226. When Paris sneezes
“At 11 o'clock, when everyone around me said it was over, I saw a striking picture on the boulevards. The Hôtel des Capucines has no longer a single soldier, the post was occupied by the National Guard - a terrible emptiness, and in full length it was echeloned by barricades of stones, felled trees and latrines.”
“Guizot in the House, announcing his dismissal , declared that before drawing up a new Cabinet, he would restore order in the city by force, a "Journal des débats" (the last No. of the monarchical magazine "des Débats"), announcing revolt, firmly believes that it will be suppressed, and is engaged, it seems, as if nothing had happened, in an analysis of the meeting of the Academy of Sciences and a book about ancient costumes of Normandy!”
P. Annenkov, ‘Dairies of the French Revolution of 1948’
“What a sad necessity, however! - he exclaimed thoughtfully and then, almost in a whisper, continued: - And do you often have revolutions?”
Saltykov-Schedrin
“If an idea becomes global, you can destroy the world rather than uproot this idea out of it.”
Shandor Petefi
“My homeland is more extensive than Germany, and I am called to serve humanity not with my fist, but with my head.”
Arthur Schopenhauer
“Use only when the bayonet rules undividedly.”
Frederich Wilhelm IV about Bismarck
“The people don't need to see the Prussian kingdom melt in the rotten swamp of South German disorder. Our loyalty does not belong to imperial rule, which exists only on paper... it belongs to the living and free king of Prussia...”
Bismarck, 1848
“When Paris sneezes, Europe catches a cold”
Metternich
“The west of Europe is suddenly excited by the current turmoil threatening the overthrow of the legitimate authorities and any social order… Now, not knowing the limits, audacity threatens, in his madness, and our God-entrusted Russia … But let it not be so!”
Nicholas I, Manifesto of March 26, 1848
“What business is it of ours to ask whether the French nation thinks proper to be governed by a king, an emperor, a president, or a consul? Our object and our duty is to cement the closest ties of friendship between ourselves and our nearest neighbour...”
Palmerston, Speech in the House of Commons (2 February, 1849)
1848.
France
For a while it looked like the crisis of 1847 is over or at least will be over soon enough. The rise in the bank rate and interest rates was sufficient to attract capital seeking investment opportunities, and Paris retained its function in international transactions, which brought on gold d eposits. The economical recovery occurred in the last quarter of 1847 lightened the pressure on companies' accounts. The Bank of France's monetary reserves reached 150 million francs in June 1847: 43 percent of the value of notes in circulation were covered by specie on deposit in the central bank. That enabled the regents to lower the bank rate to 4 percent in September 1847, indicating that the investors' and liquid assets holders' confidence had been revitalized since the crisis had not brought on a general crash.
Moreover, the Russian government granted a long-term credit to France by subscribing 50 million of state bonds, which allowed France to pay for purchases of Russian grain. [1] In fact, the state hardly seemed solidly attached by budgetary tensions, because it called on the money market, profiting from recovery of confidence. The French treasury issued short-term bonds of 193 million francs from April to June 1847; it floated a long-term loan of 350 million in August 1847. Als o the state co uld try to help troubled industries, in particular the railway companies. It afforded them some liquidity, returning a portion of their security bonds, according them small advances of a few millions. One thing is sure: at the turn of 1848, the cyclical financial crisis seemed over, even if the companies' health remained fragile.
However, one never should underestimate an amount of trouble which could be caused by the incompetents in power and both the French legislature and the Consulate were blissfully unaware of the reasons of economic and resulting social troubles and did nothing to address them. The people, especially in Paris, had been pissed off and anything could trigger a major rebellion. And, with the government being catastrophically inept, the trigger was provided. On 14 January 1848, ahead of the highly awaited political banquet in Paris, the Consul
François Guizot outlawed it. Nonetheless, the banquet's organizers decided that it would still be held, alongside a political demonstration, and scheduled it for 22 February. On 21 February Guizot outlawed the banquet again but the workers and students, mobilising in the previous days, refused to back down over the demonstrations. 22 February started quietly, and at 9 a.m., members of the Municipal Guard who had been assigned to arrest the banquet leaders were recalled to their normal duties by the
Prefect of Police. Only a small number of troops remained at critical points. Shortly after the noon the large crowds started gathering all over Paris and when the government’s forces tried to disperse them, they spread out around the
Champs-Élysées and back into southeast Paris, building the first
barricades. In the evening, early skirmishes took place with the Municipal Guard. On 23 February, the
Ministry of War requested more regular troops from outside Paris. Crowds marched past Guizot's residence shouting "Down with Guizot" (À bas Guizot) and "Long Live the Reform" (Vive la réforme). The
National Guard was mobilized, however its soldiers refused to engage the crowds, and instead joined them in their demonstrations against Guizot and Consulate in general. At around 9:30 there was the first encounter between the crowd and soldiers guarding Ministry of the Foreign Affairs in which, in response to a shot fired from the crowd, the soldiers fired a salvo that dispersed a crowd leaving 52 killed and 74 wounded.
The results were easy to predict: during the night over 1,500 barricades were erected throughout Paris, and many railways leading to the city were
sabotaged. To deal with the revolt, the Consulate gave the command of the troops in Paris to
Marshal Bugeaud, who was despised by the crowds for his reputation of brutality. The Marshal assessed that crushing the insurrection would take approximately 20,000 killed and sent four
columns through the city in an attempt to defeat the insurgents at the barricades. He had in his disposal approximately 12,000 troops which were short on ammunition.
The intensive fighting broke throughout the city and it was not in favor of the government’s troops because the National Guard joined the rebellion. Eventually, the members of the Consulate fled and Bugeaud ordered his troops to withdrew from the city. Tuileries, Soult’s residence, was taken by storm and looted. The seat of the city administration, the
Hôtel de Ville, was taken by the revolutionary National Guards. There, on the evening, the final list of the eleven individuals who would form the
Provisional Government was drawn up, with its members then being announced one by one to the crowd outside. Consulate was declared abolished.
If somebody expected that this will be the end of turmoil, this person was extremely naive because there was an immediate quarrel between the factions forming Provisional Government: while the moderates (those waiving a tricolor) wanted the country-wide universal suffrage [2], the radicals (those with the red flag) wished for the republic of Paris to hold a monopoly on political power. The moderates prevailed and, with the participation of “uneducated masses” the Constitutional Assembly was elected on 4 May 1848. The provisional government having resigned, the republican and anti-socialist majority on 9 May entrusted the supreme power to an
Executive Commission consisting of five members. But the socialists would not give up easily. On 15 May, an armed mob headed by the socialist leaders and supported by the proletariat-aligned part of the National Guard, attempted to overwhelm the Assembly, but were defeated by the bourgeois-aligned battalions of the National Guard. After this, the
June Days Uprising broke out, over the course of 24–26 June, when the eastern industrial quarter of Paris, led by Pujol, fought the western quarter, led by
Louis-Eugène Cavaignac, who had been appointed dictator.
The estimated losses by dead and wounded were up to 10,000 including the deaths of about 1,500 troops and about 3,000 insurgents. This was pretty much business as usual: the rebels had been building the barricades and the government’s troops had been storming them. Among other things, the events demonstrated, once more, that to have a cobbled streets was not such a good idea.
The socialist party was defeated and afterwards its members were deported. But the republic
in its present form had been discredited and had already become unpopular with both the peasants, who were exasperated by the new land tax of 45 centimes imposed in order to fill the empty treasury, and with the bourgeoisie, who were intimidated by the power of the revolutionary clubs and disadvantaged by the economic stagnation. By the "massacres" of the June Days, the working classes were also alienated from it. Cavaignac was left by the Assembly as a temporary head of the Executive Power. His government gave support to producers' and workers' cooperatives, sponsored legislation on maximum
working hours for adult factory workers, and promoted the modernization of the French
postal system. But it did nothing to reduce the tax burden on the peasants and it was not reputable enough to generate trust in the financial institutions. The treasury was reduced to extremities after the revolution; it had to extend its date of payment by six months, particularly for the floatin g debt. The crisis in state credit limited the treasury in issuing new securities, treasury bonds or government bonds. Without cash, the state was unable to contribute to the budget sustaining the economy, for example with a huge program of public works or financing the railway construction. The ministry of finance and the assembly's budget committee gave the rejuvenation of public credit priority at the expense of expansionist tactics: "The state will have more credit, when it does not ask for it ". This was, of course, a step in the right direction but the positive results will be seen in a long term while the immediate cutting spending on the public works had been hurting the poorest right now.
The
new constitution, proclaiming a democratic republic, direct universal suffrage and the separation of powers, was promulgated on 4 November 1848. Under the new constitution, there was to be a single permanent Assembly of 750 members elected for a term of three years by the
scrutin de liste. The Assembly would elect members of a Council of State to serve for six years. Laws would be proposed by the Council of State, to be voted on by the Assembly. The executive power was delegated to the President, who was elected for four years by direct universal suffrage. [3]
As a side note, the universal suffrage was, indeed, a huge step forward but this does not mean that its results will benefit whatever was left pf the “left” and even those considered the “modern republicans” like the savior of the Republic general
Cavaignac: majority of the peasants were rather conservative in their views and nostalgic about the good times of the “initial Consulate”. The bourgeoisie wanted a strong hand which could guarantee law, order and stability without which the credit market could not be restored. As one newspaper remarked,
"Without confidence, no money, no commerce." And all these things had been routinely associated with the same name so it was not a big surprise that this name appeared on the list of presidential candidates. Besides name recognition, the candidate was handsome, had a good military record (but was not killing French), possessed very important international connections and no less important domestic ones (which did not hurt his election campaign, to put it mildly). Honestly, Cavaignac did not have too many chances.
Domino effect.
On a wake of the French Revolution there was a whole avalanche of the revolutionary event throughout a big part of Europe. While the events in France were something of a trigger, they hardly had been a
cause (and the tempting analogy of a handful of yeast being thrown into a latrine will be probably inaccurate 😜). Of course, the biggest “theater” was the HRE in which it took form of the uncoordinated events in the numerous German states with the various degrees of violence.
Of course, an absolute “winner” was Hapsburg “empire” but chronologically the brouhaha started in
Bavaria where Elector Ludwig had problems with pretty much everybody … because he openly lived with his mistress Lola Montez (Eliza Rosanna Gilbert), an
Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer, and
courtesan whom Ludwig made
Gräfin von Landsfeld (
Countess of Landsfeld).
She tried to launch liberal reforms through the Protestant Prime Minister. On February 9, conservatives took to the streets in protest. This demonstration on February 9, 1848 was the first in the revolutionary year. This was an exception to the wave of liberal protests. The Conservatives wanted to get rid of Lola Montes, and they had no other political program. The Liberals took advantage of Lola Montez's case to emphasize their demands for political change. Throughout Bavaria, students began demonstrations for constitutional reform. Ludwig tried to carry out several minor reforms, but they were not enough to suppress a storm of protests. On March 16, 1848, Ludwig I abdicated in favor of his eldest son Maximilian II. Lola had to flee to the US and later went on a performance tour to Australia producing an uproar “raising her skirts so high that the audience could see she wore no underclothing at all”. Upon return she arranged to deliver a series of moral lectures in Britain and America written by Rev.
Charles Chauncey Burr. She spent her last days in rescue work among women.
Austria
Austria had it all. First there was an uprising in
Vienna where the students demanded a constitution and a constituent assembly elected by universal suffrage of men. The troops had been sent to disperse the demonstration and (how original!) it all ended up with the firing and few demonstrates being killed after which the students had been joined by the workers and the shooting began on both sides forcing the Emperor to fire Metternich and appoint the liberal ministers who wrote a draft of constitution which had been rejected by the public because it would give vote only to a minority. Residents of Vienna returned to the streets from May 26 to 27, 1848, erecting barricades to prepare for an army attack. Ferdinand fled to Innsbruck (the peasants of Tyrol had been loyal and did not care for the constitution). Finally, Ferdinand gave up and reformed the Imperial Sejm into popularly elected Constitutional Assembly after which he returned to Vienna after which the local proletariat got to the streets again, this time to protest against high unemployment and government’s decision to lower the wages (the European crisis was not over, yet and there were neither jobs nor money). The troops fired at the demonstrates again killing few people. At the end of September 1848, Emperor Ferdinand, who was also King Ferdinand V of Hungary, decided to send Austrian and Croatian troops to Hungary to suppress a democratic uprising there. On September 29, 1848, Austrian troops were defeated by Hungarian revolutionary forces. From October 6 to 7, 1848, the residents of Vienna opposed the emperor's actions against Hungary. As a result, on October 7, 1848, Emperor Ferdinand fled Vienna and settled in the fortress city of Olomouc in Moravia. On December 2, 1848, Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his nephew Franz Joseph.
On 12-17 June 1848 there was an uprising in Prague (Pražské červnové povstání). There was a petition with the requests for the language equality, permission to publish a national newspaper and to create a National Assembly. The commanding general in
Bohemia,
Alfred Windischgrätz, decided that the growing tensions would be dampened by military demonstrations of force. Result was easy to predict: a demonstration had been stopped by the troops. This ignited a spark of rebellion led by students and radical Democrats. The barricades had been built and shooting started with one of the first victims being Windischgrätz's wife as she stood at a window watching street fights. The army withdrew to the left bank of the
Vltava and from there began shelling the
Old Town, where there were the most barricades. On June 17, the insurgents capitulated. About 43 people died during the fighting. The Austrian conservative power tested that a military solution to the political situation was possible, and it was Windischgrätz who was called to Vienna for this task.
But the biggest splash was, of course,
Hungary. Revolution there started on 15 March 1848, when Hungarian patriots organized mass demonstrations in
Pest and
Buda(today Budapest) which forced the imperial governor to accept their
12 points of demands, which included the demand for freedom of press, an independent Hungarian ministry residing in Buda-Pest and responsible to a popularly elected parliament, the formation of a National Guard, complete civil and religious equality, trial by jury, a national bank, a Hungarian army, the withdrawal of foreign (Austrian) troops from Hungary, the freeing of political prisoners, and the union with Transylvania.
Lajos Kossuth and some other liberal nobility that made up the
Dietappealed to the Habsburg court with demands for representative government and civil liberties. The demands of the Diet were agreed upon on 18 March by Emperor Ferdinand. Although Hungary would remain part of the monarchy through
personal union with the emperor, a constitutional government would be founded. The Diet then passed the April laws that established equality before the law, a legislature, a hereditary constitutional monarchy, and an end to the transfer and restrictions of land use. However, the new emperor revoked all the concessions granted in March, outlawed Kossuth and the Hungarian government and sent
Windischgrätz to crush the rebellion.
The revolution grew into a war for independence from the
Habsburg monarchy when
Josip Jelačić, Ban of Croatia, crossed the border to restore Hapsburg control and to make Croatia independent from Hungary. Kossuth managed to create the Hungarian army practically from the scratch and it was able defeat the Croatians, the invading Austrian armies and the Serbs of Vojovodina who, just as the Croats wanted independence from Hungary and as a result had been loyal to the Hapsburgs. The Hungarians, being understandably pissed off with the Hapsburgs, declared their independence and the war kept going on.
Prussia.
In March 1848, crowds of people gathered in Berlin. to present their demands in an "advert to the king." King Frederick William IV, taken by surprise, orally ceded all the demands of the demonstrators, including parliamentary elections, the constitution and freedom of the press.
On March 13, after police warnings about public demonstrations were ignored, the army attacked a group of people returning from a rally in Tirgarten, leaving one person dead and many wounded. On March 18, a major demonstration took place. After two shots, the demonstrators erected barricades, and a battle followed until 13 hours later the troops were ordered to retreat. After that, Frederick William tried to assure the public that he would continue to reorganize his government. The king also approved the armament of citizens. On March 21, the king proceeded through the streets of Berlin, attending a mass funeral at Friedrichshain Cemetery in memory of the civilian victims of the attack. uprising. He, his ministers and generals wore a revolutionary tricolor of black, red and gold colors.
King Frederick William IV of Prussia unilaterally introduced a monarchical constitution with a purpose to undermine democratic forces. This constitution entered into force on December 5, 1848. Prussia got a parliament which consisted of two chambers: Herrenhaus (upper chamber) and
Landtag, a lower chamber elected by universal suffrage, but in accordance with the three-class voting system based upon the size of taxes paid.
There were also revolutionary excesses in Baden, Saxony, and some other states resulting in an attempt to create an unified German state. Constitutional Assembly met in Frankfurt with a purpose to develop a common constitution and predictably failed.
Sweden.
On 2 March 1848, news of the
French Revolution of 1848reached Stockholm. On the morning of 18 March, the police encountered proclamations all over the capital defying the government and demanding reforms, among them elective and suffrage reform. On the evening, a crowd gathered near the Royal Palace. The King met the protesters, listened to their complaints and ordered the release of the arrested, which dissolved the crowd. Another crowd formed later the same day, however, which threw stones through windows at
Gustav Adolfs torg,
Drottninggatan and
Blasieholmen, among them at the windows of
Arch Bishop Wingård. On 19 March, mobs gathered again and shops were plundered. When a crowd on Storkyrkobrinken refused to dissolve, the monarch called out the
militia. Shots were fired, leading to 18 casualties among the protesters. At
Norra Smedjegatan, the military stormed a barricade. Among the wealthy merchant class, private militias were formed to keep the peace. The following day was calm. On 21 March, reinforcements from the army arrived to the capital to be at hand in case of further riots, but none occurred.
Spain was in the midst of the Second Carlist War and a little bit too busy for having a revolution on a top of it. 😉
Britain. In Britain, while the middle classes had been pacified by their inclusion in the extension of the franchise in the
Reform Act 1832, the consequential agitations, violence, and petitions of the
Chartist movement came to a head with
their peaceful petition to Parliament of 1848. The repeal in 1846 of the protectionist agricultural tariffs – called the "
Corn Laws" – had defused some proletarian fervour. In Ireland there was so-called Young Irelander Revolution but its first encounter with the armed police was a failure after which the leaders were arrested and uprising collapsed though intermittent fighting continued for the next year.
Russia. Nicholas …. issued a manifesto declaring that the ongoing madness will not be permitted to spread to Russia. On that he considered his mission accomplished and got back to his usual occupations quoting a popular verse «нас это не касается: сам тонет, пускай сам и спасается» [5]. The only exception had been made for the Sultan when he asked help with the unrest in his Danubian Principalities.
So far the Russian Empire had been quite safe: majority of the Russian population had been under the impression that “constitution” is probably a wife of the Grand Duke Constantine Nicholaevich who just got married to a foreign princess. Most of those who knew better hold an opinion that Russia already has everything it needs and Annenkov’s account about the events in France, which was immediately published, comtained graphic and rather unappealing scenes of the activities of the revolutionary mob. Well, anyway, the system of the “domestication” of the influential liberal figures so far worked quite well, there was no questionable institution like National Guard and Russia was not seriously hit by the ongoing financial crisis. Rather on a contrary, being considered a safe heaven, it kept attracted serious investments from the more volatile parts of Europe.
_______
[1] OTL, as the rest of the numbers.
[2] Of course, only for the males.
[3] In OTL constitution he was not eligible for re-election.
[4] In a violation of the historic tradition nobody was thrown out of the window.
[5] “It is not our business: whoever is thinking should save himself”. Actually, it is from a play “Cat in the boots” written in XX century. 😂
