In what area of Europe did the revolutions of 1848 have the greatest effect? Analyze the causes and effects

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The revolutions of 1848 took place primarily in continental Europe and spared the regions on the periphery, including England, Scandinavia, and Russia. However, discontent was widespread throughout western and central Europe, and demands for political reform came from the people in Italy, France, Germany, Prussia, and Austria-Hungary. In Italy, the kingdom of the Two Sicilies was the site of unrest when the southern Italian state forced its reactionary and conservative ruler to form a liberal government and issue a constitution. France had perhaps the widest known revolution, forcing the abdication of Louis Philippe, the liberal king, and replacing him with Louis Napoleon, who later seized power as Emperor Napoleon III and turned France from a constitutional monarchy into the Second Empire. The focus on France is largely because European rulers were afraid that this would repeat the experience of the French Revolution of 1789 and cause widespread wars throughout Europe, which had been drastically transformed in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the French case, the primary cause was disenfranchisement of a majority of the population, including the middle classes, which resulted in the formation of a solidarity among urban workers, middle classes, and peasants, all demanding responses from the government regarding their various concerns. This coincided with a bad harvest, food shortages, and unemployment, affecting the economy and causing mass unrest. Political action meetings were held in the form of banquets to deter charges of political conspiracy. As the situation exploded into political violence and Louis Philippe abdicated, however, the political unification of the various factions fell apart because they found themselves on opposite ends regarding a new political agenda. In Germany, demands were increasingly for a unified nation with a constituent assembly. More than 400 representatives gathered with the goal of writing a constitution guaranteeing political rights for all. However, this Frankfurt Assembly was made up mostly of middle classes and intellectuals and was called the parliament of scholars.