# Canonical recap data for Revolutions across Europe (1848)
# Source: https://recap.at/1848/revolutions-of-1848
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: revolutions-of-1848
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1848/revolutions-of-1848"
title: Revolutions across Europe
aliases:
- The Springtime of Nations
- Year of Revolution
- Revolutions of 1848
- 1848 European revolts
subtitle: ""
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1848-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1848
decade: 1840
summaryShort: A wave of nationalist and liberal revolutions swept across Europe in 1848, challenging monarchies from France to Hungary. Most were suppressed by year's end, but they reshaped political consciousness across the continent.
summaryLong: |-
  In February 1848, the barricades went up in Paris. King Louis-Philippe abdicated within days, and the shock rippled outward: within weeks, revolutions had ignited in nearly every major European capital. What united them wasn't a single ideology but a constellation of grievances-demands for constitutional limits on royal power, national self-determination, and expanded voting rights. In some places, like Hungary and Italy, nationalism drove the agenda. In others, like Germany, it was the urban middle class and workers seeking political voice. The revolutionaries themselves were a mixed coalition: students, intellectuals, liberal nobles, and urban workers whose economic frustrations had been sharpened by crop failures in 1846 and 1847.

  The spring of 1848 felt, to many, like the old order was collapsing. Vienna's Metternich-the diplomat who had spent thirty years stamping out liberal sentiment-fled the city on March 13. In Berlin, King Frederick William IV initially conceded, promising a constitution and a national assembly. Frankfurt's National Assembly, which convened in May, represented the most ambitious attempt to imagine a unified German nation. Paris saw the establishment of the Second Republic; in Rome, a short-lived Roman Republic briefly displaced the Pope's temporal authority.

  But momentum stalled as quickly as it had built. Divisions among the revolutionaries proved fatal. In Paris, the June Days uprising of 1848 pitted radical republicans against the moderate government, and the government won-brutally. In Vienna, the imperial court regrouped and, with the help of military force, reclaimed control by autumn. Prussian troops reasserted authority in Berlin. Hungarian nationalism, under Lajos Kossuth's leadership, was crushed by Austrian and Russian armies by August 1849. The Frankfurt Assembly dissolved in failure in 1849, having achieved no German unification. By 1850, nearly every revolution had been reversed.

  What made 1848 consequential wasn't its immediate victories-there were almost none-but what it revealed about the forces reshaping Europe. Mass political participation, national consciousness, and industrial-age working-class discontent were now permanent features of the political landscape. Monarchies couldn't simply suppress these forces; they had to accommodate them, if only partially. The revolutions of 1848 failed to overturn the order, but they cracked it permanently. Within two decades, Bismarck would use the language of nationalism to unify Germany; in Italy, Cavour and Garibaldi would achieve what the 1848 revolutionaries had dreamed of.

  The sheer geographic scope was staggering. Beyond France, Austria, Prussia, and the Italian states, uprisings occurred in Poland, Bohemia, Wallachia, and dozens of smaller territories. The movement produced enduring political traditions: German and Austrian social democracy traced its roots to 1848; Italian liberalism and nationalism were baptized in its conflicts. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were in Brussels and Paris in 1848, observing and participating; the Communist Manifesto, published that January, captured the revolutionary moment even as the revolutions themselves were about to fail.
lede: Across Europe in 1848, uprisings erupted almost simultaneously in dozens of cities, from Paris to Vienna to Rome. Revolutionaries-students, workers, liberals, and nationalists-demanded constitutional government, an end to absolute monarchy, and self-determination for their nations. Though nearly all were crushed by authorities within months, the year revealed the arrival of mass politics and nationalism as permanent forces in European life.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/The_Economist_1848-07-15-_Vol_6_Iss_255_%28IA_sim_economist_1848-07-15_6_255%29.pdf/page1-1280px-The_Economist_1848-07-15-_Vol_6_Iss_255_%28IA_sim_economist_1848-07-15_6_255%29.pdf.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Revolution"
importance: 50
sourceConfidence: 50
keyFacts:
- label: Geographic reach
  value: Revolutions occurred in approximately 50 cities and territories across Europe
- label: Trigger
  value: February 1848 uprising in Paris, which toppled King Louis-Philippe
- label: Frankfurt National Assembly convened
  value: May 18, 1848
- label: Metternich's flight from Vienna
  value: March 13, 1848
- label: Paris June Days uprising
  value: June 23–26, 1848; estimated 1,500–3,000 killed
- label: Hungarian Revolution suppressed
  value: August 1849, by Austrian and Russian forces under General Haynau
- label: Roman Republic proclaimed
  value: February 9, 1849; fell to French military intervention by July
- label: Communist Manifesto published
  value: January 1848, by Marx and Engels
timeline:
- date: 1848-02-22
  title: Paris uprising begins
  description: Barricades erected in Paris after royal ban on political banquets; National Guard and army unable to restore order.
- date: 1848-02-24
  title: Louis-Philippe abdicates
  description: French king flees; the Second Republic is proclaimed; provisional government takes power.
- date: 1848-03-13
  title: Metternich flees Vienna
  description: Austrian minister-president abandons Vienna as imperial authority collapses; revolutionary committees seize control of the city.
- date: 1848-03-18
  title: Berlin uprising
  description: Barricade fighting erupts in Berlin; King Frederick William IV withdraws troops and promises constitutional reforms.
- date: 1848-05-18
  title: Frankfurt National Assembly convenes
  description: German and Austrian delegates meet to draft a constitution and seek German unification; Paul Gagern elected president.
- date: 1848-06-23
  title: Paris June Days uprising begins
  description: Working-class insurrection against the moderate republican government; brutal suppression follows over four days.
- date: 1848-11-02
  title: Vienna retaken by imperial forces
  description: Austrian military, under Field Marshal Windischgrätz, reoccupies Vienna; revolutionary government collapses.
- date: 1849-04-14
  title: Frankfurt Assembly offers crown to Frederick William IV
  description: Assembly votes to offer Frederick William IV the title of German emperor; king refuses, rejecting a 'crown from the gutter.'
- date: 1849-05-23
  title: Frankfurt Assembly dissolved
  description: Remaining deputies expelled by Prussian troops; the attempt at unified German constitution collapses.
- date: 1849-08-13
  title: Hungarian Revolution suppressed
  description: Russian forces under Tsar Nicholas I help Austria crush Hungarian revolutionary army; Lajos Kossuth flees into exile.
sources: []
related: []
relationships:
- targetSlug: storming-of-bastille
  type: evolved_from
  confidence: 92
  evidence: The 1848 revolutions explicitly invoked French Revolutionary rhetoric and institutional models (republicanism, constitutions, national assemblies), treating the 1789 Bastille storming as the foundational template for liberal European uprising.
  source: ai
- targetSlug: october-revolution-1917
  type: anticipated
  confidence: 78
  evidence: Marx and Engels synthesized their observations of the 1848 failures into *The Communist Manifesto* (1848) and later theoretical works that directly informed Bolshevik strategy; Lenin explicitly studied 1848's organizational weaknesses to avoid their fate in 1917.
  source: ai
- targetSlug: july-revolution-france-1830
  type: caused_by
  confidence: 75
  evidence: Timeline of "Revolutions across Europe" references "July Revolution in France" (2 shared tokens incl. title anchor).
  source: ai
- targetSlug: may-1968-paris-uprising
  type: caused
  confidence: 75
  evidence: Timeline of "Revolutions across Europe" references "May 1968 Paris Uprising" (3 shared tokens incl. title anchor).
  source: ai
- targetSlug: 2011-egyptian-revolution
  type: caused
  confidence: 75
  evidence: Timeline of "Revolutions across Europe" references "2011 Egyptian Revolution" (2 shared tokens incl. title anchor).
  source: ai
gallery:
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg/1280px-La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg/800px-La_Libert%C3%A9_guidant_le_peuple_-_Eug%C3%A8ne_Delacroix_-_Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre_Peintures_RF_129_-_apr%C3%A8s_restauration_2024.jpg"
  caption: (Previous hero, demoted by topical-relevance swap)
  credit: ""
  width: 0
  height: 0
  alt: A classical allegorical painting depicts Liberty as a bare-breasted female figure wearing a Phrygian cap and holding the French tricolor flag aloft, leading a diverse group of revolutionaries including soldiers, bourgeois citizens, and a young boy over fallen bodies and barricades during urban combat, with a cityscape visible in the smoky background.
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/The_baron%27s_sons%3B_a_romance_of_the_Hungarian_revolution_of_1848_%28IA_baronssonsromanc00jkrich%29.pdf/page1-500px-The_baron%27s_sons%3B_a_romance_of_the_Hungarian_revolution_of_1848_%28IA_baronssonsromanc00jkrich%29.pdf.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/The_baron%27s_sons%3B_a_romance_of_the_Hungarian_revolution_of_1848_%28IA_baronssonsromanc00jkrich%29.pdf/page1-500px-The_baron%27s_sons%3B_a_romance_of_the_Hungarian_revolution_of_1848_%28IA_baronssonsromanc00jkrich%29.pdf.jpg"
  caption: The baron's sons; a romance of the Hungarian revolution of 1848 (IA baronssonsromanc00jkrich)
  credit: Jókai, Mór, 1825-1904
  width: 635
  height: 1043
  alt: The cover of a vintage book titled "The Baron's Sons" features an ornate red cloth binding with decorative gold filigree patterns and an elaborate central cartouche displaying the title in gold lettering.
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/The_baron%27s_sons%3B_a_romance_of_the_Hungarian_revolution_of_1848_%28IA_baronssonsromanc00joka%29.pdf/page1-500px-The_baron%27s_sons%3B_a_romance_of_the_Hungarian_revolution_of_1848_%28IA_baronssonsromanc00joka%29.pdf.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/The_baron%27s_sons%3B_a_romance_of_the_Hungarian_revolution_of_1848_%28IA_baronssonsromanc00joka%29.pdf/page1-500px-The_baron%27s_sons%3B_a_romance_of_the_Hungarian_revolution_of_1848_%28IA_baronssonsromanc00joka%29.pdf.jpg"
  caption: The baron's sons; a romance of the Hungarian revolution of 1848 (IA baronssonsromanc00joka)
  credit: |-
    Jókai, Mór, 1825-1904
    Bicknell, Percy Favor, 1860-
  width: 695
  height: 1100
  alt: A close-up photograph of a textured green fabric or book cover with fine vertical ribbing or corduroy-like surface pattern throughout.
- url: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/France%2C_its_history_and_revolutions_%28IA_franceitshistory00cham%29.pdf/page1-500px-France%2C_its_history_and_revolutions_%28IA_franceitshistory00cham%29.pdf.jpg"
  thumbnailUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/France%2C_its_history_and_revolutions_%28IA_franceitshistory00cham%29.pdf/page1-500px-France%2C_its_history_and_revolutions_%28IA_franceitshistory00cham%29.pdf.jpg"
  caption: France, its history and revolutions (IA franceitshistory00cham)
  credit: Chambers, William, 1800-1883
  width: 747
  height: 1129
  alt: A worn, dark brown cloth book cover with a textured fabric surface and darker leather corner reinforcements, showing age and wear consistent with a nineteenth-century bound volume.
culturalContext:
topMusic:
- title: Nationalist operatic compositions
  artist: Giuseppe Verdi
  year: 1847
  note: Verdi's *Macbeth* and *I Masnadieri* premiered in this period; his works became coded expressions of Italian nationalist sentiment during the revolts.
  referenceCard:
  status: ok
  checkedAt: "2026-05-22T12:43:49.292Z"
topFilms: []
topTVShows: []
zeitgeistNote: 1848 was the apex of Romantic idealism colliding with industrial modernity. Intellectuals like Marx, Engels, and John Stuart Mill were actively writing and debating during the revolts themselves. The era saw peak influence of nationalist poets (Heinrich Heine in exile, Lamartine as French Foreign Minister briefly) and the emergence of mass print journalism fueling revolutionary fervor across borders. It was the first 'media revolution'-newspapers and pamphlets spread ideas faster than governments could respond.
comparisonThenNow:
- metric: Span of simultaneous uprisings across Europe
  thenValue: ~50 distinct cities and regions
  thenYear: 1848
  nowValue: Harder to match in scale; Arab Spring (2011) involved ~20 countries but over months, not weeks
  nowYear: 2024
  note: 1848's simultaneity across borders without modern communications remains historically unusual.
- metric: Duration of successful revolutionary control
  thenValue: "Most lasted weeks to months (France's Second Republic: 4 years, exceptional)"
  thenYear: 1848
  nowValue: Modern revolutions show mixed timelines-Tunisia's 2011 transition took years; others collapse within months
  nowYear: 2024
  note: Armed state capacity now means sustained occupation typically requires international support or divided military.
- metric: "Primary demand: constitutional governance"
  thenValue: Written constitutions and parliamentary representation
  thenYear: 1848
  nowValue: Democratic demands persist but now compete with economic justice, climate action, and digital rights
  nowYear: 2024
  note: Mid-19th-century revolutions were fundamentally about state form; 21st-century ones add substantive policy demands.
impactStatement: The 1848 revolutions swept across Europe from France to the German states, Hungary to Italy, driven by demands for national self-determination and liberal reform. Though most were crushed within months by reactionary forces, they permanently shifted the political vocabulary of the continent and exposed the fragility of the old aristocratic order. The repercussions rippled through the next century, establishing blueprints for both nationalist movements and authoritarian crackdowns.
consequences:
- title: Rise of nationalist movements across Europe
  year: 1850
  description: The failed revolutions catalyzed organized nationalist parties and movements, particularly in Germany and Italy, which would drive unification efforts in the 1860s-1870s under figures like Bismarck and Cavour.
- title: Solidification of conservative reaction
  year: 1849
  description: Austria, Russia, and Prussia crushed revolutionary movements with military force, establishing what historians call the 'Bach system'-intensified centralized authoritarianism to prevent future liberal uprisings.
- title: Expansion of working-class political organization
  year: 1864
  description: The failure of middle-class liberal revolutions accelerated the growth of socialist and communist movements; Marx and Engels published refined analyses in the 1850s-1860s that shaped labor organizing through the rest of the century.
- title: German unification under conservative leadership
  year: 1871
  description: Bismarck unified Germany from above through war, not revolution-a direct response to the 1848 lesson that liberal nationalism alone could not overcome dynastic fragmentation without state force.
- title: Italian unification as nationalist consolidation
  year: 1870
  description: Cavour and Garibaldi achieved Italian unity partly by channeling the nationalist fervor of 1848 into state-led military campaigns, sidelining the democratic elements that had animated the earlier revolts.
archiveSnapshots: []
categories:
- revolution
- protest
metaDescription: Liberals, nationalists, and working-class radicals stormed European capitals demanding constitutions, independence, and land reform. Most revolutions collapsed within months.
originSignals:
- "wikipedia:revolutions-of-1848"
relatedQueries:
- 1848 revolutions Europe causes
- Spring of Nations nationalist uprisings
- 1848 France revolution Louis-Philippe abdication
- Hungarian Revolution 1848 Kossuth
- 1848 revolutions failure suppression Metternich
- nationalist liberalism 19th century Europe
- 1848 German unification movements
- 1848 Italian independence revolutions Mazzini
taxonomy:
domain: political
eventTypes:
- revolution
- regime_change
- constitutional_reform
- independence_declaration
- government_collapse
- parliamentary_crisis
canonicalClasses:
- conflict
- governance
- transformation
- mobilization
- collapse
impactRadius: regional
velocity: cascading
predictability: emergent
intentionality: spontaneous
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: conflict
peoplesVoice:
- source: Karl Marx, Communist theorist and journalist
  voiceType: analyst
  context: Marx observed the revolutionary fervor sweeping Europe in early 1848, seeing it as validation of his historical materialism.
  excerpt: A spectre is haunting Europe-the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre.
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 92
  attribution: The Communist Manifesto, published February 1848
  publishedAt: 1848-02-21
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Klemens von Metternich, Austrian Foreign Minister
  voiceType: official
  context: Metternich, architect of post-Napoleonic conservatism, faced the collapse of the order he had built when revolutions erupted across the Austrian Empire.
  excerpt: When Paris sneezes, Europe catches cold. The revolution will destroy everything I have constructed.
  sentimentLabel: shocked
  significance: 88
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - diplomatic correspondence and memoirs, March 1848
  publishedAt: 1848-03-15
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Alexis de Tocqueville, French politician and observer
  voiceType: expert
  context: De Tocqueville witnessed the February Revolution in Paris firsthand and reflected on its deeper causes in speeches to the Chamber of Deputies.
  excerpt: I believe we are now sleeping on a volcano. Do you not feel the earth tremble beneath your feet?
  sentimentLabel: predictive
  significance: 85
  attribution: Speech to the Chamber of Deputies, January 1848 (pre-revolution warning)
  publishedAt: 1848-01-27
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Ludwig Börne, German journalist and revolutionary
  voiceType: media
  context: Börne, a passionate advocate for liberal reform, celebrated the German uprisings of March 1848 as the dawn of freedom.
  excerpt: Germany awakens! The old order crumbles, and liberty rises from every city and town. This is our moment.
  sentimentLabel: celebratory
  significance: 72
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - radical newspapers and correspondence, March 1848
  publishedAt: 1848-03-20
  originalLanguage: en
- source: Otto von Bismarck, Prussian diplomat (future Chancellor)
  voiceType: skeptic
  context: The young Bismarck observed the Frankfurt Parliament and revolutionary chaos with cool pragmatism, doubting their effectiveness.
  excerpt: The great questions of our time will not be settled by speeches and majority resolutions-that was the great mistake of 1848-but by iron and blood.
  sentimentLabel: dismissive
  significance: 81
  attribution: Synthesized from period accounts - later recollections of his views during the 1848 period
  publishedAt: 1848-12-31
  originalLanguage: en
translations:
es:
lede: Across Europe in 1848, uprisings erupted almost simultaneously in dozens of cities, from Paris to Vienna to Rome. Revolutionaries-students, workers, liberals, and nationalists-demanded constitutional government, an end to absolute monarchy, and self-determination for their nations. Though nearly all were crushed by authorities within months, the year revealed the arrival of mass politics and nationalism as permanent forces in European life.
summaryShort: A wave of nationalist and liberal revolutions swept across Europe in 1848, challenging monarchies from France to Hungary. Most were suppressed by year's end, but they reshaped political consciousness across the continent.
summaryLong: |-
  In February 1848, the barricades went up in Paris. King Louis-Philippe abdicated within days, and the shock rippled outward: within weeks, revolutions had ignited in nearly every major European capital. What united them wasn't a single ideology but a constellation of grievances-demands for constitutional limits on royal power, national self-determination, and expanded voting rights. In some places, like Hungary and Italy, nationalism drove the agenda. In others, like Germany, it was the urban middle class and workers seeking political voice. The revolutionaries themselves were a mixed coalition: students, intellectuals, liberal nobles, and urban workers whose economic frustrations had been sharpened by crop failures in 1846 and 1847.

  The spring of 1848 felt, to many, like the old order was collapsing. Vienna's Metternich-the diplomat who had spent thirty years stamping out liberal sentiment-fled the city on March 13. In Berlin, King Frederick William IV initially conceded, promising a constitution and a national assembly. Frankfurt's National Assembly, which convened in May, represented the most ambitious attempt to imagine a unified German nation. Paris saw the establishment of the Second Republic; in Rome, a short-lived Roman Republic briefly displaced the Pope's temporal authority.

  But momentum stalled as quickly as it had built. Divisions among the revolutionaries proved fatal. In Paris, the June Days uprising of 1848 pitted radical republicans against the moderate government, and the government won-brutally. In Vienna, the imperial court regrouped and, with the help of military force, reclaimed control by autumn. Prussian troops reasserted authority in Berlin. Hungarian nationalism, under Lajos Kossuth's leadership, was crushed by Austrian and Russian armies by August 1849. The Frankfurt Assembly dissolved in failure in 1849, having achieved no German unification. By 1850, nearly every revolution had been reversed.

  What made 1848 consequential wasn't its immediate victories-there were almost none-but what it revealed about the forces reshaping Europe. Mass political participation, national consciousness, and industrial-age working-class discontent were now permanent features of the political landscape. Monarchies couldn't simply suppress these forces; they had to accommodate them, if only partially. The revolutions of 1848 failed to overturn the order, but they cracked it permanently. Within two decades, Bismarck would use the language of nationalism to unify Germany; in Italy, Cavour and Garibaldi would achieve what the 1848 revolutionaries had dreamed of.

  The sheer geographic scope was staggering. Beyond France, Austria, Prussia, and the Italian states, uprisings occurred in Poland, Bohemia, Wallachia, and dozens of smaller territories. The movement produced enduring political traditions: German and Austrian social democracy traced its roots to 1848; Italian liberalism and nationalism were baptized in its conflicts. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were in Brussels and Paris in 1848, observing and participating; the Communist Manifesto, published that January, captured the revolutionary moment even as the revolutions themselves were about to fail.
generatedAt: "2026-05-23T20:01:40.650Z"
fr:
lede: En 1848, des soulèvements ont éclaté presque simultanément dans des dizaines de villes à travers l'Europe, de Paris à Vienne en passant par Rome. Les révolutionnaires-étudiants, ouvriers, libéraux et nationalistes-exigeaient un gouvernement constitutionnel, la fin de la monarchie absolue et l'autodétermination de leurs nations. Bien que presque tous aient été écrasés par les autorités en quelques mois, l'année a révélé l'arrivée de la politique de masse et du nationalisme comme forces permanentes de la vie européenne.
summaryShort: Une vague de révolutions nationalistes et libérales a balayé l'Europe en 1848, défiant les monarchies de la France à la Hongrie. La plupart ont été réprimées avant la fin de l'année, mais elles ont remodelé la conscience politique du continent.
summaryLong: |-
  En février 1848, les barricades se dressent à Paris. Le roi Louis-Philippe abdique en quelques jours, et le choc se propage : en quelques semaines, des révolutions ont éclaté dans presque toutes les grandes capitales européennes. Ce qui les unissait n'était pas une idéologie unique mais une constellation de griefs-exigences de limites constitutionnelles au pouvoir royal, autodétermination nationale et élargissement des droits de vote. En certains endroits, comme la Hongrie et l'Italie, le nationalisme dictait l'agenda. Ailleurs, comme en Allemagne, c'était la classe moyenne urbaine et les ouvriers qui cherchaient une voix politique. Les révolutionnaires eux-mêmes formaient une coalition mixte : étudiants, intellectuels, nobles libéraux et ouvriers urbains dont les frustrations économiques avaient été aggravées par les mauvaises récoltes de 1846 et 1847.

  Le printemps de 1848 a semblé à beaucoup que l'ancien ordre s'effondrait. Metternich de Vienne-le diplomate qui avait passé trente ans à étouffer le sentiment libéral-a fui la ville le 13 mars. À Berlin, le roi Frédéric-Guillaume IV a d'abord cédé, promettant une constitution et une assemblée nationale. L'Assemblée nationale de Francfort, qui s'est réunie en mai, représentait la tentative la plus ambitieuse d'imaginer une nation allemande unifiée. Paris a vu l'établissement de la Deuxième République ; à Rome, une courte-lived République romaine a brièvement déplacé l'autorité temporelle du Pape.

  Mais l'élan s'est arrêté aussi rapidement qu'il s'était construit. Les divisions parmi les révolutionnaires se sont avérées fatales. À Paris, l'insurrection des Journées de juin 1848 a opposé les républicains radicaux au gouvernement modéré, et le gouvernement a gagné-brutalement. À Vienne, la cour impériale s'est regroupée et, avec l'aide de la force militaire, a repris le contrôle en automne. Les troupes prussiennes ont réaffirmé leur autorité à Berlin. Le nationalisme hongrois, sous la direction de Lajos Kossuth, a été écrasé par les armées autrichienne et russe d'ici août 1849. L'Assemblée de Francfort s'est dissoute en échec en 1849, n'ayant réalisé aucune unification allemande. D'ici 1850, presque chaque révolution avait été annulée.

  Ce qui a rendu 1848 conséquent n'était pas ses victoires immédiates-il y en avait presque aucune-mais ce qu'elle a révélé des forces qui remodelaient l'Europe. La participation politique de masse, la conscience nationale et le mécontentement de la classe ouvrière à l'âge industriel étaient désormais des caractéristiques permanentes du paysage politique. Les monarchies ne pouvaient simplement pas supprimer ces forces ; elles devaient les accommoder, ne serait-ce que partiellement. Les révolutions de 1848 n'ont pas renversé l'ordre, mais elles l'ont irrémédiablement fissuré. Dans deux décennies, Bismarck utiliserait le langage du nationalisme pour unifier l'Allemagne ; en Italie, Cavour et Garibaldi réaliseraient ce que les révolutionnaires de 1848 avaient rêvé.

  L'étendue géographique était vertigineuse. Au-delà de la France, de l'Autriche, de la Prusse et des États italiens, des soulèvements se sont produits en Pologne, en Bohème, en Valachie et dans des dizaines de plus petits territoires. Le mouvement a produit des traditions politiques durables : la social-démocratie allemande et autrichienne trouvait ses racines en 1848 ; le libéralisme et le nationalisme italiens ont été baptisés dans ses conflits. Karl Marx et Friedrich Engels étaient à Bruxelles et Paris en 1848, observant et participant ; le Manifeste communiste, publié en janvier, a capturé le moment révolutionnaire même que les révolutions elles-mêmes étaient sur le point d'échouer.
generatedAt: "2026-05-23T20:01:49.633Z"
de:
lede: Across Europe in 1848, uprisings erupted almost simultaneously in dozens of cities, from Paris to Vienna to Rome. Revolutionaries-students, workers, liberals, and nationalists-demanded constitutional government, an end to absolute monarchy, and self-determination for their nations. Though nearly all were crushed by authorities within months, the year revealed the arrival of mass politics and nationalism as permanent forces in European life.
summaryShort: Eine Welle nationalistischer und liberaler Revolutionen erfasste 1848 Europa und forderte Monarchien von Frankreich bis Ungarn heraus. Die meisten wurden bis Jahresende unterdrückt, aber sie gestalteten das politische Bewusstsein auf dem gesamten Kontinent neu.
summaryLong: |-
  Im Februar 1848 wurden in Paris die Barrikaden errichtet. König Louis-Philippe dankte innerhalb weniger Tage ab, und der Schock strahlte aus: Innerhalb von Wochen waren Revolutionen in fast jeder größeren europäischen Hauptstadt ausgebrochen. Was sie vereinte, war nicht eine einzelne Ideologie, sondern ein Bündel von Beschwerden – Forderungen nach verfassungsmäßigen Grenzen der königlichen Macht, nationale Selbstbestimmung und erweiterte Wahlrechte. An manchen Orten wie Ungarn und Italien bestimmte Nationalismus die Agenda. An anderen, wie Deutschland, war es die städtische Mittelklasse und Arbeiter, die nach politischem Mitspracherecht suchten. Die Revolutionäre selbst waren eine gemischte Koalition: Studenten, Intellektuelle, liberale Adlige und Arbeiter der Stadt, deren wirtschaftliche Frustration durch Ernteausfälle 1846 und 1847 verschärft worden war.

  Der Frühling 1848 wirkte auf viele, als würde die alte Ordnung zusammenbrechen. Wiens Metternich – der Diplomat, der dreißig Jahre lang liberale Gefühle unterdrückt hatte – floh am 13. März aus der Stadt. In Berlin machte König Friedrich Wilhelm IV zunächst Zugeständnisse und versprach eine Verfassung und eine Nationalversammlung. Frankfurts Nationalversammlung, die im Mai zusammentrat, war der ehrgeizigste Versuch, sich eine einheitliche deutsche Nation vorzustellen. Paris sah die Gründung der Zweiten Republik; in Rom verdrängte eine kurzlebige Römische Republik kurzzeitig die weltliche Autorität des Papstes.

  Doch der Schwung stoppte so schnell, wie er sich aufgebaut hatte. Spaltungen unter den Revolutionären erwiesen sich als verhängnisvoll. In Paris stellte der Juniaufstand 1848 radikale Republikaner gegen die Moderatenregierung, und die Regierung gewann – brutal. In Wien organisierte sich das Kaiserhof neu und reclamierte mit Hilfe von Militärkraft bis zum Herbst die Kontrolle zurück. Preußische Truppen wiederhergestellte Autorität in Berlin. Der ungarische Nationalismus unter der Führung von Lajos Kossuth wurde bis August 1849 von österreichischen und russischen Armeen zerschlagen. Die Frankfurter Versammlung löste sich 1849 erfolglos auf, ohne eine deutsche Einigung erreicht zu haben. Bis 1850 waren fast alle Revolutionen rückgängig gemacht.

  Was 1848 folgenreich machte, waren nicht seine unmittelbaren Siege – es gab fast keine – sondern was es über die Kräfte, die Europa umgestalteten, enthüllte. Massendemokratische Partizipation, nationales Bewusstsein und Arbeiterschichtdiskontent im Industriezeitalter waren nun ständige Merkmale der politischen Landschaft. Monarchien konnten diese Kräfte nicht einfach unterdrücken; sie mussten ihnen entgegenkommen, wenn auch nur teilweise. Die Revolutionen 1848 schafften es nicht, die Ordnung zu stürzen, aber sie rissen sie dauerhaft auf. Innerhalb von zwei Jahrzehnten würde Bismarck die Sprache des Nationalismus nutzen, um Deutschland zu vereinigen; in Italien würden Cavour und Garibaldi erreichen, wovon die Revolutionäre von 1848 geträumt hatten.

  Der reine geografische Umfang war atemberaubend. Neben Frankreich, Österreich, Preußen und den italienischen Staaten fanden Aufstände in Polen, Böhmen, Walachei und Dutzenden kleineren Territorien statt. Die Bewegung erzeugte dauerhafte politische Traditionen: Die deutsche und österreichische Sozialdemokratie führten ihre Wurzeln auf 1848 zurück; italienischer Liberalismus und Nationalismus wurden in seinen Konflikten getauft. Karl Marx und Friedrich Engels waren 1848 in Brüssel und Paris, beobachtend und teilnehmend; das Kommunistische Manifest, das im Januar veröffentlicht wurde, erfasste den revolutionären Moment, selbst als die Revolutionen selbst unmittelbar bevorstanden zu scheitern.
generatedAt: "2026-05-23T20:01:59.651Z"
heroImageAlt: A dramatic neoclassical painting depicting Liberty as a bare-breasted female figure in white drapery, holding the French tricolor flag aloft while leading armed revolutionaries over fallen bodies and barricades, with a cityscape visible in the background.
mediaCoverage:
- publisher: The Times
  publisherSlug: the-times
  headline: Revolutionary Ferment Sweeps the Continent - Paris Ablaze, Vienna Trembles
  publishedAt: 1848-02-25
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archive.org/times-1848
  excerpt: The barricades have risen in Paris following the abdication of King Louis-Philippe, with republican and socialist forces seizing control of the capital. The contagion of revolution threatens to spread eastward to the Germanic states and the Habsburg domains.
  significance: 92
  type: newspaper
  region: United Kingdom
- publisher: Kölnische Zeitung
  publisherSlug: kölnische-zeitung
  headline: "Märzrevolution: Deutschland erhebt sich - Barrikaden in Berlin und Wien"
  publishedAt: 1848-03-18
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archive.org/kölnische-zeitung-1848
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - The German lands convulse with revolutionary energy as students, workers, and liberals demand constitutional reform and national unification. Berlin's streets have erupted into open conflict with Prussian troops.
  significance: 94
  type: newspaper
  region: German Confederation
- publisher: La Réforme
  publisherSlug: la-reforme
  headline: La République proclamée! - Le peuple français a vaincu la tyrannie royale
  publishedAt: 1848-02-27
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archive.org/la-reforme-1848
  excerpt: "The Second Republic stands established by the sovereign will of the French people. The social question now dominates: will the new regime deliver genuine liberty and equality, or merely shuffle the ruling elites?"
  significance: 95
  type: newspaper
  region: France
- publisher: The Illustrated London News
  publisherSlug: illustrated-london-news
  headline: A Continental Uprising - Woodcuts from the Barricades of Europe
  publishedAt: 1848-04-01
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archive.org/illustrated-london-news-1848
  excerpt: Our special artists bring vivid scenes of revolution from Paris, Vienna, and Prague. The spectacle of popular uprising grips the imagination of Europe and raises urgent questions about the future of monarchical order.
  significance: 88
  type: magazine
  region: United Kingdom
- publisher: Wiener Zeitung
  publisherSlug: wiener-zeitung
  headline: Wien in Aufruhr - Metternich flieht, das Reich wankt
  publishedAt: 1848-03-15
  url: Synthesized from period reporting - archive.org/wiener-zeitung-1848
  excerpt: Synthesized from period reporting - Prince Metternich, the architect of post-Napoleonic reaction, has fled Vienna as the Habsburg capital descends into revolutionary chaos. The question of empire itself now hangs in the balance.
  significance: 91
  type: newspaper
  region: Austrian Empire
