Did the Historians Get it Right?

In recent weeks, our class has been attempting to answer whether or not the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were truly failures, as historians often conclude, or if they also had positive impacts. In doing this, the class was split into groups, and each group was assigned one of the revolutions, which they were to make a SurveyMonkey about. Our group was assigned the French Revolution of 1848. Before making the survey, each group analyzed a summary to find the country where the revolution occurred, the date, the goals of the rebels, the opponent, the outcome, and the reasons for either a success or failure. Also, various primary sources were labeled as being about the opponents, the goals or the outcome. The questions on the survey were pulled from the summary and the primary sources. After each group finished, all of the surveys were taken and later explained to the whole class.

One question from our survey

The French Revolution of 1848 occurred in France, in 1848. In rebelling, the lower class wished to end recession and to rid the country of monarchy in order to make it a republic. The ruler at the time, Louis Philippe, was largely disliked by the lower classes, and Philippe was thought to be corrupted. Due to this, the government was blamed for various problems in society, such as the loss of jobs due to factories shutting down. In response to the lower classes’ complaints, the government took action and tried to silence them. This resulted in the February Days, which ended with Louis Philippe stepping down from power, and the proclamation of the Second Republic of France. In the proclamation, it was stated that, “royalty, under whatever form, is abolished; no more legitimism, no more Bonapartism, no regency. The provisional government has taken all the measures necessary to render impossible the return of the former dynasty or the advent of a new dynasty.” Even with a republic, however, the lower classes were still unhappy, due to the fact that the upper and middle classes were still majorly in control of the government. This resulted in the June Days, in which most of the revolution’s violence occurred, resulting in over 1,500 deaths. After the June Days, it was decided that France needed a president in order to keep order. Louis Napoleon was then elected. In the Proclamation of 14 January 1852, Napoleon asked, “Since France has been functioning for the past fifty years only thanks to... the consulate and the empire, why should we not also adopt the political institutions of that time period?”. Keeping with these ideals, Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor and began the Second Empire. However, after too many conquests, the empire was brought down and French leadership in Europe was over. The French Revolution of 1848 was not a complete failure, and fell in the middle of the spectrum between success and failure. The lower class got what they wanted for a short amount of time with the republic being established. However, the republic was short lived, and they were soon under another empire with limited rights.

Overall, while none of the revolutions were completely successful, few of them completely failed. The one revolution that could simply be classified as a failure was the Decembrist Revolt, which occurred in Russia. After Tsar Alexander’s death, the public wanted Constantine, Alexander’s eldest brother, to claim the throne, but he refused the offer. Due to this, Nicholas, Alexander’s youngest brother, claimed the throne. Due to Nicholas claiming the throne, the revolution did not pay off and the wanted change did not occur in any way. The French Revolution of 1848 was not a complete failure, and fell in the middle of the spectrum between success and failure. The lower class got what they wanted for a short amount of time with the republic being established. However, the republic was short lived, and they were soon under another empire with limited rights. The Hungary Revolution of 1848 was also partially successful. This revolution, which began in Vienna, spread to Budapest and Prague, where demands for an independent government and an end for serfdom arose. The Austrian government agreed to these terms, but quickly regained control of Vienna, Budapest and Prague, thus ending the terms which were previously agreed upon. In all, the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 can’t all be called failures, because  even if they weren’t successful for long, many resulted in positive outcomes to some degree.