The world era of revolutions from 1820 to 1848, was a convulsive time that took place in Europe after the fall of the Napoleonic Empire. The new revolutionary ideals that the French Revolution had brought with it and that had spread throughout Europe such as political liberalism, nationalism and even an initial socialism. After the fall of napoleon caused the old absolutist kings overthrown by the new ideals, to claim their old absolutist kingdoms and governments, something that would never happen again, this period was called Restoration (1815-1848).
The world era of revolutions: from 1820 to 1848 | Situation
It is not possible to speak of a single cause that is to blame for the different revolutions that took place throughout the 19th century. The years 1820, 1830 and 1848were convulsive years, where the situation political, economic and social they became the trigger, the result of different revolutions that in their great majority failed either due to lack of organization or due to external factors.
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Liberalism
After the fall of the ancients absolutist regimesAfter the Napoleonic conquests, the liberal ideas of the eighteenth century had spread throughout old Europe. The Enlightenment of Century of the lights, had brought with him liberal thought. A thought in which above all I was the reason giving rise to tolerance and respect for contrary ideas.
The proclamations of French Revolution of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, were the foundations of liberalism, where each individual was free and equal before the law. The prevailing Absolutism until that time had ended, it would be the Constitution or Fundamental Norm that would limit the Royal authority.
The power of the State would not be concentrated in a single person, now the separation of powers, executive, legislative and judicial powertogether with the election through suffrage, guaranteed a rule of law.
Economically, liberal ideas defended free trade where the state should not intervene. Liberalism was the ideology most supported by the bourgeoisie and the urban classes. But around 1830, bourgeoisie and urban classes seemed to have different interests, especially regarding individual rights.
Politically created a trend moderate liberaldefended by the bourgeoisie and who sought the census suffrage.
The census suffrage, it reduced the right to vote exclusively to the population registered in the census. But this census had certain restrictions, these could vary, according to interests, for example, only men with a certain income and belonging to a certain social class could be registered. This basically boiled down to only the bourgeoisie having the right to vote for men.
- Democratic Liberalism
On the other hand, there was also democratic liberalism that defended universal suffrage, only male and more freedoms for citizens.
Nationalism
Together with Liberalism, a new current born from the ideas of the French Revolutionthis new current was Nationalism. This new political current defended the right of citizens to govern the destinies of the lands in which they live, that is, the ground that the people walk on belongs to the people. These ideas collided directly with the dynastic right that the absolute monarchies claimed.
But nationalism, as happened to liberalism, soon divided into two tendencies, one conservative and one democratic.
The conservative nationalism defended the idea of nation, as a unit with concrete historical roots, according to its language, customs and social order.
According to him democratic Nationalism, the nation was simply the freedom of the peoples and their self-government, that is, sovereignty would fall to the people.
Economy and Society
In this stage of revolutions that took place in the 19th century, we cannot ignore the economic and social causes.
The appearance of capitalismgave rise to a new social class, The bourgeoisie. Soon this new social class began to control the economy, but this economic control was relegated from the politics that prevailed in nineteenth-century Europe at the time, the restoration of the monarchies.
If we add to this situation a worrying economic situation with a price increase Due to a period of poor harvests, they caused a drop in consumption, which in turn caused an industrial and financial crisis.
It was time for the bourgeoisie to take matters into their own hands, the only way to access political power, now that they had financial power, was through the revolution. A new social class that sought to replace the old European aristocracy.
These revolutionary movements led by the bourgeoisie would soon be supported by the urban or proletarian classes, with very harsh living conditions now worsened by the economic crisis.
The world era of revolutions | The Revolution of 1820
What has come to be called the Revolution of 1820were a series of revolutions that were taking place in Europe, between the years 1822-1825.
This revolution had liberal and nationalist character and the method was used military uprising or more commonly known as a military coup, plots against the absolutist restoration of secret underground societies of the style of the masons and carbonari, caused the situation to escalate.
One example was Spain, the first European nation to rise up. With the return of the king Ferdinand VII, also returned their absolutist ideas, this would disrupt the new social, economic and political currents. The solution was a military uprising, like the one in Irrigation in Cabezas de San Juan, this pronouncement forced the recently restored Ferdinand VII to swear the Constitution of 1812 (la pepa), in the courts of Cadiz.
The swearing-in of Ferdinand VII marked the origin of a new style of government, the Liberal trienniumbut this would not last long, soon in 1823, a French contingent formed by Spanish volunteers and in defense of the old absolutist regime of the king Ferdinand VII, put an end to this so-called realistic war and the newly formed liberal triennium. This French contingent was known as the One hundred thousand children of San Luis. The consequences were the abolition of the constitution and the return of the absolute monarchy.
These Spanish uprisings were followed by countries like Portugal and Italy, where secret societies, as happened in Spain, played a decisive role. In Italy the carbonari in Naples they got Ferdinand I to abide by the Constitution, but the Austrian imperial troops soon put an end to the liberal wishes of the Italians.
Russia also had its revolution, in this case a little later, in 1825, it was also a military uprising, in this case against Czar Nicholas I, but in this case a bad strategy followed by a terrible disorganization made the revolution fail. attempt.
In the only European case in which the liberal revolution triumphed was in Greece. Greece was at that time under Turkish rule, and there was a Greek resistance movement against this rule. In 1821 and after the Congress of Epiduro, the Greek secret society called Hetairia.
This society was characterized by its constant clashes with democracy, when a situation was not interesting to them, the Hetairía secret society quickly provoked uprisings, riots, etc. In this situation and under Turkish rule. In 1822 this society supported by the Greek people, rise up against the domination.
In these actions both France like England and Russia, supported and organized a movement of support throughout Europe, among which stood out Lord Byron, Who would find death in this war? This war of independence of Greece against Turkey was harsh and devastating until In 1829, the Turkish Empire recognized the independence of Greece, passing it to become a kingdom.
The 1820 American Revolution
Just as in Europe there were revolutions and new ideological movements, in the American continent in 1820, they started their own revolutions. Is about the independence of the colonies of both the Spanish and Portuguese crowns.
The political and military instability that existed in Spain and the spread of new enlightened ideas and the example of independence resulting from the North American revolution, were more than enough causes for the wishes of the creoles to be done with power and management independently of the metropolis.
In 1816, Argentina got her independence, was the first to achieve it in a first phase, after the failure of Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru or Bolivia. They should wait a bit longer.
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In future updates of this article we will talk about what happened in the following revolutions in both 1830 and 1848. The search for new documentation makes us leave these for future updates. However, from , we have taken into account the topic you have chosen, so we have selected some links on related topics in case they are of interest to you.