Why did the 1848 revolutions fail?

TASK: Read through your causes sheet from last lesson.

Why did the 1848 revolutions fail?

Lesson Aim:

To examine why the 1848 revolutions failed.

2. REVOLUTIONS IN GERMANY IN 1848-9.• WHY DID REVOLUTIONS BREAK OUT?

•Long Term: Rising Middle Class wanting political representation; increase in population which led to food shortages and industrialisation which led to a growth of poor living and working conditions in the expanding towns.

•Short Term: Harvest failures in 1846 and 1847; Trade recession in Europe in 1847 and other revolutions in Europe e.g. Paris, Hungary and Vienna.

• It was a year of revolutions all over Europe.

• Same year as the Communist Manifesto was published as well as the year Cholera swept Europe.

• They enjoyed rapid success and then sharp failure.

You have 5 minutes to model something to show your cause of the 1848 revolutions!

Label your cause with a sticky note!

Can we categorise them?

Political, economic, social – move your model!

TASK: Shade your sheet and make a key.

Can we be more specific? – long/short/trigger?

Which group is the most important?

Homework: Were the 1848 revolutions chiefly caused by economic grievances? (30 marks)

Planning……Whiteboards (2 groups!)

Please do in timed conditions! 40-45 mins only.

2. REVOLUTIONS IN GERMANY IN 1848-9.

•WHAT WERE THE MAIN DEVELOPMENTS IN THE REVOLUTIONS?

•THE FRANKFURT PARLIAMENT:

•Set up by the ‘Vorparlement’ the Frankfurt Parliament was a liberal dominated assembly of 596 men from all states given the task of drawing up a Constitution for a United Germany.

•However, it FAILED because:

• it became a ‘talking shop’ without real action; there were too many different representatives who called for different things e.g. ‘Kleindeutschland’ (a small Germany without Austria) or ‘Grossdeutschland’ (a larger Germany to include Austria); it had no real power (no army or civil service) and it lacked the support of the masses.

2. REVOLUTIONS IN GERMANY IN 1848-9.• THE REVOLUTION IN PRUSSIA:

•Demonstrations and riots in Berlin 13th-19th March 1848 led to Frederick William IV to accept the election of an Assembly to draw up a new Liberal Constitution and new Liberal Ministers (21st March). (After he appeared on the balcony 18th March and ordered removal of crowds which led to c.300 deaths)

•The Assembly spent March-December trying but failing to agree.

•In August in opposition the Junkers set up ‘The League for the Protection of Landed Property’ (‘The Junker Parliament’) which aimed to abolish the Prussian Assembly and new Ministers.

•After concluding the War with the Danes FW IV regained control and gained the support of the Middle Classes (as they disliked the worker riots). He dismissed the new Liberal Ministers and in December 1848 dissolved the Assembly by Royal Decree.

•However, he granted his own Constitution in December 1848 which had: an upper and lower house (Lower house voted for by universal manhood suffrage); granted liberal measures e.g. Free Press and legal system. However, he could alter it at any time e.g. in an emergency he could suspend civil rights and collect taxes; he also appointed his own Ministers and controlled the army.

•Nevertheless Liberals and Nationalists preferred it to the Frankfurt Parliament.

Make a presentation for your section of the 1848 revolutions.

Annotate your diagram and be prepared to speak about the area you have been given…..