European History / Heart of Darkness - Essay Example

During this time, the state of Europe was in chaos and disarray following Napoleon Bonaparte's series of campaigns in an attempt to install himself as the emperor of Europe. A congress was created to solve the problems of Europe, this was the Congress of Vienna and one of the more influential proponents of the congress was a French diplomat under Napoleon, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand. Talleyrand proposed that Europe be restored to its previous ruling families, and this meant that France should be restored to the Bourbon, as these decisions brought along the ascension of Louis Phillipe VXIII and upon his death Charles X.

The French administration under Charles X was heavily criticized and left many of its people dissatisfied. Charles X supported the Catholic Church's new reign in France and ordered many laws to be passed down and two of these laws would later on be the catalyst to the July Revolution. . and the Chamber of Deputies, were largely leftists to the Bourbon royalists and many were supporters of Bonaparte, their protests against the new laws that were passed by Charles X. Because of the increasing criticism, Charles X introduced and issue to tighten censorship laws, restricting freedom of speech.

And on the 30th of April 1830, Charles X disbanded the National Guard of Paris, a group of voluntary citizens, the only tie that kept Charles X and his people. After the 25th of July, 1830 and Charles X signed the papers to restrict censorship known as the July Ordinances. And for three days a revolution ensued, the revolution was called Les Trois Glourieuses or the Three Glorious Days. On the third day of the Revolution, not one of the Royalists were to be found in Paris, and it seemed that the royal family had abandoned the administration to flee.

The 1830 revolt brought on a constitutional monarchy with Charles X having limited power within the government administration and his post as merely decorative and reminiscent of the royal past. In 1848, there was a wave of revolutions throughout Europe who wished to be rid free of royal rule. In France, 1848 would mark the end of the constitutional monarchy that has been created in 1830, this in turn would be replaced by the Second Republic until 1852 and from 1852 onwards the creation of a socialist state.

During this time the middle class of France were expanding and they were still disenfranchised by the elitist rules that were characteristic of the constitutional monarchy. In 1846, there was an outbreak of bad harvests and joblessness as there were too many people and too little jobs for the growing number of Paris citizens. Many of the peasant classes began revolting and efforts to put them down were inhumane