The European Revolution of 1848.
[=Opposition in France to Louis Philippe=]
The revolution of 1830 did not bring peace and quiet to France nor to
Europe. In France the people grew dissatisfied with their new monarch;
in Europe generally they demanded a greater share of liberty. Louis
Philippe delayed to extend the suffrage; he used his high position to
add to his great riches; he failed to win the hearts of the French,
and was widely accused of selfishness and greed. There were risings of
legitimist in favor of the Bourbons, while the republican element was
opposed to monarchy. No less than eight attempts were made to remove
the king by assassination--all of them failures, but they showed the
disturbed state of public feeling. Liberty, equality, fraternity became
the watchwords of the working classes, socialistic ideas arose and
spread, and the industrial element of the various nations became allied
in one great body of revolutionists known as the "Internationalists."
In Germany the demand of the people for political rights grew until
it reached a crisis. The radical writings of the "Young Germans," the
stirring songs of their poets, the bold utterances of the press, the
doctrines of the "Friends of Light" among the Protestants and of the
"German Catholics" among the Catholics, all went to show that the
people were deeply dissatisfied alike with the state and the church.
They were rapidly arousing from their sluggish acceptance of the work
of the Congress of Vienna of 1815, and the spirit of liberty was in the
air.
[=Revolutionary Sentiment in Germany and Italy=]
The King of Prussia, Frederick William IV., saw danger ahead. He became
king in 1840 and lost no time in trying to make his rule popular by
reforms. An edict of toleration was issued, the sittings of the courts
were opened to the public, and the Estates of the provinces were called
to meet in Berlin. In the convening of a Parliament he had given the
people a voice. The Estates demanded freedom of the press and of the
state with such eloquence and energy that the king dared not resist
them. The people had gained a great step in their progress towards
liberty.
In Italy also the persistent demands of the people met with an
encouraging response. The Pope, Pius IX., extended the freedom of
the press, gave a liberal charter to the City of Rome, and began the
formation of an Italian confederacy. In Sicily a revolutionary outbreak
took place, and the King of Naples was compelled to give his people
a constitution and a parliament. His example was followed in Tuscany
and Sardinia. The tyrannical Duke of Modena was forced to fly from the
vengeance of his people, and the throne of Parma became vacant by the
death in 1847 of Maria Louisa, the widow of Napoleon Bonaparte, a woman
little loved and less respected.
The Italians were filled with hope by these events. Freedom and the
unity of Italy loomed up before their eyes. Only two obstacles stood
in their way, the Austrians and the Jesuits, and both of these were
bitterly hated. Gioberti, the enemy of the Jesuits, was greeted with
cheers, under which might be heard harsh cries of "Death to the
Germans."
Such was the state of affairs at the beginning of 1848. The measure of
liberty granted the people only whetted their appetite for more, and
over all Western Europe rose an ominous murmur, the voice of the people
demanding the rights of which they had so long been deprived. In France
this demand was growing dangerously insistant; in Paris, the centre of
European revolution, it threatened an outbreak. Reform banquets were
the order of the day in France, and one was arranged for in Paris to
signalize the meeting of the Chambers.
[=The Outbreak in Paris=]
Guizot, the historian, who was then minister of foreign affairs, had
deeply offended the liberal party of France by his reactionary policy.
The government threw fuel on the fire by forbidding the banquet and
taking steps to suppress it by military force. The people were enraged
by this false step and began to gather in excited groups. Throngs of
them--artisans, students, and tramps--were soon marching through the
streets, with shouts of "Reform! Down with Guizot!" The crowds rapidly
increased and grew more violent. The people were too weak to cope with
them; the soldiers were loath to do so; soon barricades were erected
and fighting began.
[Illustration: THE CONGRESS AT BERLIN, JUNE 13, 1878
After the close of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, a
Congress of the European Powers was held at Berlin
to decide on the status of Turkey, its purpose being
largely to prevent Russia from taking possession of
Constantinople. One of its results was to give Great
Britain control of the Island of Cyprus.]
[Illustration: THE WOUNDING OF GENERAL BOSQUET--
(FROM THE PAINTING BY YVON)
One of the most successful French Marshals in the
Crimean War was Pierre Francois Joseph Bosquet.
Parliament voted him England's thanks for the part he
played in winning the battle of Inkermann. He also
took a leading part in the capture of the Malakoff,
Siege of Sebastopol September 8, 1855, where he was
seriously wounded.]
For two days this went on. Then the king, alarmed at the situation,
dismissed Guizot and promised reform, and the people, satisfied for the
time and proud of their victory, paraded the streets with cheers and
songs. All now might have gone well but for a hasty and violent act
on the part of the troops. About ten o'clock at night a shouting and
torch-bearing throng marched through the Boulevards, singing and waving
flags. Reaching the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they halted and called
for its illumination. The troops on duty there interfered, and, on
an insult to their colonel and the firing of a shot from the mob, they
replied with a volley, before which fifty-two of the people fell killed
and wounded.
[=Revolt Becomes Revolution=]
This reckless and sanguinary deed was enough to turn revolt into
revolution. The corpses were carried on biers through the streets by
the infuriated people, the accompanying torch-bearers shouting: "To
arms! they are murdering us!" At midnight the tocsin call rang from the
bells of Notre Dame; the barricades, which had been partly removed,
were restored; and the next morning, February 24, 1848, Paris was in
arms. In the struggle that followed they were quickly victorious, and
the capital was in their hands.
[=The Second French Republic=]
Louis Philippe followed the example of Charles X., abdicated his
throne and fled to England. After the fate of Louis XVI. no monarch
was willing to wait and face a Paris mob. The kingdom was overthrown,
and a republic, the second which France had known, was established,
the aged Dupont de l'Eure being chosen president. The poet Lamartine,
the socialist Louis Blanc, the statesmen Ledru-Rollin and Arago became
members of the Cabinet, and all looked forward to a reign of peace
and prosperity. The socialists tried the experiment of establishing
national workshops in which artisans were to be employed at the expense
of the state, with the idea that this would give work to all.
Yet the expected prosperity did not come. The state was soon deeply
in debt, many of the people remained unemployed, and the condition of
industry grew worse day by day. The treasury proved incapable of paying
the state artisans, and the public workshops were closed. In June the
trouble came to a crisis and a new and sanguinary outbreak began,
instigated by the hungry and disappointed workmen, and led by the
advocates of the "Red Republic," who acted with ferocious brutality.
General Brea and the Archbishop of Paris were murdered, and the work of
slaughter grew so horrible that the National Assembly, to put an end to
it, made General Cavaignac dictator and commissioned him to put down
the revolt. A terrible struggle ensued between the mob and the troops,
ending in the suppression of the revolt and the arrest and banishment
of many of its ringleaders. Ten or twelve thousand people had been
killed. The National Assembly adopted a republican constitution, under
which a single legislative chamber and a president to be elected every
four years were provided for. The assembly wished to make General
Cavaignac president, but the nation, blinded by their faith in the
name of the great conqueror, elected by an almost unanimous vote
his nephew, Louis Napoleon, a man who had suffered a long term of
imprisonment for his several attempts against the reign of the late
king. The revolution, for the time being, was at an end, and France was
a republic again.
[=Effect of the Revolution of 1848 in Europe=]
The effect of this revolution in France spread far and wide through
Europe. Outbreaks occurred in Italy, Poland, Switzerland and Ireland,
and in Germany the revolutionary fever burned hot. Baden was the first
state to yield to the demands of the people for freedom of the press, a
parliament and other reforms, and went so far as to abolish the imposts
still remaining from feudal times. The other minor states followed
its example. In Saxony, Würtemberg and other states class abuses were
abolished, liberals given prominent positions under government, the
suffrage and the legislature reformed, and men of liberal sentiment
summoned to discuss the formation of new constitutions.
[=Metternich and His System=]
But it was in the great despotic states of Germany--Prussia and
Austria--that the liberals gained the most complete and important
victory, and went farthest in overthrowing autocratic rule and
establishing constitutional government. The great Austrian statesman
who had been a leader in the Congress of Vienna and who had suppressed
liberalism in Italy, Prince Metternich, was still, after more than
thirty years, at the head of affairs in Vienna. He controlled the
policy of Austria; his word was law in much of Germany; time had
cemented his authority, and he had done more than any other man in
Europe in maintaining despotism and building a dam against the rising
flood of liberal sentiment.
But the hour of the man who had destroyed the work of Napoleon was at
hand. He had failed to recognize the spirit of the age or to perceive
that liberalism was deeply penetrating Austria. To most of the younger
statesmen of Europe the weakness of his policy and the rottenness of
his system were growing apparent, and it was evident that they must
soon fall before the onslaught of the advocates of freedom.
An incitement was needed, and it came in the news of the Paris
revolution. At once a hot excitement broke out everywhere in Austria.
From Hungary came a vigorous demand for an independent parliament,
reform of the constitution, decrease of taxes, and relief from the
burden of the national debt of Austria. From Bohemia, whose rights and
privileges had been seriously interfered with in the preceding year,
came similar demands. In Vienna itself the popular outcry for increased
privileges grew insistant.
[=The Outbreak in Vienna=]
The excitement of the people was aggravated by their distrust of the
paper money of the realm and by a great depression in commerce and
industry. Daily more workmen were thrown out of employment, and
soon throngs of the hungry and discontented gathered in the streets.
Students, as usual, led away by their boyish love of excitement, were
the first to create a disturbance, but others soon joined in, and the
affair quickly became serious.
The old system was evidently at an end. The policy of Metternich could
restrain the people no longer. Lawlessness became general, excesses
were committed by the mob, the dwellings of those whom the populace
hated were attacked and plundered, the authorities were resisted
with arms, and the danger of an overthrow of the government grew
imminent. The press, which had gained freedom of utterance, added to
the peril of the situation by its inflammatory appeals to the people,
and by its violence checked the progress of the reforms which it
demanded. Metternich, by his system of restraint, had kept the people
in ignorance of the first principles of political affairs, and the
liberties which they now asked for showed them to be unadapted to a
liberal government. The old minister, whose system was falling in ruins
about him, fled from the country and sought a refuge in England, that
haven of political failures.
[=Flight and Return of the Emperor=]
In May, 1848, the emperor, alarmed at the threatening state of
affairs, left his capital and withdrew to Innsbruck. The tidings
of his withdrawal stirred the people to passion, and the outbreak
of mob violence which followed was the fiercest and most dangerous
that had yet occurred. Gradually, however, the tumult was appeased,
a constitutional assembly was called into being and opened by the
Archduke John, and the Emperor Ferdinand re-entered Vienna amid the
warm acclamations of the people. The outbreak was at an end. Austria
had been converted from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy.
[=Revolt in Prussia and the German Union=]
In Berlin the spirit of revolution became as marked as in Vienna.
The King resisted the demands of the people, who soon came into
conflict with the soldiers, a fierce street fight breaking out which
continued with violence for two weeks. The revolutionists demanded the
removal of the troops and the formation of a citizen militia, and the
king, alarmed at the dangerous crisis in affairs, at last assented.
The troops were accordingly withdrawn, the obnoxious ministry was
dismissed, and a citizen-guard was created for the defence of the city.
Three days afterwards the king promised to govern as a constitutional
monarch, an assembly was elected by universal suffrage, and to it
was given the work of preparing a constitution for the Prussian
state. Here, as in Austria, the revolutionists had won the day and
irresponsible government was at an end.
Elsewhere in Germany radical changes were taking place. King Louis
of Bavaria, who had deeply offended his people, resigned in favor
of his son. The Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt did the same. Everywhere
the liberals were in the ascendant, and were gaining freedom of the
press and constitutional government. The formation of Germany into
a federal empire was proposed and adopted, and a National Assembly
met at Frankfort on May 18, 1848. It included many of the ablest
men of Germany. Its principal work was to organize a union under an
irresponsible executive, who was to be surrounded by a responsible
ministry. The Archduke John of Austria was selected to fill this new,
but brief imperial position, and made a solemn entry into Frankfort on
the 11th of July.
[=The Schleswig-Holstein Affair=]
All this was not enough for the ultra radicals. They determined to
found a German republic, and their leaders, Hecker and Struve, called
the people to arms. An outbreak took place in Baden, but it was quickly
suppressed, and the republican movement came to a speedy end. In the
north war broke out between Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein, united
duchies which desired to be freed from Danish rule and annexed to
Germany, and called for German aid. But just then the new German Union
was in no condition to come to their assistance, and Prussia preferred
diplomacy to war, with the result that Denmark came out victorious from
the contest. As will be seen in a later chapter, Prussia, under the
energetic leadership of Bismarck, came, a number of years afterwards,
to the aid of these discontented duchies, and they were finally torn
from Danish control.
[=War in Sicily and Sardinia=]
While these exciting events were taking place in the north, Italy was
swept with a storm of revolution from end to end. Metternich was no
longer at hand to keep it in check, and the whole peninsula seethed
with revolt. Sicily rejected the rule of the Bourbon king of Naples,
chose the Duke of Genoa, son of Charles Albert of Sardinia, for its
king, and during a year fought for liberty. This patriotic effort of
the Sicilians ended in failure. The Swiss mercenaries of the Neapolitan
king captured Syracuse and brought the island into subjection, and
the tyrant hastened to abolish the constitution which he had been
frightened into granting in his hour of extremity.
In the north of Italy war broke out between Austria and Sardinia. Milan
and Venice rose against the Austrians and drove out their garrisons,
throughout Lombardy the people raised the standard of independence,
and Charles Albert of Sardinia called his people to arms and invaded
that country, striving to free it and the neighboring state of Venice
from Austrian rule. For a brief season he was successful, pushing
the Austrian troops to the frontiers, but the old Marshal Radetzky
defeated him at Verona and compelled him to seek safety in flight. The
next year he renewed his attempt, but with no better success. Depressed
by his failure, he resigned the crown to his son Victor Emmanuel, who
made a disadvantageous peace with Austria. Venice held out for several
months, but was finally subdued, and Austrian rule was restored in the
north.
[=The Revolution in Rome=]
Meanwhile the pope, Pius IX., offended his people by his unwillingness
to aid Sardinia against Austria. He promised to grant a constitutional
government and convened an Assembly in Rome, but the Democratic people
of the state were not content with feeble concessions of this kind.
Rossi, prime minister of the state, was assassinated, and the pope,
filled with alarm, fled in disguise, leaving the Papal dominion to the
revolutionists, who at once proclaimed a republic and confiscated the
property of the Church.
Mazzini, the leader of "Young Italy," the ardent revolutionist who had
long worked in exile for Italian independence, entered the Eternal
City, and with him Garibaldi, long a political refugee in America and
a gallant partisan leader in the recent war with Austria. The arrival
of these celebrated revolutionists filled the democratic party in Rome
with the greatest enthusiasm, and it was resolved to defend the States
of the Church to the last extremity, viewing them as the final asylum
of Italian liberty.
[=Capture of Rome by the French Army=]
In this extremity the pope called on France for aid. That country
responded by sending an army, which landed at Civita-Vecchia and
marched upon and surrounded Rome. The new-comers declared that they
came as friends, not as foes; it was not their purpose to overthrow
the republic, but to defend the capital from Austria and Naples. The
leaders of the insurgents in Rome did not trust their professions and
promises and refused them admittance. A fierce struggle followed. The
republicans defended themselves stubbornly. For weeks they defied
the efforts of General Oudinot and his troops. But in the end they
were forced to yield, a conditional submission was made, and the
French soldiers occupied the city. Garibaldi, Mazzini, and others of
the leaders took to flight, and the old conditions were gradually
resumed under the controlling influence of French bayonets. For years
afterwards the French held the city as the allies and guard of the pope.
[=The Outbreak in Hungary=]
The revolutionary spirit, which had given rise to war in Italy, yielded
a still more resolute and sanguinary conflict in Hungary, whose people
were divided against themselves. The Magyars, the descendants of the
old Huns, who demanded governmental institutions of their own, separate
from these of Austria, though under the Austrian monarch, were opposed
by the Slavonic part of the population, and war began between them.
Austrian troops were ordered to the aid of Jellachich, the ruler of the
Slavs of Croatia in South Hungary, but their departure was prevented
by the democratic people of Vienna, who rose in violent insurrection,
induced by their sympathy with the Magyars.
[=Vienna Captured by Storm=]
The whole city was quickly in tumult, an attack was made on the
arsenals, and the violence became so great that the emperor again took
to flight. War in Austria followed. A strong army was sent to subdue
the rebellious city, which was stubbornly defended, the students' club
being the centre of the revolutionary movement. Jellachich led his
Croatians to the aid of the emperor's troops, the city was surrounded
and besieged, sallies and assaults were of daily occurrence, and for
a week and more a bloody conflict continued day and night. Vienna was
finally taken by storm, the troops forcing their way into the streets,
where shocking scenes of murder and violence took place. On November
21, 1848, Jellachich entered the conquered city, martial law was
proclaimed, the houses were searched, the prisons filled with captives,
and the leaders of the insurrection put to death.
Shortly afterwards the Emperor Ferdinand abdicated the throne in
favor of his youthful nephew, Francis Joseph, who at once dissolved
the constitutional assembly and proclaimed a new constitution and a
new code of laws. Hungary was still in arms, and offered a desperate
resistance to the Austrians, who now marched to put down the
insurrection. They found it no easy task. The fiery eloquence of the
orator Kossuth roused the Magyars to a desperate resistance, Polish
leaders came to their support, foreign volunteers strengthened their
ranks, Gorgey, their chief leader, showed great military skill, and the
Austrians were driven out and the fortresses taken. The independence of
Hungary was now proclaimed, and a government established under Kossuth
as provisional president.
[=The Hungarian Revolt and Its Suppression=]
The repulse of the Austrians nerved the young emperor to more strenuous
exertions. The aid of Russia was asked, and the insurgent state invaded
on three sides, by the Croatians from the south, the Russians from the
north, and the Austrians, under the brutal General Haynau, from the
west.
The conflict continued for several months, but quarrels between the
Hungarian leaders weakened their armies, and in August, 1849, Gorgey,
who had been declared dictator, surrendered to the invaders, Kossuth
and the other leaders seeking safety in flight. Haynau made himself
infamous by his cruel treatment of the Hungarian people, particularly
by his use of the lash upon women. His conduct raised such wide-spread
indignation that he was roughly handled by a party of brewers, on his
visit to London in 1850.
With the fall of Hungary the revolutionary movement of 1848 came to
an end. The German Union had already disappeared. There were various
other disturbances, besides those we have recorded, but finally all the
states settled down to peace and quiet. Its results had been great in
increasing the political privileges of the people of Western Europe,
and with it the reign of despotism in that section of the continent
came to an end.
The greatest hero of the war in Hungary was undoubtedly Louis Kossuth,
whose name has remained familiar among those of the patriots of
his century. From Hungary he made his way to Turkey, where he was
imprisoned for two years at Kutaieh, being finally released through the
intervention of the governments of Great Britain and the United States.
He then visited England, where he was received with enthusiastic,
popular demonstrations and made several admirable speeches in the
English language, of which he had excellent command. In the autumn of
1851 he came to the United States, where he had a flattering reception
and spoke on the wrongs of Hungary to enthusiastic audiences in the
principal cities.