\paperw4260 \margr0\margl0 \plain \qj\li105\ri195 \f1 \b The Revolution of 1848\par
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\b0 History has bestowed the pretty name of the \i ôSpringtime of Peoplesö\i0 on the g
reat revolutionary movement that swept through Europe in 1848. France was the first country to experience a revolt against an unpopular government, that of King Louis Philippe who refused to reform an unjust electoral law at the very moment when disconte
nt over the economic slump and the poverty of the people was reaching a peak. With his only support coming from the army, which fired on the protesters who crowded the streets of Paris on February 23, Louis Philippe, isolated, unpopular, and unwilling to
inflict further bloodshed, abdicated the following day. A Republic, the second to be given this name, was proclaimed but it suffered, from the outset, from an excess of utopian ideas and from tensions between a bourgeoisie eager to increase its economic
and political power and other social groups (workers, students...) who wanted a far more radical revolution. This contradiction meant that the republic was only able to survive for three years before power was seized by the future Napoleon III.\par
