Let's Start a Riot

The Revolutions of 1848 were a series of revolts against European monarchies and aristocracies. The ordinary citizens demanded greater political representation, more liberal constitutions, and the end of absolutist rule.

Around this time, pretty much all of Europe was undergoing a period of serious economic instability, with high unemployment and food shortages. Plus, the Industrial Revolution had led to big changes in the economy, causing uncertainty and social and economic divisions.

New ideas of nationalism were also gaining momentum, as people across Europe wanted their own nation-states based on things like shared language, culture, and history.

This was opposed to the dominant multi-ethnic empires such as the Austrian Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

The popular idea is that it all started with the February Revolution in France, which resulted in the overthrow of King Louis-Philippe and the establishment of the Second French Republic.

But the revolutionary movement proper in Europe actually began in what we now know as Italy, with a small local revolution in Sicily.

Yes, demonstrations and protests had been building across Europe, but in January 1848, a full month before Paris went off, a revolution broke out in Palermo and Naples, the two major cities of what was then called the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The Kingdom was ruled by the authoritarian and corrupt King Ferdinand II’s Bourbon monarchy and was economically backward. The masses were understandably fed up with their political elites.

Then early in January 1848, posters began to appear on walls across Palermo announcing that THE REVOLUTION would take place on 12 January under cover of celebrations for the king’s birthday.

‘To arms, children of Sicily, to arms! The strength of all is omnipotent: the union of peoples is the downfall of kings. On 12 January, at dawn, the glorious epoch of universal regeneration will begin.’

It’s not clear yet why the orchestrators of a secret insurgency would choose to give the government advanced warning of their revolution, but the king's troops were put on a state of high alert.

On the morning of the 12th of January, the army started to patrol the city.

From late morning, however, large crowds of people began to gather in key public squares of the city. (Even for a revolution, the Italians need to get their coffee in first.)

The troops were sent in to disperse the crowd, and inevitably fights broke out. Next, a few citizens began pelting the troops with bricks, and it was game on.

By the time darkness fell, the revolutionaries are in control of most of the city, word had spread to the towns and villages around the capital, and the mob had grown to thousands.

The original posters that attracted the crowds and announced the revolution were signed off in the name of the Revolutionary Committee.

But in reality, there was no Revolutionary Committee.

It was just one eroe popolare.

And he knew how PR works.

The author of the poster was one Francesco Bagnasco, a veteran of previous unsuccessful uprisings of 1820. An advertising guy at heart, he was convinced that the citizens of Palermo were ready to bring down the establishment and that simply the announcement of a revolution would be enough to make it happen.

He was correct.

When revolution day arrived, there was no planned insurrection.

But the announcement brought the initial curious crowd into the centre of Palermo, all interested to see what might happen with this revolution business, and it was simply the presence of the crowd that was enough to light the fuse.

The initial crowd were just there to have a look.

But Bagnasco knew that getting them there was enough. One bit of aggression by the troops on a citizen would be the spark to get things going.

And pretty soon it kicked off.

And by February 4th, it was job done, the people were in control, and the government troops had bottled it and withdrawn from the city.

And then came the big one: the revolution in Paris in the last week of February, during which King Louis-Philippe legged it, and the French monarchy collapsed. After that, the revolutions enter a kind of memetic phase in which there are chain reactions of uprisings in Vienna, Berlin, Budapest and Bucharest. Even Norway and Sweden were having a go. As usual, Britain let the side down. There was no anarchy in the UK (it's coming sometime, maybe).

But the catalyst for all revolution in Europe was a bit of OOH advertising that spoke to what people felt.

‘The strength of all is omnipotent: the union of peoples is the downfall of kings.’

Now that’s a motivating CTA.

(For more on 1848 and all that, check out REVOLUTIONARY SPRING Fighting for a New World, 1848–1849, by Christopher Clark - heard on The Rest Is History)