Like North Africa and the Middle East today, continental Europe in the 1840s
consisted of monarchs ruling impoverished masses who were suffering acute
economic distress. Political liberalization was inching along too slowly to
satisfy the intelligentsia and the new middle classes in the cities.
In Paris, 163 years ago last month, the regime threatened to put down a
peaceful protest, which resulted in thousands of angry protesters taking to
the streets and demanding democracy. The mobs swelled, streets were torn up,
demonstrators fraternized with national guardsmen, relatively small numbers
of protesters were killed, the army didn’t intervene — and within days,
King Louis-Philippe had abdicated, a republic was declared, freedom of
speech was allowed, and elections were scheduled.
