French Revolution of 1848

The 1848 Revolution in France, sometimes

French Revolution of 1848
known as the February Revolution (révolution
de Février), was one of a wave of revolutions in Part of Revolution of 1848
1848 in Europe. In France the revolutionary events
ended the July Monarchy (1830–1848) and led to
the creation of the French Second Republic.

Following the overthrow of King Louis Philippe in

February 1848, the elected government of the
Second Republic ruled France. In the months that
followed, this government steered a course that
Lamartine in front of the Town Hall of Paris rejects
became more conservative. On 23 June 1848, the the red flag on 25 February 1848 by Henri Félix
people of Paris rose in insurrection,[1] which Emmanuel Philippoteaux
became known as June Days uprising – a bloody
but unsuccessful rebellion by the Paris workers Date 22 February – 2 December 1848
against a conservative turn in the Republic's Location Paris, France
course. On 2 December 1848, Louis Napoléon Result
Bonaparte was elected president of the Second Abdication of Louis Philippe I
Republic, largely on peasant support. Exactly three Monarchy Abolished
years later he suspended the elected assembly, Establishment of the Second
establishing the Second French Empire, which Republic
lasted until 1870. Louis Napoléon went on to
Belligerents
become the de facto last French monarch.
Kingdom of French citizens
The February revolution established the principle France
of the "right to work" (droit au travail), and its Republicans
newly established government created "National French Armed Forces liberals
Workshops" for the unemployed. At the same time Republicans
a sort of industrial parliament was established at socialists
the Luxembourg Palace, under the presidency of
Louis Blanc, with the object of preparing a scheme Commanders and leaders
for the organization of labor. These tensions Louis Philippe I
between liberal Orléanist and Radical Republicans • Thomas-Robert Bugeaud
and Socialists led to the June Days Uprising. Strength
70,000 men
Background Casualties and losses
Under the Charter of 1814, Louis XVIII ruled 350 dead
France as the head of a constitutional monarchy. at least 500 wounded
Upon Louis XVIII's death, his brother, the Count of The National Guard arose as arbitrator between the army
Artois, ascended to the throne in 1824, as Charles and the people.
X. Supported by the ultra-royalists, Charles X was
an extremely unpopular reactionary monarch whose aspirations were far more grand than those of his
deceased brother. He had no desire to rule as a constitutional monarch, taking various steps to
strengthen his own authority as monarch and weaken that of the lower house.

In 1830, Charles X of France, presumably instigated by one of his chief advisers Jules, Prince de
Polignac, issued the Four Ordinances of St. Cloud. These ordinances abolished freedom of the press,
reduced the electorate by 75%, and dissolved the lower house.[2] This action provoked an immediate
reaction from the citizenry, who revolted against the monarchy during the Three Glorious Days of 26–
29 July 1830.[3] Charles was forced to abdicate the throne and to flee Paris for the United Kingdom.
As a result, Louis Philippe, of the Orléanist branch, rose to power, replacing the old Charter by the
Charter of 1830, and his rule became known as the July Monarchy.

Nicknamed the "Bourgeois Monarch", Louis Philippe sat at the

head of a moderately liberal state controlled mainly by educated
elites. Supported by the Orléanists, he was opposed on his right
by the Legitimists (former ultra-royalists) and on his left by the
Republicans and Socialists. Louis Philippe was an expert
businessman and, by means of his businesses, he had become one
of the richest men in France.[4] Still Louis Philippe saw himself as
the successful embodiment of a "small businessman" (petite
bourgeoisie). Consequently, he and his government did not look
with favor on the big business (bourgeoisie), especially the
industrial section of the French bourgeoisie. Louis Philippe did,
however, support the bankers, large and small. Indeed, at the
beginning of his reign in 1830, Jaques Laffitte, a banker and
liberal politician who supported Louis Philippe's rise to the
throne, said "From now on, the bankers will rule."[5] Accordingly,
during the reign of Louis Philippe, the privileged "financial
aristocracy", i.e. bankers, stock exchange magnates, railroad
barons, owners of coal mines, iron ore mines, and forests and all Louis Philippe I, the last King of the
French
landowners associated with them, tended to support him, while
the industrial section of the bourgeoisie, which may have owned
the land their factories sat on but not much more, were
disfavoured by Louis Philippe and actually tended to side with the middle class and laboring class in
opposition to Louis Philippe in the Chamber of Deputies.[5] Naturally, land-ownership was favored,
and this elitism resulted in the disenfranchisement of much of the middle and working classes.

By 1848 only about one percent of the population held the franchise. Even though France had a free
press and trial by jury, only landholders were permitted to vote, which alienated the petty bourgeoisie
and even the industrial bourgeoisie from the government. Louis Philippe was viewed as generally
indifferent to the needs of society, especially to those members of the middle class who were excluded
from the political arena. Early in 1848, some Orléanist liberals, such as Adolphe Thiers, had turned
against Louis Philippe, disappointed by his opposition to parliamentarism. A Reform Movement
developed in France which urged the government to expand the electoral franchise, just as the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland had done with the Reform Act 1832. The more radical
democrats of the Reform Movement coalesced around the newspaper, La Réforme;[6] the more
moderate republicans and the liberal opposition rallied around the Le National newspaper.[7] Starting
in July 1847 the Reformists of all shades began to hold "banquets" at which toasts were drunk to
"République française" (the French Republic), "Liberté, égalité, fraternité", etc.[8] Louis Philippe
turned a deaf ear to the Reform Movement, and discontent among wide sections of the French people
continued to grow. Social and political discontent sparked revolutions in France in 1830 and 1848,
which in turn inspired revolts in other parts of Europe. Workers lost their jobs, bread prices rose, and
people accused the government of corruption. The French revolted and set up a republic. French
successes led to other revolts including those who wanted relief from the suffering caused by the
Industrial Revolution and nationalism sprang up hoping for independence from foreign rulers.

Alexis de Tocqueville observed, "We are sleeping together in a volcano. ... A wind of revolution blows,
the storm is on the horizon." Lacking the property qualifications to vote, the lower classes were about
to erupt in revolt.[9]

Economic and international influences

The French middle class watched changes in Britain with interest.
When Britain's Reform Act 1832 extended enfranchisement to
any man paying taxes of £10 or more per year (previously the vote
was restricted to landholders), France's free press took interest.
Meanwhile, economically, the French working class may perhaps
have been slightly better off than Britain's working class. Still,
unemployment in France threw skilled workers down to the level
of the proletariat. The only nominally social law of the July
Monarchy was passed in 1841. This law prohibited the use of
labor of those children under eight years of age, and the
employment of children less than 13 years old for night-time
work. This law was routinely flouted.

The year 1846 saw a financial crisis and bad harvests, and the Frédéric Bastiat, one of the most
following year saw an economic depression. A poor railway popular political writers of the time,
who took part in the Revolution
system hindered aid efforts, and the peasant rebellions that
resulted were forcefully crushed. According to French economist
Frédéric Bastiat, the poor condition of the railway system can
largely be attributed to French efforts to promote other systems of transport, such as carriages.[10]
Perhaps a third of Paris was on social welfare. Writers such as Louis Blanc ("The right to work") and
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ("Property is theft!") proliferated.

Bastiat, who was one of the most famous political writers of the 1840s, had written countless works
concerning the economic situation before 1848, and provided a different explanation of why the
French people were forced to rise in the revolt. He believed that the main reasons were primarily the
political corruption, along with its very complex system of monopolies, permits, and bureaucracy,
which made those who were able to obtain political favors unjustly privileged and able to dictate the
market conditions and caused a myriad of businesses to collapse, as well as protectionism which was
the basis for the French foreign trade at the time, and which caused businesses along the Atlantic
Coast to file for bankruptcy, along with the one owned by Bastiat's family. Indeed, most of Bastiat's
early works concern the situation in Bayonne and Bordeaux, two large merchant harbors before the
Napoleonic Wars, gradually devastated first by Napoleon I's continental blockade, and later by the
 protectionist legislation of the nineteenth century. According to
Bastiat's biographer, G.C. Roche, just prior to the revolution,
100,000 citizens of Lyon were described as "indigent" and by
1840 there were at least 130,000 abandoned children in France.
International markets were not similarly troubled at the time,
which Bastiat attributed to the freedom of trade. Indeed, a large
part of French economic problems in the 1830s and 1840s were
caused by the shortage and unnaturally high prices of different
products which could have easily been imported from other
countries, such as textiles, machines, tools, and ores, but doing so
was either outright illegal at the time or unprofitable due to the
system of punitive tariffs.

Bastiat has also noted that the French legislators were entirely
unaware of the reality and the effects of their radical policies. One
of the members of the French Chamber of Deputies reportedly
Louis Blanc, one of the two workers' received a standing ovation when he proposed that the depression
representatives in the Assembly of
of 1847 was due primarily to "external weakness" and "idle
the Second Republic
pacifism". Nationalist tendencies caused France to severely
restrict all international contacts with the United Kingdom,
including the ban on importing tea, perceived as destructive to the French national spirit.[11] As the
United Kingdom was the largest economy in the world in the nineteenth century, France deprived
itself of its most important economic partner, one that could have supplied France with what it lacked
and bought surplus French goods.

Such governmental policies and obliviousness to the real reasons of economic troubles were,
according to Bastiat, the main causes of the French Revolution of the 1848 and the rise of socialists
and anarchists in the years preceding the revolution itself.

Events of February
Because political gatherings and demonstrations were outlawed
in France, activists of the largely middle class opposition to the
government began to hold a series of fund-raising banquets. This
campaign of banquets (Campagne des banquets), was intended to
circumvent the governmental restriction on political meetings
and provide a legal outlet for popular criticism of the regime. The
campaign began in July 1847. Friedrich Engels was in Paris
dating from October 1847 and was able to observe and attend
some of these banquets.[12] He wrote a series of articles on them, Barricade fighting in 1848
including "The Reform Movement in France" which was
published in La Rèforme on 20 November 1847; "Split in the
Camp—the Rèforme and the National—March of Democracy" published in The Northern Star on 4
December 1847; "Reform Banquet at Lille—Speech of LeDru-Rollin" published in The Northern Star
on 16 December 1847; "Reform Movement in France—Banquet of Dijon" published in The Northern
Star on 18 December 1847; "The Réforme and the National" published in the Deutsche-Brüsseler-
Zeitung on 30 December 1847; and "Louis Blanc's Speech at the Dijon Banquet" published in the
Deutsche-Brusseler-Zeitung on 30 December 1847.[13] The
banquet campaign lasted until all political banquets were
outlawed by the French government in February 1848. As a
result, the people revolted, helping to unite the efforts of the
popular Republicans and the liberal Orléanists, who turned their
back on Louis-Philippe.

Anger over the outlawing of the political banquets brought The defenders of the barricades in
Paris
crowds of Parisians flooding out onto the streets at noon on 22
February 1848. They directed their anger against the Citizen King
Louis Philippe and his chief minister for foreign and domestic policy, François Pierre Guillaume
Guizot. Shouting "Down with Guizot" ("À bas Guizot") and "Long Live the Reform" ("Vive la réforme")
the crowds marched past Guizot's residence.[14] They erected barricades in the streets of Paris, and
fighting broke out between the citizens and the Parisian municipal guards.

At 2 pm the next day, 23 February, Prime Minister Guizot resigned. Upon hearing the news of
Guizot's resignation, a large crowd gathered outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An officer
ordered the crowd not to pass, but people in the front of the crowd were being pushed by the rear. The
officer ordered his men to fix bayonets, probably wishing to avoid shooting, but in what is widely
regarded as an accident, a soldier discharged his musket and the rest of the soldiers then fired into the
crowd. Fifty-two people were killed.[15]

Paris was soon a barricaded city. Omnibuses were turned into barricades, and thousands of trees were
felled. Fires were set, and angry citizens began converging on the royal palace. Louis-Philippe, fearing
for his life, abdicated in favor of his nine-year-old grandson Philippe, Comte de Paris and fled to
England in disguise. A strong undercurrent of republican sentiment prevented Philippe from taking
his place as king.

Frédéric Bastiat witnessed the Revolution, and reportedly rescued several workers under police fire,
describing it as a "frightful, fratricidal war" and further described revolting workers as "organized,
armed, and masters of the terrain, at the mercy of the most fiery demagogues".[16] Bastiat believed
that the revolution was carried out by a very large group of desperate people, who were able to
organize themselves and arm quickly due to both experience from the countless riots and previous
revolutions, but at the same time were almost instantly manipulated by a small group of demagogues
who assumed command, which is the reason why the protesters' demands were largely incompatible
with one another; e.g., a drastic reduction of taxes and greater social benefits, with the latter requiring
higher taxes hence contradicting the first demand.

During and soon after the events of February, Bastiat's pamphlets were reportedly plastered
throughout Paris and published in both conservative and socialist newspapers.[17] In them, he urged
the French people not to listen to the demagogs and argued that their demands were both
incompatible with each other aimed at fooling them and aimed to use their sentiments for the
demagogs’ own political gain. He also wrote many articles in response to the socialist demands to
abolish private property, which were also very popular at the time, and received response from chief
socialist leaders such as Pierre Proudhon. Indeed, they exchanged letters which were published in
socialist newspapers such as La Voix du Peuple.
Second Republic
On 26 February 1848, the liberal opposition came together to
organize a provisional government, called the Second Republic.
The poet Alphonse de Lamartine was appointed president of the
provisional government. Lamartine served as a virtual dictator of
France for the next three months.[18] Elections for a Constituent
Assembly were scheduled for 23 April 1848. The Constituent
Assembly was to establish a new republican government for
France. In preparation for these elections, two major goals of the
provisional government were universal suffrage and
unemployment relief. Universal male suffrage was enacted on 2
March 1848, giving France nine million new voters. As in all other
European nations, women did not have the right to vote.
However, during this time a proliferation of political clubs
emerged, including women's organizations. Relief for the
unemployed was achieved by the provisional government through
enactment of the National Workshops, which guaranteed French "Messieurs Victor Hugo and Émile
citizens' "right to work". The "right" of a citizen to work and de Girardin try to raise Prince Louis
upon a shield [in the heroic Roman
indeed the National Workshops themselves had been the idea of
fashion]: not too steady!" Honoré
Jean Joseph Louis Blanc. By May 1848 the National Workshops Daumier's satirical lithograph
were employing 100,000 workers and paying out daily wages of published in Le Charivari, 11
70,000 livres.[19] Full employment proved far from workable, as December 1848.
unemployment may have peaked at around 800,000 people, with
much under-employment on top of that.[20] On May 31, 15,000
jobless French rioted as rising xenophobia persecuted Belgian workers in the north.[20] In 1848, 479
newspapers were founded alongside a 54% decline in the number of businesses in Paris, as most
wealth had evacuated the city. There was a corresponding decline in the luxury trade and credit
became expensive.[21]

Rise of conservatism within the Second Republic

Naturally, the provisional government was disorganized as it attempted to deal with France's
economic problems. The conservative elements of French society were wasting no time in organizing
against the provisional government. After roughly a month, conservatives began to openly oppose the
new government, using the rallying cry "order", which the new republic lacked.

Additionally, there was a major split between the citizens of Paris and those citizens of the more rural
areas of France. The provisional government set out to establish deeper government control of the
economy and guarantee a more equal distribution of resources. To deal with the unemployment
problem, the provisional government established National Workshops. The unemployed were given
jobs building roads and planting trees without regard for the demand for these tasks. The population
of Paris ballooned as job seekers from all over France came to Paris to work in the newly formed
National Workshops. To pay for the new National Workshops and the other social programmes, the
provisional government placed new taxes on land. These taxes alienated the "landed classes"—
especially the small farmers and the peasantry of the rural areas of France—from the provisional
government. Hardworking rural farmers were resistant to paying for the unemployed city people and
their new "Right to Work" National Workshops. The taxes were widely disobeyed in the rural areas
and, thus, the government remained strapped for cash. Popular uncertainty about the liberal
foundations of the provisional government became apparent in the 23 April 1848 elections. Despite
agitation from the left, voters elected a constituent assembly which was primarily moderate and
conservative. In May, Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure, chairman of the provisional government,
made way for the Executive Commission, a body of state acting as Head of State with five co-
presidents.

The results of the 23 April 1848 election were a disappointment to the radicals in Paris except for the
election of one candidate popular among urban workers, François-Vincent Raspail.[22] Many radicals
felt the elections were a sign of the slowing down of the revolutionary movement. These radicals in
Paris pressured the government to head an international "crusade" for democracy. Independence of
other European states such as Poland was urged by the Paris radicals. In 1848, Poland did not exist as
a nation state. The nation of Poland had been gradually "partitioned" or divided between foreign
powers of Prussia, Russia, and Austria in 1773 and 1793.[23] Finally in 1795, all of the Polish nation
was absorbed by the three powers.[24] It was an opportune time to raise the issue of Polish
independence as Poles were also undergoing their own period of revolt in 1848 starting with the
uprising in Poznań on 20 March 1848.[25]

The government of the National Constituent Assembly continued to resist the radicals. The radicals
began to protest against the National Constituent Assembly government. On 15 May 1848, Parisian
workmen, feeling their democratic and social republic was slipping away, invaded the Assembly en
masse and proclaimed a new Provisional Government.[1] This attempted revolution on the part of the
working classes was quickly suppressed by the National Guard.[26] The leaders of this revolt—Louis
Auguste Blanqui, Armand Barbès, François Vincent Raspail and others—were arrested.[27] The trial of
these leaders was held in Bourges, France, from March 7 to April 3, 1849.[28]

The conservative classes of society were becoming increasingly fearful of the power of the working
classes in Paris. They felt a strong need for organization and organized themselves around the need
for "order"—the so-called "Party of Order". For the Party of Order the term "order" meant a rollback
of society to the days of Louis Philippe. The Party of Order was now the dominant member of the
government. As the main force of reaction against revolution, the Party of Order forced the closure of
the hated Right to Work National Workshops on 21 June 1848. On 23 June 1848, the working class of
Paris rose in protest over the closure of the National Workshops. On that day 170,000 citizens of Paris
came out into the streets to erect barricades.[29] To meet this challenge, the government appointed
General Louis-Eugène Cavaignac to lead the military forces suppressing the uprising of the working
classes. General Cavaignac had been serving in the Army in Algeria. Cavaignac had returned from
Algeria and in the elections of 23 April 1848, he was elected to the National Constituent Assembly.
Cavaignac arrived in Paris only on 17 May 1848 to take his seat in the National Assembly.

Between 23 June and 26 June 1848, this battle between the working class and Cavaignac came to be
known as the June Days uprising. Cavaignac's forces started out on 23 June 1848 with an army
composed of from 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers of the Paris garrison of the French Army.[29] Cavaignac
began a systematic assault against the revolutionary Parisian citizenry, targeting the blockaded areas
of the city.[30] He was not able to break the stiff opposition put up by the armed workers on the
barricades on 23 June 1848. Accordingly, Cavaignac's forces were reinforced with another 20,000–
25,000 soldiers from the mobile guard, some additional 60,000 to 80,000 from the national
guard.[31] Even with this force of 120,000 to 125,000 soldiers,
Cavaignac still required two days to complete the suppression of
the working-class uprising.

In February 1848, the workers and petite bourgeoisie had fought

together, but now, in June 1848, the lines were drawn differently.
The working classes had been abandoned by the bourgeois
politicians who founded the provisional government. This would
prove fatal to the Second Republic, which, without the support of
the working classes, could not continue. Although the Barricades on rue Saint-Maur during
governmental regime of the Second Republic continued to survive the uprising
until December 1852, the generous, idealistic Republic to which
the February Days had given birth, ended with the suppression of
the "June Days".[1]

The "Party of Order" moved quickly to consolidate the forces of reaction in the government and on 28
June 1848, the government appointed Louis Eugène Cavaignac as the head of the French state.[32] On
10 December 1848 a presidential election was held between four candidates. Cavaignac, was the
candidate of the Party of Order. Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin was also a candidate in that
presidential election. Ledru-Rollin was the editor of the La Réforme newspaper and as such was the
leader of the radical democrats among the petty bourgeoisie. François-Vincent Raspail was the
candidate of the revolutionary working classes. Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the fourth presidential
candidate. Napoleon III won the presidential election of 10 December 1848 with 5,587,759 votes as
opposed to 1,474,687 votes for Cavaignac and 370,000 votes for Ledru-Rollin. Raspail ended up a
distant fourth in the balloting.

Class struggles within the revolution

Karl Marx saw the "June Days" uprising as strong evidence of class conflict. Marx saw the 1848
Revolution as being directed by the desires of the middle-class.[33] While the bourgeoisie agitated for
"proper participation", workers had other concerns. Many of the participants in the revolution were of
the so-called petite (petty) bourgeoisie (small business owners). In 1848, the petty bourgeoisie
outnumbered the working classes (unskilled laborers in mines, factories and stores, paid to perform
manual labor and other work rather than for their expertise) by about two to one. The petty
bourgeoisie had significant debt due to the economic recession of 1846–1847. By 1848, overdue
business debt was 21,000,000 francs in Paris and 11,000,000 francs in the provinces.[22] The
February Revolution united all classes against Louis Philippe. The bourgeoisie joined with the
working classes to fight for "proper participation" in the government for all sections and classes in
society. But after the revolution, the working classes were disillusioned by their small share of that
participation, and revolted in the streets. This frightened the bourgeoisie and they repressed the
uprising during the June Days. The petit bourgeoisie worked the hardest to suppress the revolt. Its
financial condition had deteriorated even further due to slow sales and economic dislocations of the
Revolution. As of June 1848, over 7,000 shopkeepers and merchants in Paris had not paid their rent
since February.[22] During the June Days, their creditors and landlords (the finance bourgeoisie),
forestalled most attempts to collect on those debts.[34] But once the worker revolt was put down, they
began to assert their claims in court. Thus, the financial bourgeoisie turned their back on the petty
bourgeoisie.[35] Bankruptcies and foreclosures rose dramatically. The petty bourgeoisie staged a large
demonstration at the National Assembly to demand that the government inquire into the problem of
foreclosures and for debt to be extended for businessmen who could prove that their insolvency was
caused by the Revolution.[22] Such a plan was introduced in the National Assembly but was rejected.
The petty bourgeoisie was pauperized and many small merchants became part of the working class.

Accordingly, the provisional government, supposedly created to address the concerns of all the classes
of French society, had little support among the working classes and petit bourgeoisie. Therefore, it
tended to address only the concerns of the liberal bourgeoisie. Support for the provisional
government was especially weak in the countryside, which was predominantly agricultural and more
conservative, and had its own concerns, such as food shortages due to bad harvests. The concerns of
the bourgeoisie were very different from those of the lower classes. Support for the provisional
government was also undermined by the memory of the French Revolution.

The "Thermidorian reaction" and the ascent of Napoleon III to the throne are evidence that the people
preferred the safety of an able dictatorship to the uncertainty of revolution. Louis Napoleon portrayed
himself as "rising above politics". Each class in France saw Louis Napoleon as a return of the "great
days" of Napoleon Bonaparte, but had its own vision of such a return. Karl Marx was referring to this
phenomenon when he said "History repeats itself: the first time as a tragedy, the second time as a
farce."[36] Thus, the various classes and political groupings had different reasons for supporting
Napoleon in the election of December 10, 1848. Napoleon himself encouraged this by "being all things
to all people". Legitimists (Bourbons) and Orleans (Citizen King Louis-Philippe) monarchists saw
Louis Napoleon as the beginning of a royalist restoration in France.[37] The army believed Napoleon
would have a foreign policy of war. (By contrast, the Mobile Guard supported Cavaignac in that
election.)[37] The industrial bourgeoisie felt that Napoleon would suppress further revolutionary
activity.[38] The petty bourgeoisie saw Napoleon as the rule of the debtor over the creditor, and as
their savior against the large finance capitalists.[38] Even some of the proletariat supported Louis
Napoleon (over the petty bourgeoisie socialist Alexandre Ledru-Rollin) in order to remove the hated
Cavaignac and the bourgeoisie republicanism of the National Assembly which had betrayed the
proletarian interests in the recent June Days.[38]

Peasants overwhelmingly supported Napoleon. Their support was so strong that the election has been
seen as a coup d'état by the peasantry.[38] Thus, one might argue, without the support of these large
lower classes, the revolution of 1848 would not carry through, despite the hopes of the liberal
bourgeoisie.

End of the Revolution in France

Following the repression of the June Days, the French Revolution of 1848 was basically over. Politics
in France continued to tilt to the right, as the era of revolution in France came to an end. The Party of
Order and the Cavaignac dictatorship were still fearful of another popular uprising in the streets, so
on 2 September 1848, the government continued the state of siege that had been in place since the
June Days.[39] Also on 2 September 1848, the National Constituent Assembly vowed not to dissolve
itself until they had written a new constitution and enacted all the organic laws necessary to
implement that new constitution.[40] Although the National Constituent Assembly had attempted to
write a constitution before the June Days, only a "first draft" of that constitution had been written
before the repression in June 1848.[39] This first draft still contained the phrase "Right to Work" and
contained several provisions dealing with the demands of the working classes.[41] In the eyes of the
Party of Order, these provisions were now entirely unacceptable, especially in the new conservative
political environment after the June Days. Accordingly, on 4 September 1848, the National
Constituent Assembly, now controlled by the Party of Order, set about writing a new constitution.[40]
"

The new constitution was finished on 23 October 1848 and presidential elections were scheduled for
10 December 1848.[40] Louis Napoleon won the presidential election by a wide margin over the
current dictator Louis Cavaignac and the petty bourgeoisie socialist Alexandre Ledru-Rollin. Louis
Napoleon's family name rallied support to his cause. Elected with Louis Napoleon was a National
Assembly which was filled with monarchists—of both the Legitimist (Bourbon) variety or the
Orleanist (Louis-Philippe) variety. The Bourbons tended to support the landed aristocracy while the
Orleanist tended to support the banking and finance bourgeoisie. One of those elected to the National
Assembly was Adolphe Thiers who was the leader of the Orleanist party. As such, Thiers became the
chief spokesman of the finance bourgeoisie, and as time went by he was tending to speak for the
whole bourgeoisie, including the rising industrial bourgeoisie. After sweeping the elections, Louis
Napoleon tried to return France to the old order.

Although Napoleon purged republicans and returned the "vile multitude" (including Adolphe Thiers)
to its former place, Napoleon III was unable to totally turn the clock back. Indeed, the presidency of
Louis Napoleon, followed by the Second Empire, would be a time of great industrialization and great
economic expansion of railways and banking. By the time of the December 2, 1851 coup, Louis
Napoleon had dissolved the National Assembly without having the constitutional right to do so, and
became the sole ruler of France. Cells of resistance surfaced, but were put down, and the Second
Republic was officially over. He re-established universal suffrage, feared by the Republicans at the
time who correctly expected the countryside to vote against the Republic, Louis Napoleon took the
title Emperor Napoleon III, and the Second Empire began.

In literature
Gustave Flaubert's novel L'éducation sentimentale uses the 1848 revolution as a backdrop for its
story.
Laura Kalpakian's novel Cosette uses the 1848 revolution as a primary part of the plot.
Sylvia Townsend Warner's novel Summer Will Show uses the 1848 revolution as a primary part of
the plot.
Kurt Andersen's novel Heyday begins with one of the protagonists witnessing and unintentionally
participating in the 1848 revolution.
The character of Piotr Alejandrovitch Miusov, uncle and tutor of Dmitri Fyodorovich Karamazov in
Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov, hinted that he himself had almost taken
part in the fighting on the barricades in the 1848 revolution.
L'Autre Dumas (English: The Other Dumas), a 2010 French film directed by Safy Nebbou, depicts
Alexandre Dumas in a fictitious involvement with a young female revolutionary.
Rachel Field's novel All This And Heaven Too (1938) uses unrest leading up to the 1848
revolution as a backdrop for its story.
Alexis de Tocqueville's Recollections (also known as Souvenirs) provides primary insight from a
moderate liberal in the Constituent Assembly, as he saw events unfold.[42]
Rudin, the protagonist of Ivan Turgenev's novel of the same name, dies at the barricades of the
revolution in the epilog.
 Choses vues, by Victor Hugo includes passages concerning the author's actions during the time
of the revolution in Paris.

See also
Charles de Choiseul-Praslin
France in the nineteenth century
French demonstration of 15 May 1848
Paris under Louis-Philippe
History of socialism
History of the French Left
Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire

Further reading
Agulhon, Maurice. The Republican Experiment, 1848–1852 (The Cambridge History of Modern
France) (1983) excerpt and text search (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0521289882/)

Sources
Sylvie Aprile, la Deuxième République et le Second Empire, Pygmalion, 2000.
Arnaud Coutant, 1848, Quand la République combattait la Démocratie, Mare et Martin, 2009.
Inès Murat, La Deuxième République, Fayard, 1987.
George Rudé, The Crowd in History, Chapter 11, "The French Revolution of 1848", pp. 164–179.
(London: Serif, 2005).
Philippe Vigier, La Seconde République, PUF, collection Que Sais-Je?

References
1. Albert Guèrard, France, A Modern History, p. 301.
2. Albert Guèrard, France: A Modern History, p. 286.
3. Agnes de Stoeckl, King of the French: A Portrait of Louis Philippe, 1773–1850 (New York: G.P.
Putnam & Sons, 1957) pp. 146–160.
4. Albert Guèrard, France: A Modern History p. 289.
5. "Class Struggles in France" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Volume 10, p.
48.
6. "The Reform Movement in France" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume
6 p. 380.
7. Georges Duveau, 1848: The Making of a Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1968) p. 7.
8. "Class Struggles in France" in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume
10, p. 54.
9. See Arnaud Coutant, Tocqueville et la Constitution démocratique, Mare et Martin, 2008.
10. F. Bastiat, A Negative Railroad, 1845
11. G.C. Roche, Frederic Bastiat, A Man Alone, p. 63
12. Heinrich Gemkow et al., Frederick Engels: A Biography (Dresden: Verlag Zeitim Bild, 1972) p.
131.
13. These articles are contained at pp. 375, 385, 393, 396, 406 and 409, respectively in Collected
Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Volume 6.
14. "Revolution in Paris" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 6, p. 556.
15. See the first-hand account of Percy St. John:
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1848johnson.asp
16. F. Bastiat, "A letter to a Group of Supporters"
17. G.C. Roche, Frederic Bastiat, A Man Alone, ch. "Bastiat Stands Against the Tide"
18. Albert Guèrard, France: A Modern History p. 300.
19. "Glossary of Events: Fr" (https://www.marxists.org/glossary/events/f/r.htm) . www.marxists.org.
20. "Employment and the Revolution of 1848 in France" (http://www.ohio.edu/chastain/dh/francemp.ht
m) . Ohio.edu. 15 April 1998. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
21. Gérard Unger, Lamartine. Poète et homme d'Etat, Paris: Flammarion, 1998, p. 329.
22. "Class Struggles in France" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 10, p.
75.
23. Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland: Volume 1 (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1982,) pp. 511–46.
24. Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland: Volume 2, pp. 81–162.
25. Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland: Volume 2, p. 341.
26. Note 117 in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 8, p. 552.
27. "Class Struggles in France" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 10, p.
88.
28. Note 53 in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 10, p. 650.
29. "The 23rd of June" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 7, p. 130.
30. "The June Revolution: The Course of the Paris Uprising" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and
Frederick Engels, pp. 160–164.
31. "The June Revolution: The Course of the Paris Uprising" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and
Frederick Engels: Volume 7, p. 161.
32. "The June Revolution" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 7, p. 160.
33. For a non-Marxist analysis, see Arnaud Coutant, Tocqueville et la Constitution democratique,
Mare et Martin, 2008.
34. "Class Struggles in France" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 10,
pp. 75–76.
35. "Class Struggles in France" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 10, p.
74.
36. "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick
Engels: Volume 11, p. 103.
37. "Class Struggles in France" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 10, p.
81.
38. "Class Struggles in France" in Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 10, p.
80.
39. "Class Struggles in France" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels:
Volume 10, p. 77.
40. "Class Struggles in France" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels:
Volume 10, p. 79
41. "Class Struggles in France" contained in the Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels:
Volume 10, pp. 77–78.
42. Tocqueville, Alexis de. "Recollections: the French Revolution of 1848" (https://books.google.co.uk/
books?id=k-LW_9WhwMEC&redir_esc=y&hl=en) . Transaction Publishers – via Google Books.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=French_Revolution_of_1848&oldid=938660406"