Why Nations Revolt

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1, 4 January 1906, Page 4

Why Nations Revolt

The terrible massacres! that have lately taken place wJJif J° miIUO " s ?f? f the 9? a . r > and the brutal manner in which those who have petitioned for greater freedom and a redress of their wrongs have been treated, lend a ?evolution ntCreSt t0 a m&t account of the 'P as^ century's Sweden was the first country to- break into the nineteenth century with a revolution. In 1809 it began with the dethroning of Gustavas IV. . and the assumption of the government by his uncle, who reigned thereafter as Charles ' XIII. , a^d- ended three months tution establl shment of a representative Consti- • ???« Jea £ s ter .> Holland was in revolt, and again in 1830 -when Belgium was separated from it and declared to be independent ; -while the- same year witnessed the revolution which brought about the downfall of the eccentric Charles Frederick William,, who was stated by the German Diet to be incapable of reigning PniL i ye nn r ' t i ) °V k an insurr ection broke out in Poland The Grand Duke was -obliged to qiuit the city, and General . Chlopicki was appointed Dictator A few months later a. large Russian army ..entered' the country and for nine months a series of sanguinary battles took place,, in which the Roles were at first successful. By the' capture of Warsaw, however the insurrection came to an end, and with it Poland lost her independence,- for in the following year -she Vas de- • clared an integral part of the Russian Empire -^nn^A 6ame ' the mi ehty revolution which shook the. very- foundations of Austria and Hungary for the two years 'following. It began with the rebellion of "the Hungarian people, who had long been dis-

contented with Austrian rule, and ended, after a score of battles— mostly *in favor- of the Hungarians— had been waged, Tjy .the " incapacity, land " unpardonable surrender of the Hungarian " leador, Gorgei, to - the combined forces of Austria and Russia. A fortnight afterwards the surrender of- Komoru to the \Ausfcrians closed the war. . Towards the end of 1848 also occurred an insurrection at Rome. The Pope "escaped from' ' Rome to Gaeta, "whence he issued an appeal to the Catholic Powers, and very soon had the satisfaction of learning - that the Romans had capitulated to Marshal Oudinot. Yet the same year France herself was in revolutionary tumult, at the hands of the Red Republicans, because of the prohibition of the grand reform banquet at -Paris. Fearful disorders were then' committed. The prisons were opened, the Tuileries was ransacked and barricades were thrown up. Not until some 16,000 persons were either killed or wounded, and the nation had suffered a loss of 30,000-,000fr., was the insurrection crushed. More trouble was yet to come for France. Another small revolution took place in 1851, and then came the affair of 1870 and 187H, immediately after the defeat of the French arms in the terrible Franco-Prus-sian War. The Prussian guns about Sedan were hardly silenced when the people of Paris dissolved the Senate proclaimed a Republic amid tumultuous excitement, and sent the Empress-Regent a fugitive to England. In the following spring a further insurrection, this time by the Communists, threatened France with disaster but after great bloodshed and grievous damage to public and private property) the disturbance was eventually quelled by the regular army. In 1860 was witnessed the revolt of Southern Italy from the rule of Francis 11., when Garibaldi and his volunteers defeated the Neapolitan generals on the Volturno. It was the year, too, when began the five years' revolution in America . between the Federal army under General Grant, and representing the Northern States, and General Lee's Confederate army of the South. ' Though it rescued the South from the incubus or slavery, and settled the question whether the United States was one nation or merely an aggregate of nations, it cost the American people £2,000,000,000 and a loss in life of 600,000 men, besides as maAy morn wounded. ' Spain in 18G8 was in revolt through corrupt administration. J-\ the two years following she adopted provisional government, the chief event of which by the choice of Amadeus of Savoy as King, was to furnish the pretext for the Franco-Prussian War. In 18714 the country was again split up by the differences of the Federalists and the Conservative Republicans which brought about the second Carlist war till ?w 0 ./^ ol *^ an F im *>°rtance after this till that of Brazil in 1889, when Dom Pedro and his family were exiled and the country was made a republic Finally, there is: the civil war of 1891 in Chili, caused by the unconstitutional government of President Balmaceda, who was severely defeated in a couple of battles by the Congressionalists, but not before several thousand lives had been left behind on the field oi cattle.