15
The Revolution of 1830 in
France removed the Bourbons, but instead of
establishing a republic which was the aim of the revolutionary organisations of that
period, it resulted in a constitutional monarchy, headed by the representatives of the
Orleans dynasty. At the time of the Revolution of 1789 and later, during the
Restoration period, this dynasty stood in opposition to their Bourbon relatives. Louis
Philippe was the typical representative of the bourgeoisie. The chief occupation of
this French monarch was the saving and hoarding of money, which delighted the
hearts of the shopkeepers of Paris.
The July monarchy gave freedom to the industrial, commercial,
and financial
bourgeoisie. It facilitated and accelerated the process of enrichment of this
bourgeoisie, and directed its onslaughts against the working class which had
manifested a tendency toward organisation.
In the early thirties, the revolutionary societies were composed chiefly of
students and intellectuals. The workers in these organisations were few and far
between. Nevertheless a workers' revolt as a protest against the treachery of the
bourgeoisie broke out in 1831, in Lyons, the centre of the silk industry. For a few days
the city was in the hands of the workers. They did not put forward any political
demands. Their banner carried the slogan: "Live by work, or die in battle." They were
defeated in the end, and the usual consequences of such defeats followed.
The revolt
was repeated in Lyons in 1834. Its results were even more important than those of
the July Revolution. The latter stimulated chiefly the so-called democratic, petty-
bourgeois elements, while the Lyons revolts exhibited, for the first time, the
significance of the labour element, which had raised, though so far in only one city,
the banner of revolt against the entire bourgeoisie, and had pushed the problems of
the working class to the fore. The principles enunciated by the Lyons proletariat were
as yet not directed against the foundations of the bourgeois system, but they were
demands flung against the capitalists and against exploitation.
Thus toward the middle of the thirties in both France and England there
stepped forth into the arena a new revolutionary class -- the proletariat. In England,
attempts were being made to organise this proletariat.
In France, too, subsequent to
the Lyons revolt, the proletariat for the first time tried to form revolutionary
organisations. The most striking representative of this movement was Auguste
Blanqui (1805-1881), one of the greatest French revolutionists. He had taken part in
the July Revolution, and, impressed by the Lyons revolts which had indicated that
16
the most revolutionary element in France were the workers,
Blanqui and his friends
proceeded to organise revolutionary societies among the workers of Paris. Elements
of other nationalities were drawn in -- German, Belgians, Swiss, etc. As a result of
this revolutionary activity, Blanqui and his comrades made a daring attempt to
provoke a revolt. Their aim was to seize political power and to enforce a number of
measures favouring the working class. This revolt in Paris (May, 1839), terminated in
defeat. Blanqui was condemned to life imprisonment. The Germans who took part in
these disturbances also felt the dire consequences of defeat. Karl Schapper (1812-
1870),who
will be mentioned again, and his comrades were forced to flee from
France a few months later. They made their way to London and continued their work
there by organising, in 1840, the Workers' Educational Society.
By this time Marx had reached his twenty-second and Engels his twentieth
year. The highest point in the development of a proletarian revolutionary movement
is contemporaneous with their attaining manhood.
17
CHAPTER II
THE EARLY REVOLUTIONARY
MOVEMENT IN GERMANY.
THE RHINE PROVINCE.
THE YOUTH OF MARX AND ENGELS.
THE EARLY WRITINGS OF ENGELS.
MARX AS EDITOR OF THE Rheinische Zeitung.
WE shall now pass on to the history of Germany after 1815. The Napoleonic
wars came to an end. These wars were conducted not only
by England, which was the
soul of the coalition, but also by Russia, Germany and Austria. Russia took such an
important part that Tsar Alexander I, "the Blessed," played the chief role at the
infamous Vienna Congress (1814-15), where the destinies of many nations were
determined. The course that events had taken, following the peace concluded at
Vienna, was not a whit better than the chaos which had followed the Versailles
arrangements at the end of the last imperialist war. The territorial conquests of the
revolutionary period were wrenched from France. England grabbed all the French
colonies,
and Germany, which expected unification as a result of the War of
Liberation, was split definitely into two parts. Germany in the north and Austria in
the south.
Shortly after 1815, a movement was started among the intellectuals and
students of Germany, the cardinal purpose of which was the establishment of a
United Germany. The arch enemy was Russia, which immediately after the Vienna
Congress, had concluded the Holy Alliance with Prussia and Austria against all
revolutionary movements. Alexander I and the Austrian
Emperor were regarded as
its founders. In reality it was not the Austrian Emperor, but the main engineer of
Austrian politics, Metternich, who was the brains of the Alliance. But it was Russia