The revolution of 1848 was doomed to failure from its very beginnings. Marx states that historical events such as this draw their ideas from the past, thus the revolution of 1848 had nothing better to parody than the revolution of 1789. The fault here, however, is that the 1848 revolution sought to mirror a revolution that had failed. An absolute monarch led to a dictatorship. To follow such a trend it is easy to understand why conservative forces quickly regained control at the desistance of the 1848 revolution. The class system remained a problem in 1848. They were disunited, disorganized, and embarked upon the revolution with differing goals and aspirations. To end the instability, the masses elected Louis Napoleon, mostly on account of his name, to bring stability to France. Louis Napoleon, however, failed to bring about the stability the French anticipated, partly because he was an inept politician, but he also contributed to the precariousness of the situation because he had his own political agenda.
English: Napoleon III of France, Charles-Louis Nap...
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte
President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte Español: El Pr...Therefore the revolution was destined to fail, as its model had years earlier, and conservative forces would regain control.
The first error of the revolution was the election of Louis Napoleon as President of France. Louis Napoleon had been an unsuccessful politician, but he realized his name could possibly carry him to prominence amidst the chaos of 1848. Likewise, the National Assembly believed that his name could go as far as to win Napoleon III the Presidency, and then the National Assembly planned to influence Napoleon III to achieve its goals. Louis Napoleon had a different agenda; however, one that was realized when he declared himself Emperor of France in 1852. He had dissolved the National Assembly only a year earlier, and battled the assembly for political power during the first three...