V.4. THE FIRST MASS WORKING-CLASS INSURRECTION BRINGS MODERN EUROPE'S FIRST MASS MASSACRE

MENU: 5.4. FIRST WORKER INSURRECTION 

 THE HUMBLE SIMPLY CALLED THE INSURRECTION "JUNE"

June 22- 26, 1848: 

• Killed: rebels, 5000 / soldiers, 1460.
• Wounded: unknown.
• Deported to Algeria or Cayenne, thousands.

      La Barricade de la rue de la Mortellerie, juin 1848 by Ernest Meissonnier / zoom

Sketch made on the spot. Notice the red, white and blue of the foreground. 

It led to a regime that was exceptionally autocratic, corrupt and repressive, and to the military transformation of Paris (coming next).

In brief

• A republic for the happy few

• A worker's revolt announces the future

• The right changes too: Provincial nobles answer the call

• Young delinquents joyously join in

• Empathy from a countess alone

• An authoritarian comes to power

Recommended sources

Histoire de la Révolution de 1848 (can be read on the web) by Daniel Stern, pen name of Marie d'Agoult, and Souvenirs by Alexis de Toqueville. Both were nobles, Toqueville conservative, Stern extraordinarily liberal. 

Memories of a Revolutionary, from June 1848 to the Commune by Gustave Lefrançais, 1886-87, re-ed. 2013 (in French). 

A modern narrative: Red Paris in "A history of the barricade" by Éric Hazan (2015).

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Next,

A republic for the happy few