Download Chapter 22 - tomernotes

Chapter 22
 potato- first introduced in South America; rapidly became staple of peasants’ diets; has
minerals, vitamins, high carbohydrates to provide energy to work; could be grown on smallest
plot of land; one acre could support a peasant family of four for a year; peals supported
livestock
 Jean-Francois Millet painted Planting Potatoes and The Angelus
 many Irish relied on the potato as a single crop, were struck by potato famine 1846-1850,
fungus from America, more than a million people died, million moved to America, known as the
Great Hunger, known as the “last great European natural disaster”
Territorial Arrangements and Agreements
Congress of Vienna
 1814 leaders met in Austrian capital of Vienna to fix mess created by Napoleon
 royalist émigrés refer to the younger son of Louis XVI as Louis XVII although he died in
captivity and never reigned
 four victorious powers: GREAT BRITAIN, RUSSIA, PRUSSIA, AUSTRIA
 four powers gave older son of Louis XVI the crown as Louis XVIII (1814-1815; 1815-1824)
 First Peace of Paris- signed by Allies and France in 1814, reestablished French borders to the
way they were in 1792, which included much land France did not have 1789
 Second Peace of Paris- signed 1815, reestablished French borders again this time to the way
they were in 1790, demanded an indemnity of 700 million francs from France, placed 150,000
troops in France under French expenses (were removed ahead of schedule 1818), required the
return of plundered art treasures to their country of origin from France
 Congress of Vienna- began September 1814, members argued over minor issues (who sits
where, who enters first, who signs treaty first) and had glittering balls as costly as battles;
members were:
o AUSTRIA- minister of foreign affairs Prince Klemens von METTERNICH
o BRITAIN- foreign secretary Viscount CASTLEREAGH
o FRANCE- minister of foreign affairs Charles Maurice de TALLEYRAND
o RUSSIA- tsar ALEXANDER I
o PRUSSIA- king FREDERICK WILLIAM III

ideas:
1) no country was to receive territory without giving up something in return
2) no one country was to receive enough territory to make it a present or future
threat to the peace of Europe
 dominant nations of Austria and Britain teamed up to restrain Russia and Prussia’s territorial
ambitions
 Kingdom of the Netherlands created out of the former Dutch Republic and Austrian
Netherlands, was under William I (1815-1840) who was given 2 million pounds to fortify the
Netherlands against France; created 1814 to 1) serve as buffer against future French expansion
on the Continent; 2) block the revival of French sea power
 on France’s borders:
o southeast- the reestablished monarchy that united that island kingdom of Sardinia
and Piedmont to create Piedmont-Sardinia which included Savoy, Nice, and part
of Genoa;
o east- Prussia, was given control of the left bank of the Rhine; Switzerland, was
reestablished as an independent confederation of cantons
o southwest- Spain, restored with Bourbon rule
 Italy: was firmly established under Austrian power
o Papal States returned to Pope Pius VII along with territories that had been
Napoleon’s Cisalpine Republic and the Kingdom of Italy
o Republic of Venice absorbed into Austria empire along with Lombardy and the
Illyrian provinces on Dalmatian coast
o Tuscany, Parma, and Modena placed under Habsburg princes
 Napoleon’s Confederation of the Rhine, which organized the majority of German territories
under France 1806, was dissolved; German Confederation- organized the 300 petty German
states into 38 (39 including Austria) states and were represented in a new Federal Diet dominated
by Austria; was merely done against France, not to combine German states
Poland
 Poland: had been partitioned by Austria, Prussia, and Russia in 1772, 1793, 1705; Napoleon
reconstituted a small portion as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw; Alexander I argued to make a
large Poland under his influence and wanted to extend Russian influence farther into eastern and
central Europe, basing his argument on the significant contribution Russia had in the defeat of
Napoleon; this went against Metternich’s idea of equilibrium, Prussia would allow it as long as
they got Saxony, Great Britain and France distrusted Russia and Prussia
 Talleyrand- negotiated for the French, was a bishop under the Old Regime, a revolutionary
who managed to keep his head, an exile during the Reign of Terror, Napoleon’s chief minister,
representative of the restored Bourbon monarchy at the Congress; managed to convince the allies
to accept France as an equal partner in negotiations; had Britain and Austria sign a treaty with
France to pursue an independent Poland, leaked news that Britain and Austria would go to war
with Prussia and Russia to block their aims, Alexander I and Frederick William III backed down
 final agreemento Prussia kept Polish territory of Posen, gained two-fifth of the kingdom of Saxony
,territory on the left bank of the Rhine, the Duchy of Westphalia, and Swedish
Pomerania; doubled its population to 11 million; areas were rich in waterways and
resources but geographically fragmented
o Austria kept Polish province of Galica;
o Krakow became a free city as the Republic of Krakow
o kingdom of Poland was created technically independent but really under influence
of Russia, created from what remained of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw; solution
benefited no one in particular, bad for Polish
Other
 Congress of Vienna acknowledged Russia’s conquest of Finland; in return, Sweden acquired
Norway from Denmark
 Great Britain made no territorial claims, achieved its goal of maintaining France (its greatest
rival for dominance on the seas), returned French colonies seized during war
Alliance Systems
 two dominant alliance pacts in the post-Napoleonic era:
 Quadruple Alliance- between Great Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia in November
1815- between victorious powers, intended to protect against France and to preserve
status quo; 1818 France completed its payments for war and joined the alliance, creating
the Quintuple Alliance, promised to meet periodically over next 20 years
 Holy Alliance- between Prussia, Austria, and Russia (excluded Britain), made by
Alexander I, agreed to renounce war and protect the Christian religion; was hollow as a
treaty arrangement, but indicated willingness to intervene in each other’s affairs
Spain
 1822 European powers met to consider restoring Bourbon monarchy in Spain; British refused
to cooperate, blocked united action of Allies; France took military action 1823, restored King
Ferdinand VII and abolished the Spanish constitution
New Ideologies
Conservatism
 not a rejection of changes, but a dynamic adaptation to them; stressed the corporate nature of
European society; saw tradition instead of reason and progress
 Edmund Burke argued in Reflections on the Revolution in France that liberty must emerge
out of the gradual development of the old order, not its destruction
 conservatism became reactionary under Austrian Metternich; 1819 Carlsbad decrees are an
example of the “Metternich system” system of espionage, censorship, and repression that
sought to eliminate any constitution or nationalist sentiments that had arisen during the
Napoleonic period; aimed at uprooting liberal and national goals; set out to crush any form of
democratic government, constitutionalism, and parliamentarianism in central Europe
 German Confederation approved decrees against free speech and civil liberties and set rooted
out rebellious university students
 students took up arms in the Wars of Liberation (1813-1815) against France to institute
liberal and national reforms
Liberalism
 two main tenets: 1) freedom of the individual 2) corruption of authority
 wanted the right to vote, civil liberties, legal equality, constitutional government,
parliamentary sovereignty, and a free-market economy; believed less government was a better
government, that non-interference would produce a better world, humans were basically good
and reasonable and needed freedom to flourish, government goal was to promote freedom
 French Revolution spawned liberal thought
 Jeremy Bentham, trained in British law, created a liberal doctrine that argued for “the
greatest happiness for the greatest number” in his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and
Legislation; believed government should limit intervention and only interfere in the pursuit of
social harmony; Bentham wrote Rationale of Punishments and Rewards and tested his reforms
on convicted criminals, believed criminals should be rehabilitated and returned to society
 Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian James Mill met Bentham in 1808 and
dedicated his life to his utilitarian philosophy; his son, John Stuart Mill reacted to his early and
intense education in Benthamite ideas by rejecting ideas of utilitarianism, formed his own class
of liberalism in On Liberty (1859) and became greatest liberal thinker of the age, criticized
Bentham for ignoring human emotions and for the mass tyranny associated with his ideas,
applied economic doctrines to social conditions in Principles of Political Economy, supported
social reform for the poor and promoted equality for women with his wife Harrier Taylor,
questioned private property, believed a more equal distribution of wealth is necessary and
possible
 David Ricardo- stockbroker who made a fortune by age 20; wrote Principles of Political
Economy and Taxation, outlined opposition to government intervention in foreign trade and
explained the “iron law of wages”- wages would stabilize at the subsistence level, increased
wages would cause the working class to grow, increased competition in the labor market would
drive wages down to the level of subsistence
Romanticism
 romanticism- a variety of literary and artistic movements throughout Europe late 1700s to
mid 1800s; unassociated with political ideologies
 among first romantics were English poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
who wrote the Lyrical Ballads (1798) together, which exemplified the iconoclastic romantic idea
that poetry was the result of “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” rather than a
formal and highly disciplined intellectual exercise; romantics basically rebelled against the
confinement of classical forms and refused to accept the supremacy of reason over emotions
 old gardens relied on carefully drawn geometric patterns, minutely trimmed hedges and
lawns, and symmetrically arranged flowers planted in rows by size and color to achieve the
effect of total mastery over nature; romantic gardens were a rebellious profusion of color that
recognized the beauty of untamed nature and the inspiration produced by the release of human
emotions
Romantic People
 artists were now valued as geniuses who created great art through insight and intuition;
inspiration and intuition took the place of reason and science
 Germaine de Stael- founder of French romanticism, extraordinary woman whose writings
influence French liberal political theory after 1815; her mother followed Rousseau’s Emile
(1762) according to which she was allowed to follow her own path of intellectual development;
wrote stuff that opposed what she judged to be the tyranny of Napoleonic rule; was greatly
influenced by Rousseau and discovered that “the soul’s elevation is born of self-consciousness”
 Victor Hugo- followed de Stael’s lead, was one of the great French writers of the 1800s;
introduced the turning “within oneself” to romanticism; was profoundly influenced by political
events of the French Revolution and its principles; offers a bold panoramic sweep of the social
universe of Paris across the ages in Notre-Dame de Paris and Les Miserables
 composers- showed liberation from the forms that dominated the classical era; French Louis
Hector Berlioz- set Faust’s damnation to music; Polish Frederic Chopin- created lyric
compositions for the piano; Hungarian Franz Liszt- concert pianist who composed symphonic
poems and Hungarian rhapsodies
 J. M. W. Turner- English landscape painter whose intense and increasingly abstract vision of
an often turbulent natural world showed a rebellious experimentation with color and a rejection
of classical conventions and forms
 Eugene Delacroix- leader of the French romantic school of painting whose epic historical and
political masterpieces showed a rebellious experimentation with color and a rejection of classical
conventions and forms; painted Liberty Leading the People in which he immortalized the
revolutionary events that swept France in 1830s
New Ideologies on State and Society
Nationalism
 nationalism- the political doctrine between 1815 and 1850 that glorified the people united
against the absolutism of kings and tyranny of foreign oppressors; collective identity and
political allegiance
 German Johann Gottfried von Herder promoted national identity in German folk culture,
wrote Fairy Tales of the brothers Jacob Ludwig Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm who
painstakingly captured in print the German oral tradition of peasant folklore
 German philosophers Johann Fichte and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel emphasized the
importance of the state
 Giuseppe Mazzini represented the new breed of liberal nationalists
 George Friedrich List- political economist and a less-than-liberal nationalist who formulated
a statement of economic nationalism to counter the liberal doctrines of David Ricardo; believed
free trade worked only for the wealthy and powerful, argued that a program of protective tariffs
would develop German industries, perceived British free trade as merely economic imperialism
in disguise; one of the few nationalists who didn’t advocate the liberal idea of free trade
Socialism
 socialism- rejected the world as it was, grew out of changes in the structure of daily life and
the structure of power, shared a common concern with “alienation”
 Henri de Saint-Simon- father of French socialism, rejected liberal individualism in favor of
social organization; believed the accomplishments and potential of industrial development
represented the highest stage of history; in a perfect society, productive work would be the basis
of all prestige and power, elite would be organized according to productive members, with
industrial leaders on top, work would be a social duty, would be efficient and ethical
 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon- French social theorist who recognized the social value of work;
refused to accept the dominance of industrial society (unlike Saint-Simon); was a self-educated
typesetter of peasant origin, gained national prominence with his ideas; wrote pamphlet What is
Property? that answered “Property is theft.”, didn’t want abolition of private property, but
believed property used to profit from labor of others was wrong; people have the right to own
only what they had earned from their own labor; had very anarchist view, hated government,
favored small self-ruling communities with comfort instead of wealth
 Charles Fourier- unsuccessful traveling salesman devoted to the study and improvement of
society, formulated one of the most trenchant criticisms of industrial capitalism, believed in
luxury (unlike Proudhon); wrote numerous things explaining a utopian world organized intounits
called phalanxes- took into account the social, sexual, and economic needs of members, would
have proper mix of duties so that everyone would work only a few hours a day, people would do
work suited for them that they’d like, would be paid according to contributions; phalanxes would
always be rural and organized communally, neither poverty nor property would be eliminated,
education would eliminate disputes, rich and poor would live in harmony; Fourier’s followers set
up phalanxes, including 40 in the U.S., that failed because of financial problems and petty
squabbling
 Fourier, Proudhon, and Saint-Simon all add to idea of Utopia by Thomas More
 women- Saint-Simon- argued for woman’s social elevation and searched for a female
messiah; Proudhon- adopted conservative idea and saw women’s only choices as working as
housewives or prostitutes; Fourier- put the issue of women’s freedom at the center of plans to
redesign society
 socialists believed in a revolution that would eliminate poverty and suffering, but all hoped
that their proposals and ideas would change the world and prevent violent upheavals, some
disagreed:
Communism
 January 1848 a philosopher living in exile (Karl Marx) and a businessman working for his
father (Friedrich Engels) began writing the short piece called The Communist Manifesto that
described the dire situation of the European working classes throughout the 1840s and the
growing poverty and alienation of the proletariat that would bring a class war against the
capitalists; exploited workers should prepare to work together across national boundaries for the
moment of revolution; “Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains.”
Protest and Revolution
 1800- 2 out of every 100 Europeans lived in cities; 1850- 5 out of every 100… and rising
 people from the same rural areas lived together in the same urban areas after migrating, such
as Irish emigrants in the “Little Dublin” section of London
 social networks helped make transformation from rural to urban bearable; workers were still
poorly paid, many women resorted to prostitution which created an epidemic of venereal
diseases especially syphilis; urban crime grew astronomically with theft being the most common
crime, 1829 Paris and London began creating modern police forces
 state-sponsored work relief expanded after 1830 for the deserving poor (old, sick, children);
able-bodied workers who were idle were considered undeserving and dangerous
 1830s and 1840s legislative bodies increased regulation of everything from factories to mines
to prisons to schools
 people had two different opinions to poverty (as in the Irish potato famine): 1) the
government must do nothing to intervene, the problem would correct itself, Thomas Malthus’s
idea 40 years earlier that famine and death keep the population in check from outgrowing
resources and food supplies, Irish population had doubled between 1781 and 1841, believed
poverty was a social necessity; 2) poverty was society’s problem, perhaps caused by society,
known as the “social question”- what to do with the poor; fueled revolutions of 1848; social
legislation was made in nations; British Parliament passed the Factory Act of 1833 and
commissioned investigations that were complied in the “Blue Books” that reported abusive
treatment of men, women, children in factories
 legends of the Great Revolution were kept alive in 1830 although few remembered it
personally; new generation of radicals were budding, student riots in Germany, revolutionary
waves swept across southern and central Europe in early 1820s
 August 1819, crowd of 80,000 people gathered outside Manchester, England in St. Peter’s
Field to hear speeches for parliamentary reform and universal manhood suffrage; cavalry “swept
down on them in a bloody slaughter”, known as the “Peterloo” massacre
 reasons for revolution: poor harvests of 1829 caused by harsh winter; convergence of social
unrest with long-standing political demands caused simultaneous revolution all over Europe;
governmental failure to respond; included highly diverse groups of workers, students, lawyers,
professionals, peasants
French Revolution of 1830
 late 1820s were period of increasing political friction
 Charles X (1824-1830) (former comte d’Artois) replaced his brother, Louis XVIII, as ruler
of France; Louis XVIII accepted a constitutional monarchy, but Charles X assumed the throne
and dedicated himself to restoration of the kingship as it had existed before the revolution;
aligned the monarchy with the Catholic church and approved the death penalty for those guilty of
sacrilege; opponents were influenced by liberal ideas, king responded to critics by putting
ultraroyalists to run government
 1830 Charles X dissolved the Chamber of Deputies and ordered new elections that returned a
majority against Charles X, who retaliated with his last act, the Four Ordinances, which
censored the press, changed the electoral law to favor himself, dissolve the new Chamber, and
call for new elections
 opposition to Charles X might have remained at a peaceful level if it weren’t for the terrible
conditions of living in France- severe winter drove up food 75 percent, most urban dwellers were
barely surviving; king was wrong in conquering Algeria to keep French quiet; prices continued
to increase in 1830, finally workers took to streets on July 1830, revolution spread, in “three
glorious days”, the restored Bourbon regime was removed and Charles X fled to England
 protesters demanded a republic, but lacked organization and political experience, presented
Charle’s cousin Louis-Philippe (former duc d’Orleans) as savior of France and new
constitutional monarch; beginning of the July Monarchy and end of the Bourbon Restoration;
still had restricted suffrage (required property ownership), lowered voting age from 30 to 25,
lowered tax requirement, doubled electorate from 90,000 to 170,000, voting still restricted to
small fraction of population
Other Uprisings
 popular disturbances didn’t always result in revolution; Britain- rural riots over grain prices
and distribution; German states- workers broke machines to protest low wages and loss of
control in the workplace; Switzerland- reformers encouraged by French example, ten Swiss
cantons adopted liberal constitutions and established universal manhood suffrage, freedom of
expression, and legal equality (SWITZERLAND FIRST IN EUROPE WITH U.M.S.)
Greece
 was a controlled country for centuries; now under Ottoman Empire, longed for
independence; Turks responded with retaliations
 1822 Turkish fleet captured island of Chios off west coast of Turkey and massacred or
enslaved the population, provoked international reaction called the Philhellenic (literally means
“lover of Greece”) movement, two of Britain’s great romantic poets Lord Byron (sailed to the
besieged city of Missolonghi in 1824 to help coordinate military effort, contracted malaria and
died) Percy Bysshe Shelley were supporters
 sultan of Turkey called upon his vassal, the pasha of Egypt, to subdue Greece; Great Britain,
France, and Russia signed the Treaty of London 1827, pledging intervention on behalf of
Greece; three powers defeated Egyptian fleet, Russia declared war on Turkey 1828 for territorial
reasons; Greece was declared independent
 three powers did this not because of liberal ideas or Greek nationalism, but to enforce the
Congress of Vienna; Russia wanted territorial gains; three powers stopped fighting Ottoman
Empire and worked toward Greek independence, creating a monarchy in Greece and placing a
German-born prince on the new throne
Belgium
 Belgian provinces in the Netherlands followed example of overthrow of Bourbon monarchy
and Greek crisis; desire for own nation and food crisis similar to the one in France put Belgian
revolutionaries on the streets 1830; protested deteriorating economic situation and demanded
own Christian religion, own language, and constitutional rights
 Russia, Austria, Prussia wanted the revolution crushed; Great Britain feared involvement of
central and eastern Europeans in area British had interests; France was busy with the new July
Monarchy
 Belgium wrote a constitution anyway under a provisional government, all five great powers
accepted it as long as Belgium remained neutral; Austria, Prussia, and Russia were dealing with
their own problems
Poland
 revolution erupted with desire for national independence; army cadets and university students
revolted 1830, demanding a constitution; established provisional government but split on level of
radicality; Russia brought 180,000 in a year to crush the revolution and reassert its rule over
Poland, thousands of Poles were executed, others fled to western Europe including 5,000 to
France; revolutionaries were inspired by the poetry of Adam Mickiewicz and the music of
Frederic Chopin; Polish remained under tutelage until 1918-1919
Italy
 1831 Italian states of Modena and Parma attempted to overthrow Austrian domination of
northern Italy, lost to Austrian troops
 revolution in Papal States resulted in French occupation until 1838 without reforms
 nationalists were driven underground as the Young Italy movement under Giuseppe
Mazzini
 revolutions of 1830 known as “the forgotten revolutions” of the nineteenth century and were
important for several reasons:
1) they made clear to the European states how closely tied their fates were (one revolts,
others will revolts too); revolts tested the commitment of the Great Powers to the
Congress of Vienna (preserved the status quo and maintained stability at some times
[Russia maintaining Poland, Austria maintaining Italy], changed things and modified
Europe at other times [allowing independence of Greece and Belgium])
2) revealed the vulnerability of international politics to domestic instability; issues like grain
prices affected balance of power
 five Great Powers divided into two ideological camps: 1) liberal constitutional states of Great
Britain and France; 2) autocratic monarchies of Russia, Austria, and Prussia
 revolutions of 1830 exposed the awareness of politics at all social levels and classes; workers
and lower classes were politicized throughout Europe, but continued to be excluded from politics
Reforms of Great Britain
Before the Reforms
 suffrage was an important issue of the 1830 revolutions; only Swiss cantons enforced
universal manhood suffrage, the July Revolution doubled the electorate but only 1 percent could
vote, the Great Revolution mandated universal manhood suffrage but didn’t implement it
 people needed to own property to vote or hold office; those who served in parliament didn’t
receive a salary and therefore must be rich; Francois Guizot, the French prime minister and chief
spokesman for the July Monarchy, said “Get Rich!” when confronted by critics
 landowners ruled in Britain and were strengthened when the population was redistributed as
a result of industrialization and parliamentary representation remained the same; areas that
continued to enjoy representation without earning it with population were called “rotten” or
“pocket” boroughs
Reforms
 liberal reformers attempted to fix the problem of electoral inequalities, the wealthy and
members of Parliament refused; however, popular agitation by the lower classes made
parliament fear civil war and pass the Great Reform Bill of 1832- vast majority still couldn’t
vote, but strengthened the industrial and commercial elite in towns, gave suffrage to most of the
middle class, opened the way to social reforms, and encouraged the formation of political parties
 years of bad harvests, unemployment, and depression led radical reformers to demand
democracy
 1838 small group of labors joined representatives of the London Working Men’s Association
(organization of craft workers) to create a document known as the People’s Charter- demanded
universal manhood suffrage, secret ballot, salaries for parliamentary service, elimination of the
prerequisite of owning property to hold office, equal electoral districts, and annual elections; idea
is called Chartism (basically all ideas of democracy)
 Irish Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor and Irish journalist and orator James Bronterre
O’Brien urged the working class to protest through strikes that were occasionally violent; violent
mood swept through Chartists in 1839
 government responded with force and imprisoned a number of Chartist leaders
 1840s- bad harvests and economic hardships, along with petitions signed by millions and
submitted to the House of Commons that avoided universal manhood suffrage, led to strikes and
attacks on factory throughout Britain 1842
 April 1848- final Chartist movement, 25,000 workers inspired by revolutionary events on the
Continent, assembled in London to march on the House of Commons; carried a newly signed
petition with demands of the People’s Charter; government sent nearly 200,000 “special”
constables or deputized private citizens, who were property owners and skilled workers, into the
streets to disperse the revolutionaries; Chartists were tired, cold, and rain-soaked, so they left, no
social revolution took place
Workers Unite
 proletariat- new word created before mid 1800s to describe those workers afloat in the labor
pool who owned nothing, not even tools for their labor, and who were becoming ad-ons to the
new machines that dominated production; machines almost always meant a drop in wages
 Britain, France, and Germany, textile workers destroyed machines in protest; machinebreakers terrorized parts of Great Britain from 1811 o 1816 in a movement known as Luddism
after its mythical leader Ned Ludd; machine destruction was met with severe repression
 workers began forming associations to assert their control over the workplace and demand a
voice in politics after 1830
 French uprisings and strikes favored the destruction of the monarchy and the creation of a
democratic republic increasingly from 1831 to 1834; republican socialism spread in France
through traveling journeymen during the July Monarchy, but government repression put it
underground; secret societies proliferated
Women
 working men had to compete with cheaper women in factories; some manufacturers turned to
subcontractors for cheaper labor and increased production, had these middlemen contract out
work such as cutting and sewing to needy women in their homes, system known as “sweated
labor” because of difficulty of working at home and the fact that it was always poorly paid
 unions believed women shouldn’t work at home or at factories, and their talents should be
used for domestic chores
 French labor leader Flora Tristan, also a worker, wife, and mother, recognized that working
women needed to work in order to support themselves and their families, told audiences in
Europe and Latin America that women should be freed of their “slave status” in order to benefit
all workers, hated the competition between men and women, believed only hope was in
education and unionization, urged men and women to join together to claim rights; some women
formed organizations (like the Parisian seamstresses) others were afraid of being fired
 women earned one-third or less of the average working man’s wages and conditions for
women were horrible; one female dressmaker often worked 20 hours a day
Revolutions Across Europe: 1848-1850
 year of 1848 was unlike any other, revolutions began right after New Year’s, no one was sure
what had happened, years had been created and destroyed; France, Italy, the German states,
Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia were shaken to their foundations; Switzerland, Denmark, and
Romania were lucky to experience lesser uprisings; Great Britain survived along with Ireland
which suffered the potato famine
Building Up to Revolution
 1846 gave a warning with severe famine (Europe’s last serious food crisis); lack of grain
drove prices up; markets were severely damaged and thousands of industrial workers lost their
jobs; the famine hurt everyone
 throughout the 1840s, middle and lower classes itched for democracy; British Chartists
protested, French campaigned for universal manhood suffrage using “banquet” campaigns in
which leaders attempted to raise money by giving speeches at dinners and taking issues directly
to the people
France Leads the Way
 so it’s February 1848; bourgeois reformers had arranged for their largest banquet to date in
support of the extension of the vote; the banquet was to take place February 22, 1848; city
officials became nervous at the thought of thousands of workers assembling for political
purposes and decided to cancel the banquet; Parisians took the streets and demonstrated in favor
of the banquet; shots were fired and a demonstrated was killed; this ignited revolutions across
Europe
 the National Guard was formed as a citizen militia including many members of LouisPhilippe’s army who crossed barricades to join revolutionaries; the king attempted some reforms,
was too late, Louis-Philippe fled
 the Second Republic was created; the Provisional Government led by the poet Alphonse de
Lamartine included both types of members of the July Monarchy (moderates and radicals) took
power
 those who fought in the revolution were separated from those who formed the new
government February 24; only one member of the Provisional Government was a worker, and he
as known as “Albert, the worker” rather than his full name which included Martin
 however, the government set up two mechanisms for workers’ relief: 1) the Luxembourg
Commission- a commission of workers and employers created to act as a grievance and
bargaining board and settle questions of common concern in the workplace; was headed by the
socialist Louis Blanc; accomplished little other than taking workers’ attention away from
problems of the Provisional Government; 2) “national workshops”- made to deal with problems
of unemployment in Paris; were merely an inefficient charity program that paid mere wages;
were quickly disastrous as people form all over France came to Paris to get jobs; jobs were
restricted to Parisians and were even hard for Parisians to get; unemployment skyrocketed;
government was going bankrupt trying to support the program
 government dissolved the workshops and called General Louis Cavaignac from service in
Algeria to maintain order; Parisian workers rebelled in June 1848; Cavaignac used provincial
troops having no identification with the urban population and employed guerrilla techniques used
in Algeria to put down uprising; was bloodiest fight Paris had ever seen; Second Republic was
under Cavaignac until December, when elections were scheduled
Rebellions in Central and Eastern Europe
 Prussia: under Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm IV who preferred to use military force on
demonstrations; mid-March 1848 he yielded to revolutionary crowds building barricades in
Berlin, ordered his troops to leave the city, and formed a national Prussian assembly; turned
Prussia from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy
 German states: governments of all German states were invited to elect delegates to a national
parliament in Frankfurt called the Frankfurt Assembly, which convened in May 1848 and was
to 1) frame a constitution and 2) unify Germany; was composed mostly of the middle class and
had 800 elected members with no members of the working class, most members were well
educated
two complications of creating a German nation: 1) there were non-Germans living in German
states; 2) there were Germans living outside the German states; the Frankfurt Assembly finally
agreed to create a Germany that excluded Austrian Germans and offered the crown of the new
nation to Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, who refused to accept a “crown from the gutter”, he
didn’t want to rule beside a liberal parliament
 Austria: revolutions concentrated in three places: Vienna- German-speaking students,
workers, and middle-class liberals protested; Budapest- Magyars, the dominant ethnic group in
Hungary, led a movement for national autonomy; Prague- Czechs were attempting self-rule
Metternich fell from power 1848: Vienna- revolutionaries set up a constituent assembly;
Budapest- patriot Lajos Kossouth took steps toward establishing a separate Hungarian state as
Magyars defeated Habsburg troops; Prague- Habsburg armies crushed revolution June 1848
December 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I (1835-1848), who had been weakened by the
overthrow of Metternich, gave the Austrian throne to 18-year-old nephew Franz Josef I (18481916)
 Italy: Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Tuscany, and Piedmont declared new constitutions
March 1848, were under Austrian rule; nationalist movement ran underground, called the Young
Italy movement, was founded 1831 by Giuseppe Mazzini who favored a democratic revolution;
Pope Pius IX lost control of Rome (although he was a liberal) and was forced to flee, making
Mazzini head of the Republic of Rome created February 1849; France intervened by sending
troops to defeat the republicans; Mazzini called Giuseppe Garibaldi out of exile in South
America to defend Rome, had learned guerrilla warfare; led poorly armed soldiers known as the
Red Shirts to defend the city from April to June 1849, were no match for the highly trained
French army, which restored Pope Pius IX as ruler of the Papal States
Austrian armies had defeated revolutions from August 1848 to Spring 1849 because
revolutions lacked organization and coordination
Europe in 1850
 1850 Austria threatened Prussia with war if they didn’t give up plans for German unification;
November 1850, Prussia signed agreement with Austria in the Moravian city of Olmutz,
convention known as “the humiliation of Olmutz” because Prussia was forced to accept Austrian
dominance or go to war
 Prussia established a constitution
 Austria needed to call for Russian help
 revolutions of 1848 failed partially because of the split between moderate and radical liberals
 December 1848, Prince Louis Napoleon, nephew of Louis-Philippe?, was elected president
of the Second Republic by a wide margin; was the first true modern French politician, managed
to appeal to everyone by making promises he did not keep