Chapter 14 – Surge of Liberalism and Nationalism: Revolution, Counterrevolution, and Unification

Revolutions, 1848

1848: The Year of the Revolution

Beginning in France, revolution spread through Europe

Response to economic problems and long denied liberal and national demands

Revolutions Map

France, 1848 The February Revolution

Conservatism was dead after 1830, discredited in France by the politics of Restoration (Charles X and the ultras) … hanging on in Austria, Hapsburg lands

Government of Louis Philippe was bourgeois and liberal in a limited sense (very limited voting rights – about 3%)

Opposition (radical republicans) wanted reforms … clashed with soldiers in February 1848

Louis Philippe abdicated and France becomes a republic

France, 1848 The June Days

The new republic did not include workers and the extreme poor

To address the working poor’s needs, the middle class government set up national workshops … provided food, medical benefits, and employment on public works projects

Workers hated them, land owners viewed them as a waste of money … government closed them and workers rebelled again (June)

The worker revolt was crushed mercilessly (1460 dead)

In December, the French elected Louis Napoleon president of the Second Republic

French Leaders

1848 Elsewhere Germany

Nationalism emerged during the Napoleonic era and remained strong Urban intellectuals liked liberalism; most people remained conservative Princes made concessions to liberals during economic hard times in the 1840s Result: Frankfurt Assembly … approved a new German Federation with Prussian

king William IV as emperor … he refused, assembly failed Liberalism discredited in Germany

Austria Led by Metternich, Austria suffered from a “dissolution complex” … a concern for

the disintegration of the empire caused by liberalism and nationalism Austria was a multi-national empire ruled by the Hapsburg Emperor Francis Joseph Viennese liberals intimidated Metternich into a Constitutional Assembly in 1848 Hungarian Magyars, led by Louis Kossuth (1802-1894), rose up in a a nationalist

rebellion Both movements (liberal and national) were crushed by Metternich and the

conservatives, but the conservative hold on Austria was slipping Italy

Responding to liberal activism, many Italian autocrats (Ferdinand II of Naples, Grand Duke of Tuscany, King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia, Pope Pius IX) granted liberal constitutions

“Five Glorious Days” in northern Italy saw this spread to Milan and Venice France intervened and the old order re-asserted itself

1848: Conclusions Every revolution (1820-1848) failed,

whether liberal or national But the direction was clear … national

movements were rising at the expense of the old conservative order AND liberalism had stalled, even failed in many places

The Age of Revolution begun in 1789 had come to an end