Europe in Turmoil

In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Europe was in disorder. Old governments, with old ideas, were resorted, but a new age of industrialism and democracy was dawning. At first, people’s demands for change were either ignored or crushed. Revolution seemed the only weapon to people all across Europe who still had no say in how they were governed.

Revolt broke out in France in 1830, when Louis-Philippe was chosen as a ‘citizen-king’ to replace the unpopular Charles X. reports of the uprising spread, sparking off protests in other countries. Within two years, Greece declared its independence from Turkish rule, and Belgium from the Netherlands.

In 1848, so many revolutions and protest broke out throughout Europe that it became known as the ‘Year of Revolutions’. In Britain, the Chartists demonstrated for political reforms and votes for all men. In France, a group of rioters in Paris, who were demanding votes for all men and a new republic, were shot by soldiers. In Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands political reforms were made peacefully.

In Germany, many people wanted all the German states to be united into one country, and Italians wanted a united Italy. In contrast, the many groups of people who made up the vast Austrian empire wanted the empire to be divided into separate states to reflect the many different cultures.

The revolutions in 1848 were crushed by the end of 1849. The ideas that drove them did not go away, however. Many governments realized that they would have to make some reforms. Reformers looked for new ways of governing and distributing wealth more fairly. The German socialists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published their ideas in The Manifesto in 1848. This was to have a huge impact on future events.