided to reform against the king’s monarchy and planned the “February” Revolution, which caused Louis Philippe to resign. The French revolution formed the new republic that tried to fix many of the problems that the working class had faced by opening up national workshops and now allowing for any male above age 21 to vote. Everything began to fail when the “bloody June Days” took place. This was a fight was between the Socialist and the Republicans on who had the total authority in France. After this event the French people looked for some stability in their government, which caused them to elect Louis Napoleon by popular vote. Louis …show more content…
The empire included Austria, Bohemia and Hungary, which included different nationalities and different languages that were spoken. They empire was threatened by nationalism and the industrial revolution. The objective of the Austrian Empire’s revolution was to unify certain regions with their own government because of the large diversity of the empire. The news of the February Revolution in France spread to Austria caused the March Revolution In Vienna. The Radical party’s leader of the Hungarian diet, Louis Kossuth gave a speech that marked the beginning of a revolutionary movement. On March 13, 1848 in Vienna there was an uprising with middle class citizens that included students, workers and even some soldiers to invade the imperial palace. This caused Metterich to resign and flee the empire. The Revolution ended when Vienna eventually was recaptured by the Austrian forces and ruled by the Radical Roman Republic leader Mazzini who used the Bach System as the new regime. The Bach system opposed all constitutionalism and nationalism. This revolution was somewhat successful in the fact that the emancipation of peasants was still maintained during The Bach System, but instead of being subjects of their landlords they were now subjects of their states. The outcome of this revolution led to an attitude of nationalism in the people of the Austrian Empire because under the rule of