Revolutions of 1830

A series of European political upheavals in which liberals and revolutionaries tried to fulfill the democratic ideals of the French Revolution by unseating absolutist governments. The turbulence started in France, where the Bourbon monarchy had been restored since Napoleon's defeat. When in July 1830 the reactionary Charles X suspended freedom of the press, dissolved the Chamber of Deputies, and deprived many people of their right to vote, fighting broke out in the streets of Paris. Charles abdicated and fled to England, replaced by Louis- Philippe, duke of Orléans. (Louis-Philippe was in turn deposed by revolution, in 1848.) The July Revolution in France touched off a renewal of republican spirit in other European locations. A few countries were able to obtain independence: Belgium from the Netherlands (1831) and Greece from the Ottoman empire (1832). But uprisings in Italy and Germany failed, and a Polish revolt against the Russian czar was brutally crushed. Delacroix's famous painting Liberty Leading the People (1830) was inspired by the July Revolution in France; Chopin left Poland for Paris as a result of the unsuccessful Polish attempt at independence.

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