1848 Revolutions

Causes
1848-the Crazy Year
• “1848 was the revolutionary year when
almost the entire continent of Europe was
swept by revolution.Russia escaped at
one end of the continent and England at
the other…..Virtually every other state
experienced a revolution,political,social or
both together” –AJP Taylor
 Long term causes
• Population growth
• Land shortage
• Industrialization and mechanisation
• Urbanization
• Epidemics
• Growth of liberalism- constitutionalism +
democracy
• Nationalism-ethnicity
• Romanticism-Action and imagination were
more important than thought and reason
• Socialism
 Short term causes
• Food shortages-failure of potato harvest
and poor cereal harvests
• Rising food prices
• Financial crisis- manufacturing declined
and unemployment grew
• Both middle class and working class were
discontent.
 France
• 1830-1848-July monarchy of Louis Philippe
faced opposition due to government
scandals and exclusion of middle class
from government.
• The government refused to introduce
reform and demonstrations broke out in
Paris resulting in riots . Louis Philippe
abdicated and was replaced by the second
Republic
• Louis Napoleon,nephew of Napoleon ruled
second Republic as President of France
 Why the 1848 Revolutions
failed?
• The conservatism of the peasantry
• Division amongst the revolutionaries
• Use of military who mostly remained loyal
to governments
• Alienation of moderates and property
owners who feared radicalism