Revolutions of 1848

The Revolutions of 1848

French Revolutions
Habsburg-Area Revolutions
German Revolutions
Italian Revolutions
Results of the Revolutions

Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy, and those who had anything united in common terror.

—Alexis de Tocqueville, Recollections

The European Revolutions of 1848 were the bloody consequences of a variety of changes that had been taking place in Europe in the first half of the 19th century. In politics, both bourgeois reformers and radical politicians were seeking change their nations' governments. In society, technological change was creating new ways of life for the working classes, and new values and ideas such as nationalism and socialism began to spring up. The tinder that lit the fire was a series of economic downturns and crop failures that left many of the poor starving.

The result was a wave of revolution that swept across Eurpoe – only the United Kingdom and Russia had no revolutions (Russia had no real bourgeois class at the time to initate a revolution, and the population of the United Kingdom was satisfied with repressive Russia had no bourgeois, and England's had been pacified by the Reform Act of 1832).

Although the revolutions were put down quickly, in their span there was horrific violence on all sides. Thousands were killed.

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

Table of contents

1 The Gathering Storm: Before the Revolutions of 1848
2 The Revolutions of 1848

2.1 France
2.2 The Hapsburg areas
2.3 The German states
2.4 The Italian states

3 Consequences of the Revolutions of 1848
4 External links and references

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)
Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions