Revolutions of 1830 and 1848

In class, we analyzed sources whether or not the Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 were really as much of a failure as historians claim they were? To kickstart the discovery of the answer to this question, we looked at a map of Europe in the 1800's,which marked areas where revolutions erupted, and it also showed which countries shunted them. We then created a scale based on the outcomes of the revolutions that gave us an idea as to whether or not a revolution was successful, and determined if one side gained more from the revolution than the other. After creating these scales, we broke into groups to learn more about specific revolutions, and we were assigned the Decembrist Revolt.

The Decembrist Revolt took place in Russia in 1825, and we as a group considered it to be a complete and total failure of a revolution.  The goal of the liberal revolutionaries was to bring Constantine to power because they knew that he would make changes in the country, but Constantine refused to take the throne even though it was rightfully his.  Instead, Constantine gave the throne to  Nicolas, who was a conservative, and this action gave a reason for a revolution.  In one primary source from the time of the Decembrists' revolt was written by Mikhail Fonvisin, a Decembrist in support of the revolution, in which he said, "slavery of the vast majority of Russians who had no rights, the cruel treatment of subordinates by their superiors, all manner of the abuse of power, everywhere arbitrary rule."  This displays how people were becoming upset with the way they were bein ruled over, and felt that much needed change would be brought by Constantine.  Another primary source from the time of the revolt was written by a person named Yakushki, a returning Napoleonic war veteran, which reflects on life back on Russia. "Seeing the insipid life in St. Petersburg and listening to the babbling of old men praising the past and depreciating every progressive step was unbearable. We were a hundred years from them.”  This shows that their lives are so dictated and unfair, and also that unless there was change in their country they would never be as strong and powerful as other countries like France were.  Overall, the Decembrists' revolt was probably the least successful revolt out of all of them, as the liberal revolutionaries were killed and achieved nothing.  It can be concluded that this revolt was pointless because the revolutionaries wanted Constantine to become the ruler, but he refused to take the throne, meaning that the entire revolt was pointless.  

The Decembrist Revolt was not the only revolution that occured during these tmes, but the French Revolution of 1830, the Frankfurt revolution, and as the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 also took place.  During the French Revolution of 1830, citizens wanted to keep a constitutional monarchy in place, but their king, Charles X, wanted to abolish it and restore a traditional monarchy.  This caused the people of France to rebel against him, setting up barricades and throwing things at soldiers that tried to break these barricades.  All of this turmoil in Paris caused Charles to flee to England, and the people of France elected a "citizen king" named Louis Phillippe, the Duke of Orleans, who allowed the constitutional monarchy to remain in place.  I consider this revolution to be a success, because the French people fought against tyranny and got to keep the country the way it was by standing up against this force.  I think the Frankfurt Revolution was a failure because the people wanted more political rights and more liberty, but many of them fled to other countries such as the United States, and to me it seems like a revolution isn't successful if people who were revolting fled to other countries.  Finally, the biggest failure of a revolution in my opinion is the Decembrist revolt.  The main reason the Decembrist revolt was such a failure is because they fought to try and crown somebody king who didn't want to be king, and hundreds of people were killed by the government, who was under Nicolas's rule.  Overall, it is obvious that not every revolution during this time period was a failure, and some were able to achieve some amount of success through their rebellion.