Revolution of 1848 in Luxembourg
The Revolution of 1848 in Luxembourg was part of the revolutionary wave which occurred across Europe in 1848. The Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg at that time was in personal union with the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Dissatisfaction with inequality, the authoritarian government, the lack of civil liberties and a political system that excluded most people from government, caused widespread upheaval. This in turn forced the government to concede various reforms, particularly granting a new constitution, which introduced new civil liberties, parliamentary government, wider participation in the political system, and the separation of powers.
Background
After being annexed by the French in the Napoleonic Wars, Luxembourg was elevated to a Grand Duchy and awarded to the Dutch King by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. While it was supposed to be ruled by him in personal union, separate from his kingdom, the King-Grand Duke William I treated it as a mere province of the Netherlands. (At the time, modern Belgium was part of the Netherlands, and Luxembourg was not geographically separate from Dutch territory.) The Grand Duchy also became part of the German Confederation (the successor to the Holy Roman Empire), and its fortress was garrisoned by Confederation troops.
Luxembourg was profoundly affected by the
In 1841, William II authorised the first constitution of Luxembourg, a document which left all meaningful power in the hands of the sovereign.
The 1840s saw several famines, which affected the poor the worst. The authorities did little to deal with the consequences of these crises, at least in the eyes of the people. Furthermore, unpopular taxes caused widespread discontent. Complaints were also raised about the annual payment of 150,000 guilders to the sovereign, which weighed heavily on the state's budget. In the 1840s the government additionally restricted traditional rights of pasture and gathering firewood; the rural poor saw this as an unfair attack on their ancient rights. The 1845 law forbidding straw roofs in houses, introduced after several destructive fires, likewise burdened the poor, who could scarcely afford the required renovations.[2]: 21
On top of all this, unemployment and price increases turned the economic problems into a social crisis. More and more frequently, vagabonds and beggars appeared in whole groups, demanding charity from property owners.[2]: 21
Events
Dissatisfaction had built up over several years, and was only waiting for a trigger. The
A significant aspect of the protest manifested through the submission of petitions to the authorities. Petitions, far from being a recent invention, were an old right. What was unusual was their extent, as 70 petitions were sent to the government around March, which had been more or less spontaneously drafted and signed in over 60 localities.
At the same time, a broad protest movement started. The centre of the uprising was
On that day, the police tried to arrest several of the ringleaders, which threatened to escalate the situation. An angry crowd gathered outside the gendarmerie station, hurling stones and breaking windows.[2]: 22 A gallows was erected outside the house of the local head of the gendarmerie.[2]: 23 The people's anger was also felt by other representatives of the authorities: a crowd attacked the house of the local tax collector. In other localities, similar popular disdain for the government was expressed, and its representatives had to deal with various humiliations and insults.
In the capital, a crowd gathered on 16 March. Workers from the suburbs assembled in front of the house of the mayor, Fernand Pescatore, who was suspected of wheat speculation: again, it took the gendarmerie and the Prussian military to prevent any violence.[2]: 23
The unrest spread from Ettelbruck to neighbouring villages, and the government feared it might spread even further.
The Revolution ended about as quickly as it had begun, but lasted the longest in Ettelbruck, where anarchy reigned for about a week. Unrest still flared up in various areas for several weeks, but the government acted decisively to restore order. Gendarmes, forestry and customs officers, and federal German troops, were deployed to the affected areas on 23 March to take down the revolutionary flags and restore order. This unusually large presence of armed forces served as a clear signal to the insurgents, but also to those who were uninvolved. Similarly, on 19 March, a pastoral letter from the
On 20 March, the government issued a proclamation announcing changes to the constitution and the abolition of censorship.[2]: 24 Acting on government advice, William II had had to agree to reforms. These promises led most citizens and supporters of "law and order" to finally side with the government and distance themselves from any further revolutionary acts. The government also agreed to employ part of the discontented poor on state construction sites, in order to take them off the streets.[2]: 24
New constitution
The King-Grand Duke established a commission to come up with revisions to the constitution. However, as it was composed by a large number of government officials, the commission provoked widespread hostility and had to be abandoned. William II then called a new Assembly of Estates, with twice the normal number of delegates, with the mission to draft a new constitution.[1]: 31 This Constituent Assembly first gathered in Ettelbruck on 25 April 1848.[1] The reason behind meeting in Ettelbruck rather than Luxembourg City may have been the presence of the Prussian garrison in the capital, which was seen as hostile.[1] The Assembly finished its work in record time, proceeding to the final vote confirming the new Constitution on 23 June. The Grand Duke swore an oath on the new Constitution on 10 July, and it came into force on 1 August.[3]: 14
Within a few months, the Constituent Assembly had drafted a relatively liberal constitution, turning Luxembourg into a constitutional monarchy. Heavily influenced by the Belgian constitution of 1830, with several articles copied verbatim, it bore the imprint of the Belgian revolutionary period of 1830-1839. It incorporated key principles of a state governed by the rule of law, such as separation of powers, limiting the sovereign's powers to the executive sphere, the parliament's legislative sovereignty, an annual vote on the ordinary budget, and judicial independence.[1]: 32
Despite its striking resemblance to the Belgian constitution, there were notable differences. Unlike Belgium, Luxembourg's constitution provided for only one chamber of parliament, this being mainly due to the small size of the country and a lack of enough qualified people to sit in two chambers, rather than any ideological reasons. Compared with the 40 francs of annual taxation required to vote in Belgium, Luxembourg required only 10 francs (which still, however, excluded most of the population).[1]
Legacy
Change
The political shifts triggered by the events of 1848 appear evident: the country's first modern constitution, the introduction of parliamentary government and civil liberties, and the creation of several new government institutions. The monarch's authority was severely curtailed.[4]: 81 However, whether the Revolution brought about social change and to what extent remains a subject of debate. Political life in the early 19th century had been dominated by a bourgeoisie composed of high-ranking civil servants who valued order and authority. In 1848, they had to make way for a bourgeoisie composed of businessmen, more liberally inclined, who retained control until the introduction of mass politics in 1919. The Revolution therefore saw power pass from one clique of conservative Orangist officials to another, only slightly larger, clique of liberal businessmen enriched by early industrialisation. It is doubtful, then, whether 1848 was a revolution in the social sense.[4]: 81
1848 did, however, see the working classes take to the streets in anger for the first time. The socialist lawyer, Charles Théodore André, published an appeal to the workers of Luxembourg during the Revolution.
Continuity
Most of those who had administered the country since 1841 managed to weather the storm of 1848 and remain in their posts after the new Constitution came into force on 1 August.[3]: 12 The Constituent Assembly itself was presided over by the governor, Théodore de la Fontaine,[3]: 12 who was also re-appointed as head of the post-Revolution government, as were 3 out of the 4 other members of the previous government (Vendelin Jurion, Charles-Mathias Simons and Jean Ulveling). Only one resigned, Théodore Pescatore, who was replaced by Jean-Pierre André.[3]: 12 The government underwent nominal changes, with the former governor becoming the "president of the council", and its members receiving the title of "administrator general".[3]: 12
The lines between the various political families were fluid. Conservative and progressive bourgeoisies belonged to the same social milieu: they were members of the same clubs and associations, and would meet in
Several achievements of the Revolution, including the Constitution itself, proved to be short-lived. William II's death in 1849 brought his more reactionary son, William III, to the throne, who described the Constitution of 1848 as "the work of agitated times and sinister apprehensions".
Historiography
The 1848 revolution in Luxembourg has long received minimal attention from academic historiography and school curricula. Works inspired by Orangist historiography sought to downplay the events of 1848 as much as possible. For instance, Arthur Herchen's history textbook from 1918 was still in use in secondary schools up to the 1970s in a revised edition. It portrayed the world before 1848 as a carefree one. While admitting that there was a "certain nervousness" in the country in 1848, it goes on to claim that the Luxembourgish people were able to obtain in a peaceful manner the rights and freedoms which elsewhere were won with bloodshed, and that this was due to the great wisdom and generous initiative of the Grand-Duke.[5]
Orangist historiography primarily aimed at legitimizing the
This changed in 1957 when
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Ravarani, Georges. "La Constitution de 1848". In: forum, No. 185 (July 1998), p. 30-34
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Schoentgen, Marc. "Die März-Revolution von 1848 in Luxemburg". In: forum, No. 185 (July 1998), p. 21-24
- ^ a b c d e Thewes, Guy. Les gouvernements du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg depuis 1848 Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine. Service Information et Presse, 2011.
- ^ a b c Thewes, Guy. "La révolution de 1848: la deuxième". In: forum, No. 193 (July 1999), p. 80-82
- ^ a b c d e f Maas, Jacques. "La révolution de 1848 n'a pas eu lieu: L'historiographie de tradition orangiste et l'oeuvre d'Albert Calmes". In: forum, No. 185 (July 1998), p. 52-53
Further reading
- Calmes, Albert (2 October 1957). "Larochette en révolution, le 23 mars 1848". Luxemburger Wort (in French). p. 14.
- Calmes, Albert (8 January 1958). "La révolution de 1848 vue d'Echternach par un étranger". Luxemburger Wort (in French). p. 11. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
- Calmes, Albert (7 May 1958). "La première manifestation ouvrière au Luxembourg en avril 1848". Luxemburger Wort (in French). p. 13. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
- Calmes, Albert. Histoire contemporaine du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, Vol. 5: La révolution de 1848 au Luxembourg. Luxembourg, Imprimerie Saint-Paul, 1982. (2nd edition)
- Margue, Paul (1 January 1998). "Documents relatifs aux événements révolutionnaires de la mi-mars 1848 au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg". Hémecht (in French). 50 (1): 5ff.
- Melchers, E. T. (1 July 1994), "Die Echternacher Militär-Revolte 1848", Hémecht (in German), vol. 46, no. 3, retrieved 28 October 2023
- Scuto, Denis. "1848 - Die erste Revolution des industriellen Zeitalters: Zum Geburtsakt der Luxemburger Arbeiterbewegung". In: forum, No. 185 (July 1998), p. 42- 47