French Revolution of 1848

Observations of liberals

As 1848 began, liberals in France awaited the death of King Louis Philippe, expecting a new revolution after his death. As it happened, he did not die until 1850, after the expected post-mortem revolution had burned itself out.

As a quid pro quo for the return of the Bourbons after the Battle of Waterloo, the people had been given a charter of liberties, now dubiously maintained. Even though France had a free press and trial by jury, only landholders were permitted to vote, which alienated the middle class from the ruling class.

Alexis de Tocqueville had observed, "We are sleeping together on a volcano . . . A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon." Lacking the property qualifications to vote, the middle classes were about to erupt, tired of hearing Prime Minister Guizot say, "Get rich, then you can vote." Corruption stretched from the Prime Minister to small shopkeepers with dishonest weights.

Economic and international influences

The French middle class watched the changes in Britain with interest. When Britain's Reform Act of 1832 extended enfranchisement to anybody paying £10 or more per month (previously the vote was restricted to landholders), France's free press took interest. While the working class was perhaps slightly better off than Britain's, nominal laws against child labor were routinely flouted, and unemployment threw skilled workers down to the proletariat level.

The year 1846 saw a financial crisis and bad harvests, and the following year saw an economic depression. A poor railroad system hindered aid efforts, and the Peasant rebellions that resulted were bloodily put down. Perhaps a third of Paris was on the dole. "Dangerous" writers proliferated such as Louis Blanc ("The right to work") and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ("Property is theft!", "God is evil"); secret societies such as the Saint-Simonians sprang up.

The Events of February

A banquet was planned for Paris's 12th arrondissement on the restive Left Bank. It was, however, moved to the right bank with a price increase, first set for Sunday, February 20, 1848, then moved to the next Tuesday. This was so the working people, surrounded by walls, could not watch.

The planned crashing of this party was canceled. Law and order would prevail, though the students prepared for battle with firearms. Still, nothing happened that Tuesday. But revolution was inevitable.

In February, Prime Minister Guizot resigned, and soon after, King Louis Phillipe abdicated. Upon hearing the news of Guizot's resignation, a large crowd gathered outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An officer ordered the crowd not to pass, but people in the front of the crowd were being pushed by the rear. The officer ordered his men to fix bayonets, probably wishing to avoid shooting. However, in what is widely regarded as an accident, a soldier discharged his musket, which resulted in the rest of the soldiers firing into the crowd. Fifty two people were killed.

Paris was soon a barricaded city. Omnibuses were turned into barricades, and thousands of trees were felled. Fires were set, and angry citizens began converging on the royal palace. King Louis Phillipe managed to escape to England.

The Second Republic

After the revolution, the new provisional government, called the Second Republic, was wildly disorganized. After roughly a month, conservatives began to oppose the new government, using the rallying cry order, which the messy new republic admittedly lacked.

In the year 1848, 479 newspapers were founded. There was also a 54% decline in the number of businesses in Paris, as most of the wealthy had left; there was a corresponding decline in the luxury trade and credit was unobtainable. National workshops of the "Right to Work" were set up, which failed to prevent further social disorder.

The government set out to establish an economy and provide social services. New taxes were passed on the landed class, peasants, and small farmers, with the taxes intended to pay for social services for the unemployed in the cities. The taxes were widely ignored, and the new government lost the support of rural France. Hard-working rural farmers did not want to pay for unemployed city people and their new "Right to Work," which ballooned the population of Paris with far more job seekers than there were jobs. Some jobs were provided, such as building roads and re-planting trees, but it was clear the demands of government were far more pressing than the revolutionaries had foreseen.

The National Workshops and the "Right to Work" were later abandoned. Some enraged workers picked up guns, later leading to the "June Days Uprising." Before, workers and petit bourgeoisie had fought together, but now, lines were tighter.

Universal male suffrage was enacted on March 2, giving France nine million new voters. Like all other European nations, women did not have the right to vote.

The beginnings of counter-revolution

The coalition finally splintered as the "people's revolution" turned against the people it tried to liberate. A "people's banquet" was planned in late May; its planners were promptly arrested. The Assembly declared that National Workshops were to be dropped, and rumors of a worker rebellion (the June Days Uprising) later led to police action and the killing of more than 1,400 people. Many survivors were sent to the French colony of Algeria. To the French elite, the June Days uprising was something of a red scare. Others felt differently. Karl Marx saw the "June Days" uprising as strong evidence of a class conflict. Many of the participants were of the petite bourgeoisie (the owners of small properties: the merchants, the shopkeepers, etc.), outnumbering the worker classes (those who worked in mines and in factories and in stores for other people, qualified mainly by their ability to work rather than their expertise) about two to one. In contrast, some workers were represented disproportionate to their population in society.

The end of the Revolutions in France

Politics continued to tilt to the right, and the era of revolution in France came to an end. Louis Napoleon's family name of Napoleon rallied support, and after sweeping the elections he returned to the old order, purging republicans and returning the "vile multitude" to its former place.

An attempted French coup of 1851 was crushed. Cells of resistance surfaced, but were put down, and the Second Republic was over. Louis Napoleon took the title Emperor Napoleon III, and the Second Empire began.

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