Why Did 1848 Revolutions Fail?

Why did the 1848 revolutions fail?

Throughout history the main catalyst for revolution has been poor economic and living conditions. The 1848 revolutions were no different as famine had devastated the civilians and understandably caused them to rebel. In addition the overall discontent in Europe alongside the large surge of liberalism in Europe, and the large sense of nationalism created by foreign rule and hopes of unification prevented a collective pursuit for the revolutionaries and thus were unable to fulfil their desires of revolution. These series of events began in France which seemingly inspired others in nations such as Germany, Italy and Austria. Ultimately it can be said these revolutions failed due to the lack of support and cooperation of the revolutionaries involved.

To begin with, the attempted revolution in France provided hope to the rest of the European revolutionary contingent. Bad harvests and economic depression in the years leading up to 1848 created massive discontent throughout all of Europe, and food riots were common. As a result unemployment occurred. These large-scale problems were obviously going to lead to large-scale revolutions, with building dissatisfaction coming with each bad harvest. As a result on the 22nd of February various radicals protested. Perhaps this leads to the main reason why the French revolution failed; the strength of the regime as the troops fired upon the assembled crowds and consequently 40 people died. Even though there was some form of optimism with the fact that the government leader Guizot was dismissed which was a major step taken by Louis Philippe to calm the Parisian mobs and a sense of accomplishment when the king abdicated, overall the French lacked leadership to strive for a complete overhaul.

Throughout Europe almost all governments were the subject of popular discontent. For example, the first major uprising of 1848, in Palermo, Sicily, was an uprising mainly against the poor ruling of Ferdinand...