Revolution of 1848

- Alexis de Tocqueville, Recollections

The European Revolutions of 1848 were a bloody culmination of prior events -- crop failures, dreams of bourgeois reformers, technological change, economic downturn, and radical politics. All hoped for reform of Europe's institutions.

Although the immediate effects of the revolutions were short-term, there were lasting legacies.

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Only England and Russia had no revolutions -- the revolutions were mainly the bourgeois opposition to reactionary governments, but repressive Russia had no bourgeois, and England's had been pacified by the Reform Act of 1832.

The revolutions combined hope and despair, different revolutionaries fighting for different aims. Some early bourgeois reformers turned against the revolutions when they felt they had gone too far. No European leader felt safe on his throne during the revolutions.

There was horrific violence on all sides. Thousands were killed.

We look at four (not all) areas: France, the Habsburg areas (i.e., the Austrian Empire), the German states, and the Italian states.

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The Gathering Storm: Before the Revolutions of 1848

The Revolutions of 1848

France

The Hapsburg areas

The German states

The Italian states

Consequences of the Revolutions of 1848

External links and references

The Revolutions of 1848 are a large subject, and we do not claim this list of references is complete.

• Breunig, Charles (1977), The Age of Revolution and Reaction, 1789 - 1850 (ISBN 0393091430)
• Jones, Peter (1981), The 1848 Revolutions (Seminar Studies in History) (ISBN 0582061067)
• Robertson, Priscilla (1952), Revolutions of 1848: A Social History (ISBN 069100756X)
• http://www.germanheritage.com/Essays/1848/civil_war_part2.html
• Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions

Referenced By