February Revolution 1848

In February 1848 Paris workers and students overthrew the July Monarchy and proclaimed the Second French Republic.

Overview

Corruption scandals and a ban on reform banquets amid economic depression triggered protests in February 1848. Barricades rose across Paris, the national guard refused to fire on the crowds, and Louis Philippe abdicated on 24 February. A provisional government proclaimed the republic, instituted universal male suffrage, and created national workshops for the unemployed. Tension between moderate republicans and socialist workers exploded in the June Days, when the state crushed a worker insurrection at a cost of thousands dead and deported. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte won the December presidential election and staged the 1851 coup that made him emperor. The revolution detonated the European springtime of peoples and fixed the social question at the center of politics.