An outline, era by era

Revolutions of 1848

Late Modern Era / 19th Century · ~1800 – 1914

The Revolutions of 1848 were a wave of uprisings that spread across Europe in the spring of that year, beginning in Sicily and Paris and reaching the German states, the Austrian Empire, the Italian states and beyond. They are sometimes called the Springtime of Peoples. Liberals demanded constitutions, free press and elected parliaments, nationalists demanded self-rule or unity, and workers and peasants pressed their own grievances over bread, wages and feudal dues.

Within months many rulers gave way, and in France a republic was declared. Within about a year and a half, though, most of the movements had been defeated by armies, divisions among the revolutionaries, or both. Few of the new constitutions lasted. Even so, the revolutions ended serfdom in the Habsburg lands, brought lasting constitutional government to some states, and set the agenda for the unifications of Italy and Germany and for later national movements. Britain and Russia saw no revolution on the same scale.

Things happened, and the rest is history

  1. Hunger and economic crisis, 1845 to 1847

    Event

    What happened

    From 1845 the potato blight and poor grain harvests push up food prices across Europe. In 1846 and 1847 a financial and industrial slump follows, with bankruptcies and rising unemployment in towns. Hunger and unrest spread in both city and countryside.

    The rest is history

    Historians generally see this crisis as a major background factor in 1848, because it left urban workers, artisans and peasants angry and ready to join protests. It was not the only cause, since political demands for constitutions and national rights had been growing for decades. The crisis is one reason the revolutions broke out almost together. In the Irish famine it also produced a very different outcome, with mass death and emigration rather than revolution.

    Sources

    1. BookSperber, Jonathan. The European Revolutions, 1848-1851. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    2. BookStearns, Peter N. The Revolutions of 1848. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1974.

  2. The Palermo uprising and the Italian constitutions

    Event

    What happened

    On 12 January 1848 an uprising begins in Palermo against the Bourbon king Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. In the following weeks he grants a constitution, and rulers in Piedmont-Savoy, Tuscany and the Papal States do the same. These are the first concessions of the year.

    The rest is history

    The Sicilian rising showed that a ruler could be forced to yield, and news of it encouraged liberals elsewhere. The Piedmontese constitution, the Statuto Albertino of March 1848, outlasted the revolution and later became the basis of the kingdom of Italy. The Sicilian revolt itself was crushed by Bourbon forces in 1849.

    Sources

    1. BookSperber, Jonathan. The European Revolutions, 1848-1851. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
    2. BookRiall, Lucy. Risorgimento: The History of Italy from Napoleon to Nation-State. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

  3. The February Revolution in Paris

    Event

    What happened

    In February 1848 the government of Louis-Philippe bans a reform banquet, and crowds build barricades in Paris on 22 to 24 February. The National Guard does not defend the regime, and the king abdicates and flees to Britain. A provisional government proclaims the Second Republic and soon introduces universal male suffrage.

    The rest is history

    The fall of the July Monarchy in a few days set off the wider wave, as news travelled quickly across the continent. In France the republic soon split between moderates and the urban poor. The June Days uprising in Paris was crushed by General Cavaignac, and in December 1848 Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was elected president by a large majority. He made himself emperor in 1852.

    Sources

    1. BookPrice, Roger. The French Second Republic: A Social History. London: Batsford, 1972.
    2. BookTocqueville, Alexis de. Recollections. Edited by J. P. Mayer and A. P. Kerr. New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1987.Eyewitness memoir of 1848 in Paris, first published posthumously in 1893.

  4. Vienna, Metternich's fall and the end of serfdom

    Event

    What happened

    On 13 March 1848 students and workers demonstrate in Vienna, and the chief minister Prince Metternich resigns and leaves for England. The emperor Ferdinand I promises a constitution. In September 1848 the Austrian parliament votes to abolish feudal dues and obligations of peasants to their lords.

    The rest is history

    The fall of Metternich ended the system that had held the Habsburg lands in check since 1815. The emancipation of the peasants was confirmed by the crown and survived the defeat of the revolution, making it one of its lasting results. Ferdinand abdicated in December 1848 in favour of his nephew Franz Joseph, who ruled until 1916. The constitution of March 1849 was soon withdrawn.

    Sources

    1. BookJudson, Pieter M. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016.
    2. BookRapport, Mike. 1848: Year of Revolution. London: Little, Brown, 2008.

  5. Berlin barricades and the Frankfurt Parliament

    Event

    What happened

    On 18 and 19 March 1848 street fighting breaks out in Berlin, and King Frederick William IV of Prussia promises reforms. In May the Frankfurt Parliament, elected across the German states, meets in St Paul's Church to draft a constitution for a united Germany. In March 1849 it offers the imperial crown to Frederick William IV.

    The rest is history

    The king refused the crown in April 1849, saying he would not accept it from an assembly rather than from the princes. The parliament then broke up, and Prussian troops put down remaining uprisings in Saxony, the Palatinate and Baden that summer. The Frankfurt constitution never took effect, though its rights and its design influenced later German constitutions. Unification came in 1871 under Prussian leadership, a different route from the one the parliament had proposed.

    Sources

    1. BookHamerow, Theodore S. Restoration, Revolution, Reaction: Economics and Politics in Germany, 1815-1871. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958.
    2. BookSperber, Jonathan. The European Revolutions, 1848-1851. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

  6. The Hungarian Revolution and its defeat

    Event

    What happened

    In March 1848 Hungarian reformers led by Lajos Kossuth win the April Laws, which give Hungary its own government and abolish serfdom. Conflict with the Habsburg court and with Croatian and other minorities leads to war in autumn 1848. In April 1849 the Hungarian assembly declares the Habsburgs deposed, and in August Russian troops, called in by Franz Joseph, help force the Hungarian army to surrender at Világos.

    The rest is history

    Hungarian independence was crushed, and harsh repression followed, including the execution of 13 generals at Arad in October 1849. Kossuth went into exile and became a symbol of liberty abroad. Resistance and passive opposition continued, and in 1867 the Compromise created Austria-Hungary, giving Hungary a large share of self-rule.

    Sources

    1. BookDeák, István. The Lawful Revolution: Louis Kossuth and the Hungarians, 1848-1849. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.
    2. BookJudson, Pieter M. The Habsburg Empire: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016.

  7. The Italian war of 1848 to 1849 and the Roman Republic

    Event

    What happened

    After the Milan uprising of the Five Days in March 1848, King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Savoy declares war on Austria. His army is beaten by Marshal Radetzky at Custoza in July 1848 and again at Novara in March 1849, and he abdicates. In Rome the pope flees, and a Roman Republic is proclaimed in February 1849, led by Mazzini, Armellini and Saffi, with Garibaldi defending the city. French troops sent by Louis-Napoleon take Rome in July 1849.

    The rest is history

    The defeats showed that Italy could not expel Austria without outside help. The Roman Republic fell, and a French garrison stayed in Rome to protect the pope for many years. Piedmont, however, kept its constitution under the new king Victor Emmanuel II. It became the base from which Cavour and others pursued unification, completed in 1861.

    Sources

    1. BookRiall, Lucy. Risorgimento: The History of Italy from Napoleon to Nation-State. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
    2. BookGinsborg, Paul. Daniele Manin and the Venetian Revolution of 1848-49. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.

  8. The Communist Manifesto appears

    Event

    What happened

    In February 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto in London, written for the Communist League. It is a short pamphlet in German setting out a view of history as class struggle. It appears just before the revolutions begin and has almost no influence on them.

    The rest is history

    The pamphlet was read by few at the time, and the revolutions were driven mainly by liberals, nationalists and a wide mix of workers and peasants. After 1848 Marx and Engels drew lessons from the defeat, and the text gained a very large readership from the 1870s and especially in the twentieth century. It is one of the best known documents linked to the year, though not a cause of the revolutions.

    Sources

    1. PrimaryMarx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei. Pamphlet, London, February 1848.
    2. BookStedman Jones, Gareth. Karl Marx: Greatness and Illusion. London: Allen Lane, 2016.

  9. The revolutions were a failure that changed nothing

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A common line, drawn from A. J. P. Taylor's remark that 1848 was a turning point at which modern history failed to turn, says the revolutions achieved nothing. On this view the old regimes simply returned and everything went on as before.

    The rest is history

    The remark comes from Taylor's The Course of German History (1945), and it expresses a real point about the failure of German liberalism in 1848. But the overall record is more mixed. Serfdom and feudal dues ended for good in the Habsburg lands, Piedmont kept its constitution, Prussia gained an elected parliament under its 1850 constitution, and France adopted universal male suffrage, which was never fully abolished. Historians now stress both the failures and these lasting changes, and many see 1848 as a turning point in the way politics was done.

    Sources

    1. BookTaylor, A. J. P. The Course of German History. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1945.
    2. BookEvans, R. J. W., and Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann, eds. The Revolutions in Europe, 1848-1849: From Reform to Reaction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

  10. Frederick William IV and the crown from the gutter

    Popular belief

    The legend

    The Prussian king is said to have refused the German crown in 1849 because he would not pick up a crown from the gutter. In this telling he scorned it as a worthless gift from commoners.

    The rest is history

    The phrase is attributed to Frederick William IV's private comments. He wrote in letters of 1848 and 1849 that a crown offered by an assembly would be a dog collar chaining him to the revolution, and his refusal rested on his belief in the divine right of kings and on fear of Austria. His reply to the Frankfurt deputation on 3 April 1849 was politely worded and did not use such language. The refusal ended the hopes of the Frankfurt Parliament and helped make a later unification by Prussia and Bismarck possible.

    Sources

    1. BookClark, Christopher. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947. London: Allen Lane, 2006.
    2. BookSperber, Jonathan. The European Revolutions, 1848-1851. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

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