1. Chapter 14 – Surge of Liberalism and Nationalism: Revolution, Counterrevolution, and Unification
Revolutions, 1848

2. 1848: The Year of the Revolution
Beginning in France, revolution spread through Europe
Response to economic problems and long denied liberal and national demands

3. Revolutions Map

4. France, 1848 The February Revolution
Conservatism was dead after 1830, discredited in France by the politics of Restoration (Charles X and the ultras) … hanging on in Austria, Hapsburg lands
Government of Louis Philippe was bourgeois and liberal in a limited sense (very limited voting rights – about 3%)
Opposition (radical republicans) wanted reforms … clashed with soldiers in February 1848
Louis Philippe abdicated and France becomes a republic

5. France, 1848
The June Days
The new republic did not include workers and the extreme poor
To address the working poor’s needs, the middle class government set up national workshops … provided food, medical benefits, and employment on public works projects
Workers hated them, land owners viewed them as a waste of money … government closed them and workers rebelled again (June)
The worker revolt was crushed mercilessly (1460 dead)
In December, the French elected Louis Napoleon president of the Second Republic

6. French Leaders

7. 1848 Elsewhere Germany Austria Italy
Nationalism emerged during the Napoleonic era and remained strong
Urban intellectuals liked liberalism; most people remained conservative
Princes made concessions to liberals during economic hard times in the 1840s
Result: Frankfurt Assembly … approved a new German Federation with Prussian king William IV as emperor … he refused, assembly failed
Liberalism discredited in Germany
Austria
Led by Metternich, Austria suffered from a “dissolution complex” … a concern for the disintegration of the empire caused by liberalism and nationalism
Austria was a multi-national empire ruled by the Hapsburg Emperor Francis Joseph
Viennese liberals intimidated Metternich into a Constitutional Assembly in 1848
Hungarian Magyars, led by Louis Kossuth ( ), rose up in a a nationalist rebellion
Both movements (liberal and national) were crushed by Metternich and the conservatives, but the conservative hold on Austria was slipping
Italy
Responding to liberal activism, many Italian autocrats (Ferdinand II of Naples, Grand Duke of Tuscany, King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia, Pope Pius IX) granted liberal constitutions
“Five Glorious Days” in northern Italy saw this spread to Milan and Venice
France intervened and the old order re-asserted itself

8. 1848: Conclusions
Every revolution ( ) failed, whether liberal or national
But the direction was clear … national movements were rising at the expense of the old conservative order AND liberalism had stalled, even failed in many places
The Age of Revolution begun in 1789 had come to an end