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The following review of the Revolution of 1848 was prepared against a background of assumptions about
human beings:- 
Other pages of our site demonstrate why
it may be reasonable to regard human nature as being
simultaneously materialistic, spiritual, and ethnic, but with a
overlay of intelligence (and of individual personality!).
Principally these assumptions tend to see political developments as often
being influenced by the promptings of human nature - as Emerson
puts it:-
"...man is a bundle of relations, a knot of roots,
whose flower and fruitage is the world..."
The European Revolution of 1848
The European Revolution of 1848 represents a widespead emergence of situations where
populist aspirations, or human aspirations as less limited by traditions of respect for monarchical or religious
authority, variously sought constitutional, liberal, nationalist or socialistic changes in society.
The structure of the states of Europe within and between which the dramatic events of 1848-1849
were played out was very different from that of today. European political life was then based upon
a number of dynastic states that had been established over many centuries albeit with some significant
modifications as a result of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars of 1789-1815. At the close of
these wars dynastic rulers had been restored to most of the historic thrones of Europe and dynastic rulers
once again sought to exercise sovereign power whilst (in theory at least) resuming the role traditionally expected of
"God's Annointed" sovereign princes - i.e. that of offering justice and protection
to their subjects.
In 1848 the Italian peninsula was politically organised into a number of
sovereign dynastic and ecclesiastical states. This decentralisation had come about
largely due to Papal diplomacy preferring that no large states should exist in the peninsula as a
potential rival to Papal diplomatic power and influence. This policy had facilitated the
formation of a number of city states north of Rome and south of the Alps that had played a very notable role in
European commerce during the Middle Ages. These same wealthy city states had later become centres of the
European Renaissance. Later still they tended to form the nucleus of emergent Duchies and Grand Duchies.
Similarly in 1848 it was more appropriate to refer to what we now know as Germany as "The Germanies"
or as the "German Confederation". There
were a large number of politically sovereign dynastic and ecclesiastical states. This decentralisation had
come about largely due to the policies of several Holy Roman Emperors who, either to ensure support during their
disputes with the
Papacy, or to secure their position in relation to lands over which they were themselves more immediately sovereign, or
to secure the acceptance of their heirs to the Imperial succession, tended to concede full sovereignty to
greater and lesser German princes, to greater and lesser churchmen, to so-called Free Imperial Cities and even, in cases, to
so-called Free Imperial Knights.
There was a significant "Thirty Years War" between 1617-1648 largely contested in "The Germanies".
The French kingdom became involved in order to frustrate the political and diplomatic power of the Habsburgs of Austria
and Spain. The French input into the settlements to this war was in large part directed towards the firm establishment
of a continued decentralisation of political power in The Germanies.
The Habsburgs of Austria were sovereign over immense territories in central and eastern Europe and
had for several centuries, until the abeyance of that title in 1806 due to the activities of Napoleon Bonaparte,
been Holy Roman Emperors. The immense territories ruled by the Habsburgs had been gathered together largely
as a result of dynastic marriages.
One such marriage being that with a princess of the Jagellon dynasty, when her brother perished in battle against
the Ottoman Empire in 1526 the Hungarian and Bohemian Estates, in search of protection against further Ottoman
encroachment, ratified an
Habsburg succession to sovereignty. Bohemia and Hungary (with Croatia) experienced
a tradition
of germanic linguistic and cultural exposure as the patterns of trade (and culture) then emerging in
central and eastern europe, and the Baltic region, were largely under the influence of predominantly germanic trading
networks including that of the Hanseatic League. The prevalence of these networks
was greatly enhanced by local rulers often inviting the establishment, by skilled ethnic Germans, of
largely self-regulating
trading and farming settlements that were intended by such sponsoring rulers to enhance the overall prosperity of
their realms. Another of
the many outcomes of the "Thirty Years War"
was the displacement, by the victorious Habsburg dynasty, of the indigenous Czech aristocracy in Bohemia
by other, often Germanised, nobles after the Battle of the White Mountain of 1620.
It seems also that both ethnic Germans and Slavs had a long history of being present as ebbing and flowing
communities in Bohemia.
Another notable difference between the European state structure in 1848 and that of today is the
position of Poland. In 1848 Poland did not exist. In earlier times it had developed traditions
of elective kingship and of allowing representatives to the Polish Assembly to have powers of veto over political
decisions. These traditions did much to leave Poland as a less effective participant in the rough and tumble of
European diplomacy.
There were actual partitions of Poland in the later eighteenth century where the Russian Empire, the Austrian
Empire, and the Kingdom of Prussia all conspired to help themselves to large chunks of the Polish kingdom to the
extent that Poland had effectively disappeared from the political map of Europe!!!
Polish nationalist unrest in (Austrian) Galicia, (Russian) Congress Poland and the tiny, 425 sq. mile, Free State of
Cracow in 1846 was suppressed with Cracow being annexed by the Austria Empire much to the indignation of Polish Nationalists
and of liberals across Europe.
It may also be
difficult for our own age to appreciate the degree to which dynastic rulers in
earlier times acted in accordance with the
belief that their sovereign authority, which might well be exercised without
much in the way of modification through processes of popular representation, was
actually divinely ordained and hence of unquestionable legitimacy.
Dynastic rulers were
usually supported by church authorities in this belief. The churches expected kings to exercise
sovereign power as "God's annointed rulers" upholding
laws and offering justice and protection to their subjects.
It should be borne in mind, however, that
in many states of Europe at that time traditions of respect
for the powers of dynastic rulers and churches were not as powerful as they had been. European society
was changing, populist ideas about such things as 'the sovereignty of the people', 'constitutional governance' and
a 'romanticisation of cultural nationhood' had gained currency and tended to undermine acceptance of the traditions of
dynastic authority and governance.
Whilst dynastic rulers had been accepted as being sovereign over their dynastic lands gathered together as they
may had been through inheritance, dynastic marriages and wars of succession ideas about popular sovereignty and
nationhood inevitably raised questions about the territory where would-be nations could expect to exercise
sovereignty particularly where more than one "emergent nation" sought to establish itself politically on territories formerly
subject to the rule of one dynastic house.
The following series of five pages which considers the beginnings
of the Revolution, developments in
France, German developments, Italian developments, and then the recovery of political
power by the traditional "throne and altar" governments may then do something towards demonstrating the workings
of human nature related aspirations as contributing notably to the "Unfolding of History".
The Springtime of the Peoples
The revolution of 1848-1849, sometimes referred to as the Springtime of the Peoples, can perhaps be seen
as a particularly
active phase in the challenge populist claims to political power had intermittently been
making against the power of the traditional dynastic governments of Europe.
The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era (1789-1815) had been brought to a close by an
anti-Napoleonic coalition of Dynastic states who subsequently authorised the restoration
of "legitimate" rulers who had been displaced from their thrones and also authorised
a supression of liberalism, constitutionalism, and nationalism in order to ensure the
continued political authority of dynastic government.
As with several instances of revolution in Europe previously that
of 1848 was to have its major point of origin in France. There were
however a number of other episodes elsewhere in Europe which indicated
the readiness of several states for involvement in revolution in the
years just prior to 1848 itself.
Poor grain harvests, the appearance of blight - an extremely serious disease - in
potato crops, and generally depressed economic conditions across
much of Europe in 1845-6 led to rising food prices, unemployment,
and a radicalisation of political attitudes. Such radicalism was
somewhat encouraged by the election to the Papacy, as Pope Pius
IX in June 1846, of an incumbent who soon thereafter followed
policies perceived as being "Liberal" and by the fact of a
"federal" Swiss interest, that was perceived by liberals as being
progressive, prevailing in November 1847, over several Cantons
leagued in a "Separate Union" or Sonderbund that had been
supported in attempts to place limits on liberal reform by such reactionary powers as
Metternich's Austria and Guizot's France.
During these times France was yet a monarchy under Louis
Phillipe but with his "Liberal" monarchy having few real
supporters. Elections were held on the basis of quite limited
suffrage, many felt excluded from any possibility of gaining
wealth, and others felt that the bourgeois "Liberal" monarchy
compared unfavourably with earlier "Glorious" eras of French Monarchy or
Empire.
On 14th January 1848 the authorities banned a "banquet", one
of a series being held in protest against such things as limitations on the right of
assembly and the narrow scope of the political franchise, with the result that the it was postponed by its
organisers. Although the banquet, now set for the 22nd February,
was cancelled at the last minute there was some disturbance in
the Paris streets. Faced with such unrest Louis Phillipe
dismissed Guizot, his unpopular Prime Minister, on the 23rd and
himself abdicated on the 24th. In the wake of these dramatic developments
there was an establishment of a Provisional Government of a French
Republic. On the
25th February socialists in
Paris secured a decree which proclaimed that the newly formed provisional government
would undertake to provide
work and would also recognise workers rights to "combine in order to enjoy the legitimate
benefits of their labour."
The Kingdom of Hungary had come into the Habsburg orbit in
1526 as a result of its then king perishing in wars against a
then expansionary Ottoman Empire and with that king's sister
being married to the Habsburg ruler Ferdinand of Austria who later succeeded his brother
(Charles V) as Holy Roman Emperor. After the critical Battle of Mohacs much of
Hungary was subject to Ottoman control up until 1699 when Ottoman
sway over Hungary was substantially undone by a resurgence of
Austrian power. Although successors to the joint Habsburg-Jagellon dynastic line
were crowned as Kings of Hungary amongst their other titles there
had been several instances of Hungarian restiveness over political and confessional
issues. In 1848 such restiveness tended to be towards the
establishment of a greater degree of distinct existence for the Kingdom of Hungary under
an Habsburg ruler as a constitutional King of Hungary.
The rising tide of cultural and
linguistic nationalism which Europe had experienced since the
later eighteenth century was marked, in relation to the position
of the Kingdom of Hungary within the Austrian empire, by demands
being made for greater use of the Hungarian "Magyar" tongue. The
nationalistic leader Kossuth was prominent at Diets of the Hungarian Kingdom
held at Pressburg
(Bratislava) in 1840 and 1844 in securing the position of the
Magyar tongue as the official language, and as the language of
public education. After 1847 the proceedings of the Hungarian
Diet were conducted through Magyar instead of Latin.
The Hungarian-Magyar kingdom had been established after the Magyars, as a powerful and somewhat
martial people, had migrated into the Carpathian basin where they established their sway
over some of the neighbouring Slavic peoples with the result that the kingdom in 1848
was dominated by the Magyars but was also peopled by various Slav minorities. By this time the
former losses to the Ottoman empire had been recovered and certain territories such as Transylvania and areas of
the Balkans,
that had also been won from Ottoman control,
were also seen as being associated with the Kingdom of Hungary.
The Latin tongue had been somewhat accessible
to the other ethnicities represented at Pressburg as it was often represented in classical
traditions of education besides being a prominent language of religion and scholarship. The Magyar tongue
was more exclusive to the Magyars and has a reputation for being difficult to learn.
The Magyars, in fact, only comprised perhaps only four in ten of the population of the Hungarian Kingdom which
was also peopled
by Croats, Serbs, Rumanians and others. The several
ethnic groups domiciled under the auspices of the Hungarian
Diet were also variously influenced by romanticisations of their own local traditions of nationality,
the Croats, in particular, had experienced a pronounced development of a romanticised national conciousness,
and were much inclined to resist potential Magyarisation focussing their
aspiration on the recovery of an "Illyrian" language.
Early in 1848, after hearing of the developments in France Kossuth made a
speech in support of a constitutionally defined governmental system for Hungary at a
session of the Diet on 4th March.
"...from the charnel-house of the Viennese system a poison-laden atmosphere
steals over us, which paralyses our nerves and bows us when we would soar. ...
the antagonism which has existed for three centuries between the absolutist government of Vienna,
and the constitutional tendency of the Hungarian nation, has not up to this day been reconciled. ..."
There was also unrest in Vienna
on 13th March that led to Prince Metternich, the Austrian
statesmen who had done so much since the humbling of Napoleon to
organise the Princes of Europe in opposition to the spirit of Revolution
that had been stirring since 1789,
losing the confidence of the Imperial Family and deciding to go
into exile.
Some days later after an incident precipitated street fighting in Berlin, the capital of the
Prussian Kingdom, King Frederick William withdrew his soldiers rather than see even
more fatalities amongst his "beloved Berliners" and was subsequently, on the 19th March,
called upon by the populace to stand, bareheaded, whilst the earthly remains
of those Berliners killed in the street fighting were paraded with their wounds exposed.
The following day a political amnesty brought about the release of the Polish revolutionist Mieroslawski and his forty followers from their two years
of imprisonment at Moabit jail. A triumphant procession took them from the prison to the palace, in carriages pulled by enthusiastic Berliners.
Mieroslawski waved a black-red-gold banner, proclaiming that Poles and Germans were brothers. Some Berliners, meanwhile,
carried red and white "Polish" flags.
These black, red, and gold, colours were
at one and the same time "revolutionary" and "conservative". They were open to being associated with
contemporary German Liberalism
and Nationalism having been adopted by "patriotic" Germany in the days of the Wars of Liberation
against Napoleon but were also open to being thought of as being associated with the earlier "Holy Roman Empire
of the German Nation."
That same day Frederick William rode in a stately progress through the streets of Berlin, wearing a black-red-gold brassard, accompanied by his generals
who also wore black-red-gold emblems, along with his similarly-decorated ministers. The king presented himself as behaving as German leaders had in
earlier times when they had "
grasped the banner in situations of disorder and placed themselves at the head of the whole people. "
On the 22nd March the 190 Berliners who had fallen in the street fighting were given a state funeral
with their funeral observances being attended by representatives of all branches of the government, wearing their golden chains of office.
In early April the Austrian Emperor promised in a Charter of Bohemia that there
should be a responsible government for Bohemia and substantial
concessions to the Czech language. Czech aspiration further
sought that Bohemia and Moravia with Silesia should be regarded
as a single administrative unit - "the Lands of the Crown of St.
Wenceslaus" - but this was not conceded.
As March continued, and into April, there was a rush
of laws passed by the Hungarian Diet in support of the
administration there being free of Austrian control. Hungary,
Transylvania, and Croatia, styled as "the Lands of the Crown of
St. Stephen" were deemed a single state. The Austrian Emperor
formally accepted these changes on 11th April.
Agitations centred upon
Vienna itself led to Lower Austria, (the non-Hungarian realms of the empire), being assured on 15 March that
deputies from the provinces would be called to Vienna to frame a Constitution for Austria. There was a
subsequent attempt by
the dynasty, on April 25, to award a somewhat
conservative constitution that authorised a bi-cameral legislature inherently
retaining much influence to the dynasty, and required steep property requirements as a
qualification for voting rights
to the lower parliamentary chamber. This attempted imposition of a constitution was protested at by many interests
and, after continued demostrations, the Imperial family departed
from "the violence and anarchy of Vienna" in mid-May and journeyed to provincial Innsbruck leaving behind authorisation
for a unicameral legislature with greatly less restrictive qualifications in relation to voting rights.
It was accepted that this legislature would undertake the framing of a Constitution for Lower Austria.
From Innsbruck the emperor did not seek to immediately withdraw from his forced
concessions in relation to the projected Assembly but some
revulsion of feeling in conservative circles in Vienna allowed his ministers to move to
dissolve perhaps the main wellspring of Viennese radicalism -
the hitherto highly vocal and politically influential Students Legion. It also happened that the
University was due to close down for the long summer vacation.
Czech, Polish and other Slav elements within the lands of the Habsburgs
reacted to the events of 1848 and to the nationalistic and constitutional developments
in the Germanic lands by arranging for a pan-Slav Congress to convene at Prague in early
June.
1848 revolution
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![[revolution of 1848]](../../enlightenment.gif)