The revolutions of 1848 would always be remembered as an important milestone for the common people. In a sense, it was the most significant revolution since the French Revolution. Following the revolution, many monarchs and lords were forced to acquiesce the establishment of a constitution and a legislature formed by elected representatives of the common people.

The common people also had great expectations from the new governments as they looked forward to a brighter future. Unfortunately, they soon found that their situation had not improved, but rather worsened. The representatives elected to the legislature were mostly descendants of capitalists who belonged to the bourgeois. Unsurprisingly, they didn't waste time before they revealed their true colors. 

The newly established bourgeois government not only failed to fulfill its previous commitments, but instead began to squeeze the common people even tighter. Previously, taxes were collected from nobles and landowners on behalf of the commoners who worked for them. The new government, however, decided to forego the previous system and began collecting taxes directly from the people.

In theory, this seemed like an advancement as the government could identify the individuals directly and receive relatively reasonable and accurate taxes. This would also avoid anyone being taxed too much or too little. In reality, however, the tax officials began to collect taxes once, twice, and sometimes even three times to fill their pockets and those of other bureaucrats.

As more and more such oppressive policies were passed, the burdens of the peasants and workers began to grow. The new government was also aware of this, but they assumed that the commoners wouldn't dare resist on their own. However, they had forgotten that the people had already witnessed the success of the previous bourgeois revolutions which had also ignited their passion. As a result, protests by workers and peasants began to flourish.

* * * * * * * * * *

Milan, Italy

Before the Austrian retreat, Marshal Radetzky had levied a large amount of food in Lombardy. After Sardinia occupied Milan, the people of Lombardy, who were already low on food, had to lend their emergency rations to the Sardinian army which had been lured to Milan ahead of its supply lines. Unfortunately, due to their financial crunch, Sardinia could barely afford to train and arm its soldiers, so they had no other choice than to delay the repayment to the people.

If their maltreatment had ended here, maybe the people would've considered the food to be the price for their freedom from Austria and forgotten about it. However, that wasn't meant to be. A few days later, they received word that in order to raise funds for the war, the Kingdom of Sardinia had levied a war tax. However, this time it wasn't levied in Turin, but in Milan. This unequivocally became "the straw that broke the camel's back."

On April 21, 1848, farmers near the town of Brianza, unable to pay the high taxes, took up arms and launched an uprising. The insurgents occupied a noble's manor, seized the granary, divided the grain amongst themselves, and burned the debt receipts and paperwork.

This peasant uprising frightened the capitalists and nobles who resided in Milan. They began to put pressure on the interim government appointed by the Sardinians to protect their interests. As a result, a militia was quickly dispatched to carry out an armed suppression of the uprising. Within a few days, this spontaneous uprising had been put down. However, this uprising was only just the beginning.

Since the occupation of Milan by the Kingdom of Sardinia, prices of almost every commodity had soared. For example, from early March to late April, the price of bread had increased by 74%. This was due to the capitalists hoarding food and grains which led to the death of many impoverished people. The interim government's failure to reverse this situation led to the disillusionment of many locals who had previously supported Sardinia.

On April 25, under the organization of the Workers' Cooperative Society, more than 5,000 workers in Milan took to the streets to petition the interim government, asking the government to control prices and guarantee the rights of the workers. As there was no labor protection law in this era, the workers petitioned the government to pass a law similar to the Austrian Labor Protection Act.

Ignorant of the political machinations at play, the workers failed to understand the political repercussions that would arise from their demand for the implementation of an Austrian law. In fact, the leaders of the workers directly copied part of the Austrian Labor Protection Act and added a few other provisions that they deemed reasonable, and submitted the petition to the interim government.

Naturally, the interim government, whose members included many local capitalists and nobles, would not promulgate an act which would harm its own interests. Therefore, the interim government arrested the leaders of the workers movement, accused them of being Austrian spies, charged them with sedition and treason, and executed them.

Angered by the tyranny of the interim government, on April 28, a huge strike broke out in Milan. Thousands of workers took to the streets to fight for their rights. In response, the interim government hastily ordered the Milan City Guard to shoot at "the rioters and saboteurs that are planning to disrupt social order."

By the end of the day, more than 300 protesters had been killed and close to 2000 had been arrested. White terror flooded the city of Milan, and under the suppression of the bourgeois interim government, the workers movement in Milan was extinguished, however, the ruthlessness of the interim government had planted the seed of hatred within the people of Milan.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The workers and peasants movements were also similarly being suppressed in other parts of Italy outside Milan. The bourgeois-led governments in southern Italian states such as the Papal States, the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily were also busy putting down the liberal movements in a ruthless fashion.

In Naples, many workers who had been sitting on a strike outside a printing press were killed by the Naples City Guard; in Rome, impoverished people who were begging for bread outside a bakery were ruthlessly beaten by the Roman City Guard; in Palermo, the Sicilian National Guard even raised their arms against their peers with whom they had previously participated in the revolution in January.

The actions of the bourgeois governments in the previously feudal states attracted strict criticism by the feudal forces and earned strong support for the restoration of feudal forces. The common people had personally felt that capitalist regimes were even more abominable than feudal aristocracy, even if the bourgeois bragged that capitalism was more advanced than feudalism.

The monarchy and aristocracy also seized this opportunity and launched a counterattack against the bourgeois. The biggest advocate of this counterattack was the Austrian counter-insurgency nobles led by Franz, who had suppressed most of the revolutions in Austria. In addition, the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also began lobbying Pope Pius IX, the religious leader of the Catholic World.

Pope Pius IX, fearing that Italy's reunification by Piedmont-Sardinia would result in him losing power and that a war against Austria would result in the Holy See losing Catholic support, issued a papal bull on April 29, 1848, heavily criticizing the actions of the new governments formed as a result of the revolution. This became the signal of counterattack by the feudal forces.

On May 2, 1848, in the national parliament, King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies publicly asked the bourgeois parliamentarians to take an oath of allegiance to the Constitution, which was opposed by them. That night, Ferdinand II ordered the army to break them and dissolved the national parliament and imprisoned the bourgeois parliamentarians.

* * * * * * * * * *

France

As the cradle of revolution in Europe, France was naturally the most lively. After the enactment of universal male suffrage on March 2, 1848, France had 9 million new voters as previously only the landed class had been eligible to vote. As a result, the left-wing liberal provisional government became busy getting ready for the elections that were to be held on April 23, 1848.

Unfortunately, due to juggling between pleasing both the unemployed workers and the landed class, they lost both votes. The workers were upset because the National Workshops which guaranteed the "Right to Work" were not employing enough people. On the other hand, the small farmers and the peasantry which constituted the landed class a.k.a. the petty bourgeoisie were upset as the extra taxes levied on them were being wasted on the workers.

As a result, the victors of the April 23, 1848 election were primarily moderates and right-wing conservatives, except for François-Vincent Raspail, a candidate popular among urban workers. Naturally, this result was a disappointment to the radicals and urban workers. As a result, on April 26, 1848, the urban workers launched a series of armed uprisings in cities such as Lyon and Limoges which were quickly suppressed.

A few weeks later, on May 15, 1848, Parisian workers stormed the National Constituent Assembly en masse to proclaim a new revolutionary government, however, they were quickly suppressed by the National Guard. The leaders of this revolt - Louis Auguste Blanqui, Armand Barbès, François Vincent Raspail and others - were arrested and sent for trial in hopes of deterring others from following in their footsteps.

Fearful of the growing working class in Paris, the government, supported by the conservatives, ordered the closure of the "Right to Work" National Workshops on June 21, 1848. In response, on June 23, 1848, 170,000 Parisians rose in protest over the closure of the National Workshops. The government appointed General Louis-Eugène Cavaignac, himself a member of the National Constituent Assembly, to crush the uprising.

After three days and an army of 120,000 to 125,000 soldiers, General Cavaignac somehow managed to suppress the working-class uprising. Ultimately, the workers and petty bourgeoisie who had previously fought together were now fighting against each other. Thus ended the June Days uprising with class contradiction becoming the main contradiction in France. The future looked grim for the Second Republic, as well, since it could no longer without the support of the working classes, signaling the return of a certain Napoleon.

-TO BE CONTINUED-