A Tale of Two Countries
Presenting a Comparative Historical Study in a Nonlinear Way
By Vemund Olstad
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| France 1848 | England 1848 |
During the spring of 1848 a series of revolutions, beginning in France, swept through Europe and challenged the political and social structure of many of the major powers. Yet, two of the greatest European nations at the time, England and Russia, did not experience revolutions. The objective of this assignment is to have a closer look at why some countries went through revolution when others were left relatively undisturbed.
I have chosen to use England and France as examples because they share certain characteristics, which makes it interesting to see why only one of these countries experienced a revolution. They were both monarchies and, compared to most other areas in Europe, relatively advanced both economically and socially. England and France were also independent nations with a relatively homogenous population. As a result of this we can in the cases of England and France to a large extent disregard nationalism as a factor. This differentiates these two countries from important centres of revolution, like Italy, Germany and the Habsburg Empire, where nationalism was one of the driving forces.
Due to the limitations in length given, this assignment will not provide an in-depth study of all aspects of society in France and England, but rather attempt to give the reader an understanding of the most important factors leading up to the events of 1848 as well as giving an outline of the major points of interest in the revolutionary year itself. The idea behind designing this assignment as a website, is to make the comparison between the two countries more directly accessible to the reader than in an ordinary linear text. Problems concerning this kind of presentation of historical material will be given considerable attention and will be discussed in detail in the closing chapter of this assignment.
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