How could a concept be so remote

Oral English History

        Many factors allow to explain why many revolutions occured in 1848. Bad harvests and economic depression were main causes which created massive discontent throughout Europe and Protests and riots were very common. The economic crisis didn’t help the situation as unemployment increased massively which resulted in more people falling into poverty, pushing the nation’s patience to it’s limits. Another important cause of the outbreak of revolutions was the spread of liberalism throughout Europe which was facilitated by communication lines such as the telegraph or railway lines. Many historians might argue that it was the Paris revolution of 1848 that was the mother of all revolutions but this revolution was created by the three aforementioned factors and was only the spark that set off the European-wide wave of revolutions. But how come Britain wasn’t nearly touched by all these massive uprisings and collapse of governments ? The upper class wanted to maintain their social status so they decided to pass several acts to calm down the nation when they started to get agitated which effictively work as we can see no revolution occured. I will start by talking how the failure of chartism helped in a way to avoid a revolution, proceeded by the corn act and ultimately the Great Reform Act.

      Chartists, originally known as the London Working Men, was a social group composed of people from the working class who wanted to improve the economic conditions of their class. The failure of Chartism in a way prevented a revolution in Britain. Unlike other countries, the working class could freely speak and regroup themselves which created a sense of unification. The main aim of the Charist movement was equal representation, universal manhood suffrage for those over 21 years old, annual parliaments, the removal of property qualifications for MPs, a secret ballot and the payment of MPs. Many factors allow to explain why Chartism failed such as the improvement of the socio-economic position after 1842 and how the government handled the movement calmly. Many people had joined the Chartist to seek economic protection as Britain’s situation was starting to go downhill which meant that the majority of members were there for their own cause and needed help. However, when the government effictively restabilised the economy, people who had joined the movement no longer needed financial aid and quit Chartism. This led to the failure of Chartism. One historian might say that the creation of Chartism in a way created a sense of reassurement as the working class felt that they were supported by their fellow members which in return discouraged them from rebelling.

The corn laws were trade restrictions on imported food and grain enforced in Britain. One historian might say that the corn laws were a factor that could have lead to a revolution but another historian might argue that on the contrary, it dissuaded a massive uprising. Between 1815 and 1846, Britain passed corn laws that prohibited the import of cheap grain from other countries by imposing steep import duties making it too expensive to import from other counries even when shortages were low. The laws created a massive inflation of British prices for food which led to a massive number of people not being capable to feed themselves and created short period of famine in England and in Ireland. This caused a lot of

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