In the years leading up to 1848, there had been a growing battle between conservative and liberal ideologies. Economic struggles brought government to the forefront of many people’s minds and with that, the divide between these two ideologies increased. The year before 1848 had brought poor yields to the harvests which caused inflation of food prices across the continent. On top of this, unemployment was on the rise as industrial conditions worsened. Cities filled with the developing working class and student groups. These people typically had a strong sense of nationalism and more liberal views on workers’ rights and government.
These factors combined to create a climate that was willing to challenge old and powerful regimes that were aristocratic and monarchical in the countries of Italy, the German Confederation, and France. Revolutions broke out in Italy in January making it the first revolt of this historic year. The Italian peninsula was made up of many smaller states and hadn’t yet been unified into one country. Revolutionaries demanded freedom from foreign powers, unification of the peninsula, and the creation of a constitutional government which provided more civil liberties to the people.
The leaders of several Italian states such as Sicily, Piedmont, and Tuscany along with Pope Pius IX granted the creation of constitutions for each of the Italian states that included representative governments and more civil liberties. This went against their demand for a unified Italy. Riots then broke out along the peninsula in Sicily, Vienna, Naples, Milan, Florence, and Rome along with in the countryside. There were many violent events of the Italian revolutions but the biggest is known as the Five Days of Milan. From March 18th to the 22nd, Austrian troops attempted to enter Sardinia, a state of the Italian peninsula.
Revolutionaries in Milan forced the Austrian troops to retreat from the peninsula and re-enter their own country. In these five days, hundreds lost their lives and the revolutionaries that were left alive became extremely radicalized. This event forced King Charles Albert of Sardinia to declare war on Austria for violating their sovereignty. They were joined by troops from France and many countries in the Italian peninsula to aid in their war effort. Although this war was unsuccessful for Sardinia, it acted as a distraction from the revolution at home.
With many countries in the Italian peninsula involved, they stopped esponding to the revolutionaries and focused on the war effort. The violence by the revolutionaries increased with the passing of every day. They saw that a unified Italy was nearly impossible so they set their sights on conquering Rome and making it a place for liberals only. The violence was so horrific that Pope Pius IX fled to Naples to escape. To completely end the revolts in the Italian peninsula, France, and Spain stepped in and ended the revolts of Rome, Tuscany, and Naples. By April of 1849, the pope was able to return to the Vatican. No objectives of the revolution were achieved.
These revolutions actually hurt the revolutionaries and their goal of Italian unification. A vast divide was created between several Italian states that halted the unification of the peninsula until 1870. Like the Italian peninsula, the German states had yet to be unified. There were outbreaks of violence throughout the 38-state confederation in the areas of Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Croatia, and Budapest. The two biggest revolutions were in Austria and Prussia. In the German Confederation, revolters were mostly urban workers, student groups, peasants, serfs, and middle class liberals.
Across the empire, revolutionaries demanded written constitutions, representative governments, and greater civil liberties such as universal suffrage from their authoritarian regimes. In response to these revolutions, a group known as the Frankfurt Parliament was created. The leaders of many German empires tasked them to draft a constitution for a united Germany. This parliament was dominated by the Patriotic Association, a political party thought to be conservative; however, once they won all but one seat of the Frankfurt Parliament, their actions were more liberal.
The leaders within the parliament were in favor of a constitutional monarchy and were mostly vexed with the state of their corrupt perspective absolutist governments. Although Ferdinand I of Austria had sent representatives to the Frankfurt Parliament, he hadn’t responded to the demands of the revolutionaries in his empire. Austrians began rioting after a month of silence from their emperor. Ferdinand reasoned that his country was made up of many nationalities and a revolution could have the potential to tear his country apart.
Soon after the riots began, Ferdinand I promised his people that a liberal constitution would be drafted that would give them more liberal reforms. The revolters’ elation didn’t last long. Ferdinand I used the army to recover his authority and quickly repealed many of the reforms that had been put in place to ease the revolution. After this, most revolters were in fear for their lives and most revolts fell apart due to a lack of support. Revolts ended on June 17th when Ferdinand I was forced to implement martial law.
While under martial law several student groups and working class people across the empire were attacked and killed. Through the four months of revolutions and the implementation of martial law, 4,000 Austrians were killed or wounded. In the German state of Prussia, liberal factory workers, artisans, and middle class workers banded together to protest the absolutist government and their emperor. Frederick William IV quickly promised to create a liberal constitution for his people and to attempt to merge Prussia with the other German states in order to create a unified Germany.
Workers weren’t satisfied with these concessions and demanded more. This created arguments within the ranks of the revolutionaires. Conservatives in Prussia saw the unraveling of the revolutions and advised Frederick William IV to strike them and reassert his authority. He attacked the revolters and was able to suppress any more revolutions. During this time, the Frankfurt Parliament was meeting to create a constitution for a united Germany. Meanwhile, Prussians had elected a Constituent Assembly to meet in Berlin and draft a liberal constitution that had been promised to the Prussians.
In March of 1849, the Constituent Assembly was able to complete a liberal constitution for Prussia. Frederick William IV was elected as their leader and become Frederick William. Once he was elected, he knew the Constituent Assembly had the power to limit his conservative agenda so Frederick William dismantled it. He appointed conservatives to serve beside him. Frederick William attempted to unite the German Confederation without the use of an assembly; however, Austria wanted autonomy from a unified German state. Prussia attempted to force Austria into a union with all of the other German states.
Russia supported Austria in their efforts to staying autonomous from a German state and Frederick William was forced to back down. During this time where Frederick William was acting more as an emperor than an elected official, liberal Prussians attempted to begin another revolution but were immediately stopped by the Prussian army. Frederick William also attempted to be elected as emperor of Prussia once again, but even conservatives rejected this notion. The revolutions in the German Confederation failed because they were unorganized.
All of the reforms the revolutionaries were able to get put into place were repealed shortly after being declared. Thirty-six out of thirty-eight German states witnessed revolutions during this time period. In those thirty-six states, tens of thousands were killed during these two years of revolutions. By the end of 1849, the complete unification of Germany was a still a failure. Like with the country of Italy, the revolutions of 1848 and 1849 ruined relations between different countries to the point that unification was halted until 1871.
The revolutions in France were different than in the Italian peninsula and the German Confederation. Instead of fighting for the unification of a country and liberal reforms, the French were angry over broken promises. King Louis Philippe promised reform when he took the throne. Yet, after many scandals, like only allowing the wealthy the right to vote for Assembly deputies and having a corrupt interior minister, reform was non-existent. After thousands of Parisians lost their jobs from the abolition of the national workshops and many lower, working, and middle class people were denied their right to vote, revolts started.
On February 22 of 1848, the working and middle class combined and demanded a constitutional government. King Louis Philippe hesitated in responding to their demands and Parisians barricaded the narrow streets to demanded the king abdicate the throne. Two days later, Louis Philippe abdicated to his grandson, Louis Napoleon. Louis Napoleon was Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew and he was prepared to follow in his footsteps. Parisians didn’t want a monarchy and wanted more social reforms and continued to revolt. A provisional government was put in place until a constitution was drafted that laid out plans for the government.
One particular Parisian revolutionary event is known as the Day of April. The workers of Paris became inspired by other socialist organizations. On April 16, 1848, workers of Paris barricaded the narrow streets; however, the revolters were not met with violence. The weren’t very organized and after one day, they were convinced by the provisional government to give up the barricade. Across France, demonstrations like this ranged from small to large and were met both with peace and violence between February and June of 1848.
In June, a republican form of government was put into place called the Second Republic. The Second Republic then declared new laws that the commoners had wanted such as the right to vote for all men, the freeing of slaves in all territories of France, abolition of the death penalty, and the establishment of a ten hour work day. The commonwealth continued to revolt due to the disorganization of their groups. Many extreme liberals of the revolution wanted to demand more while others were satisfied with the French government’s concessions.
The last revolt of the year was from June 23 to the 26 when workers in Paris barricaded the streets once more. This time, they were met by the army and were brutally suppressed. In the process of suppressing the revolts in France, 1,500 people were killed and 12,000 were arrested. Many of the arrested were exiled from the country. After the revolts ended, Louis-Napoleon took charge of the Second Republic after they wouldn’t let him run for reelection. By 1852, Napoleon had seized control of the government and replaced the Second Republic with the Second Empire, effectively making himself Napoleon III.
As emperor, he attempted to prevent more revolts from happening by planning a massive redesign of Paris. He made the streets wider to make them harder to barricade. Although the revolts had given the people some new laws that weren’t repealed, France returned to their absolutist style of government quickly after concessions were made to the revolutionaries. At the end of 1849, the revolutions can be seen as major failures to their respective countries. All of the revolts started as a way to stop economic, political, and social problems from getting worse.
Not only did the revolutions not get rid of the problems, they got worse. Instead of reforming their absolutist styles of government into republican democracies, they ended up fueling their absolutist leaders’ desire for power and control. Most social programs that were implemented were quickly repealed. Even the process of unification was stalled for nearly twenty-five years due to the actions that took place in 1848 and 1849. Throughout the Italian peninsula, the German Confederation, and France, thousands of people lost their lives while little progress was made in the way of liberal reforms.