Title: 1848 REVOLUTIONS IN EUROPE- NATURE AND IMPACTS | Idea of History
Headings: 1848 REVOLUTIONS IN EUROPE- NATURE AND IMPACTS
1848 REVOLUTIONS IN EUROPE- NATURE AND IMPACTS
INTERPRETATIONS AND NATURE OF THE REVOLUTIONS –
CAUSES –
Economic Crisis –
State Aggravation –
Demands for National Unification –
COURSE –
‘SPRINGTIME OF THE PEOPLES’
CAUSES OF THE FAILURE –
COUNTER REVOLUTION AND IMPACT OF REVOLUTIONS ON THE POLITICS OF EUROPE –
LEGACY OF THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848 –
Idea of History
-R.G. Collingwood (1946, revised edition 1993). ISBN 0-19-285306-6

Content: The crises of 1845-48 saw a series of strikes, demonstrations and food riots indicating the politicization and mobilization of the working class. State Aggravation –
According to Sperber, the first half of the 19th century witnessed an escalation in the demands of the state in terms of taxes, recruitment in the army etc. The attempts of the state to pump more resources from a population whose living standards were already declining only aggravated political discontent. A combination of escalating demands, a lack of adequate means of coercion and a decline in popular legitimacy brought about the Revolutions of 1848. Demands for National Unification –
In the late 18th century, nationalistic sentiments had grown as a more widespread movement against political domination. In Germany, the threat of French domination helped to stimulate a national consciousness as moderate liberals petitioned the rulers of the German principalities to create a larger pan-German union. The demand for a political order that recognized and promoted their national identity fused with the campaign for greater representation and deriving its momentum from the radicalized lower classes, there was a general upsurge against the old order in 1848. COURSE –
There were many large revolutions throughout Europe, of which almost all of them failed. The revolutions began in capital cities and urban centers-the hub of economic growth and political change and subsequently moved on to other towns and rural areas. France –The revolutions first started in France where the people wanted universal suffrage.