What were the main causes and results of the revolutions of 1848?

IIN THE LATE 1840S, Europe entered a period of tense economic and political crisis. Bad harvests across the continent caused widespread distress. Uneven industrial development failed to provide jobs or raise incomes, and revolts and insurrections rocked Europe.

Full-scale revolution broke out in France in February 1848, and its shock waves ripped across the continent. Only the most developed countries — Great Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands — and the least developed — the Ottoman and Russian Empires — escaped untouched. Elsewhere governments toppled, as monarchs and ministers bowed or fled. National independence, liberal democratic constitutions, and social reform seemed at hand. Yet in the end, the revolutions failed.

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Street fighting in Frankfurt, 1848The striking similarities between the different national revolutions in 1848 suggest that Europeans lived through common experiences that shaped a generation. The first such experience was raising the barricades, fighting in the streets, and overthrowing rulers or forcing major concessions. Army commanders found deadly ways to respond to urban uprisings. First, they used cannon and field artillery to bombard and destroy the fighters behind their makeshift fortifications. Only then did obedient infantrymen attack and take the barricades in hand-to-hand combat, as Prussian soldiers did in Frankfurt. (The Granger Collection, New York)
image 1848
January Uprising in Naples, Italy
February Revolution in Paris; proclamation of provisional republic
March Revolt in Austrian Empire; Hungarian autonomy movement; uprisings in German cities
May Frankfurt parliament convenes to write a constitution for a united Germany
June Republican army defeats “June Days” workers’ uprising in Paris; Austrian army crushes working-class revolt in Prague
September–November Counter-revolutionary forces push back reformers in Prussia and the German states
December Francis Joseph crowned Austrian emperor; Louis-Napoleon elected president in France
image 1849
March Frankfurt parliament completes draft constitution, elects Frederick William of Prussia emperor of a Lesser Germany, which he rejects
June Russian troops subdue Hungarian autonomy movement; Prussian troops dissolve the remnants of the Frankfurt parliament
Table 21.3: THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1848