Revolutions of 1848

Revolution began in several European states in 1848 and rapidly spread across France, the German states, the Habsburg lands, Italy and elsewhere. In France the February Revolution forced Louis-Philippe I to abdicate and established the Second Republic, while upheaval across the continent challenged older political settlements.

Many revolutionary movements were defeated or contained by 1849, but the crisis transformed debates over monarchy, citizenship, nationalism and social reform. Alexander Cordell’s Send Her Victorious uses the fall of Louis-Philippe and revolutionary Paris as the historical foundation for its fictional Queen Victoria impersonation plot.