From 1845 until the end of 1851 France experienced a prolonged and intense crisis. It began with poor harvests in 1845 and 1846 which brought on a collapse in consumer and investor confidence. Economic difficulties were intensified by an international financial crisis and industrial overproduction. Misery, insecurity, and widespread disorder brought into question the legitimacy of the July Monarchy, created by revolution in 1830. In February 1848 the Government was overwhelmed suddenly by the development of a revolutionary situation in its capital city. Ineffective crisis management resulted in the establishment of a republican Provisional Government, which in the absence of alternative centres of resistance was able to impose its authority on the country. Popular sovereignty was recognised through the introduction of ‘universal’ male suffrage, enlarging the electorate from the 250,000 previously enfranchised by a tax qualification to over 9 million. This created an immense sense of expectancy amongst the supporters of political and social change and equally intense social fear amongst conservatives.

In the months that followed, those politicians who had unexpectedly gained power struggled to impose their authority on a country beset by a renewed crisis of confidence and mass unemployment. Disagreeing on objectives themselves, they sought to restore order amongst competing socio-economic interest groups, communities, and political groups determined to affirm the primacy of their particular interests. The population rapidly underwent an ‘apprenticeship in politics’ as newspapers, political clubs, and mass meetings flourished in the new era of ‘liberty’.