European Revolutions

In class, we have been studying revolutions from all over the world. Most recently, we've discussed the European Revolutions of 1830 and 1848. We were asked to answer the essential question, "Were the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 really a failure as historians have said?", and there is no answer that could cover all of those varying topics and all of their own events, victories, and downfalls. In class, we were given a quote on how Alexis de Tocqueville saw the revolutions. He said, "We are sleeping on a volcano. Do you not see that the earth trembles anew? A wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon?", which means that at any moment they will erupt into chaos, and that once it spreads it'll be like a windy storm. this is illustrated by the amount of revolutions and repressions and the lack of independence. As a class, we separated into 5 groups, one for each revolution, and studied in-depth articles about our assigned revolution so we could share our answer to the essential question based on our findings.

My group was assigned the Decembrist Revolution of 1825 in Russia, which out of all 5 revolutions was the only one that was a complete failure. The goals of this revolution were to grant a meaningful constitutional change within the government because the people wanted a weaker monarchy, and more rights and opportunities. The revolution started after Tsar (king) Alexander's confusion over his succession. His unexpected death caused the people to think they were entitled to a violent seizure of power, and the slaves saw his passing as an opportunity to gain privileges and rights. The people were mad that Poland, a country below them, had a constitution and they didn't, and it got to the point that people were fighting royal soldiers to support Constantine, who had been next in line to the thrown but turned the position down because he was not interested in so much power, and to try to remove Tsar Nicolas I from power, because he didn't provide the populace with a meaningful constitution, and put Constantine in his place. As a result of his perople's disloyalty, Nicholas shut down any contact with all of Europe as well as any type of freedom especially religious, and forced Russia to become an autocracy. The caste system was strictly enforced. This revolution was an immense failure because rather than gaining a better constitution, Nicholas fought back by showing them he had the ability to cause bloodshed of his people if it meant teachings them a lesson. As an individual Nicholas had more people as a whole, and he used that power to ensure that they got the opposite of everything they asked for, and he even fired on the rebels and severely punished the survivors. 

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Other than the Decembrist, all of the other revolutions were at least slight successes. We also learned about French Revolution of 1848, which ended up having a neutral turn out because they were able to get rid of King Louis Philippe, who was using all of the country's funds for himself as well as the upper class. The people also ended up being under the rule of a republic of radicals, liberals, and socialists.    The French Revolution of 1830 proved to have a mostly ideal outcome in the eyes of the people, because revolutionaries were able to overthrow their unfair leader, Charles X, however Louis Philippe soon became king, causing another failure in government 18 years later. Then, in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 the people fought to get serfdom abolished and to gain basic constitutional rights, which had a neutral outcome because it resulted in the separation of Austria and Hungary. Personaly, I would answer the essential question with a no, since besides the Decembrist all of the revolutions had at least partial success.