Revolutions of 1830 and 1848, successes, failures, or neither?

Hello readers,

In my history class the last few weeks we have learned about the revolutions of 1830 and 1838. This included the Decembrist Revolt, the Hungarian Revolution, the Frankfurt Assembly, France in 1830, and France in 1848. The question that we were asked was, were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really a failure as historians have said? The question is really asking if the revolutions were total failures, partial failures, neutral, partial successes, or total successes. Many historians believed that all of these revolutions were total failures but at further look you can see that some of revolutions did have partial successes. To start to learn about the revolutions and how to answer the question we started with a class look at the quote of Alexis de Tocqueville, “We are sleeping on a volcano. Do you not see that the Earth trembles anew? A wind of revolutions blow, the storm is on the horizon.” We also looked at the map below to see how the map would explain the quote. We took away from that activity that the people are starting to get upset with the governments and therefore starting revolutions and then the ideas are spreading, like the wind. After that we defined what a revolution is. As a class we decided that it was the oppressed rising up against the people who were doing the oppressing. After that we then looked at the quote by Klemens von Metternich, “When French sneezes, Europe catches a cold”. We then decided that he meant that when French would start revolutions the rest of Europe soon would follow. The last thing we did with our normal class groups was create a failure/success scale. We had to decide what the definition was for each one and then create a scale in our notes. After that each group got assigned a revolution to read and create a chart about. The chart was based as follows, country, date, goals, opponent, outcome, and reasons for success/failure. After creating this chart and finding evidence for goals, opponent, and outcome, we then had to decide if our revolution was a complete failure, a partial failure, neutral, partial success, or total success. After we have finished deciding and figuring it all out we created a “Survey Monkey”. A Survey Monkey is an app that allows you to create surveys and questions. We used that to then quiz each other group on the revolution while they had the sources we used to create the questions.

My group was assigned the Frankfurt Assembly to learn and read about. Before reading our primary sources we read the opening article to learn some facts. From the chart we learned that the country it took place in was Germany and it happened in 1848. The goal of the revolution was to create a new constitution that was more fair, like a republic or a more mild monarchy. It was also to decide if they should include Austria or not. The main focus was for more liberal reforms and to have national unity. The opponent in the end was Prussia’s Frederick William IV. At first he was not the opponent and was even offered the crown but he refused. In the primary source Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, Proclamation of 1849, he states, “they offered the crown upon condition that I would accept a constitution which could not be reconciled with the rights of the German states.” The quote is showing that he did not want the crown because he did not like the constitution that he was told he must accept to be the king. We found that he also rejected the crown not just because he didn’t like the constitution but because it was not written by German princes, it came from the people, or as Frederick Williams IV said, “from the gutter”. The outcome of the offer and the rejection was that troops were sent into Germany from Prussia so that Frederick could create his own constitution. Thousands of Germans fled and many who stayed were either killed or sent to prisons for their radical ideas. In the Frankfurt Assembly written by Karl Marx he states that, “this revolt of the whole people, is unlawful, then this assembly places itself outside the law, it commits high treason.” He is saying that the revolt was unlawful because it went against the king and the law therefore making it was high treason. The reason that the revolt was a failure was because the rebels did not have a final goal and were not united. The middle class reformers and workers started to clash, making them not unified. This was a perfect opportunity for the conservative forces to swoop in and kill the rebellion, leading the revolution to be a partial failure. The revolution ideas were able to keep the ideas flowing through the rest of Europe even though it was ended there. Our group created our own Survey Monkey with questions based off of these primary reading. Click here for the Frankfurt Assembly Survey Monkey created by my group and here for the results.

Map of Revolutions in Europe, 1830 and 1848. Edline Notes

Frankfurt Assembly Survey Monkey Questions

I believe that revolutions were both failures and successes. The historians were neither incorrect or correct. Although in every revolution many people died, in all but one of the revolutions ideas were able to be spread and the people were able to get something out of it. The Decembrist Revolt was a complete failure. The rebellions were unable to create any better of a life for them. The government took in even greater of control over the people. Thousands were killed and the government was even stricter, no one supported the rebels. In the Hungarian  Revolution the people were able to get rid of Metternich and the revolution was able to spread to other parts of the country. Although the reforms by the Austrian Emperor were not able to stay, they still were there for some time giving hope to others. The French Revolution of 1830 had many successes. The people in the July Revolt were able to create a constitutional monarchy. The new king Louis Philippe was known as the “citizens” king. He made lots of changes although mostly to the wealthy. Although it was only for a little while they were able to get a taste of the good life which would make the people want a better government even more. I think they although many people got hurt because of the revolutions, ideas were able to spread and people would eventually get what they want even if it’s not for a while.

Julianna