Posted on 03/28/2020 2:53:49 PM PDT by babylon_times
While we previously discussed the French Revolution of 1789, we will now look to better understand the year 1848 — a world caught up in the fire of revolution. This fire was widespread around the globe with consequences far and wide. And out of this overturned world, came the rise of a prophet.
In 1848, revolution swept across Europe and the world. The “February Revolution” in Paris lit the flame as the current world order was crumbling. In the days leading up to the overthrow of the French King Louis-Phillippe, the historian Alexis de Tocqueville commented on the state of Paris:
“One thing was.. really ominous and terrible; and that was the appearance of Paris on my return. I found in the capital a hundred thousand armed workmen formed into regiments, out of work, dying of hunger, but with their minds crammed with vain theories and visionary hopes. I saw society cut into two: those who possessed nothing, united in a common greed; those who possessed something, united in a common terror. There were no bonds, no sympathy between these two great sections; everywhere the idea of an inevitable and immediate struggle seemed at hand. Already the bourgeois and the people had come to blows, with varying fortunes… not a day passed but the owners of property were attacked or menaced in either their capital or income…”
With the overthrow of the monarch, came the beginnings of the Second French Empire, and the dictatorship of Napoleon III. Kindled in part by the utopian socialist philosophies espoused by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Charles Fourier, this revolutionary spirit soon spread from Paris like wildfire....
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From that post, I am reminded that “there is nothing new under the sun.”
Here we go again. Only this time it is not the Russians.
This was nothing like the French revolution. It was a middle class revolution against nobles and monarchs for more freedom, democracy, and trade.
I pray that America will not experience a revolution like that in France or later in Russia...
That is how the 1789 revolution started out as. But it was soon overtaken by the radical Jacobins.
Even the good aspects of the 1848 revolution in France were quickly overshadowed by Napoleon III’s rise to absolute power.
One good side effect of Napoleon III was that he supported Italy’s independence.
Great post/history. Thanks.
But there had been a seismic shift in Europe that would later erupt, destroying most of the Continental monarchies, most notably in 1918 with the fall of three empires.
When Louis-Napoleon was defeated by the Prussian/German army, his dictatorship was overthrown and the French Republic restored.
The Bourbons were restored in Southern Italy, but it would be short lived in part, ironically, because Louis-Napoleon supported the pro-unification parties.
The fact that the Austrian Empire made no sense as a nation state was exposed. Austria eventually had to cede half its territory to a new Kingdom of Hungary, unified under a dual monarchy. The whole thing collapsed after WWI.
Oh, and a little noticed pamphlet appeared in 1848, entitled The Communist Manifesto. A disciple would later have something to do with the fall of the Russian Empire.
Right on.
The only “democracy” they were fighting for in 1848 was mis-named democratic socialism.
1848 were basically the first communist revolutions. Historians have done a good job covering that up.
Everyone should read Democracy in America, also by Alexis de Touqueville. He has an accurate description of the good and the bad in America. We would do well to strengthen what he points out as the good.
The other successful revolution of that year was in Switzerland, where a 27-day civil war brought about a federal state in what had been a loose organization of cantons. The latter was subject to considerable criticism as a model by Madison and Hamilton in the Federalist Papers and ironically the new Swiss constitution took many features of the U.S. Constitution as a model. The Swiss constitution lasted until 1999.
It was more than that. It was also very anti-clerical.
Technically, it was the second. Let’s not forget about 1789, which this was essentially a sequel to. And Karl Marx even modeled Communism directly on the events of 1793, aka, Robespierre’s reign of terror, and also intended to do a gorier remake of that event.
And I wouldn’t call it misnamed. Democracy and Socialism are ultimately one and the same, as 1789 showcased the hard way. In fact, that’s part of the reason why the Founding Fathers NEVER wanted a democracy, period.
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