COLOMBO AMERICAN SCHOOL

Educating Transformative Leaders

HISTORY
9th GRADE
TEACHER: GLORIA SOUTO

INSTRUCTION: Read the following information and make a poster based on the failure of the
Revolutions of 1848.
CAUSES OF THE FAILURE
The immediate aftermath of the revolution entailed the problem of establishing the membership and
authority of the new governments and to define constitutional settlements. In France the provincial
government which had emerged was divided socially, politically and personally. The men lacked
governmental experience and opposed the monarchy because they wanted to bring forth social
reform measures. However they did not want to alter the existing social system significantly. The
situations were similar in Austria and the German states.
While analyzing the reasons for the subsequent failure of the revolutions of 1848, historians have
often posed a crucial question as to why the revolutions of 1848 had a different outcome from those
of 1789 or 1917. The answer given by the historians for the failures of the revolutions of 1848 is that
the revolutionaries weren't revolutionary enough. They lacked the enthusiasm displayed by their
Jacobin predecessors and Bolshevik successors.
Sometimes it is also attributed to personal failures of revolutionary leaders who made tall claims
but weren't daring enough to carry out required actions and/or bloodshed.

In Marxist understanding, the failure of Revolutions 1848 is attributed to specific social and economic
developments. The revolution led to renewed economic crisis. In each of the states affected by the
revolution, there was a move towards avoidance of violence. There was political factionalism where
prominent families sought to take advantage of a fluid political situation in order to secure
administrative office to increase their influence. There was widespread disorder and protest by
peasants and workers alike. This was even more than the chaos during the revolution. As a result,
the new liberal administrations frequently were forced to employ the existing state apparatus to
restore order.
According to Marxists, the revolutionaries of 1848 weren't successful in mobilizing popular
support. The middle class revolutionaries were scared of the extent to which the masses might have
gone. As a result, the middle class revolutionaries only made half-hearted efforts and were willing to
make compromises with the pre-1848 authorities.
However Sperber points out that there werent really great points of differences between the
situations that prevailed during the revolutions of 1789 and 1848 respectively. He also argues that
the rise of a working class doesnt adequately explain the failure on the part of revolutionaries to
mobilize masses. He elaborates this argument further by pointing out that in mid 19th century
southern and eastern Europe there was no industrialization or labour force; even central and western
Europe, it wasnt the labour force but largely the craftsmen who had led the rebellions.
In comparison to the powerful and loyal military support that the rulers possessed, the
revolutionaries were rendered weak by the deficiencies seen in tactical leadership. The counter
revolution was thus successful in suppressing the revolutions of 1848.
The development of politics of nationalism in 1848 had its own implications. Sperber throws
light on the fact that these revolutionary nationalism clashed with each other. And rather than
radicalizing the revolution, it weakened them.
The high hopes of the revolutionaries of 1848 were shattered because of the different aims and a
split between liberals and radicals. The conservatives and Moderates stressed the need to restore
social order. But the Radicals insisted that the state should intervene in the economy and that it
should recognize the right to work.
Thus there was a lack of consensus amongst the revolutionaries. This enabled the success of the
counter revolution in the Habsburg monarchy, the German and the Italian States. Less skilled
workers generally lacked a strong sense of commitment and showed little interest in the democratic
or socialist ideas. For them, what mattered the most was economic security. And it was the
programme of radicals that appealed the most to the workers and lower middle class. But overall, it

was the conservatives who garnered the support of the majority of population. The conservative
propaganda presented the radicals as engaging in nothing but murder and looting and plotting to
destroy the society. The conservatives and the established elites were advocating the need for peace
and social order-the prerequisites to economic recovery. This appealed to the middle class; they were
frightened by the radicalist propaganda which they saw as a threat to their property.
Price suggests that it was the combination of this increase in the influence of the conservatives along
with the existence of the strong military support that the counter revolutionaries had that led to their
success. And this translated to the ultimate defeat of the revolutionaries.
COUNTER REVOLUTION AND IMPACT OF REVOLUTIONS ON THE POLITICS OF EUROPE
The old social elites in Europe had soon recovered from the disasters of the Revolutions of 1848. The
revolutions generated resistance almost immediately from the political and social forces. The counterrevolutions carried out by the rulers with the aid of the nobles left parliaments and assemblies with
little or no effective powers. The demands that were made included universal male suffrage, freedom
of press, constitutional governments and larger participation of the public in administrative affairs.
Even though some of them were fulfilled, most of these concessions were withdrawn sooner or later.
One has to bear in mind that the accomplishment of the revolutionaries in terms of setting up
constitutional governments didnt last long. While the kingdoms of Prussia and Piedmont-Savoy
retained their constitutional form of government, the Two Sicilies, the Papal States and the Austrian
Empire had gone back to absolutist rule. More or less, the ultimate success of the counter revolution
throughout Europe was aided by the mixed aims of the revolutionaries.
France In France, the political crisis intensified as the provisional government faced competing
demands. On 15th May, an attempt by the political clubs to dissolve the Assembly and declare a
social republic of the people failed. After days of tension, the Assembly finally declared on June 23rd
that the National Workshops would be closed in three days. Workers aged 17-25 were given the
option of enlisting in the army, and others were promised public works in the provinces. The workers
associations protested vigorously and rose up in rebellion. For three days the June Days raged in the
workers quarters of central and eastern Paris. General Louis Cavaignac put down the uprising with
brutality. Thus the process of counter revolution began with repression of the June insurrection after
which the Assembly immediately passed legislation to curb popular political movements. The new
republican constitution instituted elections in November 1848. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of
the great Napoleon Bonaparte became the President of the second republic.
Germany In the German states, liberals and radicals gradually split as conservative forces
gathered momentum. The spread of democratic clubs and workers associations was evidence of
widespread politicization and mobilization of support for the left. Frederick Wilhelms refusal to
recognize the Imperial Constitution prepared by the Frankfurt assembly led to widespread protests
organized by popular political societies. The only chance for the constitution to survive was to
convince the King of Prussia to become king of a unified Germany. Before the Prussian parliament
could approve the constitution, the king dissolved it and declared a state of emergency. The
Frankfurt parliament which embodied the hopes of German liberals and nationalists ended in abject
failure.
Austria The confusion of competing national claims and rivalries within the monarchy eased the
task of counter revolution within the Austrian Empire. The aristocratic army commanders like
Windischgratz, Schwarzenberg, Radetzky and Jelacic played a crucial role in the restoration of the
imperial authority. When workers rose up in arms to protest against the shutting down of the national
workshops (which had been established to provide work to unemployed), Ferdinand sent the
bourgeois National Guard to crush the uprising. The establishment of the Bach system- a system of
bureaucratic surveillance, spying and repression- helped in rooting out the political opposition.
As far as the impact of these revolutions on the politics of Europe is concerned, as J. Merriman points
out, European states had become even stronger after the Revolutions of 1848. Counter revolutions
carried out by the various states had succeeded in crushing the rebellions. However, even though the
state machinery of repression was kept well oiled, certain concessions were made as well.