June Days Rebellion

France 1848

Synopsis

In June 1848 civil war broke out in Paris. Although the fighting only lasted for four days, it was one of the bloodiest conflicts in France in the nineteenth century, with thousands killed and injured. The fighting occurred between the forces defending the Second Republic and a minority who believed that the new government was betraying the principles of the February revolution from earlier that year. The failure of the insurrection signaled the defeat of the movement for radical social and political change and the victory of the conservative reaction to the 1848 revolution. Brutal repression had alienated a large part of the lower classes from the republican government. Most observers were horrified by the violence and bloodshed and wanted a return to law and order. This helps to explain the widespread popularity of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and his landslide victory in the December 1848 presidential elections. In the June Days rebellion lies the triumph of Bonapartism, which led to the eventual downfall of the Second Republic.

Timeline

• 1824: French engineer Sadi Carnot describes a perfect engine: one in which all energy input is converted to energy output. The ideas in his Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire will influence the formulation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics—which shows that such a perfect engine is an impossibility.
• 1833: British Parliament passes the Slavery Abolition Act, giving freedom to all slaves throughout the British Empire.
• 1838: As crops fail, spawning famine in Ireland, Britain imposes the Poor Law. Designed to discourage the indigent from seeking public assistance, the law makes labor in the workhouse worse than any work to be found on the outside, and thus has the effect of stimulating emigration.
• 1842: In Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population of Great Britain, British reformer Edwin Chadwick draws attention to the squalor in the nation's mill town slums, and shows that working people have a much higher incidence of disease than do the middle and upper classes.
• 1845: From Ireland to Russia, famine plagues Europe, killing some 2.5 million people.
• 1846: The Irish potato famine reaches its height.
• 1848: Mexican War ends with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico gives up half of its land area, including Texas, California, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. In another treaty, with Great Britain, the United States sets the boundaries of its Oregon Territory.
• 1848: Discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California starts a gold rush, which brings a tremendous influx of settlers—and spells the beginning of the end for California's Native Americans.
• 1848: Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, launches the women's suffrage movement.
• 1850: German mathematical physicist Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius enunciates the Second Law of Thermodynamics, stating that heat cannot pass from a colder body to a warmer one, but only from a warmer to a colder body. This will prove to be one of the most significant principles of physics and chemistry, establishing that a perfectly efficient physical system is impossible, and that all physical systems ultimately succumb to entropy.
• 1854: In the United States, the Kansas-Nebraska Act calls for decisions on the legality of slavery to be made through local votes. Instead of reducing divisions, this measure will result in widespread rioting and bloodshed, and will only further hasten the looming conflict over slavery and states' rights.
• 1858: In a Springfield, Illinois, speech during his unsuccessful campaign for the Senate against Stephen Douglass, Abraham Lincoln makes a strong case against slavery, maintaining that "this Government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free."

Event and Its Context

The February Revolution

The June Days had their roots in the expectations of radical social reform that had been raised by the February revolution. Starting in 1847, a concerted campaign for reform included demands for political freedoms and a limited extension of the suffrage. The campaign for limited reform gathered momentum, mobilizing the lower classes of Paris. The large crowds that gathered in Paris in late February 1848 espoused radical republican, and even socialist, ideas. Following two days of fighting on the barricades in the streets of Paris, King Louis-Phillippe abdicated, and on 24 February a new provisional government took office. Although the majority of the members were moderate republicans, the government also included the socialist Louis Blanc. Their presence indicated the influence of the armed crowds, which at that point virtually controlled the streets of Paris. Such direct democracy had been far from the minds of those who had initiated the campaign for reform.

First Months of the Second Republic

The provisional government tried to placate the radicals. France became a republic, and many political and social reforms were passed. These included universal male suffrage, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly and association. After decades of repression, there was an explosion of newspapers and political clubs, which discussed all kinds of radical ideas. It was proving a difficult task to pacify the masses. Given a taste of power, the lower orders were unwilling to return to being passive observers of the political process. Some people clearly saw the overthrow of the July Monarchy as the beginning of a process of radical change that would fundamentally transform France's social structures. (July Monarchy refers to the Restoration government of France, 1830-1848. It was charged with preserving the principles of the French Revolution, which began in July 1789, while simultaneously restoring and maintaining civil order.)

Of particular concern to Parisian workers was the issue of the organization of work. The Luxembourg Commission was set up to investigate the problems of Parisian workers and to suggest solutions. The government published a decree that "guaranteed labor to all citizens," which raised expectations of concrete reforms in the sphere of work and production. This decree was hastily drafted in response to pressing petitions from workers for social welfare measures from the government. France was in the midst of a severe economic crisis, exacerbated by the political uncertainty caused by the revolution. In the following months, unemployment in Paris rose to 50-60 percent. With no financial support for themselves or their families, desperate people expected the government that they had put into power to provide assistance. In response, the provisional government set up the National Workshops. This was intended to provide those without work with an income and employment on public works schemes. By June nearly 117,000 workers were earning one or two francs a day, much lower than the average daily wage of three to four francs. Even this small amount was a drain on the meager resources of the state, and the National Workshops became ammunition for conservative opponents of reform.

The Conservative Reaction

The first national elections of the Second Republic were held in April and returned a moderate government. Of the 900 elected members of the Constituent Assembly, only 34 were working class. Only 10 percent could be described as radical republicans, and one third were monarchists of various kinds. The provisional government was dissolved, and a new executive commission was chosen to lead the Assembly. The radicals and socialists were dismayed at the outcome of the elections, and they feared that the reforms of the previous two months were in danger of being overturned. The government was growing increasingly anxious at the continuing political agitation and unrest amongst the masses. The compromise between radical and moderate elements that had created the revolution was falling apart as the desire for political and social order prompted many to take a much more conservative stance.

The events of 15 May seemed to confirm the worst fears of many moderate republicans. In chaotic scenes, a crowd invaded the Assembly. Although originally organized as a demonstration of support for Polish democrats, it developed into an attempted coup, with the invaders dismissing the Assembly and trying to set up a new provisional government. Although those responsible were easily arrested, the whole incident horrified the moderates in government and provided support for reactionary measures against working-class agitation. It was becoming apparent that the radical forces unleashed in February were not prepared to relinquish control of the political arena quietly. The attitude of the executive commission became much less conciliatory, and several laws were passed circumscribing the freedom of the press and freedom of association. The Luxembourg Commission was terminated, ending any hope of significant labor reforms. General Louis Eugène Cavaignac, the new minister of war, recalled troops to Paris. The tension between the government and militant workers who wished to continue down the path of political and social reform was developing into naked hostility.

It became apparent that the National Workshops were next on the reactionary agenda. Conservative observers regarded them as a source of radical agitation, when in fact to that point they had been effective in curbing working-class radicalism. On 21 June, following weeks of rumors and uncertainty, the government passed a decree announcing that all members of the workshops aged 18-24 had to join the army, and older members were to go to public works projects in the provinces. Those who would not go by choice would be taken by force. The government was clearing Paris of the National Workshops and its troublesome working-class population.

Civil War

Civil war was the issue that finally sparked the confrontation between the government and radicals after weeks of tension. On 22 June a large demonstration protested against the decree. The next day, 23 June, barricades started going up, and fighting with government forces started around midday. Although their specific motivations in fighting remain unclear, those who returned to the barricades probably saw the decree as a final betrayal of the principles for which they had fought in February. The revolutionaries regarded the revolution as their victory and therefore expected the new government to address their social and economic grievances. When this did not occur, they tried to wrest back control of the revolutionary process through armed force.

Contemporary reports and later analysis characterized the insurrection as a class conflict between workers and the bourgeoisie. However, only certain sections of the working class were mobilized against the government. From analysis of those later arrested by the government, it appears that most of the insurgents were workers from the building, metalworking, transport, and clothing trades. Estimates of the numbers of insurgents range from 10,000 to 50,000 out of a population of approximately 200,000 working-class males in Paris. The last minute decision of the government to continue paying those enrolled in the National Workshops throughout the four days of the rebellion may have helped to prevent many workers from taking up arms against the Republic. Others probably decided that limited reforms were preferable to renewed bloodshed. Many working-class people also fought in defense of the government, particularly in the gardes mobile forces.

Initially, the insurgents controlled a large part of Paris and almost all of the eastern working-class suburbs. General Cavaignac was slow to deploy his troops, which gave the rebels a chance to establish themselves in several key positions. The Constituent Assembly, horrified by the threat, surrendered dictatorial powers to Cavaignac. Despite the initial success of the insurgents, they faced a numerically superior, more organized force, and Cavaignac used artillery against the barricades. In February the monarchy had capitulated easily, but the Republic was able to amass more support in the form of committed troops. By 26 June the insurrection was defeated, and government forces were mopping up the remains of resistance. This meant arresting virtually every working man on the street under suspicion of being a rebel. In four days of intense street fighting, 4,000 casualties occurred on both sides and 1,500 people were killed. Observers reported atrocities during the hunt for suspects and were appalled at the violence and bloodshed.

Consequences

With the defeat of the June insurrection, the working-class movement in Paris was crushed. In the days following the defeat of the rebels, approximately 15,000 Parisians were arrested. Of these, 4,500 were jailed or transported to Algeria as punishment for their part in the insurrection. No prominent radical or socialist leaders supported the insurgents. Men such as Louis Blanc were trapped between defending reforms from conservative opponents and preventing the far left from damaging the cause in a futile attempt to continue the revolution. They could do nothing but look on in dismay as the June insurrection completely isolated the radical cause from the political mainstream. Nevertheless, in the conservative backlash that followed, Louis Blanc was blamed for instigating the revolt and was forced to flee to England to avoid imprisonment.

Following the June Days, Cavaignac became the head of the Republic. The conservative reaction to the revolution had triumphed, and the government overturned some of the freedoms that had been gained in February. The bloodshed served as an example of the terrors unleashed by political and social reform. The brutal repression of the largely working-class uprising alienated the very people who had created the republic. Therefore, in the long term, the June days signaled a defeat for the Second Republic itself. Large sections of the population turned to Bonapartism, which resulted in the victory of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in the December presidential elections. This eventually led to the establishment of the Second Empire and a long period of oppression for the French labor movement.

Key Players

Blanc, Louis (1811-1882): Blanc was a French socialist theorist and author of Organisation du Travail. Following the February revolution, Blanc became a member of the provisional government and headed the Luxembourg Commission. However, as the atmosphere of the Republic turned increasingly reactionary, Blanc lost his position. Although he had not supported the June Days revolt, he was forced into exile in England.

Blanqui, Louis-August (1805-1881): French revolutionary socialist, Blanqui played an influential role in the radical movement after the February revolution. He led the attempted coup on 15 March, which alienated the moderate republicans from the radicals and led to the June Days rebellion.

Cavaignac, Louis Eugène (1802-1857): French army general, Cavaignac was in charge of the defeat of the June Days rebellion. After this, he served as head of state until the election of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as president in December. Under his regime, the Republic pursued its repression of the workers' movement, while simultaneously preserving some of the democratic aspects of the February revolution.

See also: Revolutions in Europe.

Bibliography

Books

Magraw, Roger. France 1815-1914: The Bourgeois Century.London: Oxford, 1983.

Price, Roger. The Second French Republic: A Social History.Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1972.

Rude, George. The Crowd in History: A Study of Popular Disturbances in France and England, 1730-1848. New York: Wiley, 1964.

Tilly, Charles, and Lee, Lynn H. "The People of June, 1848." In Revolution and Reaction: 1848 and the Second French Republic, edited by Roger Price. London: Croom Helm, 1975.

Traugott, Mark. Armies of the Poor: Determinants of Working-class Participation in the Parisian Insurrection of June 1848. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Additional Resources

Books

Amann, Peter H. Revolution and Mass Democracy: The Paris Club Movement in 1848. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.

Merriman, John M. The Agony of the Republic: The Repression of the Left in Revolutionary France 1848-1851. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1978.

Smith, William C. Second Empire and Commune: France 1848-1871. 2nd ed. London & New York: Longman, 1996.

—Katrina Ford