Context: In the last revolution a new king was established, Louise Philip. Louise's rule was moderately liberal and favored bankers/investors/resource businesses over the 'lower class' bourgeoisie. Full men's suffrage was not allowed by Louise and his educated elite.

In 1847 the opposition to Louise-particularly his stance on suffrage-began organizing fund raising banquets across the nation as a way to bypass the restriction of political meetings. When the king tried to ban them anyways the people of Paris started barricading the city and his militia the National Guard refused to support him. The Revolution had begun.

Processes: The main goal of the revolution was universal male suffrage and universal employment. In the city of Paris suffrage was maintained in the beginning, but once the conservatives caught the city went through capital flight resulting in a bleak outlook for the second republic. When the first election occurred Louis Bonaparte posed as a liberal and entered. When he won he quickly reverted France back into a centralized-authoritarian state.

Reactions: The class that started and supported the revolution were the ones with the biggest reaction against it at the end. They were promised employment and what they got was buisnesses leaving and publicized National Workshops that did not actually provide work, Napolean seized on their anger and in combination with his family name turned the revolution around.

Effects: Fortunately for the French liberals Napoleon re-established universal male suffrage. This movement instilled revolutionary fervor in the rest of Europe, allowing for liberal policies to be adopted elsewhere.

Context: The Austrian Empire was composed of many ethnic groups and regional powers under the supervision of the Hapsburgs. The 1845 recession left much of the populace starved due to rising food prices, something that generally met with a revolution. When the ethnic groups and unemployed intelligentsia heard of France's (at the time) successful revolt, they started their own.

Processes: Nationality and removal of oppressive measures were the main goals of the revolutionaries. Liberals were able to force the conservative Prince Metternich to resign in the early days of revolt and he was replaced by various liberal-minded individuals. Any claims of autonomy were not as lucky. The main insurgent, Hungary, was repressed due to a combined force of the Austrian and Russian army, and with Hungary gone (the strongest of the countries trying to gain independence) the others failed as well.

Reactions: The Hapsburgs faced a two-pronged attack against their rule and their reaction was to maintain order in Vienna and then combine their forces with armies still loyal to them against the nationals. Peasants, whom make up the majority of the army, were illiterate and did not understand the liberal cause. When the intelligentsia was unable to sway them their effort collapsed and conservatism again took control of Austria. The Czech emperor was pro-Hapsburg and thus allowed them to suppress the revolution and then combine to end the others.

Effects: The ethnic groups of the Austrian empire did not acquire independence nor were liberal reforms met. However, The German and Austrian side of the empire was able to end serfdom but the measures of reform end at that. Even though the 1848 revoltuions were suppressed governments were still becomign more liberal over time, but the 1848 revoltuion for Austria meant a complete turn around into harsh conservatism.

Context: As with the other revolts, the recession of 1845 and the example set by France in 1848 were motivators of action. Furthermore the Italian people wanted the unification of Italy

Processes: The objectives of the revolutionaries differed through each region, and their division weakened the chance of reform for them all. Sicily wished for autonomy from Naples, Naples wanted wide liberal reform, Constitutions in the central regions including the papal states, Milan and Venetia revolted against Austria. When the protesters of Naples declared land reform one of their tenants the king used it as an excuse to get help from conservative Austria, suppressing the revolt and re-unifying Sicily with Naples. The pope turned away from democracy and reaffirmed a monarchy.

Reactions: Catholicism played an integral role against the revolutions. Many, if not most, of the protesters were staunch Catholics but the radicals were highly anti-catholic, splintering the support for change. Regionally the people of Italy were divided as well, they were unsure of what the new government a unified Italy should be (Republic, confederation, or kingdom) and their objects were entirely different as described above. Once Austria quelled its own revolution it was able to quickly conquer the divided forces

Effects: Almost no changes were made in Italy, one region Piedmont got a constitution, but that was last of any reform. Instead this revolution kicked off the unification movement that would dominant the peninsula for the next 30 years.

Context: Present day Germany in 1848 was a large combination of small independence municipalities and princedoms with a large, wealthy German Prussia in the north. Due to Napolean nationalism began to seep into the people of these lands and a common feeling of being German was influencing the populace.

Processes: The revolutionaries wanted liberal reform, but above all else they wanted a unified Germany. When the revolution started the king Fredrick William surprised the world by allowing an elected assembly, which called for a unified Germany and an allowance of an independent Poland. Fredrick instead dissolved the assembly and the revolution was picked up in the German municipalities. They convened a Frankfurt Convention and called for a constitutional monarchy and unified Germany. The response was lukewarm for the liberals, Fredrick William declined their invitation to take control of Germany and he rejected their constitution in favor of his own, conservative, constitution.

Reactions: Because the main goal of the revolution was to unify Germany, violence was minimal. The revolutionaries were not going to up-rise against the very person they wanted as their king and Fredrick William abused that by making changes under his terms alone.

Effects: Prussians got a new, albeit conservative, constitution. There was little change after this revolution but nationalism continued to stir in the former Holy Roman Empire and it was only a matter of time before they got their main wish-unification.