Revolutions of 1830 an 1848

Recently in class, we learned about the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. The overarching question we were trying to answer was, "were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really failures as many historians have concluded?" To gather the information we did a lot of things. First, we looked at a map of the revolutions to see how they developed. Next, we created a scale to judge what is considered a success or failure and in between. Our scale looked like this: failure/revolution was crushed and many died, partial failure/revolution failed however some new ideas took root, neutral/revolution didn't fail or succeed, partial success/many of the revolutions goals are met but there are a lot that weren't, success/all of the revolution's goals are met and the government is changed. Then, we observed the quote by Klemens Von Metternich "When France sneezes, Europe catches a cold." We concluded that this quote meant that the ideas that come out of France and specifically the French Revolution spread across Europe and create revolutions. After that, we analyzed key documents to find out everything about our assigned revolution. then we fit the primary sources into three different categories based on what they are about: Goals, opponents, outcome. Finally, we placed our revolution on the scale of success we made earlier to answer the essential question.

The revolution my group was assigned is the French Revolution of 1848. Obviously the setting was France, 1848. The goal of the revolution was to end the monarchy and stop Louis Philippe's corrupt government. The lower class was fighting against the upper and middle classes as well as Louis Philipe. The rebels wanted to end the recession caused by Louis Philipe and put in place a republic. They eventually got rid of Louis Philipe and voted in Louis Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew into power. This success for the revolution was short-lived, in 1852, Louis Napoleon took absolute control over France and became an emperor. During this time of turmoil, many primary sources were formed. From the documents of the Revolution of 1848 in France, "Citizens:royalty under whatever form , is abolished; no more legitism, no more Bonapartism, no regency." This quote describes the goals of the revolution saying how they wanted a republic and to get rid of the old ways. Also, another primary source, the Proclamation of 14 January 1852, is Louis Napoleon describing how he made France great again. To teach the rest of the class about the Revolution of 1848, we created a survey monkey. Our survey monkey was a test of all aspects of the revolution and our class did well on it.

 

A screenshot of our results, most people got this question right.

The Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were as much failures as historians say they are. first, in 1848, the Frankfurt Assembly was brought together to make a constitution for the German states. They could not make one and the assembly was dissolved under threat of the Austrian military. Hundreds were killed and many imprisoned and thousands fled their homes to get away from Germany. Next in Hungary, 1848, the revolution got rid of their emperor Metternich and caused the Austrian government to make some reforms, but, no long after, the resistance was crushed and thousands of revolutionaries were killed, imprisoned or forced to leave. Finally, the Decembrist revolt of 1825 was a disaster. When the people tried to rise up against Tsar Nicholas, he fired upon them and beat his own people to the ground. These three revolutions were horrible failures. I think the answer to the essential question is accurate however, there was some success in the revolutions, they made people think differently than ever before and stood up for their beliefs.