Download 1848: Revolutionary Uprisings in the Habsburg Empire (1)

Economic Advance and Social
Unrest(1830-1850)
Chapter 22
Key Topics
• The development of industrialism and its
effects on the organization of labor and the
family
• The changing role of women in industrial
society
• The establishment of police forces and reform
of prisons
• Early developments in European socialism
• The revolutions of 1848
Industrialization of Europe
• Industrial Revolution began
in Britain c.1780
• Continental Europe did not
really experience
industrialization till the
C19th, but by mid-C19th, in
many parts of western &
central Europe, the impact
of industrialization was
being felt & contributing to
significant social changes.
Impacts of
Industrialization in Europe
• Migration from rural to urban areas
• Human misery in urban areas (overpopulated, lack of services,
illnesses etc)
• Spread of railways (+improved canal & road networks) after
1830’s/1840’s. (Assisted migration, & industrialization as it
required more iron & steel).
• Proletarianization of labor force (factory workers & urban
artisans enter ‘wage economy’ with no control over ‘means of
production’ or goods they produced
• Few rights for workers in factories & poor conditions for urban
artisans
Toward an Industrial Society
• Conversion of Europe’s economy to industrial
manufacturing during the first half of the 19th
century reorganized society.
• People migrated to cities to find work in the
new factories.
• Conditions of life radically changed for them.
Britain’s Industrial Leadership(I)
• The Industrial Revolution, led by textile
manufacturing, began in Great Britain in the
18th century. Why in Britain?
 Because Britain had more productive capacities in terms of natural
resources, capital, technology, food supply, relative social mobility, strong
foreign and domestic markets.
 French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars distrupted economic activity on
the Continent and weakened France as a competitor for Atlantic trade.
Britain had US, Canada, South America and southern Asia to sell its goods.
Britain’s Industrial Leadership(II)
• Britain acquired wealth through various industries;
textile weaving, ironmaking, shipbuilding, china
production, etc.
• Britain dominated the world scene in the 19th
century by investing its wealth in the development of
global networks.
Example; British textile mills bought cotton produced by
slaves on the plantations of the southern US and turned it into
finished cloth that was shipped to India where British navy
protected the sea lanes.
• By the 1830s, Belgium, France and Germany were headed
down the same path as Britain with a growing number of
Population and Migration(I)
• In the 18th century, population explosion
continued with the increase of
industrialization.
Between 1831-1851,
France grew from 32 million to 35 million
Germany; 26 million to 33 million
Britain; 16 million to 20 million
Population and Migration(II)
• Europeans increasingly lived in cities
• Rural/Urban divide;
England and Wales, half of the population was
urban in the mid 19th century.
France and Germany, quarter of the
population was urban.
Eastern Europe, remained rural and little
industrialized.
Life in the cities
• Exhausted physical
resources; housing, water,
sewers, food supplies, and
lighting not enough to deal
with migration.
• Diseases, especially cholera,
ravaged the population.
• Crime became a way of life
Life in the countryside
•
•
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Hardly better than the life in the
cities.
Liberal reformers had hoped that
peasents will turn into progressive,
industrious farmers( as a result of
French Revolution, emanciaption of
serfs in Prussia, Austria and Russia)
However, possesion of land made
most of them conservative because
they had little land to support
themsleves in a commercialized
economy, they had no capital to
invest to make their lands more
productive.
Railways
• Industrial development in the 1830s and
1840s was driven by the construction of
Europe’s railway system.
• The construction of railways speeded
industrialization in several ways;
1.
2.
Trains were the most dramatic application of the steam engine, and the
construction of railroads increased the demand for iron and steel and
for skilled laborers.
Increased manufacturing capacity at forges meant that more iron and
steel became available to construct other things such as ships and
machines.
The Labor Force(I)
• Labor force was quite diverse at that moment:
factory workers, urban artisans, cottage
industry craftspeople, household servants,
miners, rural peddlers, farm workers and
railroad navvies.
• Some workers enjoyed steady employment
and decent wages but others constituted a
class of “laboring poor”.
The Labor Force(II)
• In the first half of the 19th century only the
textile manufacturing industry became
mechanized and concentrated in factories.
• Skilled artisans who lived in cities or small
towns were still greater in numbers compared
to the industrial factory workers.
• Industrialization threatened to make the skills
of many artisans useless and to deprive them
of control over their trades.
Proletarianization of Factory
Workers and Urban Artisans
• During the 19th century, both of them went
under the process of proletarianization.
• They lost the ownership of the means of
production( tools and equipment) and lost
control of their trades. They simply became
wage earners.
• It occurred because people with capital
constructed factories and purchased what was
needed to run them: labor as well as
machinery and raw materials.
Mechanization
• Factory workers, unlike self employed artisans,
had to submit to a kind of discipline that was
unpopular and difficult to maintain.
• It was the needs of macnhines which
determines what was expected of their
human operators.
• Laborers should match the pace and
consistent performance of the cables, wheels,
and pistons of the mechanisms with which
they worked.
A Guild System(I)
• In the 18th century, as earlier, a guild system
had organized production in Europe’s urban
workplaces.
• A master( guild member) owned a workshop
and the larger pieces of equipment trained
the apprentices who when they became
journeymen, acquired their own tools.
• Journeymen expected to be admitted to the
guild as masters and be permitted to set up
shops of their own.
A Guild System(II)
• The advantage of the guild system: gave
workers control over labor recruitment,
training, pace of production, quality of
product, and price.
• Guilds in the 19th century: France had
outlawed the guilds during the French
Revolution, and elsewhere in Europe, liberals
worked to ban labor and guild organizations
on the theory that they limited economic
freedom.
A Guild System(III)
• Guild masters faced increasing competetion with
machine production.
• In response, many workshops tried to increase
efficieny by what was known in France as confection,
production of standart sizes and styles rather than
special orders for individual customers.
• This practice increased the division of labor, because
each of a shop’s artisans produced only a part of a
more or less uniform final product. Thus, less skill
was required and the value of skilld diminished.
Consequences of mechanization in
workplaces
• Masters tried to increase production and reduce costs by
lowering wages paid for piecework.
• This led to work stoppages or strikes.
• But there were many unskilled workers willing to work for
lower wages or under less protected conditions than
traditional artisans. This was the consequence of migration.
• For a urban journeymen, becoming a master and having their
own shop was getting more and more difficult.
• Thus, many of them spent their lives as wage laborers whose
skills were simply bought and sold in the marketplace.
• This led to a working-class political action.
The Chartist Movement
Definition
 The Chartist Movement, or Chartism, was an
attempt in Britain to build an independent political
party devoted to the interests of working people.
The movement began in 1837 and inspired a general
strike in August 1839.
A mass demonstration in Newport in November 1839
was met by troops who fired on the crowd and killed
at least 15.
The name Chartist came about because the
movement advocated a charter for reform of the
British political system.
The Chartist Movement (1)
• To begin with workers generally hopeful the liberal
movement was a means for improving their lives, but after
mid-C19th they started losing faith & shifting in some cases
towards more radical ideas & agendas of socialist thinkers
who argued against the selfish individualism advocated by
the liberals
• While it was not till much later that workers’ rights were
paid greater attention, early attempt of workers to
organize politically & independently to demand political
changes can be seen in Chartist Movement that developed
in Britain in mid-1830’s
The Chartist Movement (2)
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May 1838 Chartists published ‘The People’s Charter’, essentially a list of key
political demands incl. :
Every man over 21 to have the right to vote
A secret ballot to be introduced
A MP did not have to own property of a certain value or above to become
a MP
All MP's to be paid to allow working men to serve in Parliament
All constituencies to be equal in terms of population size
Elections to Parliament to be held every year so that MP's would have to
answer to their voters if they had not performed well.
Although Chartist Movement eventually dissolved, (losing some of its
support especially as economic conditions made a relative improvement),
its goals were nonetheless later supported by others & ultimately all of the
above goals were accomplished.
The Chartist Movement (3)
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The Chartists obtained one and a quarter million signatures and presented the
Charter to the House of Commons in 1839, where it was rejected by a vote of 235
to 46.
Many of the leaders of the movement, having threatened to call a general strike,
were arrested.
When demonstrators marched on the prison at Newport, Monmouthshire,
demanding the release of their leaders, troops opened fire, killing 24 and
wounding 40 more.
A second petition with 3 million signatures was rejected in 1842; the rejection of
the third petition in 1848 brought an end to the movement.
More important than the movement itself was the unrest it symbolized. The
Chartists' demands, at the time, seemed radical; those outside the movement saw
the unrest and thought of the French Revolution and The Reign of Terror.
The radicalism that surfaced in the agitation for the Charter and a desire for a
working-class voice in foreign affairs eventually channeled itself into related areas
like the Socialist movement.
A Video on Chartism
http://timelines.tv/index.php?t=1&e=13#
Revolutions of 1830
• Partially successful challenges to conservative order
occurred in 1830. 1st major successful challenge in
France where Bourbon monarchy was overthrown.
Charles X, Louis XVIII’ brother, became king after
Louis’ death (1824).
• Charles was much more extreme conservative
(supported by “ultraroyalists”) who wanted to turn
clock back fully to absolutist years. He introduced
series of conservative / reactionary policies incl.
payments to aristocrats who lost land in French
Revolution. Unhappy that there were too many
liberals in Chamber of Deputies, he called new
Charles X
election in early 1830... But liberals gained even
more seats! Charles now led royal coup d'état
issuing ‘Four Ordinances’ on July 25th 1830.
Four Ordinances & ‘July Revolution’
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•
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•
• These ordinances basically ignored
1) Restrictions on Freedom constitutional monarchy established
of the Press
at Vienna. Liberal newspapers called
on people to resist. Labourers in
Paris, (already hurt by harsh
2) Chamber of Deputies
economic conditions since 1827),
Dissolved
took to the streets & were attacked
by Kings forces in the ‘July Days’.
3) New Elections Called
Many died, but ultimately king was
forced to abdicate on Aug 2nd 1830.
The Chamber of Deputies chose
4) Franchise restricted to
Duke of Orleans, thereafter known
only the very wealthiest
as Louis Philippe, (known to have
more liberal leanings), as new king.
The Independence of Belgium
• Developments in France in 1830 led to political
changes in other areas. E.g., at Vienna new
state known as United Kingdom of the
Netherlands formed incl. territory known later
as Belgium. Uprisings began late Aug 1830 &
Dutch forces failed to defeat Belgians who
declared their independence & established a
liberal constitution. This territorial change
conflicted with Vienna decisions, but Russia
busy with own uprising of Poles, Prussia trying
to suppress liberal uprisings in smaller
neighbouring German states & Austria likewise
in Italian states. Great Powers therefore took
no action. Belgian independence officially
recognized with Treaty of London in 1839.
British Counterpart to Revolution
• Revolutionary uprisings shook much of Europe from late
C18th onwards, but Britain was an exception.
• While no revolution in Britain during this period, there was,
however, change. Change was more gradual & incremental
& usually result of compromise between more
conservative & liberal elements of society.
• E.g., ‘Great Reform Bill of 1832’ increased size of British
electorate by providing wealthier business & commercial
class with right to vote. This change was not a result of
revolution, but of recognition of changes in domestic
balance of power, compromise & a strong parliamentary
tradition open to adapting in order to meet the rising
needs / demands for change.
1848: Year of Revolutions
• As in 1830, there was in 1848 another wave of revolutionary
uprisings in Europe, but this time even more widespread than
before (only Britain & Russia remaining largely untouched by
effects). This time nationalism also played a greater role, &
while most of the uprisings did not ultimately achieve their
goals, they shook the Continent like never before. It is for this
reason that 1848 is known as the ‘Year of Revolutions’.
• Again, uprisings of 1848 were typically led by liberals (though in
most cases they held nationalist objectives too). To increase
their strength against conservative forces these liberal leaders
appealed also to urban working classes. Once they came close
to achieving their goals, however, the tendency of liberals was
to ignore working class demands for social & economic change
causing the 2 allied groups to break-up & allowing forces of
conservatism opportunity to reassert authority.
The French Revolution of 1848 (1)
• Again, as in 1830, the first major revolutionary uprising of 1848
occurred in Paris, France.
• Since 1830 liberals led by Alphonse de Lamartine, who had
themselves contributed to the coming to power of Louis
Philippe had become increasingly dissatisfied with his rule & the
administration of Prime Minister Guizot.
• Liberals were unhappy with high levels of corruption & wanted
the franchise further broadened & opened-up to more
members of the middle classes.
• Liberals began a political campaign to support their demands by
holding series of political ‘banquets’. They called also for
working class support which was quite readily given with
workers especially hard-hit by the negative economic conditions
caused by poor harvests of 1846 & 1847.
The French Revolution of 1848 (2)
• Feb. 21st 1848 government banned holding of new
banquets. Next day workers took to the streets of
Paris to protest & their numbers continued to increase
the following day. On 24th, fearing for his life, Louis
Philippe abdicated & fled to England.
• A new provisional government headed by Lamartine,
but incl. more radical workers’ representatives like
Louis Blanc, was formed with objective of establishing
a new republic & holding elections based on universal
manhood suffrage.
The French Revolution of 1848 (3)
The French Revolution of 1848 (4)
• Elections held on April 23rd 1848, but, fearing that radicals &
socialists of Paris might threaten their newly acquired lands,
(they were small-scale landholders since Revolution of 1789),
typically conservative, rural peasants voted in large numbers for
more moderate & relatively conservative candidates who now
dominated the new National Assembly.
• National Assembly therefore ended many concessions made in
the meantime to urban working classes, leading to further
working-class rioting in Paris. Workers were eventually
suppressed following bloody conflict with troops under
command of General Cavaignac who was sent by the Assembly
to deal with the problem. Clashes following his arrival in Paris
are known as the ‘Bloody June Days’ due to large numbers of
workers killed or wounded.
The Rise of Louis Napoleon (1)
• When presidential elections eventually held for new French
Republic, Louis Napoleon stood as a candidate. His greatest
asset was his name! The name “Napoleon” symbolized glory, &
most impt. social stability & order... just the qualities that
French populace, (the peasantry in particular), were then
seeking. He won elections by a massive majority, gaining
approximately ¾ of the votes.
• Louis Napoleon, however, proved to be no great republican or
democrat. In 1851 he took on dictatorial powers, making
himself Emperor one year later.
The Rise of Louis Napoleon (2)
• While some suspicion as to who
his father actually was, Louis
Napoleon (1808-1873) was
accepted as being the nephew of
Napoleon Bonaparte (or
Napoleon I). Napoleon I’s son
died an unhealthy young man, in
1832 in Austria. Out of respect to
him, Louis Napoleon was to take
on the title of Napoleon III
(rather than Napoleon II).
Rulers of France: 1789-1871
Louis XI (r. 1774-1792)
First Republic (1793-1804)
Napoleon Bonaparte (1804-1815)
Louis XVIII (1815-1824)
Charles X (1824-1830)
Louis Philippe (1830-1848)
Second Republic (1848-1856)
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1856-1870)
Third Republic (1871-1940)
1848: Revolutionary Uprisings in the
Habsburg Empire (1)
• Throughout much of the Habsburg Empire there were
revolts & revolutionary uprisings in 1848 (continuing in
some cases into 1849).
• In March 1848 Magyar nationalist Louis Kossuth called
for the greater independence of Hungary. Meanwhile
students rioted in Vienna. Quickly losing control of the
situation, the once great statesman Metternich
resigned & fled, soon to be followed out of the capital
by the emperor.
1848: Revolutionary Uprisings in the
Habsburg Empire (2)
Metternich fleeing the uprisings of 1848
1848: Revolutionary Uprisings in the
Habsburg Empire (3)
• The Habsburgs, however, were less fearful of
any urban uprisings than they were of a
general uprisings of the serfs.
• There had already been a few instances of
serfs attacking official & aristocratic properties
& in an attempt to cut-off the danger & to win
their loyalty, the decision was taken to abolish
serfdom.
• This was to be one of the most significant
gains of the turmoil of 1848.
1848: Revolutionary Uprisings in the
Habsburg Empire (4)
This map shows complex
ethnic composition of
Habsburg Empire... in a
simplified form! Actually
more complex! The map
just shows the different
regions according to
which ethnic group was
numerically dominant, but
does not reflect fact that
even where there is a
single colour,e.g Slovakia,
there were other ethnic
groups too.
1848: Revolutionary Uprisings in the Habsburg
Empire (5)
• Magyar’s revolted demanding virtual independence for a
Hungarian state covering much of the east of the Habsburg
Empire, but Romanians & Croatians & Serbs who would
thereby come under their control were not happy with this.
These ethnic groups now rose up against Magyars & the
Habsburgs wisely assisted them. Meanwhile the Czechs
also revolted, demanding an autonomous Slavic state of
Bohemia & Moravia... & in Italy too, the Austrian dynasty
was faced first by war (against the neighbouring northern
Italian state of Piedmont), then by radicals, republicans &
nationalists (most famously Giuseppe Mazzini & Giuseppe
Garibaldi) who declared Rome a republic & began to fight
for a united Italy.
1848: Revolutionary Uprisings in the
Habsburg Empire (6)
• With the middle classes worried about radical successes, &
the different ethnic groups of the Empire quarrelling
amongst themselves, &; with Russian Tsar Nicholas I
supporting Habsburg forces with 200,000 men, one by one
uprisings were put down & the Habsburgs reasserted their
control.
• In June 1849, concerned about possibility of a more
powerful Italy becoming its southern neighbour, France
sent troops to put down uprisings in Rome. French troops
remained there, supposedly to protect the Pope, until
1870.
1848: Revolutionary Uprisings in the
Habsburg Empire (7)
Mazzini
Italy in 1848
Garibaldi
1848: The Frankfurt Parliament (1)
1848: The Frankfurt Parliament (2)
• Meanwhile, liberals & nationalists were restless in
the various German territories too, including in
Prussia. Nearly all the gains they made during this
year, however, were only temporary; Once order
had been restored, the conservative
administrations, withdrew concessions that they
had earlier made to quieten protest.
• The biggest disappointment for most German
supporters of change was the failure of the
Frankfurt Parliament.
1848: The Frankfurt Parliament (3)
• The Frankfurt Parliament met on May 18th 1848. Consisted of
representatives from all German territories, & its purpose was
to unite Germany under a relatively liberal constitution.
• Conservatives & radical workers were not ofcourse happy with
the liberal outlook of most representatives, yet even these
representatives had difficulty agreeing among themselves what
sort of Germany they wanted.
• Main split between supporters of a smaller Germany (not incl.
Austrian Empire) – the kleindeutsch, & supporters of a larger
Germany incl. Austria, + Prussia & other German Bund
territories – grossdeutsch.
1848: The Frankfurt Parliament (4)
• Already having to cope with own internal ethnic quarrels, its ethnic
groups fearful of German domination & nationalism threatening its v.
existence, Austria rejected idea of unification. Prussia only
alternative to lead a united Germany.
• March 27th 1849 Parliament offered crown of united Germany to
Prussian King Frederick William IV. He refused! Why? :
a) because, he argued, kings got their power from God & should not
be limited by a constitution such as that which parliament wished to
impose
b) because, most probably, he wasn’t prepared to fight war, (against
other German kings & princes, & possibly against the Habsburgs too),
who were not likely to accept this situation.
• The German liberals efforts had failed miserably, they simply did not
have the power to achieve their ends.