1848: Springtime of Peoples
Okay this update took much longer than I wanted to. Writers block was really bad with this one, then I ended up losing the original document and having to re-write it...ugh I'm glad to have it done. This is the first of two Europe installments. I apologize if some things seem weird or unbelievable, I figure after about 40 years of butterfly wing flaps, almost anythings possible.
In the early months of 1848, the mere notion that Europe would plunge itself into a war not unlike the revolutionary conflicts at the turn of the century seemed preposterous. There were some who feared the worst during the 1830 revolts, but other than regime change in France and a bloody civil war in Spain, nothing really came of these developments. On the surface at least, it seemed the status quo remained unaffected. The truth, however, was that 1830 was the first of many cracks in the façade of the order set up by Metternich at the Congress of Vienna.
In the German states, political agitation often led to violent confrontations with the authorities. These were strongest in the south and west, particularly in the Prussian Rhineland. Here the Prussians reneged on promises to maintain the Rhineland’s budding democratic institutions, and during the Hambach Festival of 1832 rioting broke out amongst police and students at Heidelberg University. In Poland, a plot for independence was discovered in October 1830 by Russian authorities and was briskly stamped out. Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, political violence in the late 1820’s culminated in the assassination of Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and the failure of Catholic Emancipation. Further attempts at reform also met disappointing ends in Parliament, with the last reform bill failing in 1834, just prior to the ascension of Ernest I to the British Throne.
The great European Famine of 1845 is thought to be the primary motivator for the disturbances of 1848. Ireland faced the brunt of the crisis, with an estimated one million dying and twice that number emigrating between 1845 and 1850. The effects of the Famine quickly traveled east, with another 100,000 dying in the Netherlands, France, Prussia and other north German states during 1846 and 1847. While many Europeans opted to emigrate overseas (primarily to the Americas, as well as both French and British Australia), many more flooded in from rural areas into the cities, particularly in industrializing regions. These growing masses of poor urban workers soon found common cause with the bourgeoisie, with demands for universal suffrage and abolishment of antiquated feudal dues intensifying.
The Revolutions of 1848, as the first phase of the wars came to be called, began on the island of Sicily. Discontent in the city of Palermo boiled over into rebellion in early January, and in a matter of weeks the whole island was engulfed in revolution, soon followed by the deposition of Sicilian King Ferdinand II. Then in February a similar rising in Paris overthrew King Louis-Philippe and installed a new republic. By March the revolutionary wave was in full swing, overtaking much of the Rhineland and Palatinate in southwestern Germany, as well as rioting in Vienna which resulted in the removal of Clemens von Metternich from the Austrian government. Near simultaneously Hungarian revolutionaries demanded the Habsburg Emperor consent to a constitution, with similar events playing out in the Prussian capital.
This “Springtime of Peoples” as the first few months of 1848 came to be called saw constitutional governments sprouting up all over Europe, and for a moment a sense of euphoria permeated the air, as it seemed the popular masses were capable of standing up against European absolutism. That soon changed over the course of the summer months, as counter-revolutionary forces regrouped and attempted to undo the progress made by the various European Liberals. In Sicily, the deposed King Ferdinand II attempted to retake the island by force, with Bourbon forces dealing harshly with the Liberal defenders of the island. At this time the Liberal head of state Ruggero Settimo appealed for foreign support. That support soon manifested in the form of General Giuseppe Garibaldi, who managed to inflict a series of defeats on the Bourbons with the tacit support of Neapolitan King Achille I.[1]
Giuseppe Garibaldi in his iconic red shirt and the Italian tricolor
Back in the Habsburg Empire, the Imperial Government was rapidly losing control of large swaths of the country, as the Hungarians inched closer towards declaring independence, and new nationalist movements sprang up in Lombardy-Venetia and Bohemia. Events in Austria’s Italian territories prompted the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia to invade, managing easily enough to occupy Milan and much of western Lombardy that summer. With the hopes for the unification of the Italian Peninsula at an all-time high, Naples (now united with Sicily) provided support to republican revolutionaries in the Papal States, with all but Latium under republican control by the end of the year. In Hungary things took a turn for the worst when Croatian Ban Josip Jelačić, with the tacit support of the crown, invaded southern Hungary that August.
For several weeks Jelačić and his forces made little headway against the Hungarians, themselves having mobilized the Honvéd’s full power to defend against Imperial attack.[2] The Honvéd, under the command of lieutenant-general János Móga managed to halt Jelačić’s advance toward Budapest in late September near the shores of Lake Velence. With his troops demoralized, starving and stuck deep within hostile territory, Jelačić secured a ceasefire with the Hungarians before marching south back to Croatia.
Back in the Habsburg capital, riots erupted in the opening days of October when the Imperial government attempted to deploy troops within the city to fight the Hungarians. Eerily mirroring the February risings in Paris, Vienna became engulfed in a maelstrom of blood and fire, forcing the Imperial court to flee north to Olmütz. The ragtag assemblage of workers, students and Liberals whom now controlled Vienna were well aware that time was of the utmost essence, as troops still loyal to the Emperor began to amass outside the city limits, and understandably fearful of Habsburg retribution, requested military aid from the Hungarians.
At first Hungarian support of the Viennese rebels seemed unlikely, with Prime Minister Lajos Batthyány promising support on the condition that it be officially sanctioned by the Imperial Parliament, which itself proved to be a daft prospect. Many Hungarians were sympathetic to the plight of the Viennese, but it was the news of Jelačić’s march on Vienna that spurred the Hungarians into action. The Honvéd, now joined by Governor-President Lajos Kossuth raced westward in order to beat Jelačić before he managed to link with the mass of Imperial soldiers east of the capital. Jelačić for his part hoped to curry more favor with the court by “aiding” in the suppression of the Hungarian revolt (as well as downplaying his own ambitions for Croatian independence).[3]
Windischgrätz lays siege to Vienna
In the early hours of October 26, 1848 Imperial forces, 70,000 strong and under the directive of General Alfred Windischgrätz invested the capital, easily overrunning rebel pockets throughout the western suburbs. By the following day much of the city was engulfed in a thick blanket of smoke, with Windischgrätz in control of most of the western half of Vienna, while rebels remained defiant in some of the eastern districts. Windischgrätz’s methods soon became suspect, as the battle for Vienna made the streets flow with the blood of soldiers and civilians alike. Just as all hope seemed lost and the Viennese rebels on the brink of capitulation, cries from atop the steeples of Saint Stephen’s Cathedral heralded the appearance of the Honvéd over the eastern horizon.
The Hungarian Army’s arrival could not have been at a more opportune time, as Jelačić was mere hours from Vienna. The Hungarians immediately got to work preparing for the showdown with the Croatians, strategically placing cannons along the heights overlooking the Schwechat River. The unsuspecting Croats never stood a chance, the surprise attack nearly annihilating Jelačić’s entire army (the Croatian Ban himself suffered serious injury).[4] By the time the smoke cleared, the Croatians were long gone in the opposite direction.
The Hungarians and Viennese had little time to celebrate, as it took several more days of heavy fighting and heavy casualties on both sides before it was all said and done. The Revolutionaries emerged victorious, forcing Windischgrätz and a fraction of his original force back to Olmütz, where he hastily prepared the Emperor and his family for evacuation. When a southern route proved too dangerous, an attempt was made to escape east into Russia before the royal entourage was intercepted by Revolutionaries near Ostrau. Terrified for his life, Emperor Ferdinand and his family were escorted back to Vienna, where they would remain under house arrest.
By November 1848 the conservative reaction had so far proven incapable in stopping the so-called “Springtime of Peoples.” As the battle lines hardened, the Revolutions entered their second, more violent phase. Unlike Austria, its neighbors Russia and Prussia had initially managed to subdue their own Liberal movements before they had a chance to bloom. Liberal riots in Berlin were brutally put down after King Friedrich Wilhelm IV rescinded his support of a Liberal constitution for a more conservative one that preserved his executive powers, made particularly brutal by the proliferation of arms amongst the population of Berlin. Feeling much more secure in his power, the Prussian King ordered a full mobilization of the Prussian army in December.
Rioters and soldiers clash in Alexanderplatz, Berlin
Back in Austria a Liberal government controlled Vienna and its environs, with Hungarian support, while most of the adjacent crown lands lay in the hands of Royalists led by General Josef Radetzky. In February 1849 members of the Imperial court secretly convinced Emperor Ferdinand to formally request military aid from Russia, and somehow managed to get the message to Saint Petersburg, where in April Tsar Nikolai I mobilized Russian troops and invaded Hungary via Wallachia. Most of Transylvania capitulated easily to the Russians before being abruptly halted near Magyar territory in the last days of May.
The Liberal German National Assembly in Frankfurt, after nearly a year of deliberations hammered out a constitution for a united German Empire and presented it to Friedrich Wilhelm IV in March 1849, offering him the Imperial crown. To the Parliamentarian’s dismay, the Prussian King derisively refused the offer, arguing that it was not something they could possibly possess and give him. Feeling snubbed by the Prussian monarch, the Frankfurt Parliament abandoned further attempts to pursue either Austria or Prussia on the issue of German unification, and instead focused on solidifying constitutional support in the western states. It was in this region that a second military front would materialize.
The work of the Frankfurt Parliament inspired Germans in the Rhineland to rebel against Prussian rule
The German territories along the River Rhine proved to be restive well before 1848, and recent events only served to inflame the region further. In May 1849 King Friedrich Wilhelm IV ordered the mobilization of the Landwehr, an act considered illegal without a declaration of war. When the orders reached the Rhineland on May 1, Militia in Düsseldorf mutinied, barricading themselves within the city long enough for an army of insurgent peasants to arrive from the countryside and tip the battle in the democrats favor.[5] By mid-May the revolution had traveled up the river to Köln and Bonn, and ten days later a republic was established in the Palatinate. With most of western Prussia and its adjoining states in arms to defend the Frankfurt constitution, delegates from all over western Germany met in Düsseldorf to discuss the possibility of Rhenish secession from Prussia and its subsequent union with other western German states (the Westdeutsche Lösung or West German solution).
Incensed at the notion that two of his most valuable provinces dared to secede, Friedrich Wilhelm IV ordered the army to march west and bring the Rhineland back into the Prussian fold. By midsummer Prussia had occupied everything east of the Weser River, including all of Saxony, Mecklenburg and most of Hannover and Holstein. By this point both the United Kingdom and France felt they could not stand by any longer as the continent seemingly descended into chaos. In late June both powers issued ultimatums to both Prussia and Russia against further military aggression. On June 26, the United Kingdom officially declared war against both powers, with a more solemn declaration following out of Paris several days later. For the first time since 1815, Europe was at war.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] The revolution in Sicily failed in OTL due to Bourbon control of Naples. Here they get the short end of the stick and suffer the wrath of House Murat.
[2] Honvéd is the name for the Hungarian army.
[3] Kinda tricky here, but the premise is butterflies have the letter that the Imperial government sent to Jelačić get lost, so he never finds out he gets to be an Austrian puppet. After he loses at Pákozd he decides to go back to Croatia instead of to Vienna. Continued below...
[4] The Hungarians beat Jelačić to Vienna and reverse what originally happened at the Battle of Schwechat. This proves to be a decisive moment in the war for Hungarian independence.
[5] Moar butterflies, in OTL the rebels in Düsseldorf get crushed by the Prussians before the peasants get on the scene. This liberal victory allows the revolution to grow initially.
Next update will follow this new war to it's conclusion and aftermath, hopefully I can hammer out another update while my hands are still hot.
1848: Springtime of Peoples
Revolution in Paris, February 1848
Revolution in Paris, February 1848
In the early months of 1848, the mere notion that Europe would plunge itself into a war not unlike the revolutionary conflicts at the turn of the century seemed preposterous. There were some who feared the worst during the 1830 revolts, but other than regime change in France and a bloody civil war in Spain, nothing really came of these developments. On the surface at least, it seemed the status quo remained unaffected. The truth, however, was that 1830 was the first of many cracks in the façade of the order set up by Metternich at the Congress of Vienna.
In the German states, political agitation often led to violent confrontations with the authorities. These were strongest in the south and west, particularly in the Prussian Rhineland. Here the Prussians reneged on promises to maintain the Rhineland’s budding democratic institutions, and during the Hambach Festival of 1832 rioting broke out amongst police and students at Heidelberg University. In Poland, a plot for independence was discovered in October 1830 by Russian authorities and was briskly stamped out. Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, political violence in the late 1820’s culminated in the assassination of Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and the failure of Catholic Emancipation. Further attempts at reform also met disappointing ends in Parliament, with the last reform bill failing in 1834, just prior to the ascension of Ernest I to the British Throne.
The great European Famine of 1845 is thought to be the primary motivator for the disturbances of 1848. Ireland faced the brunt of the crisis, with an estimated one million dying and twice that number emigrating between 1845 and 1850. The effects of the Famine quickly traveled east, with another 100,000 dying in the Netherlands, France, Prussia and other north German states during 1846 and 1847. While many Europeans opted to emigrate overseas (primarily to the Americas, as well as both French and British Australia), many more flooded in from rural areas into the cities, particularly in industrializing regions. These growing masses of poor urban workers soon found common cause with the bourgeoisie, with demands for universal suffrage and abolishment of antiquated feudal dues intensifying.
The Revolutions of 1848, as the first phase of the wars came to be called, began on the island of Sicily. Discontent in the city of Palermo boiled over into rebellion in early January, and in a matter of weeks the whole island was engulfed in revolution, soon followed by the deposition of Sicilian King Ferdinand II. Then in February a similar rising in Paris overthrew King Louis-Philippe and installed a new republic. By March the revolutionary wave was in full swing, overtaking much of the Rhineland and Palatinate in southwestern Germany, as well as rioting in Vienna which resulted in the removal of Clemens von Metternich from the Austrian government. Near simultaneously Hungarian revolutionaries demanded the Habsburg Emperor consent to a constitution, with similar events playing out in the Prussian capital.
This “Springtime of Peoples” as the first few months of 1848 came to be called saw constitutional governments sprouting up all over Europe, and for a moment a sense of euphoria permeated the air, as it seemed the popular masses were capable of standing up against European absolutism. That soon changed over the course of the summer months, as counter-revolutionary forces regrouped and attempted to undo the progress made by the various European Liberals. In Sicily, the deposed King Ferdinand II attempted to retake the island by force, with Bourbon forces dealing harshly with the Liberal defenders of the island. At this time the Liberal head of state Ruggero Settimo appealed for foreign support. That support soon manifested in the form of General Giuseppe Garibaldi, who managed to inflict a series of defeats on the Bourbons with the tacit support of Neapolitan King Achille I.[1]
Giuseppe Garibaldi in his iconic red shirt and the Italian tricolor
Back in the Habsburg Empire, the Imperial Government was rapidly losing control of large swaths of the country, as the Hungarians inched closer towards declaring independence, and new nationalist movements sprang up in Lombardy-Venetia and Bohemia. Events in Austria’s Italian territories prompted the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia to invade, managing easily enough to occupy Milan and much of western Lombardy that summer. With the hopes for the unification of the Italian Peninsula at an all-time high, Naples (now united with Sicily) provided support to republican revolutionaries in the Papal States, with all but Latium under republican control by the end of the year. In Hungary things took a turn for the worst when Croatian Ban Josip Jelačić, with the tacit support of the crown, invaded southern Hungary that August.
For several weeks Jelačić and his forces made little headway against the Hungarians, themselves having mobilized the Honvéd’s full power to defend against Imperial attack.[2] The Honvéd, under the command of lieutenant-general János Móga managed to halt Jelačić’s advance toward Budapest in late September near the shores of Lake Velence. With his troops demoralized, starving and stuck deep within hostile territory, Jelačić secured a ceasefire with the Hungarians before marching south back to Croatia.
Back in the Habsburg capital, riots erupted in the opening days of October when the Imperial government attempted to deploy troops within the city to fight the Hungarians. Eerily mirroring the February risings in Paris, Vienna became engulfed in a maelstrom of blood and fire, forcing the Imperial court to flee north to Olmütz. The ragtag assemblage of workers, students and Liberals whom now controlled Vienna were well aware that time was of the utmost essence, as troops still loyal to the Emperor began to amass outside the city limits, and understandably fearful of Habsburg retribution, requested military aid from the Hungarians.
At first Hungarian support of the Viennese rebels seemed unlikely, with Prime Minister Lajos Batthyány promising support on the condition that it be officially sanctioned by the Imperial Parliament, which itself proved to be a daft prospect. Many Hungarians were sympathetic to the plight of the Viennese, but it was the news of Jelačić’s march on Vienna that spurred the Hungarians into action. The Honvéd, now joined by Governor-President Lajos Kossuth raced westward in order to beat Jelačić before he managed to link with the mass of Imperial soldiers east of the capital. Jelačić for his part hoped to curry more favor with the court by “aiding” in the suppression of the Hungarian revolt (as well as downplaying his own ambitions for Croatian independence).[3]
Windischgrätz lays siege to Vienna
In the early hours of October 26, 1848 Imperial forces, 70,000 strong and under the directive of General Alfred Windischgrätz invested the capital, easily overrunning rebel pockets throughout the western suburbs. By the following day much of the city was engulfed in a thick blanket of smoke, with Windischgrätz in control of most of the western half of Vienna, while rebels remained defiant in some of the eastern districts. Windischgrätz’s methods soon became suspect, as the battle for Vienna made the streets flow with the blood of soldiers and civilians alike. Just as all hope seemed lost and the Viennese rebels on the brink of capitulation, cries from atop the steeples of Saint Stephen’s Cathedral heralded the appearance of the Honvéd over the eastern horizon.
The Hungarian Army’s arrival could not have been at a more opportune time, as Jelačić was mere hours from Vienna. The Hungarians immediately got to work preparing for the showdown with the Croatians, strategically placing cannons along the heights overlooking the Schwechat River. The unsuspecting Croats never stood a chance, the surprise attack nearly annihilating Jelačić’s entire army (the Croatian Ban himself suffered serious injury).[4] By the time the smoke cleared, the Croatians were long gone in the opposite direction.
The Hungarians and Viennese had little time to celebrate, as it took several more days of heavy fighting and heavy casualties on both sides before it was all said and done. The Revolutionaries emerged victorious, forcing Windischgrätz and a fraction of his original force back to Olmütz, where he hastily prepared the Emperor and his family for evacuation. When a southern route proved too dangerous, an attempt was made to escape east into Russia before the royal entourage was intercepted by Revolutionaries near Ostrau. Terrified for his life, Emperor Ferdinand and his family were escorted back to Vienna, where they would remain under house arrest.
By November 1848 the conservative reaction had so far proven incapable in stopping the so-called “Springtime of Peoples.” As the battle lines hardened, the Revolutions entered their second, more violent phase. Unlike Austria, its neighbors Russia and Prussia had initially managed to subdue their own Liberal movements before they had a chance to bloom. Liberal riots in Berlin were brutally put down after King Friedrich Wilhelm IV rescinded his support of a Liberal constitution for a more conservative one that preserved his executive powers, made particularly brutal by the proliferation of arms amongst the population of Berlin. Feeling much more secure in his power, the Prussian King ordered a full mobilization of the Prussian army in December.
Rioters and soldiers clash in Alexanderplatz, Berlin
Back in Austria a Liberal government controlled Vienna and its environs, with Hungarian support, while most of the adjacent crown lands lay in the hands of Royalists led by General Josef Radetzky. In February 1849 members of the Imperial court secretly convinced Emperor Ferdinand to formally request military aid from Russia, and somehow managed to get the message to Saint Petersburg, where in April Tsar Nikolai I mobilized Russian troops and invaded Hungary via Wallachia. Most of Transylvania capitulated easily to the Russians before being abruptly halted near Magyar territory in the last days of May.
The Liberal German National Assembly in Frankfurt, after nearly a year of deliberations hammered out a constitution for a united German Empire and presented it to Friedrich Wilhelm IV in March 1849, offering him the Imperial crown. To the Parliamentarian’s dismay, the Prussian King derisively refused the offer, arguing that it was not something they could possibly possess and give him. Feeling snubbed by the Prussian monarch, the Frankfurt Parliament abandoned further attempts to pursue either Austria or Prussia on the issue of German unification, and instead focused on solidifying constitutional support in the western states. It was in this region that a second military front would materialize.
The work of the Frankfurt Parliament inspired Germans in the Rhineland to rebel against Prussian rule
The German territories along the River Rhine proved to be restive well before 1848, and recent events only served to inflame the region further. In May 1849 King Friedrich Wilhelm IV ordered the mobilization of the Landwehr, an act considered illegal without a declaration of war. When the orders reached the Rhineland on May 1, Militia in Düsseldorf mutinied, barricading themselves within the city long enough for an army of insurgent peasants to arrive from the countryside and tip the battle in the democrats favor.[5] By mid-May the revolution had traveled up the river to Köln and Bonn, and ten days later a republic was established in the Palatinate. With most of western Prussia and its adjoining states in arms to defend the Frankfurt constitution, delegates from all over western Germany met in Düsseldorf to discuss the possibility of Rhenish secession from Prussia and its subsequent union with other western German states (the Westdeutsche Lösung or West German solution).
Incensed at the notion that two of his most valuable provinces dared to secede, Friedrich Wilhelm IV ordered the army to march west and bring the Rhineland back into the Prussian fold. By midsummer Prussia had occupied everything east of the Weser River, including all of Saxony, Mecklenburg and most of Hannover and Holstein. By this point both the United Kingdom and France felt they could not stand by any longer as the continent seemingly descended into chaos. In late June both powers issued ultimatums to both Prussia and Russia against further military aggression. On June 26, the United Kingdom officially declared war against both powers, with a more solemn declaration following out of Paris several days later. For the first time since 1815, Europe was at war.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] The revolution in Sicily failed in OTL due to Bourbon control of Naples. Here they get the short end of the stick and suffer the wrath of House Murat.
[2] Honvéd is the name for the Hungarian army.
[3] Kinda tricky here, but the premise is butterflies have the letter that the Imperial government sent to Jelačić get lost, so he never finds out he gets to be an Austrian puppet. After he loses at Pákozd he decides to go back to Croatia instead of to Vienna. Continued below...
[4] The Hungarians beat Jelačić to Vienna and reverse what originally happened at the Battle of Schwechat. This proves to be a decisive moment in the war for Hungarian independence.
[5] Moar butterflies, in OTL the rebels in Düsseldorf get crushed by the Prussians before the peasants get on the scene. This liberal victory allows the revolution to grow initially.
Next update will follow this new war to it's conclusion and aftermath, hopefully I can hammer out another update while my hands are still hot.
Last edited:
