French Revolution Dbq

The French Revolution was a nightmare for the European political and government system. The French revolution happened because of bad decisions made by past monarch, high taxes, and inequality. Then Napoleon had gradually became a dictator of France and tried to take over all of Europe. After Russia had defeated Napoleon the Great powers wanted no more revolutions or war. The conclusion of my decision is the the revolutions of 1848 was not a turning point in European political and social history;monarchy stayed a primary government.

The challenges that absolutism had to face was nationalism, constitutionalism, and liberalism. If European politics had those beliefs running the government there would be no need for monarchy. The people felt that

a monarch was not going to benefit them because they were commoners. Then commoners got wind of Ricardo's theory of lower wages. The wages of the proletariat and bourgeoisie wages were already just above starvation. This triggered the revolt of the socialists because they wanted equality and felt that as long as there was a monarch there would be no equality. The people wanted a republic that will listen to their plea and take note of their struggles. This is why the European monarchs feared the French Revolution spreading into their countries causing a constitutional government. The monarchs did not want to have to answer to parliament when they decided to pass new laws and raise taxes. The monarchs had to stop the people from thinking such thoughts. Which is why they banned a protest that was going to held in Paris on the limitations on the right to assembly. Which caused a mini civil war fight between the citizens and soldiers; that was a losing battle for the citizens because the soldiers had killed most of the citizens.
The whole point of nationalism is applying representatives of all cultures. This would completely change the way the empires of Europe ruled. Metternich saw nationalism as a disturbance to the balance of power. Metternich is considered to be the coachman of Europe; he believed in conservatism and hated the idea of liberalism and nationalism. Metternich believed that liberalism was the cause of bloodshed. He wanted to stop both liberalism and nationalism which is why he called for the Congress of Vienna to undo the French Revolution’s ideas. This is why he allowed France to stay in good power to ensure conservatism. Karl Marx also believed that nationalism was destructive and would never work. Marx felt that the bourgeoisie and proletariat had conflicted interests. He was right they did have conflicted interests bourgeoisie used the proletariat for their labour and payed them the fraction of the profit. This is all capitalism's fault for it needed the underclass but because the lower class is being exploited it would cause resentment which would later turn into war. Metternich, Marx, and other rulers wanted to eliminate nationalism for they felt would cause destruction. Austria had too many cultures, Germany was too divided up, and France was too weak to even consider nationalism as a primary government.
The industrial revolution caused problems for the lower classes.Although the new technologies helped with the economy and the spread of new ideas; it also was the cause of diseases, unemployment, and crime.

Women and children were working in places where there had smoke, loud noises, and was dirty. The smoke went straight into their lungs since there was no windows. The smoke contain chemicals that was most likely fatal to the human body triggering mutations in the DNA. Then the fact that they started work as young as six for twelve hours for seven days a week is horrific. Then finally parliament passed the Factory Act of 1847 regulating the work schedule for women and children. This alone could have caused a revolt in Britain if the Factory Act of 1847 was not passed. The new machinery was able to replace human labour for it could work at anytime without break and twice as fast as an average person. Since most jobs were no skill,education,or practice required anyone could be replaced. Which is why people stayed working in such horribly conditions for the fear of being replaced; no one could complain to the boss. The effect of unemployment caused the head of the family to commit crimes such stealing food, medicine, and break and entry. These crimes were committed for poor families needed to survive in a world where money

ruled.
There was gender and classes inequality.Despite the fact that only ten percent of men were allowed to vote; it was the fact that only men were allowed to vote.

Women wanted to be treated with equal rights which caused Mary Wollstonecraft to write the Vindication of the Rights of Women and Olympe de Gouges to write The Declaration of the rights of women. Olympe was then guillotined for counterrevolutionary actions. There was also a Women’s March to Versailles for the lower class women were tired of high price bread and low wages. They forced the royal family to go with them to show them how bad it was. Women were continuously fighting for equal rights beside men who belittled them. The lower classes also wanted equal voting rights for all men. Only the elite male population was allowed to vote representatives for parliament. The middle felt the injustices of it and felt the need to protest for their right to

vote.
All this work for equal right rights, liberalism, nationalism, and constitutionalism all went to waste. Austrian Empire had crushed all revolutions from spreading into it’s territory for Metternich was not a fan of anything that was liberal or revolutionary. The period of 1815-1848 being titled as the Age of Metternich, for he was the one who fight so strongly for conservatism. The fact that all these revolutions and protests happened with so little results is appealing.This goes to show that if you are going to fight for something you believe in make sure to have a plan at hand.