Lorenzo Davids is the Executive Director of Urban Issues Consulting. In 1847, France was besieged with political tensions and instability that directly led to the Revolution of 1848. From the French Revolution of 1789 to the installation of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799, France had gone from constitutional monarchy and republican ideals to the Reign of Terror and a military dictatorship under Napoleon.
After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815, and the collapse of his reign, the monarchy was once again restored. Whilst it was a constitutional monarchy in name, power remained in the hands of the aristocracy, the wealthy and the clergy. Up until 1830, the period faced growing constitutional crises, increasing poverty, restrictions on the press and an uncaring but all-powerful aristocracy, wealthy elite and compliant clergy.
In 1830, King Louis-Philippe I, became king. His July Monarchy, so named because the regime emerged from the July Revolution of 1830 continued with more of the same. Post-Napoleonic France had descended into a corrupt constitutional monarchy rather than a people’s republic as the French Revolution envisioned.
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The ideals of the French Revolution of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity were roadblocked by the aristocrats, very wealthy bankers, industrialists, large landowners and the clergy. They ensured that constitutional and political power remained in their hands. The working class, peasants, and much of the middle class remained politically excluded.
France was governed by a bourgeois constitutional monarchy under Louis-Philippe I, claiming revolutionary legitimacy but serving a narrow elite. It only allowed about 200,000 wealthy men – a mere 1% of the population – to have the right to vote. The French prime minister, François Guizot, famously advised citizens to “Enrichissez-vous” (“Get rich”) if they wanted any political influence — an attitude that fuelled further resentment towards the elite.
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