Why Was There No Revolution in 1848 in Britain?
Watch this video. What were the most important causes of the 1848 revolutions in Europe? How did these revolutions compare with the French Revolution? Why was there no revolution in Britain?
Revolutions occur when a critical mass of people come together to make specific demands upon their government. They invariably involve an increase in popular involvement in the political process. One of the central questions concerning 1848, a year in which almost every major European nation faced a revolutionary upsurge, is why England did not have its own revolution despite the existence of social tensions. Two principal reasons account for this fact: first, the success of reformist political measures, and the existence of a non-violent Chartist movement; second, the elaboration of a British self-identity founded upon a notion of respectability. This latter process took place in opposition to Britain's cultural Other, Ireland, and its aftereffects can be seen in Anglo-Irish relations well into the twentieth century.
Source: John Merriman, https://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-202/lecture-11
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.