Revolutions of 1848

1. Liberal and nationalist (see nationalism) rebellions that broke out in 1848 in several European nations, including Germany, Austria, France, Italy, and Belgium. The rebellions secured temporary gains, but faced with the conservative hostility of the peasants and growing fears of disorder among the bourgeoisie, they collapsed within a year.

Example Sentences

Palmieri’s predecessor, Macedonio Melloni, had conceived of it as a meteorological observatory in 1841, but Melloni, a liberal, was ousted by authorities for his perceived sympathy for the Revolutions of 1848.

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When Wagner began work on the text of the “Ring,” he was a young radical fleeing the failed revolutions of 1848.

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He pointed to examples as disparate as the European revolutions of 1848 — famously said to be the “turning point at which modern history failed to turn” — and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which exposed lethal failures but did not cause political transformation.

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Second, Marx quickly had to abandon the view that revolutions would happen automatically when workers became aware of their exploitation, because right after the appearance of "The Communist Manifesto," the revolutions of 1848 demonstrated that revolutions are extremely complicated processes.

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Marx reflected on this in the aftermath of the revolutions of 1848, noting that there was no clear alignment of interests among the various class fractions.

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