Causes Of The 1848 Revolution Essay Research

Causes Of The 1848 Revolution Essay, Research Paper

France is a country that has been shaped by revolution. The 1848 revolution is very unique in that it was probably the least bloody of all the revolutions in French history. Like most, if not all, the regimes before it the July Monarchy was toppled in 1848 because it became illegitimate in the eyes of the public. In his book Recollections, Tocqueville writes that the major cause for the revolution of 1848 was the animosity the working class people felt for the ruling bourgeoisie. While there may have been many reasons for this animosity, he contends that it was this animosity that was the ultimate cause of the revolution which toppled the July Monarchy. He points out that events or accidents occurred, which created a situation where in a revolution could take place, he makes a distinction that these events were just accidents and not the causes of the revolution. Tocqueville is very ardent in his belief that it was the way in which the bourgeoisie ruled the nation that created so much animosity between the classes and eventually caused the revolution of 1848.

French history is littered with revolutions. The French revolution of 1789 began this way of life in France, where change is brought about through revolution. From 1789, until after WWII, revolutions were the norm, occurring almost with certain regularity every generation or so. The people didn t know how to create change any other way. Peaceful change was so foreign to them that they often never even considered it. These, often very violent, revolutions toppled one type of political system and replaced it with another kind, often very different from that which was just toppled. Each of these new systems were equally deficient at gaining legitimacy in the eyes of the people, and thus they all fell victim to a revolution at one time or another. The people didn t understand what peaceful change was, and during this time revolution was seen as the only way of enacting change. Tocqueville believes to be true, and he writes: our history from 1789 to 1830 appears to be forty-one years of deadly struggle between the Ancien regime with its traditions, memories, hopes and men, and the new France led by the middle class. Tocqueville, upon first reflecting upon the events of the July revolution, the one that ushered in this monarchy about which he writes, felt that this revolution may have forever put an end to the eternal struggle he just mentioned. The July Revolution toppled the Restoration Monarchy, which had been in power for the last fifteen years. Tocqueville wrote that after this revolution all that remained of the Ancien Regime was destroyed forever. He believes that the major struggle, which has produced all these revolutions throughout French history, has been that between he Ancien royal regime, and the new democratic middle class one. Thus, he hoped that along with the demise of the Ancien regime, as he saw it, the conflict that brought about revolution would also stop.

Out of the ashes of the July Revolution rose a new government, and a new ruling class, the bourgeoisie. This new regime no longer had royalty or nobles in power, but rather the French middle class. This class of people constitutes the portion of the population that are wealthy enough so that they do not have to work with their hands, yet are not from a noble background. In fact the major difference between this class and the nobility is the nobility itself. The July revolution not only brought them into political power, but also into the forefront of French life itself. Tocqueville saw this ruling class as being so dominant in all aspects of French life, that the lower working class developed an animosity towards them. He believes this was the major cause of the 1848 revolution.

The triumph of the middle class was so decisive and so complete, that the narrow limits of the bourgeoisie encompassed all political powers, franchises, prerogatives, indeed the whole government, to the exclusion, in law, of all beneath it an, in fact of all that had once been above it. Thus the bourgeoisie became not only the sole director of society, but also one might say, its cultivator.

Tocqueville sees this animosity as a major obstacle to the July Monarchy ever gaining its legitimacy, and thus being able to hold onto power. The July Monarchy replaced a system, a royal monarchy, which by its very nature excluded people from participating in political life. Instead it ushered in a constitutional monarchy, and developed a constitution where hopefully a basis and a foundation would have been provided for a government that was more inclusive to the people. Tocqueville doesn t see the new constitution as acting this way. One was drawn up that did do what the main intention was, that is to defeat the aristocracy s hold on power. Yet in its stead it placed a class of people who had equally little regard for the French people as a whole, s the aristocracy had. It replaced one person at the top, with many, but both systems proved to lack the intention of looking out for the French citiznizry in Tocqueville s mind. A government cannot function well; neither keep its’ legitimacy long, if the people are not being heard. Tocqueville sees this as the case with the July Monarchy. He saw a parliament develop that was without political opposition within it. He calls this new way of political life, a lack of