The Role of Ideology in the Revolutions of 1848 Essay

The Role of Ideology in the Revolutions of 1848 Year 1848 is described as â€Å"mad year† – mad with fight for freedom. Already its first months, in almost all parts of Europe, brought explosion of aims and aspirations, which were accumulated during the after-congress period. Revolutionary movements spread throughout the whole Europe, apart from Russia, where the system of serfdom did not allow any revolts, and Great Britain, where the reforms were carried out in non-revolutionary channels. Despite the differences in social, economic and political structures of European countries, the revolutions of 1848 were characterised by uniformity, and their ideology was a common denominator. There were†¦show more content†¦Because of overall crises, many reforms were needed, most of which had an ideological background. Nevertheless, the ideology did not play a huge role throughout the whole revolution. Year 1848 can be divided into three periods which were characterised by variable importance of new ideas of 19th century. The main ideology in opposition to the order established during the Congress of Vienna was often called ‘liberalism’. This name indicates that the primary motive of it was to strive after freedom in contrary to dependence and restrictions forced on societies and individuals by absolute monarchs. Colloquially, all people who were against absolute regime and were after constitution established by nations representativer, were called liberals. They demanded freedom of religion and tolerance, freedom of word, press and societies. They thought that everybody should be equal as far as law is concerned. Another 19th century idea was radicalism, which was pretty much the same ideology, with only slight differences: radicals supported republican form of power rather than constitutional monarchy, they wanted common right to vote, they were saying less about freedom of an individual, more about social justice. At the beginning of the revolutions 1848, the ideology was extremely important. All social classes were in misery, because the outcome ofShow MoreRelatedCauses Of The Revolutions Of 1848870 Words   |  4 Pages The Revolutions of 1848 were the result of the social, economic, and political stress placed upon Europe during the nineteenth century which caused multiple uprisings to rival the conservative system. Europe, in the early 1800s, saw the Industrial Revolution having a significant impact on previous social and political structures. 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