Political Protest; Reforms; Revolution - AP European History

1848 is known as the "Year of Revolutions" in European history. A series of ad hoc coalitions in several different European countries formed. They sought the overthrow of the established political order and the implementation of a more liberal and democratic system of government. The revolutions were unsuccessful, at least in the immediacy, as the reactionary forces were able to defeat the revolutions pretty much everywhere. There were lasting consequences and real concessions in some places, however. More importantly, from a progressive-narrative approach to history, the revolutions were one of the most significant movements from absolutism to republicanism in European history.

The House of Bourbon controlled the monarchy before the French Revolution, with the king and his family being executed in 1793 during the revolution. After various dysfunctional governments ruled, Napoleon took power as emperor in 1804. While in charge, he continually expanded France, much to the disdain of other European powers. In 1814, Napoleon was defeated by Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, who placed King Louis XVIII on the throne of France due to indication of some support for the monarchy. Louis enacted many of the provisions that had been initiated during the revolution and agreed to a constitutional monarchy. Napoleon attempted a comeback in 1815, forcing Louis to give up the throne, but Napoleon was permanently defeated at Waterloo on June 18, 1815. Louis was then put back on the throne, but was held up by the allies who had defeated Napoleon until Louis XVIII died in 1824.

Pope John Paul II, born Karol Wojtyla, was a Polish cardinal who became pope in 1978. At the time, the USSR still had tremendous influence and power throughout Europe, particularly Poland. Poland was in turmoil as many workers were angry at the incompetent communist government and the poor economy. The pope went back to Poland in 1979, where he spoke about how each person had rights and helped to unite and inspire the people. The Catholic church then became an active participant in the fight against communism and worked to unify workers against communist regimes. It was through the church’s influence and involvement that many people turned against communism, with Pope John Paul II leading the fight.

Thomas More was a statesman, lawyer, and politician who was also a devout Catholic during the reign of the Tudors in England. More served in a variety of political offices, including Speaker of the House of Commons, and became a close advisor of Henry VIII. More eventually succeeded Cardinal Wolsey as chancellor in 1529 after Henry and Wolsey began to disagree on many significant issues. More served Henry loyally until Henry’s marriage issues began to lead to a schism between him and the Catholic Church. Eventually, Henry wanted to separate from the church even though More was against it, and More resigned his chancellorship over this issue. More was later tried and executed for refusing to recognize Henry’s authority as the head of the Church of England.

The Corn Laws were introduced in England in 1815 and were immediately controversial and widely despised. The Corn Laws raised the price of importing corn and were intended to protect the interests of the landed aristocracy; however, they had the negative effect of making it very difficult for the poorest to afford enough food to feed themselves. This led to an outbreak of rioting and political unrest until the laws were repealed in 1846.

The Reform Bill of 1832 was enacted by the British government in response to widespread political unrest in urban areas during the early 1830s. The Reform Bill extended suffrage to the urban middle class and restructured constituencies to reflect the population shift to urban areas. As such, the urban middle class was greatly empowered by the Reform Bill of 1832.

The Chartist movement emerged in the early 1830s and continued to be influential up until the early 1850s. The Chartists were working-class activists who sought to extend voting rights to all the adult men in Britain. They also demanded a series of other reforms designed to liberate the working classes from the shackles of the Industrial Revolution and reform Britain’s requirements for voting and holding office that excluded the majority of the population.

The British and French experiences of democracy and government were very different in the nineteenth century. Whereas the British government continued uninterrupted throughout this period, the French government collapsed and was reformed on several occasions. Whereas the British tended to experience gradual change and a progressive growth of suffrage rights, the French tended to experience violent upheaval followed by violent repression; nonetheless, by the outbreak of the First World War, both nations had healthy and liberal societies where the vast majority of white men could vote.

The Carlsbad Decrees were issued in 1819, shortly after the Congress of Vienna. They may be understood as part of the wider political climate in Europe at the time whereby the powers were trying to suppress the radicals, liberals, and nationalists who were emerging all over Europe. The Carlsbad Decrees were an attempt to suppress liberalism and nationalism in the various German princely states. In the short term, they were wildly successful; however, they were not as successful in the long term.

The years 1789 through 1848 were extremely tumultuous and varied in France. The French Revolution ushered in a wave of unprecedented liberalism that was quickly submerged by the emerging reactionaries. Following the defeat of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna, the French Bourbon monarch Louis XVIII assumed the throne and reverted the French government almost back to pre-revolution levels of absolutism. Liberalism and democracy were quashed in the years between 1815 and 1848, until popular discontent flared up again in the Revolutions of 1848.

The Revolutions of 1848 were a popular uprising against the conservative, reactionary, and absolutist governments of Europe. The summer of 1848 was a time of great upheaval across the European continent. The only two countries to be spared were England and Russia. England avoided revolution because the government had already responded to popular sentiment and become more liberal, whereas Russia was insufficiently developed to even have an organized working class which could effect such a revolution.

The French political situation in the nineteenth century was highly volatile and variable. A series of contrasting governments were established and then overthrown. This would persist until the First World War, by which time the French political situation had stabilized significantly.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 is so-called because it was largely devoid of bloodshed. The reigning monarch, James II, had challenged the autonomy of Parliament and worried the country with his Catholic sympathies. So, Parliament invited the Dutch monarch William to come over and seize the throne, which he then did. As a condition of his coronation, William had to promise that the constitution and Parliament would have supremacy over the crown. And thus, the Glorious Revolution ensured the supremacy of constitutionalism in Britain.

In the wake of the Revolutions of 1848, Louis Napoleon (taking advantage of his famous heritage) took over power from Louis Philippe. He instituted the Second French Republic, which he was later (in 1851) able to peacefully transition into the Second French Empire with himself as Emperor.

The Enclosure Movement began in England in the fourteenth century and really took off in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It was a very slow and gradual movement away from feudal landholding and towards private property. It involved peasants being forcibly removed from the lands of the aristocracy and had dramatic effects on the economic, political, and social structure of England and, later, Britain.

The Austrian Empire (at this time probably more accurately called the Habsburg Empire) suffered immensely from the Revolutions of 1848. The Habsburg Empire had a different set of problems than the other empires of Europe; they were able to contain liberalism, but rampant nationalism spread throughout the diverse ethnic groups of the Habsburg dominion. By the time the revolutions were dying down, the Habsburgs presided over a dramatically weakened and less-centralized empire. This would have direct consequences leading to the outbreak of World War One.

The primary disagreement between the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, two revolutionary factions, lay in their divergence on the issue of a "vanguard" of the proletariat. The Bolsheviks supported the idea; the Mensheviks believed that it ran counter to the communist ideal.

The French people did not argue that the monarchy was not dedicated to the Catholic cause. Rather, they saw the regime as wasteful, oppressive of the poor, and too attached to the clergy.

Chartists, although they did have some socialist inspiration, primarily sought to reorganize the British state to render it more equitable. Among the reforms envisioned in their massive, multi-million signature petitions were universal male suffrage, the secret ballot, salaries for parliamentary representatives and annual elections, but not popular initiatives.