15. WIOSNA: The Springtime of Other Nations (1848)
The year's happenings began in Sicily on 12 January, when the citizens of
Palermo rose in revolt against King Bomba. Later that month the Germans of
Schleswig-Holstein shook off the rule of Denmark. On 24 February, the barri-
cades reappeared on the streets of Paris and Louis-Philippe was driven to abdi-
cation and exile. In March, revolutions occurred in Budapest, Vienna, Milan,
Rome, Munich, and Berlin. Prince Metternich himself joined the long list of
princes and premiers who were obliged to abandon their thrones or their capi-
tals. In Dublin, the Young Ireland movement of John Mitchel and Thomas
Maegher openly incited the Irish to shake off British rule. In April, the
Hungarian crisis moved into open warfare - the first of many to do so. In
London, Feargus O'Connor organized the last Monster Petition of the
Chartists. In May, at Frankfurt-am-Main, a German parliament assembled to
discuss the political unification of Germany. In one country after another the
authority of legitimate monarchs was swept aside by the upsurge of popular ani-
mosity. Outbreak followed outbreak, with no obvious prospect of relief. As a
speaker at the funeral of the Irish 'Liberator' Daniel O'Connell had forecast in
the previous year, Europe seemed to be in the grip of a 'general Revolution
which threatens to encompass the world'. It looked an admirable moment for a
Polish rising.
The ideas which burst bud during this 'Springtime of Nations' could be
classified under three main headings — constitutional, social, and national. All
three were relevant to the Polish condition. Constitutional demands sought to
overthrow the arbitrary practices of the hereditary monarchs. In France, they
were largely directed towards the campaign for universal suffrage; in most cen-
tral European and Italian states to the formation of a responsible legislature. In
the Papal States and in Prussia, they had already been anticipated by the reforms
which Pope Pius IX and King Frederick William IV had variously instituted in
1846-7. In most other places, they were conceded unwillingly, by force of popu-
lar pressure. As King Wilhelm of Wurtemberg complained, 'I cannot take the
field on horseback against ideas.' Social demands, in contrast, sought to break
the bonds of feudalism and of class privilege. In France they centred on the full
enfranchisement of the proletariat and on the right to work; in Central Europe
on the abolition of serfdom. Here was the occasion for the publication of
Marx's Communist Manifesto: 'Workers of the world unite! You have nothing