When Napoleon fell in 1814, France faced a question that would haunt it for a century: what kind of government did it want? The victorious powers of Europe had their own answer — they restored the Bourbon dynasty in the form of Louis XVIII, bringing France back to a monarchy after 25 years of revolution and empire.
The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815): The great powers — Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Britain — met in Vienna to redraw Europe's map and contain future French aggression. For France, the key outcomes were: the Bourbon restoration was confirmed; France was reduced to its 1792 borders; France had to pay an indemnity and accept an army of occupation (until 1818). Yet the settlement was deliberately lenient — France was restored as a major power and invited back into the Concert of Europe almost immediately. The diplomat Talleyrand skillfully used the principle of legitimacy (restoring pre-revolutionary rulers) to shield France from harsher punishment.
- The Charter of 1814 — Louis XVIII granted a constitutional charter; it preserved some gains of the Revolution (legal equality, freedom of the press, a two-chamber legislature) while restoring the monarchy
- Émigré pressure — returning royalists (the émigrés) wanted revenge, demanding return of their lands and positions, creating tension from the start
- The Hundred Days (1815) — Napoleon escaped Elba, briefly returned to power, was defeated at Waterloo, and exiled to Saint Helena; this made the Allied powers more suspicious of France
- Ultra-Royalists — the far-right faction (Ultras) in the Chamber of Deputies pushed policies that reversed revolutionary gains, creating immediate political polarisation
Paper 3 framing: 'impact on France': Examiners expect you to assess the Congress of Vienna's consequences for France specifically, not just Europe generally. The key tensions are: France was treated leniently enough to remain stable, but the Bourbon restoration planted contradictions — a monarch ruling over a society permanently changed by the Revolution.
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France's political life under the restored Bourbons was a constant tug-of-war between those who accepted the revolutionary legacy and those who wanted to erase it. The two kings handled this tension very differently — with very different results.
Louis XVIII (1815–1824)
- Pragmatic — accepted the Charter and governed constitutionally
- Balanced moderate royalists with liberals; tolerated political opposition
- Allowed press freedom and some civil liberties from the Charter
- The 'White Terror' of 1815 saw Ultra violence against Bonapartists and Protestants in the south, but Louis eventually curbed it
- Electoral law of 1817 broadened the franchise slightly; Ultras reversed this in 1820 after the assassination of the Duke of Berry
- Died in 1824 — relative stability preserved, but tensions unresolved
Charles X (1824–1830)
- Ideological — committed to absolute monarchy; saw concessions as fatal weakness
- Compensation to émigrés (1825): paid nobles for lands lost in the Revolution, funded by reducing interest on government bonds — alienated the bourgeoisie
- Sacrilege Law (1825): death penalty for desecrating communion wafers — seen as clerical reaction
- Dissolved the elected Chamber when it criticised him; restricted the press
- Believed his coronation at Reims with medieval ritual symbolised divine-right kingship
- The July Ordinances (1830) — the trigger for revolution: dissolved the new Chamber before it met, cut the electorate, imposed strict press censorship
Why Charles X fell: the deeper causes: Charles X did not just make tactical mistakes — he misread French society. The bourgeoisie (middle class) created by the Revolution and Napoleon had property, legal rights, and professional status they were not willing to surrender. The Ultras' programme threatened these gains. Charles's religious conservatism also alienated educated opinion in an increasingly secular country. When he issued the Four Ordinances in July 1830 without consulting his ministers, he gave liberals and republicans the excuse to take to the streets.
1. Émigré compensation (1825)
Charles paid a billion francs to returning nobles whose lands had been sold during the Revolution. The money came from cutting the interest rate on government bonds — directly attacking middle-class investors.
2. Clerical influence grows
The Church regained control of education and public ceremonies. For liberals, this looked like a return to the pre-revolutionary alliance of throne and altar that the Revolution had overthrown.
3. Election defeat (1830)
In May 1830, elections produced a liberal majority in the Chamber, signalling that France had rejected Ultra policies. Charles faced a stark choice: compromise or confront.
4. The July Ordinances
Charles chose confrontation. On 26 July 1830 he issued four ordinances dissolving the new Chamber, halving the electorate, and gagging the press — all without parliamentary approval.
Compensation → Clergy → Election loss → Ordinances = the path to revolution
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The July Ordinances set Paris ablaze. Over three days — 27, 28, and 29 July 1830 (the 'Three Glorious Days', or Les Trois Glorieuses) — Parisian workers, students, and journalists built barricades and drove royal troops from the city. Charles X fled to England. The question was now: what came next?
The July Monarchy of Louis Philippe (1830–1848): Liberal politicians, led by Adolphe Thiers and François Guizot, feared a republic would mean radical social change. They offered the throne to Louis Philippe, Duke of Orléans — a Bourbon cousin who had fought in the revolutionary armies and was seen as a 'citizen-king'. He accepted a revised Charter, swore to uphold the constitution, and ruled as 'King of the French' rather than 'King of France', signalling that his power came from the nation, not God.
- Broader franchise — the electorate roughly doubled (from ~90,000 to ~170,000), but still only wealthy men could vote; workers and peasants were excluded
- Press freedom restored — censorship laws were loosened, though not abolished
- Religious settlement — Catholicism downgraded from 'state religion' to 'religion of the majority of French people'
- Tricolour restored — the revolutionary flag replaced the Bourbon white flag, a powerful symbolic shift
Reasons for the collapse of the July Monarchy: By the 1840s, Louis Philippe's regime had narrowed into a government for and by the wealthy elite. Guizot's refusal to extend the vote ('enrich yourselves, and you will qualify') alienated the expanding middle class and working class alike. A severe economic depression (1846–1848) caused harvest failure, rising bread prices, and unemployment. Political reform was blocked — even a campaign of public 'reform banquets' (since political meetings were banned) was outlawed. When the government banned a banquet in Paris for 22 February 1848, crowds took to the streets. On 24 February, Louis Philippe abdicated and fled to England.
Political failures
Guizot dominated government from 1840–1848, blocking electoral reform and governing in the interests of the haute bourgeoisie (wealthy elite). Even moderate liberals were excluded. The regime became increasingly corrupt, with government jobs used to buy loyalty in parliament.
Economic crisis (1846–1848)
A series of poor harvests caused food prices to soar. Simultaneously, a financial crisis hit industrial investment. Unemployment rose sharply in cities like Paris and Lyon. The suffering of the urban working class turned economic grievance into political anger.
Social tensions and new ideas
The 1840s saw the rise of early socialist thinking — writers like Louis Blanc called for state intervention to help workers. Romantic republicanism idealised the First Republic. The July Monarchy had no answer to these new demands.
The 1848 Revolution and its aftermath
The February Revolution created the Second Republic. The new government included socialists: Louis Blanc set up National Workshops (public work schemes) that quickly attracted 100,000 unemployed men. When the conservative-dominated National Assembly closed the workshops in June 1848, Parisian workers rose in revolt — the June Days uprising. General Louis-Eugène Cavaignac suppressed the revolt with great violence, killing an estimated 1,500 and arresting 12,000.
The emergence of Louis-Napoleon
Presidential elections in December 1848 produced a landslide for Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon I. He won 74% of the vote — the peasantry and rural France voted overwhelmingly for the Napoleonic name, associating it with order, glory, and the defence of property. The Second Republic had created the conditions for a new Napoleon.
Linking 1830 and 1848 in an essay: A key HL skill is showing continuity: both the July Monarchy and the Second Republic fell because they failed to include the politically excluded — in 1830 the bourgeoisie, in 1848 the working class. Each revolution solved one group's grievance by creating another group's exclusion. Paper 3 essays often ask you to explain why France had so many regime changes in this period — this is your core argument.