France 1815–1848: Restoration, Revolution, and the Road to the Second Empire

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France was reduced to its 1792 borders, had to pay a war indemnity, and accepted an army of occupation (withdrawn by 1818). However, the settlement was lenient — France remained a major power and rejoined the Concert of Europe quickly.

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Talleyrand used the principle of legitimacy — restoring pre-revolutionary rulers — to give France equal standing at the Congress and shield it from harsher punishment.

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A constitutional document granted by Louis XVIII that preserved key revolutionary gains (legal equality, press freedom, a two-chamber legislature) while restoring the monarchy. It was the basis of the Restoration settlement.

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He paid a billion francs to returning émigré nobles by cutting interest rates on government bonds — directly reducing the income of the middle-class investors who held those bonds, alienating the bourgeoisie.

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Charles X's ordinances dissolved the newly elected Chamber before it met, slashed the electorate, and imposed strict press censorship — all without parliamentary approval. This directly attacked the constitution and triggered the Three Glorious Days of barricades in Paris.

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Louis XVIII was pragmatic — he governed constitutionally and balanced factions. Charles X was ideological — he wanted to restore royal absolutism, compensated émigrés, increased clerical power, and finally overreached with the July Ordinances, causing his own overthrow.

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He was a Bourbon cousin who had fought in the revolutionary armies. By calling himself 'King of the French' rather than 'King of France', he signalled his power came from the nation, not divine right. He accepted the tricolour and the revised Charter.

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Political narrowness (Guizot blocked reform, only the wealthy elite could vote); economic crisis (harvest failures 1846–1847, unemployment); new socialist ideas (Louis Blanc, 'right to work'); the immediate trigger was the banning of a reform banquet in February 1848.

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Conservative prime minister who dominated French politics 1840–1848. His slogan 'enrich yourselves' dismissed demands for franchise reform. He blocked all political change, making the regime inflexible just as economic crisis and socialist ideas were growing.

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State work schemes set up by socialist Louis Blanc after the February Revolution to address unemployment — they quickly attracted 100,000 men. When the conservative National Assembly closed them in June 1848, Parisian workers revolted (the June Days), which was brutally suppressed by General Cavaignac.

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He benefited from the Napoleonic legend — the peasantry and rural France associated the Bonaparte name with order, national glory, and protection of property. After the fear created by the June Days socialist uprising, conservative voters rallied to him against the republican candidates.

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The 1789 Revolution permanently divided France between those who accepted its legacy (legal equality, secular rule, constitutional limits) and those who wanted to reverse it. Every regime fell when it sided too strongly with one group and excluded another — creating a cycle of revolution.