Name:________________________ Date:______________________ Class:_____________________

DBQ Focus: 1848 Revolutions

Directions: The following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that integrates your
interpretation of Documents A-H and your knowledge of the period referred to in the question. High
scores will be earned only by essays that both cite key pieces of evidence from the documents and
draw on outside knowledge of the period.

Historical Context: The revolutions of 1848 were a series of republican revolts against European
monarchies, beginning in Sicily, and spreading to France, Germany, Italy, and the Austrian
Empire. They all ended in failure and repression, and were followed by widespread
disillusionment among liberals.

What were the conditions that led to the 1848 revolutions

that took place across Europe?

Document 1
Source: Percy B. St. John, The French Revolution of 1848: The Three Days of February, 1848, (New York, 1848), pp. 72-84,
104-110. (Fordham University)
Student Analysis
About ten o'clock, a considerable body of workmen, and young men
belonging to the different schools of Paris collected on the Place du
Pantheon, and set out for the Madeleine by the Rues St. Jacques, des
Gres, the Pont Neuf, the Rue St. Honore, etc., crying as they went,
Vive la Reforme, and singing the Marseillaise and the chant of the
Girondins....This procession, which had gradually swelled as it went,
came out upon the boulevards by the Rue Duphot, and as they
passed, it was impossible not to admire the courage of this body of
young men, who, wholly unarmed, thus braved the strict orders of a
government, backed by an immense army and whole parks of
artillery. They were liable at every moment to be charged or fired

Why did the workmen brave

retaliation of the troops to march
and protest in Paris?

Document 2
Source: From Alphonse de Lamartine: History of the Revolution of 1848 (Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co., 1849), pp. 28-29,
3C-38, 46-49, 51. (Fordham University)
Student Analysis
The society of the Rights of Man, and of the Families, was a kind of
democratic masonry, instituted, since 1830, by some active
republicans. These societies preserved, under different names, since
the destruction of the first republic by Bonaparte, the rancor of
betrayed liberty, as well as some traditions of Jacobinism,
transmitted from Babeuf to Buonarotti, and from Buonarotti to the
young republicans of this school. The members of these purely
political societies were recruited almost entirely from among the
chiefs of the mechanic workshops, locksmiths, cabinet-makers,
printers, joiners, and carpenters of Paris.
Parallel to these permanent conspiracies against royalty, the
keystone of the arch of privilege, philosophical societies were
organized, composed of almost the same elements,-some under the
auspices of St. Simon, others under those of Fourier,-the former
comprising the followers of Cabet, the latter those of Raspail, of
Pierre Leroux and of Louis Blanc. These conspiracies in open day
were alone spread by means of eloquence, association and
journalism. Sects so far pacific, these societies discussed their
opinions, and caused them to be discussed freely.
The difference between these two kinds of revolutionists is, that the
first were inspired by the hatred of royalty, the second by the
progress of humanity. The republic and equality was the aim of the
one; social renovation and fraternity the aim of the other. They had
nothing in common but impatience against that which existed, and
hope for that which they saw dawning in an approaching revolution.

Describe the two types of

revolutionists.

Document 3
Source: Carl Schurz, Reminiscences, (New York: Doubleday, 1908), Vol. I, pp. 112-114, 116-117 (Fordham University)
Student
Analysis
In these conversations, excited as they were, certain ideas and
What did people hope for in the
catchwords worked themselves to the surface, which expressed more or
new German empire?
less the feelings of the people. Now had arrived in Germany the day for
the establishment of "German Unity," and the founding of a great,
powerful, national German empire. First in line the convocation of a
national parliament. Then the demands for civil rights and liberties, free
speech, free press, the right of free assembly, equality before the law, a
freely elected representation of the people with legislative power,
responsibility of ministers, self-government of the communes, the right
of the people to carry arms, the formation of a civic guard with elective
officers and so on---in short, that which was called a "Constitutional
form of government on a broad democratic basis."

Document 4
Source: The Syllabus of Errors; Pope Pius, December 8, 1864
V. Errors Concerning the Church and Her Rights
19. The Church is not a true and perfect society, entirely freenor is she
endowed with proper and perpetual rights of her own, conferred upon
her by her Divine Founder; but it appertains to the civil power to define
what are the rights of the Church, and the limits within which she may
exercise those rights.Allocution "Singulari quidem," Dec. 9, 1854, etc.
20. The ecclesiastical power ought not to exercise its authority without
the permission and assent of the civil government. Allocution
"Meminit unusquisque," Sept. 30, 1861.
21. The Church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the
religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion. Damnatio
"Inter Multiplices," June 10, 1851.
23. Roman pontiffs and ecumenical councils have wandered outside the
limits of their powers, have usurped the rights of princes, and have even
erred in defining matters of faith and morals.Damnatio "Multiplices

Student Analysis
What limits on the church
are being condemned by
Pope Pius?

Document 5
Source: The distress of the Silesian workers, 1844: a factory owner turns down the goods of the weavers. Painting by Carl
Wilhelm Hubner, 1844.
Student Analysis
How does this illustrate the
relationship between the
working class and the rich?

Document 6
Source: France Proclaiming Liberty, 1848. The spirit of Lamartines Manifesto to Europe in the hopeful early days of the
1848 Revolution: France declares freedom for all people

Student Analysis
What are the feelings of the
French at the beginning of
the 1848 Revolution?

Document 7
Source: The explosion of the press after the abolition of censorship, Vienna in Habsburg Empire
Student Analysis
What is the reaction of the people
in Vienna to the abolition of
censorship?

Document 8
Source: F. Palacky - letter to Frankfurt Parliament Committee of Fifty April 1848
Gentlemen, I cannot accede to your call, either myself or by
despatching another 'reliable patriot'. Allow me to expound the
reasons for this to you as briefly as possible.

Student Analysis
What is the purpose of creating a
German peoples association?

The explicit purpose of your assembly is to put a German people's

association [Volksbund] in the place of the existing federation of
princes, to bring the German nation to real unity, to strengthen
German national feeling, and thus to raise Germany's power both
internal and external. However much I respect this endeavour and
the feeling on which it is based, and particularly because I respect it,
I cannot participate in it. I am not a German at any rate I do not
consider myself as such and surely you have not wished to invite
me as a mere yes-man without opinion or will...."
Document 9
Source: Istvan Deak, The Lawful Revolution

Student Analysis

"The true meaning of freedom is that it recognizes the inhabitants of

the fatherland only as a whole, and not as castes or privileged groups,
and that it extends the blessings of collective liberty to all, without
distinction of language or religion. The unity of the country makes it
indispensible for the language of public affairs to be the Magyar
language."

How does this represent the ideas

of the working class?

Document 10
Source: Revolutions in Europe, 1830 and 1848

Student Analysis
How did the people react
toward the oppression of
the revolutions?

Document 11
Source: The European revolutions in 1848: Almost all over Europe revolutions had started to broke out and spread like a chainreaction
Student Analysis
How did the revolutions spread
from Paris to other places across
Europe?

Document 12
Source: Franois Guizot, Speech on the Condition of the July Monarchy, 1830-1848
The Revolution destroyed the ancien rgime but was unable to do
more. The Empire arose to re-establish order, order of an exterior,
material sort which was the basis of the civil society as the Revolution
had founded it. The Empire spread this idea throughout all of Europe;
this was its mission and it succeeded at it. It was incapable, however,
of establishing a lasting political government; the necessary conditions
were lacking. The Empire fell in its turn, to be succeeded by the
Restoration. What did the Restoration promise? It promised to resolve
the problem, to reconcile order with liberty. It was under this banner
that the charter was granted. It had accepted principles of liberty in the
charter; it had promised to establish them, but it made this promise
under the cloak of the ancien rgime, on which there had been written
for so many centuries: Divine Right. It was unable to solve the
problem. It died in the process, overwhelmed by the burden. It is on
us, on the Revolution of July, that this job has been imposed; it is our
duty and responsibility to establish definitively, not order alone, not
liberty alone, but order and liberty at the same time. The general
thought, the hope of France, has been order and liberty reuniting under
the constitutional monarchy. There is the true promise of the
Revolution of July.

Student Analysis
The July Monarchy ended with the
revolution of 1848 in France.
What do you think the new
monarchy was unsuccessful at?