AP European History
AP European History
After 1815, Parliament represented only the wealthy. Tory, or conservative, reform in the 1820s reinstated labor unions, reworked the justice system, and granted religious toleration to Catholics. In the revolutions of 1830 on the continent, suffrage was a major issue. In Britain, the main concern was representation in Parliament. Largely because of urban industrialization, people left the country to go find work in the cities. The urban populations increased, but the representation for the urban areas did not always increase at the same rate. Therefore, the underrepresented urban areas were upset about the gross overrepresentation of the rural areas. In many rural areas, which happened to have the same representation in Parliament as large urban areas, there lived more sheep than people. These overrepresented rural districts were called rotten boroughs. The Great Reform Bill of 1832 increased the electorate by almost 50 percent and redrew the voting district lines, thereby abolishing the rotten boroughs. Liter, a group of people introduced the People’s Charter, a document that demanded universal male suffrage. Supporters of this document were called Chartists. The Chartists also demanded the secret ballot, annual elections, salaries for Parliament, and equal voting districts. The Chartist movement lasted about ten years before it dissolved. One of the greatest issues facing Britain was that of the Corn Laws, or tariffs on imported grains to benefit domestic grains sales. These Corn Laws were repealed in 1846 in a controversial legislative move. Those who supported the repeal hoped it would mean lower wages for factory workers, while those who opposed the repeal feared a decline in the domestic grain industry.
After the fall of Napoleon, Louis XVI II returned to the French throne. Louis granted a constitution, but the constitution was weak, giving power to only a few in France. His successor, Charles X (1757-1 836, king 18241830), ruled as an ultraroyalist and angered many liberals during his short reign. In 1830, Charles sparked the July Revolution by trying to undo the results of an election that was won by the liberals. After the Revolution, Louis Philippe (1773-1850, king 1830--1848) became king. He honored the constitution and replaced the Bourbon flag with the tricolor of the French Revolution, but he ignored the demands of the workers. Under his rule, troops repeatedly were required to put down workers’ revolts. Louis Philippe ruled until 1848.
After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Germany was organized into a Germanic Confederation composed of thirty-nine independent German states. Many people in the German states sought unification under a liberal government, such as those of England and France. The leaders of Prussia and Austria (especially Austria) strongly opposed such a plan. At the time, Austria was under the leadership of Prince Clemens von Metternich (1773-1859). In 1819, Metternich pushed through the Carlsbad Decrees that censored and controlled nationalistic student organizations called Burschenschaften. The secret police also persecuted everyone who advocated political changes. When the July Revolution erupted in France, many liberal Germans spoke out against the repressive government. In response, the ultraconservative Metternich prohibited public assemblies and petitions. Metternich continued his rule until 1848.
In 1815, the Congress of Vienna granted the Duchy of Warsaw to Russia, which was led by Czar Alexander I (1777-1825, czar 1801-1825). After 1815, many Russians became increasingly liberal, especially the students and the younger nobility. These young liberals formed secret political societies; the members longed for a new government that was not corrupt and that was actually concerned about the people. W hen Alexander died in 1825, Nicholas I (1796-1855, czar 1825-1855), his younger brother, ascended to the throne.
At the time of his succession, a group of young army officers staged a revolt known as the Decembrist Revolt. The Decembrists wanted a more liberal, even constitutional, government. After the revoir was crushed and some of the Decembrists were executed, Nicholas became increasingly reactionary and repressive. He created the Third Section, the secret police, which was designed to squelch further revolutionary activity. During the reign of Nicholas prior to 1848, Russia added to its territory part of Armenia, aided the revolutionaries in Greece, defeated Turkey in the Russo-Turkish War, and put down a revoir in Poland.
The decade of the 1840s was a time of terrible harvests and agricultural disasters, such as the Irish potato famine of 1846. A new class of working poor emerged, a creation of the capitalist industrialization that swept over Europe. Nationalism had been brewing for some time in pockets all over the continent. In short, the time was right for frustrated people to resort to violence as a means of venting their frustration and anger.
In France, Louis Philippe’s repressive administration prohibited any political meetings when the politics might be unfavorable to the regime. In February of 1848, Louis’ chief minister, Francoise Guizat (1787-1874), banned a political meeting that was to be held in honor of George Washington. In response, angry Parisians took to the streets. Louis forced Guizat to resign, but Louis later abdicated, too. Later in 1848, the socialist Louis Blanc (1811-1882) convinced the provisional government to establish national workshops to provide employment opportunities to those without work. In June of 1848, the government did away with the national workshops, and again angry Parisians stormed the streets. During the June Days, approximately 10,000 people, defeated by the republican army, died in a violent class struggle. In November, France created the Second Republic and elected Louis Napoleon as their president. Through political maneuvering, he won a re-election and then declared himself Emperor Napoleon III in 1852. The revolution in France proved to be a failure. As news of the revolution in France spread throughout Europe, Liberals demanded governmental reforms. In the Austrian Empire, Hungarians demanded autonomy and additional liberal concessions. The workers and students in Vienna took to the streets in revoir when the government balked at the demands. As a result, Emperor Ferdinand I (1793-1875, emperor 1835-1848) promised reform, abolished serfdom, and then capitulated. Fearing that the new wave of anti-conservative violence might threaten his life, Metternich fled the country and went to London. However, imperial forces overthrew the revolutionary government. Francis Joseph (1830-1916, emperor 1848-1916) became Emperor of Austria in December of 1848. Six months later, with the aid of the Russians, the revolution in Hungary was crushed. The revolution in the Austrian Empire had also failed.
Prior to 1848, German liberals desired a unified German state. When revolution broke our in France, Prussian liberals stated their demands. After a revolt in Berlin, Frederick William IV (1795-1861, king 1840-1861) promised a new German state and a constitution. Although the desires of the aristocracy and the middle class differed, Frederick allowed the election of a constituent assembly that was to draw up a constitution for Prussia. Meanwhile, in Frankfurt, the National Assembly, called the Frankfurt Assembly, met to create a unified German state. In 1849, the National Assembly completed its constitution and elected Frederick William IV emperor of the new German state. However, Frederick refused to accept a “crown from the gutter,” so he granted a conservative constitution and reasserted his authority. Attempts to unify the German states had failed.
The revolutions of 1848 failed mostly because the revolutionaries were united only by their desire to reform or replace the current governments. The revolutionaries in each example were divided by social and economic differences. Each time, after the revolutionaries gained control or made progress, they fought amongst themselves and afforded the old regimes opportunities to regain power.