European Revolutions: 1820-1848 - A Historical Timeline
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The Revolutions of 1820 and 1830
During the Restoration, liberals went underground and organized themselves into secret societies. The Masons were the most important group, although there were others like the Italian Carbonari, or the Russian Decembrists. They had influence mainly in cities and hoped the people would join the uprising once initiated. This strategy characterized the revolutionary wave that occurred between 1820 and 1824, and caused an initial, albeit temporary, failure of the Restoration system.
The win in Spain, and shortly afterwards in Portugal, Naples, and Piedmont, opened a short liberal period that was suppressed by absolutist forces. A second revolutionary wave occurred between 1829 and 1839. The revolution began in France in 1830 and meant the overthrow of the Bourbons and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy with Louis Philippe of Orleans. Its influence expanded beyond the borders of France and involved the independence of Belgium, altering the map first established in late 1815. By 1830, absolutism was disappearing from Western Europe and a moderate liberalism was imposed, whose reference was the French Constitution of 1791. Moderate liberals defended census suffrage and limited the exercise of freedoms.
The Democratic and Social Experience of 1848
A new revolution in 1848 definitively ended the Restoration system. This new revolutionary wave acquired a wide variety of forms and content. In Eastern Europe, except in Russia, it involved the abolition of feudalism, while in Western Europe it opened the door to new democratic ideals.
The revolution began in Paris when, in February 1848, the government of Louis Philippe restricted liberties. The insurrection ended with the assault on the royal palace, the flight of the king, and the proclamation of the Republic. A provisional government was formed, which promoted a program of political and social reforms. Elections were held with universal male suffrage, which led to the formation of a new government of moderate republicans. The answers came in the form of a popular insurrection in June 1848. In December, the rise of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, later Napoleon III, responded to these needs and culminated with the proclamation of the Second Empire (1851).
The impact of the Paris revolution was immediate and extended throughout Europe. By the end of 1848, the bourgeois revolution was complete, and the prominence of popular social forces began.