The Spring of Nations

Beginning in Palermo and in Paris, where the July Monarchy falls, the unrest leaps to Vienna, Berlin, Milan, Budapest and Prague. The demands are alike everywhere: a constitution, an elected parliament, freedom of the press — and in the multilingual lands, the rights of one's own language and self-government. At Frankfurt an all-German parliament assembles and tries in vain to unite the country. By 1849 the risings are put down by the armies, the monarchies stand, and many of the participants leave for America. But serfdom in Austria is abolished — and in a number of countries the Jews receive equal rights for the first time.