The Springtime of the Peoples: The Revolutions of 1848

"I believe right now we are sleeping on a volcano... Can you not sense that the earth is trembling again in Europe? Can you not feel the wind of revolution in the air?" -Alexis de Tocqueville, French Politician, 29th January 1848... In 1848, people in Europe rose up against the leadership with blood and iron to fight for equality, civil rights, and democracy. People from France, Austria, Italy and Germany all fought for those rights and for their voice to be heard in the monarchy. But in the end, the revolutions were eventually stopped and the effects repealed. But in the years coming, those rights came back and found stronger footing as liberal ideals continued to spread across the continent. Though the 1848 revolutions failed to achieve lasting change at the time, they planted the seeds for future movements and reforms. Over the next decades, constitutional monarchies, expanded suffrage, and national unifications gradually emerged, proving that while the revolutions were suppressed, the desire for freedom and self-determination could not be extinguished. "We'll be fighting in the streets. The children at our feet And the morals that they worship will be gone And the men who spurred us on Sit in judgment of all wrong They decide and the shotgun sings the song." -Roger Daltrey, Won't Get Fooled Again, 1971