[icclearly]

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.

[Publius]

Liberte! Egalite! Fratnernite! Morte!

[PGalt]

Great post/history. Thanks.

[colorado tanker]

On the surface, the revolutions of 1848 were failures. Monarchy and autocracy were restored everywhere.

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.

[babylon_times]

Admin Moderator, can you please change my title to

"Revolution - Part 2, the Revolutions of 1848 & the Rise of a Prophet"

[spintreebob]

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.

[Billthedrill]

Quite a year, 1848. Marx and Engels published the Communist Manifesto that year, and Engels nearly got killed participating in an unsuccessful revolt in Bavaria. The King of Prussia joined the revolutionaries and forestalled them by forcing his own constitution on the country - it isn't obvious to students of World War I but the Kaiser's Prussian monarchy was a constitutional one, which would lead the Social Democrats to have to sign the Treaty of Versailles after the Kaiser, Hindenburg, and Ludendorff flew the coop. Historically that is being passed a flaming bag of dog poo. Here ya go, good luck.

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.