The World Revolution of 1848
The Flood: World Revolution and World Crisis
You’ve read about the revolutions that changed ideas about sovereignty. The next unit will discuss the Industrial Revolution. These revolutions related to ideas and industry were felt across the world. Revolutions erupted as people responded to change.
European empires grew larger in the 1800s. They colonized more of the world. The middle of the century saw revolutions in about fifty countries around the world.
Let’s look at the years from 1848 to 1857. That’s when dozens of revolutions in Europe reshaped politics. History’s deadliest civil war took place in China. There was a military revolt against British rule in India. Why was there so much conflict and how were these distant events connected?
To the Barricades!
You’ve read about two different ways to explain revolution: ideology and economics. The world revolution of 1848 had economic and political causes.
The European revolutions in 1848 started with food shortages. People responded by demanding democracy. The middle class demanded more liberalized societies. The working class called for better economic conditions. Both were also driven by nationalism. That is the belief that a group of people from the same culture have the right to their own country.
Revolutionaries man the barricades in Paris. By Horace Vernet, public domain.
Napoleon III. By Franz Xaver Winterhalter, public domain.
In France, there were riots across the country in response to food shortages. Different classes united against the king and forced him to step down.
The problem was that they couldn’t stay united. Different types of people had different needs and ideas. Their division allowed the French elites to take back power.
What happened in France happened all over Europe. Hungarians, Germans, and others formed nationalist rebellions. Again, there were divisions between the middle class and working class. The elites were then able to retake control of the country with even more power than before.
The powerful states of Western Europe went on to solidify their power for the next century. They did this in part by spreading European colonies across Africa and Asia.
German revolutions in Berlin, 1848. Public domain.
The Taiping Rebellion and the Great Revolt of 1857
Revolution was not limited to Europe. There were two major events in India and China at this time. These conflicts were in response to European colonialism. But were these rebellions connected to events in Europe, or were they something different?
A scene from the Taiping Rebellion. By Wu Youru, public domain.
The Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864) took place in China against the Qing dynasty. It resulted in 20 million deaths. It occurred because the British had controlled the trade of opium in China. They drained the country of money and the Chinese peasant suffered. A man named Hong Xiuquan led the peasants in rebellion. The Qing emperor suppressed the rebellion.
In the same era, the British East India Company (EIC) ruled most of India. It imposed large taxes on the population and disrespected local customs. Indian soldiers rose up against the British in the 1857 Indian Uprising. The rebellion was put down and the British tightened their control of India.
The EIC punished many revolutionaries by tying them to the barrels of cannons. By Illustrated Times, public domain.
Ripples and Countercurrents
There are some similarities between the revolutions in Asia and Europe. The people were all reacting to poor rulers and economic hardship. But the events in Asia were really inspired by local ideas and leaders. They were not influenced very much by European-style nationalism.
The one thing these revolutions all have in common is that they failed. The governments they rebelled against survived into the twentieth century.
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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