The most influential elements of the revolution supported Louis Philippe; he was elected as a way to prevent the creation of a republic. Louis Philippe did not have direct connections with Charles X, but did however have a true hereditary claim to the throne. Louis Philippe had been involved in the revolution and had been a critic of Charles X which was seen by the liberals as an opportunity to achieve change. Besides all this he appeared to be of the middle class. The people of the July revolution that made Charles X basically lose his power wanted political change and secure their political and social status. Louis Philippe looked as the ideal way to do so.
The new king represented these changes the charter of 1830 helped bring these changes as the king lost his almighty power, and could not for example change laws and rule by decree. To have a vote the price was reduced from the high price there was with the previous king, of 300 francs, as a result the electorate increased. Yet the constitution did not change significantly the situation for the middle class, but it was tolerated. Louis Philippe’s reforms also included the abolition of censorship, the reduction of clerical influence in education, and the change of Catholicism from the “religion of the state” to simply the religion practiced by the great majority.
Louis Philippe belonged to the party of resistance (wanted to change the king and have political stagnation) and his opponents were of the party of movement (wanted reform and political change), as a result there was no significant change in France as people had expected it would be under his reign. The failure to achieve change was one of the most important reasons to the fall of Louis Philippe. He then neglected those who had in essence put him in the throne, additionally did not address social problems.
Besides being of a political party that did not meet the aims of the liberals he had three main groups that opposed him. The bonapartists on one hand wanted to reawaken the glorious Napoleonic past, another group was the legitimists that defended the hereditary monarchy, and the third group were the republicans which sought after a political alternative to monarchy.
These political oppositions and the fact that there was no censorship brought trouble. The king was criticized and he therefore started to remove the freedom in press introducing laws from 1832 to 1835. As new laws were put, publication became more tedious as it implied facing fines or even going to prison.
Later on he adopted similar ways to those of the Bourbon he had replaced; the middle class did not have an active role in French politics. Louis Philippe was named king, and he was supposed to declare loyalty to the constitutional principle, however he worked no dominate French affairs instead of letting the parliament do so. This excluded many middle class citizens. During 1840s attempts were made for reform but the king and his chief minister Guizot resisted to these reforms. Discouraged by the failure extra parliamentary meetings were held, later republicans started to attend these meeting and the reform ideas started to become more radical. In February of 1848 one of these meetings was prohibited, this provoked serious revolt in Paris. The king continued to refuse to have change in electorate law and the reform movement soon became one of radicals. The revolution in 1848 was a way to overthrow the king and accomplish the aim of having a more equal society in which middle and lower classes which had been neglected could have better representation. The revolutionaries killed soldiers due to the people killed due to the prohibition of the February 22 banquet. The abdication of Louis Philippe was achieved, and the door to having a more fair government was opened with the establishment of a provisional government.
Louis Philippe came to power in 1830 as a possible solution to the social and political unfairness that was taking place in France. Inconformity in France made the 1848 revolution inevitable, and the betrayal of Louis Philippe towards the liberals certainly made the situation even more unbearable. Louis Philippe failed to accomplish the ideals of the middle classes that put him initially into power, and even neglected them. The reign of the king ended in terror perhaps not for what he did, but what he failed to do.