The Revolution of 1830 arose in France, mainly, as a reaction against the anti-liberal measures adopted by King Charles X , successor of Luis XVIII, sovereign this one who had been restored after Waterloo, that is to say, after the Napoleonic collapse. This revolution begins with the so-called July Revolution or the Three Glorious (Trois Glorieuses), revolutionary days in Paris that brought Louis Philippe I of France to the throne and opened the period known as the July Monarchy. This movement had repercussions in several European countries such as Belgium (the Netherlands) where it is identified with movements of a unifying nationalist type and Poland where it is identified with movements of a disintegrating nationalist type. It is considered as one of the so-called bourgeois Revolutions or Liberal Revolutions.
In France
France was ruled by a constitutional monarchy, with Charles X as sovereign. In the mid-1830s, said king suppressed freedom of the press, while modifying the electoral system by establishing that only those who paid an income to the State could be voters . On July 27, 28 and 29, 1830, the people of Paris rose up against the King, finally succeeding. Then, a provisional government was formed that ignored Charles X and proclaimed Louis Philippe I (Duke of Orléans) King of the French. Thus, the Bourbon dynasty was abolished.
In the Netherlands
A month after the French movement, a nationalist revolution broke out in Brussels, to which the rest of Belgium joined. The insurgents declared their separation from Holland and the constitution of the independent kingdom of Belgium.
Belgian and Dutch
The Congress of Vienna had, in 1815, merged Belgium with Holland, forming the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The differences between Belgians and Dutch were fundamentally confessional:the former were Catholic and the latter were Calvinists.
The new kingdom of Belgium
France and England supported the revolution and recognized Leopold of Saxony Coburg as King of Belgium, with the name of Leopold I. To help the insurgents, the English fleet blockaded the coast of Holland, and the French army occupied the square of Antwerp. The reactionary powers inspired by Metternich could not punish the factious:Austria and Russia suffered from internal disorders, and Prussia feared the enmity of France.
An international congress, meeting in England, legalized this new situation in 1831; the governments of Great Britain, France, Austria, Prussia and Russia, recognized the new Belgium and guaranteed its perpetual neutrality.
In Poland
Poland had disappeared as a state in the three divisions made by Austria, Prussia and Russia in the second half of the eighteenth century. The Congress of Vienna ratified them, and Russia owned most of that nation.
The despotic government of Tsar Nicholas I stirred up the Polish nationalists, who, excited by the French movement, started a revolution in the city of Warsaw. They revolted against the foreign denomination and then proclaimed their independence, but were soon bloodily defeated by the Tsar and submitted again to Russia, thus losing their status as a free and sovereign people. The main leaders were executed, others were able to take refuge in France and England. The Russian language was reestablished as unique and obligatory; Poland became a Russian province.
Political significance of the 1830 revolution
It was the following:
1. The triumph of the constitutional system, against the absolutist ideal of some sovereigns of Europe.
2. The triumph of the desire for national independence (as in the case of Belgium), as well as the right of each people to give themselves their own form of government.
3. The overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty in France.