Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Revolutions of 1848
Revolutions of 1848
APEURO: Lecture 6C
Overview
• Watershed political event of the 19th century
• Reforms:
• Abolished slavery in the empire
• 10 hr. workday in Paris
• Abolished the death penalty
Revolt
• Hungarian demanded independence
• Frankfurt Parliament
• Liberal, nationalist/romantic leaders called for
elections to a constituent assembly, from all states in
the German Confederation (Bund) for the purpose of
unifying the German states
• Sought war with Denmark to annex Schleswig &
Holstein
• In response, Prussia declared war on Denmark
• Frankfurt Parliament then presented constitution for
a united German federation
• Selected Prussian King Frederick William IV as emperor
Germania by Philip Veit
Revolution in the German States:
King Frederick William IV of Prussia Responds
• Prussian King Frederick William IV rejected the liberal
constitution
• Claimed “divine right” of kings
• Allegedly stated he would not “accept the crown from the gutter”
• He imposed a conservative constitution that guaranteed royal
control of the government (last until 1918)
• Humiliation of Olmutz
• Prussia dropped the plan to unify Germany, leaving Austria as the
dominant German state in the Bund
• Prussia would seek revenge in 1866 (Austro-Prussian War)
Evaluation of the Revolutions of 1848
• Neither liberal or nationalist revolutionaries • Conservative landowners and
nor those of conservatism were able to peasants essentially thwarted the
maintain their dominance between 1789 revolutions
and 1848
• The middle classes, who led the
• Liberalism, nationalism, socialism, and revolutions, came to fear the
democracy made some gains but were radicalism of their working class allies
largely kept in check by conservatives (e.g. Louis Blanc in France)