Were the Revolts Successful or Failures?

The essential question of the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 lesson was, were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really failures as many historians have concluded. We started off this lesson by discussing a comment made by Alexis de Tocqueville, a liberal French political thinker and historian, and how the map of Revolutions in Europe, 1830 and 1848 shows this.

He said, “We are sleeping on a volcano. Do you not see that the earth trembles anew? A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon.” The wind of revolution is very powerful and revolutions are still occurring. By trying to oppress the revolutions, more revolutions are happening. After the activator, we created a scale of success and failure.

Following the analyzing of quotes we then split up into small groups. Each group was assigned one of the five revolts we were studying during this unit.  There was the 1825 Decembrist Revolt, 1830 France Revolt, the 1848 France Revolt, the 1848 Frankfurt Assembly, and the 1848 Hungary Revolt. My group was assigned the 1830 France Revolt. As a group we read the introduction summary and skimmed the primary sources on our Revolt and used the information we collected and completed a chart. Within the chart, we had to record the basics. We had to record the country, date, goal, opponent, outcome, and the reason for success/failure. The second part of the assignment was to go through all of the primary sources and choose what category it belonged to (goal, opponent, or outcome), we had to pull a quote that expresses the point being made, and include sourcing information. Next, we had to scale the revolt on the scale we created earlier and then create a survey monkey. We took the knowledge and evidence we acquired and produced a survey that our classmates had to take. Finally, we took the other groups surveys to learn about their revolts.

As I mentioned before my group’s revolt was assigned the 1830 France Revolt. This event took place in France, July of 1830. The opponent of the revolt was Charles X and the goal was to get rid of him and his ideas of absolutism. According to the introduction document, “When Louis XVIII died in 1824, his younger brother, Charles X, inherited the throne. Charles, a strong believer in absolutism, rejected the very idea of the charter. In July 1830, he suspended the legislature, limited the right to vote, and restricted the press.” This upset the people and they barricaded the streets of Paris while attacking the soldiers. The rebels took control of Paris within days. The control of Paris forced Charles X to abdicate and flee to England. According to the primary source Theirs, Adolphe.2 “Orleanist Manifesto.” July 30, 1830. In Laurisse and Rambaud, Histoire Genrale, 287-288, “The Duke of Orleans [Louis Philippe] is a prince devoted to the cause of the Revolution… The Duke of Orleans is a citizen king.” The outcome of this revolt included Charles X’s cousin, Louis Philippe, being chosen as king by the Chambers of deputies. He was called “citizen king”. As a group, we used information from the other primary sources and this information to create our survey monkey.

I think the historians were wrong when they concluded that the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were failures. Although none of the revolts were completely successful for the most part the revolts helped to change the way things were. The only real failure was the Decembrist Revolt of 1825. It ended with many rebels being put in jail or killed. On top of the fact that many were either killed or imprisoned, the rebels did not reach their goal of not being under the power of Nicholas. A primary source given for the Decembrist Revolt (Nicholas I, Speaking about the Decembrists to the French Ambassador, c. 1825) said, “The leaders and the instigators of the conspiracy will be dealt with without pity, without mercy. The law demands retribution and, in their cases, I will not use my power to grant mercy.” Clearly, Nicholas was still in power and not treating his people right, so it shows that the rebels didn't make progress in trying to get what they wanted.  With the exception of this revolt being a failure, the other revolts were either neutral or partial success. My group put the 1830 France Revolt as a partial success on the scale. The rebels wanted Charles X out of power and they accomplished that by forcing him to flee, but this wasn't a total success because Louis Philippe favored the wealthier over everyone. He granted the wealthier people the right to vote and did not grant the middle and low classes the right to. An example of a neutral revolt was the Hungary Revolt of 1848. The overwhelmed Austrian government temporarily agreed to an independent government, end to serfdom, and a written constitution to protect their basic rights. According to the Hungary intro document, “Austrian troops soon regained control of Vienna and Prague. With Russian help, Austrian forces also smashed the rebels in Budapest. Many were imprisoned, executed, or forced into exile.” This Revolt was both a success and a fail. Overall, I disagree with the historians and I think the revolutions of 1380 and 1848 were not all failures.