The World Revolution of 1848
The Flood: World Revolution and World Crisis
You’ve read about the new ideas about sovereignty in Europe. The next unit discusses the Industrial Revolution. These revolutions were felt across the world. They erupted as people responded to change.
European empires grew larger in the 1800s. They colonized more of the world. In 1847, there were revolutions in fifty countries. Why was there so much conflict? How were these distant events connected?
To the Barricades!
Revolutionaries man the barricades in Paris. By Horace Vernet, public domain.
The world revolution of 1848 had economic and political causes. The European revolutions began with food shortages. People responded by rebelling against the government.
The middle class fought for more political power. The working class wanted better economic conditions. Both groups were motivated by nationalism. This is the idea that people with the same culture should have their own country.
In France, the middle class and workers joined together. They forced the king to step down. They couldn’t stay united, however. The elites were able to reclaim power.
Napoleon III. By Franz Xaver Winterhalter, public domain.
German revolutions in Berlin, 1848. Public domain.
What happened in France happened all over Europe. Hungarians, Germans, and others fought for democracy. They forced the governments to agree to some changes. Like in France, they couldn’t remain united. The governments took back their power for the next century.
The Taiping Rebellion and the Great Revolt of 1857
A scene from the Taiping Rebellion. By Wu Youru, public domain.
Revolution was not limited to Europe. There were two major rebellions in Asia. These were in response to European colonialism. Were these rebellions connected to events in Europe? Or were they something different?
The Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864) took place in China. The British controlled a lot of trade there. China lost a lot of money and the peasants suffered. A man named Hong Xiuquan led the peasants against China’s Qing government. The Qing emperor brutally ended the rebellion. An estimated 20 million people died in the war.
In the same era, a British company ruled India. People in India were upset about high taxes and disregard for their customs. Indian soldiers rose up against the British. The British defeated the soldiers. They took tighter control of India after that.
The EIC punished many revolutionaries by tying them to the barrels of cannons. By Illustrated Times, public domain.
Ripples and Countercurrents
The revolutions in Asia were somewhat similar to the revolutions in Europe. They were all in response to poor rulers and hard economic conditions. However, the Asian rebellions were really caused by local ideas. The thing these revolutions have in common is that they failed. The governments remained as strong as ever.
Other struggles occurred across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East after 1865. Most were shut down by existing rulers. The limits of revolution had been reached, at least for a while.
Sources
Bayly, C.A. The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.
Graeber, David. “A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse.” The Baffler, no. 22, 2013.
Hobsbawm, E. J. The Age of Capital: 1848-1875. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1975.
Kelly, Patrick J. “The European Revolutions of 1848 and the Transnational Turn in Civil War History.” The Journal of the Civil War Era 4, no. 3, 2014.
Osterhammel, Jurgen. The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014.
Vanhaute, Eric, Richard Paping, and Cormac O. Grada. “The European Subsistence Crisis of 1845-1850: A Comparative Perspective.” IEHC Session 123, 2006.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. “Citizens All? Citizens Some! The Making of the Citizen.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 45, no. 4, 2003.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Modern World-System IV: Centrist Liberalism Triumphant, 1789-1914. Berkley: University of California Press, 2011.
Bennett Sherry
Bennett Sherry holds a PhD in History from the University of Pittsburgh and has undergraduate teaching experience in world history, human rights, and the Middle East at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Maine at Augusta. Additionally, he is a Research Associate at Pitt’s World History Center. Bennett writes about refugees and international organizations in the twentieth century.
Image credits
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 except for the following:
Cover: Universal Democratic and Social Republic. The Springtime of the Peoples Pact. 1848. © Photo by: Christophel Fine Art/ Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Revolutionaries man the barricades in Paris. By Horace Vernet, public domain. h
Napoleon III. By Franz Xaver Winterhalter, public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franz_Xaver_Winterhalter_Napoleon_III.jpg#/media/File:Franz_Xaver_Winterhalter_Napoleon_III.jpg
German revolutions in Berlin, 1848. Public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maerz1848_berlin.jpg#/media/File:Maerz1848_berlin.jpg
A scene from the Taiping Rebellion. By Wu Youru, public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Regaining_the_Provincial_City_Anqing2.jpg#/media/File:Regaining_the_Provincial_City_Anqing2.jpg
The EIC punished many revolutionaries by tying them to the barrels of cannons. By Illustrated Times, public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blowing_Mutinous_Sepoys_From_the_Guns,_September_8,_1857_-_steel_engraving.jpg#/media/File:Blowing_Mutinous_Sepoys_From_the_Guns,_September_8,_1857_-_steel_engraving.jpg
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