Revolutions Of 1848 Essay, Research Paper

The Revolutions of 1848 were a series of political and economic

revolts that took place in Europe because of a recession and

abuse of political power. The participants in the revolutions

were the Poles, Danes, Germans, Italians, Czechs, Slovaks,

Slovaks, Hungarians, Croats, and the Romanians. The

Revolutions of 1848 did change that countries government but

the changes didn’t last long. Although the changes didn’t last

long the revolutions did demonstrate that people could

undermine the government, and create liberalism & socialism.

The Revolutions first started out in France 1848 where the

people wanted universal suffrage which was led by Louis Blanc.

King Louis Philippe was overthrown and Louis Blanc’s

revolution established the second republic. The February

revolution in France gave ideas to other countries in Europe

which in turn started other revolutions. The February revolution

in France also gave to Liberals in the German states the idea to

make a proposal for a unified German country with a national

parliament. But the old order was restored because the

provisional government couldn’t decide on a constitution for the

new government. The Italian states of Europe also had a

revolution which made Pope Pius IX flee Italy. This gave a leader

of unification, Gieuseppe Mazzini the chance to unify Italy. This

plot of Mazzini was a failure because of the Italians

overwhelming protectiveness of their independence.

Within the Austrian Empire there was increased Nationalism

among the Czechs, Hungarians, Germans, and other groups.

This increased Nationalism in March of 1848 led to riots and the

ousting of Prince Klemens von Metternich and Ferdinand I, the

Emperor of Hapsburg. This led to the making of a constituent

assembly which freed the peasantry. In Hungary, which was

under Austrian rule, Lajos Kossuth took control of the crumbling

government and gave all of the Hungarian lands freedom. But

once again the inevitable happens this plot was beat down.