With the final defeat of Napoleon at
Waterloo in 1815, France ended a long period of revolution,
terror, and interminable wars. Over the next few
decades France ushered in three kings and one president while
having two revolutions. France would never regain the
glory (la gloire!) of Napoleon; though most of the 1800s
would be spent trying to do that and with some notably
disastrous results later in the century.
The Restoration
The victorious Austrians, British, Prussians and
Russians met in Vienna to decide what to do with France.
Certainly, the rightful heir to the the throne of France would
be placed back on the throne. That man was Louis XVIII.
All of Europe had been outraged by the execution of Louis XVI
and Marie Antoinette. The execution of the Queen was
especially felt in Austria where her brother lived on and
finally exacted his revenge on the people who had killed his
sister. To restore order and to maintain peace, the
four Powers would also be ready to intervene with troops if
France had another revolution and tried to establish another
bloody Republic.
Louis XVIII
Louis took over in a very precarious situation. He
dared not try to reestablish the old privileges of Louis XVI,
nor to try to rule as a divine-right king. He was
fairly moderate and accepted some of the constitutional
restrictions that were typical of a British monarch.
However, Louis knew he had to be careful as evidenced by how
quickly his nation went over the Napoleon in 1815 after his
escape from Elba and the Hundred Days.
One thing Louis did tolerate was the White Terror. The
White Terror was a bloody period of recrimination when royalist
men began a campaign of murder and intimidation against the
Republicans and Bonapartists who had killed or insulted the
royalists. Provoking much of this were the women relatives
of the men who were killed during the previous two decades.
These women had waited sometimes twenty years for their revenge
and they sent out their sons, fathers and brothers to restore
the family honor by shedding the blood of their enemies.
However, with this exception Louis mostly ruled well, though
very unimpressively. He had little choice: restore
royal privilege and provoke revolution, or stop the White Terror
and be overthrown by his own supporters.
Charles X
On taking power from Louis XVIII in 1824, Charles X was
clearly not afraid to take action on what he wanted to do.
Charles clearly wanted to undo the minor reforms accepted by
Louis. He also was the leader of the White Terror and, as
King, was not afraid of using brutality toward his enemies.
He was a classic example of the mentality of the Restoration,
"They learned nothing and forgot nothing." Charles was
unwilling to accept the changes wrought by the Revolution and
wanted to go back to the rights of the Kings of France before
the Revolution.
However, though obstinate, Charles wasn't a fool and ruled
for several years before he began a campaign of making trouble
for the very small parliament and to periodically try to step on
whatever freedoms the French might have. By 1833, Charles
had began to issue further restrictions on civil liberties
(especially freedom of the press) and to not accept the results
of elections. Finally, he reduced the number of people in
the electorate. Soon after, Paris rose up in rebellion and
Charles had to flee Paris when his "loyal" troops would not move
to crush the rebellion.
Louis Philippe
The Revolutionaries knew fully well that they wanted to
establish a Republic. However, to do so would cause the
Austrian, Russians and Prussians to immediately intervene.
It was still too soon for Europe to tolerate another Republic.
So, the revolutionaries chose Louis Philippe of the House of
Orleans (not the legitimate line of the Bourbons). The Orleanists had been the part of the royal family which had voted
to kill Louis XVI during the Republic--a fact never lost of the
Bourbons who always considered Louis-Philippe to be a usurper
(in fact, so did his own wife!).
His July Monarchy was known for its liberal nature and
resembled the constitutional monarchy used in Britain.
Louis-Philippe accepted the Tricolor as the national flag and is
known to sing the Marseillaise. He becomes known as the
Citizen
King. He also accepted the title "King of the French"
rather than the Bourbon "King of France." His foreign
policy was to keep England friendly and to cooperate with the
British as much as practical. He also expanded the number
of people in France who would vote for Parliament and greatly
expanded civil rights and liberties in France. However,
though Louis Philippe was popular, he did not have great support
from the French. The radicals wanted a republic, the
Bourbons viewed the July Monarchy as totally illegitimate and
Liberals accepted him since he brought liberalism to France,
though they preferred a Republic.
On of Louis Philippe's greatest accomplishments was in
economics as France greatly expanded its economy as factories,
railroads and trade all grew dramatically. Even the civic
improvements by Adolph Thiers such as the l'arc de triomph
and the completion of the champs elysees were not enough to
create satisfaction among the French. They still sought to
regain "la gloire" and Louis Philippe was not able to do that.
The subservience to Britain precluded a role for French
greatness.
The Revolution of 1848
In the Anglo-Saxon world, peace and prosperity are tickets to
remaining in power for a political party. However, in
France it was not enough. At the height of the Romantic
era, people wanted nobility, greatness, "la gloire." As a
result, by 1848 the French politician Lamartine remarked that,
"France is bored," and it became a major headline.
In 1848, Liberals and Radicals met at many pro-Republican
meetings which were simply banquets where speeches were given
(ironically, often about the condition of the poor and hungry in
France). These banquets were increasingly viewed as a
threat by Louis Philippe. The final straw was when a major
banquet was called for February 22, 1848--George Washington's
birthday. To the King, the date was ominous and
threatened rebellion. A banquet to be held on the birthday
of the most successful revolutionary of the period could not
help but be provocative. As a result, Louis Philippe
banned the meeting. Lamartine announced that he would
attend. When soldiers tried to prevent the meeting the
crowd rebelled and threw up barricades in protest and drove the
soldiers from the area after the soldiers were reluctant to fire
on the mob. Soon the disturbances had spread through much
of the city and Louis Philippe found himself taking the same
road as had Charles X to exile. The victorious rebels
declared the French Second Republic. |