The Gathering Storm Before The Revolutions Of 1848

The Revolutions of 1848
Prelude
France
Austria-Hungary
Germany
Italy
Aftermath

French rural areas had grown fast, spilling population into the cities. The higher classes feared the working poor, who had shown their muscle in 1789, and their uneducated, teeming masses seemed a fertile Petri dish of vice to "respectable" classes.

There had always been drink, freethought, crime, itinerancy, illiteracy, and food riots, and despite leftish analyses, in many ways the French working class was no worse off under industrialization than before. But there were salient facts -- the worker toiled from 13 to 15 hours per day, living in squalid, disease-ridden slums. Traditional artisans felt the pressure of industrialization, having lost their guilds. "Dangerous" writers became popular (note: Karl MarxKarl Heinrich Marx ( May 5, 1818 March 14, 1883) was an influential German economist, philosopher, social and political theorist. Although Marx addressed many issues in his career as a journalist and philosopher, he is most famous for his analysis of hist would not finish the first German edition of The Communist ManifestoThe Communist Manifesto also known as The Manifesto of the Communist Party first published on February 21, 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is one of the world's most historically influential political tracts. Commissioned by the Communist League a until February 1February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 333 days remaining, (334 in leap years). Events 1662 The Chinese pirate Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege. 1788 Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet pate, 18481848 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). Events Sri Lanka The Revolution of 1848 (qv. a series of widespread but failed struggles for more liberal governments, from Brazil to Hungary. January 24 California gold rush: Jame). Secret societiesA secret society is a club or organization whose members do not disclose their membership, and may be sworn to hold it secret. The term is sometimes also used to describe fraternal organizations which may have secret ceremonies. Secret societies are often sprang up.

The German states were similar. PrussiaThe word Prussia ( German: Preussen (Preussen Polish: Prusy Lithuanian: Prusai Latin: Borussia has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia had quickly industrialized. Worker living standardsThe Standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people. It is generally measured by real (i. inflation adjusted) income per person, although sometimes other measures may be used; examples are access to certain had dropped; alcoholIn general usage, alcohol (from Arabic al-khwl , or al-ghawl ) refers almost always to ethanol, also known as grain alcohol and often to any beverage that contains ethanol (see alcoholic beverage . This sense underlies the term alcoholism ( addiction to a consumption had gone up in the 1840s. Feudalism was inarguably horrible for the poor, but the worker saw little gain from the new socio-economic system of capitalism and the accompanying social change.

2 The rural areas

Rural growth had of course led to food shortages, land pressure, and migration, both from (i.e., to the United States) and within Europe. Population concentration led to disease, specifically, cholera, which at the time had not been tied to water supplies. The Irish potato famine exploded in 1845 and had migrated to the rest of the continent; there were poor harvests in 1846. But some lived restively well.

The aristocracy's wealth (and corresponding power) was synonymous with land. Land, of course, was practically synonymous with peasants under one's control. In a problem mirroring that of slavery in the United States, a principle aristocratic problem was controlling one's sometimes-dangerous source of wealth. Peasants were often duty-bound to do labor for their masters, called robot (from Slavic roots, work). Their grievances exploded in 1848.

3 The early rumblings

Until 1789, no one had earnestly contested the rule of kings on the Continent. In 1815, after Napoleon, the Ancien régime was restored at the Congress of Vienna. This was no sooner established when the monarchies, the church, and the aristocracy were again threatened. There had been revolutions or civil wars in England, France, and the born-of-revolution United States. And Mexico. A revolution against the Netherlands produced Belgium in 1830. Unrest was in the air.

"Dangerous" ideas kept upwelling, despite forceful and often violent efforts of established powers to keep them down: democracy, liberalism, nationalism, and socialism.

In short, democracy meant universal male suffrage. Liberalism fundamentally meant consent of the governed and the restriction of church and state power, republican government, freedom of the press and the individual. Economic liberalism was also a factor here; this is sometimes called Classical liberalism. Nationalism believed in uniting people bound by (some mix of) common languages, culture, religion, shared history, and of course immediate geography; there were also irredentist movements. We here note that both Germany and Italy were collections of small states. Socialism was a then-fuzzy term with no solid definition, meaning different things to different persons, but it roughly meant more rights for workers in a typically collectivist system.

4 The 1840s before 1848

In 1845- 46, economic conditions worsened over the already-bad early 1840's. Causes are disputed, but one may clearly point to crop failures (in an age where about 70% of working-class money went to food), and financial crises (notably in France) and resulting unemployment. Many left the farms for the cities, with resultant pressures. The working class was largely male, itinerant, uneducated, and sometimes violent. Corruption in high places in France reduced faith in the leaders; the textile sector of Germany was depressed in 1844 - 47.

Now the middle classes began to get agitated. Whatever dreams Karl Marx and his followers may have had, the workers had little solidarity, and practically no organization. Both the lower middle classes and the working classes wanted liberal reform, and finally a group with some organization pushed for it.

While much of the impetus was from the middle classes, much of the cannon fodder came from the lower. Things first exploded in the cities.

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Home > The Gathering Storm: Before the Revolutions of 1848

1 The poor

2 The rural areas

3 The early rumblings

4 The 1840s before 1848

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