Prédire et prévenir la fin de la civilisation, les conservateurs français face aux révolutions du Printemps des peuples en Europe

The political situation created by the Springtime of Peoples brings us to study the political and military response of the conservatives to those revolutionary events. The Parisian revolution of February 1848, and the violent street battle of June 1848, were a shock for the conservatives. Nevertheless, these events also created a repressive reaction. This repression brought together the sword and the quill: it was driven by the fear that the European civilization was falling down. The French conservatives, legitimists, orleanists or bonapartists, or “republicans of order” harbored a pessimistic, but not desperate, vision of the surrounding events. Indeed, the relation with the people was considered from a new perspective. Indeed, insurgency was born in the people, but the call to the people, through the universal male suffrage, was meant to bury the barricade. Military success, like the one of Cavaignac in June 1848, were only temporary and had to be legitimized through the electoral vote and its millions of ballots.