Chapter 12: Revolution and the Reimposition of Order, 1848-1870

Section 12.58: Paris: The Specter of Social revolution in the West

Introduction• Never before or since had Europe been in a universal

upheaval as 1848• 1848 revolution breaks out spontaneously from many

sources• Secret societies• Demand for constitutional governments• Demand for independent national groups• Demand for an end of serfdom• Powers that were faced by the revolutionaries

– Catholic Church– Habsburgs

• Only Russia and Britain escape revolutions in 1848• Revolution failed as rapidly as it succeeded• Succumbed to military repression and actually

strengthened conservatives• Some goals were achieved

– national unity– Constitutional government– Limited representation

Paris: the Specter of Social Revolution in the West

• July Monarchy only covered republicanism (which was becoming socialistic)

• Few interests were represented in the Chamber of Deputies

• Graft and corruption common, fraud

• July Monarchy was built over a volcano of repressed republicanism

• Movement to expand suffrage increased demands

• Radicals want universal, liberals ask for broadening voting

• Louis Philippe (and Prime Minister Guizot) did not respond

Honore Daumie. Gargantua. 1831

The February Revolution in France• Reformers planned a banquet and

demonstrations in Paris on Feb 22• 2/21/1848 King forbade any

demonstrations in Paris• Revolutionaries barricade the streets of

Paris• Used paving blocks, stones, furniture

across streets, intersections• National guard refused to move against

insurgents • 20 revolutionaries are killed outside the

house of Guizot• 1 guard had been shot• republican parade corpses on torch lit

carts• 2/24/1848 Louis Philippe abdicated and

fled for England• reformers had hoped to replace him with

his grandson

Proclamation of Republic and Blanc• Republicans proclaimed the Republic• Set up a Provisional government of 10

men• Elections through universal suffrage

were to follow• 3 of the 10 were social revolutionaries• Louis Blanc• Blanc pushes for economic & social

reforms• Called for a Ministry of Progress to set

up “Social Workshops” (collective manufacturing establishments)

• Labor Commission was created and produced little

• Created “National Workshops”• A political concession to Blanc

– Never given anything important• Abolition of slavery in the French

colonies was achieved

Go hang yourself somewhere else.

National Workshops• Became an unemployment

relief project• Really a political concession

by Provisional Gov• No important work was ever

assigned them• Women were excluded• Dug roads, fortifications• Paid 2 Francs a day• Unemployment outpaced the

Workshops ability to provide relief work

• 120 thousand enrolled by mid June

• 200 thousand idle men in Paris = (trouble!!) Lacoste, Eugène, 1848

Liberty Trees.

Constituent Assembly 5/4/1848 replaced the Provisional Government

• No social republicans were included• executive board members (5) were all

outspoken enemies of Blanc• Lines are drawn between revolutionary

Paris and more conservative land and property interests

Workers in Paris • more numerous than in 1792• less satisfied with capitalism• want less hours• greater concern about unemployment• workers saw no future in capitalism• had no compunction about violence

against elected assemblies (tradition of violence)

• so many regime changes since 1789 based on insurrections

• major difference between France and England

The Republic,1848, Daumier

The June Days of 1848• 5/15/1848 the Workers and social revolutionaries (feeling

social republic slipping away) attacked the Constitutional assembly

• Social revolutionaries set up a new provisional government• National Guard turned against the social revolutionaries• Restored the Constituent Assembly• Assembly prepared to root out socialism• Attacked the national workshops

– Offer them place in army, go to country, or get lost• Labor class begins to resist• Martial law is proclaimed and General Cavaignac takes over• Class warfare breaks out as more than half of Paris is

barricaded• Gave military a tough time (lacked tanks)• 6/24/to 6/26/1848 Bloody Days of June • 10,000 are killed, 11 thousand taken prisoner• Military defeated the resistance• Prisoners are exiled to the colonies• Militant workers were confirmed in a hatred and loathing of

the bourgeois class • capitalism existed by the callous shooting of working class

men and women• People above the labor class were in a panic

Louis Eugène Cavaignac

Revival of Chartist Agitation• England experienced a revival of chartist

agitation• Revolutionary committee drew up plans

for arson, barricades• Petition weighing 584 pounds was

presented to HOC but contained only 2 mil sigs and was rejected

• One secret organizer was gov spy who revealed plan

• Rev committee was arrested• Military clashes occurred• Fervor dies down• The specter of social revolution was more

real than the potential for social revolution• Those that had something to lose to social

revolution took steps to prevent it• Fear of social revolution shapes the

Second French Republic

The Emergence of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte• Constituent Assembly drafts a new constitution• Create a strong executive power• Call for immediate elections• Louis Napoleon was elected by a landslide• Supposed to be a friend of the common people• At the same time a believer in order• Rode the coattails of Napoleon’s name• Born in 1808, nephew of Napoleon• Father was Louis king of Holland• Napoleon own son died in 1832• Had tried to seize power at Strasbourg in 1836

and Boulogne in 1840 (Putsches) (both miserably failed)

• Was sentenced to life in prison at Ham but escaped in 1846 by walking off ground dressed as stonemason

• Wrote Napoleonic Ideas (Uncle was misunderstood) and Extinction of Poverty (anti capitalist tract)

• 1840 Napoleon’s body was buried in Invalides• Bonaparte was only name voters had heard of!!!

Napoleon III of France

President by Popular Mandate• Constituent assembly dissolved

itself and elections were held (500)

• Two thirds of the selected members were monarchists (but they were divided between:

• Legitimists (Charles X)• Orleanists (Louis Philippe)• One third were republicans• 180 were socialists whose main

issue was the form of society• 70 were old fashioned

republicans whose main issue was the form of government

Antirepublican Government• President and Assembly work to stamp out

socialist interests• use an abortive insurrection as a pretext to

oust 33 socialist deputies, suppress meetings, censor press

• 1850 they take the vote away from the lowest and most socialist class

• Falloux Law puts the schools under the direction of the Catholic Church

• School teacher had made schools political ground for promoting socialist ideas

• French Republic is actually anti republican• French military moves against Mazzini’s

republic in Rome• Bonaparte now knows that he is champion

of the conservatives• he now goes about trying to win over the

radicals

Louis Napoleon undermines the Assembly• On Dec 2, 1851 (anniversary of Austerlitz)

he had placards placed in Paris which dissolved the Assembly and gave vote for all adult males back

• When Assembly tries to meet he has them arrested

• Calls for new elections with universal suffrage

• Louis Napoleon is elected by huge majority• 10 year term• In the following year the Empire is declared• Louis Napoleon becomes Napoleon III• The republic was dead• Killed by its reputation for radicalism• Liberalism and constitutionalism were dead• Bourgeois and property owning monarchists

supported constitutions• Hopelessly divided they were weak and the

door was open for the Bonapartists