1848 was a revolutionary year. Workers’ uprisings took place not only in France, but also in the German states, the Austrian Empire, and Italy, among others. It was in the midst of these mobilizations that two intellectuals, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, wrote their famous Communist Manifesto. However, something paradoxical happened in France: the monarchists ended up defending the republic.
During the brief experience of the Second French Republic, between 1848 and 1852, the political parties representing the different factions of the bourgeoisie united under the name of “Party of Order”. This alliance brought together legitimist monarchists, in favour of the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, and Orléanist monarchists, in favour of the descendants of Louis Philippe d’Orléans. Despite their dynastic differences, the two groups shared a common goal: to preserve conservative values in a republican France and, above all, to keep the growing socialist threat at bay.
