85 Review of Revolutions of 1848
1848 was the turning point at which modern history failed to turn.
A series of European revolutions which, funnily enough, took place in 1848. They failed.
First, rewind to 1815. The end of The Napoleonic Wars was essentially a victory for reactionary forces. They blamed Napoleon Bonaparte on the radicalism of The French Revolution, which ironically, Napoleon wanted to end. Thus, as the allies met in Vienna to decide the fate of post-war Europe, their aim was to prevent anything like the French Revolution from happening again. The traditional European order, divine-rights monarchs and suchlike, was to be restored as much as possible. The crowned heads of Europe agreed that when one of them was threatened by the next would-be French Revolution, they would act together to put it down.
Fastforward to 1848. A wave of revolutions swept across Europe as the people of various countries rebelled against the post-Napoleonic conservative order. Who were these people that rebelled? Generally, they were a mix of liberal republicans, radical socialists, and various kinds of nationalists — in other words, people who had little in common other than their shared opposition to the current order in Europe. These differences allowed reactionary forces to use a Divide and Conquer strategy, combined with their superior military force, to regain control of the situation. By the early part of 1849, the revolutions had been crushed, but they had begun to change many Europeans’ way of thinking about society.
Quite a lot of stuff happened during and as a result of the Revolutions of 1848:
- In France, King Louis Philippe was overthrown and the Second French Republic was proclaimed. An election was held, which was won by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew of the Napoleon Bonaparte. France managed to stay a republic until 1851, when Louis-Napoleon noticed that his term was starting to run out. He decided the solution was to follow in his uncle’s footsteps and become emperor. As Napoleon III, he ruled France until his defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
- Nationalist revolts threatened to tear apart the multiethnic Austrian Empire. Austria’s dominant ethnic minority, the Hungarians, rebelled in the hopes of forming their own separate country. Weirdly foreshadowing 1956, the Russians invaded to put down the Hungarian Revolution. With Habsburg rule over Hungary restored, the Austrian Empire had been saved from fracturing… for now.
- At the same time, the Austrian Empire was also threatened by Italian nationalists. Hoping to begin the process of creating a united Italy and taking advantage of Austria being destabilized by revolution, the Kingdom of Sardinia invaded Austria’s Italian possessions, beginning the First Italian War of Independence. The Papal States initially supported the Sardinians, but later The Pope decided that Catholic countries going to war with each other wasa no-no. Outraged, the nationalists ousted the Pope and proc