Room 3a

THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 - THE EUROPEAN DIMENSION

As early as 1846 crises and conflicts in various parts of Europe had fomented mounting discontent, which in 1848 sparked uprisings in Paris that ignited revolutions throughout Europe. On 22 February oppositional groups demonstrated for voting rights to be broadened, whereupon the government of Louis Philippe, the "citizen king," called out the military. However, large sections of the population and the national guard openly proclaimed sympathy with the insurgents. Barricades were erected throughout the city, and two days later the victory of the revolution was thereby complete. Not only had the government been toppled, but the king had abdicated and France had once again been proclaimed a republic.

Nonetheless, the elections held by the provisional government on 23 April resulted in a parliamentary majority for conservative republicans, who began to roll back the initial social achievements of the February Revolution, including the right to work. At that, the lower classes of Paris revolted but were brutally put down on 26 June by forces under General Cavaignac, a battle in which three thousand people were killed. It was the bloody climax of the nineteenth century's history of revolution and was considered in the rest of Europe, too, as the turning point of the revolutionary movements.

If the February events in Paris were a beacon, the troubles in the multinational Habsburg empire stood for all the signs of crisis in 1848 and 1849. As in Paris, social improvements and political participation were the issues in the urban centers. But what threatened the very survival of the monarchy were the calls for autonomy that were heard from the various nationalities. Because the level of development differed greatly from one region to the next, the course of the revolution varied accordingly, allowing the central government to divide and conquer the disparate revolutionary forces.

The revolution in Vienna, which figured prominently in the course of events in Germany at large and affected discussions about the unity and freedom of Germany (see room 3b), broke out on 13 March 1848 when a mass demonstration took place while the moderate lower-Austrian estates were deliberating political demands to be made on the government. Reluctantly deployed troops shot at demonstrators, but the military was withdrawn as demanded by the citizens. That same night, the hated chancellor of state, Metternich, resigned and fled to England. The news opened the floodgates. In the suburbs of Vienna a proletarian rebellion rose up against everything that the lower classes took to be the causes of their social misery: pawnshops, tax offices, and factories.

A new government composed of high-ranking civil servants and nobles assented to a civilian national guard and an Academic Legion for students. Freedom of the press was granted and a constitution promised. The government's lack of willingness to compromise with the middle class and the radicalism of the lower classes lent the revolution in Vienna its special dynamics.

The gravity of the revolution increased with the May insurrection in Vienna, which culminated in the first instances of barricade fighting by members of the middle class, students, and workers against the inflexible government. After the court had fled to Innsbruck on 17 May and after other revolts by the lower middle class in September had only worsened the antagonisms that already existed, Prince Windischgrätz was no longer faced by a united opposition when he moved to crush the October Revolution. Whereas a spontaneous popular movement was able to prevent troops stationed in Vienna from being sent to fight the rebellious Hungarians, the middle class had by then left the city for fear of the radicals. The workers and artisans had remained behind but were far outnumbered by Windischgrätz's soldiers, who bloodily smashed the revolt at the end of October. The revolution in Vienna had failed because of its internal divisions and the determination of the reactionary forces to fight.

Spurred by the revolutions in the multinational Habsburg state, the Bohemian nationalist movement led by the Czech historian Frantisek Palacky formulated its objectives in March 1848, linking social and political demands with aspirtations for national autonomy. The all-Slav congress that convened in Prague at the beginning of June further heightened public awareness of the problems confronting the stateless Slavic nationalities. Against this backdrop, the conflict with Austria escalated into the Prague Rebellion of June, which was led primarily by Czech workers and students. But their barricades did not long withstand the assault of the soldiers under Prince Windischgrätz, whose ultimate victory in the Prague Revolution on 15 and 16 June - one week before Cavaignac's operation in Paris - instilled the European counterrevolution with hope for a turn in its fortunes.

The Hungarian revolutionary movement was national-democratic as well. It was sparked in the Hungarian Parliament in Pressburg on 3 March 1848 by a man from the lower nobility, Lajos Kossuth, when he raised demands for national autonomy and political and social reforms. After the parliament supported them, the emperor yielded to revolutionary pressure on 16 March. Count Batthyany formed a government that was to lead Hungary now linked with Austria only in personal union down the path to becoming an autonomous, modern constitutional state. However, the suffrage was based on property qualifications, a franchise that left out the lower middle class and the peasants. Even the emancipation of the peasantry from feudalism affected less than half of the rural population.

The main obstacle to the success of the revolution, though, proved to be the refusal to grant the non-Magyar nationalities the same rights as the Hungarians. Since March 1848 the Croatians had been putting up particularly stiff resistance under their "ban" (provincial governor), Count Josef Jellacic, and invaded Hungary in September. After ending the revolution in Vienna and repudiating its concessions, the imperial government finally had enough troops free again to move against the Magyars. Advancing toward Hungary in December 1848, the army at first met the determined resistance. On 14 April 1849 the parliament, which had moved to Debrecen, declared Hungary an independent state. The dramatic end of the Hungarian revolution came after Czar Nicholas intervened on Austria's behalf in June. Fighting against a far stronger enemy, the Hungarians had to capitulate at Vilagos on 11 August 1849. The Austrians took savage revenge and subjugated the Hungarians, complicating a conciliation between the main nationalities of the Habsburg monarchy for years to come.

The revolutionary movements in Italy focused on liberal-constitutional movements in the separate states. They also called for national unity, a move directed especially against Austrian rule in the north of the country. The revolution began in January 1848 after a rebellion in Sicily forced Ferdinand II to promise a constitution on 19 January in Naples. A constitution was also granted in Florence, Turin, and Rome, a development accelerated by news of the February Revolution in Paris. Upon learning of the revolutionary events in Vienna and Hungary, Venice rose up against Habsburg rule on 17 March. Milan followed the next day. After violent street battles fought primarily by workers and other members of the lower classes, both cities were soon liberated, with Milan being aided by neighboring peasants from Lombardy. In Milan a provisional government with a strong republican wing was formed. Austrian troops under General Radetzky were obliged to withdraw.

When King Charles Albert of Sardinia-Piedmont entered Lombardy with an army to fight the Austrians with military support from other Italian states, he became the celebrated national hero of the Italians and the man on whom the Italian unification movements pinned their hopes. But he linked the revolutionary struggle against Austria to the effort to suppress the republican forces in Lombardy and thereby put himself at odds with the democratic movement in northern Italy. The poorly equipped Piedmontese army thus eventually stood alone in the fight against Radetzky. On 11 June - almost the same time that Windischgrätz put down the Prague rebellion - the Austrian army emerged victorious at Vicenza. On 25 July 1848 Piedmontese troops were decisively beaten at Custoza, and on 6 August Milan was again in Radetzky's hands. In its initial phase, the Italian revolution had failed in part because of its internal contradictions.

A further attempt by Charles Albert to wage war on Austria ended in fiasco in the battle of Novara on 23 March 1849. On 6 August 1849, Victor Emmanuel II accepted the peace treaty, signing in place of his father, who had stepped down. It forced the House of Savoy to renounce support for revolutionary movements once and for all.

Except for the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, which kept its constitution, the prerevolutionary orders were restored throughout the individual Italian states. Because renewed foreign rule was felt to be more repressive than ever in parts of the country, the national unity of Italy remained a chief political demand in subsequent years.

Marie-Louise von Plessen and Martin Roth