(^160) › STEP 4. Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High
the liberal parliament had begun to reassert itself. The humiliating defeat in the Franco-
Prussian War brought down both Louis-Napoleon and the Second Empire, and it also set
in motion a battle between monarchists and the people of Paris who, having defended Paris
from the Germans while the aristocrats fled, now considered themselves to represent the
nation of France. When elections in 1871 resulted in a victory for the monarchists, the
people of Paris refused to accept the results and set up their own democratic government,
which came to be known as the Paris Commune. The Commune ruled the city of Paris in
February and March 1871, before being crushed by the French Army.
Monarchists initially controlled the government of the new Third Republic, but they
remained divided between factions. By the end of the 1870s, France was governed by a
liberal government elected by universal manhood suffrage. However, in the late 1880s,
conservative nationalists supported an attempted coup by General George Boulanger. The
attempt—which has come to be known as the Boulanger Affair—failed, but it underscored
the fragility of French democracy and the volatility of mass politics in France.
Mass Politics and Nationalism in Russia
At mid-century, Russia’s government was the most conservative and autocratic in Europe.
The peasants of Russia were still bound to the land by serfdom. The Crimean War
(1853–1856), in which Russia essentially battled Great Britain and France for control of
parts of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, damaged the reputation of both the tsar and the
military. Alexander II, who ascended the throne in 1855, was determined to strengthen
Russia by reforming and modernizing it. He abolished serfdom, made the judiciary more
independent, and created local political assemblies.
However, Russia was plagued by its own nationalities problem. Alexander attempted to
deal with it by relaxing restrictions on the Polish population within the Russian Empire, but
this fanned the flames of nationalism and led to an attempted Polish Revolution in 1863.
Alexander responded with increased repression of Poles and other ethnic minorities within
the Russian Empire. And after an attempt on his life in 1866, Alexander gave up all notions
of liberal reform and proceeded to turn Russia into a police state. In response, mass politics
took the form of terrorism. Radical groups like the People’s Will carried out systematic acts
of violent opposition, including the assassination of Alexander II with a bomb in 1881. His
successor, Alexander III, responded by waging war on liberalism and democracy. Initiating a
program of “Russianization,” he attempted to standardize language and religion throughout
the Russian Empire.Mass Politics and Nationalism in Great Britain
Mass participation in politics in Great Britain in the nineteenth century (in the form of
mass demonstrations and riots) provided the pressure that enabled liberals to force through
the Great Reform Bill of 1832, enfranchising most of the adult, male middle class.
In the decades that followed, the liberals seemed satisfied with limited reform. The rise
of Chartism (1837–1842) demonstrated the degree to which the lower-middle and working
classes desired further reform. Chartists organized massive demonstrations in favor of the
People’s Charter, a petition that called for the following:
• Universal manhood suffrage
• Annual Parliaments
• Voting by secret ballot19_Bartolini_Ch19_153-164.indd 160 27/04/18 1:55 PM