Melancholy Revolts

This week we learned about the revolution uproar that took place in 1830 and 1848 all through Europe. Our history class placed ourselves in the roles of historians and were made to conclude whether these revolution were successes or failures.

Whenever I think of word revolution I think of a bunch of angry people who want bread and money from the snobbish kings, and that's basically what the motive of the many revolutions that took in 1830 and 1848. Many historians have concluded that these social uprisings were failures, however, my class dwelt in deeper and examined each revolution to make our own decision. The revolutions that we focused on was the- Decembrist Revolt, France Revolts of 1830 and 1848, the revolt of the Frankfurt Assembly, and the Hungary revolt. Before we began our mission, we had to create a scale of success and failure, and determine the traits of each category. We were then put into small groups and given a revolution to focus on. We were to create a quiz of about 10-11 questions on our revolution using SurveyMonkey. Then using the survey we were to decide the success/failure of each revolution.
My group was assigned to the 1825 Decembrist Revolt. Using a document with primary sources and basic facts, we began to chart the basics, and then find evidence from the primary source documents to determine position of the revolution on the scale of success. The Decembrist Revolt took place in Russia during the December of 1825. The confusion over the succession of Tsar Alexander I's throne led to the revolt. The people wished for a new constitution and thought that by having Constantine, Alexander's younger brother, on the throne, they would have a better chance of granting it. However, Nicholas I, Alexander's other brother, took over the throne, and refused to give more rights to his people. In fact, Tsar Nicholas I shut down communication with all of Europe, and didn't give any freedom at all. According to Marquis de Astolphe Custine, "...the conduct of the Emperor [Nicholas I] in forbidding his subjects to travel, and in rendering access to his own country difficult to foreigners." Russia became an autocratic nation, and the caste system was strictly enforced. Nicholas I was quite harsh while enforcing these decrees; during his conversation with a French ambassador he says: "The law demands retribution and, in their cases, I will not use my power to grant mercy. I will be unbending; it is my duty to give this lesson to Russia and to Europe." Nicholas I gives the exact opposite of what his people hoped for. It is quite obvious to conclude that the outcome of this revolt was a complete failure, in that the rebels landed in a situation worse than before.
On the other hand, our SurveyMonkey  succeeded and resulted in not too many wrong responses. After analyzing the results of our quiz, we found out that our classmates "fully understood" the topic of the Decembrist Revolution:

After taking the survey on the other revolts, our class was ready to agree with the historians to conclude that all the revolts were on the failure side of the scale. The Decembrist Revolt resulted in the worst outcome compared to the others, with the dictatorship of Tsar Nicholas. While the French Revolutions of 1830 resulted in a constitutional monarchy of Louis-Philippe, it did get de-throne Charles X. The Hungarian Revolution on the other hand did get temporary results by the Austrian government ending serfdom and writing a constitution to protect basic rights; unfortunately, with the help of the Russian troops, the Austrian rebels were crushed, and all was lost. 

The flurry of revolts that took place in 1830 and 1848 were not quite successful, yet it shows us that the people were not happy with their country and wished for change; sadly, reform and change in Europe took a while.