But before this occurred there was already the underlying problem of political division in France. The revolutionary period had left France politically divided between republicans and royalists and by this time Louis Philippe faced opposition from republicans, socialists (who had growing support from the working class) and Bonapartists.
Demands were being made for votes for the middle classes, there were very poor urban conditions and many more problems besides, yet King Louis Philippe and the government ignored all demands made of them and very few changes were made. It was the 1847 – 1848 economic and financial crises which heightened the calls for change.
A new revolutionary movement grew up in the early socialists, led by Louis Blanc. Blanc preached the ‘right to work’ and advocated state – supported ‘social workshops’ in which workers would be fairly treated. Since this was a period of industrial growth in some areas of France an urban working class developed which provided Blanc with considerable support – bearing in mind that at this time urban conditions were very poor (slum housing, child labour, low pay, unemployment etc). The failure of Louis Philippe’s government to find a solution to these social problems added to the working class discontent.
At the time, the liberal opposition resorted to holding banquets where the after dinner speeches focused on their demands for change. Guizot (his ‘prime minister’) banned one of these banquets planned for 20th February. A protest demonstration was called for in Paris two days later. Even though the police had great difficulty in controlling the protestors, Louis Philippe still took no action. But the following day the excited crowd reassembled and Louis Philippe started to panic. In an attempt to appease the protestors he fired Guizot. He assumed that this would satisfy the crowd, as did the opposition in the assembly – but they were very much mistaken in thinking that the crisis was over. The protestors took this to be a sign that Louis Philippe was weakening, and that evening protestors were fired on by anxious troops. Several protestors were killed and within hours Paris was in ‘open revolt’. Unwilling to call up more troops to suppress the revolutionaries, as he had done in previous years, Louis Philippe was forced to abdicate.
The rebels then set up a provisional government which included liberals, radicals and the socialist Louis Blanc. This government tried to meet all demands and in Paris there was surprisingly very little violence. Despite the poverty no general uprising took place – there actually seemed to be a brief period of elation.
However, from the beginning the combined government (which was formed by politicians who all had very different beliefs) was a ‘marriage of convenience’ – and this soon provoked hostility between the members. Their leaders hated each other. Most of the members of the Assembly were royalists, liberals or moderate republicans. The radicals and socialists who were powerful in Paris were heavily outnumbered. On the other hand they did have some similar beliefs; most wished to establish a republic based on universal manhood suffrage and they were also committed to extensive social reform and agreed for arrangements to be made for elections to choose a constituent assembly whose duty it would be to draw up a constitution.
But before this could happen the provisional government had to introduce several measures in an attempt to improve the situation by showing they were taking some course of action - and appease the Parisian masses. The National Guard was opened to all classes. Press freedom and individual liberties were granted. Universal male suffrage was approved and the electorate therefore increased from 250,000 to over 8 million. They set up national workshops for the unemployed (at the suggestion of Louis Blanc who had previously campaigned for this) and a right – to – work law was declared in an attempt to solve the unemployment problem. Weeks were then spent trying to organise jobs via the national workshops. This proved to be fairly unsuccessful and in the end the majority of those on the unemployment lists were given a small weekly ‘wage’ as there simply were not enough jobs available.
This course of action raised the expectation of the working classes who saw them as a step towards their aim of social justice. However the provisional government had no intention of continuing further in that direction – having more immediate problems to deal with like the deteriorating financial situation caused by their attempts to solve the unemployment problems.
In the end this failed due to the public resentment it caused so it was replaced by an executive committee who endeavoured to resolve the problems the provisional government had caused.
In conclusion it can be seen that the French Revolution of 1848 was mainly caused by the existing political division, the unavoidable economic problems (the disastrous harvest and the financial trouble it caused), and the fact that Louis Philippe and his government did not really follow up the demands made of them by their public to provide them with a better quality of life. As the situation reached a climax Louis Philippe continued to ignore the dire situation until the very last moment – and even then refused to act until he had no option but to abdicate and leave the revolting public to a temporary government set up in the emergency situation. This essay has also shown that it failed in its attempt to create a Republic mainly by forming a government from people with such different beliefs in an attempt to solve the existing problems in France. This set up ‘bad ground’ on an already disastrous problem. The course of action they took just proved to create more problems rather than solve the existing ones, which was its aim.
