In our video on Venice we heavily referenced the 1848 European Revolutions that are often called the Springtime of Nations. However, given the debt our channel has to these events, it’s high time we cover them in more detail. The five separate national movements in 1848 we think are worth talking about occured in France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland and Switzerland. Libertarians have much to learn from each.

The French revolution of 1848, which overthrew the constitutional “July Monarchy” of 1830 in favor of a republic, was by far the most socialist influenced. The leaders of the revolution demanded a “right to work” and a network of make-work National Workshops were quickly set up all over the country. In the elections of the National Assembly two well known libertarians were elected to sit on the left (the republican side), Pierre Joseph Proudhon (the founder of mutualism) and Frederic Bastiat, the laissez faire liberal. A few years later the two would have a dazzling long running debate on the economics of interest. Quickly, the National Workshop system became far too costly for the French State, and when socialist dissenters rose up against the moderate government, they were brutally crushed. Proudhon himself was arrested on trumped-up charges of sedition in the aftermath of the so-called June Days uprising. The elected president of France, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, declared himself emperor in 1852 with little popular resistance. While the French Springtime of Nations started with an overwhelming victory against reaction, it was short-lived. 

At the same time, all over the German Confederation liberal and socialist uprisings were springing up in all the major states. German liberals quickly took control of the movement and the Frankfurt Parliament was formed to create the impetus for a new liberal German-nation state. However, the German people being a very politically and culturally heterogeneous organism there was no success in sublimating all the German identities into one Great German one, at least not yet. When Denmark sought to crush the rebellious German-speakers in Schleswig-Holstein, the liberals were drawn into a nationalist pissing contest with the Danes, which they lost. This led to a further breakdown in the liberal coalition and by July 1849 the revolutionaries were persecuted and arrested in a wave of reaction. Thousands of them fled to America, such as Frederich Hecker who became a Union Army Brigadier. Marx and Engles themselves participated in the Palatine uprising and this is why they had to flee to England and Switzerland respectively. Some historians believe the failure of German nationalism under a liberal banner paved the way for the authoritarian unification that took place in the 1860s and 70s under the kingdom of Prussia and engineered by arch-conservative Otto von Bismarck.

While the Austrian empire was distracted by the Republic of San Marco in Italy and widespread unrest in Vienna, Hungary, which had been ruled by the Austrian Hapsburgs since 1526, took the opportunity to fight for independence. The Hungarian legislature, the Diet, passed a number of liberal reforms, most importantly abolishing serfdom as an institution. Lajos Kossuth became the leader of the Opposition Party, which united both classical liberals and “national liberals” who supported tariffs to protect Hungary’s infant industry. He was known as an excellent speaker and was fluent in English, becoming a darling of international media. In 1849 the Diet officially “dethroned” the Habsburg Emperor and appointed Kossuth as Regent-President shifting from a constitutional monarchist movement to one Republican in all but name. Austria reacted by enlisting the help of their fellow Absolutist allies, the Russians. An immense army of Russian conscripts crushed the Hungarian state and it was brought to heel by October 4th that year. Kossuth escaped Hungary and went on a tour of the liberal states of the world, namely Great Britain and the United States, where he was treated as a celebrity and was the second foreigner in American history (after fellow liberal nationalist Lafayette) to address both houses of Congress. Kossuth, a true radical, was disgusted with the compromise solution of 1867 which gave Hungary broad autonomy but within the Austrian Empire. In 1877 he mourned the alienation from his country he had suffered, preaching to adoring crowds in Turin, Italy:
“The judge of the world, history, will answer this question. May the martyrs of the holy memory be blessed in their dust, in their spirits, with the best blessings of the God of freedom of the fatherland, from the eternally real cross; I, who cannot fall into the dust of Calvary in Hungary, I will be seen lying on my knees in the hermit’s house of my statelessness, as I lay my arms towards the Homeland, which I disowned, and I will bless with the heat of gratitude the holy memory of the martyrs for their loyalty to the Homeland, and for the sublime example given to the successors; with fervent prayer, I ask the God of the Hungarians to make triumphant the word that sings from the lips of Hungaria to the Hungarian nation. Amen! “
The actual circumstances of Hungarian independence in 1919 left much to be desired by the Hungarian people, and led to Hungary drifting into the orbit of first the Axis powers and then the Soviet Union.

The smallest 1848 revolution in this series was the one that took place in Ireland, in the context of the Great Potato Famine. The Famine had been the impetus for the repeal of the protectionist corn laws in the United Kingdom, but this was not enough to stop the suffering of the Irish people, who had been driven from their property by the English during the centuries of imperial rule. Young Ireland was just one of a huge network of liberal nationalist underground organizations known as Young Europe. There was even a “Young America” movement that identified with the laissez-faire Jacksonian Democrats. At the forefront of the Young Irishmen’s political demands was land reform. William Smith O’Brien, the founder, was inspired by the Springtime of Nations wave and tried to take advantage of the chaos to create a united, non-sectarian Confederation of North and South Ireland. The rebellion ended after a seven hour long gunfight which resulted in the deaths of two Young Irishmen, the leaders being arrested and/or deported. Two of the men found themselves on opposite sides of the American Civil War. The failure of the Young Irishmen laid the groundwork for the larger but still unsuccessful Fenian Rebellion in 1867. Irish independence would have to wait till the age of Liberalism was past, when socialism became in vogue in the 20th century.

Finally, the Sonderbund War in Switzerland occurred in 1848, although in somewhat different context from the other four movements. In 1848 Switzerland was already a liberal state, and unfortunately it was the liberals who were on the side of centralization and the reactionaries against it. For over 500 years Switzerland had been a very loose Confederation of the cantons, one of the most liberal polities in world history. However, by 1848 the mostly protestant cantons were dominated by the “Free-thinking Liberals”, mostly laissez-faire in economics, but anti-clerical and in favor of reforming the confederation into a federation, with more executive powers. The opposition came from the catholic majority conservative cantons, who founded a Sonderbund (a special league) to oppose centralization. In retaliation the more populous protestant cantons invaded the conservative canons and quickly disarmed them. To punish the Catholics, members of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) were banned from Swiss soil until 1973. The Swiss example is similar to the story of Italian nationalism, which turned from the liberation of people to a desire for control, a will to “force people to be free”. This tension in liberal movements must be carefully watched to avoid what Herbert Spencer called the New Toryism.

The First Springtime of Nations was a failure, but every failure gives us valuable information. Liberalism needs good organization, it needs allies, and it needs good luck. The goal of our channel, the movement’s namesake, is to provide historical and theoretical information to libertarians interested in making liberty win. The victory against the centralizing state can only be won if we take our own beliefs seriously. Thanks for watching and may 1000 flowers bloom.