France's Last Revolution Day by Day

 The idea of universal male suffrage flowered in 1848. To not learn the lessons from the trailblazers of democracy is to endanger the democracies that follow them. 


22nd of February, 1848. Paris. 


Municipal Guardsmen begin to return to their regular duties as the day starts quietly. The widely expected demonstrations didn’t seem to materialize. Only a minimal contingent of troops remained. Thus the authorities were caught off their footing as crowds filled the streets around noon. The crowds soon became too large to suppress. Reinforcements called by the authorities dispersed them somewhat, but demonstrators regrouped, the first barricades rose, and light skirmishes started.


23rd of February.


Shouts of “Down with Guizot!” and “Long live the Reform!” echoed across the streets.  The National Guard was mobilized, yet instead of holding the demonstrators at bay, they joined them. And here is the first lesson of 1848: It’s not about how many storm the palace, but how many come to defend it. Neither the Tuileries Palace (the king’s residence) nor the Chamber of Deputies were stormed that day, but the fact that the National Guard, part time soldiers who lived civilian lives unlike active duty, refused to defend the regime meant that the writing was already on the wall before the streets turned red. 


King Louis Philippe summoned François Guizot, his prime minister, to ask for his resignation, which Guizot gave. Fighting died down as news of Guizot’s resignation spread throughout the city, but republicans, those who wished to abolish the monarchy, still pushed on. Here’s the second lesson of 1848: The inertia of society is strong. Revolutions only succeed with an alliance of the radicals and the moderates. Which of those factions have the initiative determines the nature of the new regime. In early 19th century France, republicans who wished to abolish the monarchy were considered on the radical left of the political spectrum while liberals who advocated for civil liberties, limited government, and economic and political freedoms are considered moderately left-wing. In the first French Revolution of 1789 the radicals drove the revolution and led to an upheaval of social order. In the Revolution of 1830 that ousted the Bourbon Charles X, moderates outmaneuvered the radicals and the subsequent July monarchy saw improvements in suffrage and limitations on royal authority but no social overhaul. Now in 1848, it’s the radicals in the lead once again and moderates, notably the National Guard, who are willingly following the radicals’ lead.


As evening fell, an overwhelmed regiment (not of the Guard) defending the Ministry of Foreign Affairs fired into the crowd, killing 52. This galvanized the masses who were petering out and thousands of barricades rose overnight.



24th of February.


King Louis Philippe is still without a government to replace Guizot. The crowds, with the National Guard now committed to the revolution, closed in. With loyalists backed to the Tuileries Palace, King Louis Philippe resigned in favor of his 9 year old grandson. The royal couple packed their bags and noped out of the city with cavalry escort. Duchess Helena, the former king’s daughter-in-law and her 9 year old son on whose head the crown now lay, made their way to the Chamber of Deputies to try to save the monarchy. Their efforts were not surprisingly defeated by the revolutionary crowd who clamored for a republic. Guizot’s replacement as Foreign Minister, poet and politician Alphonse de Lamartine, and a leader of the republicans Alexandre Ledru-Rollin led a march to the city hall to form a provisional government. Curiously, most of this provisional government are moderates, perhaps as a compromise as the radicals already achieved their main goal of abolishing the monarchy. The factions were each associated with a newspaper, the moderates with Le National and the radicals with La Réforme. Here is the third lesson of 1848: Radicals and moderates may ally to achieve a common goal, but once that goal is achieved, the factions start competing again.



Which of these factions will come out on top? Or will both succumb to a dark horse challenger? Join me next time as the mess of nation building continues.


Fig. 1, Scheffer, Ary, Alphonse de Lamartine (1790-1869), poète français, Oil on Canvas, 1848, ( Versailles, châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon), https://art.rmngp.fr/en/library/artworks/ary-scheffer_alphonse-de-lamartine-1790-1869-poete-francais_huile-sur-toile


Fig. 2, Ledru-Rollin. Ledru-Rollin, Alexandre Auguste, n.d. Austrian National Library https://data.onb.ac.at/rep/BAG_7297191



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