11/27/2002

                                                         Revolutions of 1848

King Louis- Phillipe of  France                                        Karl Marx - Communist  Manifesto
deposed 1848                                                                                                  1848

                                                                    Socialism

Question: Why did socialism appeal to French workers in 1848?

Liberalism became increasingly identified with the middle class after 1815.....

Socialism, the new radical doctrine after 1815, began in France. Social thinkers believed the modern factory system, the industrial revolution, "was transforming society. They were disturbed because they saw these trends as fomenting selfish individualism and splitting the community into isolated fragments. There was, they believed an urgent need for a further reorganization of society to establish cooperation and a new sense of community." (McKay, 783)

   "Early French socialists believed in economic planning.  Inspired by the emergency measures of 1793 and 1794 in France, they argued that the government should rationally organize the economy and not depend on destructive competition to do the job.  Early socialists also shared an intense desire to help the poor, and they preached that the rich and the poor should be more nearly equal economically.  Finally, socialists believed that private property should be strictly regulated by the government or that it should be abolished and replaced by state or community ownership.  Planning, greater economic equality, and state control of property - these were the key ideas of early French socialism and of all socialism since. (McKay, 783)